X just added a new feature where users can see where a particular account is based geographically. In a shocking twist, it turns out that a huge number of high-profile pro-MAGA accounts are based in foreign countries: Africa, Russia, and India, for example.
Here’s the fifth video in the Project Slowflake series, where I went over to Brian’s for two days to hook up the battery to the power pack with the aftermarket wiring harness, and test it out to see if it would run. When we sorted that out, we cracked the battery pack open and pulled the wiring harness apart from there. With that done, we made a bunch of measurements and started planning out how to organize the batteries in the truck.
Amy Sherald, the artist best known for her portrait of Michelle Obama, is having a mid-career retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art. She recently cancelled an exhibit at the Smithsonian over censorship concerns with the painting “Trans Forming Liberty”, above. She’s a fellow alumnus of MICA, having graduated from the MFA program, and worked in Baltimore for 17 years. I’m going to get tickets and take the girls to this show. I was lucky enough to have seen the Michelle Obama painting at the National Portrait Gallery, and it is breathtaking in real life. Looking forward to this show.
Here’s the fourth day of the first week at work. This covers mainly installing a set of disc brakes in the rear, and setting the Leaf power pack into the engine bay.
I wrote about the demise of Mint a couple of years ago, after Intuit killed it to force users to buy TurboTax or whatever bullshit system they want to charge for. We used it for several years off and on to get on top of our finances, with limited success, but that was mainly because we hadn’t set it up correctly. Recently we engaged the services of a financial planner to get on top of our retirement, and through the process of filling out his intake checklist and our initial meeting we realized we had several major blank spots in our spending. We left that meeting with some homework—mainly, figuring out what is going into those blank spots.
After doing some very basic searching, I was pointed at a service called Monarch through some glowing reviews. Basically, it’s a paid online version of Mint, and from all I’ve seen so far, I’d wager the key brains from Mint went out on their own and re-created that service. I signed up for a trial, started plugging my accounts in, and within about 20 mintes had a rough picture of my accounts and those I share with Jen; after she adds hers in we’ll have a much clearer picture of what’s going in and what’s coming out. I’m glad this exists—I was not looking forward to going through my statements line by line.
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Renie gave us her old Apple Watch when I was up there a few weeks ago, as she upgraded to the newest and latest. She figured Finn might like one, but we decided (based on our daughter’s spotty record with expensive electronics) that we should hold off. So I decided I’d swap Renie’s Series 4 for my Series 3. What her watch adds are a bunch of biometric features the Series 3 didn’t have, like comprehensive sleep data and better heart and health monitoring. I’ve been wearing it pretty regularly since I came back, and it’s given me some insights into how much good sleep I’m getting (not as much as I need) and where my heart rate (still lower than a snake’s belly) and exercise numbers (definitely not as good as they should be) are. So I cut my nightly beer out this week to see if that helps with my sleep, and even though it’s getting colder in the mornings, I’m re-committing to walking Hazel as much as possible. Thanks Ren!
Once I got my own apartment in college, and was too poor to afford my own Mister Coffee drip-coffee machine, I resorted to a single cup pour-over jawn, which I filled by heating water in a pot on the stove. And here I need to take a minute. Because when I walk into a bougie café now and see “pour-over” as a special bullshit bespoke option I cannot help thinking that people are suckers. That’s how I made my coffee when I was too poor to make it any other way.
Mike Montiero, author of Design Is a Job and What Is a Designer? writes about coffee in his newsletter.
I’m currently using a pour-over setup after having cycled through my camping percolator (RIP) Jen’s one-cup coffee machine (RIP), several French presses, a brief attempt at an Aeropress (did not live up to the hype) and back to a French press. I like the pour-over but have been keeping an eye out for another cheap percolator at the thrift store—I did enjoy the coffee it brewed, and now that I have beans I like, I want to give it a try again. (He expresses a love for dark roast, which to me tastes like wet, burned paper towels).
I neglected to post this video here: this is the third day of the EV swap, wherein we pulled the 4-cyl 196 out of Slowflake, detached the transmission, and hung that back up under the truck.
Today I sat behind my desk for work for the first time in five weeks after taking my second sabbatical at WRI. Having time away to clear one’s head is a very rare and valuable perk that my organization offers, and while I haven’t been able to take advantage of it the same way some of my colleagues have (globe-trotting trips to exotic locales, for example) I’ve been able to take time away to focus on my family, my hobbies, my friends, and my life outside of work, which has been worth every minute—and a lot cheaper than plane tickets.
As mentioned here, I’ve spent time working on an EV swap project with my friend Brian, spent a week in New York State with my family, and I took care of several long-delayed tasks that required time and focus to complete. I also did a bunch of boring house maintenance, including a paint job on the back two sides of the garage.
It’s going to be very hard adjusting to rising early in the morning to get Finn off to school, getting myself cleaned up and presentable, and hopping on the train again, especially as the days are getting colder and the darkness is getting longer.
