From an Earlier Web

I’ve been at an indoor play place with my kids for going on 3 hours. They’ve been going hard, too. Hoping these maniacs fall asleep at a decent hour tonight and sleep in a little tomorrow. I still have my doubts. 😅

Avon calling!

2024 was a bountiful year with many firsts to celebrate. Thankful for friends, family, travel, health, creative endeavors, and purpose. All the best in 2025. #2024

Convinced whoever is designing men’s swim trunks, particularly the internal mesh, have no understanding of male anatomy.

As we headed back west this morning over the Blue Mountains, we caught the start of a winter storm. Grateful we missed what was expected, and that things opened up on the other side of Pendleton, offering some sunny vie…

Our boy wanted to wear a “pretty” hat tonight like his sister’s, so he wore one of his grandma’s sparkly hats when we went to see the Christmas lights in downtown Caldwell.

I have a hard time taking Bend, Oregon’s affordability woes seriously when the tallest residential building there is only 5 stories. Y’all don’t need another UGB expansion, you need a skyline.

Buster

Good to know that if I ever need to refresh my appreciation for Oregon urban planning, all I need to do is visit suburban Boise.

I don’t need ketamine therapy I need a walkable city and 20 hour workweek.

Yours truly, at a basement bar in Nampa.

Idaho Christmas.

Zoey girl.

Eastern Oregon en route to Idaho.

If only I had a dollar for every time I heard “enjoy them now, they grow up so fast” from the generation whose men spent one third as much time with us as we do with our own children.

Accidentally recorded Christmas morning in 4k and the file is 45 gigs. Hm.

This is going to be a terribly unpopular opinion, but I don’t think ZGF delivered on the promise of the new PDX airport design. I was wowed by renderings, but it didn’t turn out as nice as I thought it would because of…

My five-year-old son, while putting together a realistic space shuttle Lego set, asks “why would astronauts need a shovel, dad?” Great question 😆

I was awarded some pretty big grant $$ to install EV chargers at my place of work (public). Comparing pricing schemes and noticed the city we’re working in charges by the hour for theirs. However, the kWh changes based…

Currently reading: White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 📚

This looks neat. Bluniversal Comments is a Chrome Extension enabling “universal comments” via Bluesky, directly on web pages. With this extension, you can view, comment, and engage with Bluesky discussions linked to any…

Having one of those down and out sorta days. Ordered Shake Shack and snuggled up with my dog, watching The Bear. Might hit the sauna later.

Currently reading: Street Design by Victor Dover 📚

Finished re-reading: Geography Of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler 📚

Might be a little late to get before the big day, but if anyone is looking for a nice little gift, I love my Fox Vulpis Italian made Swiss Army knife. A little spendy, but the blade is M390. Comes in a 5-in-1 configurat…

Probably some lingering Proustian childhood memory, but sometimes I just need a damn bologna sandwich with a slice of American cheese.

My deadbeat dad would’ve been 66 today had he not wrapped himself around a telephone pole while driving drunk in 2003. Be safe this holiday season.

It only cost $11-20 per package to mail my wife’s homemade gifts that have a total retail value of maybe $3 each.

I don’t understand this stuff. After over $700k and years of studying the TriMet Willow Creek site for potential transit oriented development (TOD), ECOnorthwest and architecture firms come back with a squat, over-parke…

The most unbelievable thing about movies and TV shows set in the 80s is how many fathers were still around.

Currently re-reading: Geography Of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler 📚

Finished reading: There Are No Accidents by Jessie Singer 📚 Excellent book.

Currently reading: Reinventing Your Life by Jeffrey E. Young 📚

Currently reading: There Are No Accidents by Jessie Singer 📚

Finished reading: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson 📚

IKEA plans order and pickup location at Progress Ridge

Watching Silo on Apple TV be like…

Not sure why I had completely forgotten about the Sidecar option with iPad. Really helped while working in Smartsheet this morning.

Went and visited Santa at Three Mugs Pub.

Got out by myself for a few hours this afternoon. Had to take some books back, so I checked out the Hillsdale branch of Multnomah County Library. Stopped off at Tip Top Burger (meh), then worked on my blog for a bit at…

Making cookies.

Those wooden handled, soft-bristled back scrubbers for the shower are such a tease. Give me one of those cheap plastic ones with the tough nylon bristles that hurt so good.

Columbia River at dinner last night.

Nice sunset despite a mucky day.

Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Kofstad’s.

Addictive.

Obsessed with his knockoff Lego advent calendar.

I bought one of those wedge pillows for my bed and it all might be downhill from here.

Things are ramping up.

Just realized RNs at OHSU make up to about $90/hr. If I didn’t know how crazy some of those jobs can be, I might consider a midlife career change.

I’m required by my employer to put 6% of my salary into a retirement fund (401a) I do not control. I also have an old 401k from a previous employer that had a nearly identical balance several years ago, but I haven’t co…

Anxiety pro tip: cut your fourth cup of coffee with decaf.

Portland City Council approves $176M streetcar extension, new mixed-use neighborhood in Northwest

Flashback!

From the morning.

This whole I-used-my-credit-card-at-your-business-one-time-and-now-you’re-spamming-me-daily-with-offers crap has got to stop.

Met this fancy lady at the park the other day, who was gracious enough to paws for a photo.

The periodic fog on the way in this morning was lovely.

Working on an article for my planning blog about pop. density and doing some research. For all the flack the west side gets from Portlanders, there are some very dense nodes. Elmonica Station has 10k ppsm and will soon…

Grateful we don’t get much snow in the valley, but I wouldn’t mind a white Christmas this year. 🤞

On the lookout for a new Mastodon server with longer post character count. Let me know if you have a recommendation.

TIL Michigan was the first state to abolish the death penalty. 1847.

Just finished The Madness on Netflix. Loved the cast and storyline. Kept me interested and the pace was perfect.

I’ve been having this issue with the new Apple Mail where it becomes unresponsive sometimes when I open it by clicking an email notification. I have to force close to get it to work again. Very strange.

One reason so many people have an aversion toward attached housing is the uniformity and blandness of it all. Uninspired finishes that an HOA controls with no hope of evolving character. I wish we had more examples of f…

I did not see a single soul on this TriMet MAX Red Line train going west at 8:25 a.m.

I’ll be tinkering with this when I have a moment. Adding Bluesky-powered comments to any website in five minutes

I love the look on Republicans’ faces when I tell them the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program was signed into law by George W. Bush.

Chilling out for a moment while the kids play with magnetic tiles.

Turned off Fediverse sharing on Threads. No point, and it kneecaps reply controls/moderation.

We’ve got a few weeks left of the year, but I’ll post my 2024 fuel consumption “wrapped”. $188 in electricity in 7.5 months, which can be extrapolated to about $300/yr (vs $1760/yr for gas at 25mpg). I’ve driven 5383 mi…

Me and my son went to OMSI today to see the Exquisite Creatures exhibit.

Gave up on my crappy router and traded it in for a mesh bundle. Hardwired 3 with Ethernet backhaul, and holy moly, what a world of difference. Why I’m so stubborn and didn’t do this sooner, I don’t know.

One of the biggest downsides of POSSE is making a typo.

Detroit Lions have just set a franchise record! 🦁 🏈

It would be helpful if the popular GPS/mapping applications could detect when you’re already on a train/transit route and adjust the trip duration accordingly. The only way I’ve figured out how to get around this limita…

My smile has always been a big source of insecurity. Honestly, it’s probably responsible for my severe case of RBF. I wish I’d tackled this sooner, but I’m finally in a place where I can afford to start clear aligners.…

Another frosty morning.

Some days, I still grieve the loss of the Grilled Stuft Burrito.

You’ve just got to wonder about some of these Southwest Portland tax bills. Are you really getting that much better public services than, say, unincorporated Washington County, for 3x the cost? No, you’re not. The answe…

Whenever I pass this field, I can’t help but think of the default Windows XP wallpaper. Washington County, Oregon.

I took my lunch, as I sometimes do, on Unger Road, looking east toward Mount Hood. The east wind is keeping the northern Willamette clear and cold. Morning wrapped us in freezing fog, with frost still clinging to the sh…

Actually took my meds today and spent some time this morning filling out my calendar for the month ahead. A tiny bit of relief for my ADHD brain having the chaos written down somewhere. I’ll still mess something up, but…

Zoo Lights.

Warming up inside the Nature Exploration Station during Zoo Lights yesterday at the Oregon Zoo.

I’m getting excited about Ghost’s implementation of ActivityPub. I have used it to micro blog, but it doesn’t work well out of the box, so I had to create a highly customized theme. But it now looks like they’re working…

Currently reading: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson 📚

I wonder how often dogs are just like “I wish these people would quiet down already.” And then anytime they bark we’re shushing them. We don’t deserve them.

Analyzing the American Dream as an American living in Germany. From usa.mom.in.germany. 🇩🇪

Meanwhile, 100 ft of Christmas lights barely scratches the surface when it comes to decking the halls with holiday cheer. Gonna need to make another HD run.

Currently reading: Love in the Time of Cholera (Illustrated Edition) by Gabriel García Márquez 📚

I wonder what kind of clientele they’re going for with that agency name.

Finished reading: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera 📚

Woke up to 30° in PDX and lots of frost. I’m a wimp in the cold these days. 🥶

What happens if we cut Alaska in half? Texas becomes the third largest state.

Rereading Jane Jacobs: Reflections on “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” https://lowvelocity.org

There’s always those people who email you something right before the weekend or heading into a holiday with a message that sits with you the whole time, stressing you out when you’re supposed to be relaxing. To hell wit…

Lions win ! But not without stressing me TF out! 🏈

Turkey and football. Lions have lost the last 7 Thanksgiving games. I think this year will be different. #onepride 🦁 🏈

My cheese sauce/roux recipe for Mac n cheese: 6 Tbsp butter, 1/4 grated onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp Cheyenne pepper, 2 tsp dry mustard, 3.5 cups milk, 1.75 cups heavy cream, 8 oz c…

Scoping out urban condos, when 5+ units in the same building hit the market at the same time, you just know the HOA fee has gone through the roof to fund some deferred maintenance capital investment.

Last night I went to my second writers meetup at Lucky Lab beer hall in NW Portland. Meeting some really friendly and fun people. I can see this becoming a weekly thing.

Finished rereading: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs 📚

I never feel more like a stereotypical middle aged dad than when I’m turning off every single light and fan in the house before I leave for work. I need more smart switches.

One thing I absolutely cannot understand about the left is how the party platform has switched from being protectionist to now being apparently pro global free trade? It’s a strange time to be alive.

