2025-08-10 12:00:00
Yesterday was the anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency. Just pointing that out. No additional commentary should be necessary.
I had a pretty great weekend. Yesterday we were out doing all the usual weekend errands, then had dinner at our favorite local joint, and did the Netflix and chill thing last night. Do people still say Netflix and chill? Anyway, we watched Always Be My Maybe, a better than average Rom-com with a hilarious 10-minute cameo from Keanu Reeves. Today we went to the Carytown Watermelon Festival, which is a thing here in RVA. I had some fabulous watermelon basil ice cream. I did not expect basil to work so well in ice cream, but as I said earlier, it was fabulous. My wife had watermelon pina colada ice cream, which was also quite good. We also each had a cup of straight watermelon. That was our lunch today. After making a lap of 100+ vendors lining the streets and checking out a few of the bands playing on the 5 stages it was getting hot and very crowded. So we headed to our local brewery and sat outside on their covered patio day drinking and reading. I did burgers and fries for dinner.
Like I said, it was a pretty great weekend.
I switched my primary browser from Firefox to Chromium running the Duck Duck Go extension for privacy a couple of weeks ago, and I switched my note taking app from Zim Wiki to Standard Notes. In the process, my save a link for this email workflow got all screwed up. So even though I have not written one of these for a couple of weeks, I've only got a couple of links. Those of you on the paid plan can request a refund at [email protected].
Cory Doctorow wrote a really great post about how enshittification is a systemic problem. I may feel better not using Facebook, but individual action is not going to fix that problem.
Brilliant Crank makes the maybe encouraging point the history is cyclical. The US went through this sort of malaise in the 70s, and that downturn is what gave us MTV, punk, hip-hop, Silicon Valley, and the personal computer revolution. Another revolution is brewing. You can see hints of it in the push back against hustle culture, corporate owned social media, and algorithmic content via the Indieweb, newsletters, and the growing interest in disconnecting from surveillance capitalism. It's just simmering under the surface today, but so was the PC revolution and punk rock in 1977. Things get good, then they get bad, then they get good again. It's just how things work.
I'll be at Drupal GovCon on Thursday and the first half of Friday this week. Maybe sure you say hello if you will also be there.
And that is it for this week. Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.
2025-08-02 12:00:00
CCR was classic rock when I was in high school. John Fogerty is 80. It rained the entire show. None of that mattered last night as Fogerty radiated peace, love and joy throughout the entire set. With his two sons from his current marriage leading the opening act and then flanking him on stage all night, a new record coming out later this month, and control of his music back where it belongs, John Fogerty seemed like a guy that has never been happier as he ripped through his greatest hits last night.
And ripped is the operative word, as this was a loud rock and roll show. I guess I knew intellectually that Fogerty was a solid guitar player, but I did not have John Fogerty finger tapping his was through a solo on my bingo card. Several tunes featured extended solos with John trading licks with his son. We even got a drum solo and a killer saxophone solo during the set. He talked several times about how happy he was that his wife, after years and years of negotiation, finally got the publishing right back to his music. Run Through the Jungle will not be in an Army recruiting commercial anytime soon, and it was very obvious just how much it means to him that he has that control of his legacy.
The opening act Harty Har has been his two son's project for about a dozen years. They are a psychedelic / garage rock band, which if nothing else proves the boys were paying attention while they were growing up. Also, when you are John Fogerty's kids you can start a psychedelic garage rock band in the 21st century and not worry about paying rent. Don't get me wrong, the band rocked. Both of the kids are very talented musicians, but that is not the band you start if paying the rent is a primary concern.
Also, I'm 57, and I may have been below the average age of an attendee last night. But full props to RVA. A bunch of boomers and older GenX types stood for the entire show in the rain. We showed up. Or maybe we just didn't want wet asses from sitting on wet chairs.
The pictures suck. I've never been able to get decent photos at concerts. Given this has been an issue through 4 or 5 phones at this point, the equipment may not be the problem.
Peace, love, and rock and roll. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night. Or a life.
