Chris Maytag

Saw Train Dreams last night. A masterpiece.

I'm a sucker for really good interactive science visualizations.

Check out this one that lets you explore a map of the known universe. It's beautiful, engaging, and very well done.

mapoftheuniverse.net

All hail coffee, only one of its Name, King of the Morning, the Daylight, and the Moonlight, Lord of the Mental Health, and Protector of the Realm

The nuclear block is good, actually. It’s why Bluesky is my favorite modern social site, much more so than even Twitter at its best.

The video of a United States Senator joining the violent removal of U.S. marine from a hearing and hideously breaking his arm in a door is an example of what has been unleashed in this country. They’re tapping in to get in on the violence.
And then he bragged about it on X later.

Update: really worried. I've slowly lost a couple inches over the last year or so by carefully not overindulging, and having literally perfect hashbrowns 13 minutes away is going to ruin me.

I’ve been looking at the campus map and thinking back - I think the room I was visiting back then might have been on the 2nd floor, south facing, of Hesse Hall. No idea if things have changed a lot on campus there in the last 45 years, but Hesse fits location-wise.

Serious props for getting the Bell Riots sticker in there!

Let’s talk about Graham Platner’s Big Lie, finally. In 2009, at the height of the Gulf War, the Marines barred him from active duty. Platner claims it was his forearm tattoos. But his one forbidden tattoo was the Nazi symbol on his chest. He knew - and he left the Marines rather than give it up. 1/

Maybe? Memory is a bit hazy. Would have been 1981-1983, something like that.

I have no idea what it was called. Think I remember the general area of campus, but never knew what the name was. Not far from the north side of campus, Euclid area, or at least north of the halfway point between northside and sproul.

We used to do this as early teens in Berkeley, an open lab with text games and borrowed credentials. We did occasionally get shooed away, 13 year olds being rather out of place in university lab settings.

The KIDS Act (mass censorship and surveillance law that would eliminate anonymous internet use) is moving forward in the House, and the only opposition is from Democrats who claim it doesn't censor and surveil ENOUGH. When is the left going to wake tf up???

It’s Thursday, so: I really love Star Trek.

I fucking hate the American culture of entitled asshole selfishness. you see it everywhere. the driver assholes going 90 in a school zone. the assholes who don’t leash their dog or pick up their dog shit. the assholes who litter. the assholes who won’t vaccine their kids

cylons.org

I love that Life of Brian opens with a James Bond-esque credits sequence and song.

Different day, different fire, same fireplace. Candles decorate the mantel and a proper fire illuminates the room.

Second.

My friend
the climatologist
tells me
what worries him
is the climate.

My friend
the epidemiologist
tells me
what worries them
are infections.

My friend
the historian
tells me
what worries her
are the people
who aren’t worried.

I put one of those Zagg camera lens protectors on my phone and thought "on top of using a case for my phone this is overkill, won't ever need it" and two weeks later removed it because it had intercepted damage from a fall, protecting the camera lens. Lesson learned.

Older white woman leaving Taco Bell as I entered: “They do matter!”

I walked away really puzzled. Who, what?!? Then remembered I’m wearing my old BLM 5280 shirt.

If I were in Boulder, recycling all of this cardboard (and even styrofoam blocks) would be trivial. Here it looks like I have to drive 20-30 miles to do so, or hire a hauler to take it.

What I'd give to be able to take this stuff to eco-cycle and CHARM...

Hey Boulder people: you're lucky. I'm living in a new place and it's like a different world, bike infrastructure, recycling infrastructure are just not even close to what Boulder has. Count yr blessings.

I'd rather we spent the money on food safety education and easing the licensing pathway. We need more popup taco stands, not fewer.

Main reason that doesn't happen seems likely to be wealthy restaurateurs.

It’s this one: https://a.co/d/023q72HS

Finally got an air fryer. Used it to make something. Instant convert for life.

“Bittersweet” is just such a fucking fantastic word.

Please note: flames not *actually* flying out of the fireplace like pah-wraiths

A photo of a fire in a fireplace. There are lit candles on the mantle, flames leaping up.

First fire in the new house.

A screenshot from the speedtest.net app showing broadband speeds of over 940 Mbps in both directions.

Not at all sorry to see cable, DSL, and dialup receding into the distance in the rear view mirror.