The Last of the Melting Snow

After several gloomy days — pea soup fog, chilly drizzle, even a thunderstorm — today felt like a day in May. Bright, warm, sunny. The tree in front of my apartment looks like it’s ready to bust open. I threw down some grass seed on the dying lawn in front of my apartment. Last summerContinue reading “The Last of the Melting Snow”

The Bombing of the Girls School

Last weekend, at the start of the Iran War (which the Trump administration describes as a “war” while drawing a legal distinction it isn’t a war so they can, in their minds, avoid “war crimes”), the United States bombed an Iranian girls school. And then bombed it again for good measure. You can see immediatelyContinue reading “The Bombing of the Girls School”

No, That Can’t Be Right

Twitter tells me that Elbow’s Build a Rocket Boys! came out fifteen years ago today. Fifteen years! That can’t be right! Yeah, it was back during the Obama years… but fifteen? Fifteen! Nah, time doesn’t work like that. It can’t. I never reviewed the album at the time, though I shared some thoughts on theContinue reading “No, That Can’t Be Right”

Doomscrolling the War

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the air forces of the United States and Israel commenced a joint aerial assault on Iran in an attempted decapitation strike. Iran then responded by launching missiles at Israel, United States military bases and assets in the Persian Gulf, and host nations (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirites)Continue reading “Doomscrolling the War”

Tweaking the Settings

From time to time, I feel like tweaking my CTWM configuration file for Linux. What I have is delightfully old school — big borders, sharp corners, window buttons that look like they’re out of the 1980s. (That’s not far off.) “Industrial brutalism,” I called it. Maybe I should add a Conky? I thought. Conky isContinue reading “Tweaking the Settings”

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

A nor’easter came ripping through Sunday afternoon and evening. The forecasts were all over the map, anywhere from three inches to three feet, and, at least in my part of Pennsylvania, it turned out to be about six inches. It was heavy, wet snow, and it cleared fairly easily. After I cleared the sidewalk andContinue reading “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”