Chris Martin

2026 W10: Sticky smelly chore

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 04:31:20 -0500

§ I’m officially on ramp watch—assuming the ramps I planted last year survived the winter I should see them sprout as early as this month.

§ Aside from the garlic, which is still going strong, I found a mystery plant sprouting up in my vegetable patch. I think it might be ornamental allium?

§ I saw a rabbit lounging in the front garden and the chipmunks are out in full force. Can you tell I’m excited for spring?

§ At work I picked back up the LED project I started a few weeks ago. I hung them all up in a prototype lab at work. Now I need to figure out how I can programmatically address each of the individual LEDs so I don’t have to rely on the built-in animations.

We were also gifted a used resin 3D printer which is a little like being gifted a sticky smelly chore, not that I want to sound ungrateful. I got it working and made a little test print—so far, so good.

§ My winter side project of running a home media server has continued, mostly unabated by intermittent Linux frustrations.

It turns out moving everything to Proxmox was the right call. I’m now running ~15 docker containers across three virtual machines. Even after a few hard reboots (see my Linux frustrations above) they all reliably start on their own without any manual intervention on my part.

The big remaining puzzle piece is backups which I’m currently not doing at all.

§ On Saturday Caroline and I visited a gallery opening with my mom. It explores Cleveland’s various neighborhoods through the work of a handful of local photographers. It was good!

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W9: An inopportune moment

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 05:44:45 -0500

§ Rabbit rabbit. Happy March.

§ The snow came back on Monday and temperatures dropped again but the early signs of spring I saw last week made it all feel more manageable. Indeed, by Friday all of the new snow was gone and temperatures were back in the 50s.

§ My car has had a slow leak in one of its tires for the past several weeks. A similar situation last April caused a tire to suddenly pop at an inopportune moment so I know I’m going to have to replace this one soon. For now, though, I guess I’m going to continue refilling it every few days.

§ At work I have been toying around with a project that requires looking up post codes globally. I did not appreciate how complicated post codes are—they might be worse than timezones.

§ The FIRST Robotics team I’ve been working with hit a big milestone on Saturday: a functional, moving robot. Their first competition is in two weeks and there is still a lot to do in the meantime but it’s satisfying to see the culmination of all of the work they’ve done so far.

§ I started watching Small Prophets after seeing Matthew Sheret recommend it. It is ongoing with only three episodes out at the moment but I’ve enjoyed them all immensely. Funny and bizarre. Excellent.

§ Somehow Yorgos Lanthimos came out with two movies since I last checked. I watched the most recent one, Bugonia, Tuesday evening. Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons were both excellent but the storytelling fell a little flat for me: somewhere between a really good M. Night Shyamalan movie and a mid-tier Yorgos Lanthimos movie.

§ One more movie while we’re at it. 28 Years Later is by miles the best entry in the 28 Days later film series. I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the earlier movies but this one is different with beautiful, weird cinematography and an interesting story that isn’t entirely zombie-centric.

§ We’re supposed to hit temperatures in the upper 60s next week. Maybe it’s time to finally move the quails back outside.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W8: Particularly portentous

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 05:28:05 -0500

§ Happy year of the fire horse. I can’t help but think it feels like a particularly portentous designation.

§ As the snow cover continues to recede the starlings and the sparrows and the robins all descend to comb the muddy lawn and fill their stomachs.

We have our first signs of life in the garden: eight of the garlic cloves I planted last October have started sprouting. Is it too early for them to sprout? I’m not sure but it sure is nice to see something growing.

§ After pining after it for a while I finally bought Chris Glass’s favorite tiny photo printer. It doesn’t have perfect color accuracy or anything but that isn’t the point. It has been fun to quickly print out photos to give away to friends or stick on the fridge. I can’t help but think that they have a better chance of surviving longer than any digital file.

§ Current is the first new interesting RSS reader I’ve seen in a while. I’ve been on the lookout for a new app ever since Reeder “classic” was sunset in favor of a reimagined app that doesn’t work for me.

The core principle driving Current’s philosophy is that each individual RSS feed has an inherent “velocity.” Personal blog posts should stick around for a while but updates from high-frequency news feeds should be more ephemeral.

The app is still immature—it is slow and is missing a few features I would like. Nevertheless, I’m excited to watch its development and I’m going to try to stick with it for the time being.

I have to say, the developer is super responsive. I sent him an email about a couple of bugs Thursday morning and he responded in less than an hour and released an update addressing them by the end of the day.

A small warning: Current automatically monkeys around with your RSS feed categories (thanks Phil) so maybe experiment with a new OPML import instead of logging in with a sync service if that bothers you.

§ Ok, that’s all for now. See you next week.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W7: A great relief

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 05:22:57 -0500

§ I had a slow start to the week as I gradually worked to get over my cold. During my downtime I caught up on the last couple of seasons of Stranger Things. Those Duffer brothers sure do know how to write a compelling hour of television.

§ I also started watching How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, a new show by Lisa McGee, the writer behind Derry Girls. Four episodes in, this new series is interesting though fall less comedic than I expected, coming from Derry Girls. It is tonally much closer to Bad Sisters.

§ We finally saw temperatures in the 30s and low 40s. A great relief in the middle of what is surely one of the harshest winters in recent memory. In a dream Monday night that I walked outside and saw daffodils spouting up bright green through the melting snow. When I woke up I remembered that we’re not quite there yet but spring will arrive soon enough I’m sure.

