Only a small batch of maple syrup this year. We started collecting sap in March, which is later in the season for New York. Late-season sap produces a darker maple syrup.
Small Batch
James Turrell’s Avaar
We took a drive to the Catskill Art Space in Livingston Manor this weekend to see James Turrell’s Avaar. The installation is essentially a pitch-black room, through which you navigate by feel, for minutes, until your eyes eventually adjust and a large canvas emerges from the darkness:
As visitors enter a seemingly pitch-black space, the eyes need several minutes to adjust before the aperture becomes apparent, looming first like a flat field, then seeming to open into a never-ending abyss of pure light. The artist has compared such works to how, shortly after you turn off a porch light, your vision can penetrate the night.
I recommend it, just perhaps warn any of your claustrophobic companions what they’re signing up for. My wife and I went in completely unprepared (blind, literally and otherwise).
Making Collections
Maple syrup hobbyist, in his natural habitat (mud).
First 60° Day of the Year
Front yard vs. back yard.
Eel Man Ray Turner: End of an Era
Eel Man Ray Turner: End of an Era:
The timeworn fish weir on the East Branch of the Delaware River may have trapped its last eel. The stone-and-wood structure in Hancock, New York, has been operated for decades by Ray Turner, whom locals refer to as “The Eel Man.”
Turner is something of a recluse, a throwback to earlier times and the analog world.
We rent a house on the East Branch for a few days most summers, walking distance to Ray’s smokehouse, and have enjoyed both his stock and his stories over the years.
On our last visit he told us he’s no longer running the eel trap, the “geezerism” got him.
Tapping Trees
We took a few years off from our maple syrup hobby, and got a late start this season, but the sap is now officially flowing!
Status Light
“Are you on the phone?”
I’ve worked from home for 15 years, and have heard this question from my wife or kids a thousand times. I made Status Light so they never have to ask again.
Status Light is a simple macOs menu bar app that detects when your camera or microphone is in use and triggers an Apple Shortcut to let the people around you know you’re busy.
That Shortcut can do whatever you want: turn on a smart light (make it red!), change your Focus, send a message, or anything else that helps keep kids, partners, parents, or roommates from wandering into frame to ask if you want a sandwich.
When you start a call, Status Light knows. When you end the call, it knows that too.
Download it on the App Store for $1 (and if you work at Automattic, ping me for a coupon).
Heads Up
Shipwreck at El Morro
We’re traveling in Puerto Rico with the family this week, while the kids are on their winter break.
Took a brief trip to Old San Juan, and checked out Castillo San Felipe del Morro (then drank piña colada’s… evidently mixed by an imposter, but still delicious).
Apparently a fuel barge ran aground on the rocks directly in front of El Morro, only last week! You can get a neat view from the ramparts, an unexpected bonus with your ticket to the park.
Pocket Dial from Dad
He was watching the news.
Treasure Hunting
The NVE Ware-House is always a fun mix of weird and nostalgia. Someone actually knitted an Eames Lounge?!
All Killer, No Filler: Inside Ironhead Records in Port Jervis, New York
All Killer, No Filler: Inside Ironhead Records in Port Jervis, New York
Saddled between the New Jersey and Pennsylvania borders, and located in Orange County, New York, Port Jervis is one of those fantastic small cities that in recent years is experiencing a much-deserved renaissance.
I stopped in yesterday after visiting with my folks, he’s got a great selection and it’s rad to have a punk record store in my home town. Pretty weird to see it in Spin magazine though.
New macOS feature: automatically resize Finder columns to fit
New macOS feature: automatically resize Finder columns to fit
I have reflexively double-clicked-to-right-size-a-column in macOS Finder tens of thousands of times. This is incredible.
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback
San Diego Comic-Con changed an AI art friendly policy following an artist-led backlash last week.
For the past few years, Comic-Con has allowed some forms of AI-generated art at this art show at the convention. According to archived rules for the show, artists could display AI-generated material so long as it wasn’t for sale, was marked as AI-produced, and credited the original artist whose style was used.
These rules have been in place since at least 2024, but anti-AI sentiment is growing in the artistic community and an artist-led backlash against Comic-Con’s AI-friendly language led to the convention […] changing the rules.
Versa58: A Modular System for Adding On to Your Swiss Army Knife
Versa58: A Modular System for Adding On to Your Swiss Army Knife
What if you could modify your Swiss Army knife with modules of your choice? That’s what Las-Vegas-based EDC company Keyport is enabling with their Versa58 system. It’s named for the keychain-sized Swiss Army Knives that are 58mm in length. Once you pop the knife’s press-fit handle sides—called scales—off, you attach an interface plate, and then the Versa58 modules can be magnetically attached to that.
A Swiss Army Knife with…plugins? Neat.
Built To Spill covers “Ripple” by The Grateful Dead
Boop
Madame X
My wife’s great-great-aunt is the late Agnes Meyer Driscoll, a renowned cryptanalyst who played a central role in deciphering Japanese and German Navy codes in the 1920s and 30s.
Known as Madame X, she co-developed the “Communications Machine”, which became a standard enciphering device for the Navy for most of the 1920s, and was later considered the “first lady of naval cryptology”.
We were gifted some of her restricted-access Navy crypto assignments from the 1930s.
Radio City
My son’s high school chorus group was invited to “open” for the Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular at Radio City a few weeks ago.
Christmas “Shopping”
Fourteen years ago I made a mix CD for my wife as a little stocking stuffer at Christmas time. Just a few of our favorite songs from that year to listen to while she’s in the car.
I also know enough Photoshop to be dangerous, so I made a silly cover to go with it (she’s a big Beatles fan).
The following year, I kept it going, and what was initially just a gag gift became an annual tradition: Photoshopping her into a favorite album’s artwork. I don’t even make the mix CD anymore (we have no way to play it!), but every year she still gets a new cover.
These are a few of my favorites… I don’t aim for perfection, the quality varies a lot from year to year, but I will say that I am unreasonably proud of how the G N’ R Lies cover turned out.
Check back after Christmas for the 2025 edition!
And here’s 2025!
