If you ever want a lesson in how well-designed the LEGO manuals are, try assembling some k’nex kits. So confusing and error prone.

The roads and sidewalks are an ice rink; today it a day to stay inside and binge watch Steven Universe with my kid.

I’m sitting next to Biz Markie at the airport. A Christmas miracle!

A tortilla is not a blank slate. A really good episode of the Racist Sandwich podcast. http://www.racistsandwich.com

The biscuits at Hot Hands are ridiculously buttery and good.

A trip to the Walker museum research library. I could spend a lot of time here.

I had no idea roof raking was so satisfying.

Visiting the one taco truck I spotted in Columbia, MD before heading back home to MN. Taqueria La Patrona.

The two bus routes that take you to Howard County General Hospital.

The first bus accepts no passengers. The second never arrives.

My girlfriend totally stinkholed me in Cribbage.

One year with Rumble, an objectively terrible dog with a sweet heart and handsome face.

Really got to explore the lower range of my bike’s gears this morning.

My selection of movies on the Criterion Channel is very much me.

Glad I found my goggles for today’s ride.

“Oh my god, Lithuania…look at her butt”. h/t Kottke

iOS Night Vision plus camping = spooky photos.

Teaching my kid how to play Cribbage, the best time waster invented by humans.

Final trip to Sea Salt in 2019. This place has been a cornerstone of my year.

Recipe I’m experimenting with this fall, Brussels sprouts with gochujang and pork.

Probably not my last trip to Sea Salt this year, but taking pictures just in case

Photos from my Queens food tour including most of the things we ate. Want to take this tour yourself? Visit Culinary Backstreets. Highly recommended!

Wrapped up my Queens trip with a tamale from the Corona neighborhood and a dosa from Jackson Heights. May I never eat again.

Today’s countries. A shorter list but we ate so much more food.

Uzbekistan Georgia Guyana Trinidad Jamaica

Countries visited (culinarily) over the first half of this Queens Food Tour

China (Szechuan) Mexico Columbia Ecuador Argentina Peru Uruguay Japan Nepal Burma Mauritius Czech Peru (again) Columbia (again) Indonesia

About to present a short talk on Working With External Data and Events at the October Code People gathering

A trio of kombucha:

• Strawberry/Blueberry
• Blueberry/Rhubarb
• Strawberry/Rhubarb

Betrayal Legacy, final chapter.

Betrayal, Chapter 12. With the new Night Mode and wide-angle lens.

Unsurprisingly, the soundtrack for Hereditary is spooky as hell. Colin Stetson music is spooky even when he’s not trying to be spooky.

35mm reels of Righting Wrongs which I’m screening at The Trylon on Thursday, October 3!

Apple Arcade is a no-brainer subscription. I’ve barely played any App Store games for years because they all rely on micro-transactions/ads/shitty gamification mechanics. Apple Arcade has none of that. Even if future games don’t live up to the launch titles I’m still super pleased with this.

I’ve had my first pair of glasses for about 20 minutes and they are already filthy.

After years of trying to find someone to share an Infamous Oil Pan with, success!

Fall farm work day. Goat, basil, bread.

Frittata, friend to so many CSA members.

NTS knows what I need

I got to program a movie at the Trylon. And we’re showing it on 35mm! Come see Righting Wrongs with me on October 3rd.

A trip to Minnehaha Falls.

Betrayal, episode 11. The haunt was kind of a dud, but we still had fun.

Weird observations of an ambidextrous person: I have had a beard for almost 30 years and today was the first time I noticed that I use the beard trimmer with my left hand.

After living here for 27 years I’ve just booked my first camping stay at a Minnesota State Park.

Rumble, AKA Hufflebutt, AKA Aldus Rumbledore

1 year of daily meditation. My plan was to wake up early today and do a long sit to celebrate. But then solo-parent-life happened and I’m squeezing it in right before bedtime. Whatever. Still counts.

No hesitation in ordering Parks. I love collecting National Parks maps.

I infused the latest batch of kombucha with basil & blueberry and it is fantastic. Inspiration was from here.

Spotted two Red Tail Hawks just hanging out in a neighbor’s yard. Related: the neighborhood bunny population is much lower this year.

Other photos of the Cable, Wisconsin area are over on Flickr

Lake Pacwawong.

Pies of the Cable/Hayward region. From Tilly’s we got a cherry and a rhubarb/apple. From Norskie a lingonberry/apple

Not pictured, the blueberry crumble fro Tilly’s and the sour cream/raspberry from Norskie.

