We take construction seriously in this cityHappy Halloween!A few years ago I wrote about the Halloween decorations on the Upper East Side. But in the neighborhood for which the Gramercy Tools brand and logo is named, Gramercy Park, some people also put in a fair amount of effort. Part two of the construction display The Gramercy neighborhood is loosely 14th Street to 23rd Streets, Park Avenue South to First Avenue. The area in the teens and twenties was first built just before the Civil War.…

I hold many beliefs that are unpopular. These are some of them. I will not share all of my unpopular beliefs, because it is unwise to do so publicly. My selection criteria is that these are unpopular but still within the threshold where someone might inquire them and come to see things the way I do, or pitch a solid case to me that might convince me to change them. I also do not include beliefs that are not actually unpopular but are treated as such depending on which bubble you ask (eg:…

My recent detour into Japanese detective fiction and the captivating mysteries of locked-room whodunits reminded me of popular BBC series Jonathan Creek. The show ran for three seasons between 1997–99. It returned with season 4 and 5 in 2003 and 2014 respectively. A few feature-length specials were scattered between seasons with a final one in 2016.Fond memories led me to the only reasonable action: binge the entire lot in a fortnight.The original 90’s episodes remain the best. They’re…

This film explores the volcanic badlands of northwest New Mexico in the heart of the San Juan Basin. Over the course of a week, I travel through Dinétah, the ancestral homeland of the Diné, to understand how geology, ecology, and cultural history intersect in one of the most visually and psychologically striking landscapes on the Colorado Plateau. The journey begins at Cabezon Peak, a 7,700 foot volcanic plug formed about 2.6 million years ago. Once the core of an active volcano, Cabezon is…

None of the popular lyric sites have listings for classical and instrumental music, for reasons that elude me. As a public service, I’ve decided to address this in a series titled missing lyrics. You’re welcome. Below are the lyrics for Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso (The Jester’s Aubade), the fourth of the five movements of his piano suite Miroirs: By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2026-10-28.

The site is undergoing some backend tweaking for consistency and some visual design upgrades. As a result, things may be moving around a bit in posts for the next few days. I even realized that my criteria for reviews has shifted over time and needs consistency. As a result of these changes, some interface report cards are going to change. I don’t think anyone is going to freak out one way or the other, but in full disclosure, it’s happening. Also this site often feels like speaking into the…

Fun Fact: I almost always mistype the word “prompt” and have to fix it. This prompt used reference but it still took me forever, so I didn’t add in the other stuff I wanted to put in. I may revisit this one later.

I had the pleasure today of being an extremely small time and small stakes actor??? Partial PA???? on a friend's video project. It was the first time I've helped someone film something semi-serious since college. Even in college, though, we didn't have anyone around who had any real knowledge of... say... what type of camera to use, or what the terminology is for different kinds of shots, or how to create a shot list, or anything like that. I got to see that kind of thing happen today, though!…

Flash Gordon is a 1980 space opera superhero film directed by Mike Hodges, based on the King Features comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond. The film stars Sam J. Jones in the title role, Melody Anderson, Ornella Muti, Max von Sydow and Topol, with Timothy Dalton, Mariangela Melato, Brian Blessed and Peter Wyngarde in supporting roles. The film follows star football quarterback Flash Gordon (Jones) and his allies Dale Arden (Anderson) and Hans Zarkov (Topol) as they unite the…

Have you seen this?If you haven't, you should. I think everyone needs to. Wealth inequality on a scale this extreme is almost impossible to explain. You have to experience it to understand. Go ahead. Try it out.Where is the top of this graph? Good question. Keep scrolling up. Last time I did this it took me 12 minutes and 51 seconds, but the whole time I had a way out.We get a button on the screen that lets us punch out any time we want: I quit. But do other Americans get an easy way out of the…

This is issue zero of a new magazine, to debut with issue one in early 2027. A slim paperback of 97 pages, it contains six stories-- "Strange Stories of the Ineffable" as the subtitle describes them. The opening short story, "Flume" by Sean Padraic Birnie, tells of a teen who forces his younger brother down a waterslide that disappears with his brother. Another, "Stillness" by Ben Tufnell, tells of a man caught in an old mantrap in the forest; as he bleeds out, he realizes how he got there. In…

Even busier on Sunday, with nine members making an appearance. Another pleasant afternoon playing trains. A little excitement when one fiddle yard track lost power, a puzzle or two trying to work out what we are taking to the Erith show, and it was all too much for a couple of senior members who had an afternoon nap on the sofas. The (un)usual suspects…. A variety of trains…. And Brian recorded proceedings….

There's something wonderfully comforting about a simple roast dinner, especially when it fills the kitchen with the irresistible aromas of lemon, garlic and savoury herbs. This Roast Pork with Lemon & Potatoes is a beautifully uncomplicated meal that delivers big flavour with very little fuss.Tender, juicy pork roasts alongside creamy new potatoes, soaking up all the delicious pan juices, while fresh lemon and fennel seed add a bright, sunny note to every bite. The combination of pork, fennel,…

It's the Stupid Economy CNN crunched the numbers and discovered that Donald Trump has now outpaced his predecessor in a very important way. Over the 4 years of the Joe Biden administration, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $3.471/gallon. As of Sunday, the average price for a gallon of gasoline during Trump v2.0 has reached $3.473. Click here for full story

