Open Thread #Potato
Seems like it’s a good time for an open thread. I cannot remember what number we’re up to, so it’s “Potato”. I just had french fries for lunch and ate the longest french fry I have ever seen.1 I should have taken a photo, but I was in consumption mode and not attention mode. My apologies for the oversight.
Anyhoo, I’ve been working on the site a lot this week (did you see Prometheus?)2 and have some cool stuff coming up. But I need to take a tiny step back to do some life admin and email3 today, so the site will be a little slower than usual. A fall summer Friday, if you will.
What’s going on in your world? I know the onset of dark & cold in the northern hemisphere makes life challenging for some of you this time of year; I hope you’re hanging in there. I’ve been thinking about what home means, taking long baths, walking a lot, and reading three books, listening to one book, and watching two TV shows, trying to keep everything straight.
And here’s a couple of photos I took of some really cool engravings on a sword at the Tokyo National Museum.
How many individual french fries do you think you’ve seen/eaten in your life? 10,000? 100,000? 1M? (This is a good Fermi problem.) ↩
Oh, and have you noticed that typos have been much better recently? I built a spellchecker for my post editor, so I’ve been able to more easily spot them. (Cue incident of Muphry’s Law in this post…) ↩
If you’ve emailed me in the past ~3-4 months and have not gotten a reply, I apologize. I have been preoccupied with other things (moving, Tokyo, website) and my inbox has become a nightmare (I’m getting 10-20 additional emails per day with people writing in with their new projects, most of them written by AI (You posted X so I thought I’d send you Y. I’m proud of this project. Free, no signup, no tracking, no ads. Etc. Etc.) It’s like spam but sort of not?) I’ve been largely ignoring it and it’s time I get more of a handle on it. ↩
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As I write this, I'm riding on the Southwest Chief train. Chicago to LA and points south of there. We love riding the train! We have a roomette but next time I'm going to spring for the actual room!
I was going to send you an e-mail about an exciting opportunity but reading about your backlog I'll just post it here. And, hey, this isn't just for Jason, ANYBODY can get in on the ground floor of this iron-clad sure thing!
I saw some carvings myself recently; the paleolithic open-air rock carvings in Portugal’s Coa valley. Access is by guided tour only, which is excellent, since many of the guides are the same folks who instrumental in saving the site back in the 1990s. (The story of local teenagers in this rural town teaming up with archeologists to stop a massive dam project and secure the fastest creation of a UNESCO World Heritage designation in history is an all-timer. Dramatic reveals, political gambits, bespoke rap songs, etc. Highly recommended inspiration for our bleak moment.)
Anyway, coming face to face with art made 26,000 thousand years ago made me burst into tears of awe.
This is SO wholesome and inspiring. I love how this and the caves in Lascaux were both shared with the world thanks to teenagers!
I don't know how many french fries I've seen/eaten in my lifetime. But now I'm wondering if I should start eating them in the dark, just to get the ratio closer to 1.
I'm adopting two cats. Still no closer to finding much meaningful paying work. Hate to be such a downer, it seems to be a trend amongst my creative friends. Its so hard to see any positive to AI when the revolution relies on crushing peoples livelihoods. Anyways, cute cat pics.
Sorry to hear re: work. Those kitties are sure cute. Settled on names?
Marx and Engles
It's never too early to ask for breakfast, er, seize the means of production!
Tuxedo brothers are the best ❤️
I pivoted from 25+ years in broadcast animation to teaching digital art in high school. They pay me for my years of experience. It ain't easy, but its never not interesting.
There’s been some stressful events recently and my coping strategy is to work on a jigsaw puzzle. It’s like comfort food for leisure time.
For anyone looking for a quick recalibration, Liz Neeley (of Unbreaking, and a million other Good Things) recommended this game the other week, and I have played it every day since. Like between zooms or while the kettle boils. The perfect no-screen reset, and can be solo or played with others
I have a copy, maybe I should break it out of the shrink wrap!
