I’ve been spending a lot of time away from the computer in Portugal for both mental and practical reasons; I spend most of my waking hours in front of one on a normal day so it’s great to look up from the keyboard and not think about looking back down for several days on end. I have had to consult it here and there (where are we going? is there street parking? what time are the tickets? do we need ID to get in?) but I’ve tried to keep things as non-technological as possible. My Instagram feed is pretty quiet as well.
We’re back in Porto, where we have an apartment lent to us by friends, for the first time in five days, and we’re sitting on the couch relaxing while a tiny European washing machine gurgles on the patio next to us. Today’s itinerary is “fuck-all”, as we’re catching up from some travel through Portugal, into Spain, and back again, and waiting for clean clothes. We put about 745 miles on a rented Peugeot 308, staying in hotels along the way, and we got to see some amazing sights. Portugal is like what Ireland would be if it was in California: there’s another castle over every hill, except that they’re still in excellent shape and not surrounded by sheep. I’ll write more about the details later.
I made a conscious decision not to bring a ton of cameras on this trip after talking it over with Jen. Instead, we both upgraded our aging iPhones to new 15 Pro models, and I’ve used mine as my primary since we’ve been here. I also brought Dad’s 35mm Minolta X7000 and my DJI Action camera, but that’s the extent of what I’ve been lugging around. It’s weird not to be using a dedicated camera for the first time in 25 years, but what I’ve been getting out of the iPhone has been pretty damn good. And I’m not ashamed to say we’re leaning into the selfie on this trip, as we don’t have a lot of current shots of the three of us.
To my incredulous surprise, I read this morning in the Madrid airport that Soul Coughing, the excellent 90’s era band who wrote a song this website is named after, has reunited after 25 years of acrimonious bickering. They are planning a US tour and I’ve signed up for the ticket sale even though I’ll be in Portugal and have zero chance of winning one.
(previously)
While walking Hazel Saturday morning, we stopped by a yard sale to check out the wares. As Hazel wrapped herself in knots at my feet whining at the cat on the front porch of the seller’s house, I spied this purple bit of tech sitting on a table and was happy to exchange a dollar bill for it.
I’ve often thought I should be carrying a power brick and a universal cable adapter with me when I yard sale to be able to test things like this out before I buy them, but that would require advance planning and I frankly don’t have a lot of that right now. And for $1 this was a chance I was willing to take. When we got home I dug a 30-pin connector out of the Ancient Technology drawer and plugged it in; within a few seconds I was greeted with the Apple logo, which was a great sign.
After charging it up I plugged it in to the tower in the basement and dumped a bunch of music on it. It’s only an 8GB model so there isn’t a ton of room, but it’s enough to have something to listen to beyond the radio and it’ll make a nice lightweight companion on our trip and beyond. Fun fact: This model actually has a built in radio and video camera (!!)
I think the SkyPilot knows when people are planning to be on vacation, because they like to throw little curveballs in the way that make getting out of town more challenging. I thought I’d made some good progress as a human being by planning for and buying tickets to Europe months in advance, and securing the services of a pet sitter right after that. I had some vague ideas for how to map out our two weeks, and we arranged for a cleaning service to come and work on the house before we left. There are a ton of things left on the do-this-before-boarding-the-plane list, but the big stuff seemed to be under control.
A few weeks ago, Jen tried to use the oven to cook something and it just never got hot. She transferred the dish to the microwave (which is also a convection oven) and it finally finished, but that wasn’t a good sign. Today she pulled something out of the microwave and closed the door, but it just continued making the “I’m cooking something” noise; the only way to get it to shut off was to open the door or throw the breaker. Attempting to clean the oven only resulted in filling the house with the sour egg smell of gas and a dirty oven.
So, it looks like we’re going to go shopping for a new microwave when we get back, and I’ve got to find someone who can fix the oven before we leave. Super.
This is a bit of a saga to unwind, but so worth it: Some SpaceX junk fell to earth on a Saskatchewan farm, and the landowner contacted a local authority to ask who should clean it up: an astronomy professor at the local college. She talked to local media about the situation, using the opportunity to talk about unregulated space junk. SpaceX heard about this, and sent two employees in a rental truck to come and pick up their crap (portions of which took two people to lift into the truck) in front of a gaggle of local reporters and camera crews. I’m glad to see journalism still functioning, and I do hope that governments begin regulating private spaceflight before 200-lb chunks of Elon’s pet project come crashing through my roof. (via metafilter)
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Somehow this one popped up in my brain today and hasn’t left: Eurotrash Girl, by Cracker. A good band who never really followed up with another record as good as Kerosene Hat, unfortunately; this album was on solid rotation the year I graduated college, and Low was the soundtrack to a summer painting houses. I’ve always loved the mixture of rock and country stirred together in this band—just enough twang to make things work.
In preparation for our upcoming trip, Jen and I were talking about whether we were going to bring cameras to Europe. Having sold my lightweight Fuji rig earlier this year, I was looking at hauling around a full-size DSLR and lens if I was going that route, which was less than optimal. Looking at our iPhones, we both came to the decision that it was time to upgrade from our 4+ year old iPhone SEs to something a little more modern, and use those for shooting photos. Jen and I are slow-walking technophiles: we are surrounded by technology but we upgrade only when we have to. We tend to keep our stuff until it’s either broken down or technologically unsupported; she’s using a 9-year-old laptop and I finally upgraded an 11-year-old machine this year.
Our phones have been rock solid and reliable but they’re getting long in the tooth. My battery is only good for a couple hours and the single-lens camera is functional but not optimal. So we went to the Apple Store on Sunday to pick out some new phones. After a little research we both settled on the iPhone 15 Pro, which is only a little larger than our SE’s but all screen, with the fancy camera, better processor, more storage, and most importantly, a long-lasting battery.
We set Jen up first and went so far as to having the boxed phone on the counter, but AT&T’s activation servers were down so they couldn’t get the process started. So we had to leave empty-handed, and have to return tonight to try again.
Meanwhile, I’m considering taking the Yashica TLR with me, because I can’t be without a giant heavy mechanical object of some kind. Or maybe I’ll respool some film and take one of the 620 cameras instead…
This is an old one but still a good one. Blonde Redhead, Spring and By Summer Fall. I picked this album up years ago at the library and had it on solid repeat for weeks, and it never gets old. For some reason it crept back into my head the other day and hasn’t left.
I worked in Laurel, Maryland 25 years ago at a dot-com startup. We were based first in a small office building on Rt.1 and for about four months there was enough room to fit everyone in the same building. As the plans to expand unfolded, with the eventual goal of hitting an IPO, we started exploring the surrounding area for a larger office space. One of the places I passed by often and wondered about was a building up on a hill south of the space we eventually landed in. It was only barely visible from the road, but the company name was spelled out in large art-deco letters above the entrance: AEROLAB. It was occupied at the time but it looked like a secret military installation or evil scientists’ lair, which would not have been out of character: Laurel is a weird place.
These days, the building is abandoned and seems to be a popular destination for urban explorers (as well as the sizable homeless population in those parts):