My favorite music as of January 2026
Superorganism: Superorganism There’s something extremely catchy and youthful about this album, and I’ve probably played it at least three times per week since I discovered it in late November 2025.
Marc Amos’ Journal
A journal of random thoughts, spanning a variety of topics.
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Simple light/dark mode
Demo The code below is what I use on this website – scroll/swipe down to the footer and play with the options within Color scheme to see it in action. Code What follows will allow a visitor to choose between light mode, dark mode, or the mode their device is currently in (which I’ve labeled System ). This System option is useful if the visitor’s device is configured to automatically switch between…
Six months, sixty pounds
At the end of 2024 I weighed 257 pounds, and today I weigh 197. That’s 60 pounds lost thanks to a Tirzepatide called Zepbound , which is a GLP-1 receptor agonist … whatever that means. You may have heard of Mounjaro, which is another brand of the same medicine, or perhaps Ozempic or Wegovy, which are similar—they’re Semaglutides (again, no idea )—and offer the same benefits. They’re injected…
My favorite music as of July 2025
Vegyn: The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions Whatever sub-genre of electronic music this album is in is now my favorite sub-genre. Benjamin Clementine: By the Ports of Europe This song is … unique , and by-golly I can’t get it out of my head. Mondo Cozmo: Plastic Soul Mondo Cozmo’s music is fun and catchy. That’s the whole review. Walter Astral: Hyperdruide – EP A psychedelic-techno sound…
yearsSince
My website has a few places where I share how many years have passed since something happened. For example: How long The Outfit has been in business How long ago a photo was taken How far back I can remember the books I’ve read Nobody has figured out how to stop time, so I needed to deal with the fact that those year numbers won’t stay accurate for very long. Here’s how I did it: I use JavaScript…
My favorite music as of October 2024
Chet Faker: Built on Glass This album is a fantastic blend of soul, downtempo, and electronic music. A bit of a rare mix, as far as I know.
My favorite music as of June 2024
Embarrassingly, it’s been a long, long time since my last favorite music entry, but I finally have some to share. Skyway Man: The World Only Ends When You Die Listen to The World Only Ends When You Die on your favorite streaming service. Leifur James: A Louder Silence Listen to A Louder Silence on your favorite streaming service. Tony Allen: Film of Life Listen to Film of Life on your favorite…
You’re beautiful, call me sometime
I heard she was going to the nearby coffee shop to meet a new colleague of hers at 2pm, which gave me an hour to think about how I might slip her a note. On a small piece of paper I wrote, You’re beautiful, call me sometime followed by my phone number. An hour later I took a moment to build up some courage, then walked to the coffee shop. I saw her and, thankfully, her back was to me. I ordered a…
Snow Me
A book about snowmen, by Noah (age 8). Snow Me Enlarge Left page: This book is to my family. Right page: Everyone loves Christmas. All the snowballs and igloos and the snowmen and snow-globes. Enlarge And sometimes when we’re all asleep, the best snowmen come out to play. Enlarge And on the best nights, they always come. Enlarge
CSS your RSS with XSL, LOL
Have you ever tapped an RSS/ATOM feed link? Most often, you see something that looks like this: Enlarge Did you know you can transform that with HTML and CSS to make it much nicer on the eyes? Me neither! Well, now I know, thanks to a blog post by Darek Kay . Not one to miss out on anything fun, I made my own feed look a bit more fancy using what I learned.
Don’t wash electronics
My mom recently showed me this photo, taken 41 years ago (1984) on Christmas day: My dad—at 24 years old—is wearing the black shirt, my uncle is wearing the white shirt, and I’m kneeling on the floor. We’re in my grandmother’s house surrounded by red floral wallpaper above olive-green carpeting. Enlarge When I saw the toy on the floor—a Tomy Toys Monster Machines Mad Masher —in front of the…
Watch charger, meet iPhone
I’m the kind of person that learns about neat tech stuff long after everyone else has, so brace yourself as I tell you about some neat tech stuff you probably already know about. The family and I were on our annual two-hour drive home from seeing family during Christmas when Will tells us his Apple Watch is nearly dead. Sharon asks, I know our watch charger is here in the van, do you think we can…
2023’s most visited pages
I have no idea – I don’t track that stuff, but I bet the home page earns the prize. I suppose you might call this Guessalytics™ . Sign up for my newsletter . I don’t have a newsletter.
