Matt Katz – More Light! More Light!

Sierra-at-Tahoe 2024

MattK — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 17:00:00 +0000

This is one of the weirdest little ski mountains I’ve visited. The approach is foreboding. There was a great forest fire that nearly burned down the whole place. They used snowmaking equipment to save their infrastructure. Now, you approach on a windy road through a forest of burnt trees.

The terrain was lightly covered, not too much snowfall. There was a 48″ summit snowpack, but lots of places on and off piste had very light cover.

The terrain is pretty interesting. Since the forest fire, they’ve had to log and remove the dead burn trees away, yielding a desolate landscape of stumps and rocks. You ride through ghost-glades of trees that used to be there. There are real chutes and cliffs, some rideable, none I trusted given the strange conditions. The snow was heavy and wet, so I found I had to unstrap in lots of places to get around. At the base of some of the ghost-glades we found ourselves going over huge rollers that you also couldn’t trust, since a few were bottomed out into sticks and stones.

Once, we dodged through living trees to get into an interesting area and… it was just enormous boulders covered in snow – almost impassable.

This is one of the weirdest mountains I’ve been on. An ecological tragedy has yielded a unique experience – fun in a wasteland, more challenge than expected and in ways we aren’t used to. A real stretch. It was not the fun I might have been looking for, but it was exhilarating and provoking. Everyone we talked to that was local knew about the fire and was rooting for Sierra-at-Tahoe. They talked about how they bought tickets there or joined Ikon pass to make sure that Sierra-at-Tahoe didn’t go out of business, a little support to help it bounce back.

I’m rooting for it too.

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New Recipe: Pressure Cooker Korean Chile-Braised Brisket with Kimchi Coleslaw

MattK — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Over on cooked.wiki, I just wrote up the Instant Pot Chile Brisket with Kimchi Coleslaw I made.

It was delicious – but I’m trying to figure out what to do with all that leftover sauce.

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The Sprints – Up and Comer

MattK — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Via the great Jason Lefkowitz, one of my fave accounts on Mastodon.

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My 2024 in Books

MattK — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 13:00:00 +0000

I liked seeing my “2024 in the books” page on BookWyrm and I can add some more personal notes on it. Of course, I still recommend you switch away from goodreads to a platform built for you and join bookwyrm.

While my 2023 was mostly occupied by 2 fantastic authors, my 2024 was dominated by 1 author.

Heck, one book.

That I still haven’t finished.

I set a goal to read “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro and listen along to the 99 Percent Invisible Power Broker series of podcasts as I read it. This went off the rails a bit because the book is… enormous. It’s a tome. I rarely have time to read at home, so I sneak it when I’m out and about and waiting on something. That means ebooks work for me. I love a paper book so much, but I basically keep a paper book next to a special chair that I can cozy up in and read. But that’s not how I get to spend a lot of my hours. There was no ebook of the Power Broker for sale¹. I got a pirated one and started reading.

The pirated copy was of a dismal quality. It was confusing where the chapter were. I plowed far ahead to make sure I didn’t listen to the podcast too early. It was a mess. Finally a friend from my work book club loaned me his copy and it made a huge difference. But I was way off the pace.

I fell off more when I went to Iceland and London this summer, because I couldn’t bring the huge tome with me.

Despite all that, I join the chorus of converts who crow about Caro’s careful cooking of mad Moses’s credibility. It’s sparkles with perfect sentences, paragraphs that build and build a tower and then throw you off the top. Over on BookWyrm I’ve commented on this more and quoted more bits than any other book.

Before we learn about the absolutely vile tricks Moses pulls to steal land from some robber barons, Caro makes sure to set up how truly vile they are as well. Caro makes no secret of Robert’s racism, but amid a long story about the “West Side Improvement” he takes us farther and farther to point out how beautiful the parks are, how custom the details are to blend in. Then he sticks the knife in.

Robert Moses had always displayed a genius for adorning his creations with little details that made them fit in with their setting, that made the people who used them feel at home in them. There was a little detail on the playhouse-comfort station in the Harlem section of Riverside Park that is found nowhere else in the park. The wrought-iron trellises of the park’s other playhouses and comfort stations are decorated with designs like curling waves. The wrought-iron trellises of the Harlem playhouse-comfort station are decorated with monkeys.

