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I quit RSS. Kind of. A month ago, I read an article from someone who had quit RSS and gone back to visiting blogs one by one. It stuck with me. A little poking around revealed that the old Live Bookmarks feature of Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox lives on as an extension. I imported my feeds into the LiveMarks extension. So now I'm using RSS to see when new posts are available on a blog, but to read them I'm clicking through to the blog itself. I think I like this approach.
The Dave Kline Band with Senator Tim Kaine After Friday night's less-than-stellar experience, we tried again. Yep. It was a two-concert weekend for us. The day got off to a good start as I completed my first Bird Friendly Habitat Certification (not counting my own yard). So now we have two certified yards in Sandston! We got whacked by a severe thunderstorm around 4 PM and lost power around 4:15 PM. After a couple of hours with no power, I fired up the generator and plugged the fridge into it.…
Robert Jon & the Wreck at The Tin Pan I have lived in RVA, and before that Fredericksburg, for over 20 years. I have looked at shows at The Tin Pan on multiple occasions. Every time I passed, because the idea of seeing a loud rock and roll show in a dinner club atmosphere just didn't appeal to me. A couple of months ago, Robert Jon, one of my favorite artists, announced a show at the Tin Pan. He doesn't tour the East Coast that often, so I didn't think twice about buying tickets. In fact, I…
My last 5 books - July 2026 edition This is a new feature in which I will copy and paste my recent book reviews from my books page These are the last 5 books I have read. I will update in a month or 2 when I've read 5 more. I'm Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin Rating: **** Uber driver and terminally online gamer Abbot gets offered $200K to drive a woman and her large black box from LA to DC, no questions asked. What results in the book is a madcap odd-couple road…
Grayson Highlands Camping 2026 A heatwave hit the east coast just in time for the July 4 weekend. It was over 100F (38C) in RVA. Luckily we were 240 miles away and 1 mile up camping, where the 80F (27C) temps also constitute a heat wave, but one I can handle. We arrived on Thursday, July 2, meeting up with friends for the weekend. After our traditional arrival night dinner of WaWa subs, we retired to the campfire with our friends. On Friday I took everyone out to see the wild ponies that are…
WTF is up with sugar allergies? Friday evening we were on the patio at our local brewery when my wife overheard a young person expounding to his two friends about how people wear CGMs to manage their sugar allergies. My wife wears a CGM because she has Type 1 diabetes. Sugar allergies are not a thing. That would be like an oxygen or water allergy. My wife was not drinking, which is probably the only thing that saved this kid from an unpleasant encounter with my wife. Then this morning in the…
We can't fix society with tech Just capturing this thought from an online friend. You are not going to fix anything, until we find some other core principles to build on. Like cooperation and collaboration rather than competition. Like community rather than individualism. We are all in this together, and none of us is getting out of here alive; but some billionaires are going to get to live in a bunker on an island, or maybe on Mars, when the whole rotten edifice collapses under the weight of…
Trip: 58 Nights: 191-193 Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones. The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a brewery. The town of Somerset is about 20 minutes, and that is really the closet store or gas station. However, it is very worth…
Laurel Hill State Park Trip: 58 Nights: 191-193 Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones. The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a brewery. The town of Somerset is about 20 minutes, and that is really the closet store or gas station.…
Teddy’s Last Selfie Teddy Ballgame, aka Ted, aka Teddy, aka Theodore J. Dog, crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday. We found Teddy at Petsmart where the Orange County Humane Society was running an adoption event in 2017. One of our senior dogs had recently passed on and the other was really struggling without her partner. So we adopted Teddy. The shelter told us he was six. Our Vet at the time guessed 3. Ted drew the short straw in the genetic lottery. He was likely the product of a puppy mill…
A couple of months ago I did something very stupid and bricked my desktop. Then I realized that my source markdown directory for blog posts was not syncing with my cloud storage. So that left me with hundreds of HTML page blog posts, but no markdown. Oops. I’ve been blogging at chrisod.org since then and it’s fine, but I wanted everything back in one place. This weekend I gave it a try. So I started with Duck.ai using Claude to vibe code a python script that used Pandoc to revert all those HTML…
Sunday Steamy Sunday I was supposed to get up and go birding this morning, but it was going to be 87F (28C) and very humid by the time we finished, so I'm here blogging from the comfort of my air-conditioned home instead. We planned on heading into Richmond for Sailfest today, but that same weather issue is making it increasingly likely that I'll spend the day on the couch. As I get older, the list of things I'm willing to suffer miserable weather for is getting shorter and shorter. If you are…