2025-07-27 12:00:00
Trip: 52
Nights: 178-179
The weekend got off to an interesting start when I thought I knew better than Google Maps how to get to Seneca State Forest in WV. We arrived 90 minutes later than planned, and got to cross a mountain on a sketchy barely paved and then not paved road as part of the trip. We followed the Google directions home. I do learn from my mistakes.
Once we arrived we found a really great dry campground. There are only 10 sites, of which 3 or 4 had tents, and us in the Ascape. The Ascape is about the largest camper you can get into the place. There were several clean pit toilets throughout the campground, and showers at the ranger station about 1 mile away. We were there because it is about 30 minutes from Showshoe Resort, where Robert John and the Wreck where headlining the Saturday night of the annual Blues and Brews festival. We will get to that in a minute.
So on Friday night, we did the campfire and chill followed by board/card games thing, then went to bed. I had intended to get up and do a hike to a fire tower on Saturday. I ended up not doing the hike, which was a good thing. Michelle and I drove up to the fire tower to climb it for the view, only to discover that you can rent the fire tower as a campsite, and it was occupied. If I had walked uphill the 3 odd miles to get there and then been immediately kicked out after the hike there, I would have been pissed. We did some birding in the AM, then after lunch at the camper headed to the Green Bank Observatory and the largest movable radio antenna in the world. They make a big deal out of not allowing cell phones or even digital photography, basically anything with a circuit board is not allowed because it can cause interference. There was a sign stating that they can pick up your cell phone in airplane mode. On Saturn. The entire county is supposedly a quiet zone for wireless signals, although that appears to be more myth than reality. I followed the rules so the photos below are from the public domain.
After doing science, we headed up to the ski resort for the concert. Prior to the show we had dinner at The Village Pub, where I had a fabulous grilled ham and cheese sandwich made with Pimento Cheese. I will most certainly be recreating that one at home. Tickets for the festival were $15 for non-drinkers, or $55 for drinkers. I knew I'd be driving back to the campground after the concert, so I went with non-drinker tickets. When we got in I saw that Athletic Ale (the NA beer) was one of the sponsors. So I asked them if I could get Athletic Ales without having a drinker ticket. The official answer is no, but what they told me was that I was welcome to all the free samples I wanted. So I ended up drinking 2 Athletic Ales during the show. So a big shout out to the staff there that let me drink their NA beers for free. I don't think their booth was particularly busy, as the brewery booths were pouring 8-10 oz samples, and all the drinker tickets came with 10 samples. Thankfully, it appeared as though 99% of the people there were staying at the resort, so not driving.
Speaking of the resort, I loved Snowshoe. The scenery with the "village" sitting on a mountain top with stunning views in all directions was sublime. It was 90F and humid at the campground, but only 80F and not so humid at the mountain top. There was some affordable rental property for sale, and I found myself wondering if I could make enough during ski season (as we don't ski) to cover costs and give me a "free" mountaintop condo to spend a chuck of the summer at every year. I have not done the research but I suspect the answer is yes, or close enough. Note, I just started a company. I'm not buying a ski condo. Not this year anyway ;)
The show was fabulous. The first band was Jake Walden, a young bluesman from Florida. His set kicked ass with a mix of originals and covers, including particularly inspired takes on Dark Side of the Moon and Whipping Post. Robert Jon and the Wreck did not disappoint, as they played a couple of tunes off the new record coming out in August, and a bunch of their "hits," or songs that should be hits if we had any taste in this country. I was very into the moment with the music and all I have for media is one photo of each band. So the links below are all from Youtube.
The Blues is Back - Jake Waldon
The 12 minute Pink Floyd jam from Jake Waldon
Oh Miss Carolina - Robert Jon and the Wreck
Gold - Robert John and the Wreck
After the show we headed back the camper and after a 3 mile walk in the sun to get close to the that largest antenna in the pictures above, plus standing at the concert for 4 hours, I was beat. We barely got through 1 game of Gin Rummy before I was falling asleep.