Noah’s to do list
Write book: ? – 6:50 ❤️ note: 6:50 – 6:70 Look for lamp: 7:00 – 7:20 Look at LEGOs: 7:20 – 7:40 Enlarge There’s so much to love: That writing a book is on a seven year old’s to do list That he’s writing a love note— to who? —and it’ll take him until 6:70 That he’s giving himself twenty minutes to find a lamp That he’s looking at LEGOs (though, I’m sure he meant play with them) It’s little things…
Default Apps 2023
I just came across this great post from Chris Coyer (who borrowed it from MattCool.tech , who borrowed it from Tracy Durnell and friends ). I’ve been in a writing slump since my last post —I blame Cyberpunk 2077 —but when I came across Chris’ post, I knew it’d be fun and easy to make one of my own, so here we go… 📨 Mail Client: Gmail.com / Gmail app 📮 Mail Server: Google 📝 Notes: Apple Notes ✅…
Cape Cod 2023
We stayed in Hyannis and visited a few choice locations: The Barnacle , Craigville Beach , Añejo Mexican Bistro , Katie’s Homemade Ice Cream , and Kalmus Park Beach . Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge Enlarge
Getting older
When I got home from work yesterday, Noah, our youngest at age 7, came out to greet me. He was happy that I was finally home so he met me in the driveway and gave me a big hug. He doesn’t do this often anymore, and someday—probably soon—he’ll stop altogether; his two older brothers don’t do it at all anymore. There will be a final time you pick up your kid, or tuck them in, or read them a book, or…
A seven year old’s grocery list
According to Noah we need millk, oreos, kokeys, bred, butr, estr emunems, wite frostin, hi see frootpunch, pinappul jooses, jinjrrall, shrbrt, choclits, strobare jello, dad cremrs, veje dips, sawr dow bred, babe carit, peprs, and corn. Enlarge If you missed it, he wrote his first grocery list last year and it’s also wonderful.
My job history
My friend Johannes and I were recently chatting about the jobs we had before becoming web developers. As I was describing all of the random things I’ve done for a paycheck I thought to myself, I should really write this down… Mid 1990s: amateur janitor at Cornell Orthotics and Prosthetics in Salem, MA I was around 15 years old and rode my bike here after school to do basic cleanup work; I swept…
pspsps
I’m generally not a person who puts stickers on their vehicle—well, except for this one (#3 Silly sticker) —but I appreciate looking at the stickers other people put on theirs. I recently saw this one and instantly fell in love: Enlarge
Funk’s old brother
Sharon, the boys, and I were driving somewhere a few days ago; we were listening to the radio and Fatboy Slim’s The Rockafeller Skank came on. A moment later I heard Sharon singing along: Right about now, the funk’s old brother , check it out now, the funk’s old brother … . I love her so much. P.S. If you’ve not heard the song, these are the actual lyrics , and here it is on YouTube .
A six year old’s grocery list
According to Noah we need cookies, millk, bred, sereols, wodrmelin, bunaz(?), graps, oreo, eeg / egg, and selsr. Enlarge ❤️ I love this. Update: In April of 2023, he wrote another adorable grocery list .
