Every once in a while I feel like getting back into not-reading posts. Bare with me. Hmm...I bet it's bear with me. Otherwise we're going to have to shed some clothes, right?
So what did I do for my birthday this year? Celebrated it a day early for one. We headed up to the cabin to see my folks and took a bunch of steak, porkchops, and potatoes with us. And some games. My wife and kid took crokinole. We learned to play it at a gaming day with friends last weekend and they loved it. Then discovered that the board I'd had forever because it was the same board I'd had as a kid in the old farmstead home when I farmed in the summers, was a crokinole board on the flip side. So there was a bunch of cribbage and crokinole pre-steak.
You can tell we're in heavy covid concern because of the masks. I literally used my mask between bites of dinner. I was pretty sure we were all safe, but my kid bags groceries, and we talked to the neighbor to get Luna - the dog - watched, and the meat store in Osseo was off the hook with people. Better safe than sick with all the hospital beds pretty much full.
I got a cool pillow case from my mother that means I'll never have to guess which pillow is mine again, and I'll know if my wife is stealing my pillow to use as a reading pillow in the living room. Reminds me that I need to get mounting bolts for the bars to hang my cycling quilt she made me.
And I got a cycling game. I told my wife Flamme Rouge was on my short list of potential gifts. She got the expansion as well so I can play solo. I'm worried that it's sort of pathetic if I sit around drinking and playing cycling games all by my lonesome, but I'm willing to deal with the shame.
I got this game
I tried this, used me lipsyncing Space Oddity. A few quirks and I used the zero code version, not the Jupyter notebook version, but editing the video/audio was the tough part.
“They think the way around it is teaching ops people how to code. Then, the ops people start thinking like developers and forget about why the software fails.”
Tooling, including Liquibase, New Relic, Selenium/Appium (and umbrella tooling), scaled agile (SAFe).
Many have a focus on creating more tests (using AI/ML) to give more insight and create in production breakpoints and, of course, to automate everything (and capture it as code deploying code).
Ugh, new strategies and mentoring employees is < 20 percent of the average manager's time?
ego depletion / decision fatigue.
leadership: extroversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness.
10/27/2020: Learn How to Accurate Forecast Demand with Amazon Forecast [60:00]
10/26/2020: Demystifying Data Lakes for Healthcare and Life Sciences [60:00]
Really good section on deploy stack for Glue frameworks. Shared it with one of my coworkers so she can ponder implementing it for quick POC / spike work.
Chester County History Center in PA: Dark History. [60:00] - all sorts of fun stories about the use of bodies in medicine/etc. The online nature of events during Covid is a nice side-effect.
Create a QnA Bot with Amazon Lex and Amazon Kendra [60:00] - I'd like to try this if I ever get the time.
Accelerating Microservice-based Application Delivery with AWS [60:00] - focus on containers.
Good read as we bypassed SD entirely on our way back from Yellowstone given the map of the hotspots and the fact that Sturgis had happened regardless of health concerns.
Weights and Biases and Manifold. Both for visualizing your models.
10/4/2020:
Trust me, there is reading going on as well, but I'm getting in a LOT of walking, so now that I've really figured out podcasts and have the headphones working right, I'm getting in a lot of listening. Added Savage Love Podcast as well, although I haven't listened to any yet to be sure. And I listened to three Lore podcast episodes, but I'm not including those because I'm not going to add them. I really prefer the multi-person conversational style. Rabbit Hole wasn't quite like that, but there were two interviewers/reporters involved and a lot of back and forth discussion.
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Brian Cox [45:00] - 28 September 2020
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - the Popular Science Podcast - Debunking Hymen Myths, Moving Corpses, Birth Control to Please the Pope [41:07] - 2 October 2019
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - the Popular Science Podcast - Exploding Underwater Mountains, Board Sex and Celery [51:41] - 30 September 2020
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - the Popular Science Podcast - Hot Dog Sports, Sexy Pseudoscience, Intestinal Power Walking [41:06] - 16 September 2020
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - the Popular Science Podcast - Giant Sloths, Caged Babies, Spicy Horse Butts [38:07] - 2 May 2018
10/3/2020:
New York Times, Rabbit Hole podcast - about internet radicalization and recommendations and conspiracy. Seven: Where We Go One. [30:00]
New York Times, Rabbit Hole podcast - about internet radicalization and recommendations and conspiracy. Eight: We Go All. [36:00]
Roam Research: Our First Look [11:07] - newer personal wiki/research tool. Interesting as it leverages nodes, which is why I was looking at Neo4j, but eventually overkill for almost anything I do unless I'm building a complete universe and there are writing specific tools for that.
