Curated collection of worthless blurbs.
Unwitting astronaut works out plot and solves problems. By Andy Weir Rating: 4.5 / 5. I don’t even know how to summarize this without giving anything away, but I can say that the formula seemed exactly the same as The Martian with a smart and good-humored scientist finding answers to a stream of problems—and I was just as happy to be along for the ride. Memorable plot, memorable characters with…
An examination of storytelling via classic Russian short stories. By George Saunders Rating: 4 / 5. This was recommended by the teacher of a local comedy writing class, and I can see why. The book contains short stories Saunders has taught for a long time: Anton Chekhov’s “In the Cart,” “The Darling,” and “Gooseberries.” Ivan Turgenev’s “The Singers.” Leo Tolstoy’s “Master and Man” and “Alyosha…
Replacing MinIO with RustFS. Amazon S3 is cloud-based object storage. You probably know that. You might also know that S3’s API is one commonly implemented by other S3-compatible storage providers like Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, and Wasabi. It took me a while to realize that MinIO is a storage provider whose software I could self-host. So I could have S3 buckets for web apps and backups that use…
Improving my self-hosted Laravel deployments. I updated a handful of Coolify-hosted Laravel apps recently to get zero-downtime updates. Gone are those few annoying seconds of “no server available” I had been living with during deployments! Old Layout Previously, I had configured each app with the following resources in Coolify’s UI: Standalone database service (MySQL or PostgreSQL) added via UI.…
I made a completely unnecessary font of my own handwriting. I’m not sure what came over me, but yesterday I decided that I needed to turn my handwriting into a font. I poked around the internet and landed on FontCrafter : one of seemingly endless fun projects from Chris Pirillo that lets you write out characters on a grid, upload the filled-out sheet, and wait a few moments for a font you can…
Fun with stylized maps. Inspired by Basic Apple Guy’s Topographic Amoeba wallpapers, I thought I’d try to find a way to create my own that contour places I’ve lived. I didn’t get anywhere close, but I did end up with a neat little project. A brainstorming session with Claude turned into a Python script, and I asked for a web UI to mess with the knobs and instantly started having lots of fun…
Protagonist straddles mirrored worlds of authoritarianism and anarchy. By Ursula K. Le Guin Rating: 3 / 5. I like what this book explored, but as stories go it was not my favorite. It seemed more meandering than compelling, like the story existed only as a rough shelter for very interesting talking points. I would have rather read a book-length essay that dispensed with the worlds and characters.…
Great read on the history of American comedy. By Kliph Nesteroff Rating: 4 / 5. I was reading two books at once and got sucked entirely into this one eager to see where it would go next. There were way too many names to keep up with, but I don’t consider myself well-educated in comedy so Nesteroff’s book was a welcome primer. I particularly like that it moved quickly enough convey a sense of…
I love drawing these dumb little things. One thing I never get tired of is making hand-drawn favicons for my side projects. I have an old iPad and Apple Pencil I use with Procreate , where a thick marker brush and a few minutes yield something playful and unique. I went to design school so we should probably be expecting me to come up with more sophisticated and polished work—but in this case I…
Touching memoir from an author that studied and loved many animals. By Sy Montgomery Rating: 5 / 5. There’s something about a studious, gentle person pausing to wonder at things that always gets me. This book was a gift from someone that already knew how much I’ve adored Brian Doyle, Carl Sagan, and Ursula Le Guin, and Sy Montgomery would be right at home in their company. Each chapter told the…
A healthy, harmonious life is one that involves your whole brain. By Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson Rating: 4 / 5. While this is very much written for raising kids, it’s really about all of us. It’s an accessible, illustrative guide to understanding how the brain works and develops and using that knowledge to encourage habits and behavior that benefit us individually and collectively. It…
Amazingly-detailed account of a company we should all be watching closely. By Karen Hao Rating: 5 / 5. This was a fascinating and unsettling read. I’m already aware that technology can redistribute power and leave people worse off , so it was with great hesitation that I eventually started figuring out what to do with coding agents like Claude and Codex. I realized before finishing this book that…