— The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro (Page 560)

I’m going to finish this book in 2025. It is already a favorite, one I can’t stop talking about.

I wanted to write more about the books I read in 2024, and I did pretty well. I reviewed on BookWyrm more than on my blog. I’ll redouble my efforts. No one is paying me to do this, no one expects it of me, so I can do as much or as little as I want. Like exercise, I like it when I’ve done it, though doing it is a hassle that requires discipline. (Speaking of exercise, I came close, but did not achieve my fitness goal for 2024. I’ll nail it in 2025. I’m going to do 2 one arm pull ups on each arm.)

Here are the books that I wrote about:

The full Scholomance Series by Naomi Novik (A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, The Golden Enclaves)
The book that was most loathed and complained about in my book club, The Tangled Lands. They are wrong, this is great, but very sad.
How Big Things Get Done – the most valuable for work. (Though a single story about “The Orange Juice Test” is a close contender.
How Infrastructure Works – which let me think about what’s hidden and what’s thought about vs what’s not considered. More philosophy and meaning than I expected!
The darkest book. Killers of the Flower Moon. Coffin dirt and the devil’s eyes.
I really enjoyed The Dispossessed – it pairs well with the Power Broker in a conversation.
I didn’t think Fables was that great. I didn’t think it was great when it first came out, but since I got the whole thing as a gift I read it. It’s… ok.
Several People are Typing made me actually laugh out loud. It was a great weird semi-work-horror-comedy.
Unity is a fast fun wild rollercoaster that combines fave topics like distributed consciousness and nanogoo. Highly recommended.
Tender is the Flesh was absolutely brutal. From the first pages it is very uncomfortable and it gets worse the farther it goes.

In 2025 I’ll shoot for another 20 books and hopefully get more in again! Setting low bars lets me keep winning!

It wasn’t until September 2024 that a proper digital edition got produced! ︎

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The last Dymaxion Car prototype

MattK — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 20:23:43 +0000

Back in the corner

I love seeing remnants of the work of Buckminster Fuller. First thing I do in a new place is check what’s cool on Atlas Obscura so this entry caught my eye when I landed in Reno.

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Bloodywood – Nu Delhi

MattK — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Love these DIY Metal guys. At work we have an internal slack channel called #listen_to_this and this is a great one out of there.

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Zellij over Tmux

MattK — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 17:17:02 +0000

I like working in the terminal. It feels like the right thing to invest in to build small tools that compose well into bigger tools.

I’ve written before about using tmux as a way to turn one terminal into many so you can run tests and editors etc. It’s clunky, it’s wonky. If you get a good starting configuration from something like oh-my-tmux and you spend some time tweaking it and you learn how it works, you can get a LOT out of it. I am. But I just got a great recommendation from Ian Sudderth about an alternative.

Zellij is a screen multiplexer that does all the things that I need but comes with batteries installed and has good defaults and I’m loving it. It starts out with things like session restoration built in.

It’s DISCOVERABLE. I don’t have to look up a lot of info about how to use it – it walks you through it.

Commandline stuff doesn’t have to be hard anymore. I’ve already added it to my jumpstart for new environments. I’m going to be playing with this everywhere as a replacement for tmux.

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Le Tigre – Deceptacon

MattK — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 13:00:00 +0000

This is a great bop with a fantastic music video. A true inspiration to make it and get moving and just go.

So few cuts, just energy.

I listen to this song with ZZ all the damn time. This and the Linda Lindas.

But I wanted to blog it because Deceptacon got covered in the excellent Song Exploder podcast.

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Just kidding, nothing’s related to this.

First Shift at the Park Slope Food Coop

MattK — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 04:40:58 +0000

This was a really cool experience. I wish I had joined earlier.

Today I did my first shift at the food coop. I actually liked it. It was tough, because being a newbie at things is tough. Not knowing what to do is tough. But learning is fun!

The shift started at 8:30pm and ended at 11. Yikes. I did “case maintenance” which means breaking down a produce case, storing the produce temporarily, washing and cleaning everything in the case and re-assembling it all, then stocking it all.

One thing I learned – tell people what to do. Tell them to put the damn label for the apples they are bagging with the apples so we don’t sit around later wondering what variety they are like apple detectives. I’ll probably do this shift more, but I want to try others and see what it’s like to be a cashier or do repairs.

