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Today was another hot one, with the temperatures reaching at least 34C/93F. I don’t know what the humidex was, but the humidity levels reached 80% at one point. For all the fans and the AC going, much of the house felt like being in a sauna. … and now tomorrow is also expected to reach … Continue reading Our 2026 Garden, and the heat continues
Motion Blur Taxis with Steam – New York, New York Here is a quintessential scene on the streets of Manhattan. You see the blur of fast-moving taxis, with what looks like smoke venting from underground. Things can be deceiving, however. I shot this at 1/15s, so the taxis don’t have to be traveling that fast to see them blurred like this. More interesting is the smoke rising from the temporarily set-up orange-and-white chimney. First of all, this is not smoke but stream. So...
NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been exploring the Jezero crater on Mars since 2021 has just logged 26 miles of total travel, the equivalent of a marathon. This crater was chosen as the destination for the rover, with its advanced sensing instruments, because at one end there is a clear river delta and the crater itself was at one time believed to be under water. And indeed, as the rover has explored the terrain, it continues to gather more and more evidence that the...
When it comes to cleansing oils, my go-to has been from Japanese brands. I’ve tried a few from different Korean brands but I just keep coming back to Japanese cleansing oils. And one of those is the one from Hada Labo, which I’ve been using since 2019. And anytime I go back to Japan or […]
It's not the only time of year that I visit them but I especially like them in summer because they tend to be heavily shaded and become a nice reprieve in the summer sun. I found myself in a few the last several days. It's been hot and humid but overcast so bearable. Like all places in Virginia my home area is full of Civil War history. It's not uncommon to find grave stones in many places around here. But it was nice to find a few graveyards just walking around and...
Humans have always wanted to cheat death. But while ancient kings searched for magical plants and survivors of the Great Flood, today’s “longevity maxxers” are turning to biology, strict protocols, and billion-dollar technology to push the human lifespan past 120 years. From Bryan Johnson’s extreme “Blueprint” protocol to Peter Attia’s focus on healthspan, the quest for immortality has shifted from mythology to medicine.Covering:The Gilgamesh Complex: Why the oldest story...
Hi bloggers happy monday. Work keeps dropping hints that something Good is going to happen to me eventually. I got assigned as the lead PM to a very big project that's supposed to wrap up its main phase in April (past my contract) and be totally done in December. My boss' boss on the call today straight up said that they would be looking to extend me again but the clincher is if they were to bring me back as a contractor I would have to get furloughed for 3 months which...
Yes, that’s Pure Blog. Don’t look at me like that. And by the way, that’s Mister What The Hell Is He Up To, to you. 😉 Reply by email
Keith Miller got two parking fines from a camera in Miramar, and the only way out was to prove his own innocence. Miller, a former Wētā VFX supervisor, shopped at the New World in Miramar in December and went back in January. Smart Compliance Management runs the number plate cameras in that car park. They sent him a breach notice showing his car arriving and his car leaving, and billed him for one long overstay. Two separate trips. The camera had missed one of the...
When the Portuguese charted the island of Taiwan, they named it Ilha Formosa, “beautiful island.” That’s the background behind the board game Formosa Formosa, which — and I’m not sure designer Kirk Beiser is aware of this — translates to “beautiful beautiful.” Kind of like when somebody calls a monster a were-person, which just means man-person, except “beautiful beautiful” is even more duplicative. Appropriately, Formosa Formosa doubles down on its namesake. Designed by...
ALTHalf-cans don’t announce themselves. They tuck against walls, occupy corners, and mostly get ignored by anyone not specifically looking for them. That’s part of what makes spotting one feel like a sighting in the wild.This example is stationed near the gates of Soarin’ at Disney California Adventure’s Grizzly Peak Airfield. Dark brown with a domed top and riveted panel construction, it carries the Grizzly Peak shield with bear silhouette and “Please Recycle” on the...
Flipping Through more of the Past This is the second part in a series where I look through my old CD binder and write about what I find: Part 1 Emergency & I by The Dismemberment Plan (indie ~1999) I am almost certain that I picked this up in 2003 from the local record store near my college. I had somehow just discovered Pitchfork - at that time, still VERY much a small indie music blog out of Chicago - and spent my time at "work" in the student computer labs reading...
Another Sunday is here! Welcome friends. We spent five days camping in a one-bar-of-LTE-but-still-won’t-work area last weekend, so this is the first installment of the Sunday Edition in a few weeks. The days off were a good recharge, but I also can’t say it was fully enjoyable. I’m not sure a person can go from a long period of heavy work to instant shut-off without a slower pullback of sorts. I think things were too abrupt for me, and it impacted our time away.This week...
