Woke up early today to catch the sun rise on my birthday. I'm not doing anything more special than that.

I love this map design! The fold lines really give it a lived-in feel and gives me some really cool ideas for my own games. All sort of neat little details when you zoom in.

Caught the Mandalorian and Grogu in the theater tonight. Fun movie, a bit like a roller coaster, or an extended Star Tours experience. Really felt like they smashed 6 episodes of the show into a 2 1/2 hour movie. Was it essential? No, but I had fun.

Dark iris opens

Me: I think I'll eat my breakfast at the counter today. Dog: Our breakfast.

And the clematis bloomed pretty crazy this year. I think we had one blossom last year.

Afternoon peony.

The irises are starting to open.

The colors of Spring

Fantastic read. Makes me think about every history book I've ever read. If you aren't already subscribed, I believe Defector is running a sale and the $1 for a month is worth a go to give it a try. You can read this story and a lot of others.

As I was walking g through New York late last night, we saw this really interesting restaurant that we won't have the opportunity to try. It seems like it would be eating in a coloring book. Shirokuro was the name. Maybe it'll be here the next time I visit.

At the Lost Boys on Broadway. Great set, great music. Performers are killing it! Act 1 done, waiting for Act 2. Yes, there was a Sax Man in Act 1. He was phenomenal.

Brutal.

Spring blooms at sunset in my yard.

One day, "It" will happen, by which I mean sudden and unexpected news that you want to celebrate. In such cases, you will want the right outfit. 🧵

Morning daffodil close-up.

I hear a lot of "it's hard to make art when the world is on fire" and yeah that's definitely true for a lot of reasons. But it's also healthy to use art to respond to the times you're living in. And trust that others need that from you too.

Just before sunrise this morning.

The orchid is flourishing. Spring is just around the corner.

Important advice these days. Thinking I need to print it out and stick it places i look at frequently.

Snowy days and memories.

Wow.

I got tired of the news so I opened up a window and looked out at the night sky. Jupiter was very bright tonight, especially when spotted through a pair of big binoculars.

Happy New Year, BlueSky! May your 2026 be better than all the years that came before. Burn the ships that brought you here. There is no going back. There is only forward.

Year is almost up. I've slowed down on my reading, but still managed to get another added to the "Read it" pile. This time, it's Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao. This was a fun book to read. It took me a while to get through it, but when I did read it I devoured sections in big bites. Some thoughts/

Random and probably unoriginal thoughts this Thanksgiving (US) morning: 1) Generally, humans are an extinction level event on this planet. 2) Specific humans are doing their damnedest to change that. They need more of us to help. ...

Completed reading Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery by Brian Murphy. A good book with a lot of the history of the sword-&-sorcery genre of books. A few thoughts: 1/x

Do you want good sports writing? How about silly sports writing? Weird/wonderful creatures (non-political)? Horrible/infuriating creatures (sports, political)? Arts and culture? Defector is a great blog to spend your dollars for all that and more. I've never regretted subscribing.

Morning glory

Poetry and prose are not graced to any one class, any one race, any one creed. It is graced to all. Poetry is emotion expressed for all the world to see. Even when the emotion is something as simple as lamenting a power bill for the sake of comfort.

The sturgeon moon. Lovely.

Took a while to get through it, but finished I Am The Law by @molcher.bsky.social today. I've been working my way through it now for a couple months, primarily because of how heavy feeling his prose is and seeing it reflected... well... everywhere all at once. My thoughts below. 1/x

17,897 days on this planet. 49 orbits around the sun. An insignificant percentage of a galactic year. This space/time has been mostly good. I'm glad I was here to see it. I hope to see a lot more of it.

Went for a ride and found this fine specimen on the steering wheel. I think it wanted to drive.

Just finished So I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney. An interesting book. It was a relatively fast read, breezy in some parts, especially for a very weighty theme. A few quick thoughts... 1/

I have now consumed the first two episodes of Murderbot. I love it already. There's enough differences from the source material to keep me on my toes. The sets and costumes are wonderful. All the actors bring exciting new flavors to the characters. Now I have to wait a week for episode 3.

The peony in the front bloomed. This was the only bud on this bush, but I suspect future years will have more.

Mornings are a quiet time of reflection. Most are walked head down, ruminating on the day ahead. But some mornings, I take a moment to look up and see the paintings of light in the sky. I hope we all have a moment to look outward and see the beauty that is all around us.

Though we're in a pretty dark timeline, there are always little bright moments that can help relieve our sadness. Seeing this was one of them today for me. This cover of an awesome book kicks all sorts of ass in all the right ways! Love it!

A distraction: a ladybug I saved from my pool.

It first took a bit to arrive, then a bit for me to read, but I've finally finished You Didn't Hear This From Me by @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social Fantastic examination of gossip, with a goodly amount of scholarly insight to support the book. A couple thoughts: 1/

I am trying not to be political and angry on this site. However, seeing everything I've seen from the news today, I feel I need to say: Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Trans people are people. I have a small voice but enough small voices together can be loud.

As seen on the DC Metro.

Came down with COVID over a super nice weekend in my area. I watched from my window as the buds became flowers. I went out today to get closer to spring. I didn't miss spring. And I'm getting better.

My view from early this morning. Overslept my alarm and almost missed totality. I am always awed by the night sky, even in the mostly light polluted area I live in. How many millions and millions of stories are being told just out of our reach? How many will mankind never hear?

Finished From Russia with Love by Ian Flemming. I've been pecking at this for a couple years, mostly on account of "shiny new book" syndrome, but also because of the no-longer-accepted language the the author uses. 1/4

Blue skies with white clouds. The clouds looked like someone dragged their finger through the icing of a cake.

Next book on the done pile: After the Forest by @kellinthewoods.bsky.social. A really fun tale of "what happens next" building on Hansel and Gretel, but also adding a lot more ingredients to the tale to make it fresh. There were some nice twists that I should have seen coming, but didn't.

I am on vacation and had hoped to have @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social's new book in my hands and reading it on a beach in Hawai'i. However, my copy is allegedly on back order, so I instead made my wife and her sister listen to Normal Gossip. We broke at emotional support fruits.