With a bit of public operation in the offing, it was time to catch up on some loco maintenance with the live steam fleet. First, replace the battery box in the cab roof of the Lady Anne. The original had distorted over time, and would drop the batteries out, not ideal in the middle of a run!I've had a replacement box for nearly a year. The old one is bolted into the roof, using holes in the plastic that are also in the new box. I thought this would be a doddle, but it's a fiddly job since the…

As I have discussed in previous posts, “AIs” can make mistakes. In fact, they do make mistakes, and their mistake-making patterns are such that where and how they will make mistakes is both uncertain and constantly changing. Thus, in any scenario where you want to attempt to make “productive” use of “AI”, you must have a system in place for checking every result. Not checking some results; checking every result. If each result might have a consequence for you (and if it didn’t have a…

The Oculus Go was Oculus’ (now Meta) first attempt at a standalone virtual reality headset. Indeed, it was one of the first commercial attempts at a standalone VR headset entirely. By contemporary standards, it is extremely obsolete, though not completely useless. It can still run a range of software designed for it and is a reasonably open platform. It was first announced in October 2017 and released in May the subsequent year. It released in two models – one with 32GB of storage and another…

This past weekend, myself, Richard Rothaus, and his son Isaac took a trip to Delphi with stops at Osiris Loukas, Distomo, and Eleutherai, and I took some photos.

Haircuts are stressful. Come on, there are at least 3 Major Worries when you go get your lid trimmed: 1. Disappearing Choppers. Have you ever gone to your regular place and found your go-to person suddenly missing? Brother, that’s a bombshell. Plus, the gang left over can be pretty tight-lipped on details, too. No forwarding address, no new business cards, nothing. They just vanished and left only a few combs floating in the Barbicide for clues. Yes, now it’s time to step into the chair with…

The endgame sees Zamora restored and the sequel set up. Yendorian Tales: Book I United States SmithWare (developer and publisher) Released 1994 for DOS Date Started: 6 May 2026Date Ended: 19 June 2026 Total Hours: 37Difficulty: Moderate (3.0/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at time of posting: (to come later) Summary: Yendorian Tales is a superior shareware game by a talented family of programmers. On the continent of Yendor, where society is divided into spellcasters and the miners who…

Cynthia Khoo, writing for the Institute for Research on Public Policy’s Policy Options: If Bill C-22 passes as is, it could put in place one piece of a bigger cross-border law enforcement data-sharing system, as envisioned in the CLOUD Act and other international data-sharing treaties. Once completed, this system could further expose Canadian residents and our human rights to U.S. government and corporate surveillance apparatuses and their well-documented abuses of power. This is the last thing…

While I am criticizing the New York Times’ odd framing choices, here is a more substantial critique from Alejandra Caraballo: Over the last several years it has become readily apparent that there has been a shift in the editorial framing and focus of the New York Times when it regards issues relating to transgender people. This is particularly pronounced when it comes to issues of gender affirming care for transgender youth. The Times has contested this accusation of bias or editorial shifting…

We're really excited to announce that CADENCEFEST will have a fully produced livestream, so you can join in the fun from anywhere! The livestream will start promptly on July 5, 2026, at 3:00pm HST. We'd really recommend setting it up on your TV so you can have the full experience! As you know, Cadencefest is a music festival (our very first!), but also a fundraiser for an incredible organization - the Waikīkī Community Center. From their website: Since 1978, Waikīkī Community Center, a private…

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY MY FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE ALONSO DURALDE. YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT HIM HERE. WHAT’S NEW ON 4K/BLU/DVD IN JUNE: SPIELBERG, ELVIS, JACKIE CHAN, PRIDE FAVORITES, LAST SUMMER, AND MORE! NEW RELEASE WALL Steven Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection (Universal): Whichever side of the Disclosure Dayreviews you might fall upon, there’s no denying that Steven Spielberg is one of this generation’s legendary filmmakers, and a new box celebrates the breadth of his career, even as…

These are the things that I've bought and haven't regretted this year. I'm not encouraging you to buy more crap. What I am doing is showing you the crap I bought and telling you that I genuinely approve and recommend this particular crap based on experience. Don't buy things if you don't need them. If...Read More

I have no hot take, but I did post this last year: Another Valve hardware announcement: the Steam Machine is back. I am immediately and predictably on board for it. -- me, November 2025 So I owe you a followup post, which is, TLDR: "too rich for my blood." 512GB: $1049 512GB w/ Controller: $1128 2TB: $1349 2TB w/ Controller: $1428 -- Valve's Steam Machine page I would guess that, back in the Devonian epoch of 2025, Valve was aiming this product at $600-$800, which would be an insta-buy for me.…

Every now and then a show-business documentary comes along that catches my fancy and lingers in my mind for days. Such a film is Peter Asher: Everywhere Man. If you’re old enough to remember the musical British invasion led by The Beatles, you may recall a popular singing duo known as Peter and Gordon. They unseated the Beatles from the number-one position on the charts with a mournful song called “A World Without Love.” The irony is that it was written by Peter’s good friend Paul McCartney,…

I was writing in my annonymous blog and trying to fight my mind which was trying to convince me we're not good enough. I wrote how we changed our routines and we're in the best place we've ever been. We even have what I like to call my 4 pillars of health. This holy war between my mind and my self is never over and may never will be. Regardless, here's my 4 pillars in case it inspires someone (no particular order because you really can't define an order, it varies according to your life):…