§ By Wednesday I finally started feeling better. Unfortunately, this is exactly the point my wife began feeling sick. Such is life.

§ At work we started a large-scale revamp of an 18 year old exhibit gallery. I’ve advocated for updates to this particular gallery since I started working at my museum almost three years ago so it is particularly exciting to see it all finally start coming along.

As part of this project I made what I think turned out to be some particularly fun signage using laser cut translucent acrylic layered on top of CNC-milled PVC board.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W6: Thundersnow

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 05:21:04 -0500

§ Little by little each day the sunset creeps back towards 6:00pm. On Monday temperatures rose into the 20s after being in the low single digits for the past few weeks. The roads finally thawed.

§ Winter is the one opportunity I have to see all of the paths the various neighborhood animals take through my yard as they leave their imprints in the snow. Stray cats mostly meander around shoveled paths while deer trudge from point A to B in long straight lines, indifferent to the deep snow.

If I look out of my kitchen window into my backyard I can see long well-worn tracks that intersect diagonally every so often and lead all the way through to the property of the neighbor that lives directly behind me. Next door, however, the snow is almost untouched save for a few delicate bird prints.

§ My home server tinkering continues to take up more of my free time than I care to admit. This week I started messing around with Proxmox which has the biggest time-sink potential yet. An attractive nuisance if there ever was one.

§ It feels like my attention span has been increasingly frayed as winter trudges on so I’ve started reading Autumn, Knausgaard’s collection of bite-sized essays while I build up the endurance to start in on another longer book.

§ On Thursday the inevitable happened: I finally caught the seasonal cold that has been ping-ponging through all of my coworkers since early January. It has been more than half a year since the last time I got sick which is a good run, especially for me.

§ On Friday evening, in the middle of a snowstorm I suddenly saw a bright blue flash of lightning crack through the sky. For a few minutes I racked my brain trying to figure out if what I had just seen was some weird illness-induced hallucination. No, it turns out it is a real phenomenon called thundersnow—a great bad band name, by the way.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W5: Stressful & strangely magnetic

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 05:20:29 -0500

§ Rabbit rabbit. Happy February.

It has been seven months since the last time the first day of a month fell on a Sunday. Now it will happen two months in a row. Calendars, huh?

§ Winter storm Fern hit between Sunday and Monday, dropping eleven inches of snow on my town in the span of 24 hours. It was definitely disruptive but could have been worse.

The most annoying part is that sustained cold weather all week ensured that any snow that wasn’t immediately dealt with turned into a thick permanent layer of ice. This includes basically all of the roads in my neighborhood.

§ Lux launched a public preview of their updated Halide camera app which includes a couple of advanced color grading presets they’re calling “looks.” It is basically what Apple’s photographic styles should have been.

In this gross winter weather I’ve been finding fewer opportunities where I want to bring out my big mirrorless camera so it has been fun to play around with phone photography again in the meantime.

§ Speaking of photography, Jasper celebrated a 365 day streak of daily photo blogging this week, joining ranks with Florian, Chris, and others. There are times that I find it hard to flesh out these weekly posts so I’m all the more impressed that there are folks publishing great photos and thoughtful posts daily.

§ I finally got around to watching Boiling Point, the 2021 film directed by Philip Barantini who you probably know from Adolescence. The entire 92 minute film is shot in entirely one take, creating an atmosphere that is intense, stressful, and strangely magnetic. It’s an interesting side by side comparison with The Bear.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W4: Below zero

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 05:26:04 -0500

§ Last Sunday I moved my quails inside in anticipation of an impending cold spell. I made them a cozy outdoor coop that is protected from the wind and warmed with heat lamps but it doesn’t quite cut it once temperatures drop below zero. I’m glad I did because this week was cold with wind chills often dipping double digits below zero.

§ Monday was MLK Day. One of the ways the holiday is celebrated around Cleveland (and other cities across the country I imagine?) is that all of the local museums offer free admission to the public all day. Consequently, that means it is generally the busiest day of the year at my museum. This year broke records, with the most people I’ve seen at our museum in the three years I’ve been working there—as long as you don’t count the total solar eclipse back in 2024.

§ Setting aside Monday’s mania, this week consisted of lots of digital work with very little physical output. It all feels so engaging in the moment but is ultimately fleeting. As the week was wrapping up I was beginning to feel like I accomplished very little.

Finally, to try to counteract this, on Thursday I started a small side project that involves grid mapping a large set of individually addressable LEDS. I don’t know where exactly this project is going to go but it helped settle some of my earlier antsyness.

§ Yet again, Saturday was filled with robot prototyping. We nailed down a revised prototype of the intake mechanism we started last week. This one is both mechanically simpler and more effective.

§ My workplace and most local schools have already signaled their intention to close next Monday in anticipation of another extremely nasty storm. I apologize for the larger than average weather talk in recent weeknotes. This winter has undoubtedly been the worst one I’ve seen here in quite a while.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W3: Something in the air

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 05:24:53 -0500

§ Hello there

§ On Tuesday I gave a presentation about exhibit design to a nearby school group. This required creating a slideshow deck which is a task I find surprisingly rewarding—probably because I only have to do it once a year at most.