I estimate that I have eaten 25,000 French fries in my life. An average of one serving a month (more frequently when I was younger but much less so in recent years), for 67.5 years, and an average of 30 fries per serving. I’m probably underestimating but even if I’m not, that’s a lot of fatsticks.
Nervous about Arc Browser shutting down. Will try out Dia, Zen, and Yab, see if anything comes close. There’s another one called Radiant I think. Hoping for a smooth transition. Can’t believe they didn’t just open-source Arc…
I'm pretty happy with Dia. I switched back to Safari when Arc stopped at the same time I started a new job, but I returned to Dia after I realized how much I liked The Browser Co.'s browsing philosophy. I don't remember everything I did with Arc because I took that break from it, but I'm very satisfied with Dia.
My big endorsement is for Zen. I switched when the Browser Company got their big acquisition and shut down development on Arc. I find that Zen has captured almost everything I liked about Arc, plus it’s built on top of Firefox, which seems better for privacy and also enables a killer feature for anyone with multiple Google accounts for different projects/jobs: you can set each space to be logged into different accounts. For many people this probably doesn’t matter at all, but for me, it has solved a key pain point in browsing.
Getting into the garden again this weekend. Have some serviceberries and an azalea native to the region to plant. Here's one of the turtles that live in our garden, we've been seeing him for about 8 years.
You can see some debris on the edge of his shell. They are really good diggers.
Time to name him if you haven’t already!
This is Big Guy! Others include Pretty Boy, iTurtle, Exclamation Point, and Survivor (below)
Survivor has an impressive scar and offset dorsal plates. She either had a congenital abnormally or survived a serious injury when she was very small.
Returning to Taoism after a long hiatus. I challenged myself to meditate everyday this year and have not missed a day yet. So, I'm currently looking at the differences between Buddhist meditation and Taoist meditation. There's not much of a difference, but I wanted to explore some other thoughts on the topic.
Currently, I'm reading Jonathan Star's translation of the Tao Te Ching, but if anyone has recommendations, I'm all ears.
How is your meditation practice going?
I have only ever read Ursula K. Le Guin’s version, so I don’t know how it compares to others, but it’s as careful and thoughtful as the rest of her work.
It's going really well. I started off with shorter duration and different times of day, but I now sit for 30 minutes a day at then end of my day. I also started journaling. I think I've hit the sweet spot.
That's great to hear. I've worked up to 7 minutes once a day but I think I'd feel better if I did more.
Sometimes, life gets busy and I have to sit for shorter periods, but I believe that any time to sit and find some quite is time well-spent. Best of luck with your practice!
Seconding this endorsement of the Le Guin translation — I’ve read a handful of other translations, but this is the one that I keep coming back to. I love her sparse commentary, and the renderings of each poem are at once poetic and also clearly the product of both decades of meditation on the text and intense collaboration with an academic translator.
We’re transitioning to true fall here in our house. Our youngest finished a challenging soccer season, and is glad to be able to dial down the stress and enjoy the mild weather. Our oldest is riding the waves of the working world, and thankful she is working even though it’s not a very inspiring job. Our middle is pushing through college midterms. Double-majoring in English and Japanese studies is no joke.
We keep plugging away. With work, Pika is still growing, but I’d like it to grow a tad more per month. Let’s go potential bloggers, get off the socials! We’re finding that we’re at an age where we may finally need to 100% buckle down on our nutrition and exercise habits. No more vacillating between good behavior and bad. At least that’s what the annual checkup test results are telling us. How to make permanent change?
I am starting a new job in a week so I am taking the opportunity to get my mind and house as ready as possible — making breakfasts and lunches to freeze, painting a wall in the basement I have been putting off for months, consigning old clothes and thrifting new ones, etc. It’s the first full-time job I have had in two years and the first 9-5 in-an-office job that I have had in ten. It’s not my dream job by a long shot, but I keep reminding myself that it’s my first position in an entirely new field (mid-life career changer) and I have to start somewhere.
P.S. If anyone is interested in recipes for freezer breakfasts and lunches that microwave well, I’m happy to share!
Congratulations on the new position!
We're having a lot of trouble eating enough veggies, so those recipes could be helpful.