On January 13, 1948, above the chilly waters of the Golden Gate Bay, a double-breasted blue serge coat was found next to […]
An installment of my hexmap for Middle-earth project. Follow the "Middle-earth Hexmap" tag for all entries in this series.The Angle is a wedge of land between the rivers of Hoarwell and Loudwater, south of the Great East Road.The AngleWhen Bilbo - and later Frodo & company - traveled towards Elrond's House, the Angle is what lay below the road. It's a delta of arable lands where once the splinter kingdom of Rhudaur once built its strength, before it was cowed by Angmar in...
From ‘Zero-deforestation commitments in Indonesia’s palm oil sector achieve high compliance but no additionality’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 13, 2026: … we evaluate the compliance and additionality of zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs) in the Indonesian palm oil sector, a major driver of tropical deforestation. We compiled a detailed dataset that integrates information about corporate ZDC implementation, supply chain linkages, and maps of...
Replied to Using the Xteink X4, a minimalist e-reader by an author (Schemascape) I now find myself seeking out modern DRM-free e-books from more enlightened publishers. Here are some sources: For (mostly old) public domain works: Standard Ebooks Global Grey Ebooks Project Gutenberg For contemporary e-books without DRM: StoryBundle Humble Bundle (Books) Bookshop.org and eBooks.com when filtered to DRM-free e-books (e.g. from Tor Publishing) I read a blog post on Schemascape...
Yesterday I suggested that progressives should reconsider the wisdom of increasing the weight and impact of decisions made in the current political environment. Although supported by only a small minority of progressives, efforts to call an Article V convention are the most dramatic efforts to raise the stakes. They also are the most irresponsible. Progressive proponents of an Article V convention initially insisted that a convention was essential to campaign finance...
Binge-watching TV isn’t exactly productive. Books are better. But recently, I’ve binged Brilliant Minds. Think a less dramatic version of House M.D. with wilder patients. Near the end of season 2, Dr. Wolf, the protagonist, said: “We’re all just doing our best to hold ourselves together.” A little reminder that: Nobody is normal. We’re all figuring out life as we go. We’re all just holding ourselves together. Want to change your life, but not sure how to start? Check out...
Ayer por fin saqué la bicicleta. Llevaba meses ignorándola, ahí estaba, acumulando polvo, con detalles que necesitaba arreglar y siempre encontrando una excusa para dejarlo para “el próximo fin de semana”. Hasta que la semana pasada simplemente lo hice. No sé cuánto de eso tenga que ver con la depresión. Sé que la tengo diagnosticada y también sé que las cosas más pequeñas terminan sintiéndose como proyectos enormes. Incluso algo tan sencillo como inflar unas llantas o...
A high-voltage sign that’s intended to serve as a warning. I have a #current-activities tag on disquiet.com for general-use purposes, but in the case of this photo it is spot on.
And well, here is another weeknote for y’all to update you on what I’m up to. I’m still following the World Cup, I have done a return to the gym and even went on a Saturday. ⚽ Norway lost against England, so now the stakes are clear. No Latinos want Argentina to win again for some reason, and same goes for me, if England took Mexico out, they better get to the finals and snatch that cup. You got this Bellingham. 🎨 Continued making a few more themes for the Nintendo 3DS, I...
Last Christmas, I published a short article titled My Gingerbread Man Soap Dispenser, which was, as the name suggests, about my gingerbread man soap dispenser. I had purchased him at a local discount store called Lot Less on December 20, 2025, mostly for aesthetic purposes (I recall it was about $3 to $3.50, but I did not note the exact price in the original article). The gingerbread man was not all about aesthetics – mind you – he also held distinctly ginger-scented soap....
Perfume PosseWeather Related Posse! Like pretty much everyone else on our planet we here in the Midwestern US are having WEATHER! Near-tornadoes, old trees just giving up the ghost, falling on power lines and making me wish I had a Generac (Portia, et… Continue Reading → Perfume PosseWeather Related
This is more like “month” notes rather than “week” notes, but here they are! The last week of June was quite busy at work with a big tender closing that sucked out all of my energy. 🎢 Thankfully, after that job was closed I had a 3-day weekend and my partner and I went to Montreal for an event at La Ronde. It’s the second largest amusement park in Canada, located on Jean Drapeau Island. The last time I had been on a rollercoaster I was a teenager, I think, and I remember...