This is a thing of such beauty that I marvel at having never seen it before.

Me: why are jeans that fit hard to find? Levi’s: here are sizes labeled right on the outside for the world to see Levi’s: but what do sizes really mean with ready-to-wear? Everything is arbitrary and means nothing in particular. 31 is 33 is small is medium is

Reinforcing this post that’s been shared a lot to say that I stop listening to podcasts when they become just unedited conversations, when the host talks more than the guest, and when they tell me to watch the video version.

Thankful that Quicken finally has a Stripe integration. Even if it fails to pull in processor fees. I really like the user ease (and low fees) of Venmo, but having to incorporate Venmo, Stripe, PayPal, etc., every other month is wearing me down. (I already threw out Square this year.)

Eggnog with Aalborg akvavit >>>> with whiskey

Homemade fig newtons (Food & Wine’s Fig Bars with Red Wine and Anise Seed). Seemed like a lot of work, but so worth it. The recipe appears to no longer be on F&W’s website, unfortunately.

It took a year, but we finally watched this tonight. And then I was trying to figure out why I could only hear “jimmy dur-ann-teeeee” when I saw his name. Because of Saturday’s Warrior.

Build-your-own smørrebrød for tonight’s dinner, with rye bread made by Catlin (and store-bought pumpernickel).

My intention to not buy new clothes is finally getting to be at odds with body changes from cancer treatment and related surgeries. So the struggle now is finding ethically-sourced basics that'll still be wearable in six months.

Meg’s on it, as always. I wish a variant of the phrase she used had occurred to me last year. Yes, if you’re on chemo, no one else is supposed to come in contact with your bodily emissions. Which meant condoms for both of us. On the plus side, I finally found condoms that fit.

I do not give permission for my body fat to be used for cosmetic purposes. (Facebook taught me this is how this sort of messaging works.)

I have to say that I didn’t think it’d work, but it has. Bsky lets you unpin all feeds, but it still claims a button spot to give you access to those unpinned feeds. I see posts like this top one, and there’s enough friction that I just don’t go see what else is burning. It’s really helped.

I need a time machine to tell Past Ben to stick to his guns of not watching more than season one of Stranger Things. Use all that time for something worthwhile!

As I pour the wheat Chex into the butter/spice mixture, I realized I made a fatal mistake of ignoring the pretzels line of the recipe, having lumped it with the bagel chips line and I don’t mess with bagel chips, so I did not get pretzel sticks. RIP.

Today was the first day in a while that I did NOT get a notification to install iOS 26 on my phone. All with the simple trick of subscribing to the iOS 18 Public Beta update path.

Oh yes. This will be good.

I appreciate when a photographer understands when a the subjects rely so much on signaling through aesthetics.

I think I’m also 10 years late to issue a moratorium on cliffhangers to Stranger Things. We don’t need or want a dramatic reveal in the last second of every episode. It’s what you do in the other 4199+ seconds (this season at least) of the episode that will keep us coming back.

I must be watching a different Heated Rivalry than all y’all. First, I’ve seen no one else complaining about the stupid jumps of time. Six years from the start of e01 to the end of e02, and the only interaction is a few text messages every 6-18 months?! Second, it’s boring!

I’m also rewatching Under the Banner of Heaven. I’m being reminded how effectively they paint Joe Smith for the con he was, while also giving Emma a basis in reality that she was denied in any of the stories I heard growing up.

Finally watched Starship Troopers. Why is it that its VFX are more realistic than some recent movies (looking at you, Wicked)?

“Don’t worry we only use the Death Star for its long range space travel capabilities”

I really try to let myself just exist in the world of thriller movies, especially when it’s metaphysical in nature, but as soon as the bodies start piling up towards the end, I immediately start wondering how the authorities are going to believe anything the people covered in blood are saying.

Ten seconds into Safari on Tahoe had me straight into preferences to change the UI. After seeing none, an additional minute has me looking to permanently switch to Firefox for everything now. Liquid Glass is such an unnecessary assault on the eyes and brain.

