My father passed away on Monday afternoon after almost a week spent at ICU in a pharmacological coma. The funeral will be on Friday. I only learned of his condition last Friday. I've been talking to him during visiting hours. Telling him that he'll beat it by sheer stubbornness. And he was as stubborn as he was brilliant. We had some major conflicts and disagreements, didn't really talk for the last two years, but I always respected him for who he is. I hope he knows how much he mattered to me regardless of it.
San Antonio Pass, 5000m, Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru
A coworker asked how my ride in was. "The mornings are great," I said. "It's cold, there are no bugs, nobody tries to kill me in traffic and the homeless are asleep." He looked taken aback. I didn't mention that I drove past the ashes of a trash can fire this morning, or that the homeless now shout at me if I ride through between 8pm and 1am. I didn’t mention that I saw a piano on the river yesterday. I didn't mention that I was threatened with a Taser last summer or that I ran over a rat last week. I had dinner with a couple friends. We discussed Los Angeles, as everyone in Los Angeles does. I mentioned the drive-bys that killed a couple neighbors in North Hollywood, before the DEA let the Armenian Mafia win their gang war by deporting 140 members of the Mexican Mafia. One of my friends said "why do you keep punish-fucking yourself in LA? Your experience doesn't have to be like this." I said "because I don't want to spend $3500 a month for a bedroom in Studio City." I didn't say "because my parents didn't give me a $250k down payment for a penthouse condo or let me live rent free in grandpa's old house in Alhambra like you two." I intend to shelter my kid from hardship as much as possible. I only hope that I can do it without completely blinkering her perspective on the world she lives in.
Found a really large banana slug a couple of weeks ago. Look at this thing!
Natives know non-natives by their fascination with the slugs. Natives learn at their mothers' teats that slugs are dog poop that moves and eats your garden and should be regarded as such. To a PNW native, "look at the size of this slug! " is audibly indistinguishable from "look at the size of this turd! "
Alright friends, one update and one point of order. Listen up! . UPDATE I talked about my journey to quit smoking in the ritual thread I put together... ...BUT I did promise myself that I'd update Pubski about it, which I'll continue to do. Until it stops being interesting, anyway. I went cold turkey exactly seven days ago. The first three days after stopping were pretty bad. I was nauseous, I got headaches, and I think I was generally just an irritable asshole. I made it through without really snapping on anyone, but...Yeah, I'm glad that those symptoms have mostly abated. Doing some research, it seems like that was withdrawal? Well, withdrawal's done! On to a lifetime of resisting cravings, I suppose. The last four post-withdrawal days have been...Pretty okay? Honestly, they've just been semi-normal days with the exception that I occasionally get distracted by an intense and burning desire to go buy a pack of cigarettes. But the distraction passes if I just ignore it, or redirect that energy towards something else. Coffee has become my savior. Nothing helps an early-morning craving fuck off better than a big cup of coffee! I suppose my addiction to coffee will eventually become a problem as well, but I can only deal with one thing at a time. My willpower is a finite resource. . POINT OF ORDER Alright, for [WEIRD REASONS] I'm going to have a full, honest-to-god two week vacation with no obligations other than "Be at work on the morning of September 9." I don't think I've ever had a chunk of time without anything that I have to do and the freedom to do anything that I want. I'll be going alone. My girlfriend will be in class, and my family/friends will be at work. I could search for someone to go with me, but I'm actually kind of excited about taking a solo trip - something I've never done before. My two biggest resources are time and a decent chunk of change. I need to stay in the US because my passport is several years out-of-date, but I'm asking for suggestions from you all! Where would you recommend a 22 y/o college grad go for a solo vacation in the continental US? Any input is appreciated!
