Ephemera

These posts will self destruct

2026-10-20

I thoroughly enjoyed this discussion of the Renaissance with Ada Palmer. Let's be honest, it's not really an interview, it's mostly just her dialoging, and I'm here for it. She's interesting and engergetic and clearly knows and loves her subject matter. This is a long read, in video form, and I was never bored for a second.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIhVfGbREA

Off to hunt down a copy of her book on the subject...

2026-10-19

This was a fantastic interview! (On the Long Thread podcast)

https://longthread.fireside.fm/s15e8

Sally Pointer is an experimental archaeologist, and while this discussion started with her work on nalbinding, which is an interesting craft all on its own, what grabbed me about the episode was her joy and excitement about how much we can learn about the people of the past by looking at their textile crafts. She has a beautiful way of looking at the crafts and the study of these crafts.

Nalbinding is one of those yarn-looping crafts that I have tried and thrown away in frustration before (knitting and crochet are in the same bag), but listening to this made me want to give it another go!

2026-10-19

Today I want to share a couple of links related to American agriculture. Ok, this is not my area of expertise, but these two women have been doing a lot to open my eyes to understanding what's happening in rural America, with our food, with our farmers and farm laborers, and how we talk about it.

The first is a newsletter/blog from Sarah Mock, author of Farm (And other F Words). She writes about farming and agriculture, but for n00bs like me who have driven through miles of wheat without really understanding what we're seeing. Not all of her posts are 'on topic', but she periodically posts things like this that really fill in some blanks for me. Here's her latest post:

https://sarahmock.substack.com/p/the-farmers-share-of-the-food-dollar

She also released a podcast (mini-series?) called 'The Only Thing that Lasts' where she talked through the history of agriculture in America, from the founding to the modern day.

https://ambrook.com/offrange/podcast/the-only-thing-that-lasts

The second person I want to point you to is Sarah Taber. Her background is in food science and safety, and she is a small farmer in the southeastern US. I started reading her newsletter when she was running for office, and it seems like now she's mostly working on YouTube videos (well, and her real job). I find her blunt style very refreshing. She's spent some of the last summer talking about food safety in the framing of our latest lettuce debacle, but if you go back further there are videos on biological sexism, the fertilizer 'crisis', Ballerina Farm, raw milk, and regular bouts of of ag-related politics.

https://www.youtube.com/@FarmToTaber

2026-10-17

At the end of August, I did something I've dreamed of and went on safari in Tanzania! It was amazing, spectacular. I did not want to come home!

I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do with all the photos I took (so many photos!) but for now, here's a few to share. Not the best, just some that I liked flipping through the pile today.

A shallow pond surrounded by green. A hyena stands in the water at the edge watching a mix of water birds take flight Four zebras on a brown plain, surrounded by a cloud of dust Two teenage cheetahs sitting side by side, looking toward the photographer. They are rimmed with early morning backlight. A herd of wildebeest pouring into and across a river, while safari vehicles watch from the background

2026-10-17

I've let my Mastodon hosting subscription lapse, and I'm not sure I'll ever bother signing up for an account on someone else's server. I decided I'd just rather follow people's blogs and posts via RSS. I don't really need to reply, and if I'm going to post stuff that never gets read, it might as well be here! :)

2026-10-16

This article is a really good summary of one of the things that has me most worried about AI-fueled development going into the long term.

https://blog.redezria.net/blog/the-gardener-vs-the-winnower/

I am more or less required to use AI in my current role, so I've been experimenting with it more, and this framing of the Winnower resonates.

For example, I find it genuinely useful to talk through an implementation plan for a feature before I start working on it, because I'm not really inventing anything new (building a business app - just data in and data out in various formats), so AI is good at surfacing questions that I may not have thought about properly, and would otherwise probably end up rethinking part way through the project.

But I have a lot of experience to judge the plan, ask questions of my own, navigate around gotchas that the AI just doesn't surface. I learned from errors and mistakes and rework over years. If I were picking up AI-assisted coding as a junior dev, all this would do is help me build a bad solution faster. I think we'll need a very strong culture of design thinking and devs QA testing their own work with a critical eye to edge cases and real-world data. It's something I'm still pondering.

2026-10-16

I really liked this framing of the problems with design handoffs. (Probably because my career has straddled both design and development, and I have seen how well it works to have both roles working together, and especially to have developers who understand design, and designers who understand development)

https://matthiasott.com/articles/design-and-engineering-as-one

2026-05-04

I spent a lovely Sunday morning wandering around Tohono Chul with my new camera lens. I really got it for wildlife photography, but it is a pretty solid choice for flowers.

Sharp green leaves with white veins and black tips Close up of red spines on a green cactus with white accents Dark brown lizard with spiny scales and lighter patches Close up of pink flowers against a green background

More photos, including more from this visit, on the main page: Tohono Chul

2026-03-06

Over the last couple of weekends I made a couple of quick tours around Saguaro National Park. The winter was unusually warm - I don't think we got even as much as a frost - and everything is blooming well ahead of usual. It's awfully pretty.

Check out the whole page for more (and larger) photos and commentary.

2025-11-29

I hosted a lovely, traditional little Thanksgiving dinner, just my mother and a couple of friends.

My mother brought over a turkey ready for the oven, then headed off to Phoenix to pick up a friend at the airport. It was my first time cooking a turkey, but it turned out delicious.

I made dinner rolls for the first time. I used a recipe from Preppy Kitchen: Dinner Rolls They were soft and delicious, and actually really easy. I've added the recipe to my recipes page to use again later. Even if you've never made bread before, I bet you can make these! His video is excellent.

I also made mashed potatoes, and then friends brought stuffing and made gravy, and sliced up a can of cranberry jelly. And of course, I made apple pie.

It was a small get-together, but warm and friendly and happy. 10/10, would Friendsgiving again.