It was a pie-heavy weekend.

The river we eventually reached, Namekagon.

Me, after hauling a canoe over a beaver dam. Lake Pacwawong, WI.

King Hunky Meatball

Betrayal. A rare turn as the Traitor for me. 3 more games left in the Legacy story.

Sunset at Savanna Portage State Park.

First ride of an ebike. Though the battery was mostly dead, so the push was minimal.

Sea Salt doesn’t have fries. Unless you order the beer steamed mussels.

Blueberry Kombucha

The Lost 40

Betrayal on the Iron Range. This game was sprawling and epic.

I found my Tom Baker scarf. Shame it’s 80 degrees outside.

Having 6 quarts of ready-to-drink kombucha in my fridge is really nice.

A Hovenring for NE Minneapolis

Neat idea. I also think most intersections would be improved with roundabouts. I find my position as a cyclist is much easier to control in a roundabout versus a four-way stop.

Fermentation Station is getting a little crowded

• 1 gallon green/ginger
• 2 jars of cherry, second fermentation
• 1 SCOBY waiting for a fresh batch of green tea

SCOBY hotel waiting for its next occupant.

Minneapolis Park Board backs off plan to limit traffic on Minnehaha Parkway

the medians at Nicollet and Lyndale aren’t providing any particular safety or environmental benefit. They were merely blocking traffic.

Uh, blocking traffic is a safety and environmental benefict. By definition.

Kombucha batch 5. Three quarts this time!

If I buy buttermilk I just keep making biscuits until the buttermilk is gone. Batch 3. Yes I do square biscuits because Claire from Bon Appetite does. I admit it.

Some photos from this year’s Little Mekong Night Market

If I’m going to keep my Rancho Gordo subscription as a single parent, I really need to increase the amount of beans I eat

Betrayal on Fourth of July. We got 2 games in! About halfway through the Legacy story.

Batch 2 of kombucha. This one I made with a Green Ginger tea to see what kind of residual ginger flavor got left behind. It’s not a strong ginger flavor, but there’s a little bit of zing. I should have let it ferment for another 5-7 day though as it’s a little sweeter than I want.

The Little Mekong Night Market is next week. Last year’s was a lot of fun. Some advice:

• Be ready to eat a lot
• Bring friends to share food with
• Don’t order the papaya salad hot unless you really mean it.

Ramping up kombucha production with batches two and three, both are experiments in different approaches for adding ginger flavor. Results to come in a few weeks.

Betrayal and some homemade framboise that is very tart and sour.

I stared at this book index for a solid five minutes before admitting defeat.

I have made this almost every week for the past month. It is delicious. Anchovy and Arugula Pasta

Got to spend some time re-reading my near-complete collection of Asian Media Access schedules from the late-90s through early-00s. God I saw a lot of great movies there. And so many terrible ones.

Next up, scanning these things and getting them online.

Browse a collection of classic Twin Cities restaurant menus from the 1880s to the 1970s.

Oof. Apologies to my team. This one is rough.

I think this one is my favorite

I didn’t expect to get so excited about photographing flowers in Seattle, but I did. Flowers of Seattle.

Step count today says 15k, but that does not include 90 minutes of canoeing.

Today was pretty lazy compared to yesterday.

Just a short walk today.

…and the photo is upside down. Well, whatever.

A representative photo of breakfasts this week: Holy Land Za’Tar bread topped with scrambled eggs and roasted asparagus. I had been topping it with homemade schug but I’m now out of that delicious condiment.

I wonder what creature left a mostly-untouched container of raw chicken breasts on my front steps last night.

A Dark Weird Future: Reconsidering Forbidden Planet. Not my writing, just on my movie theater’s blog-in-progress.

Sunday morning biscuits

Of course there’s still a lot of line to go.

An hour later, we are close to the top.

Shockingly the line to climb the Witch Hat Tower is hella long.

Indian feast, a cat, and Betrayal.

Meditation center flowers

First You Make the Maps (via Kottke is a beautiful and edifying read!

I really appreciate Disney’s business plan of remaking light animated films as bombastic nonsense that punches you in the face for 130 minutes. So great.

I just keep cooking. This one is less photogenic but is a super-gingery and smooth Indian Butter Chicken.

My weekend of excessive cooking continues with some chile peanut rice.