So that is 3 times in the last three years that I've visited West Virginia. And it's 3 times that I've loved everything about my time there. Yes, the state is struggling in many ways, with an economy still too dependent on fossil fuels, some of the worst Oxy issues in the county, and bottom of the list rankings in healthcare, education, jobs etc. And you can throw in a population that overwhelmingly thought the answer to all the above was Donald Trump.
I should kind of hate the state. But instead, I love it there.
2025-07-20 12:00:00
Happy The Eagle Has Landed Day to all who believe it actually happened.
For the first time since losing my job on June 1, I was busy all week. One of my consulting contracts kicked in 100% and my other one starts tomorrow. For all practical purposes, I'm fully employed again. I'm just working for myself. With the Trumplicans dismantling the heath care system in the US my monthly health insurance premium is likely to increase from $850 to around $1800 in 2026, but I guess I will deal with that next year. There is nothing I can do about it now. It has not escaped my notice that I don't need to be in the US to do my job, and getting the hell out may be the long term solution.
It's been brutally hot again this week in RVA. I was thinking that summer is no longer fun. When I was kid I was outside from 9 AM to 6 PM every day all summer. My mother would not have let me sit around inside all day. Of course, with only 3 or 4 TV stations and no computers or video game consoles, there wasn't much to do inside except read, which I did plenty. You don't see kids out playing baseball or soccer at all anymore. You might see then after dinner for a few hours, but the all day background noise of kids enjoying life is not something you hear when the heat index is over 100F every damn day.
And now that I typed the above I had to find data to back up my feeling. The data doesn't really do it though. This chart of average daily highs and lows in RVA in July does not support the idea that air temps are rising in July. This is not to suggest that climate change isn't happening, because the global data don't lie. This data may support my idea that RVA is not a bad place to be during climate change. Our latitude plus the relative nearness of oceans and mountains may be moderating the extremes? I don't know, but I did expect the July temps to show a more pronounced upward trend.
Last night was a date night. After dinner at the always good Greek on Cary we hit our favorite local music club for Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants. It was the first time we had seen her and it won't be the last. Although I do wonder if we'll be seeing her in small 100 seats clubs in the future. They sold it out and it seems like they could be a band on the rise. It's loud, twangy, classic country, the kind of tunes you'd hear in classic honky tonks and juke joints, if those places still existed. Here are a couple of tunes. I will say that their recorded music doesn't capture the energy they exude live. On stage they come across more like a loud rock band.
Ghost of Rock and Roll
Take my Money
This article about the Starbucks near Gallaudut University (a university where sign language is the primary language) is interesting. All the staff are deaf, giving the average commuter stopping in for a cup of caffeine a brief look at life when it is not organized around them.
I was looking through my bookmarks this week and rediscovered this piece of short fiction from my friend Charlie Kondek.
This would never work for me, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate these thoughts from Richard MacManus about blogs borrowing the concepts of seasons from podcasts or TV shows.
I thought I bookmarked a couple of other things this week, but if I did, I don't know where I put those links.
And that is it for this week. Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.
2025-07-13 12:00:00
As I mentioned yesterday in the weekend update, our car is at the shop, not safe to drive, waiting for a part to be delivered. After 4 days of no vehicle I decided to rent a car for a couple of days as we have shit to do, plus we both have appointments Monday morning. The math on rental car vs. Uber was a wash.
I hopped on the city bus for the 3 mile ride to the airport, and upon arriving stood in line for 15 minutes while the 2 Budget/Avis agents dealt with a grand total of 3 customers. When I got the front I was told that there were "no cars in the garage" and that I could have a seat and wait and eventually maybe somebody would return a car and I would get the rent the car I had reserved the day before.
Cue Seinfeld. That bit was broadcast in September 1991. So it was already enough of a recognized problem then to be worthy of pop culture skewering. And here we are 34 years later, and the problem hasn't gotten better, if we are being generous. If we are realistic, it's worse. Budget tried to blame it on the storms in RVA yesterday. Apparently a bunch of people with afternoon flights decided to skip the flights instead of returning their rental cars in the rain.
