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Friday

adventures / family / Friday / photo — Comments Off
23
Dec 22

Brick Christmas

Today we’re in New Jersey. Us and the cold — and I know no one shivering wants to read about that. We’ve been lucky with the weather all the way around. Oh, it’s cold, but it’s as cold or colder everywhere else. And we’ve only seen flurries. And where we are, in New Jersey, everyone has power.

Christmas in New Jersey is with my lovely bride’s god parents. My god parents-in-law, if you will. There were only 10 of us there today, where there are usually 15. But the day, which is always great fun, goes like this.

You go inside and up the stairs, hugs and handshakes, and then you look for the pickle. The Christmas pickle is a lesser known tradition. Seems to stem from some Germanic origin, or late 19th century marketing. (And if I had a nickel for every time something without a clear provenance was possibly attributed to those two things … )

This tree has two pickles on it, and if you find them, you are due a year of good fortune. Everyone always finds both pickles. That’s family for you.

I also spend a few minutes studying all of the other ornaments. The godparents-in-law have an interesting collection.

There are hor’dourves. After your first experience with this particular party’s habits, you know precisely where to sit. And, of course, they changed up which end of the table would have the shrimp. I was out of position. There are presents, one person at a time, youngest to oldest. I’m sixth of the 10 present today, so I’m above the mean and the median. Yikes.

(When all 15 people are here, I sit 10th.)

Later there’s a lasagna dinner, which is one of the highlights of the Christmas season. My godfather-in-law is a third generation Italian immigrant, and he knows what he’s doing. And we all love him for it. My mother-in-law always brings the Christmas Crackers, a thing which I’d never known about until my first Brick Christmas in the oughts. This year’s Crackers had some bad puns and good trivia. We all took turn reading those.

After dessert one of the kids suggested the board game Blank Slate. Never heard of it. Had a blast. Everyone did, old and young.

And that’s Brick Christmas, it’s always great fun for everyone.

We’re staying in New Jersey tonight. Pull out bed in the downstairs den. I fear that my back will never be the same.

adventures / family / Friday / photo / windshield time — Comments Off
16
Dec 22

And so it begins, travel day

An easy morning at the office, then back to the house to rapidly finish packing things up. And then into the car. We got out late in the mid-day, which means we only drove all afternoon and into the evening. And the evening part was, mostly, on interstates and roads I’ve ridden and driven on my whole, entire, life.

So there was a lot of this today.

And some of this.

The darkness caught up to us in Nashville, or so. Later, you turn right off that interstate then wind through some four lane roads of questionable purpose, and then into the hills and hollers on a two lane county road. Eventually you hit the state line, and then it’s a straight shot on those stretches of asphalt that are more than familiar. You keep going until you hit the “big” intersection that marks a small town’s crossroads, just up the street from the historic ferry spot that made the small town possible. You take a right, cross two more creeks and then hang a right in the darkness.

A moment later, in a finely lit and well-manicured neighborhood, this seven-hour drive is over. Hugs for Mom. Dinner, and the holidays are now underway.

Friday / IU / video — Comments Off
9
Dec 22

The local version of the Japanese show, ‘Tigers of Money’

We did a live production today, the annual Shark Tank game that I can only presume NBC or Mark Burnett haven’t heard of. This is a streaming program for the game design students, and it is is a key moment in their curriculum. Their showing their work to game design professionals. Getting challenged on their choices, and feedback on their efforts. The judges will ultimately vote — we don’t see that part, or the outcome — and some of these games will continue on. This is an even more part of the curriculum, as they eventually form LLCs, bring these games to market, and so on.

It seems like every year we change something about this show. And every year I have a different task. That part is fine. I spend a lot of time in our studios, and I’d much rather let everyone else call their shots — especially when we have students on the production crew. Last year I ran a manual camera for the interviews. This year, I was just the guy getting participants in the right order and doing whatever other little thing I could to help things run smoothly.

And, thankfully, the program ran smoothly. The game design students seemed to enjoy themselves, the little bumps that you encounter in a live production were merely little bumps, and, presumably, the faculty liked it a little.

Now watch these six presentations, and pick your winner.

(If it won’t play here for you, for whatever reason, you can join the dozens of other viewers on Facebook.)

