Software engineer. Dad in Minnesota. A rigidly defined area of doubt and uncertainty. Professionally @twilio.
Joined December 2008
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Every so often I find myself thinking of a joke and thinking “oh, that’d be good for Twitter” and then I get the feeling that I might have heard the joke before and it turns out it’s me from seven years ago.
“I don’t like the homemade bread. I like store-bought bread!” - my 10yo, who I have raised to be some sort of culinary Philistine apparently.
Parents! A fun and easy thing to do with your kids is to show them where the water shutoff valve is for toilets, faucets, and the whole house. My 16yo averted potentially large flood today by acting quickly when a toilet cistern cracked when no-one else was home.
After removing the toilet, I realised now would be a good time to fix the caulk along the bathtub with the toilet out of the way. Removing the caulk, I found a bunch of loose tiles and cracked grout. So now my toilet replacement is also a tiling project.
I find myself oscillating wildly between “hypocrisy is bad, especially when expressed in legislation” and “outing people and violating their privacy is bad”. (I mean, I’m landing on the latter, because all vulnerable users need to be able to trust platforms but….)
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Super cute: about 20 large fuzzy goslings along with a few pairs of watchful parent geese pottering around in my back yard.
Less cute: having to go out and collect pounds of giardia-infested goose poop to prevent the dogs from making really bad life choices.
There’s something immensely satisfying about setting up automated drip irrigation systems for my plants. The plants do well, I don’t waste water, and we don’t have to remember to water them or spend time doing it. Or asking neighbours to water when we’re gone.
Rage Against The Machine: Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me!
My 10yo: Mom! They’re using a swear word!
My wife: It’s OK, it’s art.
RATM: MOTHERFUCKAAAAAAH!
Despite the complexity and flexibility of the English language, despite its centuries of evolution, despite the combined works of all its poets and playwrights and authors, there are still no words that really, truly capture the depth of my loathing for Boris Johnson.
Me: I can’t fix this problem with the irrigation system, I shall call an expert.
Expert: We’re booked two weeks out.
Me: Suddenly I believe I can actually fix this problem if I YouTube hard enough.
Looked everywhere in my garage for a tool I needed - through the piles of crap on my workbench, in the piles of stuff on the “things to organise and put away” table, even the storage boxes that it shouldn’t be in. Finally found it on the peg board where it was supposed to be.
At their end-of-year concert, the choir at my daughter’s high school did a rendition of “The Times They Are A Changin’” and while I’ve never been a huge Dylan fan, it’s an amazing song for a bunch of teenagers to sing at a room full of adults.
Fishing in northern Minnesota this Memorial weekend and we were joined by a pair of loons who were, I suspect, having a lot more luck than we were.
ALT In the foreground, a loon (a black and white waterbird with shiny green feathers in a ring around its neck) floats on rippled blue water. In the background, its mate is visible underwater, coming up from a dive.
