2024

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.

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 welcome to the Big Ten! #football #ducks #spartans #oregon #msu

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 🤣

September

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.

August

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…

July

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.