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When People Do Good and Bad

MattK — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Over the past weeks I find myself repeatedly saying phrases like “Roman Polanski made some good movies”. In conversations, we keep covering brilliant ideas from people who’ve done despicable actions or who’ve made great creative works and also advanced horrible thoughts.

In that vein, I want to share this wonderful thought from Dynomight about attitudes to take towards people who’ve done Good and Bad.

I think it’s important to get the good from people and appreciate it. But you have to know that the man who helped America get to the Moon was a Nazi who worked people to brutal deaths. I believe I can fly is an incredibly good song. Jefferson, an architect of so many good thoughts, was a slavemaster, slaves built the White House and George Washington fought hard to recover the slaves that escaped him.

It’s uncomfortable, but you also need to know the full story. We need to talk about it. Because pretending the full story isn’t there is bad for us. Pretending the good isn’t there is also bad for us. And thinking people are only one thing is a fundamentally bad idea.

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Some Thanks

MattK — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

It’s a day with a good idea, based on a bad story. I’m going to take the good idea – practicing gratitude and not celebrate the bad story.

I have SO MUCH to be grateful for. My family is healthy, faces struggles and difficulty with patience and practice and we have enough to give back. We have growth and navigate trouble together – and while we’ve had plenty of trouble to navigate, none of it has drowned us.

My workplace is appreciative of what I do, not abusive, and has a fairly healthy relationship with me. More to come on this, but my main challenges are prioritizing the interesting problems to solve and navigating change.

My personal health is a bounty. I hope for my friends with difficulties life threatening and chronic. I am merely stuck with the realization that I won’t achieve my goal to do 2 one-arm pullups by the end of the year. But I’m so close I think I’ll have it by the end of next year. It took me multiple years to be able to do a pistol squat, but I got there as well.

I’m grateful to have found some of the most wonderful interesting people and to have them be my friends. I’m still a little incredulous that they tolerate my personality, my long silent periods, but show me the same love and joy when we find each other together. They shore me up where I’m weak and I’m grateful when I can similarly help them.

I’m thankful that people are resolving to cooperate locally, support their communities and help each other get through coming tough times. The bonds forged in adversity can be strong and I hope they will link us in better times as well. I’m hoping to do more direct help by feeding hungry people at CHiPS and find more ways to be personally involved.

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Just kidding, nothing’s related to this.

Joshua Idehen – Mum Does the Washing

MattK — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 13:32:05 +0000

Via https://www.hearingthings.co/mum-does-the-washing-is-the-spoken-word-anthem-i-didnt-know-i-needed/

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Bike Angels – Citibike Gamification

MattK — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 21:00:00 +0000

Well, friends, I just found myself seeking points. I’ve become a Bike Angel.

I love CitiBike – being able to grab a bike whenever for a short trip is just magic.

And then I saw a video about Bike Angels, and it grabbed me. It’s genius.

CitiBike has a clumping problem. Bikes flow like tides across the city, and they clump in popular destinations. Some docks end up with lots of bikes and some end up with very few.

They already have some overhead – the electric bikes need someone to come out and swap fresh batteries for dead ones. Repairs need to happen. They also have vans that pull up to overweight docks and transport them over to underweight docks. That’s not great though, using a motor vehicle to move bikes around. Better if people just did it cheaper on the bikes themselves.

That’s the bike angel program. It gives you points for moving bikes from crowded docks to emptier ones. More extreme docks give you more points. Doing it a lot is a streak and racks up your points. It’s all very silly and the very base rate of it all has a point worth around a dime. But it’s enough to make me OK with walking a little farther when I’ve got the time and riding a little farther to drop off at a dock that needs it.

And then I got a streak. And then I got to triple points. And then I found myself taking a ride between two docks to just not break my streak.

They got me!

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MattK — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

If you’ve only got two clamps because you live in an apartment – you can hack them into any length you need.

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No Laptop

MattK — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Shoutout to this cool person I met in the lounge at Heathrow.

We got talking while she was setting up. She explained – wherever she goes she has a full keyboard, 2 monitors and a powerful setup. She always left her laptop plugged in to external monitors at home and she had it plugged into external monitors at work, so why not just carry the tiniest part she needs.