…that I’m in my mid-50’s: Shopping for food at the Trader Joe’s last night, they played Milquetoast by Helmet.
(this video is a tie-in with the movie The Crow, the thought of which makes me feel even older).
One of the items I had on my sabbatical to-do list was to get myself to a shooting range and do some practicing while I wait for word on the CCL. My main goal was to do some target shooting with the Glock, but I also have two of Dad’s long guns in the basement that I’ve been meaning to put some rounds through. The range my neighbor and I went to last month also allows for rifles, so I took two hours this afternoon to get some time in. Here’s the report so far:
Glock 48: I brought 50 rounds for the pistol and used every one. My CCL instructor told me to start at 10 feet and focus on stance, breathing, and grip, so I followed his advice and worked my way through three targets. My shooting is pretty consistent at this distance, and using my right eye makes all the difference in the world— I habitually started with my left eye and immediately corrected after the first two rounds. On the advice of my instructor, I ordered a larger slide release for it, which arrived today while I was out, and I’ll put this in tonight. I did find that one of my magazines has an issue loading past 5 rounds, which I’ll have to sort out when I get done with the slide mechanism. The important thing is that I’m feeling better and better about this pistol the more I use it.
Mossberg 152: this is an interesting .22 rifle manufactured in the 1950’s, meant for target shooting, teaching your Boy Scout firearm safety, and varmint hunting. It’s unusual in that it’s magazine-fed: there’s a basic 5-round mag it was designed to accept and the action is semi-automatic.
I was the least worried about firing this gun, and I was not surprised by it at all. It has a very simple period Weaver V22 scope at 3X magnification, and I found it easy to see at 30 feet. The first shot was anticlimactic; after the 115-grain rounds in the Glock, these little 36 grain rounds felt like a popgun. My first 20 rounds were off to the left and just a hair low, so I adjusted the windage and found that it angled the crosshairs over to the right like a listing battleship. This had some effect on accuracy but not enough to dial the rifle in completely. I’ve got to do some more research on zeroing a scope. I’d brought 50 rounds for this rifle and had a blast (literally) shooting at 10 yards, with excellent results. I have an aftermarket 10-round mag for this rifle but found that it had consistent feed issues, so I stuck with the original Mossberg mag it came with. I’l have to see if I can find another inexpensive original on eBay. This will definitely come back to the range with me, and I’d like to try it at longer distances.
VZ-24: this is a Czech-made military rifle chambered in 8mm 198 grain Mauser, which is a heavy round. This rifle is big and beefy, and if my internet sleuthing is correct, it’s 98 years old. I loaded one cartridge in the rifle and prepared myself for the kick, but it still surprised me. Both loud and powerful, it knocked me backwards even though I was shooting in a kneeling position with the rifle supported on the table. The scope on this rifle is a period 3X-9X Tasco (it was put on sometime after the rifle made its way to the U.S., thus ruining the authenticity) which I could not focus for love or money. The zoom worked as advertised, but all I could get was a semi-blurry sight picture. All the shots I took were low and to the left, and even when I was adjusting for this I still got varied results. I put six booming rounds through it and then packed it back up. This will require lots of research on the scope, more testing, and possibly a modern replacement.
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Both rifles need a good cleaning, so that’s next up on the list. The Mossberg is, as I mentioned, perfect for target shooting, doesn’t require much, and benefits from cheap ammunition. The VZ-24 is a beautiful rifle but it’s overpowered for what I think I’d be using a rifle for, and 8mm is an oddball round that’s not cheap. If I continue practicing in earnest, I’d rather put money into buying a newer long gun in a more modern, common, and reasonable caliber, and practice with that instead. The question now is: would I do better with a true hunting rifle or something that works for intermediate range?
I’m back in Maryland after a great week in Upstate New York with my family. It felt good to spend more than a couple of days wrapped around a holiday to visit, eat good food (so much good food), help Mom with a bunch of winter chores, see my sister, and also to just sit and relax. I also did something I wish I’d done more of while Dad was alive: I asked my Mom questions about her life before she was married, how she met him, and what their life was like before they had us kids. I’ve got more questions to ask but I learned some things I didn’t know about.
New York State is beautiful at this time of year. I drove up on a Sunday afternoon and it was getting dark before I made it to central Pennsylvania, but over the next week the leaves around us began to turn. My sister lives up on a hill at a decent altitude for that area, so the winding road leading to her house was flecked with golds and yellows and oranges, all brilliant in the bright sunshine. I started for home early in the morning yesterday, so I was in the middle of Pennsylvania’s peak colors by lunchtime.
I think my only beef with the whole trip is that the radio stations along I-81 only play bible study, country music, or conservative talk radio on Sunday afternoon; it’s like the Steelers or Eagles don’t even exist.