New York Times, Rabbit Hole podcast - about internet radicalization and recommendations and conspiracy. Four: Headquarters. [40:00]
New York Times, Rabbit Hole podcast - about internet radicalization and recommendations and conspiracy. Five: The Accidental Emperor. [36:00]
New York Times, Rabbit Hole podcast - about internet radicalization and recommendations and conspiracy. Six: Impasse. [25:00]
I need to get better at more of a day-by-day entry system, because dang was this a lot of stuff to track. I feel weirdly underread this month despite what is obviously a LOT of reading. I didn't even include starting Little, Big right at the end of the month and some of Dying of Whiteness that may become a co-bedside book with The English. And Lovecraft Country doesn't include that I'm going to watch the series on HBO because I don't do television here. Argh...see, I can already tell I missed the Tim Minchin podcast with David Tennant and that was one of my favorites. Drove me down a whole musical aside. Or Cush Jumbo. Sigh... I bolded the four Tennant podcasts episodes I liked best, but they were all really, really good. I think Levy's was the one I like least, because I haven't watched his series, although I loved the stories with his dad and his experience in the industry and life.
9/22/2020: oh nos - I'm all caught up in the David Tennant podcast series. Have to find a new one. Kind of hard. Tried Lore, didn't like it. The Facts of the day one is fun, but more frivolous. I'm going to go with one from the Times re: internet radicalization, but it's a limited three hour series. Obviously didn't listen to all of these on the same day, but I do get in at least 45 minutes of walking a day, so I keep up a good flow of information. Should maybe try a history one, but I seem to be fairly particular when it comes to topic flow, voice. Fake doctors is good, but sooo long in some way. There's a Dead Eyes podcast similar to Tennant about Holywood rejection stories. That might be good, but less educational. I'd try a machine learning one, but I worry about mentally checking out while I walk and multitask doing Litterati/etc.
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Tim Minchin [45:00] - 22 September 2020
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Cush Jumbo [45:00] - 15 September 2020
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Dan Levy [45:00] - 8 September 2020
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Judi Dench [45:00] - 1 September 2020
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...George Takei {45:00] - 25 August 2020
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Stacey Abrams [45:00] - 18 August 2020
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Jim Parson [45:00] - 11 August 2020
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Everyone - season outtakes - 21 May 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Michael Sheen [45:00] 23 April 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Tina Fey [45:00] - 16 April 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Samantha Bee [45:00] - 9 April 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...James Cordon [45:00] - 2 April 2019
Recording fifty page chunks...made it to roughly page 100 the second half of the month. It's my bedside, read a few pages before sleep book which tends to run a little meatier than what I'm reading otherwise.
9/19/2020: Piles and piles of articles on geographically dispersed teams. See my inbox for "How to Make Location-Independent Agile Work", "6 Tools to Help you Manage Geographically Dispersed Teams", and about a dozen others. Some nice images I captured to my history.
9/15/2020: Gender Equality in the Workplace Debunking the Myths. Online hour seminar with Lisa Thomas, Joeli Brearley, and Scarlett Curtis - this was on the 9th maybe.
9/12/2020: David Tennant Podcast - https://www.david-tennant.com/podcast - listen to these while I'm running or getting in a walk to the grocery store / Target / etc.
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Olivia Colman [45:00] - January 28, 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Whoopi Goldberg [45:00] - 5 February 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Jodie Whittaker [45:00] - 12 February 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Sir Ian McKellen [45:00] - 19 February 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Jon Hamm [45:00] - 26 February 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Gordon Brown [45:00] - 5 March 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Jennifer Garner [45:00] - 12 March 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Catherine Tate [45:00] - 19 March 2019
David Tennant Does a Podcast With...Krysten Ritter [45:00] - 26 March 2019
On Friday I pedaled from Eagan up to Banning State Park near Sandstone, MN. Good trip, although not particularly exciting.
It was mostly on trails: from Eagan into St. Paul, catch the Gateway/Vento, Sunrise, Willard Munger, and a spur. Total was 107.55 miles.
It was more overgrown (on the sides) then when we were up there 10 years ago or so, so a bit more shade. But still pretty flat with a slight grade because you're headed north in Minnesota (there's a reason most folks go north to south), and lots of sun. I started at 6:00 a.m. to avoid the bulk of the heat, but I still stopped twice to buy more water, three 16+ oz bottles each time. The second time I panicked a bit as the gas station was locked up tight due to an electrical outage, but there was another not too far down the road also out of electricity, but taking cash. Still, it was still almost not enough.
I did not like the shoulders on 61 where they simply fell apart and hadn't been cleaned in....ever? I hit a small spot of gravel at one point and there was a loud twang as a sizable chunk of metal went flying. I thought I had avoided a flat....for about another 60 seconds. Fortunately, it was easy to fix and despite the size of the shard of metal, hadn't shredded my actual tire. Simple puncture. After that I trended more toward the road despite the cars.