Ten and a half
On this day, back in 1989, my dad passed away at 30 years old. I was about ten and a half at the time; only old enough to create and retain a few memories that have lasted this long: the way he looked, what he drove (how odd is that?), and a handful of vacation-like events we enjoyed together. There are so many other things I cannot remember: his voice, his general personality, or any day-to-day…
Our COVID-19 log
Thursday, May 12 th , late afternoon: Will (10 years old) says he is really tired ; we attribute it to a jogging contest thing he participated in at school earlier in the day. Friday, May 13 th Morning: Will falls asleep on the couch after breakfast, before school . Early afternoon: The school’s nurse calls to say Will is very tired and nearly asleep in her office, …but, otherwise, has no…
Smooth snailing
The iPhone 13’s macro photo mode captured a nice shot: Enlarge
Jonathan’s first book
Without any encouragement or knowledge on our part, our eight year old son wrote and illustrated a book. Sharon and I read it and were blown away; it has illustrations, a legitimate spin towards the end, and it’s part of a forthcoming series! It is a bit dark and Sharon and I were slightly concerned at first, but in the end it’s mind-blowing that he wrote it at all, so we’re going with it and…
A dinner opinion
Tonight, shortly before dinner, our six year old said to us, mom, dad, what’s for dinner I don’t like that. No pause to wait for us to answer him—just straight to …I don’t like that. He was right, though; he didn’t like the dinner we served.
Tacoma log
Last summer I bought my first new vehicle: a 2021 Toyota Tacoma. As a few Tacoma owners would confess, “I’ve wanted one since I saw it in Back to the Future ,” and as I’m at the mid-life crisis age—when is that anyway, 40’ish?—I said screw it and pulled the trigger. Since it’s a new vehicle that I’ll hopefully own for a very long time, I thought it’d be neat to log its various milestones and…
A log of the books I read
I thought it’d be nice to start logging the books I read, so I whipped up a reading list . It goes back a number of years, but due to my lousy memory the details get foggy the farther down you scroll; that said, I plan to keep it accurate from here on out. So, yeah, go check it out – there’s now a link to it in the main navigation.
My favorite music as of December 2021
It’s winter now, nearly Christmas, and I’ve finally moved on from George Clanton … to Magdalena Bay, who are very similar 🥴 . I have a couple of non-synth-pop favorites, too… Magdalena Bay: Mercurial World Sharon and I saw this duo live in Boston a few months ago and I had no idea who they were at the time. Their on-stage presence was, uh, interesting , and their music was absolutely fantastic ;…
A typical weekday: second half of 2021
I think it’ll be interesting—and nostalgic—to look back at this series, many years from now, to see how my life changes over time. This series will be tagged “ typical weekday ”, which will make it easy to follow along. I wake up at 6:45 am and Sharon and I make coffee, breakfast for the boys, and help get them and ourselves ready for the day. At 7:30 am , the boys and I head out the door and I…
A drip coffee maker brewing / timing tip
I was last-week-years old when I learned something about coffee that—I’m embarrassed to admit—I should’ve known decades ago: if a drip coffee maker isn’t yet finished and you grab the carafe to pour yourself a cup, two things are probably true: that cup of coffee is going to be stronger than you may want, and the remaining coffee is going to be weaker than you may want. Best to let the entire…
Patriot (TV show)
Sharon and I are nearing the end of season two of what is one of the best shows we’ve seen to date , and we just learned it’s not being renewed for a third season . What the hell , Amazon? I want to tell everybody to watch it because the story is unique, the characters are amazing, the cinematography is beautiful, and, ugh it’s just so good . Now I can’t, and won’t … but if you’re a masochist,…
“I didn’t see any stooges”
There’s a DVD player in our minivan and when we take a long road-trip we let the boys watch a movie to give us some peace and quiet (it’s ahhhhh-mazing). At the start of a recent road-trip, Sharon pulled out a couple DVDs that she picked up at a yard-sale, one of which was a classic: The Three Stooges . I immediately said, oh man, give them that one . They love that type of stuff — hell, they…
My favorite music as of July 2021
It’s time for another entry in my “ favorite music ” series … and it’s a bit late because, honestly, I can’t stop listening to George Clanton (who I mentioned in the last entry in this series ). That said, there is one new album that’s getting a lot of play lately… Fat White Family: Serfs Up! Mark Twain’s sister, Shania , once said: don’t judge an album by its cover, but I can’t help it: this…
There are a bunch of us!