What is your mid-life career change?? My husband is contemplating one himself, so I'm finding stories of these inspiring.
I would love to learn more. I am also strongly contemplating a major career pivot and finding it very overwhelming. Where do I even start? What’s it like on the other side? I’d love to hear your advice and lessons learned…
Ooof, not sure I can distill the experience of a career change into something that's useful to others while I'm still pretty deep in it, but I'll try! Sorry in advance for being long-winded.
I worked in education for 12 years in a few different roles, and was unhappy the entire time. It took me a while to admit that to myself; the work was very aligned with my values, and I invested so much time (including a graduate degree) into developing my knowledge, skills, and connections in the field. I spent a long time—years!—in the "I'm miserable in my job, but I have no idea if there's anything out there I would like more that would also pay me enough" place. I secretly worried that if I switched careers, I might discover after all that time and energy, I'm actually just a person who doesn't like to work.
The years passed, I got progressively more miserable at my job, and eventually I started to think actively about leaving the field altogether. Part of the thinking process was talking to my friends and family about their work and how they feel about it. One especially helpful conversation was actually with Jason, my good friend and proprietor of this very website, where he patiently explained that it's possible to feel stressed by the day-to-day work of your job and still deeply love what you do. I remember feeling reassured by this idea but also a little bit jealous—why couldn't I have discovered my passion in my early 20s?
I eventually came up with a list of things that I wanted in a new career: solid pay, aligned with my values, intellectually engaging, few deadlines, done in person and primarily one-on-one. I qualified for career counseling through the state and took advantage of it (many states have free career services for folks with disabilities that impact their work, including anxiety and depression, so look into that if it applies). They basically give you a number of questionnaires that help you understand your interests, work styles, etc. They also knew about funding options for different local programs.
I ultimately decided I wanted to go back to school for clinical counseling, in part because the state was offering loan forgiveness for people who promised to stay local and be therapists. I quit my job and started graduate program at 39. It was a huge risk financially, and honestly one that I may not fully recover from for several decades, as the state funding dried up almost immediately and I unexpectedly ended up having to take out loans. I was able to save a bit before leaving my last job, but I still had to work as a nanny throughout my program, rent out a room in my house to help pay the mortgage, and apply for state assistance for food and heating (don't get me started on the insane rules around SNAP benefits for full-students). I'm lucky that I was in a program where a handful of other students were also career-changers so I didn't feel so out of place, but it was still very weird to be sitting in a graduate school class with people whose high school graduations got cancelled because of COVID.
I finished my program two months ago, a few weeks before turning 41.It has been weird to apply for entry-level jobs that don't care at all that I now have two master's degrees and years of life experience. The job I am starting soon pays 25k less than I made in my last job. Those things really suck.
BUT, last year I had my internship placement in a mental health center and I absolutely loved it. It checked all of my career requirement boxes, and while it definitely stressed me out I also couldn't wait to go in every day. The work is a really good fit for me. I'm hopeful that in five years I can move into private practice, where the money is better and there's more flexibility.
tldr: switching careers is really hard, mostly financially in my case, but I'm glad I did it.
All of these recipes can be made in large batches, freeze well in individual portions, and aren't negatively affected by microwaving to reheat. They are not really the pinnacle of culinary achievement, but they're easy and flexible enough to change around ingredients to your preference.
Breakfasts
I have been on a savory kick recently and want something warm in the morning.
Lunches/Dinners
I make all of these in large batches and then put servings into individual pint-sized, wide-mouth mason jars. You can get plastic lids for them if you don't want to have to deal with the original metal lids. Be sure to get wide-mouth ones because the narrow-mouth ones apparently can break during freezing.
