Hi friends,

I went on an adveture to H Mart in San Francisco, and I wrote a review.

A review of H Mart in San Francisco: Visiting the Korean mega-grocery at the edge of San Francisco

Sometimes, when I see something beautiful, I want to stare at it forever. I want to consider it from all angles and let its beauty pour into me and flood my senses. I feel a warmth in my chest, a radiant, glowing sensation a lot like falling in love. That is how I felt at H Mart. I wondered through the aisles clutching my shopping list like a talisman against the near-overwhelming desire to buy more than I could possibly carry home. I probably looked confused, and I was a little confused, but more than anything I was overwhelmed with joy.

Hi friends,

I went down a research rabbit hole to find out where the A to Z bread recipe originates. I've been making it for years and years and you've probably had some if I've ever fed you banana bread. This is not, by the way, a sneaky preamble blog post to the recipe. It's all about the sleuthing and its results. We've got footnotes! I've even started experimenting with Chicago Manual of Style citations. And yes, fine, I do link to the recipe, but that's not the point. The point is, who is Hazel Gentry?

The California origin of A to Z Bread: In which I obsessively trace the history and authorship of the A to Z bread recipe

You would be forgiven if you thought that A to Z bread is just one of those American standards like banana bread or blueberry muffins, or heck, apple pie, and that it's been passed down since ye olden days from grandmother to granddaughter, homey and ancient. My hunch was that it was probably developed in the Midwest, or maybe New England. Well, you'd be wrong! And I was wrong!

Hi friends,

Why is writing a handoff document so hard? I found some ideas in Dave Snowden's 2002 paper about knowledge management that help explain it.

The paradox of the handoff document

Writing a handoff document confronts you with "the paradoxical nature of knowledge." You might think that what you know about a project can be stored and passed on, or at the very least that you know what you know, but as you try to write it down, the impossibility of the task becomes more and more evident.

Hi friends,

This week's post is on a somewhat timely topic, the weird iPad commercial that everyone hated. It was not enough for me to just go "yuck," I had to find some postmodernist theory about it.

Crush, the triumph of the simulacra: What's so upsetting about the iPad ad?

In the iPad "Crush!" video, objects used for artistic creation are crushed by a hydraulic press, along with books, records, video games, and toys. The last item to be crushed is a yellow ball with a face. Its eyes tragicomically bulge before popping out along with a splurt of paint as the hydraulic press closes. The press lifts again and reveals an iPad, with no sign of the crushed objects remaining.

A lot of people hated the commercial, hated it so much that Apple apologized for the video within a few days and decided not to run it as a commercial. As one of the haters, I was surprised by how visceral my feelings were, so I started thinking about it, and then, like any normal person, I picked up my collection of books on semiotics to try to make sense of it all.

Hi friends,

I wrote about an animal encounter I had this week. This is not one of my fictional stories that starts out sounding real like the one about the spiders. This is hard hitting, old-school personal blogging of the let me tell you a thing that happened.

Walpurgisnacht raccoon: The one who takes everything in its hands pays a personal visit

I heard a strange noise, like a grunt, kind of like a mix between a snore and someone straining with effort, but weirder. Animal, definitely animal. Then it happened again. It was about an hour after midnight, and I groped for my glasses on the bedside table. I went to the window to look. A raccoon stared back at me.

Hi friends,

I wrote a review of the new Snufkin video game. I focus more on the philosophy than the game play, so even if you never intened to play the game, you might enjoy reading it.

Snufkin, wholesome anarchist role model: A review of Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley

It's a lovely morning in Moominvalley, and you are a horrible Snufkin. Except you're not really horrible, are you? And Moominvalley seems to be a bit less lovely than you had been expecting. What's going on?

Hi friends,

Do you like pictures of birds being cute? Then you will probalby like my latest blog post which is mostly exactly that. Even if you only sort of like birds, you might find you enjoy birds being cute.

Birds being cute: A special photo episode

It started out sort of joking about 10 years ago, but now I am definitely and unironically into birds. While I enjoy spotting a new bird, I also like observing common birds. If you pay attention they do some pretty neat things! So this week, I'd like to share some of my collection of photos of birds being cute.

Hi friends,

I travelled to Texas Hill Country to catch the total solar eclipse. It was amazing.

Solar eclipse in Hill Country: Staring at the face of God for three and a half minutes

About ten minutes before totality, a patch began to clear just around the sun. I laid on the ground and looked up through the eclipse glasses. The crescent sun became a sliver, became a glint--the diamond ring effect--and then, totality! Glasses off. I cried out, something involuntary, I think "AHHHH!"

Hi friends,

This week, I concluded the sex in art series I started in the beginning of March. The post is as much about the difficulty of talking about certain things as it is about the thing I am talking about, the Albert Serra film, Liberté.

Talking about it and doing it in Liberté: Sex in art needs no excuses, part 4

A group of dudes in pre-revolutionary France have been kicked out of the French royal court for being unmitigated pervs. They travel to a forest where they meet up with a German noble who is a fellow libertine and try to convince him to help them out or join them in their forest frolic. I think there are four nobles and their four valets, but with the wigs, it's a little hard to follow.

Hi friends,

I made an amazing discovery! I figured out how to use assistive text-to-speech to have my iPhone read books out loud to me. Let me tell you about it, and show you how you can try it yourself.

My pocket computer reads me books: Text-to-speech on iOS

My past experience with screen readers was not great. They would read every single thing on the page including UI text, and they would just read that page. Not ideal when you're trying to cut some onions while listening to a book! It turns out, time has passed and the assistive options are way better now.

Hi friends,

The sex in art series continues. This week, I wrote about Ken Russell's The Devils.

