By the time I came back and started writing again, I realized my last post (around 13 years ago) may have been around when Blogger stopped actively tending to the platform as much. I had all intentions of cozily staying in this familiar place, picking back up as if I'd never left, but I noticed the little paper cuts – strange UX where I'd get lost on my own blog; float-based wrapping leading to…
I started using Last.fm in 2006 to log the songs I listened to, and was so in love with the data aggregation I'd write "what I listened to this year" posts to close out each year ( like this one ). For almost as long, I'd been wanting a way to auto-log the records I listened to - I dreamed of making the time to learn about and play with Shazam's API to get a version of vinyl scrobbling working.…
This is part 2 in a pair of posts about building a heavy metal search bar; part 1 is here . Last week I wrote about trying to build a simple search bar to look up bands in Metal Archives 's database, and ran straight into a combination of bot blockers and no API. I got a proof of concept working locally on my network, but wanted to get it over the final hurdle of it being usable from anywhere. A…
Metal Archives is like a wiki for heavy metal, and I use it for exactly one thing: looking up bands. I do this exclusively on my phone from either record shops or shows - the site isn't responsive, so I end up trying to tap on what feels like a 3 pixel high search box on the very top right of the screen. A search bar for ants. After struggling with this for years, I finally tried to fix it fore…
This was going to be a different type of post - a show & tell of spreadsheets I've made over the years to optimize cognitive load out of my life. While writing the draft, I realized I hadn't actually used the spreadsheets in a while, yet the load hadn't come back. I figured out that while I'd used tech to save time (it did), the more I used it, the more I built muscle memory as I understood myself…
I’ve been using the Kokuyo Jibun Techo planner system for five+ years, and most of that time never knew what to do with one of the spreads towards the front - two tiny rectangles for every single day of the year. Last year, I started logging my coffee consumption - one color per brew type: It’s been nice to look back on each month and see patterns; things like time of year (more cold brew in…
Just read an interview with Mike Daisey in this week's New York Magazine; this part was my favorite: He dabs his sweaty forehead, just like onstage, and pulls out what I at first take to be a pencil. But it turns out to be, upon inspection, a lacquered chopstick. He looks embarrassed when I ask him about it. "Man, I'm supposed to leave it in my pocket during interviews," he says. "I actually have…
I got an email a couple of months ago from a girl called Allison Morris, who stumbled upon my post on muscle memory and piano playing . She recently worked on an interactive piece that teaches you about the different parts and functions of the brain in a quick and fun infographic: Created by: OnlineCollegeCourses.Com I spent a few minutes clicking around and the sound bites are really fun. My…
I just read a super interesting article on Urban Omnibus -- Living Lofts: The Evolution of the Cast Iron District . This is one of those articles that I want to copy and paste in its entirety. Briefly: It talks about how SoHo's buildings have been used over time, and what effects they have had on the communities, laws, and overall transformation of the neighborhood throughout history. This is one…
Sometimes it's ok to make an app that is a little piece of beautiful candy. From an email I wrote UC this month: It's starting to get nice out. You probably still want to make more of an effort to get up and walk around more during the day, right? Do you like pretty things. I've been using this app that does nothing other than chime every hour, half hour, or quarter hour. It reminds me to get up,…
For anyone new to this blog or who doesn't know, I have two mild forms of synesthesia: sound color (I see colors when I hear certain sounds, notes or songs) and lexical gustatory (tasting certain things, or craving tastes, when I hear certain sounds or words) - I'm going to abbreviate this LG for now. The latter is much more fun, but as I said, they're both mild and don't surface that often. Well!…
I had heard about the epidemic of Tide thefts over the past couple of weeks, but finally read this article about it. Really interesting to hear about both the psychological and social roots that have slowly led to this bizarre cultural phenomenon, and the economic ramifications of it. All that blended with a bit of new knowledge on inventory, stocking, reselling stolen product, and the rise of…
Until tonight, I had never read anything by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Is that crazy? Is it bad? Should I be embarrassed? I feel like it is, and I should be. I read this article in New York Magazine, and my evening went from a little listless to a tornado of underlining and ripping pages out and taping them together elsewhere. Assorteds -- Meanwhile, most people who think they are practicing law are…
I got one of these Design House Stockholm block lamps four years ago; for three of those years, it sat in pieces in a corner. Once the bulb burned out (or I knocked the filament loose, oops), I could not for the life of me find a replacement – the website suggested a 25W candelabra, but none that I could find would either a) fit into the glass encasement, or b) fit into the strangely small barrel…
Heard this morning on a recent episode of Radiolab : Bliss is the taste of hot pastrami at Katz's Deli in the Lower East Side of New York City. My blog turned seven today. I had a longer, more swirling-in-my-head post written out, but I think I just want to say… Hell yes.