I've been re-reading belonging: a culture of place by bell hooks, which is perhaps the most profound writing I've encountered on the topic of place and home. I'm finding that every book I consider a "personal bible" has this thru-line. I feel firmly at home, but the searching / meaning aspects fascinate me and I don't think I'll ever lose interest in this topic. So please share any recs. Another book I found on the topic is Secrets of the Universe: Scenes from the Journey Home by Scott Russell Sanders. I've been reading a bit of these morning and night. Other than that, I'm finishing up my ballot, catching up on movies, walking, cooking, practicing yoga, writing more, spending time with my family and intimates, and trying to chip away at passion projects / plan for next year. Lately jobby work has filled my brain with noise, and that delicate balance between client stuff versus creative stuff has been jostled. Reading seems like the most graceful way back in. (As opposed to getting angry, wallowing, thrashing about in my mind, etc.)
Oooh, saw this and it sounded like a must read. My large-ish city library doesn't have it, though -- will see if I can get through the university.
I was at The Photographer's Gallery in London a couple days ago for the new William Eggleston exhibition. Great to see his original dye transfer prints in person. I'm sure most people know him or certainly have seen one of his most iconic images (above). Dye transfer printing is also interesting and saw its demise around 1994 when Kodak stopped manufacturing a number of materials that the process depended upon. Recommended if you're in the UK or visiting, it runs till the end of Feb 2027.
Those prints are so beautiful—the big show at the Whitney ~20 years ago was amazing.
The William Eggelston documentary is great, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Eggleston_in_the_Real_World
I didn't make it to that sadly, this is much smaller from what I read of it. I'll do France, Germany and Amsterdam for certain exhibitions outside the UK but the Whitney is somewhere I'd like to visit post-2028. Agree on the documentary. Same but different, new Avedon documentary by Ron Howard on Netflix, coming out in a couple of weeks should be interesting while we're talking American masters.
I'm taking my first work trip in four years - to London. I live on the West Coast,. so it's a bit of a lift. That said, I love London and am going to take an extra day to just knock around, go for a run in Hyde Park, and see one or two things before having dinner with an old friend who just moved there.
When I was younger I was jealous of the people I knew who did business travel constantly. Then, about fifteen years ago I started to travel quite a bit, and realized that business travel can be awful and draining. This one seems to be about right.
That and...Halloween! We upgraded our purple lights with cornstalks, so we now have SPOOKY CORN.
London is great. It feels like the future and is full of the bones of the past.
I love running in Hyde Park. Hopefully, the weather works out!
Enjoying the cooler fall temps (finally) and transitioning from the busy soccer season (son's college season is done this week or next, daughters' in mid-Nov) to a more chill late fall to winter. Trying to get our daily walks in after dinner but before the light fades.
First college visit for our junior, man I love college campuses. I wish I could go back. Or create that atmosphere for 50/60 year olds. Seeing my kids grow and make life changes makes me want to do something new.
It is named "Spud" so it makes sense to post it here:
Back in the summer, scientists moved closer to creating life. Now the cells can almost self-replicate; the good news is that NOTHING could possibly go wrong as long as cell like these never escape the lab.
Not sure any of us signed up for this, but science marches forward without asking our permission.
https://www.science.org/content/article/lab-created-spudcell-marks-major-step-toward-building-life-scratch
I started roasting potatoes in a foil pouch with some garlic and olive oil instead of boiling them before mashing. It's astounding.
Winter is upon us in the far north. Snow is on the ground and we had single digit temperatures this morning.
My partner is a wildland firefighter, and her season finally came to a close for the year. Even though the dark and cold can be pretty overwhelming, I always enjoy this time of year because we get to be home together and be lazy and do our important winter projects like smoking salmon, baking bread, and sleeping in.
Excited today to be listening to the 3rd (and final) Olivia Tremor Control album. RIP Bill and Will. What a wonderful band, and a special moment.
The Stakes is High 30th anniversary release is today also. It all takes me back in time, and pushes forward. Watching Twin Peaks with my high schooler... the 90s are alive and well right here.
Personally, I've been upgrading my wood shop so I can pretend I'm not working in a dusty, musty and dark old basement. Almost works sometimes. It's so wonderful to make things.
The new old Stevie Wonder is a treasure, and this here (https://archive.bigthief.net) is too.
Jason I'm incredibly jealous of your Tokyo trip, and so happy for you.
Hope everyone can find brightness in the darkening season 🌞
What things are you making in your shop?
