Tag: AI

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Photo of a snow yeti in a blue and yellow shed decorated with holiday lights in front of a Brooklyn brownstone. The yeti is holding a sign with text: "We're all in this together ♥".

This week ended with what looks to have been an execution of an American citizen by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis. In Heather Cox Richardson’s comments about The Killing of Alex Pretti, she says that 16 people have the power to put a stop to this nonsense immediately. All of us should be putting pressure on our elected officials in Washington now—especially if those officials are Republicans.

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Photo of a yellow trail blaze newly nailed to a tree. The round blaze has text on the top reading "Midwood Loop" and "Prospect Park Alliance" on the bottom. The Prospect Park Alliance logo is in the middle.

This week’s picture comes from Prospect Park. In all my years exploring this park, I don’t recall ever having seen a trail blaze. Judging from the shine on those nails, this one looked newly placed and I wondered if the trail markers were new. Well, through the magic of the information superhighway, I can confirm that these are (relatively) new: The formal nature trail system was launched in August.

Otherwise, it’s been quiet around here. I think I’m still trying to settle back into the day-to-day routine after the holidays and a bit of a break.

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Photo taken from a NYC Subway 2 train of an 8 train across the platform.
8 train?

Aboard a downtown 2 train, I looked up and saw this 8 train across the platform. What the? I had just enough time to snap this picture before we left the station. I shouldn’t have been too surprised, there have been a few 8 lines over the years and the MTA includes an “8” on the roll signs. While this particular sign was an error, there may be 8 trains on the rails in the future.

Recently, I received the renewal notice for vintagesailors.com domain. It is an oft forgotten ecommerce site that sells t-shirts and other goods emblazoned with old sailboat logos. The site’s existence can be chalked up to me wanting a Pearson Ensign t-shirt and not being able to find one I liked.

It wasn’t much of a leap from making one t-shirt to thinking “Hey, I like this, wouldn’t everybody want one?” Of course, everybody absolutely doesn’t want one. But, a few people did, despite an almost total lack of marketing.

I say all of this because I’m going to let the domain expire and I feel like it is worthy of marking the occasion. Plus, there’s still time left to get a hat if you want one! As of 2025-12-28, the site is shut down, I can still get you a hat if you want one, just let me know.

The jukebox project is coming along. I made some good progress this week on a couple utility type things that make managing the music library much less cumbersome. I also learned a bit more about what it’s going to take to interface with vintage hardware. There’s a short write-up here: Jukebox Title Strips (and more).

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Photo of a bronze plaque mounted on the stone wall an apartment house that reads "NO DOG FOULING" and is decorated with two paw prints.

This week’s random photo comes from an apartment house on 8th Avenue in Park Slope. I’ve seen many variations of “yo, don’t let your dog soil our building’s entrance”, but this one is just so, um, polite?

In an effort to make more things, I started working on a jukebox project I’ve been contemplating for a while. Normally, these sorts of projects only get documented when they are complete, with this one, there will be more posts along the way. You’re welcome.

By the way, the government has been shut down for over a month at this point—with no end in sight. If the administration follows through on their threat of withholding pay from furloughed workers—and those that continue to show up despite not getting paid—can we all expect a tax credit come April? I’m thinking not…

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Photo of a very skinny house, not much wider than the front door. The house is overgrown with vines, the stoop is falling apart and the door is very weather beaten. The rear end of an abandoned car is visible on the left.
A very skinny house on Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn.

Programming note: The notification email has been resurrected after many years. If you subscribed ten years ago and this email comes as total surprise, sorry—no hard feelings if you unsubscribe.

I’ve wanted to check out the MTA’s annual pop-up shop, but always find out about it after the fact. My luck changed this this year, I read about Debi Mazar’s subway shopping spree while the event was still on. By the time I got there, things were somewhat picked over, but they still had a lot on offer. It was mostly signs, but there were also some other items, such as air gauges and other random train parts. I walked away empty-handed, but it was worth the price of admission if only to see the excitement of the people coming out and posing for photos with their loot.

Since I was in the area, I walked down to Coney Island. On the way I saw this incredibly skinny house on Stillwell Avenue. Despite its compact size, the owners have a difficult time with upkeep.

Coney Island is quiet in the off season, but a couple of the places on the boardwalk are open. There were a surprising number of tourists milling about, confused about he ordering system at Nathan’s. Strange to see them so far from the more popular attractions. Good on them for exploring, even if the subway ride is more exiting than the destination this time of year.

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