Passing fancies #25

Strap yourself in and prepare to be inundated with evidence of my weird interests, much of which I discovered via my RSS feeds.

Beer

 

The founder of one of my favorite breweries, Dogfish Head, is one of craft brewing's most memorable characters.  I've had the good fortune to talk with him on several occasions, including sitting next to him at a brunch celebrating Dogfish Head's 20th anniversary as shown in the picture above.  He's a really interesting guy.  Here's an article about his considerable impact on the industry.
https://www.americancraftbeer.com/craft-beer-legends-dogfish-heads-sam-calagione/

Books

This week I finished Tim Sullivan's latest book, The Tailor.  It stars his fascinating character, DS George Cross, a neurodivergent police detective.  I've been eagerly devouring this series as they become available in the U.S. which had been subject to a delay with his earlier books which I assume was due to the challenges of publishing books destined for a foreign country.  I was hooked quickly and have preordered the last few books.  Unfortunately, in my enthusiasm I end up reading each new book far too quickly.
https://crimefictionlover.com/2026/07/the-tailor-by-tim-sullivan/

Television/Movies

I recently watched Picnic At Hanging Rock which was entertaining but which I felt had an unsatisfying ending.  Then I made the mistake of searching for more information and found hints that the author had intended time travel as a possible explanation for how the girls disappeared.  I think I would have been happier had I not found that out.

I also watched The Shawshank Redemption which I thought was a much better film.  I had read the book by Stephen King recently and wanted to see how faithfully the material was adapted.  I'm happy to report that aside from the inevitable need to shorten the story to a movie, the story was kept largely intact, much like the movie Stand By Me, also adapted from a King book.

Links

When I was a kid, few movies entertained me more than those with stop-motion animation like that done by Ray Harryhausen.  The skeleton battle scene in Jason and the Argonauts is a particular favorite of mine.  This article with more information about how the illusion was created is a treat.
https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/how-ray-harryhausen-conjured-the

Since I recently featured a link about a new form of trebuchet, this article about possibly the first victim of Edward I's Warwolf trebuchet caught my eye.  Having 167 fractures does not sound like a pleasant way to die.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/skeleton-with-167-fractures-discovered-at-scottish-castle-may-have-been-first-victim-of-edward-is-war-wolf-trebuchet

I was surprised to hear that unfavorable forecasts from the weather apps on people's phones are having such a dramatic effect on small businesses.  I think people often don't investigate the timing of potential inclement weather to try to work around it.
https://finance.yahoo.com/small-business/articles/weather-app-rain-icons-cut-213000881.html

It's easy to overlook modern conveniences which make our lives easier than our ancestors had it.  It's also nice to take a moment to appreciate how much they increase our enjoyment.
https://ordinaryabundance.com/

I'm fascinated by octopuses and how alien their intelligence is.  Their nervous system is distributed between their brain and their eight arms.  The arms are capable of operating on their own and continue to do so for some time when lost by the octopus.  Understanding more about them might help us when and if we meet aliens from other worlds.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/octopus-extraterrestrial-intelligence-1.6871036

Finding out that the person who bought the domain name noreply.net is being inundated with email makes me smile and feel a bit sad that people are so clueless as to try to direct email to the domain name.
https://www.wired.com/story/sensitive-info-goes-into-no-reply-emails-constantly-this-guy-sees-it-all/

It doesn't surprise me that hobbyists are rejecting the use of AI.  I enjoy solving problems and programming is a perfect way to scratch that itch.  LLMs can be occasionally helpful but I never enjoy using them.
https://boingboing.net/2026/08/12/hobby-coders-against-llms.html

Like the author of this article, I fear that true craft of programming will be lost once everyone resorts to the use of AI.
https://www.alexkroman.com/p/the-new-craftsmanship

This combination of a black hole and a massive star looks pretty amazing.  We can thank the James Webb Space Telescope for assisting with this discovery.
https://news.mit.edu/2026/astronomers-discover-brand-new-type-astrophysical-object-black-hole-star-0812