I've got plenty of camping gear, and a certificate that says "Eagle Scout" on it, filling me with all kinds of unwarranted confidence and memories of white boys dressed by their dads as native americans The only place I don't want to go is the Southeast. Basically, cut direct lines east and south from Arkansas and imagine that I'm allergic to humidity
Lots of pretty places to hike and camp in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah... It is a different experience going solo than with a crowd of scouts but I like it, for a few days at a time anyway. Do you want see a bunch of places, or really get to know one place? I've been to Rocky Mountain Ntnl Park on a few different vacations and I'm headed back again soon, and I don't think I've hiked the same trail twice yet. But I've also done a vacation of staying each place a couple nights and staying at Parks or Forests or cities and seeing a bunch of places.
Get your ass to the southwest. Buy a used copy of Desert Solitaire and make it your bible. Poke a cactus. Make friends with the lizards. Go see Meow Wolf in Santa Fe because that place is cool as shit. Spend at least one night sleeping outside, under the stars, ideally somewhere far away from major light pollution. Hike Big Bend or maybe Enchanted Rock and ask an acquaintance from a small online forum who happens to be visiting Austin starting September 4 if he wants to come (he'd love to). Bathe in the heat, and thank your lucky stars that it's a dry heat. The French Quarter's pretty but New Orleans' humidity is deadly this time of year.
I endorse nearly all of this. Speaking as someone whose mother served as a model for a character in The Monkeywrench Gang, I've tried and failed to read Desert Solitaire at least four times. On the other hand, Douglas Preston's City of Gold taught me to appreciate a region I have loathed since birth.
Big Bend is a stunning place. My dad took me out there when I was 12 or 13. The highlight was taking a whole day to start out on the desert floor, hike up blue creek canyon to the south rim, and down into the basin. It's one of my favorite memories. I was almost too tired to stand by the end. If you have the chance to go in March, all the cactuses boom. If you get the chance to go with a geologist, that's interesting too. Enchanted Rock is a fun little park. Crawl through the caves on the back side. They hit capacity kind of early on weekends when the weather's nice though.
It's August in America, so everywhere east of the Continental Divide will be some combination of hot, muggy, miserable, buggy, or swamped with tourists. Anywhere west of the Continental Divide is going to be desert or coastal and wonderful. (Seattleite here, who gloats looking at the weather map of the USA with EVERY SINGLE STATE bright red, and a small green spot in the upper left corner.) So I'd get over your dislike of heat/humidity, and just accept that it's August. MY SUGGESTION: Don't go anywhere in particular. Get in your car and head out in a direction you have never gone. Turn off the phone. Turn off the GPS. Follow the Sun. Or don't. Go towards that mountain over there. Or not. Avoid all freeways, and anything that is more than two lanes wide. If something catches your eye, stop. Explore it. Take a photo of it. Climb on it. Eat there. Whatever. Then drive some more. Find a motel. Stop and get a room for the night. Walk into a local bar and sit at the bar. Order a drink. Chat with the bartender or the person on the stool next to you. Go back to the motel and sleep, without setting an alarm. Wash, rinse, repeat. Here's why: You have all your life to go See The Sights and Go To Museums and Eat At That Special Restaurant and blah blah blah. What you WON'T have later in life, is FREE TIME TO DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT. To explore freely and discover shit other people don't know about. Here's a way to look at it: Your romantic partner is going to have places they want to go and see. And they will want to explore with you. New Orleans. Disneyland. The Fallingwater House. Whatever. But how often will you get to take them on a romantic getaway to this little out-of-the-way place you found on a backroad in Virginia, where they have their own _______ and make their own ______ and you can do a _________ like nowhere else in the world? Share with them your experience? Take them on an adventure? (And do MORE exploring with them once you are there, so its not just you dragging them to a diner where you once had a great burger, but the two of you having a new experience together?) Throw some clothes in the car. And a lot of music. And some water and PowerBars. And hit the road. See what happens. You will ALWAYS remember that trip fondly. For the rest of your life. I guarantee it.
If i had a 2 week vacation to take anywhere in the states right now, i'd probably pick the pacific north-west. Seattle, Portland and a couple hikes around Oregon. I'd really like to do a nature-focussed trip around the parks in California, Nevada and Arizona but 2 weeks would seem a bit rushed to really enjoy it.
