https://scholvin.com/ Recent content on scholvin.com Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Copyright © 2016-2026 John Scholvin Sun, 03 May 2026 18:05:29 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2026/05/03/hey-danny/ Sun, 03 May 2026 18:05:29 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2026/05/03/hey-danny/ Danny and Champ Hey Danny— Tough one last night. It was not the way you wanted it to end. On one hand, back-to-back appearances in a … https://scholvin.com/posts/2026/02/01/a-little-help/ Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:32:19 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2026/02/01/a-little-help/ can you see it? I blame the drummers. For about forty-five years now, I’ve stood in front of rock-and-roll drummers on stages. Maybe a … https://scholvin.com/posts/2026/01/03/head-down/ Sat, 03 Jan 2026 16:52:13 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2026/01/03/head-down/ the aptly titled "reveries" So do you wanna hear what I sounded like almost forty years ago? Northwestern has a student-run musical … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/12/21/903cst/ Sun, 21 Dec 2025 09:03:00 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/12/21/903cst/ In my mind the year is something like circle viewed head on, with the winter solstice at the bottom, and summer solstice at the top. But … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/09/21/playground/ Sun, 21 Sep 2025 10:52:17 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/09/21/playground/ closed There are few things sadder than a closed playground, especially the ones that are set up for really little kids. They tore down the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/09/01/nest/ Mon, 01 Sep 2025 19:47:04 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/09/01/nest/ a mini-shrine I did some math and it turns out I’ve been alive for 21,411 days as of this writing. I only did that so I could come up with … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/08/17/updates/ Sun, 17 Aug 2025 14:43:57 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/08/17/updates/ pepper Crazy times around here since getting back from vacation. I’ve been on the road for work a fair bit, and we’re getting ready to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/07/27/maui/ Sun, 27 Jul 2025 20:50:06 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/07/27/maui/ our view Aloha! The four of us took our summer vacation to Maui last week. We stayed in Kā’anapali1, about 15 minutes north of Lāhainā on … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/07/13/walking/ Sun, 13 Jul 2025 21:03:08 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/07/13/walking/ Back to the Sunday Seven format tonight, s’il vous plaît. from marathon shape to…this I haven’t updated on my neck in a while. The news is … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/07/06/fountains/ Sun, 06 Jul 2025 17:49:23 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/07/06/fountains/ fountains of wayne On Friday, in what will stand out as an absolute highlight of this summer, we went up to Summerfest to see Fountains of … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/06/22/mulberry/ Sun, 22 Jun 2025 13:39:34 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/06/22/mulberry/ “Good fences make good neighbors,” wrote Robert Frost in “Mending Wall.” For the last fifteen years, I’ve had a number of occasions to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/06/07/mixed/ Sat, 07 Jun 2025 16:45:47 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/06/07/mixed/ them bones Hey, friends. It’s been really busy, as is usually the case in late May / early June when the school year ends. I’ll get back to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/05/18/resuming/ Sun, 18 May 2025 20:12:30 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/05/18/resuming/ another in the Sunday Seven Series It’s post-surgery day T+24. My recovery continues more or less without issue. My right hand and arm … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/05/12/update/ Mon, 12 May 2025 20:23:08 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/05/12/update/ me and Sia Hey! Still here. Been too busy the last couple of weekends to continue what had been a pretty good streak of weekly dispatches. … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/04/27/post-op/ Sun, 27 Apr 2025 09:08:46 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/04/27/post-op/ shaving is a challenge My surgery Thursday was completed without issue. It took about three hours, as planned. My greatest fear1—waking up … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/04/13/motion/ Sun, 13 Apr 2025 12:10:21 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/04/13/motion/ photo by KT Miller Photography It’s Orchesis (contemporary dance) weekend at OPRF. It’s always a highlight of the spring to watch Leah do … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/04/06/racing/ Sun, 06 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/04/06/racing/ old man running Last week I was talking to my shrink about running, and I told him that during running season (March-November, for me) I … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/30/7000-words/ Sun, 30 Mar 2025 11:59:26 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/30/7000-words/ Not really 7000 words. But seven pictures, each theoretically worth 1000 words, would give us that. I had kind of an exhausting week and I … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/22/neck-faq/ Fri, 21 Mar 2025 08:35:14 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/22/neck-faq/ This week I’m deviating from the usual Sunday Seven pattern to provide a comprehensive FAQ about what’s going on with my neck. If you’re … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/16/three-days/ Sun, 16 Mar 2025 13:24:13 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/16/three-days/ go around My customers in Mexico, and I think most companies there, work very different hours than we do in the US. A typical day is … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/09/aerie/ Sun, 09 Mar 2025 10:24:01 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/09/aerie/ quite a view Are you watching the eagle cam? It seems to be all the rage, and I understand exactly why. A mated pair of bald eagles is … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/02/polanco/ Sun, 02 Mar 2025 16:14:23 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/03/02/polanco/ Lago de Chapultepec I’ve been to Mexico City several times for work in the last few months, each time staying in the Santa Fe neighborhood. … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/23/unfurled/ Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:18:56 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/23/unfurled/ wave that flag, wave it wide and high another Sunday Seven entry, this one brief Since the election I’ve been trying to think of a way to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/16/birch/ Sun, 16 Feb 2025 14:57:41 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/16/birch/ the last picture of this tree About a year after we moved into this house, we had to cut down an old, triple-trunked birch tree in the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/09/superb-owl/ Sun, 09 Feb 2025 09:58:03 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/09/superb-owl/ another in the Sunday Seven series Dawes at the Chop Shop in 2023 My phone was blowing up last Sunday as I was driving from Logan to the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/02/titanium/ Sun, 02 Feb 2025 19:42:16 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/02/02/titanium/ there’s a light, what light I managed to get this outdoor lamp installed in the front yard over the weekend. The old one rusted out and … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/01/26/championship-sunday/ Sun, 26 Jan 2025 13:51:29 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/01/26/championship-sunday/ nothing there another Sunday Seven I’m about a week into my post-Instagram life, and I have to say I miss it far less than I thought I … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/01/19/58/ Sun, 19 Jan 2025 11:20:53 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/01/19/58/ my kids can fly Please enjoy another in the Sunday Seven series. Today marks another tour around the sun for me, the start of my 59th.1 I … https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/01/12/sunday-seven/ Sun, 12 Jan 2025 09:56:48 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2025/01/12/sunday-seven/ On another platform I used to frequent, there was (and may still be) a tradition called “Sunday Seven” where you’d share seven different … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/12/21/not-this-solstice/ Sat, 21 Dec 2024 15:58:07 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/12/21/not-this-solstice/ Arlee It’s something like tradition for me to pause today to observe and celebrate the winter solstice. I’ve always been finely attuned to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/11/02/cattle-not-pets/ Sat, 02 Nov 2024 14:41:18 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/11/02/cattle-not-pets/ some ansible code This post is primarily to prove out the new server I built for this blog this week. I need to make sure the content … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/10/26/26.2/ Sat, 26 Oct 2024 12:41:13 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/10/26/26.2/ I knew it was hopeless. At 3:15, I reached up to turn on the little halogen lights in the headboard, then reached over to pick up my phone … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/10/26/marathon-details/ Sat, 26 Oct 2024 10:56:03 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/10/26/marathon-details/ For the real running nerds out there, or the morbidly curious, here’s a detailed recap of the race, mile-by-mile. This might make more sense … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/09/15/running-past-graveyards/ Sun, 15 Sep 2024 16:41:56 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/09/15/running-past-graveyards/ Waldheim Cemetery It’s hard to avoid them. The western part of Cook County is essentially one long band of cemeteries running north-south … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/06/30/catching-up/ Sun, 30 Jun 2024 17:27:26 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/06/30/catching-up/ Cassiopeia A (see footnote 1) I kinda feel like I lost the first half of this year. The first four months were largely consumed by taking … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/04/28/the-rally/ Sun, 28 Apr 2024 19:03:52 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/04/28/the-rally/ hospice window People who know their way around the hospice experience will tell you about “the rally,” or the bounce-back. Terminal … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/02/14/1il2/ Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:49:50 