While the winner of the DARPA Lift Challenge didn't quite hit the 4:1 ratio of payload to weight ratio required to win the full prize, it got impressively close.

https://dronexl.co/2026/08/10/darpa-lift-challenge-results-avidrone/

My stepfather died of ALS 10 years ago.  This brain-computer interface would have made his last few months much more pleasant.  For a man who had been active his entire life, being confined to a wheelchair, having to rely on others to do everything for him was hard to deal with.

https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/brain-computer-interface-enables-independent-accurate-communication-for-man-living-with-als/2026/06

Back when I was a field engineer, the oldest systems I worked on were the GE-200 series machines.  They had so little memory that when I needed to run diagnostics on a peripheral device, the computer operators were forced to give me the entire system.

https://icm.museum/blog/?p=564

One of the things which worries me is research into dangerous areas such as inverted bacteria which might be able to confuse or bypass our immune systems used to dealing with non-inverted bacteria.  I hope they're using redundant safety systems with lots of oversight.

https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-inverted-bacteria-that-experts

It's amazing to consider how much thought went into computer input devices.  Even the devices which appear simple on their surface are more complicated than they appear.

https://aresluna.org/show-your-hands-honor/#input-slow

Passing fancies #24

 

Strap yourself in and prepare to be inundated with evidence of my weird interests, much of which I discovered via my RSS feeds.

Beer

Divers just discovered a bottle of Guinness in a shipwreck which is 162 years old.  Would you try a sip?  While I'm not disappointed when visiting a restaurant where Guinness is the best beer on the menu, I don't think it ages particularly well.  I believe I'd skip the opportunity to taste it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4kx9zkd90o

I found this photo of a very cool lamp at a Sapporo location.  I'm almost always amused by decorations made from beer bottles or kegs.

Books

I follow Zach Weinersmith on Mastodon and when he described his new book, Sawyer Lee and the Quest to Just Stay Home, it sounded like a great gift for our youngest grandson so I sent him a copy.  Then I got curious from the reviews I read, so I bought the Kindle edition for myself.  It was weird and amusing which is exactly what I had been hoping.  I enjoyed another book by Zach and his wife, Kelly called A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?  It helped confirm my opinion that the plans to create a Mars colony are overly optimistic.

I also follow another author, Catherynne M. Valente, on Mastodon.  Since I've been enjoying her posts there, I had been wanting to read one of her books.  Fortunately, Audible just had a great sale featuring some of her books.  I just finished reading Comfort Me With Apples which I quite enjoyed.

And finally, I re-read A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs who is better known as the creator of Tarzan of the Apes.  I first read Burroughs' Mars books over 50 years ago.  Back then it was easy to find the original paperbacks as well as the stories serialized in pulp magazines in used bookstores.

Television/Movies

This week we watched a documentary about the Voyager spacecraft called It's Quieter in the Twilight which I found very inspiring.  Some of the people working on the project have been working on it for the better part of 50 years.  I find NASA's efforts to keep the probes going in order to further humanity's knowledge admirable. 

Links

I find the notion that a toolbox which appeared in a scene in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off might sell for a lot of money both baffling and a little sad because people's priorities are so misguided.  It's just a toolbox and not even a particularly nice looking one.
https://www.jalopnik.com/2233865/snap-on-toolbox-ferris-buellers-day-off-auction-for-sale/

This article about Kelly Slater still surfing so well at 54 made me smile.  I've found surfing fascinating since I first heard the Beach Boys singing about it when I was young.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/aug/11/kelly-slater-near-perfect-surf-tahiti-pro-monster-swell

I think it may have been on Northern Exposure that I first heard about trebuchet.  Ever since then they've been a minor obsession for me.  If you want to see more about them, search on Youtube for videos of them flinging large objects like the piano one flung on Northern Exposure.
https://hackaday.com/2026/08/09/creating-a-supersonic-trebuchet/

I had heard about cocaine being used to make early versions of Coca-Cola, but its use in wine was news to me.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/a-short-history-of-cocaine-wine-and-coca-cola-44600

