Weeknote #61 (20251117-20251123)
meta
I was in Austin, TX pretty much this entire week (for work reasons), so this update is a bit of an odd one
did
Overall, it was a good trip: I met a lot of folks, I got to observe a number of processes in the lab, and I had BBQ twice. I hadn’t been in Austin in since …2013, I think, and it’s expanded A LOT. I kept telling people, look, I know Texas is big and has a lot of space, but that doesn’t mean you need to use all of it…
I need to remember the next time I travel for work that I’m not actually going to have any energy (or sometimes, even any free time) in the evenings, so taking stuff I might work on is just an exercise in carrying around more shit than I need to.
listened
One of my favorites, Spanish Love Songs, released a new album, A Brief Intermission in the Flattening of Time, and it’s really great. The thing on Bandcamp is a 4 song EP, but if you order it from the band’s website, there are 13 tracks in total. The first 4 are great; I especially like track 1, which is a collab with Dan Campbell and The Wonder Years (another favorite).
photos
Since there’s so little content this week, how about some recent(-ish) photos?
Look, I’m not saying that the USPS is still not operating at peak efficiency after the predations of the DeJoy years, but this photo is actually from one full year ago — and the mailbox in question still hasn’t been fixed. 🤬
There’s a house one street over that is BIG into the inflatable yard display. At Halloween time, their entire yard is covered in various things; they have a solid half-dozen Minion figures alone, and there’s significant turnover in what they have every year. All I can say is, they don’t believe in Thanksgiving erasure in their holiday decorating, and THAT I can really appreciate.
We saw this sticker on a car when we were moving Mx18 into Hofstra this summer — I really appreciated it, as one of the Oregon hold-outs who still lets the attendant pump gas whenever possible.
This is from late September, and it’s to remind me that — even though we’re currently deep into the dark time of the year — that the light will return, we just need to hunker down a bit and be patient.
looking forward to
Thanksgiving — my favorite holiday! — is next week! 🙌