rsmurphy wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 8:58 am While commuting home from work a mentally unwell black woman boarded the train and began ranting about a bunch of things. I could barely hear her with my headphones on, but I could definitely hear the white guy yelling at her to shut up and something about her being the reason that Trump won the presidency. I'm like, "dude, she's obviously unwell. stop yelling at her. we're all just trying to get home." He yelled back that he is mentally unstable himself and that I should kill him. Just kept shouting that while pointing to his chin daring me to slug him.

At the time I was super incensed and annoyed but looking back on it it was just sad.

. Awful.

I just "Shazamed" a Linkin Park song. Fuckinghell. I should have just asked the dude at the counter. Now my algorithm's all fucked.

Tonight I realized I introduced my kid to free improv and shreds in the wrong order for the latter to work on him.

As a Xmas gift for ourselves, my wife and I bought a restored Emerson tabletop radio from the mid-1940s. It looks like this one:
It only gets AM, of course, which wouldn’t be worth listening to even if we added an antenna. Happily, the seller also sells these Bluetooth connections. The Bluetooth doesn’t wire into the radio itself; it wires into a small circuit board that, basically, serves as a very, very low-range AM transmitter. You find an unused area on the AM dial, match it with the transmitter, and viola!

We’ve been listening to archived big-band radio broadcasts. Also, the Elvis version of “Blue Moon” sounds cool as shit coming through the Emerson.

Our oldest is in town from college for the holiday. She ran some death metal through it, which sounds approximately evil.

Got a haircut the other day. Walked into the vintage guitar place two doors down with NO INTENTION of buying a guitar.

Saw a Yamaha acoustic with a ridiculously reasonable price tag on it. Picked it up and whacked an E chord on it.

"This thing must be missing a zero on the tag," I thought. It definitely sounded like one of the handful of thousand+ dollar guitars I've recorded through the years.

No, the owner confirmed, that's the price.

Merry Christmas to me, I guess.


Making tentative plans to move to Bloomington, IN, btw. There's a school there that will be a good fit for my neurodivergent kiddo. That's WAY closer to CHI/MKE than where I am, currently. Let's make music.

Heading to Tucson. Excited to reckon with friends of old and the Sonoran Desert, in general. Howe Gelb is playing on Sunday night. This trip is WAY overdue.

Looking at the various designs originally proposed for the flag of the European Union. Imagine how many bullets we dodged.

I had a few books to get rid of and learned there is a Little Free Library app that shows them all. It makes me happy to open the app and see so many.

I just spent a couple of days along the USA/Mexico border along Arizona and New Mexico, taking roads less travelled. I didn’t experience a single checkpoint. Most of the state highway checkpoints were unattended, and the one on I-10 just waved people through. I’ve never seen it so lax. Hardly any border patrol anywhere. I’m a little confused about it.

Dave N. wrote: Tue Dec 30, 2025 10:16 pm I just spent a couple of days along the USA/Mexico border along Arizona and New Mexico, taking roads less travelled. I didn’t experience a single checkpoint. Most of the state highway checkpoints were unattended, and the one on I-10 just waved people through. I’ve never seen it so lax. Hardly any border patrol anywhere. I’m a little confused about it.

Were you in or near a sanctuary city or "blue" city?