Listening to Muse's 2nd Law album after hating it in 2012 and it's not great but not nearly as bad as I remember.

HAPPENING! Huge thanks to the book community! Preorder link: www.audible.com/series/The-W...

The 4-year-old is trending towards a lucrative career as a Dungeon Master. (To escape the Plane of Water, you must say "Dog Farts")

Saying "Happy Hollandaise" as a part of my war on eggs benedict.

"Do not use your microwave's popcorn button," he read out loud as he prepared to once again use the popcorn button.

Another stately step towards getting the whole 11-book series in audio!

My children have invented a game called "Awkward Hugs" and it seems to share some DNA with pro wrestling.

Or, and hear me out, the AI got this one right and we SHOULD be banning woodwind instruments for the safety of mankind.

#AdventOfCode Day 12: My excitement at getting to reuse my grid rotation code from 2020 Day 20 was short-lived... Still managed to attain my 524th Star though!

Typing on a keyboard is now "microdosing words".

Puzzle Boat 12 status: 92 puzzles solved, 52 to go, and only 12 hint tokens left because we keep wasting them on hints that end up being something we already figured out.

Haven't started Season 5 of Stranger Things yet... just seeing the run times on the info page makes me feel like I'm about to commit to a Wagner opera.

Our first year of consciously reducing our Amazon dependence was moderately successful and we'll be continuing next year. I still miss the pre-Bezos Washington Post though. Full post: www.urizone.net/blog/251208

Calling dibs on wrapping all of the hard, rectangular gifts.

"Shhhhh!...the Maestro is decomposing!"

Wondering if I'm the jingle horse in my friend group.

First snow day of the year perfected by the beater rolling through the neighborhood blasting Careless Whisper through rolled down windows.

2 weeks into Puzzle Boat 12, my team has solved 76 puzzles with 68 to go. No lingering side effects other than the need to anagram every sign we see in real life.

When the co-founders can't reach consensus on the product name so they just mash all of their top picks together.

Based on his ambient volume at all times, I predict that my 4-year-old will grow up to play 1st Trumpet in a college marching band.

When it's winter, and the afternoon sun surprises you by shining through the window at a new weird angle.

My personal spin on AoC is to start at midnight and not go to bed until I finish. Longest puzzle to date was 2022 Day 16 (elephant valves) -- took 5 hours and I went straight to work afterwards.

"We've updated our interface to increase the chance that you'll click on something you don't care about." Thanks, Instagram.

Tip of the Day: Avoid buying lamb at Safeway. It's too exotic for the clientele so no one's buying, and every chop will be weeks past the sell by date.

Universal truth from the 4-year-old blowing on a harmonica: "Even though I don't know what jazz is, I'm pretty good at jazz."

Memory is so weird -- I still retain all the fingerings from the Arutunian trumpet concerto I last played in 2001, but I don't remember a single name of any of the dads I met at the last preschool event.

Puzzle Boat 12 launched on Saturday, Everybody Codes wraps up this Friday, and Advent of Code starts next weekend. All in all, a good time to be an obsessive puzzler.

Finished the main story in Borderlands 4. After a really strong start, everything starts to feel repetitive and uninspired (Borederlands?). Full Review at www.urizone.net/blog/251121

Pulled my trumpet out of storage after 9 years and everything works except my lips.

Love how every print edition of Wired is one part hard-hitting tech journalism and one part Skymall.

Honestly 90% of my deaths in Borderlands 4 happen when I Alt+Tab out then click the window to come back, triggering an explosive shotgun blast at the floor.

Really enjoyed Quest 8 in the Everybody Codes 2025 event. Easy to visualize, lots of ways to deconstruct the problem, and open to experimentation.

Confusing Perspective: Stackable Cats Edition

Brand New Sentence: Mark Zuckerberg is running an unlicensed school named after the family chicken.

It's all good until someone invents a 51-year mortgage.

Just heard a cover of Strawberry Fields in the grocery store that made the strawberries sound like toppings on a store-bought pastry.

Between Olaf and Panic! At the Disco, the Frozen 2 soundtrack has an unnecessary amount of shrieking.

Halloween? More like Hallowind.

Open source software idea: An automated scanner that reports if you've accidentally carved your secret API keys onto your pumpkin.

*fest beer season is the best beer season.

I'm ready to join the 524 star club!

Got fired from my job for saying that 1 AWS region ought to be enough for anybody.

Track or Treat: The next iteration of Trunk or Treat that requires a 100 yard dash between pieces of candy.

The songs in Moana 2 are giving "We have Lin-Manuel Miranda at home".

Kids invented a Pokémon with balls for hands and innocently gave it the powers of Ball Punch, Ball Crush, and Ball Blast.

The "I'm done hiding" melody in KPop Demon Hunters' "Golden" sounds like it was written by an aggrieved ear training professor as the extra credit on the final exam.

Must have mistakenly ordered the extra spicy COVID/Flu shots this year because my shoulder is throbbing like an excorism movie.

Silbelius' 5th Symphony is peak "play in a meadow while sheep gambol" music.

Cerberus' lesser known cousin, the two-headed cat.

When Paul de Rapin first used the phrase "a bitter pill to swallow", he was talking about metronidazole. Not many people know this.