A “fridge cleanout” soup. Mostly chickpeas, spelt, mushrooms, and spinach. Hearty and vegetarian. I’ll probably freeze all of this and make it lunches for the next few weeks.

75% of a year doing daily meditation.

Arugula and anchovy pasta. Yay for farmers market season.

I may have too much paprika.

Book Club, after the rain cleared.

Thanks to The Hub’s DIY room I’ve stripped this frame mostly down to the bone. Now to decide if I want to build up something new with it or sell it.

A few people came to Sea Salt.

Betrayal, but outside this time.

100 Hours of Meditation.

Purple pedals. They would go better on my old frame, but I don’t feel like building that bike up.

Meditation center flowers.

Meditation center flowers

When I wasn’t walking around Duluth, I was reading this. Ann Leckie is 4-for-4 with me! I don’t read much fantasy for fun, but this one was a interesting, engaging read that I liked a lot.

Northern Waters two. Sitka Sushi this time. Only got 14k steps in before lunch this time. I must be slacking.

A quizzical look from atop Observation Park.

Chester Park and 6th. Before I walked up to the top and then back down to the lake. I love Minneapoils but I wish it had some hills like Duluth’s.

Northern Waters trip one. Being here in the off season is great! Almost no line here at all.

My doctor wanted me to get plenty of exercise during this trip. I think 20k steps before lunch counts.

At OMC Smokehouse in Duluth you can wait and wait for a table, or you can get a sandwich to go and be eating within 10 minutes

Super true! Biking today was fantastic. Sometimes on days in January I doubt the wisdom of commuting by bike, but it definitely helps my mental health to get out there and ride.

A couple of weeks ago I probably would not have said that I have a care team, but I do! And they have worked their asses off for me this week to help me work my way back to a place of health and happiness. I owe them all some Thank You cards.

Found a copy of Full Catastrophe Living in a little library today. The universe gets me.

My first night of real solo custody and I immediately turned Stereotypical Dad and ordered pizza.

But, really, it’s because I’m so depressed and sad that I can’t muster the energy to make the meal I bought ingredients for.

Meditation center flowers

On a day where I finally gave in to the inevitability of my divorce, there are still good things.

More Betrayal, more Legacy.

Aww yeah, bring the sadness the fuck on.

I’m super qualified.

Turns out there are a lot of these places for me. More than I ever knew.

Meditation center flowers

There are definitely things I do where my main motivation is to make my therapist proud of me.

Ok, let’s give this a whirl.

A quick report on Habanero Tacos on Lake and 33rd

• Tasty lengua
• Al Pastor has delicious (to me) chunks of pineapple
• Folks there are quickly forming a following

I’m glad to have another good taco option on this side of 55.

Startup idea: Emotional Labor Tracker. Sad people (me) enter their friends into an app. The frineds can then see who has spent the most time hanging out with the sad person, whose turn it is to next hang out with the sad person, share tips & tricks. Etc. It’s a goldmine.

In less than one week the new Criterion Channel has already crushed the lamented FilmStruck. It doesn’t use Flash, it lets you filter films by country and it’s got a great collection of films from Japan. 314 of them!

A little snow and crippling grief won’t keep me from Sea Salt on opening day.

Therapy sucks and I’m in a terrible place, but I can imagine how much worse off I’d be without therapy.

One of the folks at the meditation center is not willing to put up with this “5 minutes late” nonsense. They have taken matters into their own hands. You have been warned!

There’s a unique irony in going to see some therapy dogs for some much-needed de-stressing, only to have one of the trainers make me feel worse and more stressed out.

Meditation center flowers

Meditation center flowers.

Gonna make a GitHub bot that auto-posts this gif into any pull request my team-members make during the weekend.

Where the doors are moaning all day long
Where the stairs are leaning dusk ‘till dawn

Where the windows are breathing in the light
Where the rooms are a collection of our lives

This is a place where I don’t feel alone
This is a place that I call my home

That Home by The Cinematic Orchestra

I was really hungry after therapy!

I bought Baba Is You a few days ago and have been really enjoying it. Games that start with a small, simple & clear ruleset and then remix them into complex new combinations are my sweet spot.

A quick summary of my life right now.

An hour-long meditation sitting really forces me to figure out how to sit without murdering my hips.

I keep watching The Corpse Flower live stream and waiting for someone to walk in and look grossed out. That’s when I’ll know it’s time to head over to the St. Paul campus and check this flower out.