Here are some personal guidelines I try to follow:

Choose a font size that feels uncomfortably large and then double it
This will necessitate using fewer words per slide. That is a good thing.
Make bespoke hand-drawn diagrams whenever possible

§ On Thursday, the Cleveland area more or less shut down after a nasty overnight snow storm descend on the city. It was the most snow I’ve seen since 2022. I’m thankful that I have a job that lets me easily work from home on occasion.

§ I spent Saturday morning with the FIRST Robotics team I’ve been mentoring. We made good progress in just a few hours building a working prototype of a rubber ball intake mechanism.

§ My recent self-hosting experiments have been successful enough that I took another step and installed Navidrome, a server for hosting my downloaded music. Coincidentally, James Reeves has been working on an MP3 player app of his own recently. It must be something in the air.

For the time being I’ve successfully resisted getting a NAS to store all of these files but it is basically inevitable if this hobby continues.

§ Don’t worry, I promise this will not become a technology blog.

§ Speaking of music, I’ve been listening to two particularly interesting indie R&B albums from late last year: “The Passionate Ones” by Nourished by Time and “Baby” by Dijon. Even if you, like me, don’t consider yourself a particularly avid R&B fan I would encourage you to give these two records a shot—there is something special going on in the Baltimore music scene right now.

§ I’ve also been really enjoying two specific acoustic Latin albums this week: “Cancionera” by Natalia Lafourcade and “Los Ángeles” by Rosalía. This is another entirely new-to-me genre. Maybe there is something about the quiet and contemplative atmosphere of deep-winter that makes me more receptive to new music.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W2: Unexplainable bout

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:20:59 -0500

§ Little by little, Christmas decorations have been packed away and I’ve slowly started getting back into the swing of things in the new year. The days are still short but the sun sets after 5:00pm now which is an important milestone.

§ Last Sunday I accidentally made double the amount of bigos I indented—more than six quarts full—so I’ve been eating it for both lunch and dinner for most of this week. I think it’s going to be a while until I can look at cabbage again.

§ On Wednesday our quails started laying eggs again. Basically right on schedule—only a week later than the last two years.

§ On Friday temperatures rose into the low-60s and I went for a short hike around a nearby nature reserve park before work.

I finally looked it up: walking from my home to the park is the same distance—1.25 miles—as my old apartment in Chicago was to my favorite neighborhood restaurant. Back in Chicago I made that walk frequently without a second thought. Here in Cleveland, though, I’ve always driven to the park. I’ll try to remedy this come springtime.

§ Following a sudden unexplainable bout of motivation I picked back up on a stalled prototype project from a couple of years ago and made some nice progress this week.

It’s a prototype exhibit that makes use of a high-quality color sensor for a color matching game/challenge.

I simplified everything dramatically by getting rid of a flaky web serial connection to a separate Arduino and moving all of the electronics and UI code to a single RaspberryPi. I also built a nice CNC-milled enclosure for everything.

§ Caroline and I started volunteering as mentors for her school’s FIRST Robotics team a couple of months ago. Saturday morning was the official kickoff of this year’s challenge which begins this season of the competition in earnest. I see a lot more busy Saturdays in my future.

§ I caught the tail end of an episode of This Country when I was in Ireland last summer and have been trying to find more of it since. Well I finally watched the whole first season and I can confidently say that it is the hardest I’ve laughed in recent memory. Definitely recommended if you are a fan of the British mockumentary format.

§ Also, the second season of The Pitt started. The first season was a surprise hit even though I’ve never been a fan of medical procedurals. We will see if this second season can replicate the magic.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

2026 W1: Rough around the edges

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 05:42:57 -0500

§ Hello there. Welcome to 2026.

§ I worked on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day for the first time in a while, trying to save up some PTO to use later this year. As a result, the holiday felt a little less pronounced.

Nevertheless, Caroline and I continued the now four year tradition of cooking a big bibimbap dinner for her family to celebrate the new year. Meanwhile, Cleveland was hit with another big snow storm, this one even larger than the one on Thanksgiving. An overnight 40° drop in temperature also brought an abrupt end to the strangely warm end-of-year weather I mentioned last week.

§ On New Year’s Day I posted my third annual mosaic of weekly photos from the past year. As an extra bonus, I also put together a giant annotated image of all of my weekly photos from these past three years combined. It is interesting—if a bit existentially disconcerting—to see the past 156 weeks of my life laid out all together like this.

§ The meal tracking project I started at the beginning of 2025 has finally come to an end. With all 365 dinners accounted for, here are some final stats:

I cooked 78% of meals at home last year. Out of the remaining meals, 7% were eating at friends or family member’s houses and 15% were from restaurants.
Throughout the year I ate somewhere around 150 unique dishes. “American” food was the most prevalent cuisine at 38% followed by “Mexican” food at 29%. Apparently I cooked tikka masala 21 times, which feels like a lot.
My favorite dish that I cooked for the first time last year was either harissa roast pumpkin or Indian cabbage curry.

As I mentioned recently, I’m not going to be continuing this project into 2026—I found quickly diminishing utility from the project as the year progressed. Still, I’m glad I stuck with it for the entire year.

§ The rapidly declining quality of streaming services finally prompted me to take the take the plunge and try out Jellyfin. Like many self-hosted open source projects, it’s a bit rough around the edges and requires more time messing with Linux filesystem permissions than I would prefer. Nevertheless, getting it configured and organizing all of my media has been a fun side project this week. Now I just need to exert the necessary self-control to stop fiddling with and tweaking everything. I’m not doing a good job at this so far.

