Photo of a bicycle modified to carry a drum grill on the rear.
Grill on wheels

This was a short work week for me since we went to Florida for a long weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve experienced the joy of air travel. It was an excellent reminder of why I prefer the train.

In other news, I made some minor updates to this blogroll history page. I had noticed some weirdness in the graph recently, which has now been fixed. The data is sort of interesting, to me anyway, even if the visualization is less than stunning. The data gets a little more interesting after May 2024 when I started curating my blog roll more actively and one can clearly see the sites I’ve followed forever, and those that I only followed for a short time.

The original version of this was one of my first vibecoding attempts a couple years ago, and it shows. I think I did all of this in Chat GPT (copy & paste, no Copilot). The script is absolutely impossible to follow, and very brittle. Perhaps I’ll clean it up one day. While I was at it, I migrated the whole mess over to Codeberg.

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Finished reading Street Smart by Sam Schwartz (a.k.a Gridlock Sam) this week. One of the things he points out how easy access to transit information increases transit ridership. In hindsight, this is obvious, but I hadn’t really thought of it. Sure, public transit needs to be frequent, safe and connect many places. But, if it is difficult to decipher the maps and timetables, it’s also difficult to understand how to get where one wants to go.

I remember how difficult it could be to navigate an unfamiliar city’s transit network. Especially when one doesn’t speak or read the local language. Things have gotten so much better in the past several years. Most of us are carrying a connected computer with specialized apps, not to mention the inclusion of open data in the popular map applications. Tap to ride is also a great improvement. Tapping with a credit/debit card or phone makes transit in unfamiliar cities much more approachable. Don’t get me wrong, fumbling around the first time I used a strippenkaart (Dutch) is an experience I’m happy to have had. However, I’m sure the commuters waiting for me to do it are happy I can just tap and ride now.

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It was a relatively quiet week. We didn’t even get to have our regular Jamulus session. I was all set up for it, but my audio interface just wasn’t having it. By the time I got it fixed, it was too late to start. Some participants, who will remain unnamed, needed to pack for a trip or some such. We have a few off weeks coming up due to travel and other obligations, so I’ll need to get some practice sessions in to retain what little chops I have.

As I write this, we’re at the tail end of the wettest Memorial Day weekend I can remember. It has alternated between rain and mist since Saturday morning. I really feel bad for the people that made plans to get away to the beach or country and ended up spending it stuck in house drinking and playing Scrabble. Although, that doesn’t sound entirely bad.

No matter where you are, this grey weather can be a real downer. Of course, things are looking up for the short work week starting tomorrow!

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Photo of a gray, steel shop stool with a wooden seat taken from directly above. The word HENSON is written on a piece of duct tape atop the stool.

We got to tour Jim Henson’s Creature Shop this week, which totally exceeded expectations. They did a wonderful job presenting the rich history of Henson’s workshops here in New York City. It was a real treat to see the place where they build these characters and learn more about how they do it from some of the seasoned puppet makers.

Another highlight: The best tacos al pastor in recent memory from a nearby restaurant. I highly recommend both the tour, and a meal in one of the many restaurants nearby.


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Photo of the marquee and crowd outside of Webster Hall in New York City. The text on the marquee is: "SUGAR - SOLD OUT - MAY 2, 3 & 4."

Caught the last of Sugar’s three night run at Webster Hall. Excellent show (set list) with three special guests at the end. Of the shows I’ve been to recently, this was a particularly well-behaved crowd, I didn’t see any of the over self-medication that I’d seen in the past.

Closed on the old apartment this week. It feels great to be closing that chapter of transition, which started over a year ago.


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