Right....It could have been 78F and sunny, and they would not have had a car for me.
There were 8-10 people ahead of me in the desperate suckers line. Unlike all of them, who were visiting RVA and thus needed transportation, I could say FU to Budget and just go home. The bus was leaving in about 10 minutes so that is what I did. I canceled the reservation on my phone and rode the three stops back to the bus stop closest to the house.
At that point both my wife and I really needed to get out of the house, as we had been home bound without a car since Tuesday. So we walked the one mile to the local pub for dinner. While walking I realized that the last time either of us had walked one mile for a dinner date was college. Fish and chips, a burger with fries, two beers, and an iced tea didn't cost $55 after tip in college though.
In grad school (and undergrad) I was taught that a market with notoriously bad customer service was just begging for a competitor to come in and do things right. However, that was before the corrosive effects of private equity were well understood. Any real threat to the current market would just be purchased and killed. See the tech industry for literally dozens of examples.
Anyway, I rode the city bus for the first time yesterday, and I did a college like date (in spirit, if not in price) with my wife. We will be home all day, because you know, we don't have wheels.
Note: We live at the very end of the bus line. Getting to the airport is easy via bus. Getting downtown or anywhere else we might want to go in RVA via bus is 90 minutes each way.
2025-07-12 12:00:00
I was out in the yard before 8 AM mowing to beat the heat. I did not beat the heat. (I mow with a human powered reel mower, so no noise to disturb the neighbors.) Last weekend was Independence Day in the US. But given that the government and about 1/3 of the citizens have abandoned the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence, I certainly did not feel like celebrating. We were camping, but otherwise did nothing specific to celebrate.
While at the campground, the airbag light in the truck came on warning us that the passenger airbag was not arming. I figured it was the sensor that detects if a full sized human is in the seat, which is a cheap part. When I dropped the truck at my mechanic Tuesday he told me it is the airbag control module, and that I should absolutely not drive the vehicle until it is fixed. There is a chance that the airbags will just all blow while I am driving, or not blow at all in an accident. Unfortunately, it's not a cheap fix (are there any cheap car fixes these days?) and the part is in short supply. So as I type this on Saturday morning the truck (our only vehicle) is still at the mechanic. I'm hopping on the city bus this afternoon to go to the airport and rent a car, as we have shit to do this weekend, and we both have appointments on Monday morning.
BTW, after this repair I'll be at $6100 on car repairs this calendar year. I bought the Edge in 2020 with 92,000 miles on it, and it's been fine until this year. But that is a big bill to deal with in a year when I'm had job issues and now I am starting a business. I was supposed to head to Asheville this weekend for DrupalCamp, but as I have no wheels that got nixed. 2025 just refuses to give me a break. I was curious, so I went and looked at what I could buy for $10K. (The $4K the Edge might sell for, plus the $6K I've spent on it this year, assuming they can get the airbag module.) I can not get a better vehicle for $10K, so in hindsight the decision to keep fixing the Edge is a good one.
Onto the links.
Kerri wrote about not getting the the current trend of people tracking every detail of their life. That struck a chord with me as I too have zero desire to track much of anything in my life. My wife bought me a smart watch for my birthday a few years ago, and after two weeks I returned it and replaced it with an analog watch. She also has the most adorable dachshund.
This article takes a more realistic look at the digital nomad life. It's not all hanging out at the beach working on your laptop. That really shouldn't be a surprise. That said, I am looking at a 4-6 week trip next summer where I work from the camper as we visit every National Park east of the Mississippi river that we have not yet visited.
Martha Wells, author of the MurderBot books, is not expecting true AI anytime soon. BTW, if you have not watched the MurderBot series on Apple TV, it is well worth a one month subscription to binge. It's ten 30-minute episodes, so you can easily knock it out over a weekend, or even a rainy day.
Ryan (who I met when he sent me an email via my blog over 20 years ago, and it turned out we lived in the same neighborhood) has added a blogroll to his site. I need to do that.
This post was composed while listening to Jukebox the Ghost.
And that is it for this week. Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.