I don’t think many people on the Right understand just how much low interest rates under the last administration contributed to inflation. Many people did cash-out refinances to fund renovations, pay off cars, go on vac…

I’m really hard on my glasses, so a year ago I sent in my Warby Parkers to Eyeglasses.com and had the lenses replaced with real glass. One of the best purchase decisions I’ve made in recent memory. Not a single scratch.…

Spent time in Dundee and Newberg today with our friend Penny and her boy. Had perhaps the second best Reuben of my life at Red Hills Market. Fell on my ass on a muddy hill at Herbert Hoover Disc Golf Course (this name c…

The failure rate of Shazam has gone way up since Apple acquired it.

The speed at which my children can absolutely crush $35 worth of fruit…

Is anyone else in Oregon who works professionally in planning, architecture or development actually seeing residential uses being built without parking? Curious because despite no minimum parking requirements, I’m seein…

The paradox of tolerance.

Abolish zoning they said. It’ll be great they said.

Being from the Pacific Northwest means never being able to trust a national forecast or weather app.

I understand you’re trying to attract new business on your landing page, but for the love of god, include a login button for those of us who use your service.

A year ago I moved out of land use planning into campus, facilities and parks planning. Probably the best career move I ever made. Went from doing thankless, highly political work that no one was ever satisfied with, wh…

In the eye of the storm, or did the bomb cyclone squeegee the sky?

Halfway through The Death and Life of Great American Cities for the second time in my life (for a book club) and have come to the conclusion that it’s unreadable nonsense. Amazing how 20 years of professional experience…

Remembering a time in my 20s and early 30s when all I wanted was an out from where I was living in the Midwest. It felt like a prison. It you’re in a similar situation, don’t give up hope. There’s someplace out there fo…

The job hopping in the tech space is so much different than government. As someone who has sat on many hiring panels, if I were to receive a resume with 10 jobs in as many years, that person is not even getting an inter…

Not sure why it bothers me so much that Las Vegas will get true HSR before the Northwest or Midwest, but it does.

I moved away from Lansing about 10 years ago. Lived there for almost a decade. I didn’t live there when developers tore down this block on Michigan Ave, but I still can’t believe they took out an entire historic, fine g…

My public university degrees (in-state undergrad and grad) cost $106k in tuition, not including community college costs or interest (2010). Thank god for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Hopefully it…

Made the mistake of getting back on Facebook right before the election. Just deactivated again, but seriously considering permanent deletion. What I always miss most are the groups. There are some great communities on t…

I posted yesterday about needing more indoor play places for kids with adult amenities more like an airport lounge. Biggest concern to me would be sight lines. How would Foucault feel if we used the panopticon as a mode…

The Achilles Heel of the YIMBY movement is the common thought that this isn’t built because it’s illegal. It’s legal in enough places to know that developers don’t build much of this. People have so much faith in the la…

Having one of those weekends with the kids where I’m ready to go back to work. I think we all need a vacation.

Making my homemade mac and cheese tonight. Feeling like I need some comfort food. Might not fill the void, but it will get me through!

We need indoor play places for kids where the parent areas are more like airport lounges. When we’re going through long stretches of bad weather, these places are lifesavers for people with young kids, but I think there…

Went looking for a binaural sleep frequencies app and ended up self-administering EMDR. Have you tried turning your trauma off and back on again?

Currently: Old Fashioneds and a pretty competitive game of Rummikub while the kids watch a Christmas movie.

So many worries about the Fed’s direction in the coming years—beyond the usual. Transit funding, affordable housing, education… it all feels so precarious right now. Trying to stay optimistic, but it’s tough not to feel…

Nearing my mid 40s and the font sizes are definitely getting bigger.

As a staunch urbanist, I love the idea of the 15-minute city, but that lifestyle seems out of touch from most people’s reality. Allowing nearby amenities is easy from a land use perspective, but work, school choice, and…

Finished reading: Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #12) by Dav Pilkey 📚 I probably enjoyed this one as much as my son (5), particularly the parts about A.I. I also love how he named a robot charac…

Jake Paul / Mike Tyson in the context of our societal collapse: bread and circuses.

Portlanders notoriously don’t shovel their sidewalks when it snows here. I’ve heard the argument that it’s pointless to buy a snow shovel when it only snows a couple times per year and melts fairly quickly. But guess wh…

I avoided this fallen can of soda water all week knowing full well that it would be there for me when I ran out of them on Friday. Here we are.

I decided to stop complaining about having so few friends as a middle-aged man and committed to a goal of one social meetup event per week. This week was trivia, next week is a writer’s group. With enough meds, I might…

A pair of quotes that gave me pause today: The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. — Pablo Picasso There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality i…

My wife scheduling that JC Penney photo shoot the minute I break down and trim my Movember mustache.

Currently reading: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs 📚 Haven’t read this since grad school and have been meaning to revisit it. Oregon chapter of the American Planning Association book club pic…

Book search down again for Epilogue on Micro.blog. @help

Finished reading: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 📚

Looking at open enrollment options and comparing insurance costs between my employer (government) and my wife’s (health care). Her premium for dental through the same provider is 8 times as expensive. This system is stu…

Of all the scientific and technological advancements made in my lifetime, not one is more important than the Squatty Potty.

As much as I loathe DT and Musk, I unfollow people who body shame them. Don’t care if it’s punching up, that’s some right wing stuff I just don’t tolerate in my feeds.

More sunbreaks. ☀️

My mother-in-law officially retired, so we’ve been getting a little relief with the kids lately. Last night we got out in Northwest PDX. I won a pretty decent gift card to Ringside a while back and we had to use it. Nic…

Finished reading: Mermin Vol. 1 by Joey Weiser 📚. We enjoyed this one, looking forward to book two.

Our kindergarten kiddo.

We may or may not have put up the Christmas tree today. 🌲

I wonder who they voted for. Demonstrators with Nazi flags appear at ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ performance

Went on a date with my wife, found a Lego brick in my pocket. #parenting

Bridge City. Gloom rolled in, but we’re dry at the moment. Photos from the passenger seat.

Quoting scripture in response to conservative Christians voting for Trump isn’t hypocritical if you’re not a Christian. You don’t need to be Christian to recognize when they’re not living by their own tenets, just as yo…

Always a strange day for me between being my brother’s birthday and also the day my wife and I went on our first date, 9 years ago now. No lack of fodder for reflection. I like this photo of her smiling big with her eye…

Thinking about my brother Brad, who would’ve been 42 today. Love you, buddy.

Went to a musical at Mountainside High School tonight and then had some food and drinks with friends at Cooper Mountain Ale Works in Sherwood, OR. Not the best food, but it was nice to see people and feel part of a comm…

There’s a development forum I frequent that still uses vBulletin version 3.8.7. That’s software that came out in 2010. The owner refuses to upgrade and the users won’t migrate because of their post counts. Is there a wa…

What’s that you say? You’ve never heard a Twin Reverb cranked to 10, in person? Yeah, me neither…until the Tone Master version, which allows you to attenuate down to 1 watt and play at bedroom levels while still getting…

How are you taking care of yourself this weekend?

A Trumper resorted to criticizing my “combover” instead of my ideas yesterday. I’m still kind of smiling about it.

Probably crazy, but I’ve always wanted to take Amtrak down the west coast in one of those sleeper cabins.

Currently reading: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera 📚

I’m losing followers on other platforms because of my opinions about the election. But what bothers me more is how silent so many people are being about this. People who didn’t vote for him but appear as if nothing happ…

I think I’ve gained back all the weight I lost just since Halloween. It’s been a helluva time these last 8 days.

I was recognized as an Italian citizen, coincidentally, on Election Day 2020. We stuck around, but hell if we aren’t thinking about an extended sabbatical now.

Dog Zoey, who just turned 8, makes me laugh with her morning routine. She usually sleeps downstairs on the couch, but when my raucous children wake up and stampede downstairs, she heads upstairs and lays in my bed to av…

Figured I’d give Day One a spin after many years. When I logged in, it found a journal of mine from 11 years ago with 87 entries that I had completely forgotten about. This was one entry from 2013. Damn, I was an angsty…

Focus and self care do not come naturally to me. Maybe that’s common in this age. I am making some progress lately, slowly chipping away at some new habits. Reading, writing, small exercise routines, putting my phone do…

Having all sorts of internet/network issues today, both personal and work.

Currently reading: Better Off Without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession by Chuck Thompson 📚

I have to start making alternative plans for Thanksgiving. IYKYK

Looking like a replay of 16.

Finished reading: A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut 📚

I’m so grateful my parents are Democrats. I can’t imagine being from a family that I don’t respect.

Stepping out my front door after some rain.

I understood the assignment 🩵

Sometimes I like to live dangerously and still restart my work computer even when 143 windows are open and it asks me, “You have unsaved work. Are you sure you still want to restart?” A clean slate can feel so freeing.

There used to be this coffee shop I’d go to in high school in the 90s near Central Michigan University called U-Cup that stayed open late and had open mic nights—I even played a couple! I miss spots like that. Imagine p…

I wonder if Threads has a block limit.

My five year old is learning to read. He’s picking it up, but it’s going as expected because English is strange and phonics is garbage. When I took Japanese years ago, I used to think Kanji was insane. But now I can see…

I’ve got two kids who will be 6 and 3 in January. Looking for unique holiday gift ideas that encourage creative play involving art or science. Doesn’t necessarily need to be a purchase, just something that can excite a…

Beautiful day to renew our Oregon Zoo membership.

Ordering from New Seasons is now an option on Amazon? When did this happen?

Good morning. I was up an hour earlier than I wanted to be.

In the Northwest, where few homes outside central cities have basements, garages often fill up with storage, superfluous items, and detritus from consumer culture, leaving no room for vehicles.

Happy 63rd birthday to my mom today. Me and the kids made some cards with watercolor. I haven’t painted in decades. I was heavy handed and had no idea what I was doing, but it was fun. If I didn’t already have 20 hobbie…

Thankful for Saturday, and that the kids actually slept in. Never happens. It had been a while since I had a moment to cook a good weekend breakfast.

What’s a Apple Watch?

The top 3 fun size candy bars, according to dad tax preferences: Butterfinger Almond Joy Payday

These kiddos did great despite some pretty heavy rain at times. Time to break out the Christmas decorations.

ChatGPT has pretty much replaced Google for me for general question inquiries. It’s been a long time since a technology has changed my habits so dramatically. I’ll gladly pay them to avoid ads and crappy websites that t…

People ringing our doorbell and trick or treating at almost 11 p.m. I swear, some people have no damn sense. Lights were off btw, they triggered the motion lights.

Taking my dog to the vet today for an updated rabies vaccine so she can be groomed, which means I’ll be shamed into some unnecessary tests and procedures and come home with a bill for $500. Ugh, why do vets suck so bad.

This Trunk or Treat fad… Do Americans really hate walking so much that they Trick or Treat out of the trunks of cars in a parking lot?

Forever stamps.

Heading into my mid-40s as a frumpy, graying bureaucrat, gone are the days where I can pull off fashion. I used to be able to pull off almost anything. But now a mustache does not make me look edgy. It makes me look lik…

Wife: “I want to do goat yoga for my birthday. I guess they stand on your back.” 5: “Whaaaat? Goat yoga?? Can people do cow yoga??”