Interview with myself about a mechanical keyboard. What are we doing here? I’m glad you asked! I’ve been enjoying a new mechanical keyboard I’ve wanted to write about, but a review felt out of place and boring. A Q&A seems fun and strange, so I’m going with that. Why should anyone care what you think about mechanical keyboards? They probably shouldn’t, actually. I used whatever clunky keyboads…
Succinct advice for the present gleaned from historic fascist movements. By Timothy Snyder Rating: 4.5 / 5. It was chilling to read this knowing it was written almost a decade ago, which further underscored that we’re not experiencing anything new. Historically, we’ve seen all this before. We know what to anticipate, and we know what we can do with our mental framing and our actions to resist. You…
I folded my Kirby and Astro sites into a new Eleventy build. I’m finally launching a brand new Eleventy site at this domain, combining my shy Kirby blog with the former Astro site. It could be a mess for a little bit particularly if you’re an RSS reader, and I apologize in advance. You’ll probably notice some “new” posts I merged in from the old side blog. I’m excited to share this with you,…
Autobiographical essays from a hilarious nerd. By Alexandra Petri Rating: 3.5 / 5. I was dazzled by Alexandra Petri’s humorous and self-deprecating Atlantic article where she attempted to personally handle the functions of a government. We knew together, author and reader, that it was not a scientific experiment but a cheeky dance with absurdity, but I was charmed the whole way through and…
Man takes up surfing with discordant in-law and it’s a pretty good life metaphor. By David Litt Rating: 4 / 5. A blog post from Dave Rupert landed this on my reading list, and I got to read it with a friend. I was reassured before I even got to the first page that I’d be charmed by the author’s self-deprecation, and the book that followed did not disappoint. I’ve never surfed and I’m pretty sure…
I replaced Logi Options+ with BetterMouse. BetterMouse is the best option I’ve found for my MX Master 3, and so far it’s working great and a relief to ditch Logi Options+. Excessive Context I was just minding my own business this week, not thinking about my simmering annoyance with Logi Options+, not wondering once again why a person would ever need an AI prompt builder for their mouse, blissfully…
A look at the year we just finished. It seems like every company suddenly puts out a “wrapped” summary, and it gives me a sinking feeling that even our local library borrowed the language. But it also feels very 2025, so I’m following along. 2025 was a year of noteworthy changes for me that felt purposeful and optimistic. Sunset seen from the trail on Pilot Butte. This is coming off of some harder…
Swapping Duplicati with Zerobyte for local filesystem backups. I’ve been going on about Coolify because I’ve enjoyed tinkering with it, and after the initial learning curve I’ve expanded the types of projects I can comfortably self-host. Coolify has built-in backup mechanisms for databases, but I’m on my own for filesystem backups. “The whole point is ephemeral containers Matt, so if you need to…
Mother holds on to her family in a cautionary, near-future dystopia. By Helen Phillips Rating: 4 / 5. I picked this out with a friend at the library, browsing the shelves and deciding on something we could read together. Hum puts us vaguely further ahead in time, where we’re still in the process of wrecking the planet, texting on cell phones, and Amazon Prime (though not by that name or color…
Apps I used regularly in 2025. Cold on the heels of the 2023 and 2024 editions, the emoji list of apps I used regularly in the past year: 📨 Mail Client: Mail.app, MailMate + SpamSieve + GPG Suite 📮 Mail Server: MXroute , CraneMail 📝 Notes: Obsidian , Tot ✅ To-Do: Obsidian 📷 Photo Shooting: iPhone, Lumix GH5 , Fuji X100VI 🎨 Photo Editing: Photomator , Pixelmator Pro , Acorn 📆 Calendar: Apple…
Self-hosting spree continues. A little more than a year ago I consolidated most of my self-hosting to Coolify . Despite my technical wanderlust, I’m happy to report that Coolify has stuck! Setting up PHP apps is more cumbersome than it was with Ploi , and my Docker Compose deployments come with a few seconds of downtime rather than none at all. But I love that I can host whatever I want, each…
A simple, desperate workflow I can’t recommend. I’m not a “photographer” as much as a person with cameras that’s fastidious and prone to overthinking. This is where I’m at managing photos in the actual year 2025. Backstory In the days of Aperture, I had no complaints. I imported files from a camera, like the Canon Digital Rebel that replaced my 35mm Rebel 2000, and they went into Aperture’s…
Goodbye, gaming PC. I decided to wipe and sell my beloved Windows gaming PC, Thunder Nugget. It started as a pandemic project I took on because I was inside a lot and I hadn’t built my own computer since high school. It’s a whole lot easier to build a custom PC now! You can pop by PCPartPicker to make a plan and find good prices for parts, collect all the boxes that arrive, and assemble…