If you have ever been a fan of Oliver Sacks, give this New York Magazine article from November a read. It's a short and sweet look into him as a person, featuring stories from his childhood, personality, passions, focus, and life. It's full of little snippets that I loved, including the phrase neurological marbles . Here are two more: "The great moment of his genius was not giving those people the…
Project 366. This was technically my biggest photography project ever, though the stress was much lower than some other ones I've done - it was just prolonged over a very long time. For anyone who doesn't know, it's usually called Project 365, and involves taking one picture a day for a year (2012 was a leap year). I won't get too involved in reflections, because they're similar to those of most…
Looking at my Last.fm charts is one of my favorite things to do - especially at the end of a year. Even though I know what I listened to (because, well, I listened to it ), there are always some surprises that come from near-comprehensive data aggregation. If you had asked me what I listened to the most in 2012, I would have said new wave - I had my Depeche Mode Pandora station on almost every…
Well, it's after Christmas and I'm only getting around to this. Good one. ANYWAY. We only have one more month to go after this. Holy crap. Here's November -- Here's my favorite shot: 314/366: balloons. 9 November 2012 Saw a group of four friends strolling down the street this today, each carrying a different color balloon. I was happy with that picture because the scene of a group of very cool…
I am building someone a portable iPhone charger for Christmas. It's called a MintyBoost , and you can buy the kit on Adafruit here . (It's a really good electronics project for beginners). Here's where I am so far: I had to stop halfway through, because 1) I had to run into a meeting, and 2) I screwed up. I've had this problem my whole life - getting into a zone and jumping ahead of myself before…
Yesterday I took a class at 3rd Ward called Solar Engines . By the end, I had a prototype that uses sunlight to power two little motors. When set on a flat surface, the motors make this delightful clicky, rattling sound. I set it in my bedroom window to use as an alarm clock – it will make a cute noise on spectacularly sunny mornings. Today was too dreary so he remained asleep. ;)
Julie and I hadn't done an EFIT in two years, so she pinged me about a weekend one. Needless to say, I was looking forward to it. Here are mine: 10:01 - I woke up to my alarm (a custom Lullatone ringtone), and found Kazu hanging out with me. 11:37 - I was very flustered at this point, because an MTA worker led me astray and I ended up waiting 20 minutes for a train that never came. I zoomed out of…
I wrote a post for the UC blog this week about something that I've been mulling over for a while. Fenske told us once in grad school that knowing when our work was done was as valuable a skill as the specialized crafts we were learning over those sixty weeks. This wisdom popped into my head a few months ago, when I was up late working on my first proposal and was plagued by self doubt. Instead of…
I was having a conversation today about what my top 5 male and female singers were. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I'm pretty sure Shingai Shoniwa (half of The Noisettes) would be on my girl list. Atticus is one of my favorite songs ever, but I hadn't seen this live version on SPIN until tonight. Hopefully this is needless to say, but that nearly moved me to tears. Enjoy.
I finally watched Moonrise Kingdom on my flight back from Stockholm two weeks ago. I knew only two things about it at that point – that it was Wes Anderson, and what the poster looked like. Neither appealed to me; I am easily turned off by the entire culture & fandom around his movies – so much so that I can forget that I have sincerely enjoyed every one of his that I've seen. I loved it so…