This bluegrass version of the theme from the movie Jaws is actually pretty good.
https://laughingsquid.com/blugrass-jaws-theme/

I've thought Ray Harryhausen's special effects were are amazing since I first saw them as a kid.  Those stop motion skeletons were amazing!
https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/how-ray-harryhausen-conjured-the

I enjoyed reading this article about Rudy Rucker, a favorite SciFi author of mine.  It's hard to believe that I first read one of his books over 40 years ago.
https://losgatan.com/rudy-rucker-writer-mathematician-painter/

I used to enjoy taking the kids to the Maryland RenFest so I found this article interesting.  The last time I took my daughter, I found it somewhat formulaic.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-surprisingly-radical-roots-of-the-renaissance-fair-180982918/

I've read a number of books about how our brains work including a couple by Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm Computing.  Many of the books have discussed how inaccurate our senses are.  We spend our lives trusting our eyes but it turns out you can't necessarily believe what you think you've seen.
https://boingboing.net/2026/08/05/gray-apple-brain-sees-red.html

A book which Mark Twain wrote in 1898 seems to predict the Internet. at least according to this article.
https://boingboing.net/2026/08/07/mark-twain-telelectroscope.html

The term Tendril Perversion describes how the cords on land line phone used to get tangled, seemingly on their own.  I used to be obsessed with trying to undo the strange way they got messed up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendril_perversion

Passing fancies #21

 

I used to call these posts with collections of links "link dumps" but I recently found another blog which also included books and television programs which the author enjoyed and I liked that idea.  I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often.  As you might gather from these links, I find a wide array of topics interesting.

Books

In the past week or so, I finished reading Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks.  It's an homage to P. G. Wodehouse's characters Jeeves and Wooster.  It was enjoyable but it's hard to match Wodehouse's mastery of the English language so I found it a bit lacking.

I also finished Neil Gaiman's graphic novel The Sandman, Volume 5: A Game of You.   Gaiman's comics often send me researching terms or topics he includes and this book was no exception.  The only comic author I'm aware of whose works are more reference laden is Alan Moore.  This one sent me down a few rabbit holes looking up references.  For instance, I had no idea that Thomas Paine was imprisoned in a French prison for a while.

Music

Over the weekend we enjoyed another opportunity to hear a favorite local band called Felix Pickles.  They're causing me to buy more music by getting songs they cover stuck in my head.  I just bought the MP3 of Jenny Says by Cowboy Mouth because once I get an earworm, I need to listen to the song to get it out of my head.  The version from Felix Pickles was intensely interesting in its own right.

I also found a Youtube video by Red Baraat, a band I discovered while searching for bands like Hazmat Modine.  That search discovered a few interesting new bands for me but none of them were much like Hazmat Modine.  Red Baraat's music is happy music and seeing them perform it is even better.
https://youtu.be/lgmw41CY1Fo?si=HkbxMiY8MIR9q1aN

Television/Movies

We watched Project Hail Mary for the second time which was enjoyable because I always notice things in movies which I missed on the first viewing.  It was great on the big screen but watching via streaming allowed for breaks which is nice.  I'm happy to report that I liked it just as much the second time.  The book is excellent as well.

I also convinced my wife to watch Normal which stars Bob Odenkirk.  I've been enjoying his journey as an unlikely action movie star which I think started with Nobody.  Nobody is worth watching because it throws a surprising early twist at you.

I also watched Slaughterhouse-Five which surprised me by being shown on TCM for the first time recently.  I loved both the book and the movie.