Sexual repression leads to blasphemy in The Devils: Sex in art needs no excuses, part 3

In Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) bottled up sexual obsession erupts as demonic possession of a group of cloistered nuns in 17th century France. A repressed nun develops a sexual obsession with an extremely not repressed priest and soon everyone is running naked and screaming while doing very naughty things with crucifixes. It does not go well for anyone, and the story ends in ashes and tears. The story is based on historical events, the Loudun possessions, and some of the weirdest and saddest shit depicted in the film actually happened.

Hi friends,

I wrote more about sex in art. This time I have examples! Well, just one example for now because I had so much to say about Poor Things. By the way, this post has mild spoilers for Poor Things. I don't think knowing about them will lessen your enjoyment of the film but if you hate knowing anything about a movie before going to see it and you haven't seen it, well, you know, be warned.

The joie de vivre of Poor Things: Sex in art needs no excuses, part 2

In last week's episode, I made the aesthetic-ethical claim that sexuality itself is a legitimate subject of art. I want to pick up where I left off, with the example of three films that take sex and sexuality as their subject, though to very different degrees: Poor Things, The Devils, and Liberté. I'll take the films in order from most approachable and easiest to justify as art to the most challenging.

Hi friends,

I wrote a polemic (which is a fancy way of saying the part of an argument where you say your opinion without putting much effort into convincing anyone) about when you can have sex in your art and still have it count as art.

Sex in art needs no excuses: Sexuality itself is a legitimate subject for artistic exploration

The very phrase "gratuitous sex" implies the idea that depictions of sex must somehow be earned. Your film or book or whatever work of art may only have sex in it if it's in service of something else, like plot, or character development, or important philosophical questions--and even then it must have an appropriate amount of sex. Otherwise the work is cheapened by it, or, worse, gets booted from the category of "art" and get relegated to "pornography."

Hi friends,

This week, I reviewed a book I just finished and enjoyed .

Review: The Left Hand of Dog by Si Clarke

Our hero, or point of view character anyway, is a pretty normal human named Lem. While enjoying a vacation in lovely Canadian wilderness with her dog, Spock, Lem gets abducted by aliens, yes along with her dog. The aliens travel in a spaceship that looks like a huge, pink teapot. I don't want to give too much away, but hijinks ensue. We get scifi classics like universal translators, and learn about their pitfalls, like the false familiarity of Figurative mode and get the running gag of them saying "No frame of reference" when things don't have an equivalent--which is fairly often.

Hi friends,

Happy blogoversary to rinsemiddlebliss! In this post I reflect on a year of regular writing and posting, and share my favorite posts of the last year.

Happy blogoversary: 52 blog posts, one Friday at a time

It has now been one year since I've restarted my blog and started posting every Friday. The actual anniversary was February 10, but that wasn't a Friday so instead I'm celebrating today, with this, the 53rd blog post since the reset. I'm pretty good at starting things but not always so good at keeping them going, so I feel pretty proud of this streak. Not only did I manage to maintain the streak, I also set myself a realistic goal.

Hi friends,

Living in San Francisco, it's hard not to be affected by the spirit of moon-shot technological invention. This week, I'm open-sourcing the draft patent for my best practical invention so far.

Inflatable rock: A draft patent for a large rock that you can fold up and carry in your pocket and then unfold, inflate, and deploy as needed

Because it's small and light when stored, but large and heavy when deployed an inflatable rock would be incredibly useful in all sorts of circumstances when you want something big and heavy, but find it inconvenient or even impossible to bring that thing with you.

Hi friends,

Today is my birthday and I’m celebrating with some light literary criticism of a counterculture classic from San Francisco hometown hero, Anton LaVey.

How to have a happy birthday: Take a page from The Satanic Bible

In The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey declares that one's own birthday is the highest holiday in the Satanic religion. As such, one should celebrate the crap out of it. The Satanic Bible is like a second-rate fusion cuisine dish combining Ayn Rand, Nietzsche, Crowley, and a big helping of homey self-help style all served in restaurant with a confused heavy-metal/goth aesthetic. Which is to say, it's kind of funny and it's got some good ideas among all the weird shit. The bit about birthdays is particularly good...

Hi friends,

This week's blog post touches upon a seasonal topic: getting your annual review and learning if you're going to get a raise. It's also kind of a PSA.

Workers in California, ask about your pay scale! The California Equal Pay Act requires employers to tell you

Tell me if you've heard this one before: You're having the annual review conversation with your boss. Your boss reviews your accomplishments and congratulates you. You've done really well! You have a bright future ahead at Company. Keep going! Then you get to the compensation part of the conversation. Company rewards hard work and your boss would love to give you more of a raise but alas...

Hi friends,

I hope you like photos of hawks looking alternatively majestic and goofy. Because that's what I have for you this week.

Hawkstravaganza: Three days of hawk spotting, and a bonus coyote

Hi friends,

Inspired by recent news, I wrote about missing information in airplane manuals and their consequences.

Undocumented killer feature: Weirdly incomplete Boeing 737 MAX manuals

On January 5, 2024 the door plug of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplane blew out during flight. Nobody died. The flight crew got the plane back down and made an emergency landing. The cabin crew kept the passengers relatively calm. That's the gist of it. In all the discussion that's followed a little tidbit caught my attention, "No one amongst the flight crew knew that the cockpit door was designed to open in case of a rapid decompression, Boeing is going to make changes to the manuals."

Now that's interesting. No one knew the door was designed to do that. Boeing will update the manuals. 737 Max, haven't I heard that name before and didn't that also turn out to have involved manuals? Yes, and how!