Jerry Towler

Self-driven.

Reading

Book Art

How to Take Smart Notes

Sönke Ahrens


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    travel

    The Atomium in Brussels is another one of those World’s Fair buildings (like the Eiffel Tower, but 69 years later) that looks cooler than it has any right to be.

    The inside is apparently some sort of digital art museum and cultural archive, but Meera …

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    My Microblog Is Now My Only Blog

    I converted my microblog to be my primary home page.

    First, I converted my microblog to the Alpine theme. I love the aesthetics of the Tufte theme (GitHub) I was using by @pimoore, but it hasn’t been updated in a while and Micro.blog has been …

    Took a little longer than I expected, but Meera now has a proper website with a nice headshot (photo by yours truly), a professional timeline, and contact info.

    Based on Kirby Turner’s timeline-jekyll-theme with a new color scheme, a little …

    Feeling dangerously productive today. Let’s see how long I can get it to last.

    I have three targets for the afternoon: two quick ones and one big thorny one. So naturally my brain wants to focus on the thorny one instead of letting me get the …

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    “What is a TikTok dance mash up if not a digital Dorito?”

    The hierarchy Newport builds up here seems to make sense, but I’m reminded of this Dilbert strip, which makes the point that the medium may encourage certain content, but doesn’t necessarily …

    The previous post courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse’s season pass, which we just signed up for yesterday because for the next couple of weeks the second month is free.

    Gonna try to get out of the house a bit more this summer, and into somewhere else with …

    Finished watching: Fly Me to the Moon.

    I was worried this would be another summer “comedy” that would leave me cringing, but it was actually a fun, fast-paced comedy/heist with a good performance by Scarlett Johansson, a hilarious Woody Harrelson in …

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    By far my favorite part of Flighty is the Home Screen widget that tells you when your next flight is.

    We just got home yesterday from a week in Europe, and it tells me I only have to wait thirteen days until I’m back on the road.

    Flighty widget showing a Delta flight to Atlanta in 13 days.

    books

    Finished reading: Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree.

    Fun prequel to Legends and Lattes, but missing some of the magic of the original. Still worth reading. Would be a great children’s/YA book with some light inessential cleaning up. 📚

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    travel

    The food and beer selection at CDG past immigration is criminally weak for a city that prides itself on food.

    Maybe they’re just upset I’m leaving?

    books

    Finished reading: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

    Awesome investigation of evolution from a totally different (sci-fi) perspective. Made me think fun thoughts. Excellent up until the last couple of pages, which were totally disappointing, …

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    travel

    Vianden Castle is a short but steep hike from the bus stop, but the views are excellent even before you get to tour the inside.

    All public transportation in the entire country of Luxembourg is free of charge to all riders. And it’s mostly on time. This is a miracle.

    This morning, I was leaving Luxembourg City to visit Vianden Castle (still en route) and asked how to buy a …

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    travel

    I have apparently arrived in Luxembourg 🇱🇺 on the Grand Duke’s official birthday. Unfortunately, all that was left when I arrived on the TGV from Paris was the aftermath.

    books

    Finished reading: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman.

    A critical reminder that being the kind of person you feel you ought to be is impossible, and that’s okay—perhaps even freeing, when considered rightly.

    Burkeman spends a lot of time …

    books

    Finished reading: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher.

    More swashbuckling! And spies! And a very weird planet. And cats. A good follow-up.

    Now, Mr. Butcher, please get back to writing Twelve Months…📚

    Today, I’m headed back to Japan 🇯🇵 for the first time since October 2022! Nineteen months is too long between visits.

    I’m looking forward to sushi 🍣 and trains 🚅 and lots and lots of robots 🤖.

    A first for me: a plane at a nearby gate is having a part flown in for maintenance. (Fortunately the origin city is very close, so that flight isn’t delayed by too much.)

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    travel

    Third Space Coffee in Colorado Springs serves artisanal coffeeee flights. We had to get one… okay, we got three. ☕️

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    Today was the last day of the ski season for us. We didn’t track every day, but we tracked most of them, and for a pair of engineers who live in Texas, we had a pretty good year. 🎿

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    travel

    I think we found our wall photo for this trip! 🎿

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    Sometimes the naming of ski runs is a delicate matter, full of nuance and wordplay and even history.

    And sometimes a black diamond from the top of the mountain is just called KABOOM. 🎿

    Meera on skis on top of Copper Mountain in front of the sign for the KABOOM black diamond run.
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    travel

    Meera skis like a girl. By which I mean, she had 2,000 feet more vert than we did today.🎿

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    Our first day this trip at Copper was exactly as beautiful as expected, if a bit warm. We spent all day on the eastern side of the mountain, taking the Super Bee lift over and over.

    We even did a couple of double blacks off the back side of the …

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    Today’s the first day of the last (planned) ski trip of the season. The sun is bright, although the sky is partially clouded, and it snowed last night.

    It’s going to be a good week. 🎿