Thinking back to my Livejournal days when everyone used to put their favorite books, movies, bands and artists right in their profiles. While usually inscrutable and sometimes arrogant, I kind of miss it. Thinking about…

Ironically (?), the higher I get in my career and the more I’m paid, the less I see a defensible reason why leadership makes so much more money than others. The hardest working people in any office where I’ve been emplo…

Looking forward to working with Rayon V2 today. Hopelly the team also gave us the ability to change text backgroud colors.

Who needs middle housing when you have 95% lot coverage?

Made my dentist’s BMW payment today with my second crown of the year. Hopefully I’m done cracking teeth for a while.

Listening #now: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Meshuggah

Currently reading: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 📚

The fact that I still can’t add a song I recorded myself to my own Apple Music account via iPhone/iOS is perhaps the biggest lingering pain in the ass for me in the Apple ecosystem. Absurd in 2024.

No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful. — Kurt Vonnegut

“Dad, do some people have 11 fingers?” “Yeah, but it’s rather abnormal.” “Oh my god, that is a bunch of fingers!”

Sunbreaks in the PNW. Sometimes it’s rainy in my backyard when it’s sunny in my front yard.

This product appeals to me. I recently got rid of my Apple Watch and I’m considering a more minimalist phone setup. Light Phone 3

Is it just me or has Shazam become really spotty recently with its ability to identify a song?

As a blue voter and feminist, I find the online interviews with men about women’s bodies meant to expose ignorance ineffective. It might be more useful to address the 40% of women who voted for Trump in 2016 instead.

If there ever was a government program representative of how terribly run government programs can be, it’s Oregon’s BottleDrop program. Talk about taking something simple like returning your soda cans for deposit and tu…

Do I know anyone who uses a light phone or something similar? How has your experience been?

Walking the boy to school this morning, I saw a middle age man a little older than myself walking with his two preteen girls. You could tell he adored them, but they made him stop before getting to the school grounds so…

Currently reading: A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut 📚

Finished reading: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan 📚

On the ballot this year in Oregon (as I fill out my ballot at home): Establish an impeachment process for elected officials Remove lawmakers’ power to set their own pay Allow ranked choice voting Increase corporate taxe…

I’ve got about 10% left of the Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It’s taken me like 3 months to read this book I’ve wanted to read since 2006. I like nonfiction but they can be such a slog sometimes.

Binding rocks around the park. I love this time of year.

Despite Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC), there are over 1,000 units of housing being developed within 1/2 mile of Elmonica, Willow Creek and Merlo MAX stations (8 trains per hour) and every single unit…

All these people pretending like they’re gonna cancel Amazon right before Christmas 😉

iPhone recording of me covering Lua by Bright Eyes for its 20th Anniversary. #musiciansofthreads #acoustic #brighteyes #lua Link.

I need a middle age friend matching app like OK Cupid where current and preferred neighborhood walkscore figures prominently into our match %.

It’s really pretty incredible how much perfectly benign email Apple Mail sends to spam. Even after adding things like my bank’s email address to my contacts and manually moving messages from the same senders over and ov…

Oh, hey…check it out. Openvibe beta now supports Mastodon, Bluesky, Nostr AND Threads. #openvibe #threads

Soaking it up while we’ve got it! #pnw

What I don’t like about the #Wordpress implementation of #ActivityPub is that I see the whole damn post, long-form and unformatted, in my feed. Let’s hope #ghost does it better.

Holy f%#!, planning life has gotten a whole lot harder having a kid in elementary school. I just had to merge the school calendar with my work calendar…so many days off.

There’s this trend recently where developers cry for planners to liberalize zoning rules to make pretty brick townhomes. Well, the first photo is not what they build. Here in Portland, we have liberal zoning rules and t…

Michiganders…how do you pronounce Isle Royale? I’ve always pronounced it roy-AL, but it’s come to my attention that many people pronounce it like royal (ROY-ul).

Little Nicky is an underrated movie. John: Hey, by the way, Nicky, chec…

Little Nicky is an underrated movie. John: Hey, by the way, Nicky, check this out! [spins Ozzy record backwards, but just makes noise] What’s Ozzy trying to say there? Nicky: John, absolutely nothing. The Blizzard alway…

Thinking about winter getaways. Just figured out that Allegiant flies from Eugene to Orange County. Might be worth the drive for $120 round trip. Also good prices from PDX to Arizona.

Had some seriously good food at Piroshky Piroshky tonight at BG Food Carts in downtown Beaverton. Again, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to food.

Good gawd

New bump-outs/curb extensions all along Lincoln in downtown Hillsboro. You love to see it.

Jersey Mike’s usually makes a decent sandwich but some high school kid just ruined my sandwich with 5x as much mustard as should be legal.

I ordered some patches. One of the few times an ad worked to part me from my money.

Hard to beat.

I only have smart summon on my car for about a month during my full self driving trial, but this is gonna be fun to use when I see the parking enforcement coming for my car at work.

We are having a beautiful October here in the Northwest.

In every office I’ve ever worked, the dish drying rack looks like this, at all times. No one puts anything away, they just cycle through the dishes on the rack. So why do we even use them? I want to throw the damn thing…

Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene opening for Stars at Wonder Ballroom #pdx

Lusting after these retro styled Voigtlaender lenses for the Nikon Zf.

My blog posts now show the syndication links when cross posted, which I’m happy about. And while I am getting Mastodon and Bluesky comments copied over from Bridgy with webmentions, I’m hoping to figure out a way to bri…

Going to see Stars tonight in #pdx. Pretty excited. I used to love this album…20 years ago. These reunion tours are starting to make me feel my age.

Despite some lingering pain from last week, I decided to try the Smith machine again yesterday. I kept the weight light and got a good night sleep after stretching. I feel so much better today than I did following last…

Went to the gym on Wednesday and figured I’d try some squats on the smith machine. Started off super easy at 75 lbs because I didn’t want to injure myself. Five days later and my hamstrings are still stiff and ache.

Caught a whiff of someone smoking clove cigarettes tonight and it sent me back to freshman year of college (1999/2000) in East Lansing. All my antics and failings. Total olfactory teleportation. Amazing how scents can s…

Seeing Nilüfer Yanya at Wonder Ballroom tonight. Leaving the house past 7pm on a Sunday night feels like it should be illegal at my age.

Detroit Lions are going to the Super Bowl this year. A man can dream, anyway.

Hillsboro, Oregon has such beautiful parks & rec facilities. Very kid friendly town. We come to this area a lot because there’s an aquatic center, library, and a beautiful park all on the same block. And we inevitably s…

My kindergartener can now count into the 100s and is starting to read. My two-year-old daughter’s language development is exploding. It’s so much fun seeing little human minds develop.

Who needs a truck, anyway?

Timing Chewy deliveries exactly to my dog’s eating habits has never happened.

Downtown Portland

Just learned about the ‘Copenhagen Left’ turn for cyclists.

Love a good weekend breakfast. I like my eggs over medium with buttered toast and raspberry jam. Hashbrowns. Descent coffee. It’s the small things.

Finally got the update with Actual Smart Summon (ASS). Looking forward to trying it out tomorrow. Teslas FSD is getting to the point where it’s safer than human drivers. https://youtu.be/-9p0jUJZqG8?si=NBKB01rATETXVnsK

How are Portlanders feeling about this ranked choice voting ballot?

Cereal is dessert, who are we kidding

The former Guild Theatre’s marquee and façade. Portland, Oregon.

The Park Blocks. Portland, Oregon. #streetphotography

I love carrying my 40mm f/2 because of its unobtrusive size and weight, but I invariably regret not taking something with more reach whenever I’m shooting street.

Downtown #pdx this morning.

Good morning.

I’m loving the frequency improvement of MAX trains west of downtown Beaverton now that the Better Red extension is complete. Instead of 15 minutes, we’re getting trains every 7-8 minutes. It makes a difference when I’m…

I have to keep reminding myself that Bluesky and Threads aren’t showing us ads yet. Even though their experiences are better than Mastodon, it won’t always be that way. Meta in particular is just training us to be addic…

I didn’t have “peeing next to a former female supervisor” on my 2024 bingo card, but this conference at the downtown pdx Marriott has fully genderless public restrooms, and here we are.

Me, an introvert, scanning the conference agenda for sessions that don’t have audience engagement components or group work.

Tech voyeurism: getting a sneak peek of someone’s pinned web browser bookmarks before they start their presentation.

As I leave for the OR American Planning Association conference in downtown #pdx, I’m reflecting on my commute from 7 miles out, on a light rail line cities twice our size wish they had, from a suburban area with 11k peo…

Amazon is releasing Kindle colorsoft and I’m trying to deny my GAS.

Hello, tree.

Hi

I wish Apple would release a fitness tracker in a minimalist form factor with just O2 sensor, heart rate, blood sugar, GPS, and a couple function buttons. NO screen, apps or phone features. Give it to me for $100 and ca…

“Dad, why do these samosas smell like pumpkin donuts?” He’s right, which probably explains why I love them so much.

Ten years ago (10/8/2014) I saw Sharon Van Etten at The Loving Touch in Ferndale, Michigan. Still one of my favorite shows of all time. @sharonvanhalen #detroit

I need to change the pots on my Jazzmaster. This is starting to feel a bit like The Ship of Theseus.

We have limited options for nearby coffee places that I’d actually want to spend any time at. Haven Coffee on Murray in Cedar Mill is one of the good ones. Coffee is great, people are nice, and it’s easy for me to focus…

Took my son to Through the Veil yesterday. They sell these terrifying little monsters.

Hillsboro has the best parks.

One of the craziest things I’ve ever learned is that large areas of the Middle East are desert due to soil salinity caused by human activity — irrigation.

By far the best feature of both Threads and Bluesky is “Hide Reply for Everybody”. The fact Mastodon comments persist even after a block is a big mark against ActivityPub.

Continuing my digital declutter from last week where I deleted 80 apps from my iPhone, this week I’ve deleted 56 more.

I swear, of the parents we meet out here on the Westside of Portland, probably close to a third of the dads are QA engineers at Intel.

Of all the funny pronunciations from my daughter, my favorites are “chechup” (ketchup), “banch” (band-aid), and “nonuck” (yogurt). Always makes me smile.

It’s not every day two bands I love pop up at the same venue within two days of each other. It’s gonna be a rough week! I wonder if they’ll let me bring a lawn chair.

These cookies are where it’s at. 🍪

We’ve been taking the business of Halloween decorating pretty seriously. 🎃

I don’t know who you are, but I want to be your friend.

Currently reading: Kane Chronicles, The, Book Two: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan 📚

Finished reading: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan 📚

Epilogue book search is not working for me.

Our two big little personalities.