Previously: 2025, 2024, 2023

52 photos of 2025

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 14:05:23 -0500

Previously: 52 photos of 2024 and 52 photos of 2023

2025 W52: An odd sight

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 05:20:43 -0500

§ And here we are, the last weeknote of 2025. A good year, all things considered. I’m looking forward to 2026 which is shaping up to be even better.

§ We had a warm, if slightly rainy, Christmas this year which was a pleasant surprise given how snowy Thanksgiving was less than a month ago.

For a Christmas morning treat Caroline and I made a variety of morning buns which required making a laminated croissant dough for the first time. We went with ham & cheese, apricot, fig, raspberry, and chocolate. I couldn’t possibly choose a favorite so I won’t try.

Caroline gifted me a new backpack which I’m incredibly excited to use. My dad made us a handmade broomcorn broom he wove from scratch which is beautiful and one of the most unique gifts I’ve ever received.

§ I also caved and got Kirby Air Riders for my Switch. The gameplay is all a bit too chaotic for my liking but I really appreciate how much unnecessary effort the developers put into aesthetic vehicle customizations. It is especially odd considering how deeply buried in the menus the feature is.

§ A few days of warm weather brought out my favorite pileated woodpecker and a gaggle of dark-eyed juncos. An odd sight in late December. If 2025 and 2024 are any indication, our quails should start laying eggs again sometime next week. We’ll see.

§ The Pluribus finale didn’t end on a cheap cliffhanger like I feared it would, so that’s a plus. Overall, I think the season was slow—probably too slow—but promising.

After the episode aired, Apple released a 23 minute long behind the scenes doc that offers good perspective on the show’s production process. One of the executive producers interviewed literally called the Carol Sturka character “an insufferable hero.” I was already beginning to warm on the series and the level of self-awareness exhibited in the doc gives me even more faith in the direction the show will take in future seasons.

§ My annual “themes” for the past two years been abject failures so this year I’m taking a note from Carl Barenbrug and cataloging my “ins” and “outs” for 2026.

In:

Family
Craft
Balance
Intentionally

Out:

Restlessness
Undeliberate screen time
Feeling guilty about relaxation
Buying things I can make myself

§ Until next year—

Previously: 2024, 2023, 2022

2025 W51: Buoyed

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 05:17:44 -0500

§ Hello and happy solstice. Longer days can’t come soon enough.

§ In the middle of 15°f weather, our entire street lost power early last Sunday evening while I was in the middle of cooking dinner. The outage continued until the early hours of the next morning by which point the whole house was freezing cold.

§ On Tuesday, I finally used the rock climbing gym passes I won at last year’s holiday party. It was fun! I’m already looking forward to going again soon.

§ Speaking of end of the year music recaps, James Reeves published his 2025 rotation this week. “In Transit” is a particularly interesting mix of ambient naturalistic techno.

§ Pluribus is starting to grow on me. The most recent two episodes have been buoyed by having more than one active character. Vince Gilligan hasn’t made things easy for himself here, writing a show with so few characters, painfully sparse dialog, and such a slowly developing plot. Nevertheless, I think there is actually a chance he might just pull it off in the end.

§ I’m very much looking forward to having the next ten days off. Happy holidays.

Previously: 2024, 2023, 2022

2025 W50: Just a little bizarre

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 05:23:45 -0500

§ Our company holiday party was on Monday. My team won the gingerbread house building contest and then I watched my coworkers sing karaoke. The weather was significantly better than last year. I still haven’t used the rock climbing gym passes I won at last year’s holiday party, by the way. Oops.

§ Ever since first getting into sourdough back in February I’ve been consistently baking a loaf of bread each Sunday morning. I settled on a recipe pretty quickly and then for most of the year did very little by way of experimentation: occasionally I’d add some rye flour to the mix, change the ratio of white and whole wheat flour, that kind of thing. Well this week I finally branched out and baked a cranberry walnut loaf. Wow, what took me so long?

§ I read ten books this year—quite a big jump up from last year.

I rediscovered the joy of reading paperbacks which I credit a lot of this increase towards. Of these, Brother Brontë was the most interesting/creative, The Road was the most impactful, and The Morning Star was my overall favorite.

§ I discovered Kiran Leonard’s new album “Small Brown Bed/With You Waltz” thanks to Said the Gramophone’s excellent recap of music from this past year. What a great album. It makes for entirely pleasant background music while active listening reveals song after song that is creative, multilayered, and just a little bizarre. It is an album that works best as a contiguous album but U/L (II) is a good song to start with if you want a sample.

§ Another album recommendation from the same list: “Caveman Wakes Up” by Friendship keeps growing on me the more I listen to it. Artex is the standout track—it might just be the closest thing to a new Songs:Ohia tune I’ll ever get.

§ That’s all for now. One more full week of work before a nice long break for the holidays. I can’t wait.

Previously: 2024, 2023, 2022

2025 W49: Soundtrack to my dreams

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 05:21:44 -0500

§ As the sun sets at 4:57pm I commute home from work under the ghostly light of a particularly bright full moon on Thursday. I later read that it was a ‘supermoon.’ I’m ready for longer days to begin.

§ At work I built another quick prototype tesla valve exhibit. This time simply using gravity to move lightweight beads. This version might be too simple but it effectively illuminates the underlying mechanism, at least.