I was supposed to get up and go birding this morning, but it was going to be 87F (28C) and very humid by the time we finished, so I’m here blogging from the comfort of my air-conditioned home instead. We planned on heading into Richmond for Sailfest today, but that same weather issue is making it increasingly likely that I’ll spend the day on the couch. As I get older, the list of things I’m willing to suffer miserable weather for is getting shorter and shorter. If you are wondering why I live…
Weekend at Loft Mountain Campground Trip: 57 Nights: 189-190 It was 92F (32C) in RVA. It was 75C (23C) and breezy two hours away in Shenandoah National Park. We chose wisely. It was a very chill weekend. We arrived around 430 PM on Friday, and after setting up camp, we did some birding in the campground. Dinner was our traditional arrival night meal - sandwiches from WaWa. We had no cell service at the campsite (rejoice!). Friday night was consumed by card/board games and an early bedtime. On…
Trip: 57 Nights: 189-190 It was 92F (32C) in RVA. It was 75C (23C) and breezy two hours away in Shenandoah National Park. We chose wisely. It was a very chill weekend. We arrived around 430 PM on Friday, and after setting up camp, we did some birding in the campground. Dinner was our traditional arrival night meal - sandwiches from WaWa. We had no cell service at the campsite (rejoice!). Friday night was consumed by card/board games and an early bedtime. On Saturday morning we drove about 30…
Memorial Day Staycation We should have been camping this weekend. The weather had other ideas. All of Virginia is in a moderate to severe drought, but of course Memorial Day weekend was a washout. I cancelled camping plans last week, and instead we did a local staycation. On Friday, we had dinner at our favorite local Greek joint, followed by a movie at the fabulous Byrd Theater. The movie was The Notebook (my wife made all the weekend plans.) I was entertained, which is all I ask from a movie.…
Viral on LinkedIn again I went viral on LinkedIn again. Previously.
Birding at Dorey Park It's difficult to photograph birds at all times; it's especially difficult when they mostly live in the leaves. I did get this one decent shot this morning of a brown thrasher. We saw 33 species, including my best-ever look at a Great Crested Flycatcher. There were two examining a potential nesting spot in a hole in a tree right in front of us. We'll have to go back in a couple of weeks and see if there is a nest there. It is right on the walking path and parking lot, so I…
Camping at Machicomoco State Park Trip: 56 Nights: 187-190 And the 2026 camping season has started. We spent the weekend at Machicomoco State Park near Gloucester, VA. It's only a 70-minute drive from home. Until a few weeks ago it was Virginia's newest state park, as it opened in 2021. It is dedicated to the history of the native people who lived there for centuries before any Europeans showed up. The park features the Timberland mansion, which was built in 1793. It was open for tours, but we…
County Roads, Take Me Home My phone served up a cover version of this John Denver classic as I was chauffeuring my wife around yesterday. Something about the lyric hit me in a way that I'd never noticed before. Almost Heaven, West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River Life is old there, older than the trees Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze That is scientifically accurate. The Appalachians are the oldest mountain range on the planet and certainly predate human life, if…
That's a lot of work for a name tag. 15 weeks of classes, 5 or 6 field trips, a final exam, and a practical application (I made a zine) to earn this.
Sunday Dreary Sunday After some much needed rain last night, the temps barely hit 50°F (10°C) today, with the wind making it feel much cooler. I have not left the house today. I haven't really left the computer. I had some much needed vacation research to do. I've booked a campsite for the Little World Series in August. 44 years after my playing days ended, I'm finally making it to the LLWS. We actually visited the museum and the ballpark a few years ago when passing through Williamsport, PA,…
I've been tweaking the CSS for the site I've spent the morning tweaking CSS for the site. Please let me know if anything is off for you. It all appears to be fine on my desktop and phone.
Q1 Books I keep the list of books I read at the books link above. Here are the highlights from the first quarter of 2026. The Society of Unknowable Objects: This follow up to The Book of Doors mostly delivers. Life After Cars: A depressing look at all the ways cars ruin everything, with some hopeful examples of places getting it right. Automatic Noodle: This story of robots running a bakery in late, late stage capitalism is just delightful. Dungeon Crawler Carl: Answers the question, what if…
Last night was the final lecture class for Virginia Master Naturalist training. 35 hours of classes, 10+ hours of field trips, and a few additional hours of continuing education since January. It was like being back in night school, except that most of us are old. Final exams are due Friday, mine is 95% done. I just need to finish up the questions based on last night's class and send it in, which I will do today. My final project is complete, I will turn that in next week in the final class /…
Do photos work?
