Do you remember when software was expensive to make? When you couldn’t just snap your fingers and make some code appear with a full test suite? Crafting code this way was hard, but it was rewarding. I would be so proud when my snippets of code all worked together to solve the problem at hand. No software lives forever, but I would have been sad if that code had to be thrown away.
I just completed my first Field Notes pocket journal. It’s covered in scotch tape because the cover completely separated from the pages after being stuck in my suit pants pocket all day during a particularly hot and humid wedding.
I wonder if that was just a one-off or if this is a durability issue I’ll run into more often. I’m being optimistic and hoping it was just a fluke. I love the art on these National Parks Editions, each from different artists.
Next up: Olympic National Park
TIL: A 1997 episode of Pokémon sent 685 people to the hospital with seizures. Here’s a wikipedia entry about it.
Warning: the Wikipedia article has snippets of the scene that caused seizures for viewers.
Finished reading: Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Common, Oscar Levy 📚
This was a hard read that took me months to work through. I’m going to let it simmer for a while, and then read the analysis in the appendix that weaves in context from Nietzche’s various life experiences. It was interesting to work through criticisms of my beliefs while also finding other parts of this work that I agreed with. Many of the ideas were tough enough to understand through the parables they were encapsulated in, but reading it in old-timey English was the cherry on top that made this an excruciatingly slow read for me. I found myself rereading sections multiple times very often.
I’m very glad to be done with it, but also glad that I challenged myself with this book. It might be a while before I take on something this difficult again though. I think I need to build up my stamina for reads like this, much like I need to build of my cardiopulmonary fitness for running races!
This paragraph hit hard this morning. I found this in an essay titled “Why Story Matters” in the Late Summer 2026 edition of The Classical Teacher, a homeschooling magazine that showed up in our mailbox recently.
Every good story must have a conflict. If yours does not have a conflict, if you are not fighting for something (or against it), if you are not risking something of yourself to bring about some good, if you’re not on any kind of quest - it’s probably because you didn’t fight back when you should have. It could be that you let the dragon get away with it.
- Martin Cothran
I’ve heard tuna described as “chicken of the sea”, but why have I never heard anyone refer to pistachios as “clam of the tree”?
I updated my Uses page. While updating it, I had fun considering the items I no longer use. A lot has changed!
Now 2026-07-17
What I am up to now. Check out my /now page for the latest update.
This is going to be a very brain-dumpy update. There’s a lot that has happened since my last update to my /now page!
Two weeks ago on July 1, my son was born! He and his mom are healthy and doing well. In fact, this postpartum period has felt much easier than our first kid, which has been a huge blessing.
My chipotle order has changed. I’ve gone all in on the “get as much as possible for leftovers” philosophy, so I double up on most ingredients now. And I dropped the sour cream and hot salsa.
The Magic Swaddle
I am again in a season of diapers and burp cloths. In other words, my son is born! We welcomed him July 1, and it has been wonderful spending time with him. This has felt much easier than our first kid for a variety of reasons, which has been such a relief.
One thing that I feel like I need to share is this new swaddle we’ve been using. It has been life-changing.