§ Switching gears a bit, I also started a side project that uses an MFRC522 RFID reader module connected to a RaspberryPi. It has been a while since I’ve done an extended electronics and programming project and it feels good to stretch those muscles a bit.

§ Apple Music launched their 2025 ‘Replay’ feature this week.

Compared to this time last year I’ve listened to a lot less music this year. A few insights:

Caroline Polachek is once again in the top spot for the second year in a row
Molly Nilsson jumped to the number two spot after seeing her in concert back in September
The Decemberists all the way up in third says a lot about a weird nostalgic period I had earlier this summer

§ Speaking of music, I haven’t listened to Macintosh Plus in years yet somehow I got the opening track on Floral Shoppe stuck in my head though an unusually-vivid dream the other night. I guess that says something about the soundtrack to my dreams.

§ Well The Chair Company was quite a ride, huh?

Quality varied a lot throughout the eight-episode season and took a bit of a dive in the middle. Overall, I think it is definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan of Tim Robinson’s strange brand of surreal, absurd, chaotic humor. I honestly have no idea how this show would read to someone who has never seen I Think You Should Leave.

It was renewed for a second season which I’m excited to eventually watch.

§ When I started playing Hollow Night: Silksong last week I wasn’t sure how long I would stick with it. Well, I’ve continued playing it quite a bit this week and I’m still having lots of fun. The brutal difficulty that felt pointlessly punitive in the original Hollow Night game finally clicked with me here. I think it helped that I played a lot of Cuphead in the intervening years.

Overall, I think the biggest help this time around is that I’ve been playing it with my wife who excels at the exploration and way-finding aspects that I struggled with in the first game while I’ve been focusing on the platforming challenges and combat.

Previously: 2024 W49, 2023 W49, 2022 W49

2025 W48: Lake-effect

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 05:22:44 -0500

§ A three day work week followed by a four day weekend was exactly what I needed. During my time off I started renovating a spare bedroom Caroline and I use currently as a sort of miscellaneous home office/art studio.

I used a new pocket hole jig to build a set of shelves and made a few custom Makercase-style storage boxes to go with it. I wanted to add a large ‘pull-out’ drawer to the lowest section so I made a full extension slider mechanism using John Heisz’s technique. It was equal parts a huge pain and a fun learning exercise.

§ Thursday was Thanksgiving. In the morning Caroline and I put up our Christmas tree which is always an exciting activity for our cats in particular.

We tried to keep Thanksgiving day celebrations a little more low-key this year. Notably, we made only three pounds of cranberry sauce—half of the enormous batch we cooked last year.

Northeast Ohio was hit with a huge lake-effect snow storm that started in the afternoon and continued steadily into the evening and most of the next day. It’s a good way to really feel like the holiday season has arrived.

§ I keep forgetting to mention the great cranberry sourdough scone recipe I’ve been making each week for the past month. I got the recipe from the bride of the wedding I attended in early October and have been making a constant supply of them since.

§ Over the weekend I picked up my Switch 2 for the first time in a couple of months to play the Hollow Night sequel, Silksong.

I wasn’t a particularly big fan of the original Hollow Night game but this iteration has gotten enough rave reviews that I thought I may as well give it a try. Plus, maybe it will help make me feel like getting the Switch 2 wasn’t a total waste of money?

Previously: 2024 W48 and 2023 W48

2025 W47: Imaginary fruit tree

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 05:32:57 -0500

§ At work this week I experimented with CNCing foam into small modular ‘topographical’ panels for an exhibit I’m prototyping. Previously, I’ve only really CNC’d plywood so foam is a fun change—it feels like carving a sculpture out of butter when all you’re used to is stone.

§ When Overcast launched its Listening Stats feature this time last year I had logged 678 hours of podcast listening time. So far this year I’ve listened to 472 hours of podcasts.

This averages out to just under 1.5 hours a day which is a lot, yes, but meaningfully less than the over 2 hours a day average last year. I can’t say for sure but I like to think that this is extra half an hour each day has gone to reading books, which I’ve done significantly more of this year.

§ Speaking of how long I spend listening to podcasts… For a while I’ve been bothered about how much time I spend on my phone in general. Over time I’ve tried a number of things to curb my usage including setting Screen Time app limits and making the entire phone grayscale while I’m at home.

Recently, I realized that the majority of the time I pull out my phone it isn’t really a conscious decision but more of a subconscious reflex. All I really need to do is interrupt that reflex so that I am forced to make a conscious choice each time.

To that end, my current experiment is swapping the pants pocket that I typically keep my phone in. Now, when my left hand unconsciously reaches into my pocket for my phone it isn’t there which gives me a crucial moment to re-evaluate. Yes, this will only be effective until my muscle memory readjusts but then I can just swap again?

§ On Friday I ate a persimmon for what I think is probably the first time ever. Like the maypop it’s another fruit with a slightly unappetizing texture that tastes truly great. It would be fun to try growing a persimmon tree one day—another one for my currently imaginary fruit tree orchard.

§ After watching the most recent episode of Pluribus, episode 4, the show finally feels like it might be building some momentum. It’s just a shame it has taken so long to get here. I have a sneaking suspicion the season will end on an abrupt, unsatisfying cliffhanger. I’m looking at you, Severance season 1.

§ Finally, in less than a month the days will start getting longer again. One day we will all wake up and realize permanent daylight saving time is the way to go.

