I've been working since I was 14. First job was a paper route, cliche I know. Then I got jobs working fast food and restaurants until I joined the USAF at 19. After 8 years serving, I left and got a few odd jobs and went to art school with my GI Bill. Got a degree in graphic design. 1/2

Sometimes I really regret not staying in the USAF for the full 20. I'd have retired in 2012 with full benefits. Now I'm still working every day for a big corpo bank and dreading the few days a week I have to commute to the office. I'm 53, shouldn't I be living off my past by now? Sigh.

My cat just fell through the blinds and off of the window sill, crashed into my headphones and work laptop, then flopped onto the ground. Then she just looked at me and ran away like it was something *I* did to her.

My favorite Blue Ice vodka has a promo right now where you get 2 mini bottles of huckleberry vodka with a regular 750ml bottle. I just tried it. Never had huckleberry before - it's like wild blueberry. Taste isn't bad, but it has to be ice cold to be good - which mine is. I would not pay for it.

I got way more positive feedback from my $40 plastic film camera photos than I did from my $6k high quality medium format digital photos. Was it just because the film was b&w? It was out of focus, and had lots of fall-off. The digital were high dynamic range and beautiful. I don't get it.

Recently I was forced to come to terms with the fact that just one of my camera bags contents is worth more than a used car. The other one is worth half that. And I'm not even a professional photographer anymore...

I love the focus on vasectomy that I've been seeing on social media. It's a quick, easy, and if it's important to you, reversible, surgery that solves so many problems. I had mine after we had our 2 kids and knew we didn't want more, and I've never regretted it for a single moment. Get snipped, men!

Just ONE HOUR LEFT in my very-nearly-half-off newsletter subscription sale! 32 bucks for a year: only *20 cents* per issue. The sale ends at 4 eastern US time. Sign up here: badastronomy.beehiiv.com/subscribe

I've been growing my beard since Nov of 2024, but today, on my 53rd birthday, I decided it was time for a change and trimmed most of it off. Here are the before and after pics from this morning.

Went with wife and kids to see Project Hail Mary last night. While I do think the book is better, the movie was absolutely charming. The 15yo loved it and is now listening to the audiobook, and the 13yo who doesn't usually love sci-fi and space says it's their new favorite movie of all time.

Ugh...I just realized I've been working from the JPGs that my Fujifilm produced for me when I've been processing my photos, instead of the RAWs. Bad photographer! But, I don't think I'll go back and re-process everything from the RAWs now. I don't think it'll change much, and these aren't for a job.

I like our Epson 2800 printer. It does pretty good photo prints as long as you have good paper. The only thing I don't like is that it can't do full bleed on 8.5x11, so I have to trim the white edges off my prints. Annoying, but workable.

Digital photography is a miracle. Being able to capture forever the images we want in digital form, instantly accessible to share to the world, is amazing. But, a $150 printer making those prints into tangible art that you can hang on your wall is even more valuable.

I just spent the last hour selecting and printing images from the West Coast Trip we took. Then I realized I printed 4 of them in grayscale when I meant to print them in color, so I reprinted them. A waste of printer paper maybe, but worth it to see them in tangible form. Print your photos people.

I got my 120mm film scans back from the developer finally from my West Coast trip. I used a Holga 120s camera to take these images. If you're not familiar, a Holga is a medium format plastic camera with almost no controls. Very minimal. neocomixx.com/west-coast-t...

My kids just didn't care about Artemis II. They live in a time when billionaires are raping space for profit by sending up rockets every couple of days, so why should they care about a mission that's just about hard science? I wish I had an answer for that...

So, for the few of you who follow me here, I've uploaded all of the images I like from my west coast trip with my family to my website. Check it out here: neocomixx.com/west-coast-t... See if you can recognize the several movie locations we visited along the way in WA, OR, and northern CA.

Bluesky is really not designed for photographers who would want to share lots of media of, say, a trip from Seattle down the coast and back to Phoenix. I have to pick 4 images that tell the story of an 8 day drive with 4 people...

I just hit myself with some nostalgia. Between 2007-2013 I worked as a stills photographer for several indie films, mostly with a group called Synthetic Human Pictures. I really miss it. neocomixx.com/synthetic-hu...

Oh, wow. So many other worlds visible in the background of the Artemis II view from eclipse, peeking out of the haze of the solar corona. Thanks @tunctezel.bsky.social for labeling!

My favorite image from the photos available so far from the Artemis II flyby yesterday. Credit: NASA Images available here: images.nasa.gov

I often forget that most people aren't atheists, like I am. Today's head-scratcher headlines about some dude believing that a god transported him to a Waffle House just brought it to mind again.

I identify as a visual artist. My degree is an AA in visual communication, my job is data visualization, my hobby is photography (and sometimes illustration). I love visual media like anime and comic books. When I read, I see the story in my mind. When I think, I think in pictures.