The best part of it was, each time I went to the green room to call up the next set of presenters, everyone else was cheering them on. They’ve got a lot of camaraderie in that program. It is always nice to see that whole group pulling for each other.

Friday / Mastodon / photo / site / Twitter — Comments Off
26
Nov 22

Tweet ya later, bird site

I’ve made the move away from Twitter. Odd saying that, having spent 14 years with the microsite. It had great value to share information. Then that value diminished somewhat, but it was, nevertheless, still a great way to receive information. The incongruity had been weighing on me for a while, but the new owner and the great deal of baggage he’s brought along became the last straw. No sleep was lost on this choice. I downloaded my archive and moved on. Some new thing will present itself, I figured, and it did.

Mastodon has been around for a long while, but I only joined it on Halloween. I spent a week or so just watching it, another week wondering at its comparative weaknesses and reading longterm users brag on and on (and on and on) about its strengths. Some things in each of those categories are about human engineering, rather than the platform, but they are all part of the experience.

Follow me on Mastodon. Or click the button at the top of each blog page, or the homepage.

(I’m at Post, too, but haven’t done anything with it yet.)

Not everyone I follow on the bird site will make such a move, and that’s fine. Think of it as a group of people with a difference of opinion about where to eat dinner. At some point, perhaps a critical mass gathers, or key people voice their opinion, and that helps you make your own decision. It is gratifying that some of the people I want to follow are now showing up on Mastodon. As more people come over I’m sure it’ll feel more familiar and comfortable. Though I think some of the things that make it proudly different are unnecessarily limiting at this point. (That is an initial impression and very much subject to change.)

But that’s the interpersonal perception. From a corporate or institutional perspective, the biggest words for making this transition will be search and transfer. If you are an entity that has misguidedly put too many of your marketing eggs in any one social media basket, you might be in trouble in this moment of truth.

I don’t want to evangelize it today, but one nice thing about Mastodon is that you can follow hashtags. This absolutely inundates you with the subject matter of choice. The negative is that it absolutely inundates you with the subject matter of choice. There’s a great deal of selection bias to guard against there.

Take the popular Mosstodon hashtag, for example. Following that hashtag puts every use of it, all of them, in your feed. My feed quickly filled up with moss and lichen.

This isn’t bad, but it is dominating my feed So I need more friends to show up, and more hashtags to follow. That, of course, creates more volume, which means more time invested, and one needs to be mindful of that. It’s a great big work in progress.

I’m putting a few successful things on the site so far. Here’s my first Mosstodon post.

Also, I do enjoy a good batch of lichen from time to time.

Another of the real strengths is that you can take any person or hashtag and add them to an RSS reader. That makes so much sense it is amazing no other platform hasn’t tried harder to leverage it.

You still use an RSS reader, right? They’re going to make a comeback! (Try Feedly.)

Dropped the in-laws off at the airport this morning. They have returned safely to New England. The house is the right amount of quiet once again. Amazing how a variable or two changes the dynamic of the domicile. It was lovely to see them. We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving break with them, and we are grateful for the opportunity. I am grateful for the leftovers.

We took a walk this evening, and I marveled at the light, late evening views.

And I marveled at how this week has flown by.

cycling / Friday — Comments Off
18
Nov 22

This is light

I am now in full Thanksgiving mode. With days to burn, and company to host, I’m taking next week off. There is a turkey in the freezer, as I might have mentioned; there is cleaning to be done tonight.

Got half of the vacuuming done. Started preparing the guest bathroom. Put sheets on the guest bed. Straightened up in the kitchen. Stuff like that. It was the highlight of an unadventurous day: the big breath in before the holiday rush.

I need more than a day, more than one big breath, to prepare for the holiday rush. I’ve seen our schedule of festivities — And they will be grand! They always are! — and I am tired from the contemplation alone.

Anyway, quiet day at the office. Quiet, productive evening at the house. I also road 30 miles.

This ride was notable because it put 2022 into second place in my annual mileage chart. Now the modern me trails only the 2020 version. (We had more time to ride during the early days of the pandemic.) The question left before us is, whether there’s enough time left in the remainder of the year, and around the holidays, to break the 2020 record.

It would take a concentrated effort, but I’ll try.

Anyway, my week of being a bachelor ends tomorrow. The Yankee returns from a short conference trip. On Sunday we’ll go to the airport to pick up her parents. And the season will be upon us.

You should see this turkey.