Previously: 2024 W47 and 2023 W47

2025 W46: Spiritually similar

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 05:24:57 -0500

§ The snow that was threatened for this week did indeed arrive Monday morning and stuck around through Tuesday. I had to dig through the garage for a snow brush to clean off my car and the quail’s water froze solid—proper winter weather. By the weekend temperatures were back up to acceptable autumn levels.

§ I also heard Christmas music while out shopping. Criminally early, if you ask me.

§ On Wednesday my copy of The School of Night, the fourth book in Knausgaard’s Morning Star series, arrived from the UK. I’ve only just started reading it but I’m excited to continue.

§ On Thursday I started prototyping a project that involved edge-lighting custom laser cut acrylic panels with individually-addressable LED light strips. The plan is that eventually the colors and animated patterns of the lights will correspond to live API data from a local environmental monitoring sensor. We will see how that goes.

§ I watched the first few of episodes of Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s new show. It feels spiritually similar to Mrs. Davis though not quite as successful, at least so far. It’s stylish and inventive, well shot and acted but a bit one-dimensional. It doesn’t help that there is only one fully fleshed out character.

§ I also watched the fifth season of Slow Horses. It’s good, just like the previous four seasons, precisely because it is basically the same formula as the previous four seasons just with a few minor elements shuffled around.

§ On Saturday I helped teach an introduction to 2D CAD to a local First Robotics team. It has been a couple of years since I’ve done any true ‘classroom-style’ teaching. All things considered, I think it went pretty well.

Previously: 2024 W46 and 2023 W46

2025 W45: A single leaf

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 05:21:00 -0500

§ That cold I mentioned last week? It never materialized. Thanks zinc/vitamin c/sleep/water/luck!

§ As the weather cools down, our fig has been particularly productive. The challenge is, although the plant is covered in countless tiny fruits, only a handful ripen at once. Additionally, after a fresh fig has been picked, it needs to be eaten within a day or two before it gets all gross and mushy. We’ve started slicing and freezing them every few days, hoping to save up enough before the season is over to make a proper batch of fig jam.

§ I haven’t raked a single leaf this fall. Getting a mulching lawn mower earlier this year was easily one of the best decisions I’ve made in a while.

§ This week I finally built and installed a few custom shelves for my basement stairway that I first mentioned here eight months ago. How’s that for procrastination?

§ For the past week I’ve been experiencing the strangest, most annoying issue with my AirPods. The right AirPod, when in Adaptive or Transparency mode, will re-amplify external sounds with a slight delay. The delay is somewhere in the milliseconds but it is immediately noticeable and extremely disorienting. I’ve tried cleaning, resetting, and re-pairing them to no avail.

§ James Bridle linked to the fascinating solar power for artists project. I still find getting started with small scale DIY solar very intimidating but I’m more curious than ever to take the plunge.

§ I watched House of Dynamite on the recommendation of my boss. It was extremely chilling and was almost physically uncontrollable to watch. Powerful. Effective. I won’t say any more because you should go into it as blind as possible.

§ I also watched Task which was one of the better shows I’ve seen in a while. Don’t let the generic name and superficially generic premise fool you—there is some magic there.

Unfortunately, the principle that all seven episode miniseries’ are at least two episodes too long still holds true here.

§ Yesterday Caroline and I helped harvest and process kozo for paper making at the Morgan Conservatory. It was fascinating to participate in such an ancient, communal activity.

§ The forecast calls for snow next week which I find hard to believe. Regardless, I brought all of our cold-sensitive plants inside to our makeshift basement greenhouse.

Previously: 2024 W45 and 2023 W45

2025 W44: A great bratwurst

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 06:03:41 -0500

§ Tuesday morning I flew into Milwaukee for a brief work trip. I was in the city for less than 24 hours so it wasn’t nearly enough time to form a complete picture of the place. I did thankfully get a chance to pop in to Public Market which is Milwaukee’s take on Cleveland’s West Side or Van Aken markets. I got a great bratwurst.

We spent one night there before taking a shuttle bus to Chicago. I was hit with instant, powerful nostalgia as soon as we started driving down streets filled with the quintessential Chicago-style bungalows that are ubiquitous outside of the city center.

For some reason Chicago still feels more like ‘home’ to me than Cleveland despite both growing up in Cleveland and, by now, spending a majority of my adult live there. Perhaps I spent a certain critical formative period in Chicago which left a particularly indelible impression on me?

§ Halloween was Friday. After getting increasingly disappointing numbers of trick-or-treaters at our house in recent years, Caroline and I finally decided to give up and instead take part in trick-or-treating at my in-laws house in their much more kid-centric neighborhood. Unfortunately, we may have brought the curse to them because this year, for the first time ever, they only had a handful of trick-or-treaters.

§ Yesterday it gradually became apparent that I’m coming down with a cold.

§ Daylight savings time ends today. As has become tradition, I’m once again using it as a chance to push my morning alarm earlier. Back in 2023 I stole 30 minutes, waking up at 5:30 instead of 6:00am. Last year I moved my alarm back another 15 minutes and have been waking up at 5:15 every day since.

Why do I do this? I guess because this one opportunity each year—moving the clocks black one hour—feels like the only chance you are granted “additional” time in the day. I realize this isn’t truly the case, but it is the feeling that matters.

So a couple of years ago when I first moved my alarm back thirty minutes it sort of felt like I was giving myself both an extra 30 minutes of sleep while also giving myself 30 more minutes to get ready in the morning. Magic.