I just drove the majority of 1,955 miles from Seattle back to Phoenix, stopping at many beaches, towns and film locations along the way (Sleepless in Seattle, Goonies, Return of the Jedi and more) for the last 9 days. I hope this gives the kids a great memory that will last a lifetime.

The adventure begins: me and the family are packing into the car and heading to the airport. Will be in SEATAC in a few hours. Then we'll just be taking in the sights and enjoying cooler weather (and scouting a potential new place to live). Exciting!

As a desert-rat planning a road trip in the Pacific Northwest, I'm daunted by clothing options. I don't have to account for rain or cold here, and in Seattle it will be colder as a high than my winter highs were this year, plus, you know, raining is a possibility. Just ordered a coat and flat-cap.

Why does so much food have parsley in it? It has little to no flavor, it gets stuck in your teeth, and I guess it just adds color? It's just annoying to me. I don't want green flecks in my manicotti. I just want cheese and red sauce and pasta. Why put green flecks? It triggers my audhd...

Post your favourite "Lord of the Rings" character. Wrong answers only.

In just over 3 weeks, we're taking the kids up to the PNW for spring break. Flying to Seattle, then driving back to Phoenix by way of the coast. Going to see Forks and Astoria along the way (Twilight and Goonies). Visiting family for a few days. It should be quite the memorable road trip! So excited

Why doesn't Revell sell their USAF livery C-17 Globemaster III models on the US site anymore? I can get RAF livery if I fake a UK address, but I can't get the model of plane I actually worked on unless I go 3rd party Ebay? So stupid.

I don't enjoy hip hop, or speak Spanish, but that's ok, that show wasn't *for* me. Seeing all the reaction videos by people for whom that *was* for is so heartwarming and brings me to tears. Representation and inclusion is SO important. I'm so glad it happened and was so good.

Age verification? My first anime was "Battle of the Planets".

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, about myself and about how much I'm ADHD vs potentially Autistic. And about trauma, about how I show lots of signs of being a trauma survivor. Reading Wil Wheaton's latest post really made me think about myself, and explore ideas that I haven't explored.

I sold my last motorcycle in 2009. I miss it every day. If I suddenly found $30k, this is what I'd buy: A BMW R 1300 RT.

Everybody in my house has ADHD, including me, but mine is different from theirs. They leave all the cabinet doors open and lights on. I HAVE to close the cabinet doors and turn off the lights. So, I guess it works out.

Taken this morning just before dawn, using my Fujifilm GFX100S and 35-70 lens.

Something I greatly miss from my time living in Germany is the winter holiday markets. The Frankfurt Christmas markt was something to behold, and I can still smell it in my memory. If I ever get to go back with my wife and kids, I hope it's during winter so we can experience this together.

11 years ago today I had meningoencephalitis and didn't know it until I passed out in the ER and went into seizures that started a 5 day induced coma. I don't remember much about it, but my wife and mother do, since they were both traumatized by the experience. Happy it didn't kill me.

I transform data into meaningful insights and stories using visuals as my job. Mostly I use Tableau, which is software for building these visuals. Microsoft also makes software for this called Power BI. Of the two, I prefer PBI. I recently installed the free version of PBI on my home computer.

I'm torn. I'm against AI, as it's unethical, steals from artists as a business model, and is environmentally irresponsible. But, having a data analytics and technology career means I have to embrace it and learn to use it as a tool or get left behind. How do I reconcile these two things?

Dinner at mom’s house last night. My kids helped my mom set everything up.

The mystery ends

Can you guess what I’m making? Hint: those are slices of apples mixed with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a touch of flour.

All these people rating the Star Wars movies on my feed. Here's my rating: Empire Strikes Back The rest I like ALL of the other movies about equally enough that it's impossible for me to rank them.

I currently struggle with project management. Which is confusing because I used to supervise 10s of people (many 10s during big deployment moves). I used to be directly responsible for billions of dollars worth of people and machines. Now I can't imagine doing that. It's depressing.

Just had a 1 hour "soft skills" training in which they spent the whole time talking about military leadership principles and how they can help during meetings and audits. I spent the whole time thinking "yeah, NOW maybe some of you understand why I am the way I am".

It’s the middle of the night. My alarm is going to go off in less than 5 hours, but I can’t sleep. Fighting the overwhelming urge to quit my cushy office job and go back to a low paying, back breaking job of being a port dawg.

I'm playing the Midnight Beta of World of Warcraft right now, and I don't know why it surprises me, but there are so many people complaining. It's a BETA. Things are gonna be broken and suck. That's why we're testing. But they're acting like it's a preview of a finished product and whining all day.

2 hours later and Sky Harbor traffic is making their presence known with myriad vapor trails