Lots of 90s & 2000s in my headphones these days too. I’m working on a playlist of my 50 absolute favorite songs (I’m turning 50 soon) and I’m also uploading old Mix CDs I made in the mid-2000s. All that nostalgia is here: https://www.mixcloud.com/leonbarnard/playlists/leons-spectrum-mixtapes/ and https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0DNe7eRgRZsOXxMh4JOsxn?si=HNXJddVuQUiWcEBOsFdewA&utm_source=copy-link&pi=jBAsqyNNRJqGk
I'm at the beginning of a journey that seems to be leading to an ADHD diagnosis for my first grader. While I have some feelings to work through, two things are standing out:
1) I feel so lucky that he's at the school he is, with the teachers he has, who have kindly led us to this process as a proactive way of helping a kid who loves school but has started to have some negative self talk and feelings of shame
2) Everything I read online about ADHD in kids is like, "you may find that medication is important but the MOST important thing is for you, Parent, to learn about your child and let go of unnecessary expectations. Like maybe get yourself some therapy, Parent. Chill out." Which I'm trying to take to heart
As someone who wasn’t diagnosed until college, that second one is so key. Having a neurospicy brain doesn’t mean you are bad or stupid or wrong, butboy will the world want to convince you both of that sometimes because doing things differently will highlight problems you didn’t make but you are now the litmus test for everyone seeing it and they wish you wouldn’t. Sending big hugs!
I am SO glad you're at a helpful school. My child's grades started suffering when she got to the upper elementary grades despite loving school. Her teachers kept telling us she didn't have an issue, it was just a lack of focus. (I gather this is common in girls.) Finally, in her last year of elementary, her English tutor pointed out her hyperfixations, and we insisted on testing that the school wouldn't cover. And many things finally made sense.
We had to let go of some expectations, for sure, but also don't believe everything the psychologist tells you. We had an older guy, close to retirement, who told us that while she was clearly intelligent we should expect that she might not graduate high school (this with, according to him, mild ADHD and a mild reading comprehension disorder). Yeah, well, she's about to graduate from a competitive high school and is taking AP English. Trust your kid and your instincts.
A shout out to everyone here whose profile includes a link to a site. So many folks here doing cool/remarkable/impressive work.
"Funemployed" in the Bay Area. Been carrying my camera around the hills to amuse myself. Taking care of neighbors’ dogs from time to time too. This is Buster the Emo Pug (actually Kobi's tail).
Two potato related things:
I'm not a big Oasis fan, but I remember the good old days when the less talkative Gallagher brother used to respond to the other one's online trolling with the one word reply: Potato
I also thought of the trademark sound that Harley Davidson's make, which is known as Potato-Potato
I've started knitting and while that is wonderful, it has been surprisingly emotional - it brought up growing up without people kindly and patiently showing me how to do stuff, so now I feel so distraught whenever stuff goes wrong, as it inevitably does. Along the lines of what Jason recently said: wherever you go, there you are - apparently, this holds true in knitting, too. I'll work through it with YouTube and persistence, I know, but I did not anticipate this fun new hobby thing to involve quite so much crying.
(this is the yarn for my first project, a scarf)
Last game of the soccer season for my Kindergartener. It's been so fun being coach for them, watching the little guys really improve this season rather than just learn the rules. They are now actually playing like a team and trying to pass and work on their strengths. Today I need to come up with a few last nicknames to give them so each kids walks away with something that reflects their importance to the team.
Also, I didn't realize how easy it is to find fossils, but my son found a book about local fossils hunting and we're heading to the shores of Lake Michigan to find rocks-that-were-once-living-things.
My 19-year-old woke me up at 5am last week to remind me about a great Brian Wilson/Don Henley story, as one does. As it's told, Don Henley was a huge fan of Brian Wilson and asked him for his autograph. Wilson obliged and wrote, "Don - thanks for all the great songs. Brian Wilson" and handed it back. As Henley walked away, Wilson called him over, asked for the autograph back, crossed out "great" and replaced it with "good".
That was the day Don Henley died.