While it wasn’t a great day to be a Spartan at Autzen Stadium, Pax and I enjoyed our first Ducks game with grandma and grandpa. The fans were really nice and respectful. We had so much fun. Nice work, Oregon, and welcom…

Swinging in the static hammock 🤣

We had an awesome time hiking Mt. Rainier.

The only bad thing about storing all the spooky Halloween stuff in the attic is that I have to go into the creepy attic to get it back out…

Time to make some sauce.

Last week was busy flying solo while dw traveled to see her sister in San Diego and see the Pink concert. I managed to mostly finish a new website for my blog yesterday now that I have reinforcements. It’s 8:30 a.m. on…

Hulu w/commercials price going up to $9.99/mo. Those commercials are like 2-3 minutes long every time now, too. Remember when the commercial version was free?

Picking my wife up from the airport this morning because it was $75 before tip to take a Lyft when she left on Tuesday. Just insane.

Getting ever so slightly more confident with web development in Ghost. Still have some visual tweaks I need to make, but the micro/photo blog I’ve been building is finally where I want it to be functionally, for the mos…

Nearly forgot about this album by fellow Michigan natives Taproot. Gift was on heavy rotation in the early 2000s.

One of my biggest irrational fears living with two young kids is that the background blur on my camera goes away during a Teams call.

USPS split my ZIP Code 10 years ago and added a new one, which my house is within. It still causes issues for deliveries. For example, in order to get deliveries from the local IKEA, I have to psych out the system by en…

Since I’ve been having some issues with my Leviton smart switches, I decided to get a few Matter enabled light bulbs. I know this was the promise of Matter, but setup was a breeze compared to the switches. Here’s to hop…

I liked the look of these clouds.

When the office mini split is right above your cube. I generally run pretty warm, but my ears feel like they’re going to fall off.

In my mind, James Earl Jones is Darth Vader reading the Bible. Growing up, my friend (and the drummer in my band) used to borrow his mom’s van for practice. In it, she had the unabridged Bible on tape, as read by JEJ. I…

As an urban planner, I wish Apple would start highlighting good urban design and human-scale infrastructure in their screensavers instead of flybys of automobile infrastructure (e.g. huge California freeways) or mega-sc…

One thing I like more about Threads over Mastodon and Bluesky is that you can post up to 10 photos, and you just swipe left on the post to see more. This is a winning design, the type that drives adoption. Too bad they…

Might need to get this one.

It’s been a great year for tomatoes. 🍅 #pnw

How awful, and way too close for comfort in terms of both location and profession. Melissa Jubane’s body found, neighbor charged with murder.

Proud of this kiddo and his coach.

Not sure how I missed it before, but I watched Prey (2022) tonight, prequel to the Predator series. I needed something I didn’t have to think too much about, and it fit the bill. I’ve always liked hunters as an idea, so…

Noticed a typo at the skate park this afternoon. Can you spot it?

We are pretty much addicted to Himalayan Dumplings by Kyikyi in Beaverton, Oregon. The noodles, the dumplings, the hand pies…all so good.

The dog days of summer, hopefully coming to an end.

Ultimately, what it’s going to boil down to for me in terms of social media platform adoption, is the moderation tools. Both Threads and Bluesky have the ability to hide replies for everybody and detach quotes. It’s awe…

The new routine. She insists on carrying his backpack.

There’s this spot on my bathroom floor where, if I move my scale there before hopping on, I weigh like a pound less. What can I say, I love lying to myself!

S: I was born in August, I’m a Leo. P: What’s a Leo, mom? S: It means I’m bold. P: You’re not bald mom, dad is!

I wish the west coast would get on with that whole high-speed rail thing. Tijuana to Vancouver, and all points in between, we want trains.

Beautiful morning in the northwest, but time to button up the house until this evening. These temp swings are pretty drastic. #pdx

Happy to have found some #detroit dad hats in 3xl made by ‘47 on a specialty site for the cranially endowed.

Some meetings just require you to put on your best Cillian Murphy.

The phrases “rock music” and “rock and roll” seem anachronistic enough now that I don’t think we need to throw “classic” in front of them anymore.

Pretty nice that you can accept tips & donations natively in ghost now.

Spun up a GoToSocial instance in Docker to see how it works. Surprisingly easy. Not as feature-rich as Mastodon, but it's supposed to be a lot lighter on resources.

Here we are on Labor Day and my kids (5 and 2) are already so excited for Halloween that they’re begging us to take them to a store to buy decorations. 🎃

I need to make more friends on the westside of Portland. Time to get back on Meetup?

Civil War (2024) has got to be one of the most boring movies I’ve seen in years.

Saturday Market

Exciting times, lol. Some of the bumper crop of tomatoes from our garden are finally ripening. Tons of tomatoes this year, even though I got started late this year. I attribute their success to the organic fertilizer re…

Trying to reduce my subscription and other misc. costs so last night I migrated several hosted software applications over to my home lab. Going to give Actual envelope budgeting a try as well.

I’ve been stuck at 49 states for a few years now, with the last state being Alaska. Starting to think about knocking it off the bucket list next year, even if only for a long weekend. But where to?

#fensterfreitag #photography

Looking for a new memory foam bed. Anyone had any luck with an affordable mattress-in-a-box? 🛌

Friday vibes.

After a stressful day yesterday, and with my son starting kindergarten today, I’m having a helluva time focusing on work! Pomodoro time?

Give ‘em hell! 🥲

The new TriMet light rail system map showing the extension of the Red Line 10 stations deeper into Washington County and improvements made at Gateway and the Airport. #pdx #transit #portland #trimet

Took the day off to spend the day with my son. The kid starts kindergarten in 2 days and I’m trying to not let the waterworks hit me.

Things get interesting now that Oregon is in the Big Ten. Going to the MSU - Oregon game this year in Eugene. So weird.

I stopped listening to Deftones sometime shortly after the album White Pony was released. However, my Discovery station recently recommended this song off their album Saturday Night Wrist from 2006, which I didn't even…

TriMet completed its Better Red project, extending the MAX Red Line all the way out to Washington County Fairgrounds. I can now take one train all the way to the airport. Hopefully they’re still working on bettering sec…

I know spiders are important and all, but I’ll never get used to the size of the (harmless) orb weavers crawling around my house. I don’t miss living in the south, where some spiders can actually hurt you.

It’s gonna be fun whenever I go to use these pedals again.

Spending time with the in-laws - different politics, but steering clear of our differences.

My next house will have a mud room, if I'm ever lucky enough to escape.

IKEA delivery could be bad.

Just realized Umami analytics has an iOS app, and it's pretty nice.

Sort of makes me laugh that while Ghost is struggling to implement ActivityPub, Npub Pro has already made Nostr-based websites that use Ghost themes. npub.pro

#pdx

Now that my car won’t be competing with my clothes dryer for electricity, I signed up for EVPulse through PGE, a program where they give you financial incentives if they can schedule your charging times. Hopefully this…

Politicians (hell, even people way INTO politics), are people I actively try to avoid. I do vote, but I typically just can’t stand these types of personalities. They’re the most self-important people in any space, red o…

Ever take an anti-anxiety med in preparation for a meeting, only to have it canceled? That hour is yours now. Go take a nap.

Running around downtown Portland today.

I’m wearing size 36 pants today and they’re kind of loose. A small thing, but it feels good.

I often wonder if I like so many movies and albums from the late ’90s and early ’00s because they were genuinely that good or simply because that was the last time I truly cared.

I finally got a dedicated NEMA 14-50 outlet installed in the garage. No more dryer outlet charging!

Little Miss Sunshine ☀️

Our relationship in a nutshell.

The rain never stopped us.

Pax and I went camping at the coast for a couple nights. The weather wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but that didn’t stop us from having some fun.

Such a nice campground down here at Beverly Beach! So cool to have 32A service With a 14-50 outlet right at the site! My son is so excited, too. Hopefully his enthusiasm is still high tomorrow (rain).

Trying out the dedicated B&W switch on the Nikon Zf at a coworker’s send-off last night.

Wardrobe change. She picked her outfit out this morning (changed twice) and ended up going with the Dino slip-ons she inherited from her brother.

Woke up way too early today. Lounging on the couch with my dog, I’m alternating between reading the news and sipping coffee with my eyes closed. It’s so quiet before the kids wake up.

Down 10 lbs since starting CICO. Only about 50 more to go. 😭

Nothing like camping at the Oregon Coast in mid-August.

40mm is one of my favorite focal lengths.

What good are iOS widgets and WatchOS complications if they never update until you open them? It would be funny if it wasn’t so aggravating.

This is just me getting old, but I feel very uncomfortable/borderline offended with the Gen Z boys adopting this mustache/mullet/pit viper aesthetic. Gives me abusive alcoholic vibes. I guess that means they’ve probably…

25 mph really is too fast for most neighborhood streets. 15 mph should be the rule.

My wife competed in a duathlon on her birthday today and got third place in her age group. Proud of her.

Lose It! app makes me laugh with its “positive pattern detected” notifications. Yes, I like potatoes.

My kids love these German Playmobil Scooby-DOO! sets. They’re so creative. Keeps them busy and entertained for hours.

We rode bikes, played at the park, and chatted with the neighbor about her new dog. afterword.blog

People always say you’ll miss the fingerprints around the house when the kids grow up. I’ll definitely miss their little faces and the parenting experience, but I certainly will not miss having to repaint the walls ever…

536 calories. A McDonald’s double cheeseburger has 100 fewer calories.

Looking pretty sassy for a tax collector.

Digging the wrap on this MAX car.

Changing My Lifestyle I’m about a week in with CICO (calories in, calories out), and although it hasn’t exactly been easy, I’ve stayed below my calorie limit all but 1 day. Read More

I’m about a week in with CICO (calories in, calories out), and although…

I’m about a week in with CICO (calories in, calories out), and although it hasn’t exactly been easy, I’ve stayed below my calorie limit all but 1 day. I’m still well below my restriction limit for the week, which means…

KMHD is my savior during election years.

Five and a half years ago, these three were all born in the same hospital just days apart. This morning I dropped Pax off at kinder kickstart at his elementary school. Feeling all the feelings today. Good luck to all th…

I dropped my son off at the kinder kickstart program at his elementary school this morning. Although kindergarten doesn’t officially begin for a few more weeks, this papa is full of all the feelings.

Just used Google Takeout to send my photos directly to iCloud. Having moved all my emails from Gmail a few weeks back, I’m mostly done with Google.

A family affair.

Thinking about trying Bridgy Fed.

1500M free final swimming: the event from hell.

I need to learn more about Webmention. I’d love to be able to link comments made on cross-posts to Mastodon, Blue Sky, Threads etc. to my self-hosted blog. That’s the best thing about Micro.blog to me IMO. Wish this stu…

Read a great quote today: “You shouldn’t criticize your partner’s choices – you’re one of them.”

What’s your favorite steps counting app for iOS with a widget?

