Yesterday, I had the pleasure to give a talk for the local Kotlin community on creativity in software engineering and the impact generative AI has on our ability to be creative. KTConf took place in an iconic venue, the M museum in Leuven, so I felt obliged to include a slide about a painting. To my dismay, nobody in the room knew anything about art history or could identify the painting (Manet’s Bundle of Asparagus). That allowed me to demonstrate you’ll likely find something like Manet’s…

Day Seven in Tokyo. No news from the infirmary, no new kyujo to report. Sasaki Ichiro, sumo reporter from Nikkan Sports, broke a story yesterday that Nishikifuji faces heart surgery at the end of this tournament. Heart surgery doesn’t exactly sound like the kind of thing one recovers quickly from…even in sumo. He had been … Continue reading Aki 2026: Day Seven

There aren’t many areas of digital life where I feel like we’re severely lacking AI solutions, but there’s one in particular where I can’t wait to get some kind of AI assistant: Maps. I just want a text box where I can say that I ultimately want to get to my partner’s place, but first I want to stop by that bakery on the other side of town. I’d like the first part of the journey to be by bus, the second by train, and I want to arrive at roughly 12 PM. Doing all of that manually is a pain in the…

Legends & Lattes was one of the first cozy books that I read. It was really fun to revisit, and it's given me a bit of a nudge to go on and read the rest of the series. I absolutely adore the rhythm of this book. It is so gentle and relaxing while still allowing for some excitement to build. I also love that it doesn't feel the need to go full in on romance to increase the tension of the story, the coffee and cakes are romantic enough. I honestly don't have much else to add, it's just a…

Last week, my son, Henry, said he liked my new essay, but that all the links I included made me look like an influencer trying to sell you something.Ngl, chat, I low-key fumbled the bag. My aura is negative. See, I thought I was sigma, when I’m mid at best. That’s on me, no cap. Luckily, Henry is a certified rizzler with real ones energy. Bro can clock an NPC from a mile away and knows when someone’s just glazing for clout.Richard Cohen, in Making History, drops a line I’ve been turning over…

Best of the blogs ▷ I’ve downsized my possessions twice in my life — once massively. Going through your things to decide what stays, you find things that bring back memories and what they are is always a surprise. As Jason Kottke downsizes for a major life transition, what surprised him was his spice drawer. Every divorced dad has a version of this story. Read The Spice Drawer ▷ When I toured Indiana’s Lincoln Highway last year, I missed a few cool things. Thankfully, there’s Ted Shideler to…

In Git, a commit is the minimal unit of changes that can be applied to a repository. We can send multiple commits (e.g. multiple patches) to someone else, and they can selectively apply some of them without applying all of them. Or they can provide feedback for individual patches. Pull requests change this model: each PR contains multiple commits, and the workflow focuses on applying all or none of them. The UI makes it awkward to exchange feedback for a single commit, and provides no…

Happy weekend! Despite my recent book sprees, this weekend I’m off to a book shop (or four) after a long week, while Lisa’s going to a spinning skill-share session in honour of Worldwide Spin in Public Day. After all, I have some book vouchers I could spend! So, um, maybe I will have even more goodies next time we meet here. For now, let’s get to this week’s roundup… Books I’ve acquired this week I haven’t bought anything since my birthday spree (see the last three StS posts, which cover all…

I heard two quotes today that I think work nicely together. You can either be perfect or be an artist. I may be digging myself into a hole, but how else do you find burried treasure?

Well, autumn has certainly decided to announce its arrival, and judging by the temperature the other morning on the way to work, it had clearly forgotten to send a polite letter first. One minute we were enjoying the seemingly endless summer, the next I was sitting in the car wondering whether I'd accidentally driven north and ended up somewhere considerably closer to the Arctic Circle. It was, in other words, bloody chilly.I'm not complaining though, because as much as the long, drawn-out…

Welcome to this bizarro world

You have probably see them; people with headphones listening to…something. Whether on the bus, the mall — even sometimes while hiking. And there are probably a lot of interesting podcasts to listen to, but there certainly is a lot interesting things to listen to outside too. When I go for a walk, I like to listen to whatever is around me. Leaves dancing in the wind. Birds singing songs. Streams of water seeking a path downhill. And it is not just about sounds, it is about what the eyes sees as…

We lost our favourite chicken last night. I know, just a chicken, right? Big deal. It's not like we lost a pet. But that's the thing, Amelia was more than just a chicken. She was a pet. She was very tame and would often come into the house to sit with one of us. She would scratch around the kitchen while we were eating breakfast then quietly cluck at one of us to be picked up for cuddle. We named her after Amelia Earhart because she was always the first of all our chickens to go exploring.…

2025 mystery, fifth in its series. As cliffhangered at the end of book 4, Pentecost has been arrested for murder.

