Learning out Loud in Milwaukee, WI
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Ancient canoes in Lake Mendota
Lake Mendota is one of Madison, WI’s principal lakes: Monona, across the isthmus, Waubesa, and Wingra are the others. Mendota, lately, has drawn a lot of attention for excavation of some important artifacts: Canoes. We’re not talking Old Towns or We-no-nah canoes, these canoes are dugout canoes, carved from single pieces of Oak thousands of…
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How I turned an IBM ThinkPad T30 into a Pi-hole
The IBM ThinkPad T30 was the premier business laptop of 2002 – 2004. It was sturdy, had a 14″ screen, and an Intel Pentium 4 CPU which, at the time, was pretty fast. I found one in at my Mother in-law’s old house back in 2020. It’s been sitting on a shelf turned off ever…
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Books of 2021
One of my soft new year’s resolutions for this year was, to borrow a phrase from Dan Pashman: read more and read more better. By that I mean: I wanted to read some of those books that have been sitting on the shelf, read new stuff, and read all of it with more care an…
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Pumpkin pie 2021 (part 2 Thanksgiving)
It’s funny how working outside your own kitchen can throw me off just a little bit. Tools aren’t where you expect them to be. The refrigerator is plenty cold but somehow the butter feels not chilled enough. I’m cutting in the butter but it doesn’t look right. The oven is hot enough but it feels…
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Pumpkin pie 2021 (part one)
We had a crop of pumpkins surprise us in the yard this summer. Most of them, somewhat inconveniently, grew under the Whitespire Birch tree we planted last year. This made finding the pumpkins an interesting game, and we had to improvise a trellis to keep the vines off the grass so the pumpkins wouldn’t rot.
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A short list of things that could provide longer-term student loan relief (including forgiveness)
Matt Taibbi has an article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone called Forgiving Student Debt Alone Won’t Fix the Crisis. It’s a good argument that doesn’t get enough attention. Every semester that clicks by is another semester where thousands of students are issued loans to cover tuition, books, materials, and living expenses at colleges…
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I am racist and so are you
I’ve written about white privilege on this blog in the past, and I don’t plan on stopping. The first time I was introduced to the concept was in college, in a speech given by Tim Wise. (The address he gave us was a lot like this one.) Tim talked about privilege as a pathology, a…
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A black man in Minnesota was killed by police on my birthday
And it wasn’t the first time. I turned 33 on May 26 of this year. Shortly after I finished a 36 mile bike ride, news broke that a black man was killed by police in Minneapolis. His name was George Floyd. Update: A previous version of this post said he was killed on May 26.…
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Crossword: On the Web
My latest crossword is called “On the Web.” The theme is four clues around internet terminology and it’s just in time for all the folks out there who need a good excuse to get some time away from family chaos this Thanksgiving. This is my third crossword made for public consumption, the second, “Rocky Mountain…
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How parenting has changed me so far
Before I became a dad, a few of people told me something along the lines of “being a dad changes your brain chemistry.” The new person in the world, the unique responsibility you have for that human, and the pure joy they bring to your life rewires your brain. There’s some science to the idea…
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Rocky Mountain Way: A crossword puzzle
This is my second crossword, a 15×15 themed puzzle with 68 words. It is themed and though it’s still only an OK puzzle it’s much better than my last in some important ways.
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Santa Fe
We had a great time on a recent trip to Santa Fe, NM. One that provoked a lot of thought and took us to some amazing sites. Read more on the main family blog.