German Vegetable Soup with Bacon
Kat made the following recipe for a Soup-er Bowl party and it came out really well! Here's the original recipe. And if you don't read German, here's what Apple Translate did with that photo above.
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Asparagus Bane
I was describing Spargelfest in Germany to a friend and they asked me, "What makes white asparagus different?" I said, "They take a Bane approach. It's cultivated in darkness." Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born
2025 Summary
I'm doing this again. A year in review for 2025. If you want to catch last year's, you can find 2024 here. Pray that brevity finds me, for your sake. 2025 brought new challenges and plenty of adventure. Challenges Psychic Damage The first challenge of 2025
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Sometimes you want to post an AIM status update with lyrics of your current mood. Well, I've got a publishing platform, so here goes.
Debian 13 Trixie Upgrade
One Weird Trick to make Linux distro upgrades easy on your critical services. Upgrading from Debian 12 to 13 on a Docker host.
Air-Gapped Cyber Resilient Infrastructure
During Nutanix .NEXT 2025 in Washington, DC, I had the honor of presenting a main stage demo to ~4,000 attendees. I can write a bit more about what it took to get this demo ready, but for now I'm just happy to share that the presentation is
Bliss Alta Motionblinds Home Assistant Integration
Do you have a Bliss Automation - Alta Window Fashions roller shade or other device that you'd like to add into Home Assistant? Then this is the place for you! Background Part of de-Amazon-ing my house, or "un-Bezo-ing?", "de-Jeff-ing?" is to control all my
Home of the Brave
Sometimes I drive around the country and talk to people. There's no law against it. * Scott Carrier, "Home of the Brave - The End of the World", Feb. 2015 These two short sentences stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to wonder, "Who is
Nested YAML Frontmatter for Obsidian Book Notes
The author spends 3,000 words changing 3 lines to remove nested YAML frontmatter. Along the way, he learns the value of writing down the process and fact checking AI.
Can you quit Vim?
The note taking application Obsidian makes me nearly spit my coffee out with a fun pop-up message about exiting Vim.
Money Makes the World Go Round
Weakened Friends - Spew I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Maybe you would like the live version after the album version.
Shakespeare in the Park
A visit to Durham Central Park slaps me in the face with a Shakespeare quote about wealth that I can't forget.
Technology
Procrastination via Optimization (Yak Shaving)
Procrastination via endless optimization of my work environment. Otherwise known as Yak Shaving. Learn how my workstation config evolved.
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Suddenly, a letter
A handwritten letter offering advice appears out of the blue exactly when it's needed most. The response is delayed by a mischievous foe.
Technology
Should I switch to a static site generator?
Thinking about the switch between WordPress and the Eleventy static site generator after 23 years of blogging.
Media
An Open Letter to John Darnielle
I took an action item at lunch with friends to send this letter a few weeks back. I decided that finding John Darnielle’s address or email and then sending him this would sound too much like a request. And, walking by Merge Records to just drop it off would
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Bread Box Assembly
A finely crafted bread box tells a tale of its own creation, and the people and places that shaped it along the way.
Travel
2024 Summary
It's been a while since I've posted. In fact, this is the first post of 2024. It's been a whirlwind of a year. The year started out spending lots of time with friends and saying an untimely, final goodbye in January. Lots of memories
Technology
Measuring AT&T Internet Bandwidth with Python, InfluxDB, and Grafana
Any technical system you build inevitably slides into decay as the ecosystem you've borrowed from upgrades slowly over time while you're off doing other things. The parts you custom tailored now no longer fit. Some of the suppliers go out of business. Some changed businesses altogether.
Media
A Deepness in the Sky
Here's my review of A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. I'm not leaving reviews on Goodreads anymore, but it felt like this deserved a mention somewhere publicly. Five stars. Highly recommended. Would read again. I picked up A Deepness in the Sky on a
Travel
Cascais, PT
I tried surfing at Guincho Beach in Cascais, Portugal. I feel like I did a pretty terrible job, but Kat and Elly were awesome. The scenery and waves could not be beat!
Travel
Bernd das Brot
One of my favorite parts of visiting Germany is Bernd das Brot. Whenever you turn on the kids cartoon channel at night you can find Bernd hanging out grumbling about his situation. On this trip, he's become AstroBrot, floating through space looking for peace and quiet, but constantly
Travel
Halle, DE
After quite a travel ordeal we made it to Leipzig, Germany and then over to Halle. Here's a picture of us in front of the Handel statue in Halle to prove it. In Halle they're very proud of Handel. In Leipzig they go nuts over Bach
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