I love it.

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It’s going to be chaos

MattK — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 01:00:00 +0000

But I hope in that chaos we can create something different.

My hope is that it is now clear that you can’t win with a sneer and a rush to triangulate the center.

But anyone who tells us they know exactly what’s coming next is probably selling something.

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GUNSHIP – Monster in Paradise

MattK — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:49:57 +0000

Am I becoming a GUNSHIP fan? Are they time travelers from an alternate better 80s?

However the next few days turn out, I hope you are ok.

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New Bike Day

MattK — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Wow, that got here fast! Got my new Priority Continuum Onyx.

I’ve barely ridden it yet, but it seems amazing.

Added my fave retro reflective tape on it for style and to deter thievery.

Daylight look

But it will shine shine shine at night.

Nightlight look

Going to get a rack put on it and then I’ll have a perfect commuter and arrive without the classic backpack sweat. Too bad I have to go on a work trip this next week and I can’t use it.

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MattK — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000

If you are looking at an apartment in a building with a gym, make sure someone uses the gym equipment while you are in the apartment. Are you ok with that noise during the hours the gym is available to use?

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New Bike Time!

MattK — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000

I’ve been riding a Vivi e-bike that I won in a contest for a while now. It’s been… ok. I’ve gotten some great use out of it – especially hauling Max around before he could ride his own bike to school.

I really liked riding an e-bike – but I found it hard not to crank up the motor all the time and go super fast!

Trouble started for me when the spokes started giving out on the wheels. I got them repaired on the front wheel. Then I noticed some broken on the back wheel. I went to my local bike shop, Habitat Bicycles, and they said they couldn’t repair it because too many spokes were broken and they didn’t work with these kinds of e-bikes.

Hell! I had to get it repaired! I bought a replacement wheel for a few hundred dollars. Then I took it to a shady repair shop to move the motor over from one wheel to another. It was not a good job. The motor didn’t properly engaged. Then I went to London for a while and when I came back the battery stopped taking a charge.

So, for months I’ve been riding what is basically a very heavy non electric bike. That’s fine! I have strong legs. Then the rear shimano shifter dropped a spring while riding so now I have a 3 gear heavy regular bike.

I’m not very happy with this, though I’m generally really happy riding a bike. I don’t want to pour more money into fixing more things on this bike.

I just discovered that my work has a health reimbursement for bicycles!

So I’m finally going to buy a nice bike. I’ve never had a nice bike. I’ve always been proud of making do with old bikes and making them last forever. When I got hit by a car in South Carolina, I got the fork re-straightened and kept riding that same bike for years longer.

But I really think I’ll get something out of a nice bike.

I had to decide – do I get an e-bike again?

I’m not getting an e-bike. I like pedaling, I like getting stronger. E-bikes aren’t serviceable everywhere and are complicated. My experience of getting someone else to take care of an e-bike was not very pleasant. E-bikes are really expensive. I have to remember to charge the battery. Many days I’d have the battery upstairs and realize I’d forgotten to bring it down when I was heading out.

So what kind of bike? A commuter bike describes me perfectly. I’m a commuter. I read 8 miles or so to work and 8 miles back with a bridge in each ride.

The next big choice I made was to go with self-service simplicity or high tech offerings. If I get a bike with front and rear cassettes, a chain, and caliper breaks – that’s a machine I can service basically any part of. I’m also interested in what seem like good recent advances – continuous variable transmission internal hubs and belt drives, disc brakes and the like.

I decided to go against my usual self-service simplicity because I’ve noticed I don’t have the time. I just can’t be arsing around with my bike as much these days – so fixing it myself isn’t something I’m prioritizing.

I just put in an order for a Priority Continuum Onyx.

It’s got a carbon belt drive – no more grease stains on my pant legs when I forget to roll up.
Continuously variable transmission internal hub. I’ve tried this on Citi Bikes and it seems pretty sweet. An internal hub is also one less thing to maintain. It is sealed from the elements and should be fine unless things go seriously wrong – but then I’ll HAVE to take to a bike shop.
Dynamo powered front and rear lights. I like not having to take my light off to recharge it.
Hydraulic disc brakes should work in all conditions – but I won’t have the tools to fix them.

I’m eager to get my hands on it and decide if it’s right for me!