Each year on October 28, the Church honors two lesser-known Apostles, Simon the Zealot and Jude Thaddeus. Their names might not appear as often in Scripture as Peter or John, yet their quiet faith continues to echo across centuries, especially in moments when life feels impossible. For many Catholics, Saint Jude has become a spiritual … Continue reading Saint Jude the Apostle: Patron of the Impossible and Apostle of the Heart The post Saint Jude the Apostle: Patron of the Impossible and Apostle…

Shraddha and Harshal's postmortem for in-product agents before you change the model

I'm thinking that the CatBus would be a good project to paint entirely with acrylic paint pens. Recently, I've found them really useful - no messing around mixing paint and then cleaning up the brush. Perfect for the time-poor modeller who can see a deadline approaching. The speed the paint dries is another help here. To date, my tools have been from Ammo and MiG, proper modellers products, but at my club, the chaps working on the modular layout pointed me at this pack on Amazon. They are…

I’ve been a bit silent here lately. The reason is on the one hand life and issues with that but also problems with the hoster of this blog, specifically the SSL certificate. I’ve spent some fun hours on the phone with helpdesk and it’s still, well, complicated. That’s why I finally took the plunge and will change and move this blog, for the first time. This blog uses WordPress and it was a great friend over the years. It also was hosted on MediaTemple, who were amazing people to work with and…

In this story the narrator, John Smith, is invited to a country house weekend by an old coworker who he can hardly remember, although he knows that he did not like him very much. The ex-coworker, William Kilvington, inherited a castle from his uncle and quit his job. The invitation mentions that there may be a corpse or two, so John assumes it will be a murder mystery game. Out of curiosity, John decides to go. The party will begin on Midsummer's Eve and he is instructed to tell no one that he…

I’ve moved all my DNS zones from Namecheap to AWS (still registered with NameCheap). Claude did all the work for me. I’ve wanted to do this for a while but so many ways to mess it up. Claude did tons of testing and verification that gave me confidence to do it.

when the weather drops below 80 degrees my lust for life returns with such a fervor i lost 40lbs in the past few months bc im chasing an intangible feeling of vitality and varied sensory input that might pull me out of utter stagnation so tonight i was elated to have ravioli w vodka sauce and it was easily the best meal ive had in a good few months now yknow i love the breeze blowing through my bayside windows with that old green tea incense on the air i bet if the leaves could fall here theyd…

What will we do after the Singularity? The standard answer is: “we’ll just hang out”. The infinite vacation, as in the Culture novels. I think this won’t work. “Hanging out” implies: Other people exist. They want to hang out with you. You want to hang out with them. And the post-scarcity, infinite vacation AI utopia undermines all these assumptions. Other people exist The social processes by which people come together and build relationships will disappear. Work, obviously, is pointless in a…

It’ll be the galaxy’s greatest party — Rebellion is delighted to announce a huge event to celebrate 50 years of 2000 AD!To celebrate half a century of the groundbreaking comic book in 2027, a special two-day immersive live extravaganza will be staged at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, London on 6-7 March.This explosive, must-see celebration will be as unique and thrilling as the Galaxy’s Greatest

"Literature is insight and synthesis, which means that poetry, ultimately, is heroic. Naked, weak, hungry, trembling, endangered by all the elements, all the beasts and demons, the cave men performed that act of heroism for consolation, in the deepest sense of the word. And at that time there in Lubyanka this seemed to me the essence of literature and the source of its legitimacy in the world. Consolation for a weak, naked cave man.” Aleksander Wat (1900-67), a poet who wrote middling…

Twenty Years Ago on FITK At the suggestion of an Icelandic correspondent, I made my way from my apartment on Garðastræti down the street to the Witch Shop on Vesturgata. Ordinarily I am not one to indulge in sorcery or the occult, but this tiny store, with its voodoo dolls and charms in the window, won me over. As I stepped in the dim room lit with candles and string-lights the mood was set

Close to 16 years ago I reviewed THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010), about the founding of Facebook.I found THE SOCIAL NETWORK absorbing, if unmoving, and I felt much the same when I returned to it for a fresh watch last week. It plays like a nerdy DALLAS, with no one particularly sympathetic.The impetus for my rewatch of THE SOCIAL NETWORK was the new film THE SOCIAL RECKONING (2026), which revisits Facebook 16 years on.Like the original film, THE SOCIAL RECKONING was written by Aaron Sorkin; this time…

Listen to this post: While I occasionally use antigravity at work or codex at home, I mostly favor claude, both through API at work and a paid subscription at home. To avoid giving them full machine/filesystem access and relying on their self-policing, I have always run agent through Docker. It brings me a level of isolation I am comfortable with, and which is consistent across all harnesses I use now or in the future (compared to each harness’s built-in sandbox). It also gives me profile…

i like hanging out with my friends i like the weather i like my life moving forward i like exactly how things are now and ill like how they are later too im happy things led me to where i am today and im starting to think that maybe ive finally outgrown something but not entirely sure what just yet

Rule one is that nothing in my house needs a vendor's server to work. The rest of the rules I follow after ten years of home automation, plus both talks I gave on it, slide by slide.

i met someone new from the internet ... they liked my art and i saw they lived nearby so i decided on a whim to just .. see what happened? it was the most normal time of my life. which is weird considering my online fanbase... he was just a normal down to earth politically moderate otaku. though considering my track record of meeting up with internet weirdos ... maybe making a normal friend is a good thing. we smoked a cigar !!!