Anyway once again I’ve moved my alarm back another 15 minutes, this time to 5:00am. I think this will have to be the end of the road for this particular tradition though. Something about voluntarily waking up in the 4am hour feels absurd to me.

Previously: 2024 W44 and 2023 W44

2025 W43: Inertia

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 04:37:06 -0500

§ A week of almost nonstop rain forced me inside to finally tidy up, rearrange a bit, and hang up some artwork I’ve been neglecting for way too long.

§ At work I’ve finally started getting back into the swing of creating things—building little prototypes with my hands. It has been re-energizing.

I started building what will eventually become a spinning water maze
I made two different versions of a Tesla valve: one that rotates and another, much bigger one, that is air-activated
I started on an early prototype of a demonstration macro-scale water filtration apparatus
I also tried projection mapping directly onto a real 1970s Skylab command module

§ I’m learning that creativity isn’t just the act of creating new things. It is fueled by creating new things. This means that if I find myself in a creative rut, it becomes that much harder to build up enough inertia to dig myself out. On the flip side, once I start creating one thing, starting the next becomes that much easier.

§ I’ve passed the two-year streak of completing the Puzzmo crossword every day. Unlike this time last year I feel like my skills have basically plateaued. I nevertheless still get a lot of enjoyment out of playing each day—it has become an essential part of my morning routine.

§ On Saturday I got a haircut for the first time in two months. Way too long of a gap, for future reference.

§ Next week I’ll be in Milwaukee and Chicago for a few days. I’m looking forward to the brief change of scenery.

Previously: 2024 W43 and 2023 W43

2025 W42: Pruning and harvesting

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 04:47:56 -0500

§ I’ve written and published a post like this every week since December 10th, 2022 which makes this my 150th weeknote.

While each individual entry might be inconsequential on its own, I already find value in the archive collectively as a sort of public memory. My sense is that this value will only increase over time as my distance from the oldest notes grows.

The public nature of this project means that I am inevitably less brutally candid than I would be if this were a private diary. However, the truth is that public accountability is the main driving force that ensures I publish this every week. These are the tradeoffs.

§ Caroline and I spent the weekend pruning and harvesting, cleaning up the garden for the fall.

I did not expect the vibrant array of pinks and purples we would find when we popped open the mature scarlet runner bean pods. We cooked them (thoroughly!) and ate them for lunch.

§ I finally got the chance to try fully ripe maypop fruit. I’ve been growing the plant for a couple of years but have always picked the fruit too early and it’s been fragrant but very bitter. It turns out, when it’s actually ripe the fruit is genuinely great, like a super sweet candy apple combined with banana.

§ I finished Twin Peaks: The Return. Setting aside the final two episodes, I’m tempted to say that it might be the best season of the show overall. This could easily be influenced by the fact that it is still so fresh in my memory. I’ll have to let it sit for a bit. I have a feeling that it is going to be a piece of media I revisit often.

§ I also finished the first volume of Knausgaard’s massive six-book autofiction series. It really shouldn’t be good but it is in a particular almost hypnotic sort of way. I ultimately enjoyed it a lot although not quite as much as his Morning Star series. I particularly appreciate the context it provides—it’s clear that many of the characters Knausgaard inserts into his fiction are based off of members of his friends and family.

Now I’m onto part two.

§ On Saturday Caroline and I visited Frayed Knot’s open house. It is a three-acre flower farm run by the same folks that organized the paper making workshop we attended a couple of weeks ago. So many dahlias and zinnias. Cute.

Previously: 2024 W42 and 2023 W42

2025 W41: Ten cloves

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 04:44:42 -0500

§ These last few weeks of October before daylight savings time ends are some of my favorite. Dramatic dark mornings that suddenly break into sunrise during my commute. The fighting chance for a hour or two of usable daylight after dinner.

Pitch black mornings always remind me of chilly pre-dawn drives to the airport as a child. A break in routine brimming with adventure and possibility.

§ On Monday I finally—finally—completed a years-long quest: I bought a handful of fresh pawpaw fruits from the same farm that I got the pawpaw “butter” from a couple of weeks ago.

What can I say, it’s a good fruit. Is it good enough to justify the multi-year quest? Honestly, it might be.

§ This time last year I planted garlic cloves for a springtime harvest. It hadn’t really crossed my mind yet this year since it has been so unseasonably hot with frequent highs in the 80s over the past few weeks.

In the name of science I decided to give it a shot anyway and planted ten cloves across five different varieties of garlic. This year only one plant survived to harvest. Here’s hoping we have better luck next year.

§ Both of my planned work trips to San Francisco earlier this year were ultimately canceled. However, on Wednesday I booked my flight for a quick work trip to Milwaukee (and, very briefly, Chicago) for the end of this month. I’m pretty excited, especially considering the fact that this will be my first time in Milwaukee.

Someday I’ll see San Francisco.

§ On Friday afternoon I drove out to Oberlin for a lecture. I always seem to forget that we have a college with such a rich and important history nearby in rural Ohio. I only wish I had a reason to visit more frequently.

§ On Saturday my wife and I attended the first birthday party for the son of a friend of ours. We made a custom CNC-machined pull along toy as a gift for the one year old. He seemed to like it.

