Week Notes, 2025-08-31
Weekly Features from August 25th - August 31st:
🍁 It's not officially the end of summer, but the last day of August is generally when thoughts of autumn start creeping into my head. I'm used to schools starting around this time, to the weather showing signs of cooling off with lowered humidity, to some leaves on trees and bushes already changing colors. August has been a really hot and muggy month in the St. Louis region, so the downturn in temperatures means it is more comfortable to be outside and active. Case in point: later on this afternoon, L. and I are off for a walk in Chesterfield along a levee that lines the Missouri River.
🛣️ One vacation planned out, with another one to follow: our October trip for my college's Homecoming has been established. It will be a triangular road trip, stopping first in Chicago to meet folks who won't be attending the Homecoming, then head out to Iowa City and stay there during the Homecoming weekend. Fortunately, Iowa will be out of town playing Wisconsin that weekend, so we won't have to compete with 458,000 or so Hawkeye fans. Meanwhile, the November trip to New Mexico and El Paso will start being planned out once I get the OK to take the time off of work. We're looking to travel the week before Thanksgiving, with a few extra days bleeding over into neighboring weeks.
💉 On Friday 09-05, I plan to get the latest round of COVID vaccinations. I realize there are now roadblocks put in place to prevent most healthy adults from being vaccinated, thanks to folks who believe their own genes make them superior to everyone else. However, there's a long list of mitigating factors that will allow adults my age to qualify for a shot, and thanks to being diagnosed a few years ago with a fatty liver, I meet one of those factors. So yeah, even though there are unnecessary hoops to leap through, I'll do it and get vaccinated.
✅ Beyond the above items, it's been a relatively quiet week overall with my life and with L.'s life. Sometimes that's a good state to be in.
🆕 I will be providing further explanations for the media files I'm noting below. This week, I will be talking more about the--*spins wheel of fortune*--Reading links.
Other Things to Note from The Week That Was:
💫 Creating:
- Second Blog timeline has been updated to September 2026, and the consolidation efforts are almost complete.
- I sorted through the photos taken in 2013 with my old Olympus camera and ranked them, using both Apollo One and the Smart Folders setup on my Mac. In my mind, the Olympus camera was a "mistake," but having said that, I have found some early photos taken with it that impressed me. Let's see if that impression carries forth into the subsequent years of Olympus ownership.
🏥 Health:
- Walks with L. around complex on Monday 08-25, and Thursday 08-28.
- A neighborhood walk with L. on Friday 08-29.
- 7-minute workouts on Tuesday 08-26 and Thursday 08-28.
- Neighborhood walk with L. on Tuesday 08-19 and Friday 08-22.
- Hike with L. along levee in Chesterfield, as mentioned above.
- Made plans for COVID-19 vaccination, as mentioned above.
🎧 Listening:
- Episodes 754, 755, 756, Brainwashed Radio
- Episode 603 - Pittsburgh vs. Chicago: Blind Hazy Throwdown (with Aaron Keefner), ABV Chicago
- Episode 250: Monsoon Mood, Desert Oracle Radio
- You’re In An 80s Film Driving At Night, Low Light Mixes
🗄Organizing:
- Progress on vacation scheduling, as noted above.
📖 Reading:
- The Loud Comeback of Perfume : Why Big Scents Are Back, Bois de Jasmin
- Scent Brew, Morning Brew
- What's old is new again, the kids want to smell nice, and in some odd way, I feel both of these articles relate to my "ritual" post from a couple weeks ago.
- The Tragedy Of “Stomp Clap Hey”, Defector
- Edward Sharpe was early hipster indie, but the "stomp clap hey" scene happened much later when indie fully corporatized itself as a marketing aesthetic. You could say it always was one from the beginning, but I say there were earlier days when the aesthetic wasn't as clearly delineated. The tragedy was when the aesthetic started defining itself. Hey ho.
- In Defence of Pigeons, Thinkings Space
- Photographer Nearly Has His Gear Stolen By Mischievous Goose, PetaPixel
- This is a pro-goose and pro-pigeon blog. Don't like it? There's the door.