We took a country drive out to Carlton this morning to go swimming in t…

We took a country drive out to Carlton this morning to go swimming in their public pool, which was nicer than expected. In fact, the entire town was cuter than I expected. I had forgotten that some vineyards use it for…

I’m sort of preparing for when Ghost gains ActivityPub functionality.

Combined features from two Ghost themes, which is a miracle given my lack of experience with this sort of thing. I wanted a landing page with just photos in a masonry style, and a notes page for micro blogging as a seco…

I kind of want this. https://portland.craigslist.org/yam/cto/d/beaverton-toyota-pickup-hilux-1989-fuel/7768810134.html

My son’s day camp is in a former elementary school turned rec center. I love its mid-century design. I attended similar schools growing up, but it took age and a design education to fully appreciate these buildings. It…

For me, it’s looking like the best way to stay under my calories and still feel like a human is to just not eat from 8 p.m. until lunch at 11:30 a.m. the next day.

When people say the PNW will be a place for climate refugees, they must not live here. This place bakes every summer, we’re almost always in a drought, and the wildfires are becoming increasingly more common.

I need to ween myself off my fizzy water addiction.

IMO the summer sunsets often aren’t much to look at here on account of there being so few clouds. No cotton candy skies like back east. Fall can be pretty nice, though.

There aren’t nearly enough hedgerows in this country.

“…[T]he nations with the biggest surpluses of grain have always exerted…

“…[T]he nations with the biggest surpluses of grain have always exerted power over the ones in short supply. Throughout history governments have encouraged their farmers to grow more than enough grain, to protect agains…

TIL I’m 70 lbs overweight.I don’t like how I feel most days. Setting a goal today to change the way I eat and hopefully the energy will follow. The current path is unsustainable and I want to have more energy for my kid…

Growing up in MI, I always thought Grosse Pointe et al. was just a bougie area. My perspective has changed. They are gorgeous, rather urban former street car neighborhoods for which there is no affordable counterpart in…

Just went on our first bike ride together without training wheels!

A neat flower I found last week.

Another of the Heidelberg

I can’t get enough of these old interiors. #detroit

That feeling when you realize you could save $170-200 per month just by switching your grocery store from Fred Meyer to Winco…but still not sure if it’s actually worth it because doing your own grocery shopping every we…

I put almost 1200 miles on a Subaru Outback last week and I’m so happy to be back in my own car. It reinforced my decision to go with an EV.

Just realized Pete Buttigieg is younger than me.

Back home in Portland after a week in Michigan and now I just want to move back to the Midwest. #pdx

Continually impressed that there are still so many people who act like they’ve never flown before. “Oh wow, I forgot to take off my watch and my necklace! Oh, I have to take off my shoes and jacket? I’m so sorry, I left…

Watching the Olympics is just me saying to myself: “Wow, they must’ve grown up rich to play this sport,” over and over again.

Passing through Lansing and stopped for a bit. I lived here for over 10…

Passing through Lansing and stopped for a bit. I lived here for over 10 years and I do not miss it. In fact, pretty sure I’m dealing with some minor PTSD having been trapped here for so long. Still, I had to see how thi…

Miss you more.

Miss you more. #detroit #skyline #cities

I waited in line for about an hour to tour the station today. It was worth it.

Heidelberg

Surprise, I ate pizza.

MCS looking glorious

An afternoon well spent at the Henry Ford Museum

Wanna go for a ride?

A dream.

“A 1 lb box of prewashed lettuce contains 80 calories of food energy. According to Cornell ecologist David Pimentel, growing, chilling, washing, packaging, and transporting that box of organic salad to a plate on the Ea…

A one-pound box of prewashed lettuce contains 80 calories of food energy. According to Cornell ecologist David Pimentel, growing, chilling, washing, packaging, and transporting that box of organic salad to a plate on th…

I missed you, Lake Michigan.

Grand Haven Fisherman’s Pier

Plant Dad

Pronto Pup, Grand Haven, Michigan. Don’t you wish your weiner was this good after 77 years?

Pronto Pup. Don’t you wish your weiner was this good after 77 years?

Finished reading: Amulet 3: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi 📚

It’s amazing how much we don’t know about Harris this far into the first term, isn’t it? She’s been basically invisible to me.

Rethinking this microblogging stuff, again. Not sure why this takes up so much of my brainpower. I’m finding that I just prefer my bloggy stuff separate from my Micro.blog/Mastodon/Bluesky stuff, sort of formal vs infor…

Hanging with dad, picking blackberries and blueberries.

When I see my own posts from Micro.blog on an alt Mastodon account, I never see replies from Micro.blog people from that side, even if they’re federating. I don’t see them on Bluesky, either. Why am I only seeing the fu…

I distinctly remember being taught that “dilemma” was spelled “dilemNa” in the early 80s. Why, I have no idea.

I was in the area for work, so drove up to Council Crest Park to break up the routine. Hazy, but gorgeous day (70° F), with many people out enjoying it. #pdx

I wonder if the doctors who don’t like prescribing antibiotics have any idea what’s happening in the meat industry.

After some thought and many years wearing the thing, I’ve decided to drop the Apple Watch in favor of my old mechanical Seiko for daily wear. What little value the Apple Watch brought never outweighed its annoyances for…

Switched our flat rate electric service to time-of-day pricing with PGE. So long as you can divert your energy use away from 5-9 to other times of day, your bill should go down. I charge my EV overnight ($0.08 per kWh)…

Fellow parents, how much time (if any) do you schedule for your own interests, creativity, hobbies and other pursuits in a given week? How do you negotiate that with your partner?

I just realized I had the ISO cranked way up yesterday on my camera during our family trip to Enchanted Forest and I didn’t even realize it. I thought full auto meant full auto…guess not. I still have so much to learn,…

Days like these make the hard days worth it.

Nikon coming up from behind with its release of Nikon Imaging Cloud. Looking forward to this being made available to the Zf so I can play around with it. Nikon Imaging Cloud enables users to recreate their favorite film…

Rest in peace Shelley Duvall, Dr. Ruth, and Richard Simmons. The world lost some authentic ones this weekend.

Oregano ruins anything it touches.

Hate to say it, but I’m ready for fall.

Zawojski said he once mistakenly received mail from the Crooks house, but never engaged with the family members directly even as he returned the mail to their porch. “I couldn’t even tell you what they look like,” he sa…

Goodbye, ol’ Suby. You were a great car for the 11 years you were mine. I probably took this car to 30 states on road trips. Sold to a friend’s son as his first car, hopefully he gets another 100k out of it.

Goodbye, ol’ Suby. You were a great car for the 11 years you were mine. Sold to a friend’s son as his first car, hopefully he gets another 100k out of it.

I got tired of my polycarbonate lenses always scratching, so last year I sent in my WP frames to Eyeglasses.com and had real glass lenses put in. No scratches. I love them.

I was entertained at the Les Savy Fav show.

I dragged a friend to the Les Savy Fav show and I don’t think they knew what they were getting into.

Downgrading your Verizon bill be like.

Decided I’m abandoning my affiliation with the Democratic Party and will become an independent (small “i”) voter. Between sidelining Bernie in 2016 and now attempting to block 3rd party access to state ballots, this sys…

Ecology also teaches that all life on earth can be viewed as a competition among species for the solar energy captured by green plants and stored in the form of complex carbon molecules. A food chain is a system for pas…

It was only 93° today.

My sister got lucky Married the yuppie Took him for all he was worth —Tom Petty

Finished reading: Guts: A Graphic Novel by Raina Telgemeier 📚

Our back patio is usually chaos. Zoey doesn’t seem to mind. She says she could do without the heat, though.

Currently reading: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan 📚

Summers in Portland have felt more like Redding every year. We now have 3 official seasons: rain, smoke, and scorching hot.

Started reading: White Bird: A Wonder Story (A Graphic Novel) by R. J. Palacio 📚

Roughing it, obviously.

I see you, Cannon Beach.

Happy to see more EV chargers at state parks & campgrounds across Oregon.

Glamping supreme. Ask me if I brought the portable AC. 🏕️

Countdown to camp. For all the money we’re spending on this, we could’ve stayed at a pretty nice hotel with a pool. 🏕️

It’s going to be around 100° the next four days. We walked around the neighborhood on the early side and stopped to listen to the bullfrogs at the wetlands. The creeping thistle looked neat. The bees looked happy.

I worked as a cook at P.F. Chang’s in college. Whenever someone finds out about this, about half the time they say “I love their chicken lettuce wraps!” Then I break the news to them that it’s just ground up and fried c…

Organic fireworks.

Ms. Sassypants

Nice day in PDX, and surprisingly quiet due to the holiday.

Happy Birthday, America! Long live the red, white, blue…and pink!

Explained Independence Day to my inquiring 5-year-old son today, as best I could. He responded: But dad, war is not good. People get hurt and that’s not something that we should be remembering. Couldn’t argue with that.

I just want Apple to allow me to choose “natural” scrolling for the trackpad, and regular scrolling for the mouse wheel. Is that too much to ask?

I love that my personalized radio station played me Ja Rule - Mesmerize on my drive home today.

I’m 43 and just now feel like I have enough PTO to stay somewhat sane, yet enough responsibility to feel guilty using it.

We’ve got a camping trip with friends this weekend that we booked in January (you have to do that here), and now it’s supposed to be around 100 degrees each day. Seriously considering sleeping in the Tesla and testing o…

Several days later, all 20 years of emails — 117,006 messages at 11 gb — have been imported to iCloud. After setting up mail forwarding, I no longer need to keep Gmail in Mail via IMAP because it’s all searchable. Delay…

Can I filter words out of the timeline with Micro.blog? I don’t like unfollowing people just because of occasional content, but I also try to throttle certain political posts.

Sometimes I’ll be on my back deck and hear some kid scream at a video game, or someone practicing the trumpet, and I think: “how dare they disrupt my peace!” Then I remember what it must be like to live next to us.

Sure seems like everyone around me is getting Covid these days…

4 minutes of a day in the life. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens Voice Memo

Took the kids out in the canoe on the Willamette this afternoon with our friend P, who brought her paddle board. Great drop-in point in Newberg. Beautiful, calm day for it. The old 18.5’ Wenonah is still a champ. 🛶

Remembered a lyric that has nothing to do with my current situation but is just so simple and clever, I wanted to write it down. The sadest part of a broken heart isn’t the ending so much as the start. — Leslie Feist

I slept in today because of the sleeping pill I took in the middle of t…

I slept in today because of the sleeping pill I took in the middle of the night, but I was productive despite how groggy I felt when I woke up. I took 5 big bags of bottles back for the deposits, picked up groceries, an…

Considering putting my big in scouts this year and of course I ended up on an Etsy page for alternative merit badges. Link

I’m slowly getting better at this.

Uploading 20 years’ worth of email to iCloud. Hoping for a completion date sometime before 2027.