Links

A few days ago I saw a post about on Bluesky about doing software estimates using LoC (lines of code) which I've always thought was absurd.  It reminded me of the comic linked below which in turn reminded me of a friend who reported his weekly status as 125% because he had exceeded the LoC estimate he had originally provided.  Management was not amused.  Often they seem to have no sense of humor.
https://www.workchronicles.com/p/comic-the-estimate-game

This article about Scrum (meetings in the Agile methodology) echoes my feelings about it being ridiculous but somehow a necessary evil.  I think it often trades careful design for quick results.
https://kasperowski.com/scrum-doesnt-matter-and-it-never-did/

I found the idea that someone was producing counterfeit BMW vehicles surprising.  It would be hard to produce cars as carefully as a German company does.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/07/11/bmw-warns-of-unauthorized-production-of-pirated-cars-in-russia-a93223 

Given how badly Facebook has managed to screw up people's timelines, it's no surprise that people are abandoning daily updates.  For me Facebook is more of an obligation to catch up with a few friends there than it is a joy these days.  I much prefer Mastodon and Bluesky where there are an abundance of interesting people and far less argumentative behavior.  Both seem to have the philosophy that it's better to block trolls than it is to interact with them.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/death-of-the-status-update-why-55-americans-stopped-posting-social-media

I was happy to catch a glimpse of Umberto Eco's large library of books.  I admire his writing and what he chose to spend some of his money on as well.  One can only imagine what it would be likely to have that much space to store the books accumulated over a lifetime.
https://www.openculture.com/2017/03/watch-umberto-eco-walk-through-his-immense-private-library.html

I've long thought that the English language could benefit from an attempt to correct its spelling and pronunciation.  What might young people learn if they weren't required to devote so much time to memorizing all the exceptions to the rules of English spelling?
https://boingboing.net/2026/07/07/why-english-spelling-looks-like-it-lost-a-bar-fight-with-history.html

People sometimes seem a bit surprised that despite having spent the better part of 50 years in the computer industry, I avoid smart appliances in our house.  After spending my days designing and writing code, I feel little need to interact with it to accomplish mundane tasks in the house.  I have friends who love to show off smart locks which can be activated by their phone.  I still recall the absurdity of a vacation spent in a rental house equipped with smart lights and ceiling fans controlled by Amazon Echo devices as well as people's attempts to interact with one ceiling fan which had no physical switch and which resisted all attempts to control it via vocal commands.  Apparently a previous owner had set up many of the smart devices and some were still tied to their account and unable to be transferred to a new account.  That's bad enough but paying for the privilege of being spied upon seems ridiculous.
https://www.engadget.com/2210745/smart-appliances-data-transmission-weekly/

The use of 3D printing to create tiles for a seawall which not only protects the coast but provides room for marine life to use as a shelter seems a brilliant use of the technology.
https://news.fiu.edu/2026/fiu-researchers-install-3d-printed-seawall-tiles-to-support-coastal-protection-and-marine-life

Hearing about a 95 year old mechanic who enjoys his job enough to continue working made me smile.  I plan on continuing to write software for my own use and amusement once I retire because I enjoy solving problems.  The reason I'll retire is because I'm tired of corporate nonsense after this long in the industry.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/old-school-tennessee-mechanic-celebrates-95th-birthday-working-at-the-shop

Three women set world records at the Lumberjack World Championships recently.  I'm fascinated by the customized chainsaws used in these type of competitions.  Some are basically a motorcycle engine with a blade attached.  This is one of the few sporting events I'll watch willingly.
https://abcnews.com/US/wireStory/3-womens-world-records-set-annual-lumberjack-world-134907345

Passing fancies #20

 

I used to call these posts with collections of links "link dumps" but I recently found another blog which also included books and television programs which the author enjoyed and I liked that idea.  I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often.  As you might gather from these links, I find a wide array of topics interesting.

Books

In the past week or so, I revisited both books in Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently series.  Their titles are Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul.  I enjoyed both books more than the later books in the Hitchhiker's Guide series which I found a bit uneven.

Music

Over the weekend we enjoyed hearing a favorite local band called Felix Pickles.  Their music always makes me happy.  I particularly enjoy their covers of Tom Petty, Black Keys, White Stripes, and Nirvana songs.  The fact that the show took place at a local brewery was nice as well.

Television/Movies

We've been watching a couple streaming series recently.  The first season of Cross, based on the Alex Cross books by James Patterson, was gripping.  Most of the episodes ended on cliffhangers which coaxed us into watching later than we usually do.

