Costume designer Julie Weiss has a pretty impressive career spanning the last fifty years. Today

I've wanted to write a post for a few days now, but work commitments (and being in the office without privacy) have held me back. That, and I haven't been sure what to write. A few ideas percolated in my head this morning but one that grabbed me was inspired by Sylvia's post, On being overwhelmed (and letting myself feel). This isn't a "reply" post, but maybe it can be viewed as a "commiseration post". We have a lot going on in our lives right now. My wife is pregnant, coming up on 6 months…

Since my (surprisingly popular) blog on Gemini protocol I've continued to poke around with it and these are some very unstructured thoughts. Seriously - I'm typing this as I go, its not a coherent blog, its just me rambling. First off - gemtext, the text format used with the gemini protocol seems to be utterly pointless. Its neither one thing or another. I understand the need to minimalistic, easy to parse text handled by this minimalistic protocol, but you might as well just use just text. The…

I’ve wanted to visit Japan since the 1990s but I used to think it would be too overwhelming. I worried it'd be hard to navigate, difficult to find fun stuff to do, and not easy to enjoy a new country where I had a significant language barrier to contend with. This post is over six thousand words long and will take quite a while to read about everything I did and experienced during my week in Tokyo. Feel free to skim it, check out the photos, and bounce around wherever you like. But about ten…

Act 2: Scene 3December, 1989.Christmas Eve I never had much of a relationship with God and nor did I ever have the words to speak with God. My younger years showed me a disconnect because to me, religion caused wars and fights and in my experience, what God you chose was more important than say, the kind of man you are or the house you lived in.Religion caused a disconnect.This caused arguments over which God was right and who was wrongPlus –I was a Jew . . .And there was nothing cool about…

When next the raiders approached the city, seeking more riches and art, they found the forest devoid of buildings aside from the grand temple. Paused by confusion, the riches were gone, no one was left to abuse. The temple remained. This place must suffice to loot for Greedy Noble. They entered a field before the temple where once was a large plaza. Approaching with care lest guards be hidden they stepped onto the bare field. Then arrows sprouted in the raiders backs. Shrieking, they died on…

Leopard print jacket flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license Today’s TDC says Show us a photo of something you recently fixed or made better. When my SiL was clearing out my MiL’s flat she came across a bag of knitting. Inside was a jacket, half finished. We both remembered it as a project we’d seen a few years ago, quietly cleared away. Shona asked if I’d like it, and I said I would. It’s been sitting on my knitting chest since the beginning of…

Editor's Note: There is a small but nonzero possibility that weather associated with the hurricane brewing in the Gulf of Mexico will cause me to miss a post tomorrow or be offline for a day or so.***Someone responded to a Dear Prudence column with advice for dealing with chronic pain that struck me as worth keeping in the bank for any kind of similar problem that can't be solved:Over time, I have come to see my migraines differently. My graduate school mentor, who studied healthy aging, would…

PetaPixel came up with their “full-frame power rankings” on a recent podcast. For a group that has been accused of being not-entirely-Nikon-supportive, the list seriously contradicts that: Nikon Z8Sony A7VCanon R6 IIISony A7R VINikon Z5IICanon R5 IILumix S1 IINikon D850Nikon Z5IICNikon ZfSay what? 50% Nikons? A DSLR in the midst of mirrorless? I’m really surprised that this list didn’t generate more commentary. Particularly because of #7 thru 10. More importantly, #1, #4, and #6 are all “money…

So today I learned that in Korean Zen, they apparently elect their roshis and I think that's cool as fuck. #korea #zen #Buddhism #religion #spirituality

Almost a week More than a week into October, and here I am, thinking it's still the previous month1. My guess for this attachment is that a part of me is still shaking my metaphorical fist at my past self for not getting the job, despite getting all the way to the training phase. This meant two things simultaneously: I have more time (and energy) to work on a freelance project that I like, and I have more time (but less money) to go on another job hunt again Blaming is never really the best…

I’ve been a reMarkable 2 user for a few years now. Bought on a whim, it has become an important part of my digital life, and I’ve recently jumped on its modding bandwagon.One of the reasons I like the rM is that it’s a pretty open system running Linux – you can ssh into it out of the box. Just plug it in to your computer over USB, locate the login credentials on the device, and connect with them.But it’s a little unwieldy. What I’d really like is to sacrifice a little security for comfort, so…

I recently took a book outside, setting up in a shaded chaise lounger with a cup of coffee. The sun was out. It was going to get hot, but would be pleasant for a couple hours yet, especially with the gentle breeze. The mocking birds were talking, creatively mixing their trills and titters. My wife would be with her girlfriend for the next few hours and no other person was in sight. It was, in short, a perfect set up for a morning with a novel. And this was one I was particularly eager to read,…

The Origin of the Serif is Edward Catich’s exposition of his theory that carved Roman inscriptions originated from hand-painted letterforms. His experience as a union sign painter in Chicago played no small part in developing the insights behind the theory, and the book sets out his arguments in great detail.The final chapter, ‘Chicago sign writing’, advances the notion that, despite their two millennia of separation, early twentieth century Chicago sign painters and Roman letter painters were…

Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man (1976) Vitals Laurence Olivier as Dr. Christian Szell, escaped war criminal aka “Christopher Hess” New York City, Fall 1975 Film: Marathon Man Release Date: October 8, 1976 Director: John Schlesinger Costume Credit: Robert De Mora WARNING! Spoilers ahead! Background One of the defining paranoid thrillers of the ’70s, Marathon Man was released 50 years ago today on October 8, 1976 and has spent the subsequent half-century spreading as much positive PR for…

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)I will always have a use for a minimalist A5 notebook that's full of Tomoe River paper. There can never be too many, or enough, in this format. So, while this particular model isn't unique, it's a wonderfully useful notebook.I had never used a Karatis notebook before. These come from Turkey, and I haven't…

It's Bat Appreciation Month, for obvious reasons (helloooo, month after Michael Keaton's birthday!), so today we're going to celebrate.... Star Wars!"Come to the dark side, we have sh*tty lightsabers." And we're also celebrating Proper Proportions!Wooohoo! "It's not the size, it's how you... oh. On second thought, in this case? It's the size." Not to mention just getting out there and having a good time! Hehehehehehehehe.(Like that ball placement wasn't intentional, bakers. COME ON.)Quick shout…

The kids have been excited about Pig Latin a lot lately. I noticed that there are a few words that are also English words, or homophones thereof. With some help from Claude, especially in figuring out which words would work well and in checking my work, here's a poem about a pie and a naughty plover: I weigh ache bay each pay I pay, Oh say eats whey, each way ice lei, Away ate play eye way a prey I'll weigh eat whey all way a day. Oh whey, oh neigh! I may I pay! Away outstay, overplay ate whey…

A small, read-only local dashboard for OpenSpec projects, shipped as an Agent Skill.

2026-10-08Hello!After framing my photos, I decided to spend the weekend designing my room and going through some dusty old kit. Spring cleaning, but in the autumn.I neglected to measure the space I needed, so I bought the wrong size of rug. It also came with an insufficient backing, so it slipped all over the place and curled up in the corners.I'm never buying furniture online again. I'm going to return this when I get the chance. Thank you for visiting this blog! Reply by email, subscribe via…

I was scrolling Reddit this morning (yes, I know... the detox is still pending) and ran across a post that actually made me stop. That's rare these days. Here's part of it: For your own sanity, let things be... I think one of the hardest lessons in life is realizing that not everything is yours to understand, fix, or carry. We spend so much of our lives searching for explanations. We want closure. We want people to understand us. We want things to make sense before we're willing to let them go.…

C-pia! Magazine has made it to the big One Zero! It’s volume 10 of rambling about old Japanese stuff, and hey, this time, I’m not dealing with any health issues! My wrist is killing me from typing so much, though… This time, the theme is oddly magical. Articles for Cardcaptor Sakura and Lyrical Nanoha, two orange-haired mahou shoujo, somehow lined up perfectly to be put in the same issue, As always, you can read it in-browser via the C-pia Magazine website or download it at itch.io, or do…

“The Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 cloud migration in favour of services hosted on infrastructure it controls, alongside European open source alternatives. Email and calendars will move on-premises in 2027, followed by storage and collaboration services later that year and in 2028.” Yes it is not just for the technical security reasons mentioned in the linked article, as those were Microsoft decisions. Once in such a cloud service, it is very…

Corpus Parisinum 138 (tr. Denis Searby): A quiet life free from public affairs is worth more than brilliant success in them. Ἀπράγµων ἡσυχία τῆς ἐν πράγµασι περιφανείας τιµιωτέρα.

Studio has been cleansed, garden plants washed, and newsletter scheduled for Saturday. And! New “invisible” floating shelf in the studio: Back to podcast-notetaking. #journal

When speaking to my friends Keir and Craig, I just found out that a lot of people don’t know that you can use a “C7 figure‑8 power cord” with any Apple power adapter in case you forgot your travel adapter. Way cheaper to get one of those usually than a full travel adapter (hint: often times even free if you borrow your hotel’s TV cable 🫣) Reply via Email

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Hawaii! It was a first for me, and it was a really different kind of first. I’d never been that far away from home. I’d never been to a Pacific island, or any kind of traditional tropical idyll. I’m a few weeks away from it all, so with a bit of distance, let me tell you all about it… America, but not Let’s get the obvious out of the way first - the weather. It’s hot, all the time. That kind of weather changes your wardrobe fundamentally, so everybody spent…

“Voicebox is an open-source and free-to-use voice studio created by Jamie Pine, who is the founder of Spacedrive Technology Inc. It is distributed under the MIT license, pitched as a local replacement for two paid services, including ElevenLabs for voice cloning and text-to-speech, and WisprFlow for dictation. Since it’s open-source and everything runs on the hardware you own, using it doesn’t require an account.” This does a lot more than just voice cloning though, and the author describes a…

“You say your plant uses robots?” he asks.“In a couple of departments, yes,” I say.“Have they really increased productivity at your plant?”“Sure they have,” I say. “We had—what?” I scan the ceiling for the figure. “I think it was a thirty-six percent improvement in one area.”“Really … thirty-six percent?” asks Jonah. “So your company is making thirty-six percent more money from your plant just from installing some robots? Incredible.”I can’t hold back a smile.“Well…no,” I say. “We all wish it…