- Picture By Paper Tape, Hackaday
- Tefifon: Germany’s Tape-Shaped Record Format, Hackaday
- Two forms of tape transmitting audio or visual documentation in novel ways. The paper tape explanation shows that fax technology is really quite old.
- Salt Lake City? Nashville? How six cities are faring in the race for an MLB expansion team, The Athletic
- The article's argument has Raleigh and Portland as real dark-horse expansion sites, as opposed to the alleged favorites of Nashville and SLC. While I can see expansion happening at the favored sites, either Raleigh or Portland can become relocation backups in case stadium deals in Tampa Bay falter, or if the Las Vegas construction for the Athletics never materializes.
- Who to Blame for All This Bad Country-Rap Music, Pitchfork
- Somebody has to take the blame, right?
- St. Louis residents fight expansion of Israeli minerals company tied to Gaza genocide, Prism
- When L. was moving to STL, we went on a scouting expedition in late 2004 for apartments. One apartment we saw by ourselves was next door to an ICL plant, prompting us to back out before the official showing was scheduled. The plant had a distinct smell that would have become tiring and/or unhealthy within the first few minutes of living in this complex, so I'm glad we gave it a pass. It doesn't read like they'd be good neighbors at all.
- Hurricane Katrina Showed How Quickly It Can All Fall Apart, Defector
- Katrina Set the Stage for New Orleans’s Capture by Investors, Jacobin
- Two takes on the 20th anniversary of Katrina. Both are long reads, but necessary.
🌾 Socializing:
- Brief visit to Barnes & Noble in Des Peres on Monday 08-25, as well as the Barnes & Noble in Ladue on Friday 08-29, to scout for vacation reference materials.
- Kaldi's Coffee on Tuesday 08-26.
- Side Project Cellar on Thursday 08-28 for nearly two hours!
- First visit to Upshot Coffee HiFi in Clayton on Friday 08-29; it's styled like a Japanese jazz kissa, and true to form, within a few minutes of arrival, they started to play S. Kiyotaka & Omega Tribe's "River's Island."
🧪 Testing:
- Running Beta 8/Public Beta 5 on macOS 26 and iOS 26. This is likely the last release before the RC (Release Candidates) get unveiled after Labor Day.
- Briefly used Aspect (macOS) as a photo organizer, but balked at its slowness and price, so it was quickly deleted.
- Installed Bayer Cam (iOS) and Passport parking app (iOS).
- Deleted Southwest (iOS), though depending on which airline we use for our November trip, it may be reinstalled then.
📺 Watching:
- Japan’s 400-Year-Old Summer Dance Festival Awa Odori | 2025 THE AWAODORI TOKUSHIMA, YouTube, It's Time to Travel🇯🇵 / 旅する時間
- Josh Song TVC2, YouTube, JOSH Tractor (you NEED some Josh in your life!)
- Royal Albatross ~Super Cute South Plateau Chick Plays w/ Cam & Flaps Wings! SSTrig Joins In 8.25.25, YouTube, Lady Hawk (enjoying the albatross chicks before they fledge next month)
- 15 Hours Flying Japan’s Best Airline in Business Class! | Tokyo🇯🇵 - Paris🇫🇷, YouTube, Solo Solo Travel
- The ducks are hot too, YouTube, 도시오리 CityDuck
- Boarding Little-known Ferry between Japan, Korea and Russia | Sakaiminato → Donghae, YouTube, CAPSULE JAPAN
- New England Summer - Live Webcams, Weather, Music, Timelapse, YouTube, Boston and Maine Live
- Burning Man 2025: The Man Burns, YouTube, Burning Man Project (I can now say I've seen Burning Man. Whee.)
- Nestflix BeardedVulture 31 Aug 2025-1, YouTube, Nestflix (Ossifrage!)
🗃️ Work:
- Usual round of meetings this week.
- My boss briefly checked in on the hardware inventory project, though the conversation was rather disjointed due to his admitted lack of sleep the night before. I hope he gets rested over the Labor Day weekend so that future chats can make more sense.