skullguise

So sorry Ozgur....especially difficult when there's family "things" going on. Glad you and your dad got to visit and pay respect. RIP to your aunt....

Happy New Year everyone! Bit bittersweet for me. The last few years Karen and I have had mixed celebrations: 3 years ago at some friends' place in NH, we went to bed early but watched the ball drop on streaming. Two years ago, same friends weren't feeling well so we skipped, but watched the ball drop. Last year, too tired, went to bed early. This year, I fell asleep reading, but woke up at ~11:40 to turn on the TV and watch the ball drop. When the clock struck midnight, I turned to the other side of the bed...and started crying. The sweet side was some of my closest friends sharing pics and texts for the New Year, our bonds are ever closer. Hoping that 2026 is a much better year....for me, for my family, for all of us here, and for our country and the world!

Wow...... Thanks......

^^^ Love it! "Our lord and savior the trans man....?" 🤣

Belated Happy Birthday, hope it was great!

Went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Another Jewish friend joined, and a work colleague/friend who is Indian (and leans towards Buddhism). Was a fascinating 4.5 hours (!!) of conversation: religion, philosophy, jokes, and just good stories! Incredibly nice people!

One more Happy Birthday! One question though: what does rumored cake taste like? 😁

Very Happy Birthday!!

^^^ Glad I got my first NAS updated to 40+TB (!) before the AI component craze......

So sad about the Reiners..... What a legacy Rob is leaving.... RIP as well to the victims at Brown University and in Bondi Australia. I think we need aliens to come and spray the earth with "let's get along" mist. This is a fucking crazy world.....

Thanks all! Wasn't the celebratory day Karen would have recommended.... Fighting a cold, and did some work starting at 4:30am! But after all that, was able to chill for much of the day. Realized I hadn't done that for a long, long time - a few hours here or there but not for basically a whole day - and it felt damn good! Needed to recoup some but also just shut things off. And having Andrew's cat June purr in my lap was good medicine, too. Andrew ended up bringing in Thai for us for dinner; our planned excursion out will be a rain check.

...and the Apple Peace Prize goes to Donald J Trump!

Happy Birthday Tom! Hope it's a grand one!

Few more from the drive....the first is my new Spirit Animal!

Indeed!! My mom said his kids took it hard when he left for the rocket but were excited to see him in the ISS itself.

Thanks Ric! Something was meant to be, we had a power blip at ~3:45am EST and my alarm keypad beeping woke me up. Managed to watch the launch as well! Time for caffeine....a whole fucking bunch of it! 🤣 Have a 3.5-4 hour (if I'm lucky) drive in a bit.....

For those of you so inclined.....my nephew (niece's husband) Chris is in Russia (Kazakhstan) now, and he will be launching EARLY local time on a Soyuz rocket to go to the ISS!!! Streaming is available at https://plus.nasa.gov/ 3 highlights (times are EST):

RIP to two people: Jimmy Cliff, and Udo Kier. Without knowing Udo so well, I realize I have admired his work in several horror or other movies.... And Jimmy Cliff....not much needs saying....another big one lost IMO

Happy Birthday! Don't know you well, but always great to see an "old name" come back!

Happy Birthday.....and Happy Birthday!

Cara Dillon - After The Morning. Lovely album, love her voice - sweet, sometimes frail sounding but very pure. Just what the doctor ordered after a long week for work. Helped that Andrew's cat June sat on my lap and then shoulder when I laid down. Sample song:

^^^ Man, does that bring back memories from my younger days! Oldest brother was a big Classic Rock, Prog, and Southern Rock fan. This was a staple.... On a related note, I recently found and put on my phone playlist for the car Black Oak Arkansas' "Jim Dandy" -- what a fun blast from the past that was too!

Last night's dinner, 2 of the 4 links from this package below; delicious! Got from my semi-annual pilgrimage to a store in NH. One new thing for me to try now: Ground Yak. The proprietor said it's a recent add, but it's been pretty popular.

Saw Mary Fahl last night, I think the 6th time I've seen her (7th if you count October Project in 1995). Wonderful concert, some of her hits, October Project hits, and covers. The whole second set was her adaptation of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, pretty stunning. I think this may have been my favorite show of hers. Got to chat with her and her husband after the show, and also met 3 folks with whom I'll keep in contact ongoing; just some amazingly nice people.

I find that both endearing and annoying.... I first noticed it with someone at my last company (back in 2011). She did talk like that with the "question inflection" at the end of many sentences. We started emulating her, doing the American Pie "Bandcamp Girl" voice that also does that inflection. Unfortunately, we found it started sticking, and we were doing it normally. So we weened our way off of that. I still occasionally hear myself doing it, and try to adjust as quickly as I can.