Am I doing social media for our board game company right? This seems a fair tone for the subject matter.

Happy Pride everyone, remember to make your local homophobe and transphobe uncomfortable this month ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 Also have a pretty Space Pride Flag :3

Day 26: Last full day in Rome, and a final visit to the Colluseum. It was quite busy outside today!

Day 25: The Pantheon. The dome is so large it defies photography. This picture gives a sense of it. The beam of bright sunlight shooting into the dome gives a surreal quality. (Let's not get into the irony of an ancient Roman temple converted into a Christian church being called "Pantheon")

Day 24: "The Truth Unveiled By Time", in the Borghese Gallery. This sculpture by Bernini captivated me. She holds a representation of the sun in her right hand. To my naive eye it sure as hell looks like the mask of a man, cast away. My own perceived 🏳️‍⚧️ allegory might be false, but it's beautiful.

Day 23: Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Tancredi was incredible. Never heard a note so pure in my life.

Day 22: Hallway ceiling in Vatican City. Near to, but not the Sistine Chapel, which was awesome, forbids photography, and we got to sit in for 25 minutes.

Day 21: Not much to report. We've left Malta and returned to Rome under a 29C heat dome which makes it difficult to explore outside and take cool pictures.

Too many people still confuse Software Engineering with writing code. Code is the artifact. Software Engineering is understanding the problem, making tradeoffs, designing the system, reducing complexity, and deciding what shouldn't be built. No amount of 'vibe coding' can help you with this.

Day 20: Malta's "Sleeping Lady", Neolithic artwork currently on display at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta. Well over 5000 years old, makes the Egyptian pyramids look young.

Day 19: Valletta, Malta. An absolute fortress. No wonder the Axis was unable to invade. The city is beautiful, and the buildings link old, but then you realize most everything was built after 1950 because the island was completely flattened.

Day 18: Sunset at Sanap Cliffs, Gozo, Malta

Day 17: Ġgantija, Gozo, Malta. The remains of a 5600 year old temple, sadly in poor shape because of all the colonial adventurers who decided digging up an ancient building with no context and leaving graffiti on it was a cool thing to do in the 1800s.

Day 16: Għajn Tuffieħa Beach The closest I get to spiritual joy is bobbing in the octagonal for about 2.5 hours. (I swore I posted this yesterday, but I apparently did not. Silly bluesky...)

A reminder that this is a *yes or no* question: "Should Alberta stay or leave?" Apparently Boolean logic will not be taught in any theoretical future State of Alberta. "(A | ¬A)?" is literally a nonsensical question. I mean... Yes? One of those two opposite things should happen??!

she was SIXTEEN fucking years old. i never have words to give shape to the anger. every time someone’s “just asking questions” about bathrooms or sports or prison or healthcare or whatever abstract they suddenly think is a problem, there are individual trans people who pay for it. she was a CHILD.

Day 15. Ħaġar Qim Archaeological Site. Perhaps the oldest standing site on the planet. About 5500 years old. Note the Filfla Nature reserve island in the background.

Day 14. From the Archaeological Museum in Naples. Close up of a painting recovered from Pompei.

Day 13: Herculaneum from above. I've looked at so many 2000 year old homes in the past 2 days I feel like I'm house hunting all over again. Though if everyone in the neighbourhood died horrifically all at once you start to worry about the resale value.

Day 12. A "slow" day in Naples. Mt. Vesuvius, with boat in foreground. Draw on what you think should be a mountain top above that crater. That's all gone now. Volcanoes are beautiful and terrifying.

Day 11. Pompeii. The similarities between the saddle shape of Mt. Vesuvius and Mt. St. Helens post eruption are both striking and disturbing.

Day 10. Naples feels like a city of graffiti. So I'm leaning into that. Here's lobster man.

Had another interaction with a US couple, this time really pleasant. They were from Tennessee, they said they were from Tennessee but not from which country, and they spoke and mostly listened and with interest and kindness that amazingly worked.

Day 9. Closeup of David, Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. Everyone takes a picture of the 5m tall statue. But close up is a different story. Look at the veins! Look at them! That's carved marble! Wild attention to detail.

Day 8. The pilgrimage I didn't know I needed to make: The tomb and burial site of Galileo Galilei. Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze. I spent a good 10-15 minutes here taking it all in with strong feelings of admiration and reverence. Note the heliocentric model center, and the parabola right.

Day 7. Firenze/Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo, mid day (not the traditional sunset) about 30 minutes before the brutal thunderstorm hit. Mid day before a thunderstorm is a great way to experience this view with as few people around as possible.

Had a pleasant interaction in Florence with a elderly couple from the USA which quickly devolved into "We've been saying we're Canadians to not be embarrassed/You'll be part of the US soon/We just wanted you to know we didn't vote for him" territory in record time.

Day 6: Four hours at the jaw dropping Uffizi makes a tough choice for a single photo. Lots of incredible pictures with difficult subject material. Instead I'm going with the 1545 painting "Charity" by Salviati. The subtlety of the folds in pink really held me here.

Day 5: The River Arno in Firenze/ Florence. If you pan the camera right you'd see Ponto Vecchio, but that's probably a better picture taken farther away.

Day 3. The Portonaccio Sarcophagus. Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo. Depicted the then current war against the Germans, had a Roman general buried inside. ~1850 years old. About 2.5 meters wide.

Colluseum misses out as my picture of the day. Behold a tiny fraction of the Roman Forum. Sprawling, steep and exhausting, your Colluseum/Forum ticket is going to take an entire day of energy out of you. Absolutely amazing experience.

Going to try to post my best pic of the day during my vacation. Not many cool pics during the huge flight and big time change. Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.

Fine. I'll briefly enter the United States. Happy now USA? I'd say it's like dipping my toe in the water, but if I did that they'd need to stop the ferry.

Very considerate of BC Ferries.

“Flowers For Men” (2025)

I just saw a woman driving a cybertruck.

Carney gives speech about Canada choosing their own path and not relying on America. Issac Brock statue comes out. *Canadian reading between the lines intensifies.*

I can assure you doctor's hands do not glow when they heal the sick.

Winning campaign slogan here if anyone wants it.

we want you to build a shit-ton of public housing everywhere, FFS

That crew return broadcast was something special. Hear what the astronauts have to say. So much love for their crew and for their planet. A healthy dose of subtext on the state of the world today.

I hate how trans people in sports is the Pig Latin society has chosen to use to talk about human rights and health care.

Oh this is great: there’s now an #Artemis II Lunar Flyby Gallery on the NASA images site: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna... (thx @dpmanchee.bsky.social for pointing it out)

"From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, 'Look at that, you son of a bitch!'" - Ed Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut

I just figured out the ending to Season 2 of The Pitt. Once considered, it's so obvious. It fits Robby's behaviour and actions perfectly. Searched online, nobody is taking about it. Noah, that's some *fine* acting if I'm right.

We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy but because you've seen the other shit this country spends tax money on. At least going to the moon is cool.

Go Patrick, Go!

I was at Les Miserables in Vancouver yesterday. I hadn't seen it in over 30 years. These lines hit hard this year: The people have not stirred We are abandoned by those who still live in fear The people have not heard Yet we will not abandon those who cannot hear