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/02/14/1il2/ 1IL2 -> 4IS3 Dad heard it first. “What the hell is that?” I wasn’t entirely sure right away, either, but it was obviously coming from … https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/02/05/write-me/ Mon, 05 Feb 2024 21:07:37 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2024/02/05/write-me/ photo by Aaron Burden via Unsplash I don’t know where I saw it today. I was idly skimming around the internet, wasting time while waiting … https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/12/21/solistce/ Thu, 21 Dec 2023 18:08:29 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/12/21/solistce/ from a window seat It turns out that the actual solstice doesn’t occur until 9:27 CST tonight. I thought I’d missed it. Most of us think of … https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/07/18/wetbulb/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:20:56 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/07/18/wetbulb/ ‘wet bulb’ trending I was the kid with weird science kits. Chemistry sets, electronics kits, mechanical toys of all varieties. I even … https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/06/21/things/ Wed, 21 Jun 2023 23:01:39 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/06/21/things/ Hi, friends. Still here. It’s been a busy spring, and while I’d like to use that as my excuse for being one poor correspondent for these … https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/03/19/sunday-things/ Sun, 19 Mar 2023 17:39:58 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/03/19/sunday-things/ Some disconnected ideas on the last Sunday of winter: Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will remember an odd plot development at the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/02/12/artifact/ Sun, 12 Feb 2023 11:08:28 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/02/12/artifact/ Illinois Sangamo 1910 As I mentioned last time, I’ve been floating around in a bit of an anhedonic funk, wasting time watching YouTube … https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/01/21/scrivening/ Sat, 21 Jan 2023 09:08:01 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2023/01/21/scrivening/ Have you ever just wasted a whole month? I was going to say “burned” a whole month, but that particular verb implies that you took some kind … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/12/31/pictures-of-2022/ Sat, 31 Dec 2022 18:47:26 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/12/31/pictures-of-2022/ I like to think of the letters that people sometimes include with their holiday cards as a form of proto-blogging. It was a form of mass … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/12/11/another-weekly/ Sun, 11 Dec 2022 16:44:35 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/12/11/another-weekly/ On Friday I had the occasion to see my oldest friend. My mom and Tom’s mom were best friends from high school, and Tom was born just a … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/12/04/sunday-seven/ Sun, 04 Dec 2022 20:26:39 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/12/04/sunday-seven/ subsumed I’ve been one poor correspondent, I’ve been too, too hard to find. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Thanksgiving, and now … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/11/18/five-more/ Fri, 18 Nov 2022 19:56:40 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/11/18/five-more/ Recently, the nut broke on my Strat. This is the guitar I’ve had the longest. It was made in 1984 and I bought it new sometime in 1986. … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/11/11/friday-five/ Fri, 11 Nov 2022 12:58:29 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/11/11/friday-five/ soon, maybe: outdoor winter hockey It wasn’t much of a plan. But it feels like less of one, now, maybe something more like an aspiration or … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/11/06/sunday-five/ Sun, 06 Nov 2022 12:50:46 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/11/06/sunday-five/ Hello, darkness, my old friend. Once more we stumbled back into Standard Time this weekend, with all the attendant crises that entails for … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/28/weekly-five/ Fri, 28 Oct 2022 14:54:20 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/28/weekly-five/ The horrifying wave of anti-Semitic garbage that is cresting reached an appalling new apex recently with Kanye’s “contribution.” Let me be … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/22/friday-five/ Sat, 22 Oct 2022 07:47:42 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/22/friday-five/ I didn’t even make it one week into my new weekly regimen of Friday recaps without missing one! This is an opinion decidedly in the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/14/friday-five/ Fri, 14 Oct 2022 07:12:49 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/14/friday-five/ yay fall I’ve said this before, but this time I mean it. I’m going to try to revive here a tradition from the ancien régime, “Friday Five,” … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/10/race-day/ Mon, 10 Oct 2022 20:21:43 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/10/10/race-day/ my office on Sunday I love race day. I like running, but I love race day. There’s nothing like the excitement of the starting corrals, that … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/08/21/turn-turn-turn/ Sun, 21 Aug 2022 20:07:47 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/08/21/turn-turn-turn/ but when I became a man, I put away childish things It was his fidget. Even though he quit playing baseball years ago, he still kept a ball … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/06/11/saturday-morning/ Sat, 11 Jun 2022 11:33:44 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/06/11/saturday-morning/ not the same deer Out for a short run this morning—they’re all short now, and slow, as I struggle to clear the remaining damage from my … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/04/03/a-question/ Sun, 03 Apr 2022 17:47:22 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/04/03/a-question/ Tunnel of Love (Туне́ль Коха́ння) in Klevan, Ukraine I have a question. And I really do pose this as a question to which I seek an answer, … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/03/09/artifacts/ Wed, 09 Mar 2022 21:04:45 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/03/09/artifacts/ I was at my dad’s condo a couple of weeks ago, going through his files for some important papers, when I came across this gem: a promissory … https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/01/29/state-of-the-blog/ Sat, 29 Jan 2022 16:01:41 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2022/01/29/state-of-the-blog/ I don’t really make new year’s resolutions. Not anymore. Most years, they ended up slipping completely out of mind, only to creep back … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/12/31/pictures-of-2021/ Fri, 31 Dec 2021 13:26:59 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/12/31/pictures-of-2021/ The past year resists any attempt to weave a narrative or theme around it. There were some major ups and downs, which sets it apart from … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/12/21/dark-solstice/ Tue, 21 Dec 2021 13:04:23 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/12/21/dark-solstice/ I mean, they’re all dark, kind of by definition. For most of my adult life, especially since I understood the profound effects of seasonal … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/11/25/eleven-plus/ Thu, 25 Nov 2021 10:57:30 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/11/25/eleven-plus/ Eleven and a half years ago, when we moved into this house, we put together an ordered list of the various projects we’d be undertaking to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/06/07/blue/ Mon, 07 Jun 2021 20:34:02 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/06/07/blue/ For some of these kids, it's the last competitive game they're ever going to play. I’ve been toying with the idea of becoming certified … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/04/25/canal-bank-road/ Sun, 25 Apr 2021 20:30:50 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/04/25/canal-bank-road/ I did a moderately-to-severely dumb thing today. It started when I got into a wikihole and ended up on the page of the Chicago Sanitary and … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/04/13/thirteens/ Tue, 13 Apr 2021 19:35:14 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/04/13/thirteens/ If you had told me on March 13, 2020, that I was done traveling for at least the next thirteen months, and that I’d be working from home … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/03/29/waning/ Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:43:43 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/03/29/waning/ via today’s NYT I’ve been watching that 70% dot move tantalizingly closer. As interesting and important as this graph is in its own right, … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/28/poker-chips/ Sun, 28 Feb 2021 18:13:52 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/28/poker-chips/ I spent much of the day sorting through Leah’s old toys to donate or junk, and it was every bit the emotional journey you’d expect. But at … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/25/lasts/ Thu, 25 Feb 2021 21:48:41 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/25/lasts/ A couple of weeks ago I went to buy some new skates. My old ones currently sit in a coworker’s garage outside of Boston. I was playing with … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/16/a-year-and-a-day/ Tue, 16 Feb 2021 18:46:52 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/16/a-year-and-a-day/ pic via @coachiex on @tiny_bit_of_giants_blood’s insta I missed yesterday’s anniversary. February 15, 2020 was the last time I took to a … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/14/hardware-bug/ Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:04:09 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/14/hardware-bug/ Motorola computer-on-a-chip from 1984 – no idea why I have this The deeper you go in a computer system, the harder it is to fix bugs. It’s … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/03/metacommentary/ Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:28:19 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/03/metacommentary/ My good and wise friend Chris Carfi1 had a novel thought about my commentary dilemma yesterday: There’s another path, too. For the past … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/02/commentary/ Tue, 02 Feb 2021 19:21:59 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/02/02/commentary/ Long time friend of the program, Jay, asked me: Anyway, I was just wondering if you had made any decisions about a comments