Ice cream truck audibly enters the neighborhood… 2-year-old daughter: “what’s that noise?!” Wife: “it’s an ambulance.”

The candidates are very bad, but worse still is the media manipulation and corruption. Between the 2016 and 2024 elections, I’ve lost all faith in this system. The only reason I even vote anymore is because of SCOTUS.

I’m excited about the possibilities for music discovery with AI. Imagine being served up recommendations, not just in terms of genre or by other listerners’ tastes, but instead based on analysis of tempo, mood, time sig…

Finished reading with my son: The Stonekeeper’s Curse: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #2) by Kazu Kibuishi 📚

Not sure why I never thought of this until now, but you can use Ghost as a sort of headless CMS for Micro.blog via RSS. There are of course limitations (e.g. editing mistakes), but it can even handle your newsletter wit…

Here’s some Detroit style pizza I ate at the new Ranch location. 🍕

Considering making iCloud my primary email address but don’t have any idea where to begin. I’ve been with Gmail since 2004 and we’re talking about hundreds of service updates, not even counting my contacts. Who has that…

I had some business today with a department I used to work in, the job that brought me to Oregon. It was nice to see some of my old colleagues, but most have moved on at this point. It’s hard to believe I’ve been with t…

This week’s episode of the Mel Robbins podcast hit a bit close to the chest. Sharing it in hopes that someone else might find it useful. Why is adult friendship so hard? If you’ve been feeling lonely, left out, or just…

Currently reading with my son: The Stonekeeper’s Curse: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #2) by Kazu Kibuishi 📚

Few things have sent me back in time quicker than a whiff of Nag Champa incense that I caught wafting out the front door of a shop on Main Street as I passed.

I washed my car on Saturday, and the next day a bird pooped a huge one right in the middle of my driver’s side door. I’ve been driving with it on there for four days now simply for comedic effect.

iOS 18 Beta 2 rolls out RCS. Pretty excited about this.

Finished reading: The Stonekeeper: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #1) by Kazu Kibuishi 📚

Someone got off the hedonic treadmill a while ago and never looked back.

Although I’ve given up on growing my own peppers, I have not given up on fermenting my own hot sauce. See you in 4-6 weeks.

This past weekend’s project: the rainwater irrigation system. Despite a lot of work, I still haven’t solved the issue of the pump cycling. Suffice to say, I’ve put a lot more time into working on the automatic irrigatio…

Everyone expects wrinkles as they age, but I wasn’t prepared for all the other skin stuff that can happen. Eczema, strawberry bumps, stretch marks, skin tags, sun damage, hyperpigmentation. Fun stuff.

Late breakfast or early lunch?

People with multiple Micro.blog blogs, how do you split up your content? I’ve seen separate blogs for photos, specific photo content, hobbies, podcasts. What else?

It’s mind blowing to me that the United States has more land area than Canada. It’s only when you add its water area that Canada wins. That damn Mercator projection strikes again.

On high alert for bullfrogs.

When recipes say stuff like “the moistest chicken,” I cringe a little. I like my chicken dry AF and I won’t apologize.

Saw an early 90s Pontiac Grand Prix in someone’s driveway today, miraculously. It made me think about how ubiquitous the brand was in the 90s and early 2000s. Bonneville, Grand Am, Grand Prix, Sunfire. The OG proletaria…

iOS 18 feels like a step backwards in terms of UI for me. The Photos app is so clumsy and incoherent now, and I really dislike what they’ve done with Control Center. Adjusting widgets is awkward and buggy. I realize we’…

Although cool to see the Require Face ID control, I would’ve much rather seen a “turn off badge notifications” on this menu.

I’ve got the day off, so I’m heading to the coast with my boy. At long last, the weather looks decent. I like to keep all the beach gear in a clear tub so I can just throw it in the car and away we go.

Had one of those “moral high ground” types of days at work. Decided to stop a little early to have a beer and cook some bacon on the grill for BLTs before the kids get home. I love bacon, but hate that cooking it permea…

Really happy with what I’m averaging in gas savings since getting an EV. $14 spent on electricity over the past 31 days isn’t bad. And my old car was 20% worse on mpg vs their data model ($158 vs $132 in equivalent gas…

I’ve grown tired of my little Canon RP and its limitations, specifically its abysmal battery life, lack of in-body image stabilization, and slow shooting speed (kids!). So I decided to sell it and give a new system a tr…

Not sure how many of my followers here care about Detroit redevelopment, or old train stations, but the Michigan Central Depot has recently been magnificently restored. Long empty and falling apart, its restoration gets…

El Jefe Food Cart. Picking up dinner a little early at the best taco truck on Portland’s west side.

Picking up dinner a little early at the best taco truck on Portland’s west side.

Recently switched to carrying a backpack to work instead of a messenger bag and I ain’t ever going back. Not sure what initially brainwashed me into thinking I needed a messenger bag for work, but my back is thanking me…

I’ve been working with this new architectural design and markup software called Rayon (pronounced like Ryan), a startup out of Paris. I really love it for the space planning component of my job. It’s so much simpler tha…

I wonder what Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is like.

Before kids, I wasn’t the type of person to carry cash on me. But since having them, I’ve realized that having cash, in smaller denominations, is an all-star level dad flex.

Fleet Week in the Rose City.

Fleet week in the Rose City.

Nobody: My Apple Music: serenading me with a mix of Taylor Swift, Converge, and Cocomelon, all within a 10-minute span at 6 a.m.

Read a comment on a post tonight that said: “Europeans travel an hour for vacation. Americans travel an hour to get medication refilled.” In all seriousness, not one European (or otherwise) I met on my trip knew where t…

When I’m down in the dumps, I like to watch 80s and 90s movies. They always cheer me up.

Took me far too long to find the true purpose of these.

I feel like I’ve been cheating the system this week. I’ve been plugging my car into the free EV chargers at Walgreens and just going for a walk on my lunch break. My commute has been free this week.

My son, yelling from downstairs: “Dad! Can you muffled child’s voice? Me: “What? I can’t hear you. I’m upstairs shaving!” Son, yelling: “You can’t hear me because you’re upstairs!!!”

The cheapest tickets to Chris Stapleton are $200 for general admission, way in the back. This is so common now, not sure how they command these rates. There are so very few people I’d pay that much money to see live. I’…

Normally, my wife is pretty minimalistic, but she’s big on gifting souvenirs to coworkers and family upon return from traveling. I find the whole practice very strange. Like essentially we’re saying, “hey, here’s someth…

I took the opportunity to watch both Barbie and Oppenheimer, back to back, on my 10 hour plane ride from Amsterdam to Portland. Despite the leg room, wife and I both thought it was like a mini vacation just being withou…

Braving the conditions on Sauvie Island for some of spring’s sweetest treats: Hood strawberries.

I recently saw a reply form on someone’s personal Micro.blog post (at their own address), allowing readers to login from M.b, Mastodon, or Bluesky to comment. Anyone know if this is new, or where I can go to learn more…

When in Rome… …Goodnight.

Roma is the filthiest large city I’ve ever visited, but the food is good. Walking a lot (20,000 steps before siesta) and eating our way across the città. Breaking a lot of social norms and embarrassing myself with my po…

Roma is the filthiest large city I’ve ever visited, but the food is good and there’s so much to see. Walking a lot (20,000 steps before riposo) and eating our way across the città. Breaking a lot of social norms and emb…

Yesterday we hiked in the Alps, today we hiked the Cinque Terre. We burned a thousand calories hiking from Monterosso to Vernazza. The weather has been great. Resting for a bit before a night out in La Spezia.

In Italy, halfway through our trip, and I’m thinking about modifications to my own home based on my experience thus far. Such as real shutters. Bidets. Heated towel racks. Not giving up my American size fridge, however.

Lunch in Austria

Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Benefits to your circadian rhythm being way off given the 9 hour time difference: waking up at 4 a.m. for morning views.

Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) (Aeroporto di Venezia-Marco Polo).

In Amsterdam, getting ready day to board our flight to Venice. It’s been a long day :)

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS).

Some photos from Kindergarten orientation last week. His parents fighting back tears 🥹

Heading to the UFO festival 👽

I exported all my photos from Google awhile back, but was dreading organizing them because Google Takeout had an insane file structure. Well, I figured if there was a good job for AI, this was one of them. Had ChatGPT w…

Someone discovered Beatles - White Album on Minidisc.

Tualatin Valley Water District soccer field.

One aspect I miss about living back east are all the ethnic bakeries. My family used to run an Italian bakery and deli in metro Detroit. Italian, Jewish, Polish, Lebanese, and Mexican bakeries are all over the place. Po…

Mi piacerebbe entrare in contatto con alcuni urbanisti italiani riguardo al mercato del lavoro lì.

Had no idea moving posts from Micro.blog to Ghost would be such a pain. Had to spin up a Wordpress server, import the posts, then export with the Ghost plugin. Now the zip file is too big 😂. I can break up the photos i…

Admittedly, I had no idea how important agritourism had become to suburban childrearing.

Breakside Brewery Beaverton.

Whoa. Looks like Ghost will not only adopt ActivityPub, but also integrate following others right into the platform, on your own site. Looking forward to this.

After a lot of trial and error, I finally got Ghost up and running on my home server and accessible at my domain. Looks like I won’t be paying for hosting anymore, at least for my urban planning blog.

Sunny Wednesday morning in downtown Portland for the Northwest Facilities Expo. Quite a different scene than the housing and planning conferences I’m used to. Plenty of swag, including free buckets 🤣. You just have to…

Now that we know that most of our office jobs can easily be performed at home, any required commute into an office counts toward your 8 hours that day. Go ahead, I give you permission.

After a mild success of self-hosting PhotoPrism, I thought I’d see if I could get Ghost up and running in a docker container. No dice. I must’ve tried 20 different docker compose settings and I just don’t know what the…

Fungus among us

Getting the kids out of the house on this rainy Sunday.

Indexing…only about 100k to go.

55° this weekend, 85° next weekend. May can be so weird.

Finally took the time to set up PhotoPrism on my network. Now to figure out how to access it remotely. Another day.

Found a beautiful yet simple habit tracker in the App Store called Onrise. It’s free and comes with widgets, pomodoro timer, and a journal. I’d love to use it but apparently there’s no way to know where the data is stor…

20 years ago. —-> Lineup

This popped up in photos as a 20-year memory today. This hit me like a ton of bricks. Coachella 2004. Me and some friends drove from Michigan to California, four-deep in a Honda Civic. This is my buddy Trevor. We’ve gro…

I’ve saved about $75 in gas in less than 2 weeks with my new car. In reality, it’s likely more because my Subaru only got about 20 miles per gallon in city driving and this calculation uses 25 mpg as a baseline for comp…

Couldn’t sleep last night, at all. Periodic bouts of insomnia are nothi…

Couldn’t sleep last night, at all. Periodic bouts of insomnia are nothing new. So, when I know it’s a lost cause to even try, I kind of go off the rails digging into basic front end dev. I’ve been slowly making the Marf…

Without a doubt!