We've also been watching Apple TV's new production of Cape Fear.  It's very suspenseful but since the episodes are dropping slowly, we've been forced to postpone our enjoyment until the next one is available.

Links

As a long time SciFi fan, I've read a number of books about Von Neuman probes.  While the concept is fascinating, I've long wondered how realistic the actual process of replication is.  Here's a metallurgist's opinion of how difficult it would be for machines to duplicate themselves using metal mined from asteroids or other sources.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2026/07/10/a-metallurgists-doubts-about-self-replicating-probes/

The news that some types of monitors are installing Windows adware on the computers they're connected to is disturbing.  I'm guessing this is accomplished if the monitors have a USB connection to the PC since USB multifunction devices are possible which would allow the monitor to also appear as a storage device which can sometimes install software via AutoRun.  I have AutoRun disabled on all my computers.
https://www.techspot.com/news/113031-lg-alienware-monitors-caught-auto-installing-windows-adware.html

I had heard that doctors behave differently than most patients when presented with a cancer diagnosis.  I guess having knowledge of the low odds of survival and the high costs and suffering of attempting to fight the disease would make one weigh their options differently.  I think if diagnosed with some form of terminal disease with low odds of survival, I'd tend to refuse expensive and painful treatments as well.
https://archive.cancerworld.net/featured/how-doctors-die/

My favorite coding editor is Vim but I've been avoiding upgrading because the developers have been accepting AI submitted code changes.  The limited experience I've had with AI has not left me with a wholly positive view of its capabilities so I'm happy to be able to avoid it in my editor of choice.
https://jasonpolak.substack.com/p/interview-drew-devault-on-an-ai-free

It's been a while since I've heard about Hannah Montana Linux but apparently it's been updated recently.  I'm not personally a fan of ornate window managers so I'm guessing I'm not the target audience for it.
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/hannah-montana-linux-gets-modern-remaster-after-nearly-two-decades-sweet-niblets-new-v26-is-built-on-debian-with-a-re-skin-of-kde-plasma 

When I was young, I owned a 1948 Jeep for a while.  It was a very primitive vehicle which came with manual windshield wipers operated by moving a lever back and forth which operated the wiper blade. That caused funny looks each time I had to get a safety inspection.  These days I value my creature comforts too much to consider trying to assemble a replica of that old Jeep but it's nice to know it could be done if I ever got the urge.
https://www.theautopian.com/i-bet-my-company-on-an-impossible-jeep-build-then-a-miracle-happened/

Someone is creating handmade electric guitars using the valve covers from old car engines.  I imagine that metallic chamber gives an interesting resonance to the instrument.  Plus it looks so cool. 
https://www.designboom.com/design/old-car-engines-second-life-handmade-electric-guitars-vlado-plateis/

Isaac Asimov noticed the rise of willful ignorance in American society almost 50 years ago.  I fear it's only gotten worse since that time.
https://www.openculture.com/2026/07/isaac-asimov-laments-the-cult-of-ignorance.html

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is being shutdown for about 4 years for renovations which will make it better at studying the behavior of small particles.  I look forward to reading about new research done with the results when it's back online.
https://home.cern/cern-bids-farewell-to-the-lhc-and-enters-long-shutdown-3/

Passing fancies #19

 

I used to call these posts with collections of links "link dumps" but I recently found another blog which also included books and television programs which the author enjoyed and I liked that idea.  I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often.  As you might gather from these links, I find a wide array of topics interesting.

Books

This week I finished two books, both by favorite authors of mine.  The first was The Suitcase Clone by Robin Sloan who is probably best known for Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore which is my favorite of his books.  The Suitcase Clone ties in most directly to another strangely fascinating book of his called Sourdough, which is about a weirdly sentient sourdough starter.  Robin's books feature inventive blends of fantasy, technology, and food or wine.