section on your … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/01/31/on-the-physics-of-snowblowers/ Sun, 31 Jan 2021 14:55:00 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/01/31/on-the-physics-of-snowblowers/ Observations from the field: Mechanical Advantage: This unit has five forward gears of increasing speed and commensurately decreasing … https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/01/30/ahead/ Sat, 30 Jan 2021 14:31:48 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2021/01/30/ahead/ I ordered two dozen golf balls this week. They arrived today. I like these shocking red ones especially, in some part because my golfing … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/12/30/emergen-c/ Wed, 30 Dec 2020 15:15:53 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/12/30/emergen-c/ Late yesterday I got an email from FedEx notifying me I was getting a package from “Ragnar Trail Atlanta” sometime today. It weighs three … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/12/27/manana/ Sun, 27 Dec 2020 10:46:33 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/12/27/manana/ I came across the complicated TODO list tracker I was using before all this came down. Like a bug in amber, there it sits in a unearthed, … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/12/06/milestones/ Sun, 06 Dec 2020 19:25:26 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/12/06/milestones/ I find it darkly amusing, if you’ll forgive the adjective choice, how many otherwise thinking and compassionate people, the kind who would … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/22/sunday-seven/ Sun, 22 Nov 2020 19:06:21 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/22/sunday-seven/ I confess I’m feeling something like writer’s block lately. Not because I don’t have ideas I want to explore, but because I find myself … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/16/series-finale/ Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:43:20 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/16/series-finale/ My fourth attempt to grow a lemon tree in a pot, while far and away the most successful in the series, appears to be tracking to a … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/10/chaos/ Tue, 10 Nov 2020 17:53:21 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/10/chaos/ If there’s one thing I’ve learned in over thirty years as an engineer, it’s something like a nerd’s refactoring of the Maya Angelou quote: … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/04/self-soothing/ Wed, 04 Nov 2020 20:40:01 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/04/self-soothing/ I’m usually pretty bad at predicting the future, but I nailed one thing this year: knowing I needed to take today off from work because I … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/01/sunday-miscellany/ Sun, 01 Nov 2020 09:51:24 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/11/01/sunday-miscellany/ I’ve never lived through a hurricane. In the Midwest, the natural disasters come at you too fast to do anything but run down and hide in the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/29/whats-the-game-here/ Thu, 29 Oct 2020 17:21:53 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/29/whats-the-game-here/ charlatans Another post about the blog infrastructure itself. I know. But the events of the larger world are a little too overwhelming to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/27/onward/ Tue, 27 Oct 2020 20:09:55 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/27/onward/ It’s a little hard to tell exactly when I started, based on the half-gigabyte dataset which I have to navigate without any signposts other … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/23/do-you-email/ Fri, 23 Oct 2020 07:15:13 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/23/do-you-email/ UPDATE 2020-10-23 20:15 CDT I simplified the whole thing. Now there’s just a single opt-in step. You still get a confirmation email, but you … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/22/signup-time/ Thu, 22 Oct 2020 13:27:38 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/22/signup-time/ OK, I think the subscription system is finally ready to go! Big, big thanks to the beta testers who helped shake out the bugs. But I suppose … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/12/beta/ Mon, 12 Oct 2020 18:26:04 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/12/beta/ UPDATE: The beta test is now over. Thanks to everyone who helped! I’ll be putting this into production shortly. OK, I think I finally have … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/05/all-in/ Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:45:37 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/10/05/all-in/ I don’t play a ton of poker. Some charity tournaments here and there. I’m usually good enough to be one of the last players eliminated … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/09/20/sunday-seven/ Sun, 20 Sep 2020 17:24:45 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/09/20/sunday-seven/ As I’ve mentioned, I am winding down my Facebook experience. There are a couple of things I need to do before I deactivate my account there … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/09/08/radio-radio/ Tue, 08 Sep 2020 18:55:40 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/09/08/radio-radio/ Very early this year, my company told me that I was doing to be done with the weekly commute back-and-forth to our headquarters in