Open yourself to an audience and work hard to refine material that’s uniquely yours. By Stephen Rosenfield Rating: 4 / 5. A friend liked reading this and I did, too! I’m working up the courage to go try an open mic, and there was a lot of motivation and practical advice in this book. Early on there were descriptions of comedy I found deeply satisfying: By taking the things we struggle with and…
Thoughts on AI-assisted coding. I mostly approach what we’re calling AI with skepticism because of who controls it and the impact it has on power dynamics and the planet. I also realize it’s transforming how developers work, and it was Jeff’s reading list that got me thinking more about it and recently working with AI coding agents like Sketch, Claude, and Cursor CLI. I’ve already been tinkering…
How to send Laravel email using Unsend. I’ve been using Unsend all over the place now that I’m self-hosting it . In my Laravel apps I’d started out using a generic SMTP connection before realizing a simple custom transport could connect with the Unsend API directly. The documentation was straightforward, and the bulk of the effort was mapping Laravel’s message details to a suitable API payload and…
Rude uncle writes incompetent nephew about their work in hell. By C.S. Lewis Rating: 3.5 / 5. I faintly recall reading this somewhere in late high school or early college and I don’t remember if I finished it. I doubt I did. A not-religious friend enjoyed the book a while back and was curious how I’d react to it, which made me wonder too. The religious era of my life is long gone, but I finished…
A collection of powerful tiny thoughts. By Kevin Kelly Rating: 4 / 5. Brie Wolfson wrote an essay called Flounder Mode that recently introduced me to Kevin Kelly. I wasn’t familiar with either person but now I’m swooning at both. The library had a copy of this available and I read it all yesterday. I’m a slow-ish reader so this would be a feat if the book wasn’t very short sentences. It reminded…
I migrated my Masto.host instance to Coolify. Masto.host has been great in the year and a half I’ve had my Mastodon instance running there. Hugo guided me through a smooth migration process and I stopped thinking about Mastodon hosting and updates. If you’d like to run your own instance and not have to futz with it, Masto.host is solid! My database and media usage bumped me into an uncomfortable…
Walking a lump of earth. Now that it’s nice outside, I’ve recommitted myself to a walking goal for this year. A friend drew my attention to an inconspicuous sign at the base of a nearby butte. Beneath it is a clear bin with little cards, and you can take one and record your walks up and around the butte and then mail that in when you’ve reached 100 miles to join the Century Club. Which means you…
Let us gather and weep. Sit down, friend. I have something to tell you. There are times in our lives when we must make hard choices. Surely we can delude ourselves into fashioning a veil for greed, lust, or vanity. We can engage in crude acts of self-deception. We can varnish a turd. And I have to admit to you, my dear, that perhaps I have. Perhaps it’s fear that has driven me to this, because…
Magic-wielding teen coming-of-age mystery/adventure. By Rainbow Rowell Rating: 4 / 5. I exchanged book recommendations with a friend, and she chose this one because it’s a story she’s read and enjoyed many times. It’s just over five hundred pages of what are obviously teen wizards complete with wands and magic. Also vampires. But these wizards are called “magicians,” which is tricky for me because…
How I got Unsend and its SMTP relay running. Unsend is an open source transactional email service that sits on top of Amazon SES. If you’re a non-developer here for my groundbreaking thought pieces, Unsend is a thing software can use to send email. It’s a young alternative to Resend that makes it convenient to manage sending domains and API keys, track deliverability, and even conduct sending…
Please continue to hold. We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes and a representative will be with you shortly. Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold. You can drive your car or do your laundry or make your lunch with one ear on our hold music and automated assurances. This system was made by people for connecting people, but it feels like gears of apathy. You are…
Now it’s your turn to share 7 random facts with us all. Go on, you know you want to. Alexandra You’re right, Alexandra! I had fun reading your post and I have spontaneously decided to share seven random facts of my own. Fact #1 : I thought for a long time that “Netflix and chill” meant hang out and watch movies. I’m pretty good at missing random things everybody else is onto, which thankfully…