In a rare moment of boredom, I searched the internet for other Marc Amoses and found these fine people… This Marc Amos is a Strategic Talent Program Leader at Cummins, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. This Marc Amos is an Assistant District Attorney at the Sixteenth Circuit Court in Mississippi. This Marc Amos is a Technician at iScape in Queensland, Australia. This Marc Amos is a Project Manager at…
My favorite music as of March 2021
Inspired by Joe’s An album a day project , I thought I’d do something similar, but which requires far less commitment: share what I’m listening to that’s on heavy rotation every once in a while. As I seem to have two– or three–month long cycles in which I discover new artists, albums, or songs to obsess over—and eventually tire of—I’m officially committing to doing this again (and again) in the…
If it rained food
This morning, while the five of us ate breakfast, I asked everyone, If you could turn rain into one type of food, what would it be? Noah, age 5: cake Jonathan, age 7: pistachios Will, age 9: pizza Sharon, age forever 24 : potato chips with French onion dip Dad, age ancient : lightly salted cashews
An adventure in United States healthcare
I know this is minor compared to what others have dealt with, but it’s the worst I’ve experienced … so far. During a recent checkup, my doctor suggested that I get a mole on my back looked at by a dermatologist. I made an appointment with the dermatologist that my doctor recommended. At the appointment, I’m told the mole should be removed and biopsied. Would you like to do it right now, they…
A near miss
Back in 2002 I was on my motorcycle, sitting 📍 here in traffic, feeling sweaty and frustrated. It was a hot summer day and I was wearing jeans, a shirt, a leather jacket, gloves, and a full-face helmet while sitting a few inches above a 195 degree engine. So, yeah, very sweaty. In the rare moments the car in front of me inched forward, it would take a few seconds to lift my foot off the ground,…
Add DuckDuckGo-powered search to your website
Copy and paste the HTML below On the second line, change the value attribute to your website’s URL < form method = " get " action = " https://duckduckgo.com/ " > < input type = " hidden " name = " sites " value = " https://your-url-here.com " > < label for = " search " > Search </ label > < input type = " search " id = " search " name = " q " > < button type = " submit " > Go </ button > </ form >…
Our new Intex pool
Sharon and I decided to get the kids a pool and ended up buying the Intex® 12' by 30" Metal Frame Pool Set (SKU: 28211EH) . I use the term ended up buying because stock was so low everywhere we looked, we were lucky to find anything at all. While we waited for it to arrive, we knew we had to level an area of our sloped yard, so we decided to dig the high side down instead of building the low side…
One-egg cooking pot
Every night, as we tuck-in our kids, our four year old asks me… Dad, can you check on me, and ask mom to check on me, and make one egg in a one-egg cooking pot, and ask mom to make me a breakfast drink? He’s asked this every night for almost a year now and I’m going to miss the hell out of it when he stops. P.S. This is the one-egg cooking pot pan he’s referring to; we use one to make fried-egg…
Hot peanuts recipe
Here’s what they look like just before going into the oven. Enlarge Ingredients 6 cups of unsalted cocktail peanuts 6 tablespoons of lime juice 3.25 tablespoons of chili powder 1 tablespoon of Milpas Pico de Gallo seasoning 4 teaspoons of kosher salt 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon Steps Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of your oven and preheat it to 250℉ Whisk everything except the…
The definition of success
On April 12 th 2012 my very good friend, Matt, passed away after battling dermatomyositis . There are so many things I could write about him, our friendship, his unexpected illness, what his death did to his family and friends … ugh … but for now I want to share a poem that was distributed during his viewing/wake: To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection…
Writing again
Sure, I write on Twitter a bunch and I’ve written a few things on my company’s blog —though, even over there it’s been 10 years—but it’s been more than 14 years since I’ve written anything resembling a personal blog post. So, here I go with a new blog post journal entry . For the record, I think journal entry sounds a bit nicer; it’s probably my old age. I’ve got a list of topics I aim to write…