How are the fries in Tokyo? 🤔
Fantastic book about potatoes, Potato (Object Lessons), by Rebecca Earle. A very introspective, sociological, quirky history of the potato, from the Andes to europe to China and back again, through art critique and economic revolution. The potato is everywhere now, and how and why it got there is fascinating. Exactly the sort of thing anyone here at Jason's blog would enjoy. (the rest of the Object Lessons series is great, too)
When I was producing popup dinners, I wanted to do one called "I Never Met A Potato I Didn't Like" where every course was potato based. I even tested a roasted potato ice cream. But alas, it never happened. I still think about doing it as a big dinner party.
FWIW.. I'm researching Escoffier's potato dishes and trying to produce some of them.
Please do this. Potato waffles with ice cream would also be an excellent finisher
As of this minute I'm hoping a recent job interview will hopefully turn into something with pay + benefits. Earlier today I used VoteMate.io (where I am an advisor) to navigate my ballot and help my family figure out what *they* value most. It's been deeply satisfying to work on something nonpartisan to support all voters, and then be able to actually benefit from it myself, too!
In a different vein, I'm just getting back from speaking at the memorial of my college roommate and best friend of 36 years. Heartfelt appreciation to Jason for this post https://kottke.org/14/06/how-to-give-a-eulogy, which 100% informed how I approached this solemn and deeply meaningful task. I can echo: I spoke to the front row, made people laugh (dad jokes but jokes anyway), and remembered the lucky privilege of being able to speak about this loved person.
Lastly, the "# Potato" count (good giggle from that btw) reminded me of some of author Sir Terry Pratchett's characters counting "One, two, many, lots".
It being fall, I have taken to grabbing a sweet potato every time I go to Whole Foods to make a quick lunch in the air-fryer.
Potatoes baking in the oven right this minute.
… or “spuds” as a friend from Montana calls them.
My grandfather was a potato broker with his brother (Stout Brothers on Hudson St. in Manhattan). He walked to work every day from their apartment on West Ninth St. He kept a journal (one page every day) and I love reading about the biz - good days, bad days, colorful characters (plus domestic life in NYC in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s). He would drive up to Maine and visit the farmers. I love having this and also LOVE potatoes in any form.
My mom worked in Manhattan for a bit in a building that did casting for kids. She tells of coming down a hall with rows of chairs and kids practicing their line: “Crispy on the outside - and soft on the inside” which I think is the secret to so many delectable foods.
Lots of day job work. A problem with a competitor is leading to a windfall for us that is overwhelming and everyone is exhausted at the end of every day. Still, Its a good problem to have and I think it is unifying my team even more than they already were. Plus, I have a returning coworker to let them know about which will be a great boost in all possible ways for us. Otherwise.. finishing a bathroom renovation, appreciating the beautiful autumn weather we've had and celebrating a birthday tomorrow. 55, woah! Someone said something similar above but it is absolutely lock-in time for mental and physical well being along with diet and exercise. Can no longer get away with what I once could. Finally, and importantly, going to vote in a few days like everyone's future depends upon it because it does!
Happy Birthday! And congrats on making those long days count. Good on ya!
Trying to keep finding the positive in a week...month...year that has been chaotic and a downer on most fronts. (Family health issues, merger at work that has drawn out into a year of uncertainty, kid applying to universities, etc.)
But! I voted in three elections over the past two weeks, and in one of them (city) there was a major change for the better. (We will see about the province tomorrow.) I mailed my U.S. ballot when I was at my dad's two weeks ago, and fingers crossed it will get there / be counted.
I have some vacation I have to burn and so I'm going to take a solo trip in a few weeks. I've also figured out a spring break trip for next year while my kid is away on a school trip. It's nice to have travel to look forward to.
And today is a beautiful fall day, here in the Northwest, so I'll take it!
I'm going to bitch for just a second. The work I do brings me very close to the most vulnerable among us. Today I was at a shelter assisting an elderly client with an application for Medi-Cal and SNAP. She lost her part time job, then lost her apartment and is now in a shelter on a fixed income (Social Security only) with slim prospects for finding another place to live. She's 82. The safety net in the US is an absolute joke. Instead of clearheaded solutions we got handed the myth of the welfare queen and, now, Somali immigrants taking everything. Just so exhausting some days.