It's hard to believe seven years have passed since the release of TOY STORY 4 (2019).I sometimes complain about a lack of original ideas in modern cinema, but the newest film in the Disney-Pixar franchise, TOY STORY 5 (2016), presents viewers with the best of both worlds: Characters we love in a quality story on a very timely and original topic.It's not a retread, but a funny-yet-serious take on modern technology and the fight to protect innocent childhood.Since as I write this is a new movie,…

I doubt if I am the only one who gets fatigued from the constant use of the phrase “magic bullet” in school reform. Most often the words disparagingly describe reforms that once pumped up hopes for solving serious school problems and then either missed the target or caused collateral damage. Elderly readers may remember “Career Education” in the 1970s; “restructuring schools” in the 1980s; “systemic school reform” in the 1990s. Middle-aged readers may recall parental “choice” of schools and…

Carnival-like US Open – Flushing, New York Did you guess where we were going for our first New York City event? We headed to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. That’s where they host the US Open every year at the end of August. I’m only a modest tennis fan, but my wife loves and plays the sport. The big reason we went to New York at this time was to attend the open. I was there for the first time during Fan Week, which happens just before the official tournament begins. The great…

Molinard is a house whose name echoes my own; I find the "Miller" of Italy to be quite the interesting fragrance house. Fragonard, Molinard, and Galimard are all Grasse firms whose lineage stretches back into the 18th and 19th centuries, with Molinard citing 1849 on the purple boxes of its "Les Fleurs" range. I've always wanted to own the now-discontinued Violette EDT, and finally got a chance to

I love what Jason Calhoun has to say about this first song from his upcoming album revelations of divine love: I enjoy working with abstracted, gestural melody that isn’t necessarily connected to a traditional beat. The tapping ‘bass drum’ rhythm in ‘tolstoy tatsoi’ offers a subverted sense of rhythm which feels disjointed yet in place with the rest of the track — similar to tapping your foot to a song in your head while the radio plays something else. As my daughter has gotten old enough to…

Ghost train is best train.

When I started blogging in 2004, I had one site where anything could go. Any topic. Short or long posts. It didn’t matter. I didn’t care to focus on one or two areas. And because I posted about whatever, nothing felt out of place. That worked for a while, up until I started making zines in 2020. I started posting zines to my blog, because that was the only site I had. But it felt odd. My zine posts felt more put together. Finished work. Info on where to purchase the zine. Process photos and…

My uConsole computer finally arrived after a 10-month delay. I started kicking the tires by installing fun software on it, and quickly realized it’d run better if it looked cool. Here’s how I did it. Change the boot image Raspberry Pi OS uses Plymouth to make show a boot splashscreen. By default, it displays the image file at /usr/share/plymouth/themes/pix/splash.png. I’m sure there’s a “better” way to do this, but I simply replaced that file with my own 1280x720 image (to match the screen’s…

In June 2026, the Salish Lodge & Spa celebrated its 110th anniversary. Perched above the magnificent and sacred Snoqualmie Falls, the lodge opened in 1916 as Snoqualmie Falls Lodge. Since that time, millions of people have visited the 268-foot waterfall, so naturally there are plenty of postcards for people to remember their trips. This card... The post Snoqualmie Falls and Lodge Postcard by Ellis Postcard Co. – 145022 appeared first on TWIN PEAKS BLOG.

Spending the day with the grandkids. And today my grandson and I decided to climb a few trees. Actually he decided to climb a few trees. I just snapped the pictures. And it was good. Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links.

Back in late 2022 when I built my current desktop computer, I opted for a mini-ITX case rather than the typical huge ATX case. I’d been interested in liquid cooling for a long time, and for such a small case, it seemed like the best fit. Liquid cooling promises superior cooling performance, quieter operation, and is better suited for compact builds which lack space for high air flow rate. Things didn’t work out that well: my PC has been quite noisy, and I had suspicions of thermal throttling,…

This post is by Phil.Some time ago I wrote some thoughts about “Neuromancer” ( https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/06/12/what-does-neuromancer-have-to-teach-us-about-the-role-of-ai-is-society/ ), which features two kinds of artificial intelligence, one of which seems like it could be realized with a Large Language Model, i.e. we could pretty much make it today. The other is something more powerful, an artificial general intelligence that not only has computational power but also…

After visiting the Yanesen area a month ago while walking between Ueno and Nippori, we made a re-visit, this time checking out the recommendations of some friends who live in the area. First stop on the list was armadillo bakes&coffee, a little cafe near Sendagi station. They made a good first impression with their armadillo mascot (look at that cute guy on the front of the store!) and we were excited to see that they had some pour over on the menu - and there were quite a few beans to choose…

The Lowe Institute published another of their excellent annual reports on Australian public sentiment. The polling results are unsurprising: Cactus spines are produced from specialized structures called areoles, a kind of highly reduced branch. Areoles are an identifying feature of cacti. As well as spines, areoles give rise to flowers, which are usually tubular and multipetaled. That’s clearly the wrong article. Let’s try again: Australians are wary of Donald Trump’s America. Only 31% of…

🇳🇴 Gotta say, that stadium collective boat row thingy is my favourite group football action since the Mexican wave.

For some reason my family has phenomenally crappy luck with Macbooks. Our second one in three years just died, right as my wife was needing to put together some slides with it. The thing is completely and utterly unresponsive, suffering the same mysterious fate as its predecessor three years ago. But that’s a story for another day once I have a chance to dig more into it. The main thing is that we were down a computer and my wife still needed something to get work done on. I decided to test out…