ORLY. The stretch between San Francisco and Ft. Bragg on the Pacific coast is one of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken. There's all sorts of cool points of interest south and north of it; I love Pismo and I love Vancouver Island. You gotta get out here, though. It might make more sense to fly to LA and book a train... Although sleeper cars are absurdly expensive.
The route that goes along the coast, I presume? Google thinks it makes sense to take 101, the fooolish machine. I'd definitely be driving, there's no way I can rent an automobile and a sleeper car lol Sounds like a fun idea if I make it out that far, though! I'll keep that one in mind
I'd say go and visit friends and family in distant places. See the sights the kid in you always wanted to see. Hike some woods, detach from the world for a few days. Explore new cities, find awesome museums. Spend a day or two figuring out how to make something new. Or maybe do all of the above! Anything's better than couch slumping for fourteen days.
Trust that I won't have trouble detaching from the world. The core question I'm after is whether you have any favorite woods, cities, or museums for me to consider as part of my trip!Hike some woods, detach from the world for a few days. Explore new cities, find awesome museums.
Buncha D&D things this week! I’ve been in a weekly campaign for well over a year now. Last session was particularly intense. We were fighting a six-armed bigass troll on a platform in a cave. I, being the stealthy rogue muddafukka, used a magic item that allows me to walk on the sides of the platform to gain some well-needed leverage. I tried (and failed) to pull the troll off the platform, into the water deep below. He struck struck back by pushing me off the platform. Falling into water wouldn’t be such a problem, were it not that I had another magical item active that repulses all water off me. So instead of plunging into water, I fell much farther and hit the rock bottom of this body of water, knocking me out, well out of reach of the rest of the adventurers. I’d been working on a new character for a bit, but I wasn’t really planning to bid farewell to my current one so soon. So it caught me a bit by surprise, and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but it genuinely saddened me to leave this fictional roleplay character behind me. I didn’t expect that at all to happen. The feels were unwarranted however, because after two failed death saves, I rolled a natural 20 on my third roll, which was the only way I could still be saved in time. Welp. I also organized a one shot this weekend. As soon as I learned that my girlfriend’s old roommates almost all play D&D and she hadn’t ever done so, I knew it had to happen some day. We did a magic forest setting, and the DM is doing a PhD in literature and is pretty baller at creative writing, so she did a great job. Everyone played as a fairytale character. I played Frau Holle, and rejigged it into a cranky and greedy old woman who had to go on an adventure because she ran out of pension funds and free maids. It was a lot of fun, definitely not the last time.
Gotta deep clean my apartment today because I rented it on airBNB, and pack all my shit for Burning Man. The flight is tomorrow, I'll be in black rock Saturday afternoon. Anyone else on Hubski going this year? BLOB_CASTLE ? JackTheBandit ? It's my 3rd year and I feel it's going to be different from the previous ones. Hopefully, I get to volunteer as a Ranger and solve some problems. I know a LOT more people on playa than the previous years. Bringing my close friend Vlad with us this year. He's had a really tough year, he's an artist, an adrenaline junkie and a builder. I feel he's gonna love it. I have a couple ideas of things I want to do that would be really awesome. I also feel it's the year I'll have the courage to try some stuff that was too intimidating in the past? I can't wait to be all hot and dusty :)
A friend has been posting lately that she keeps playing cards she finds because they tell a fortune as they can be used in place of tarot cards. She’s been doing this for a while but just started posting more recently and I thought it was interesting. My 26th birthday was last week and the bar I was at gives out playing cards when you leave for a moment so you can get back in if there’s a line. I didn’t need to take one as there wasn’t a line but I thought it would be fun. I shit you not this guy hands me the 10 of spades and when you quickly google that you read a lot about death, endings and hitting rock bottom so que me fucking leaving. It hit me moments later this was my first birthday, first milestone without my mom and the full weight of every motherless milestone started to be a real thing instead of this abstract painful thing I knew to expect in the future when I got married or had kids. The ending had already happened and this was the first realization of that. I’m not sure if I read this card correctly but this had clearly been weighing on me although it hadn't really entered my mind that day so I feel as though it served its purpose. Anyways, the door guy is probably still very confused by how he made me so upset, I’ll have to remember to explain next time I see him. I’ve developed a bit of an interest in tarot cards now. I still only own playing cards but they’ve proven quite useful in the 2 tarot spreads for questions like where am I now ( feeling trapped )/ what’s blocking me ( fear from within, fear of setbacks ) because that’s weirdly accurate. It’s also weirdly comforting. So I decided to ask what’s next with the 10 of spades in mind, what comes after this ending and I received the Joker. This is also known as the Fool in tarot decks, one of the only cards you can see as upright or reversed. This one was upright and in this position the card represents new beginnings, opportunity and potential. I know this stuff seems silly but this has been a trip. Now the idea of getting a “real” deck is seeming less appealing, I'm feeling very connected with these cards.