Rant over.
I can still play basketball twice a week at 60 and my body feels pretty good. It's a blessing I do my best not to take for granted. I'm rebuilding an older e-bike with a dead battery. I've had the funniest conversations with some very nice Chinese gentlemen regarding battery rebuilds and upgrades and making things fit.
I sure hope everyone is well out there.
I just noticed that two of the items from my to-do list from three weeks ago are already done: reposting social posts for members and a gift link search engine. And two more on the list are in-progress. 😊
re: potatoes and wyd?
I took the opportunity of a mild work break to drive from nyc down to a rented cabin near the Smokies this week. I’ve always wanted to hike the old growth forests here.
I’ve taken to carrying baked potatoes in foil as my trail food for longer hikes. It just feels homey and some AI said something about complex starches. I downed a few yummy ones today at the source of the Chattahoochie.
Anyone else out there love Over the Garden Wall? My kids and I watch it every year. I've been humming "potatoes and molasses" all week.
Last week two of my favorite recent shows, The Diplomat and The Lowdown, came back with new seasons -- these are the kinds of things I have on my calendar.
Been trying to say yes to any kind of new activity. A couple different customers of mine are into scuba, and I've kept promising them I'd check it out, so I took the open water certification course earlier this month. It mostly comprises practicing nearly drowning in multiple ways and was pretty demanding for a 52-year-old who sits at a desk all day. Having completed the coursework and pool work here in the Midwest, I now have to pick someplace (preferably tropical) to do my certification dives.
We got lucky with our neighborhood: every other week in the summer a different neighbor will host "Thirsty Thursday", opening up their yard for happy hour, which has really helped us all get to know each other. At the final event of the season, I got myself invited to a light horror role-playing game -- pretty fun rolling up a character for the first time in about 35 years!
The greatest French fry is that one found, eyes on the road, by believing fingers beneath some flap on the bottom of the bag. This is not a metaphor.
I’m one of those readers who finds an author I love and then devours all their books back to back. Then I’m completely lost until I find another one. I joined a book club to branch out and discover books I probably wouldn’t have picked up on my own. And one author really stuck: V.E. Schwab. I started with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, which is basically a gothy, lesbian vampire romance. It gave me major Interview with the Vampire vibes. Now I’m reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and really enjoying it.
I’m also determined to befriend the crow family in my neighborhood. I’ve figured out their routine and have been leaving them peanuts in the shell, along with a nice, wide birdbath and plenty of bee-friendly plants nearby. This whole thing actually started because I was trying to figure out how to make the giant stump in my front yard look less sad. We had to cut down our 50-year-old red oak after oak wilt caused it to start dropping branches. Somehow, my solution to an ugly stump has turned into a mission to make friends with crows.
Now that the weather is finally cooling off, I can actually enjoy being outside again. Living in Texas means you basically hibernate all summer. I love making elaborate chalk drawings while my kid plays outside. Today, I made one to remind people that early voting has started. (Crossing my fingers for the hopeful, possibly delusional dream of Texas turning blue this year.)
I’ve also finally updated my website and portfolio after years of neglect. On top of that, I made a fun Figma plugin that looks at the time spent designing, adds in meetings during that same period, and compares it all to the estimated project hours. I’m also polishing up a website that automatically captures full-page screenshots of websites in both desktop and mobile sizes. It’s something I used to do manually all the time for design research, so naturally I decided to build something to do it for me.
Heading into Shinjuku on this rainy morning. Two college buddies are visiting Tokyo. Again, Shinjuku and Shibuya figured prominently on the list of places to visit and to shop at. As a foreigner myself, I’m showing them the city how I see it and experience it. Yesterday, we rode the Marunouchi M Line subway to the east side of the city, to parts that were yet unknown to me. Tonight, drinks and food at the small, quiet Yumeno sake bar in west Shinjuku. Tomorrow, Shinkansen bullet train.
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