Other highlights? An idiot in a truck with a large Confederate Flag flying high above several US flags. Hampton Umbrella rides. Pictured below. Sort of sketchy looking in this context. I didn't get a picture of the Scooter ride entrance which was pretty terrifying; a tunnel full of pieces of metal sticking into the center. It was like it was beckoning specifically to me with my nickname.
A dam on the way there. I think this is just north of Hinckley, where I really should have stopped for a piece of pie at the Whistle Stop Cafe, even though it would have been outside on the cement. I've certainly done that many times before on RAGBRAI.
My wife met me at Banning State Park with the convertible for a picnic (abbreviated because of the mosquitoes, but still appreciated - I'd had mostly nuts and fruit snacks and goldfish crackers at that point) and for a tour of the park (abbreviated; we saw the rapids, but the falls were a four mile round trip that she wasn't up for). Here are a number of pictures of the rapids. Pretty area, particularly if you want to hike. I heard on the news that in Taylors Falls, 50 miles from us, a guy fell off the cliffs and landed on the rocks while we were at Banning. This didn't seem to get as high over the river as that, but there were some bouldering type areas that went higher than we were willing to hike.
Poot working on her own photo. She's got a selfie of us somewhere on her camera.
All in all, a great ride, although I'm feeling it in the saddle some today. I keep thinking my modifications to my bike seat will pan out, but I can find the right level. Still, close enough and getting new brake pads on is priority one.
My wife and I watched The Incident the other night. I really enjoyed it. My take is that it's about tragedy and how someone reacts to (maybe dwells upon, or dwells within is a better turn of phrase) tragedy whether they're old or young and whether they persevere in the face of that tragedy or succumb to it emotionally. In the case of The Incident whether one thrives or shrivels seems to be based on age.
For a while I really hoped it was a dystopia in the vein of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. e.g. the noise was a machine of some sort splitting off a very bad dimension/possibility and screwing over some version of yourself, so that an individual could enjoy a probable good turn in the timeline that had the technology. Personally, I think that's a creepier take on the whole thing. Confining some version of yourself to hell so that you can enjoy a less painful reality. How many alternate yous would you be willing to banish to hell to be happy? Would you justify it with "it's me, so they'd be happy for the happy me?"
Inventive and well worth watching and I agree with Variety, that it's got a smattering of Borges, enough so that when it tries to explain things at the end, it almost screws up the movie.
My new neighbor trades beer with me. Between him and Kyle and myself, I may never have to drink the same beer more than twice unless I really want to. I've taken to buying warm beer and storing it under the steps and I'm developing quite the esoteric collection.
This was one of the incoming trades. I had it while playing D&D on Sunday. I'm generally against fruity beer, but this had a seriously light taste (and light alcohol at 4.4%). The lower alcohol level was a bonus because anything above 6% tends to make me a bit fuzzy for playing my character.
Speaking of Warbear the Invincible, Warlock, here's his character sheet. https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/Dexter_Scootarus_I/characters/27038034. E, Kyle, Chris, his son, and I have been playing for about two months on most weekends with a few skips. Last time I played consistently was in the Richfield house maybe 25 years ago. We're having a good time, although I have a theme. Fire my biggest spell, Scorching Ray. Take a hit, and "blow up" with Hellish Rebuke. Either go down, or get in an Eldritch Blast and then go down. It's not 100%, but I think it's at least a 60% go to strategy. Mostly I'm waiting for my patron (a fiend, in this case Demogorgon) to decide he's going to chew on my brain and spit it back into my skull. I hear that's how he makes friends.
Yesterday I pedaled up to the Finnish Bistro in the Como neighborhood of St. Paul. Very close to the State Fair. Given the Fair is going to be shut down this year due to Covid concerns (rightly so), it's about as close to my bike ride to an Americano at the Farmer's Union there that I'm going to get. Kind of a bummer - I'm usually there earlier enough to see some interesting sights. Last year it was Governor Walz stopping by my table to say hello. I'm still getting a little bit of rub on the back tire even after my deep cleaning during a streaming Sarah Morris concert We'll see if new brake pads will take care of it. I may have to bite the bullet and do a little bit of truing. I did take a trip later in the day to find tires for the other bicycle (which has a bald back wheel), but Gateway and Strauss didn't have anything with tread due to Coronavirus stocking issues. The wait is like 4 weeks at the moment. I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of tires off Amazon. They seem upscale compared to what's on the bike after a bit of research.
Some cool animal sightings as I was out at 6:00 a.m. A bunch of turkeys wandering around near the river. And when I went past Fort Snelling a deer in the parking lot was close enough for petting for a thirty seconds. Not that I'd pet him. Deer ticks make me nervous (after two rounds of Lyme's).
Here's my bike nearby (the old one) while I eat Oat Cakes with cardamom, reindeer sausage, and an Americano on the bus bench. I think my biggest issue was lack of a metal fork. I should put one in my pack so I always have one. It would have made the meal much better. Not that it wasn't delicious, albeit a bit too much.