§ Given how effusive I was about the first season of Twin Peaks last week it is only fair to say that I always seem to forget that the show’s second season is probably ten episodes longer than it should be. There is a whole lot of subpar filler in the middle there.

Also, I finally started watching The Return for the first time:

Cameos from the original cast were cute but I found myself preferring the “new” characters and storyline
Except for Kyle McLaughlin, who is incredible
The combination of the humorous and horrific with the surreal and bizarre is spot on
The sparing use of Badalamenti’s score made for a completely different atmosphere compared to the original two seasons. Other than the frequent use of low atonal drones, almost all music is diegetic.

Previously: 2024 W41 and 2023 W41

2025 W40: Preternatural talent

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 04:39:35 -0500

§ Tuesday was the ribbon-cutting of a new permanent early childhood exhibition gallery I’ve been working on for the past two years. It is such a joy to see people finally interact with something that for so long only existed as an idea in my head.

§ Tuesday was also the end of the third quarter so it’s time for another one of my quarterly meal tracking reports. Here is the Q3 chart. If you don’t remember, here was Q2 and Q1.

As time goes on I’m seeing decreasing usefulness from this kind of meal tracking so I don’t expect to continue it into next year. I’ll certainly finish up this year, though.

A few of my favorite new recipes this quarter included:

On a whim, I cooked lamb for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was shockingly easy and flavorful.
Harissa roast pumpkin with tahini sauce will single-handedly ensure that I grow pumpkins again next year.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of fish but this fish taco recipe turned out great. We subbed out the tilapia for cod.

§ TV medical dramas have never really been my thing but after listening to the most recent episode of Search Engine I watched The Pitt. The show honestly started off pretty weak but hooked me as it progressed through an increasingly hectic fifteen-hour shift in a Philadelphia ER ward. I’m looking forward to the next season.

§ Afterwards I started watching the first season of Twin Peaks for what could easily be the fifth time. It’s truly the perfect ‘default’ show and is eminently quotable. I’d be hard-pressed to think of any other series with as unique and cohesive sense of atmosphere. The music, dialog, set design, cinematography, and acting all come together to create a piece of visual media unlike anything else, before or since.

§ It was a good week for music with new albums by Geese and Molly Nilsson. Both albums represent very different vibes but they are both great nonetheless.

I have to say I’m a little disappointed that the new Geese album traded the Zappa-like, almost manic energy of their previous album for more subdued Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-style crooning. It feels less unique at first glance but maybe I just need to give it a few more listens.

§ Yesterday was busy. In the morning Caroline and I attended a workshop where we learned how to make paper from scratch using a variety of different invasive plant species. It turns out Caroline has some kind of preternatural talent for paper making. She was quickly churning out pages that were so perfect and uniform that I think the instructor was starting to feel a bit jealous. My paper, on the other hand, was extremely subpar. We balance each other out.

Later in the afternoon we attended a cousin’s wedding reception downtown. The venue was breathtaking and historic. The wedding itself was lovely.

Previously: 2024 W40 and 2023 W40

2025 W39: Suburban adulthood

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 04:44:39 -0500

§ Last Sunday was 85°f and sunny. The forecast for the coming week was all rain and low-70s temperatures so I thought I should take full advantage of the nice weather while it lasted. I hiked for almost five miles along the creek at a local park, looking for pawpaws. I found a surprising number of trees but no fruit. It was a nice time nonetheless.

Back home in the evening I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread. Just as it came out of the oven a huge rainstorm descended onto the city which persisted all week, off and on. As was foretold.

§ I’ve obviously been talking about pawpaws enough that word made its way to my dad’s coworker’s mom who runs a small farm with a number of pawpaw trees. On Tuesday I picked up a jar of their homemade pawpaw butter. Heavenly.

§ Both you, dear reader, and everyone else in my day-to-day life must be thankful that pawpaw season is so short. Rest assured I’ll stop talking about this particular topic soon enough.

On the other hand, at least it’s pawpaw fruit in rambling on about and not Liquid Glass?

§ One by one, our figs are beginning to ripen. This is much later than 2023 where we harvested a bevy of ripe figs right around Labor Day but exactly in line with last year where fruit started ripening during the last week of September.

Most importantly, this year the plant is producing way more fruit than any previous year by a wide margin. It might be time to learn how to make a proper fig jam.

§ I’m often pretty awful about procrastination. It was impossible to overlook this fact during my school years but nowadays it can be easy to forget about this affliction. This week I finally mailed off a letter that has been sitting on my desk for more than a month. One of these days I’ll refill my windshield wiper fluid which has been empty for the majority of 2025.

§ Following up on a couple of weeks ago, I started reading On the Calculation of Volume. It’s a short book. The first quarter started out pretty strong but I started loosing steam around the halfway mark. Honestly, it started feeling too repetitive. I realize that this almost seems like invalid criticism for a book literally about a woman stuck repeating a single day over and over again. Maybe I’ll try reading it again later.

For now, I started back in on the first of Knausgaard’s six-book autobiographical series. At least if I get drawn into it I’ll be set for quite awhile—the entire series is something like 3,600 pages in total.

§ On the advice of Phil I watched The Settlers. The story was grim and the cinematography was great. The 3:2 aspect ratio felt like a breath of fresh air.

§ Yesterday I finally broke down and signed up for a Costco membership. Next to buying a lawn mower earlier this year, it feels like a whole new level of suburban adulthood.

Previously: 2024 W39 and 2023 W39