Yup, pretty much sums it up

Took my first ride in a Waymo last night. Well, technically very early this morning. Honestly, I was most impressed by its unwillingness to move until everyone was buckled in.

Just…wow.

Where America stands, one year after the election. A fascistic movement controls the government; they are building an authoritarian state; but they have not been able yet to extend authoritarian rule across society. A democracy no more, but not a consolidated autocratic regime yet. New piece:

Well, my dad and I can agree at least that billionaires should not exist. “Yeah,” he says. “The influence that George Soros is able to wield just goes to show…” 🤦‍♂️

Oh man — missed the game and just saw the results. Gutted because I was really rooting for the Blue Jays.

My Legend of Zelda fanboyism finally won out over my “leave no trace” principles. I’d been trying to figure out what to do with this old sword for a while. My first thought was to cast it into the sea, but finding myself some 2000km from the sea in any direction, an obscure outcropping seemed right.

This is the way.

Today, my 6 y/o tripped, knocked my charging nintendo switch off my desk and stepped on it. Not her fault, but now the right joy con stick isn’t working anymore. Suddenly I have to decide between buying an aftermarket joy con, or upgrading to a switch 2 earlier than planned. Bugger.

Conversation with my mom this week. That escalated quickly. 😳

Welp, it’s not covert anymore. 🤷‍♂️

The fall colors in Garden of the Gods park were really snapping today.

How you view Emmanuel Macron depends on who you support politically: - LFI: Macron is a fascist globalist elite bank baron - PS: Emmanuel Macron is a right-wing capitalist & hates poor people - Ensemble / Renaissance: Macron is a centrist - LR: Macron is a socialist - Far-right: Macron's a Commie

I just watched in frozen horror as an elderly gentleman poured an entire cup of fake maple syrup into the DIY waffle maker at the hotel breakfast bar. To their credit, the staff handled it really well and now I’m kicking myself for not having been quick enough on the uptake to stop him.

I still can’t get over how goatee dude is holding his sidearm.

First ads that caught my eye at Charlotte airport: Some kind of whiskey, Billy Graham Library and MARSOC. Well then.

This fancy AMEX card is giving me a window into a world I kind of knew existed, but hadn’t really seen before.

Super disorientating in the space of a week to start in the shadow of Pikes Peak, drive across the wastelands of the Mountain West to the Pacific Shore, then suddenly find myself on the Atlantic Coast. Now heading back again.

Got to the airport in Providence early enough that it made sense to go camp out in the lounge for a while and have some breakfast. The number of people putting back cocktails in here before 8AM is, frankly, shocking.

Oof. That last sentence is such a gut punch. This has been a long project - at least as far back in the modern era as Reagan's "nine most terrifying words". So frustrating and sad.

My god. In the year of our lord 2025, this is legitimately a thing??

New York City is Getting a Dutch-Style Bicycle Hub and it’s a Game Changer. momentummag.com/new-york-cit...

Breakfast at Corner Café, an hour or so browsing used books, coffee at Empire, then a ten mile hike on the Cliff Walk: not a bad day out in Newport!

The Newport American Legion unironically choosing this particular Horace quote to headline their war memorial in 1923, three years after Wilfred Owens’ poem was posthumously published, was either really tone deaf or really bad timing.

Seriously. Fuck this guy.

Of course the irony is that Plato was himself a jackbooted thug and villain…who was convinced he was a hero.

TIL the idea that villains think they’re actually the hero was first(?) documented by Plato in the Gorgias dialogue (c467-469 BCE).

$23 for a coffee and a donut at SFO. 🤷‍♂️

We have always been at war with Tylenol

After my fiery chariot bore me over a thousand miles in two days, I reached my destination. Like the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II, I cleansed my weapons in the Great Western Sea and made sacrifices to the gods.

Just saw a “Jill Stein 2024” bumper sticker. Guess I’m not in Colorado Springs anymore.

I’ve been driving past this sign for my whole life; now I have to actually take this route. But what’s key to getting through? Is it up, left, up, left, or is it left, up, left up? Or is there a right in there???

I can’t actually remember when the last time I drove through the Tehachapi pass was…2015? Maybe?

Blizzard in Barstow. (Not *that* kind of blizzard — it’s 95 °F out!)

After driving through 800 miles of empty mountains and desert (and desert mountains) it’s a little disorienting to be back amongst the traffic of a city.

Lunch in Las Vegas.

I realized yesterday I’ve never actually driven only *half-way* across the country before

Man, east-central Utah really is an unworldly empty wasteland

No notes

There really *is* no way to prove your citizenship, as anybody who has ever applied for a US passport knows. It’s all based on circumstantial evidence, just enough to convince whatever official happens to be evaluating your case.

I have been obsessed with these two albums for the last three years. What are your latest musical hang ups?

One downside to the new work sked: I hardly ever get to do the school run anymore.

Acts of political violence aren’t acceptable. Non-political school shootings aren’t acceptable. Sacking the legislature isn’t acceptable. Military occupation of peaceful American cities isn’t acceptable. Abductions conducted in courthouse hallways by masked agents of the state aren’t acceptable.

Take it from some who teaches about drone strikes, “I shed no tear for that guy” and “this is bad, it shouldn’t have happened” can be normal reactions to have simultaneously. Opposition to political violence isn’t about personal sympathy for an individual target per se, it’s about society.

All I’m gonna say about Charlie Kirk is if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

100% this. There are plenty of people I am/would be glad to see depart this world; some I might even go so far as to say “deserve” death. But political violence cuts both ways and this road we’re going down is a deeply unpleasant one.

Funniest possible person to say nothing bad happened when he was a kid as a result of everyone having guns

Welp. Paid off the house yesterday. Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous: I’d never sent a wire for over $400K before. I was glad to see it had been received and the balance updated to zero on the loan portal this morning. 😅

Couldn’t get a more clear example of Wilhoit’s theory of conservatism: “There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

As a follow up to my Pikes Peak hike last week, I finally rode this loop over the weekend. It was an ass-kicker for sure, but totally worth it.