A weekend of social. I went to three impromptu bbq's this weekend... funny thing is that it was the same core group of 8-10 people, just in three different locations, with the addition of 2 or 3 unique people at each location. We all have a lot of history together. Burningman. Community activism/art projects. Deaths of common friends. Marriages and Divorces of common friends. We've covered a lot of ground together. But this weekend, we just hung out. Talked. Broke bread. Had drinks. Laughed... a LOT. It was cathartic and educational for me. I needed the connection with my 'tribe' because I have been very insularly-focused recently. Working on my own projects. Not going out. Declining invitations. So it was nice to connect with my true friends again. But I have a much shallower 'social fuel tank' nowadays. I used to be the loud one. The chatty one. The social butterfly. This weekend, I listened much more than I talked. I didn't take center stage, or one-up people's stories with a crazier one of my own. And I ran out of gas pretty quickly. I would get to the point where I didn't have any more capacity to be 'present' and participatory, so I'd give my wife the nod, she'd wrap things up, and we'd go home. (She was kinda 'done' at the same time I was. So it worked out. I wasn't dragging her away.) --- When I lived in Budapest, my core group of friends met every Saturday at the Rudas bathhouse. It's a mineral water spring that the Pasha of Buda (Ottoman Empire) built a dome over, in the 1500s. Men-only. Naked. Just soaking in the water. Taking in the steam. Getting a "doctor-massage", (which was more like a therapeutic beating). And talking. About anything. I miss deep conversation. Discussion. Gonna cultivate that culture with some of my male friends, here in Seattle. I miss it, and I like these guys very much. Maybe its a thing that can happen here, too. (Although, without the bathhouse, of course. Nudity is taboo in America.)
Television and Movies Later this year, Mill Creek Entertainment is gonna be releasing Blu-Ray boxsets of both Ultra Q and the original Ultraman Series. Maybe about a decade ago, the first Ultraman Series was released on DVD and I passed up the chance to get it and like a lot of things in life that are niche, it became a bit difficult to find. On the one hand, I don't want to pass up the chance to see these two shows, but on the other hand, I don't feel super psyched about seeing them. Anyone ever see either of these two series? Would you recommend them? As far as Tokusatsu heros are concerned, I've always been a bit more curious about the classic Kamen Rider and Robot Detective shows myself, but they're not available and at this rate, for $40 a box set, I'm willing to take a risk on a mystery series and a classic superhero. I'm also kind of tempted to get both Them! and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms on Blu-Ray while they're still easily available. Rewatching the Heisei era of Godzilla is, for some reason, making me want to dive more into pre-'80s special effects films. I think there's something about older special effects techniques that are really resonating with me right now. . . . Looks like I gotta cut this Pubski post short. The dog is adamant that we play right now. Stay beautiful everyone!
Hello! I hope you all are doing well! I've been busy: Research Finished up a paper that will hopefully be in print very soon. That project is switching directions a little bit, which means that we're working with another research group that has a 70kV EMI radiation setup. Looking forward to running some tests with it if we can keep it from destroying the computers we're testing on... Cars Installed a new water pump which required quite a bit of hand-fitting. Whoever machined the casting on it was not having a good day. You'd be amazed how much quieter my truck is now that the water pump doesn't have a quarter inch of play in the shaft!