On this last day of summer, I’m posting some photos that prove that I got out of the house (and even out of town) and did a little living while the days were long this year. Hope you did too!
The end of summer sneaks up on me and breaks my heart every year.
Because we could all use one, please enjoy this moment of zen: a Jon Carroll column from early July 2005, on the topic of “wisdom.”
I’ve noticed a trend of people posting pics of their positive at-home COVID tests. It didn’t occur to me to do that when I tested positive earlier this week. And while I knew there is no good time to come down with COVID, I can now personally attest that coming down with it just a few days after abdominal surgery — when every single cough generates an entire ocean of pain — is a particularly unpleasant path.
Got out of town for three nights this past weekend, spent them down in Monterey County. Poked around Carmel, Asilomar State Beach, Pacific Grove, Monterey, and Seaside. Saw some of the most breathtakingly beautiful stretches of Golden State coastline I’ve ever seen. Discovered that “calamari steak and eggs” is a common item on brunch menus down there. Spent one glorious sunny afternoon learning to play bocce, courtesy of awesome friends we had not seen in years. All this and more, and yet, no pics of us doing any of this, because the few shots we took were of the gorgeous scenery. After all these years of carrying smartphones, my wife and I have yet to cultivate an impulse to pull one out and snap a pic when we are having fun.
If you ever hang out with me, and it looks like I am having fun, please take a picture!
Asilomar State Beach
It has been many, many years since I wrote something that got published on a website that wasn’t mine. But today, I’m a guest blogger on the official blog for Wagtail (the exceptional software that powers this site), telling the story of how our team at Berkeley replaced Drupal with Wagtail and never looked back.
When I launched this site in early 2021, I knew that I would consider it “under construction” until I had implemented proper/modern photo galleries. I finally got that work done this past week, so the museyroom has finally reopened, with an exhibition of galleries from the old site. This site is now capable of sharing just about anything I might want to share online, so I’ve cleaned up the home page and taken the construction sign down. It feels great to finally have the whole place built out.
I ordered a used book. It was only a few miles away, in San Francisco, so I figured it would get here soon.
But no: It took more than a week, because first, the USPS sent my book to Las Vegas.
Then to Reno.
Then back to San Francisco, where the journey began. Then to Oakland—where I live! (Getting close, right?)
But then the book went back to San Francisco once more. And then back to Oakland again.
And then, finally, today, the book arrived.
It must be exhausted.
Thirteen years ago this evening, I met a fascinating woman named Makenna, and nothing has been the same since, in all the important and best ways.
Today’s rainy afternoon project: kicking Google Analytics to the curb, and replacing it with GoatCounter for privacy-friendly analytics on this site. The service is free for non-commercial use and its author says he wants to “de-Google-fi the internet a bit, and make pervasive tracking less common.” I am extremely impressed with his creation so far!
screenshot of Seevooplay in action (unthemed)
Here I am visiting my favorite piece of art in the whole world: PH-247 by Clyfford Still. It’s nearly always on view at Denver’s Clyfford Still Museum, and no photo ever does it justice. As far as I know, these particular shades of blue don’t exist anywhere else — and they absolutely transfix me.
Makenna and I spent a few hours yesterday inside Convergence Station at Meow Wolf Denver. The place is very hard to describe, but “Disneyland on acid” comes closest.
So I’ve been a lot quieter here than I expected to be this year, but a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes lately. Here’s the first new thing new to share: You can now sign up to be notified by email when there’s a new post here. This option is also available in the blog’s sidebar (or at the bottom of the page if you’re reading on a mobile device). More soon, people! More soon.
Belated thanks to everyone who left a comment during the site’s early days in January. It turns out that I wasn’t being notified of those, so I never knew about them, and therefore never allowed them to go live — until now. Everything’s fixed. Thanks again, friends.
466 posts from mahnamahna.net 1.0, written between 2003 and 2010, are now housed here on the new site.
In the extremely unlikely case that anyone out there on the interwebs is interested in how to import content from an ancient Blosxom blog into Wagtail, you can check out the custom code I wrote to make it happen.
Feeling pretty thrilled to have joined the ranks of the fully vaccinated today. Like others, I note one immediate side effect: more than a glimmer of hope inside that this will all be over soon.