the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/09/04/pardon-our-dust/ Fri, 04 Sep 2020 19:22:25 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/09/04/pardon-our-dust/ It’s infrastructure weekend at the old blogaroo. Many exciting things are happening! Migrating the site to a bigger EC2 instance running … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/08/29/i-thought-it-was-going-to-be-live/ Sat, 29 Aug 2020 16:21:12 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/08/29/i-thought-it-was-going-to-be-live/ If you saw something that said, and I’m quoting directly here, “Please join us when your favorite band performs together as a band for the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/08/27/back-on-my-bullshit/ Thu, 27 Aug 2020 18:46:16 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/08/27/back-on-my-bullshit/ In the year and a half prior to the Shit Going Down, I had retooled my guitar rig for playing mostly with TBGB. A rack-mounted Kemper … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/08/24/lavender/ Mon, 24 Aug 2020 17:00:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/08/24/lavender/ On the morning of Thursday, March 5, Hell Year, I was getting ready to check out of the Westin in Waltham, Massachusetts, my home away from … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/07/29/turpentine/ Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:36:13 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/07/29/turpentine/ let the night air cool you off tilt your head back and try to cough It had to be fifty years old, the pine that had been felled earlier in … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/05/17/slow-boiled-ears/ Sun, 17 May 2020 11:34:58 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/05/17/slow-boiled-ears/ Friday I bought and downloaded the absolutely brilliant Reunions album by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. A few singles have been out for a … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/05/03/sixteen/ Sun, 03 May 2020 10:06:47 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/05/03/sixteen/ This is a post from my ancient blog, orginially going up on this day in 2011, about the events on this day in 2004. It was a beautiful, … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/04/29/sudoku/ Wed, 29 Apr 2020 20:10:18 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/04/29/sudoku/ The other day I did a curbside pickup of some lab glassware—as one does during pandemics—and the guy threw a Sudoku book in the box. He … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/04/24/friday-five/ Fri, 24 Apr 2020 21:12:31 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/04/24/friday-five/ I’m starting with a picture of Arlee I took while we were walking earlier this week. Largely because it’s a cool picture, but also in no … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/04/10/friday-five/ Fri, 10 Apr 2020 18:04:09 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/04/10/friday-five/ sanity matrix Friday Five was a custom at a previous blogging locale where one would share five usually unrelated thoughts, none of which … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/03/26/vanity/ Wed, 25 Mar 2020 19:53:54 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/03/26/vanity/ I thought the right thing to do was to let him pull the new vanity up the stairs by yanking on the dolly, while I stayed below to push and … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/03/15/facebooked/ Sun, 15 Mar 2020 16:45:43 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/03/15/facebooked/ Right up front: Neal Stephenson is my favorite author, and Cryptonomicon is my favorite book. Yet I remain objective about his body of work … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/03/10/worry/ Tue, 10 Mar 2020 19:20:11 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/03/10/worry/ Don’t tell me not to worry. Don’t tell me not to worry about my 79-year-old father with chronic lung disease. Don’t tell me not to worry … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/29/transition/ Sat, 29 Feb 2020 17:48:08 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/29/transition/ (video clip) I couldn’t have known while watching it live that this bat drop, recorded at Strikes a few weeks ago, might have been the last … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/23/replay/ Sun, 23 Feb 2020 07:14:27 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/23/replay/ On the face of it, it was cathartic to spend several hours yesterday dismantling ~10 years of Lego creations to box up for donation. … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/20/subscriber-update/ Thu, 20 Feb 2020 12:44:50 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/20/subscriber-update/ I’m hard at work on an email subcription thingy for this blog. I can reliably be counted on to spend a ton of time on the infrastructure of … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/14/release/ Fri, 14 Feb 2020 09:54:36 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/14/release/ Today’s the day! My band, Tiny Bit of Giant’s Blood, has released our first full-length album, Gigantosaur. We’ve been working hard for … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/12/repot/ Wed, 12 Feb 2020 14:08:42 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/12/repot/ Before and after, left-to-right: I repotted lemon tree 4.0 last weekend. We upgraded her from a 10-inch pot to a 14-incher. For those who … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/06/invigorating/ Thu, 06 Feb 2020 21:28:42 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/06/invigorating/ Well, that woke me right up. Internet service wasn’t available on today’s flight from Boston to O’Hare, so I wrote a little, had a glass of … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/04/randoms/ Tue, 04 Feb 2020 07:35:09 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/04/randoms/ I bought a new pair of pants this weekend, and put them on this morning for the first time. When I reached into the pocket, I found the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/02/runtech/ Sun, 02 Feb 2020 11:29:48 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/02/02/runtech/ I’m breaking up with MapMyRun today. It’s over. The thrill is gone. There are a lot of other fish in the ocean, all of which can do the … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/31/friday-five/ Fri, 31 Jan 2020 10:24:25 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/31/friday-five/ On Saturday, I got together with a bunch of old friends who happen to be amazing musicians, and did a couple of sets of covers for an … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/30/antifederalism/ Thu, 30 Jan 2020 10:39:50 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/30/antifederalism/ Jamelle Bouie writes in the Times this week that the antifederalists saw this coming: So too could the earliest critics of the Constitution. … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/29/rower/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 14:37:38 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/29/rower/ So I find myself for the second time training for a Ragnar while nursing an Achilles injury. At a time when I really should be racking up … https://scholvin.com/posts/about/ Mon, 13 Jan 2020 18:46:13 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/about/ about the blogger Your friendly proprietor splits his time between the suburbs of both Chicago and Boston, never far from the Lagrange … https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/10/friday-five/ Fri, 10 Jan 2020 16:32:36 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2020/01/10/friday-five/ What if humanity is an instance of the Peter Principle? A group of hominids on the savanna with above-average cleverness and opposable … https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/12/21/189792248220/ Sat, 21 Dec 2019 08:52:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/12/21/189792248220/ That purple shamrock’s recovery is nothing short of a miracle. We should all be so hardy. And lemon tree 4.0 is kicking all sorts of ass. … https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/10/21/188504781515/ Mon, 21 Oct 2019 19:13:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/10/21/188504781515/ Odds and ends: See that lemon tree in the middle? She’s growing pretty fast lately, though in something of a checkmark shape which I don’t … https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/08/25/187258894540/ Sun, 25 Aug 2019 09:58:00 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/08/25/187258894540/ I haven’t given an update on the lemon tree project in a while. Here they are. I took them outside for a better pic; they have lived in my … https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/02/25/183059967695/ Mon, 25 Feb 2019 19:06:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/02/25/183059967695/ The lemon tree project waits for no one. That guy on the left is finna be culled this week, leaving me with two candidates. Eight sprouts, … https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/27/182361550940/ Sun, 27 Jan 2019 20:55:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/27/182361550940/ Life, in spite of the planet’s best counterefforts. https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/16/182072534130/ Wed, 16 Jan 2019 19:49:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/16/182072534130/ Improvisation. It’s chilly down in the work room, only about 64°—not quite where I want my seedlings to be. So I went out to the garage and … https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/13/181987197745/ Sun, 13 Jan 2019 15:44:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/13/181987197745/ Somewhere in there is my lemon tree. https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/06/181776060715/ Sun, 06 Jan 2019 12:11:00 -0500 https://scholvin.com/posts/2019/01/06/181776060715/ For Christmas I got a cool little lens kit that clips onto a phone. There’s a telephoto, fisheye, wide angle, and a macro which appears to … https://scholvin.com/posts/2016/10/08/151530735990/ Sat, 08 Oct 2016 16:18:00 -0600 https://scholvin.com/posts/2016/10/08/151530735990/ I put a lemon seed in a flower pot just now. At least I’m pretty sure it’s a lemon seed. Sharon puts slices of lemon in her water and I … https://scholvin.com/email/maintenance/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://scholvin.com/email/maintenance/ The system you requested is in a maintenance window right now. Please try again later. https://scholvin.com/email/subscribe/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://scholvin.com/email/subscribe/ Thanks for signing up! I promise never to share your email, nor to spam you with anything other than information about new posts here on the … https://scholvin.com/email/response/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://scholvin.com/email/response/ BODY_REPLACEMENT