THREAD. Every year, I tell the story of Ezell Gilbert. It's the story of one of the most remarkable cases in U.S. history, and you’ve probably never heard of it. The story of what the U.S. government did to him is vital for understanding the current moment we are in.

Sherrilyn Ifill is an important voice. Bluesky is privileged to have her here.

New post: I automated standup prep and learned something about my neurodivergent brain and context-switching I’d been masking even from myself. blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2025-12-20-i-thought-i-had-fifteen-minutes/

Current status: Hanging out with my kid outside an elementary school in rural Georgia waiting for a group of Buddhist monks to walk by on their way to Washington, D.C. along with a few hundred other folks.

Two weeks in a row I've been able to publish some weeknotes to my blog. I'm feeling good about this new routine! blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2026-0...

My kids asked for a Yule log cake with two days notice. I'd never made one. The cake split into pieces when I unrolled it. I made it hold together anyway. New blog post! blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2026-0...

It’s 9pm on (time-shifted) Christmas Eve. Seems like a great time to try and make a gluten free Bûche De Noël!

I haven't been writing enough lately so I am bringing back a practice I call doomscrawling. Whenever I reach for my phone to doomscroll, I must first open one of my WIPs in Google Docs and write one (1) sentence.

My new n8n workflow and emailed me some prompts and a template, and all I had to do was fill things in. Easy peasy, and before I even finished my coffee my inaugural edition of weeknotes was live on the blog. blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2025-1... Zero friction. This just might stick.

New blog post: I found three opened bags of rice flour this week, two of tapioca starch, and a potato starch I'd forgotten existed. So I did what any reasonable person would do—I built an app. blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2025-1...

Our pantry has lots of dry goods in various types of reusable jars and containers. Our spice wall has nearly 100 different items hanging on with magnetized lids. I just consolidated items and found several opened bags of the same thing, several times over. No more. pantry.kestrelsnest.social

In 2021, I gave myself ketamine treatments for my 50th birthday. One of the first signs they were working was that I wanted to build again. I started with a $12 droplet and YunoHost. Four years later, I run my entire social media presence on it. New post up! blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2025-1...

In 2021, I gave myself ketamine treatments for my 50th birthday. One of the first signs they were working was that I wanted to build again. I started with a $12 droplet and YunoHost. Four years later, I run my entire social media presence on it. New post up! blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2025-1...

Potentially important new law journal article just dropped. It’s a heavy read but worth it. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I solve human problems; code is just the medium. Naming my tools after people who inspire me is a small ritual that keeps that truth at the center. blog.kestrelsnest.social/posts/2025-12-14-why-my-payment-agent-is-named-george-not-stripe-agent/

My friend George over at GamesRadar wrote this powerful ode to Gunn's Superman, proclaiming it their movie of the year. www.gamesradar.com/entertainm...

I'm always learning stuff. For example, tonight I learned Maxell is still around.

There's something like nine billion possible phone numbers in the United States alone, and I know it's an impossible task to block them all. But by god it sure looks like I'm gonna have to try.

Live from LA. That was a while ago. Clay was on stage with me and George called in that night. I believe Alex Hirsch was in the audience.

I've been running a farmers market platform for 23 years. Now that I finally have a new set of tools and features, I finally wrote up the numbers: $57M to farmers, 869K orders, 67.6% of customers come back. Not bad for a side project that refused to die. locallygrown.net/impact

I've completed "Movie Theater" - Day 9 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/9 part1: 48.17ms part2: 1:18.968 (m:ss.mmm) Not the best work, but for me, today, it's my best work.

I built an AI assistant called Diderot (after the Encyclopédie guy) to keep documentation in sync with code changes. He handles the tedious git log archaeology so I can focus on the parts I'm actually good at: tools that amplify, not replace. iinteractive.com/resources/bl...

I've completed "Laboratories" - Day 7 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/7 Quantum tachyon manifolds! My degree in astrophysics is finally paying off!

I just completed "Trash Compactor" - Day 6 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/6 I used to teach math to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. I'm kinda glad I never had to touch upon cephalopod math until now.

I just completed "Cafeteria" - Day 5 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/5 I finally hit my old friend OutOfMemoryError and had to think.

I am once again proud & excited to be directing the Costuming Track at #CONpossible 2026 — February 6–8, 2026, in Atlanta! @conpossible.bsky.social Theme: Through the Fairy Ring This year’s track blends the magical with the mechanical. 🛠️✨ (1/5)

I just completed "Printing Department" - Day 4 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/4 Little elves on forklifts!

@kathleena.bsky.social Happy birthday!

I just completed "Lobby" - Day 3 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/3 These elves have some real "got fed after midnight" gremlin energy.

Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.

I just completed "Gift Shop" - Day 2 - Advent of Code 2025 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2025/day/2

Today is Blue Beanie Day! Wear a blue beanie, share a selfie, recommit to building a web that works for everyone. Still carrying the torch @zeldman.bsky.social lit for me years ago.

Friendsgiving potluck never disappoints.

Cheesesteak Cheese Sticks were unfortunately not greater than (or even equal to) the sum of their parts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4P5... I filmed this in May, before my surprise hiatus, but I'm recording again and should be back to a regular schedule again soon!

What’s that? I just finished editing a YouTube cooking video for the first time in like six months? Nature is healing.

Today’s xkcd made me cry. In a good way. xkcd.com/3172/

I didn’t have any sweet vermouth, but this 30+ year old port from Missouri of all places took its place and made an outstanding Negroni.

Calvin and Hobbes is one of a handful of pieces of art that I sort of expected to leave behind when I grew into adulthood but instead continue to point at in increasingly desperate ways to beg people to increase their humanity

Nothing - and I mean nothing - will prepare you for how this ends

I wrote about something I’ve been struggling with for forty years as a software developer: the gap between being good at solving problems and being terrible at the mechanical act of typing code. I’m neurodivergent, and my brain excels at patterns and systems but struggles with mechanical precision.

I wanted to share probably the most important sermon I’ve given and it’s while I’m being arrested. It’s torture pure and simple what happens at #Broadview. I’m ok, though I was thrown to the ground and choked with my pectoral cross. A review of the video shows I was peaceful - did I deserve this?

I can’t see this photo either (adult content whut) but I went a-searching and here’s a direct link to the gay sheep sanctuary Rainbow Wool, about which everything is delightful. rainbow-wool.com/Shop/

This might be the most striking nighttime photo I’ve ever taken, thanks to the technology on this phone, an ivy covered tree, and solar storms making the sky light up way down here in Georgia.

Fifty years ago today the gales of November came early. I put a mournful sticker on my car to commemorate the occasion.

Unlike other places, The Onion is quadrupling down on being a pain in the ass, politically. Please subscribe.

loading the dishwasher in a way that infuriates others is the most human these things have ever behaved

Just started Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model. The first chapter reads like a retelling of “There Will Come Soft Rains” and I mean, look, if it were Joe Random author I think I would have bailed halfway through because that short story is perfect the way it is. I don’t need it to be a novel.

43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.