My regrettable impulse buy from earlier in the week. If you like triscuits with a flavor a committee met to agree on what guacamole could taste like, not what it actually tastes like, here you go. They’re not bad bad, just not good.

Today’s regrettable impulse buy is impossible to describe. The “smooth, flavorful almond frosting” is not almond-y. The dough is like a sweet, soft saltine without the salt, but also not really. At any rate, these are not coming home ever again.

I can never remember if it’s bourbon I like, or if it’s whisky, or some other thing. Anyone have a favorite sampler you’d suggest for taste-testing? (Bonus points if the sample is also good as an eggnog add-on, or better as an add-on than straight.)

I made no sales at today’s open studio/winter market/last call. But at least I did finish the quilt top for Proud Work.

I don’t know why I stress so much about nine-patches. They’re so precious! And not so difficult.

Every time I’ve heard this song this week, in preparation for the concert, during the concert, in celebration of the concert, I get taken up in the song and decide that I need to do something inspired by this song. And then I remember that I already included it in The Book of Benjamin.

‼️ It truly is a shemergency! ‼️

You should take the opportunity to see Autoheart in concert if you can. They killed at Fine Line in Minneapolis last night.

Oh no. Work is forcing upgrades to MacOS 26. During the last week of the work year for most people. Talk about a lump of coal for everyone.

I subscribed to the RSS feed of fontsinuse.com and it’s been a daily delight. I knew that a typeface can really change a project, but it’s been reinforced seeing what specifically people have used, especially with sans serifs that are almost Helvetica but not quite.

They’ll say “They’re melting down! They’re falling apart! It’s over!” and it’s just two people calling each other names. Look, I’ve been promised the end of the Right for almost a decade and we see where things are at. No need to be as dramatic as they are.

Evergreen.

Having a think about how I can use this Charmera, without adding yet another project to my life. Meanwhile enjoy these photos from a brisk walk.

I wait with bated breath for Atlassian to yank all their useless Rovo AI from their own tools. But not actually holding my breath for it to happen, because I want to live.

I managed to get one of the Kodak Charmeras, produced by RETO Production Ltd. It’s “fun” as a novelty, I don’t know that you need to get one. It really is quirky to get photos out of it.

It’s entirely selfish on my part, but I need every last person to use alt text so that I never see another Twitter screenshot again. I don’t care how good of a take it is. It’s from the bad place. (I also want the no-alt-text labeler to start working again for the exact same reason.)

I made the mistake of ordering something from Wal-mart and they offered curbside pickup. Sure, what could go wrong. It only took over sixty minutes and a phone call to get my single item out to me. Never again.

My toxic trait is delighting, even reveling, in a Dodge Charger that cannot make it up a snowy driveway despite literal hours of trying.

‘Hamnet’ was so very good. Thank you Chloé Zhao, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, and Jacobi Jupe for your work on this picture.

With this in front of me, I quickly mapped out how to assemble it all. Then I thought, “this feels really familiar. When did I do this before?” It was about 15 seconds before I realized that I only did this 9*21 times earlier this year for “If I Had Said Yes”. I used that block for this design!

Tonight is open studios. My favorite moment so far is I glanced up at the perfect time to catch someone pointing at a pricing label with the most delicious disgusted face. Just absolute abhorrence. I fortunately kept the laugh to myself.

It kinda rules that the “WAGTFKY” government is being bullied by a 5 foot tall pop star

Barnes & Noble has Criterion's version of "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" as the main representative for Music & Musicals, which is certainly a choice, considering that it has no score and has only one performance of a song.

Criterion Channel is so rude. A 13-movie playlist with Julianne Moore? And 8-movie playlist of gay cinema from Hayes Code era? And 11-movie Wong Kar Wai playlist? But, what about everything else I have queued up everywhere?!

I literally can’t breathe from laughing so hard about this. Good fucking riddance. Now we need his replacement to rollback all this liquid glass bullshit.

I hate how long it took me to get this, but once I did, oh, the hearty laugh I laughed.