Recently updated blogs

I continue to check my little dashboard of San Francisco COVID numbers each morning to figure out whether going into the supermarket to pick out the best avocado is worth the risk or will be an embarrassing thing to explain to the medical professionals treating my long-COVID-induced dementia. Lately, all the SF numbers have looked pretty-safe. (I blogged a few weeks ago when the numbers, overall, looked safe enough to …

I love hat puzzles, and this one, posted on Facebook by Konstantin Knop, is no exception. Puzzle. The sultan decided to test his three sages once again. This time, he showed them five hats: three red and two green. Each sage was blindfolded and had one hat placed on their head. When the sages removed their blindfolds, they could see the hats on the other sages but not their own. …

Harsh conclusion, but summary of the conflict between Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine

Mandy Brown wrote this fantastic piece about building a space on the web for yourself: A website is, among other things, a container. The shape of that container both constrains and makes possible what goes within it. This is, I think, one of the primary justifications for having your own website. Not just so you can own your stuff (for some meaning of “ownership,” in a culture in which any …

I’ve recently got into a bit of a rabbit hole with FPV quadcopter drones.1 Specifically with a “mini-whoop” style drone, the Meteor 75 Pro. ...sneak preview of the end product!

This recent piece in Fast Company was bothering me. I’ve been in work for almost 20 years soon and I’ve heard people talk about the lack of business acumen in design since I was a student. I posit that something else is happening as ‘design thinking as a service’ enters its mid life crisis. Design isn’t special anymore. Most people in the knowledge economy have had to sit through a …

I like Charlie Stross in general, I really enjoyed Accelerando, and many people talked positively about The Laundry Files, so I decided to give it a go. I like the universe, where unspeakable horrors exist and governments have secret departments in charge of keeping the world safe. I like this premise already. But it’s a well trodden trope, and what differentiates this from, say, Hellboy, or Man in Black§ is …

Well, that's it. I can officially retire from comic book collecting, because I did it. I FUCKIN DID IT:I finally completed my set of Air Pirates Funnies.Yes, I know about Dan O'Neill's Comics and Stories, and the Tortoise and the Hare, and Dirty Duck, and the Air Pirates newspaper, but I don't care. Like Ash Katchum, I caught them all. Stay tuned for this blog's new focus: Collecting Loungefly backpacks.

I wrote about the WordPress vs. WP Engine drama a couple of days ago, but it’s still taking up space in my head. For better or worse, WordPress powers about half of the web. I care deeply about the web, and I think it’s being harmed by this nonsense. Part of the reason is uncertainty. It seemingly started because Matt Mullenweg’s mother thought WP Engine was an official WordPress product. …

Had a blast chatting with Paul Leary and King Coffey of Butthole Surfers for Pitchfork about their latest batch o' reissues: Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis, Locust Abortion Technician, Hairway to Steven. The chaos-capturing pix are by my old friend Pat Blashill (author of Lone Star punkscene photohistory Texas Is The Reason), reuniting us on the same page for possibly the

We are continuing our coverage of Children's Film Foundation (CFF) films with Paganini Strikes Again, a rare mystery/adventure from 1977. The "Paganini" in the title refers to Mike (Andrew Bowen) and his friend Bill (Philip Bliss) who are both violin students. On their way to music class, they get stuck in the elevator of a small building and from their viewpoint are only able to see work boots of a …

Just like TV Animation X: Unmei no Tatakai, this game (also known as Inuyasha: Sengoku Otogi Kassen) is a fighting game based on an anime with a large female fanbase that was released very late in the Playstation's life. Also like TV Animation X, it takes full advantage of its late release by having really impressive graphics, though this time it's a 2D game. But while that game was built …

A while ago, Squidmar and Andy Wardle from Cult of Paint sat down and uncovered changes in the current Citadel Colour range Games Workshop didn’t tell us about. And it’s not just them, I've ALSO noticed that the Citadel paints I've bought recently seem different from before. In this video, I'll investigate and tell you what you need to know now if you have Citadel paints in your collection. Is …

The swapmeet is open for business through Tuesday! Then Donatella will be dropping by on Thursday. Meanwhile, we’re marking the last days of September with our usual open thread poll. Talk about anything you like — the fragrance you’re wearing today, the fragrance you’re most excited about trying soon, whatever. Or, ask a question about fragrance, then see if anyone else has asked a question that you can answer… Read …

Grimsvotn is not just another volcano; It’s a special beast that captivates both Mafic Maniacs and Caldera Crazies. This volcano plays many characters, producing everything from expansive lava flows to basaltic Plinian eruptions but mostly mundane lava flows or irrelevant explosions For me, Grimsvotn holds a special place among other volcanoes, ranking among my…