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](https://bryans.life/2024/06/30/minutes-of-a.html)

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 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, and vacuumed my car. I picked up the backyard a little bit and blew the leaves off the deck.

S’s dad came for a visit today, who was in town for work. It’s been nice having him swing through more often the last year or so, but sometimes the heads-up is short, and there’s a lot to do to make the place presentable. S worked her butt off yesterday and today getting the place cleaned up. We try to keep up on it, but having to little kids makes it difficult.

After grandpa showed up, we took the kids to the nature park and went for a couple mile walk through the woods. They were wild, but I think they had fun. It was warming up, but the dense canopy kept up cool.


I had prepped some BBQ before we left and put it on the grill, but it still needed a few more hours to cook after we got back. The family watched a kids’ movie for a bit while I went upstairs and messed around with my blog. The ribs turned out pretty good! We rounded out the meal with some mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.

This evening we folded laundry while the kids took baths. It rained tonight, which is kind of strange for this time of year in the Northwest. June has been strange in general. My garden seems to be loving it, though, and thankfully for that given the issues I’ve had with the drip irrigation recently.

Tomorrow we’re taking the kids to some park on the Willamette, meeting up with some friends to go paddle boarding. I’m considering brining the canoe. It’s supposed to be cloudy but there’s no rain in the forecast yet. I’m sure the kids will enjoy it.

Considering putting my big in scouts this year and of course I ended up on an Etsy page for alternative merit badges. [Link](https://www.etsy.com/listing/260254921/alternative-scouting-for-girls-and-boys)

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 signature, key. Maybe even by characteristics of the musicians themselves.

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 with an embed while Micro.blog handles the static site, cross posting and comments.

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 kind of time?

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 the same organization for almost a decade. So many life changes in that time.

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 like your friendships are not as strong as they used to be, you’ll feel empowered and encouraged by the time you finish listening. 

— How to Build Close Friendships & Get Rid of Loneliness

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](https://youtu.be/5zVtMA813zU?si=MLx4s-76l1I5nTj2). Pretty excited about this.

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