Odds & Ends // 2017.09.30 // Indian Summer

Like it says: odds & ends; I’ll try to post this once a week to track things I read, quick updates, thoughts, links, etc.


Previously

  • One last beach day…

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  • Fall hasn’t quite arrived yet and we’ve still been getting days that’re unbearably hot and humid.

Listens

  • LCD Soundsystem – Black Screen

Reads

  • Recode: Why Ken Burns won’t leave PBS for HBO

    “I’m at the dance with them that brung me and I think I’m leavin’ with them,” Burns said on the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka.

    “Every single film I’ve made for public television has been my director’s cut.”

    Onto my watch list. Thank you, commencement speaker!

  • Apple: Deep Learning for Siri’s Voice

    Skip to the bottom and just listen to the audio samples and ithe improvements in each version.
    The last set is almost on par with a generic audiobook narrator.

  • I’m still working through The Familiar Volume 2, and will then have to power through volume 3 to catch up there and start reading Volume 4 in October. And tacked on The Lost Weekend by for a book club.

Adventures

Renaissance Rooftop!

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and she slept a lot

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Haiku Guys and Gals Book Launch!

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Views

This was neat. I’d seen the list once or twice over the past couple years, but I didn’t know it’d become legitimized and is now such a Thing™.

  • TSN Original: Surfacing

    Since his retirement in 2011 after a series of concussions, Paul Kariya has been a veritable ghost, keeping his distance from a game that he once ennobled with his gentlemanly play, his speed and his scoring touch. In November, Kariya will join former linemate Teemu Selanne when they are inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, thrusting him once again into the spotlight. After a long – probably too long wait – Paul Kariya surfaces.

    It’s tough to hear what Kariya went through, but I’m glad he’s speaking up about it. He was one of the few non-Penguins I liked as a kid.

Coming Up

I’m going to write about my favorite movie…
And I might start writing on an actual schedule


Odds & Ends // 2017.06.02 // HellooooOOO

Like it says: odds & ends; I’ll try to post this once a week to track things I read, quick updates, thoughts, links, etc.


Previously

  • This week was a hectic one. Kicking it off with visits to Governors Island and Central Park was relaxing. The Penguins won games one and two of the Final, which was awesome. I helped out at Impact Hub for an event, and then bussed to Annapolis on Thursday night. Co-Piloted by BB-8.

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Listens

  • I caught up on Do By Friday through the week. The current events asides were a little alarming. I’ve been trying to just ignore the news cycles, but week after week after week being condensed into a few podcasts, that I then binged over a day or two, and it was pretty clear we’re not living in normal times.

  • Same Old Blues by Phantogram has been in heavy rotation in my recent favorites, so let’s go with that.

Reads

I really like it when something that ended on a cliffhanger or with no resolution years ago gets to come back and tie it all up. 1

I don’t think I really liked it, though. The miniseries itself, yes. I just can’t stand the heartbreaker at the end. Time-travel is made to break the rules of itself; embrace the paradox! Now I’m stuck equating Jack with Don Draper. 2

“There is a quality of spiritual pilgrimage to both series: You must make peace with the fact that you will never entirely “figure it out,” and that you will continue traveling onward without any assurance that there’s a destination waiting for you at the other end, much less that you’ll someday reach it.”

The headline alone got me to sit down and read this one.

No pull quote on this one. Just go read it. Unless you’re reading this on your phone, in which case, read it when you have time. It’s worth it. I started thinking about it when I went for a stroll and literally everyone I saw had their neck craned downwards towards a glowing screen as they walked.

h/t to Monica for that one.

One of my friends asked me about Bullet Journaling, which I’ve been trying out for the last two months. The best explanation I can give is to just point to it.

“Handwriting is more than just a form of communication. It’s part of our identity; you can always tell if something is written by you or someone else. The flourishes, how we cross our Ts and dot our Is, can be telling of our personalities. Our handwriting can change from being super neat and then chicken scrawl when we’re in a hurry.”

I think the tl;dr of this, for me, was to just slow down.

Scenes

  • It was two weeks ago, but the first four episodes of Twin Peaks. No explanation possible.

  • Season Five of House of Cards. That was fun. “My turn.”

  • Samurai Jack season five.

Drinks

Dos Caminos used to have some drink a year or so ago that used Singani as an ingredient.3 I really liked it, but then it left the menu and I haven’t found another bar that’s used it in cocktails since. Fast forward to a bunch of evenings ago; I tried a friend’s Pisco Sour and it was pretty tasty. I wondered aloud if the base liquors were similar, since they’re both from South America and were a national drink, and apparently I made a good guess: Pisco & Singani are both a pomace brandy, which I hadn’t heard of before. And that’s quite fitting, because I’ll hopefully be having one in celebration in a week or so…

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Weekend

  • Pittsburgh for some fun and celebration, both family and the Penguins.

  1. Hi there, Twin Peaks!

  2. Now I’m imagining Jon Hamm with a katana. I’d watch that movie.

  3. I think this was it: the Sour 63.