I hope we get high-speed rail in the Northwest before I die. The State Of High-Speed Rail Projects In The U.S.

Looking for accommodations for our trip to Italy. Although grateful for tools like Google Maps and online reviews, in some ways they almost make it more difficult for me to choose a hotel. Beyond analysis paralysis, gue…

Finally got in to see an ophthalmologist last week for a small concretion I had on my eyelid. It took me a year to get in to see one. I went into primary care last April, then a few months wait to see dermatology, then…

Who else here is from a small, out-of-the-way place with few opportunities but still managed to get out and make something of yourself despite the odds? Sometimes I stop and think about it and feel so lucky.

My annual subscription for Ivory is coming up. I don’t think I’m going to renew. I’m mostly on Micro.blog and Bluesky these days, and Ice Cubes seems to have Mastodon covered. That year went by quick, though.

Received word yesterday that I got approval for nearly $70k in grant funds to install 12 EV charging stations at my work.

One very simple but thoughtful thing about the new car is that the center backrest folds down. As a parent of two young kids in car seats, this is very convenient! Can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to take out…

I was cleaning out some old files and came across the software that came with my 2009 MBP. I still have the machine, too.

Well, it happened. After driving the same beat up old Subaru for 11 years, I got my very first new car at 43 years old. I bought a Tesla Model Y Long Range on Earth Day. I think my son might be more excited than I am. W…

As much as Microsoft Teams has done for remote work, its availability doesn’t entitle people to your immediate attention. I’ve noticed coworkers in other departments following up with me in a Teams chat after just 30 mi…

La nostra scimmietta. 🐵

#earthday

Kids are watching Scooby-Doo and I’m over here playing the first game video game I ever owned, at age 6.

I’ve noticed a trend recently where the older posts link on blog themes points to the right. This feels very unnatural to me. Gonna have to fix that.

Aforementioned REI grand opening. It’s crazy over here.

The largest REI in Oregon just opened yesterday, about 5 minutes from my house. This is the closest thing to Christmas for outdoorsy adults in the #PNW.

If you sign up for a service or website that celebrates anniversaries, yours will forever be 4/20 if you sign up today. 🌴

I know there are strong opinions about pineapple on pizza, but has anyone ever tried fig? Today I had my first pizza with fig on it, along with ham, Gruyère, and chèvre. Subtly sweet yet sparse enough to compliment the…

Sitting in a coffee shop next to this building, which was one of the last affordable housing developments I was involved in as a funder. The nonprofit let me name it.

Recently connected with a half-aunt that no one in my family knew existed until a DNA test. If there’s anything I’ve learned from these tests, it’s that many more families than I ever would’ve imagined have big, dark ad…

Removal of street trees in all but absolutely essential circumstances should be punishable with prison time.

Could someone explain the “buy me a coffee” thing among bloggers/tech crowd? Did this grow out of FOSS developer etiquette, or maybe people “borrowing” front-end code, or?

It is stunningly gorgeous outside today in Portland, Oregon, USA @ 67° F (19° C) / sunny. I’ve been relieved of parenting duties for a couple hours and it’s time to hit a sidewalk picnic table somewhere for a beer. Wish…

New York Times, shilling for the 1%. The Global Turn Away From Free-Market Policies Worries Economists

I’m very pro walkability/bikability, and in fact got into urban planning due to my interests in walkable communities and public transit. Still, it feels a bit strange seeing the terms “urbanism” and “urbanist” completel…

Saddened to learn of my cousin’s passing yesterday after a short but valiant battle with cancer. Although it’s only been in recent years that I have become close with her dad, I feel so much sorrow for their family losi…

Playing around with a Bluesky list of Micro.blog users I follow.

Rhine River cruises are like the pinnacle of aspirational Boomer retirement goals these days, it seems.

Awesome idea, but so help me God, if I’m your accountability partner and you wake me up more than once, we are no longer friends.

Relatable. On a scale not seen in decades, many Americans are stuck in homes they would rather leave. TheUpshot, NYtimes

At 43, I spend too much time now trying to guess if the characters in movies are older or younger than me.

Nice lunch on the waterfront in downtown Vancouver.

The start of today’s hike.

Not my doing, but love it nonetheless.

Getting tired of managing multiple fedi accounts. Shuffling the deck back to Micro.blog.

It makes me cringe whenever I hear people complain about funding essential services like schools at adequate levels when most don’t even remotely understand the impacts of their low-density neighborhood on the budgets o…

Afternoon walks this time of year.

Is there a native or easy way to transcribe an Apple voice memo?

I couldn’t help myself, I bought the domain sadmachines.social. It makes me smile, even though I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet.

An awesome #skyline shot from Opening Day in #Detroit from the #Tigers. 🐅

I want to know who the people are who click all the way through listicles that are spread across five pages for ad revenue purposes.

Nimbus reportedly involves Google establishing a secure instance of Goo…

Nimbus reportedly involves Google establishing a secure instance of Google Cloud on Israeli soil, which would allow the Israeli government to perform large-scale data analysis, AI training, database hosting, and other f…

I hate to admit it, but I might be leaning more towards Bluesky over Mastodon now that there is such deep integration with Micro.blog. Really has me rethinking everything.

All these big legged pants are giving me major flashbacks.

Photo from our neighborhood park over the weekend. This little place has become a central part of our lives and one of the best parts about where we live. There must have been at least 25 kids and their parents there, f…

Latergram from our neighborhood park over the weekend. This little place has become a central part of our lives and one of the best parts about where we live. There must have been at least 25 kids and their parents ther…

One of the worst parts about anxiety is the persistent mind reading. I know I’m not alone when I say I often have to drown out the imaginary voices I hear when I look at other people’s faces looking back at me. It’s got…

This Baked Crunch Hot Chicken recipe my wife made tonight was delicious. Instantly saved to the Mela app.

I still think we should be able to delete / detach any comments on our own micro blog posts, wherever our site may exist in the Fediverse. For me, this is easily the biggest issue with ActivityPub.

From Elderly Instruments. #eclipse2024

Figures.

I realize not wanting to do self checkout makes me a grumpy old man, but what pushes me over the edge into full-on curmudgeon territory is when a line attendant tries to redirect me there from a longer, human-powered li…

Bumming around Southwest on this rainy Saturday.

Bumming around Southwest on this rainy Saturday. #pdx

Saturday morning jam. Younger and Dumber by Indigo De Souza

At a conference today at Ilani Casino and the whole place smells like the inside of an Abercrombie and Fitch.

Of all the types of people I have trouble understanding, it’s the people who never ask questions who baffle me the most.

“Hulk and Thanos”

Went past the light rail yard yesterday on one of my walks. I’ve always been a lover of trains.

One of the downsides of having an electric range is not being able to cook tortillas directly on a gas burner. Slightly charred tortillas were a staple of my childhood growing up with my grandmother.

What is something you discovered or got into later in life (hobby, interest, activity) that brings you a lot of joy or excitement? I’ve gotten stuck in my routine and identity. I’d like to branch out and do a little sel…

I’m skipping Easter with the in-laws today for my physical and mental health. I have some guilt about it, but I’m putting it out of my mind to enjoy the peace of this beautiful day by doing some minor maintenance on my…

I’m not feeling Apple’s poor implementation of content restrictions. Not only with explicit music sliding though even when content restrictions are turned on, but also how it’s impossible to filter movies or TV shows by…

Thinking about having some work done on our house, including renovating the kitchen. I like the contemporary look of no upper cabinets, but what do people do about their glassware? Dishes look fine on a shelf, but I’m n…

If anyone knows of any excellent food blogs, I’d be gratefully if you shared the love. I’ve been experimenting a lot more with new dishes and building my recipe book. TIA!

While I’m not sold on reincarnation, heaven, or hell, I often find myself hoping that karma or judgment might come into play based on how someone treats animals.

Ever ponder the reach of pros' blogs vs. TikTok, Instagram and YouTube stories on the same topics? Millions view the latter. Is the goal spreading ideas or writing for its own sake?

“California is a state that looks like a sock.” -my kid

I guess Zoomers are calling VCRs “VHS Players”. There are entire debates going on about this on Instagram like VCR has been Inceptioned. VHS tapes, yes. VHS player? Never.

My second story got up to 85° today in Portland and opening windows didn’t budge the temp. I’m a little ashamed to say I turned on the AC on March 18th to cool down my office. I can’t focus when I’m sweating.

The sidewalks never stood a chance.

You might have ADHD if stimulants make you sleepy. I’ve been sleeping so much better since being more consistent in taking them.

Mela is straight up the best iOS app I’ve found in years. It’s changed my meal planning and eating habits. The only thing that could possibly make it better is if its grocery lists somehow integrated directly with groce…

Dealing with Tough Family Stuff

My little mischief makers started the day with a giggle takeover!

My car is 13 years old and recently turned over 150,000 miles. I got it…

My car is 13 years old and recently turned over 150,000 miles. I got it used in 2013 with 55k miles on it, so I’ve done fewer than 10k miles per year, including several cross-country trips. It’s been a great car with ve…

No one told me T/Gel was discontinued 😑

Made this homemade pot pie recipe tonight for dinner, with some modifications. Mine of course didn’t look this beautiful, but it was a hit nonetheless! https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/one-skillet-rotisserie-chicken-po…

The world has changed and our children no longer smell of smoke. writings.bryan.lv

Continuing to struggle with my weight. writings.bryan.lv

I guess she likes Future Islands.

The zeitgeist of the last half century would have us believe that Elvis was a morbidly obese man near the end of his life. Some so-called sources claim he was 350 lbs. Ain’t no way. This is a photo from his last perform…

The barber gave me a senior discount today, and while I can appreciate that their heart was in the right place, I’ll be at happy hour after work if anybody needs me.

Clem Snide/Great Lake Swimmers at Wonder Ballroom, Tim & Sarah’s baby shower, pizza & beer with Sharayah’s cousins at Old Town Brewing, and an early bday celebration for LaVonna. Busy but nice weekend! Now if spring cou…

Arapahoe Basin, CO. 2012. #tbt

Proud of myself for getting up at 6:00 today and heading straight for the treadmill before the kids woke up. I’m not a morning person, but I’ve been sleeping better with exercise. I’ve had a good streak going in Februar…

Four weeks after New Year’s and I nearly had the place to myself.

While I’ve been doing a decent job of meal planning and trying out new recipes, I think much of the time I’d be happier just eating a bowl of cereal or having a sandwich.

Hey @maique, happy anniversary! Beautiful couple. Apparently we got married within a few weeks of each other because this month also marks 6 years married to my best friend (Feb 10).

I had a very writing and editing-heavy day at work. I started making dinner early, which took about an hour, and then played outside with the kids and roughhoused for 45 minutes. This somewhat shockingly only got me to…

Weekend getaway at the coast.