A Docker setup for running Craft CMS on Coolify. A few people have asked whether I’ve managed to get Craft CMS running on Coolify , so I figure it might be helpful to share what I’ve got. The project I’m running is only a small test site, but it’s been stable and happy. There are lots of ways to host a Craft site, and this is what I’d consider a bare minimum setup: PHP 8.4, along with the…
The wanderer is happiest in motion and must always choose a path. Sometimes he lingers, letting fear or wisdom survey the fork and choose a direction. The wanderer cannot walk every road. From his first steps to his last, only a tiny fraction of trails will know the weight of his frame and bear the impermanent marks of his shoes. He will never encounter the dangers and delights of many other…
Our experience with error is vital to our humanity. By Kathryn Schulz Rating: 5 / 5. I finally finished this after starting way back in October. A few other books managed to jump the line, but this was such an interesting read it was almost meditative and I never wanted to rush through it. There’s so much cultural pressure to avoid or contain errors that it was refreshing to explore how natural…
Growing up I watched Star Wars on VHS because my parents taped it from a TV broadcast. I distinctly remember how it ended with the Millennium Falcon landing on Yavin 4, abruptly transitioning to the summer Olympics high dive event my parents taped over the end of the movie. I watched that tape enough times that without re-watching I can see that space hamburger turn and land in the tree line. The…
Boundaries, self-control, and initiative can be transformative. By Mel Robbins Rating: 3 / 5. I read this with a friend and appreciated Robbins’ warmth and humility. After a lot of self helps books and recent re-reading of The Courage to Be Disliked , this felt like a motivational amalgam of concepts I’ve explored elsewhere with more depth. I was a little irked by the forced branding of the…
Many years ago, my parents came from Ohio to visit my first post-college home in Seattle—a place that geographically and culturally is far away. Somehow we ended up visiting a modern art gallery. This may not be funny to you because you grew up in an art-forward, open-minded family where this would be a normal activity—in which case we have amusingly-contrasting origin stories. I only developed an…
Protagonist overcomes avoidable communication problems. By Rainbow Rowell Rating: 2.5 / 5. I read this because it was a friend’s reference for casual magic as a plot device. That much was cool. A hardwired, old yellow phone in the protagonist’s childhood bedroom magically and inexplicably reaches her husband’s childhood home in the past. This was at the very beginning of their marriage which, in…
Apps I used regularly last year. This was a fun emoji list to compile last time , so here we are again! 📨 Mail Client: Mail.app, MailMate + SpamSieve + GPG Suite 📮 Mail Server: MXroute 📝 Notes: Obsidian + Tot ✅ To-Do: Obsidian 📷 Photo Shooting: iPhone, Lumix GH5 🎨 Photo Editing: Photomator , Affinity Photo , Pixelmator Pro 📆 Calendar: Apple Calendar 📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud + Syncthing…
Find the courage to own what’s yours, let go of what isn’t, and live now with others. By Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga Rating: 4.5 / 5. I’m a proud and a embarrassed to admit that I just re-read this book. The irony is telling and darkly amusing: I first read The Courage to Be Disliked in February 2022 but couldn’t bring myself to publish a note for it. I lacked the courage to let you know I…
I’ve heard you say that the wet side of the mountains is stifling. Too much gray, too much damp, too much gloom. Maybe there’s nothing we can do to change that, but I’m going to take a moment and try. Because I love the mist and the fog and the wet streets and clouds of steam and the soft blanket of white noise that falls from the sky. I love the puddles and reflections and rivulets and the way…
There is beauty and there is pain and then it ends. Do not be afraid.
Home is where you belong and where you can be entirely yourself. Your home can be small and cramped and quiet, or vast and lively. Your home changes constantly even though it’s where you start from and return to. Home is not a place. It’s the people with you. They may occupy the same dwelling, but it is not the dwelling that makes it home no matter how much care you’ve put into the furnishings and…
A me in the future is waiting. It is the same entity that was me twenty years ago, and the same entity that is me today. But just like teenaged me is very different from today’s me, my future self has changed. Future self wears age well. Not just an exterior that looks more at home with smile lines and a measured gait, but a goofiness and creativity that are balanced against a long time watching,…