Week In Review 2026-05-30
This weekly update covers Sunday 05-24-26 through Saturday 05-30-26 (an icon Glossary, if needed).
LIFE
- 🈁 Unlike my vacation to San Diego, I have not slipped into a post-vacation funk after returning from New Mexico. I consider that a victory.
- 📕 The Memorial Day weekend allowed me & L. to have the post-vacation recovery that we couldn’t have last week. We needed all three days for recuperation, though.
- 📜 One large project is drawing to a close: my mother’s tombstone design and subsequent burial. Another project may be starting up, which I’ll explain below.
- ❤️🩹 We are getting outside more and more, thanks to the warmer weather. I have once again acclimated to being in a humid environment. Bloodwork was drawn early on Saturday 05-30, finally fulfilling my doctor’s request from earlier in the month.
EXPLORE
- 🎨 First up, tests of both the Siuri lens and the Pentax converter (mentioned last week) went by well. Caira is now more of a digital rangefinder than ever before (up to and including its operational slowness), and I will have to dedicate more time to actually using this device. Second, I will pull the trigger and buy an older Canon camera and lens from a friend of mine, who otherwise would sell it online. My goal in 2027 will be to upgrade my Sony a7ii, and these Canon items will either be a bridge towards moving to that ecosystem, or can be used as valuable trade-ins as part of the upgrade.
- 🔬 Upgraded to Developer Beta 1 of iOS 26.6 and macOS Tahoe 26.6.
- 🪟 Went on a photowalk on Saturday 05-23 to Laumeier Sculpture Park and Powder Valley Nature Center. Walked in our neighborhood on Sunday 05-24. Went on a brief hike along the western end of Grant’s Trail on Monday 05-25. Worked remotely in Maplewood on Wednesday 05-27 at both Living Room and the Maplewood Public Library. Spent too much time at Side Project Cellar on Thursday 05-28.
MEDIA
- 📰 Nobody Cares, Write Anyway, Absurd Pirate’s Internet Blog (I guess if my blog needed a theme, it may be this one. Regardless of how small my audience is, I will write for myself first and foremost.)
- 📰 Rich Brain, The Ink {archive.is link} (Wow, how depressing to realize that the ultra-rich are still obsessed with money in spite of seemingly possessing an abundance of wealth. Nope, they’re consumed by actions both petty and large that will keep their biggest fears at bay: being poor again. There’s also something to be said for a lack of empathy amongst the rich and an inability to be satisfied with their lot, but I don’t have the time or space to write that out.)
- 📰 humans.json: Yet Another Identification Protocol, The Hive (Yet another reinvention of a wheel that exists in numerous forms elsewhere. I’m sticking with proven.lol, for what it’s worth.)
- 🎬 2008 Toyota Tacoma 4-Cyl 5MT: Regular Car Reviews, Regular Car Reviews (An older pickup truck that knows it is enough: enough of an engine, enough of interior comfort, enough of passenger space, enough of cargo space, enough of durability to last for decades.)
- 🎬 Episode 508: Operation Double 007, MST3K (One of many James Bond knockoffs in the mid-1960s, this one featuring Sean Connery’s brother Neil, who was hired by the Italian film producers due to his near-identical voice of his more famous brother. Naturally, for final production, his voice was dubbed by someone else! Many 007 alums co-star in this film, and the music was made by one Ennio Morricone, so as far as knockoffs go, it’s rather legit. “I know.”)
- 🎬 Well There’s Your Problem Episode 198: The Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Merger, WTYP Podcast (Also subtitled “Uncle Pete Marries A Horse”, the gang at WTYP spend nearly 2.5 hours talking about the history of the railroads in the US that more or less led to this somewhat inevitable tie-up, which in turn may lead to yet another mega-railroad merger of CSX and BNSF down the line. There’s also a hysterical update on the high-tech disaster in Jacksonville that would replace its 70s/80s era people mover, and by hysterical, I mean “sad and despondent.")
WORK
- 🏥 Another Sisyphean week of closing more tickets, only to have nearly the exact same number open up. Nobody is despairing yet, but that light at the end of the tunnel hasn’t changed in size or intensity. A different light, in a related tunnel, is for my on-call shift that started on Thursday 05-28 and runs until next Thursday morning. I'm hoping not to get plowed over by after-hours calls!
OTHER
- 🗣️ The ads were right. The flavor really lasts an extra, extra, extra long time!
NEXT
- 🔮 June will likely be the month when the tombstone saga gets wrapped up. I regret not starting this sooner, but I have no regrets about it being nearly complete.
PICTURE
- 📸 A couple of Carpenter Bees enjoy feeding on some Butterfly Weed flowers, as seen at the entrance of Powder Valley Nature Reserve.
