Sometimes it's nice to remember that even Marcus Aurelius was like "you don't have to comment on everything bro"

Chicken of the Woods mushrooms spotted on today’s trail walk.

My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up. NYT just covered it. 1/n www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...

Met a red-tailed hawk walking around UVA Grounds this morning. We interrupted her trying to grab a squirrel and she wasn’t very happy about it.

I don’t do trim work very often, and I always second guess myself and do the cuts wrong. So for this crown molding I made four (really six) reference pieces. #carpentry #woodworking #diy

Something I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to learn about woodworking is that you’ll probably spend at least half your time building jigs that make it possible to build the thing you wanted to make in the first place. There’s probably a metaphor in there somewhere. #woodworking

Lazy Monday.

Destroy this myth. Please share if you have visited and researched in a library this past year! RT And give a shout out to your favorite library you have ever visited.

Chilly fall mornings mean more snuggles with Clover and Louisa.

A blue heron eyeing me while minding his own business in a creek.

Hey #archives friends, you might be interested in this episode of 99% Invisible where Robert Caro talks about what it's like for a working historian to have researchers looking through the 20K linear feat of his archives. Relevant section starts around 31:15. 99percentinvisible.org/episode/604-...

We strongly suggest that academic publishers and other platforms that host research rapidly implement a Share to Bluesky button for their articles. Here's how: docs.bsky.app/docs/advance... #AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics

CALLING ALL ARCHIVISTS! I want to make a Starter Pack for all the kick-ass archivists out there! If you are an archivist (digital, web, physical processing, consultant, etc.) and would like be part of the pack, reply to this post! Also mention your org/repository too!

The irresistible urge to punch my laptop because I heard an alert sound and I can't figure out which of the twelve applications I have open made it.

Louisa in her favorite spot on sunny days.

Applications for Archives Leadership 2025 open on 11/13/24. This is a great opportunity for finding community and purpose in the profession, which we need now more than ever. archivesleadershipinstitute.org

THIS IS MY JAM go.bsky.app/4EpKvv2

Remarkable timber tower just completed in Paris. Douglas fir exterior columns, interior columns of beech, and spruce beams. The architects used scraps of left over wood to make the furniture! ‘Wood Up’, by LAN Architecture

One of the walls of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe near Wick, Scotland.

Getting older is mostly about losing hair in places you wanted it and getting it in places you don’t.

Because sometimes people need to hear this: If you want to make some art, just make it. If you're worried it's going to be bad, that's fine. Make bad art just because you want to try. You don't have to show it to anyone if you don't want to. You don't have to finish it either! Just do it for fun!

Barring a winning lottery ticket, I’m reasonably sure this is the only context in which I will ever be a one-percenter.

This may be the most perfect tweet ever written.

Latest one-day build. One of our conservators at the library is holding a craft project for staff to make Halloween bookmarks. I made a 3/32nd slice of a walnut block, shaped it, sanded it smooth, and finished with a hard wax-oil coat.

My new office is (was) really echoey and a little boring. So this weekend I went to Lowe’s to pick up some 4’x4’ squares of 1” insulating foamboard, and to Jo-Anne’s Fabrics for several yards of felt in different colors. A few hours later: DIY modular acoustic panels.

All of the phone numbers of friends that I memorized as a teenager are only 7 digits.

Latest project. A Raspberry Pi connected to a 7-color e-ink display that procedurally generates a Mondrian-style image every 15 minutes. Assembled in a custom walnut frame and base with a clear acrylic backing.

The Mexican Embassy may be my favorite bit of weird architecture in DC.

University administrators facing an impossible choice: 1. Ignore protests, let them quietly fade away as the year ends, go on happily with your life 2. Nuke them from orbit, destroying the university you theoretically lead and probably your own career

Training a large language model to reduce hallucinations. cleanlab.ai/blog/trustwo...

The Association of Research Libraries has released their guiding principles for the responsible use of AI: www.arl.org/news/associa...

Countercloud, a totally autonomous AI-driven disinformation system that can produce enormous quantities of false news stories with images and soundbites, and accompanying comments that include hate speech. thedebrief.org/countercloud...

A fun little project I worked on over the weekend. This is a 7-color E ink display connected to a Raspberry Pi that randomly generates and displays a new image in the style of a Mondrian painting every 10 minutes. Now I just have to make a frame for it.

A quick one-day build to suspend some lights over our tomato seedlings, using some scraps I’ve been saving. More practice on making mortises and tenons. Yeah, the glue isn’t fully dry yet. I was trying it out.

More from my footstool project. From assembly to completion. This is the first project I’ve mass produced. Everything up until now has been one-offs. Except for the walnut accents, all were made with discarded lumber reclaimed from our library that was being renovated.

A mortise cutter feels like magic. A drill that cuts square holes? I’m in. Had a project where I was making 10 footstools as a gift for co-workers and this cut at least a dozen hours off the project.

Levels by Vasily Kandinsky, 1929 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137781

This is my favorite sci-fi series of all time!

Okay. Okay. I know, but hear me out…

Spooky kitty

📚📜 If you’ve ever held a temporary librarian or archivist position, we (@lundys21.bsky.social and I) invite you to participate in our anonymous research survey about your experience: forms.gle/UcvgtgXnY8bo... #libraryjobs #libraryjob #LISjobs #libjobs #critlib

Here's Iris Dement singing "Banks Of The Pontchartrain" from the new album "More Than A Whisper: Celebrating The Music Of Nanci Griffith" youtu.be/j4UNed7lMpc?...

I understand that there are technical and mathematical reasons why including phrases like “take a deep breath” work in LLM prompts, but it still feels uncanny.

This is such a perfect little ghost story, I can't recommend it highly enough. In fact I can vouch for anything and everything Premee Mohamed has written, I think I've bought and read her entire ouvre.

I've lost my keys. I've lost my wallet. I've lost my passport in one particularly panic-inducing incident. I'm proud to say I've never lost a multirole advanced fighter jet and had to crowd-source its location.

Exhibit text from Planet Word Museum in Washington DC.