Part of the reason I was up there was to drop a book off for Alex. No one answered, but with Covid I've been wrapping drop offs in quart bags, so I was able to leave it hidden in the weeds behind a pitcher and send him a photo. Although it's a Cthulhu book, so hopefully it doesn't leave an evil, otherworldly essence behind to infuse his plants.
As I neared home, I pedaled past a bunch of guys packing up their bicycles after a morning ride near Hwy 13. I was amused that there one guy explaining that his bicycle was "not a road bike" and he could move to a road bike if he wanted to in order to be more efficient. His definition of "not a road bike" had treadless, razor thin tires, and a light frame. I wanted to yell, "THIS IS NOT A ROAD BIKE." But I refrained.
Overall, it reminded me of the Craft Beer Drinkers Be Like series that Kyle forwarded me:
I've been eating hummus lately. My blood pressure leveled out and I know beans are supposed to be a natural healthy option (and losing weight), so I'm trying to up my fish and bean intake. I bought a few store options and they're sort of boring, even those labeled as spicy. I hear the "everything" option, akin to an everything bagel, makes some top 10 lists, so I still intend to try that. As an experiment, I mixed some ghost curry power into a store bought dollop. No good. You can bury a LOT of ghost curry powder in store bought hummus to no effect. And when you finally do get it to cut through, it tastes more like powder, less like hummus.
So I have made my own. Anyone who knows me knows this is not exactly my thing. But it seemed worth a try. Most of the recipes out there are some variation of this (basic ingredient mix below). I wanted to try this variation (video below), but finding dried peppers online is a little more difficult than I expected, at least Anaheim variety. Ghost peppers, not so hard. I suspect they aren't purchased as often. And, with the USPS nonsense underway, I didn't want to wait for two weeks.
So I compromised. Washed the garbanzo beans (what a pain, but in the end worth it). Used a whole lemon (too much, although I wonder how other citrus bases would work, like a lime). Used two cloves of garlic (too much, although if you're not going to eat hummus and make out with your vegan friend, maybe not an issue). And then in addition to what's below added 1 t. of ground chipotle (fresh is probably better) and .5 t. (roughly, maybe a little more) of ghost curry powder from Savory Spice.
Outcome: better than the store bought. Smoother, sharper flavors, and I can at least feel the heat although I erred on the side of caution and sampled it as I slowly added chipotle and ghost. A few issues like the lemon and garlic amounts I used. Just a little heat (in my opinion) without being overwhelming. I may have to try real chipotle and ghost peppers (dried) and see if it's any different, although the curry aspect works pretty well and I may try some of the other Indian spice mixes I have from Penzey's as an alternative before I worry about that. It'd be good on naan, although as a general snack pita is a healthier option from a sheer calorie perspective.
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas or 1 1/2 cups (250 grams) cooked chickpeas
These are interesting. They're from my iPad1 (!) circa....2012? They must be from after I came back to work with the cane. My brain was operating a little different from standard at the time and these are definitely me, but something about them puts me in memory of a state of mind that was a little strange during meetings. If I was SVG savvy, I'd create some real posters with the National Park / Workplace Productivity feel to them.
This is a Stone Angel Free Workplace: Your Accidents Are All With Your Future Self
This is a Dalek Free Workplace: Although We Do Exterminate Anyone Who Might Cause an Accident
This is a Cyberman Free Workplace: If There IS an Accident, You Won't Feel Pain
And then we switch from Doctor Who to Elder Scrolls!
This is a Sweet Roll Free Workplace: 324 Days Since Anyone Took an Arrow to the Knee.
To Joe: Headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca.
To Jessica and Drew. This was a gift from Dan when he was in Hawaii.
To JonZ. Really old hipsters.
To Kyle: Cathedral Spires, Needles Drive, Black Hills, SD. Sung to the tune of The Beatles Rocky Raccoon.
To Ming: Mount Rushmore. Sans posers.
To Vonda: Tower Soudan Mines in Northern Minnesota.
To ChristyF: Walnut Canyon National Monument. Sinagua ruins. The Boss is hiding in the darkness.
To JulieL: Wupatki Ruins at Wupatki National Monument. Trimmed that bit of tape off. It's holding a picture of her house to the card as it sold back in 1984.
To KatieK: from Tom Hardy. He's taking a barrel over the falls to see her, but he's afraid he lose his shirt and be all wet.
To JanineL: reminder to give Larry a cognitive test because he keeps losing at Carcassonne.
To Jestine (and Erik): Erik mowing Buckingham Palace grounds shirtless.
Sandy (and Mark): The Knife Ridge, Mount Katahdin, Baxter State Park, Maine.
To Dele: tell me what kinds of t-shirts you like so I can leave them in the pot at the end of the rainbow. Badlands, SD.