This’ll be my third corpse flower visit. But the other two times the flower was closed, which is less fun!

Meditation center flowers. 1 of a series?

A trip to the UMN Conservatory to see the still-unopened Corpse Flower and a bunch of other plants. A nice way to remind myself that winter is not eternal. Pictures

My therapists keep complementing me on what an amazing job I’m doing, and yet my life still feels like a flaming dirigible plunging into a black hole. Cognitive Dissonance.

Second attempt at cauliflower gnocchi. Much better than my first attempt.

Soleil Ho is a young, queer woman of color who wants to redefine food criticism

So excited for Soleil!

Bugle Live!

Therapy was really good today, but I still deserve Therapy Lunch!

The unrelenting grind of the weather this year is such a fitting parallel to my personal life that I think the two must be linked.

So, if spring never comes, sorry about that.

As my kid gets more obsessed with Harry Pottter, the more excited I am to share this bit of weirdness with her: Wizards used to poop on the floor

And considering how regressive some of the wizarding community is, some of them certainly still do.

My wife has been reading Harry Potter to our daughter. Now that they’ve finished Book One, they decided to watch the first movie.

Listening to them was amazing. The kid was so excited by everything. “Hogwarts Express!” or “That’s not how I imagined Ms. McGonagall at all!”. If we ever take her to Wizarding World her face may melt.

It’s the kind of night where you try to draw your dog.

Now that I’m (mostly) a manager, I take great joy in the brief moments wher I get to write really dumb code.

Nice work you folks! MN PowerLifting Team ‘Times Out’ Protesting USAPL Transgender Ban

And that’s half a year (ish) of daily meditation. Some days it goes well, some days it does not. So it goes.

Wow, there have been so many Jon Bois-related posts on Metafilter.

We have reached the “Ack! What is going on? I’m so confused!” part of Girl Scout Cookie Selling Season. There are 5 weeks left.

Well, I have now signed up for a full-day meditation retreat. This has been an interesting year.

Hanging out with Bongzilla at Fair State.

It is nights like tonight
After the last plow drops a metric ton of compacted ice on my driveway
My corner
The alley
Everywhere
That I truly hate home ownership

Therapy Lunch!

The 26,000-Year Astronomical Monument Hidden in Plain Sight . I had no idea, and I love details like this. Via kottke

Some Snow Day biscuits.

Well, the 30 minutes I spent yesterday clearing ice off the sidewalk turned out to be totally useless! Every sidewalk in Minneapolis is now an ice rink.

The cookie madness begins again.

I’m excited to dive in to Growler’s taco guide!

Learning a new keyboard requires many cheat sheets.

I love it when work cancels classes to protect the students’ safetly while still expecting that staff report for work. Makes me feel well taken care of.

And here’s the real reason I always stop in Osseo.

Driving to Madison for a Flop House podcast show. Time for my traditional stop in Osseo!

Hmm. I might actually understand and be excited about GraphQL pagination. Life is weird.

Monday night pizza party

Pizza 1 is a Hawaiian with a mixture of roasted pineapple & onions. food52.com/blog/2362…

Pizza 2 is mushroom mix with rosemary and smoked mozzarella. Basically a copy of our favorite pizza at Young Joni

The secret to writing good GraphQL queries is to find someone else who already wrote the query you want & then copy it. Otherwise…😕

And the end result

Ready to cook some English Muffins.

My face during the last 15 minutes of The Night Comes For Us 😰.

My face when a fucking Low song is the final song of the Indonesian gangster film The Night Comes For Us 😱.

After a week off, Operation Drink All This Dang Beer (DATDB?) continues. Deschutes Dissident 2015

Post-therapy self-care. Size of self-care is commensurate with the difficulty of the session.

My world has been shaken – The La Perla Tortilla factory is open to the public 6 days a week and will happily sell you stacks of fresh tortillas for super cheap.

Welp, I’m doomed. I now own 2 of the entries from JetPens’ Best Beginner Fountain Pen guide.

The tour of my endless beer cellar continues. 2015 Deschutes Jubel. A winter ale partly aged in wine barrels. Pretty yummy!

Continuing to work through the beer cellar. Surly Nein from 2015. Better than I remember, now that it’s aged. Also amongst the best labels of their anniversary beers. 🍺

Ooh, new Celeste levels coming out this year. Guess I should finish those C-sides.

Either we bought the perfect container to match our waffle iron or vice versa.