Moonrise on the Oregon Coast and a few moments of peace while walking the dog last night before settling in with the kids.

Perfection

Sticking with our yearly tradition that we started in 2016 of going to the coast the week of my birthday. Fingers crossed for some decent weather, but in all likelihood we’ll be at the pool!

I was between site visits today and lucky enough to have a few moments to spare, so I stopped at one of my favorite little pull-offs where I used to sometimes stop to eat my sack lunch. A lovely day, and grateful for wh…

Seeing the crazy drop off and pick up line at our neighborhood elementary school makes me so grateful that we live less than a half a mile away.

When your organization requires you to take a 12 week leadership course but the only time you have to do it during the day is typically your lunch break while on the treadmill.

We were a little matchy on our walk and I thought it was cute.

Out for an evening stroll.

Test drove a Model Y today (my birthday) and this was my first time seeing a Cybertruck in person. Honestly a bit smaller than I expected by the photos I’d seen.

Sometimes I look at my daughter and she looks a bit like my brother did when he was a kid. Wish he could’ve met her.

Any ideas as to what would cause iOS Safari to very regularly do this after a page has already fully loaded? I search for a page, click it, it loads, then moments later it reloads to a screen like this. No extensions ar…

Love being a dad, but one of the most difficult things for me having little kids is not being able to talk with my wife without some sort of constant interruption. Every time I open my mouth to speak, there’s a kid yell…

I must be a masochist, I woke up at 5:45 to book a campsite at the coast on a weekend in mid-August before they evaporated.

They say success in life is 80% showing up. For a person with anxiety, that’s exhausting. It means constantly mustering emotional energy to be braver than you are naturally capable of being, every day.

This weekend I booked a beautiful rental in Venice and started looking at places in the Dolomites. It’s starting to feel more real and I’m getting excited for my first real trip abroad since 2007. Hopefully the first of…

Annette disappeared and we found her sitting in the dining room by herself 😂

Fun in Olympia today on our 6th anniversary.

I’m at the age where my back cracks whenever I sneeze.

You’ll have bad times, but it’ll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to. - Good Will Hunting Taking a moment to recognize this time in my life as “the good stuff” and to pay attention.

I know it’s a necessary evil sometimes, but it’s really frustrating when you pay for a premium app that goes from a pay-once and done to a subscription model, and then they continue to hound you to join the subscription…

I haven’t watched the Grammies in probably 2 decades. Even as a musician, I couldn’t possibly care less.

Taking a training today so I can evaluate buildings for safety after a Cascadia Subduction Zone quake.

I’ve had less to say lately.

We took our restless animals to a farm and soaked up the sunshine.

2 years and 3 months after ordering it, my Italian ‘social security’ card arrives. 🤣

I’ve visited a couple of times, but I just don’t get why Austin continues to explode. Good food and music would not be enough. Crazy heat and a climate set to make it worse, awful state politics, sprawled out suburban d…

Feeling pretty burnt out lately. writings.bryan.lv

Almost spent $1000 on 7th row Mitski tickets but fought hard against my ADHD impulse control demons. It’s the small wins.

What I’d love is to have my own personal start page on the web. I plug in the services I already use and love, and there’s little widgets giving me updates. Bands in Town, Meet Ups, Things To-Dos, meal planning, reading…

Anyone seen the price of Disney World lately? Honestly think our trip to Italy will be cheaper.

Can’t believe we have a 5 year old.

Pampering myself with the tanning booth and massage chairs at Planet Fitness 🤣 it’s the only reason I haven’t cancelled.

The marriage problem-solving flow chart: Husband expresses a feeling about wife’s actions and how it could be resolved -—-> wife deflects, listing 10 things wrong with husband —-> husband apologizes —-> peace is restored

My oldest turns five tomorrow. It’s hit me hard that he’s going to be in kindergarten this year and I’m having all those normal, uncomfortable feelings wrapped up with hopes for him to have a good experience and that we…

After last week’s weather, today’s sunshine and warmer temps were very much welcomed.

The cuter my kids get, the more people say they look like their mom 🤔🤣

Our first Amazon delivery from a Rivian electric cargo van.

How is Canon’s wireless photo transfer software so bad?

Lions! 🦁 🏈

We grew some crystals this week and unveiled one tonight. He’s pretty excited about it.

We are thawing and the sun is shining, but here’s a photo of the pup from a few days ago. She’s 7 now and is slowing down a bit, but still has some spunk. 🐕‍🦺

I’m a glutton for punishment. I put together a Wordpress site focused on my blog posts vs microblogging posts. I used the Shoreditch theme with font inspiration from Atilla on Ghost. Thinking about starting there for lo…

I don’t care what someone’s politics are, making negative comments about their body is so cringe.

Just realized that yesterday morning I clipped the fingernails on my left hand and then didn’t finish the job on the right.

One of the coolest things about learning Italian is seeing all the Latin rooted words and how they’ve influenced English words and their cognates or synonyms. For example, the Italian word for “window” is “finestra”. Fr…

Difficult to think about gardening too much given the weather lately, but we’re really only a few weeks out from seeding indoors. So, I put in my order last night through Territorial Seed Co. Picked up a few varieties I…

That’s a wrap! Another day on the hedonic treadmill comes to a close.

“Hey Siri, how might Michael Foucault approach the term “urbanist” as a discursive object?”

Given the development patterns that emerged in the U.S. after G.I.’s returned home from WWII flush with cash, I often ask myself: did we really win?

Shout out to all your coworkers who are wrangling little kids and still working remotely during these storms. They’re barely hanging on but still keeping your shit running. Also shout out to libraries. Today’s work is s…

A coating of ice on everything. I’ll be staying here today, if anyone needs me. #pdx

On some of these dark and cooped up winter nights, I have too much time with my thoughts and memories. Tonight I was feeling nostalgic for the places I used to live, even though I know I’m better off with where I’m at n…

Signed up for a 3-week language class at PCC and the first two classes are cancelled due to weather.

Another snow day.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way include my kids' grandparents in my POSSE adventures since I will never pry Facebook from their hands. Every time I leave the site, I invariably get complaints about them wanting upd…

Our silly girl

Did I mention we went sledding yesterday?

Word of caution: if you show up at my house unannounced on a holiday weekend, you may find me still in my underwear before 10.

I was 9 years old the last time the Lions won a playoff game. 🏈

One of my favorite accounts on Instagram is Zillow Gone Wild. It’s a great study in the American mind.

After a 25 year hiatus, I’m thinking about getting back into hacky sack.

Learning about custom routing and collections in Ghost. I’m thinking this might be the key to hosting two blogs at one address (micro and otherwise) while keeping their content separate.

Got our wish

Offloaded my new planning blog from a subdomain to its own domain. Hoping I didn’t break too much in the process.

I need to research easy-to-use (and free/affordable) data visualization tools for web publications, particularly map data. Looking like maybe Leaflet with Mapbox.

Today is my daughter’s 2nd birthday. It’s been a fun-filled year, and a joy watching her grow and explore the world! Happy birthday, little one!

Had some fast food for lunch today and the sesame seeds reminded me of this bit by Mitch Hedberg: youtu.be/F8kmeCAd4…

Tech companies who use two-factor e-mail verifications where the numbers are visible directly from mobile banner notifications are doing god’s work. Few things are as unnecessarily annoying as having to click over to op…

Couldn’t stand the guy or his cult, but I’ll concede Reagan got one thing right: ~If you’re explaining, you’re losing.

Currently experiencing the complete meltdown of the Fred Meyer curbside grocery pickup system. Been here almost 2 hours waiting on a pickup that was already an hour delayed.

My boss signed me up for this leadership development program over the next 3 months, and although I appreciate the content, it has filled my plate beyond capacity. Crazy week and I’m ready for a snow day.

I let the floor go while I was trying to keep the ship running the last few days. Cooking, laundry, dishes, homework, regular work, walking the dog, keeping the kids entertained, baths, etc. The floor is always the thin…

Lego has become fun now that he can do so much more himself.

We had some wind last night and it knocked out our electricity at aroun…

We had some wind last night and it knocked out our electricity at around 1 a.m. My son was already sleeping in our bed, but my daughter woke up screaming bloody murder and wouldn’t go back to sleep, so I had to bring he…

Raising kids on the U.S. west coast sure has a way of making even a so-called ‘comfortable’ household’s budget feel pinched. I look around and wonder how others seem to be living so much better.

Veggie chili tonight, accompanied by Chelsea, Michigan’s finest. #jiffy #michigan

This morning, I accidentally bumped my HomePod while cleaning off the d…

This morning, I accidentally bumped my HomePod while cleaning off the desk and some music started. Land Locked Blues by Bright Eyes came on, from his 2005 album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. It’s making me nostalgic. Th…

Booked a spot at a State campground…for a weekend in July. Pretty wild that this is how things work.

After dropping my wife off at the airport this morning: “Mom’s going to California, which means we can do whatever we want, sister!”

Last night we went to Hapa Pizza in downtown Beaverton. They have been included in several recent articles as a top pizza parlor in the region, so we decided to give it a try. Their Asian inspired pies are unique and ta…

An old photo of us on NYE, when my wife and I first started dating. Time flies.

The thing that makes me nervous about Apple’s Journal app is that there’s no apparent way to get the stuff you put in there, out. I’m sure I’m missing something, but from the app itself, it’s definitely not obvious. Are…

I realized recently that 2024 marks 20 years since I got my Gmail account. It was invite-only back then and I broke Google policy by buying an invite off eBay for something like $15. I can’t even fathom how many emails…

Spending half my time on Micro.blog unfollowing mastodon accounts. And won’t ever be able to get my Micro.blog followers back here that I migrated away. Wish I would’ve known the implications of my migrations before I m…

A quote I’ve always remembered from an old coworker: With average effort comes average results. With extraordinary effort comes extraordinary results.

This week, we started going back to 100% analog books at bedtime for th…

This week, we started going back to 100% analog books at bedtime for the boy and I feel good about it. He’s almost 5, and we’ve read to him nearly every night of his life since before he was able to understand what was…

Currently reading: The Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans 📚

Working from home today and my dog keeps bugging me to go for a walk. It’s pretty cold and wet outside and I just want to stay warm and dry in my hoodie. I’ll probably relent, but I wish we had an indoor dog park nearby…

Getting back into RSS feeds after discovering NetNewsWire. Reading the developers’ blog post, Brent Simmons responds to questions about whether the app should support Mastodon. Personally, I’d be happy with just the abi…

At brunch this morning: “What did you get, dad?” “Biscuits and gravy.” “But where are the biscuits?” “Oh, they’re in there. Somewhere.”

#holdup

Decluttered a bit this past weekend after Christmas filled our house with too many things. On the highest shelf of my bedroom closet is where I’ve kept my brother’s ashes for almost 3 years. I can’t bring myself to part…

Happy New Year to all. Wishing you inspiration in 2024.