Ultimate guide for first-time parents on what to buy during the first year of your child’s lifeCongratulations on becoming a parent! Here is a curated list of things worth buying during your child’s first year. Every baby is different, so your mileage may vary. The good news is that almost everything here comes in a wide range of prices to suit any budget. Many items can even be found cheaply, or for free, on platforms like nextdoor.com. Clothing For 0-6 months, buy only double-zipper full-body…

Usually when school starts I start thinking about the gentians that grow along the river, so last week off I went to see if they were blooming. Though it is the same Ashuelot River I showed you in the last post, this section of river is north of where I was then and it’s really quite different as far as the plants that grow here. You wouldn’t expect this if you looked at a map. As the crow flies the two places are just a few miles apart but instead of floodplain dotted with trees the river’s…

tl:dr; a three part adventure with an investigation, infiltration and tomb-dive; neatly presented and fun to run. I got this as part of my Dolmenwood order - it turned up in the giant box - and on the basis of it getting hailed as a great one-shot adventure I decided to run it at one of my open table sessions. The book is a 36-page A5 hardback - the Dolmenwood/OSE standard - with maps on the inside covers and double columns with art throughout. The format within is that well-thought-out…

Since 2012, the London Legacy Development Corporation has gradually transformed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from an essential local green space into a high-density residential hub driven by foreign investment. The before-and-after aerial imagery above provides a striking illustration of how the landscape of the Olympic 'park' is being built over.This before and after image was created in a matter of seconds by GeoWhisperer. GeoWhisperer is a new tool from Henk van Ess that attempts to take…

Filter US-centric content? I’ve enjoyed the mixed-bag that are Jackbox Games since… well, since You Don’t Know Jack‘s UK edition!1 Nowadays they’re better known for the Jackbox Party Pack game series, which can be a real riot of beer-and-pretzels sofa-gaming fun, if you’ve got the right crowd2. This wasn’t one of our games, but I’ve definitely drawn convicted felon Donald Trump a few times while playing it! One of those games is Champ’d Up, in which you draw-and-name characters who you think…

Photo: © Stan B.I've always had mixed emotions upon seeing the American flag. My first reaction is one of familiarity and pride, the latter due to all the good this country has done both for its own citizens and people throughout the world. This initial, feel good response is then quickly overtaken by the sad realization of all the evil, yes- evil, this country has also wrought throughout its history, to the very present. Wars of choice, discrimination at home, coups abroad... as if there's an…

It was lovely to meet Claire who commissioned Dawson Creek yesterday. To see her enthusiasm for the layout, feel her connection to history and hear how the commission process has been so rewarding was a real tonic for me - all to often it is just warm words on emails exchanged and a model goes home via Royal Mail… Before the layout departed I filmed the usual video and have taken plenty of photographs. These will be shared in the coming week or so, but today here are a couple of Russell…Russell…

It's Vintage Airplane Day on GDB!I'm going to begin with a pair of undated photos, presumably from the 1950s, showing a beautiful Lockheed Constellation on the tarmac as a bunch of military types listen to a fellow at a microphone. A lone woman in a gray suit looks like a movie star, and who knows, maybe she was! I happened to show these scans to a man (Greg) who is a particular fan of Constellations, and he added some pretty interesting information! Gen. Douglas MacArthur had named his…

Sweatin' To The Oldies II (1990)

Share a song that tells a great story. So many to choose from. Tribute by Tenacious D? Hotel California by The Eagles? Jolene by Dolly Parton? Last Kiss by Pearl Jam? Disco 2000 by Pulp? But no, let’s keep it simple. Never trust a snake. “The Snake” by Al Wilson Listen on Apple Music Your browser does not support the audio element. Listen to Gordon McLean's Apple Music playlist View original post on Crucial Tracks Thanks for reading and keeping RSS alive. Visit my site for more.

Desert Brat 2026-09-19

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What can a single musical note teach us about attention? Beginning with the sound of a gong in a Peace Stupa, this is a personal meditation on listening, silence, creativity – and the worlds that can open when we pay attention to seemingly insignificant things. The post Meditations on a Single Note appeared first on Friedrich Zettl Fine Arts.

I decided to mess with the design for the Halloween season. I don't plan to do this for every season, obviously. My old style will return in November. Until then, I decided to have a little bit of fun. More little touches may appear as the whimsy catches me. I did a bit of digging for the old school Halloween images, so I thought I'd share the resources I used, as well as give them credit. Clker had a fun selection of free clip art The Graphics Fairy has a veritable library of public domain…

More proof that these companies knew what they were doing and did not care.