I have set a goal on Goodreads to read 25 books in a year four times now: 2014, 2018, 2020, and 2021. In 2014 and 2018, I only "read" two books and one book, respectively, though it was long enough ago that I suspect I just stopped using the website. However, I can't imagine I …
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Five Years of Chortles and Harrumphs
Five years ago, I finally registered a domain name that had been in my head a long time, one for Chortles and Harrumphs. I'd always enjoyed the feel of the two words: academic, yet whimsical. It is perhaps not a surprise that 'chortle' was coined by Lewis Carrol in Through the Looking Glass; it bubbles …
How to lose an audience: or when I learned that I should not have updated that app
Metrics seem to be everywhere these days. From the well-known details tracking of Amazon's internal systems to Fitbits and Apple Watches, it seems like the quantified self movement has come to the forefront everywhere. So after hearing a recommendation from Kevin Rose a few years ago, I gave Tally a try. For several years, it …
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How to build a lamp with mushrooms
For the last year and a half since I read The Noma Guide to Fermentation, I have become increasingly interested in the fungal kingdom. I recently wrote a review of a good overview guide, but today I wanted to get a little more hands-on. Specifically, how fungi are being investigated for their ability to create …
Book Review – Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
I have taken to listening to books in bed before going to sleep. I can put on an eye mask with built-in bluetooth headphones (with the extra benefit that I don't need to close any shutters to keep the room from getting light super early), set the Sleep Time on Audible to 30 minutes, and …
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How to hot-wire a scooter with a paper clip
Disclaimer: This lesson is intended as a fun introduction to how an ignition works and not a guide to performing illegal activities. If you steal someone's scooter and get caught, that's your own damn fault. Also, shame on you. Nearly a year ago, during the initial two-month lockdown here in France, my scooter was vandalized. …
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How to Finish a Painting
As we reach one year since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic, I've been thinking back on the last year. I don't think 2020 went how anyone thought it would: lockdowns, masks as part of a daily routine, social distancing from friends and family would have seemed almost unthinkable to be part of our new …
How to make an Arduino-powered immersion circulator
After having tinkered with basic circuitry, but with an Arduino still on my hands to use, I started to brainstorm some ideas of possible uses. I could control other lights use it in any number of other projects, but my search finally brought me to the kitchen. In the US, I had a Sansaire immersion …
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Two Down, Ten to Go
And with all the flair of Leap Day William, we are at the end of the second month of the year! At the start of the month, I wanted to better learn the ins-and-outs of the Sony a6000 that I have had for four years and to develop a system for organizing, editing, and exhibiting …
On Gratitude
It's been more than two years since I posted my first...post, but I figured that sitting in a hospital waiting room with a needle in my arm seemed like as good a time as any to write a second. A few days ago I woke to my right calf cramped up. It had happened once …
Chortles and Harrumphs 