The second book I finished this week was a graphic novel called The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman.  Like the best graphic novels, the award winning The Sandman series features lots of interesting and sometimes obscure references which makes me glad that I'm able to read them on my iPad since that makes it easy to research the many references which sometimes take me on side journeys.  It inspired a streaming series which we enjoyed watching.  Another graphic novel I love which is similarly reference-laden is Watchmen by Alan Moore.  It also inspired a movie and a streaming series, both of which I enjoyed immensely.

Music

For a while, we had a Peacock streaming account and while we did, one of the programs we enjoyed was We Are Lady Parts which is about a punk band formed of Muslim women.  It managed to be funny, touching, and thought provoking.  Somehow this week I found a link to a song performed in the show called Bashir With the Good Beard which is funny as well as catchy.

Youtube recommended a cover of the AC/DC song Thunderstruck by a band called The Rock Orchestra which was really interesting.  I still prefer the AC/DC version but sometimes covers can be enjoyable on their own.  Youtube's recommendations are sometimes eerily accurate at predicting content I might enjoy.

Television/Movies

This week we finished watching the award winning streaming series The Bear.  The final season featured so many challenges for the people working in the restaurant that we could hardly wait to see how it turned out.  The finale wrapped up things nicely.

Something I read reminded me of the movie Highlander and it turns out that my wife had never seen it so we watched it although I don't think my wife enjoyed it as much as I did.  It's an entertaining fantasy but features some questionable accents, most notably from Christopher Lambert whose French accent often shines through his intermittent attempts at a Scottish accent and Sean Connery who doesn't attempt an accent to match his character Ramirez (aka the Spaniard) much like his performance as a Russian sub commander in The Hunt for Red October.

The first episode of the third season of Silo was released on Apple TV and we enjoyed continuing the story in this very compelling series.  Silo was based on Hugh Howey's Silo book series which starts with the book Wool.  I found the books fascinating.

Links

Have you ever wondered what F1 race drivers choose for transportation when off the racetrack?  Here's a set of photos which shows some of their daily drivers.  My favorite is Landon Norris' E-Type Jaguar shown in the last picture.  I think E-type Jag's are the most beautiful sports car ever made although I prefer the hardtop to convertibles.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/heres-a-peek-at-the-f1-drivers-parking-lot-in-silverstone

The Voyager 1 space probe is nearing the impressive distance of 1 light day from Earth.  The fact that it's still operating nearly 50 years after its launch in 1977 is evidence for my belief that NASA is responsible for some of the finest engineering ever done by humans.
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/

I share the concern which the author of this blog post expresses about being overwhelmed by the tendency of smart devices to chip away at our ability to concentrate deeply.  I disable almost all notifications and avoid smart appliances in our house.  My ability to stay focused while creating system software is something I value far more than the minor conveniences offered by smart devices.
https://www.terrygodier.com/the-last-quiet-thing

I found  this article about programmers needing to meditate interesting.  The author is involved with building AI infrastructure which I believe is largely responsible for much of the stress which programmers face these days.  I'm avoiding AI wherever possible because of the toll it takes on our ability to deeply focus by getting into the flow state.  It's rare for me to be able to achieve flow state on my days in the office due to having too many distractions.  While working from home, it's much easier for me to concentrate deeply enough to hit that mystical state.
https://jacob.gold/posts/programmers-need-to-start-meditating-now/

Apparently birds in Ukraine are making use of fiber optic cables when building nests.  This is weird because while it undoubtedly creates more durable nests, it's also a sad reminder of drones being used to cause destruction.
https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2026/07/fiber-optic-materials-in-ukranian-birds.html

Here's an interesting and somewhat sad article by a travel writer who met her hero, Anthony Bourdain, and how those interactions affected her.  I feel a bit sorry for people who feel compelled to constantly search for new and exciting experiences because they seldom seem to enjoy having achieved something.
https://cailey.substack.com/p/i-wanted-to-be-anthony-bourdainuntil

The news that scientists have managed to create a living cell from scratch if nothing short of amazing.  It's also a bit disturbing since chirality can affect how molecules interact with living tissue so it may be possible to intentionally create harmful mirror molecules.
https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6157418679944799691/2587135840302117398 

I was surprised to read that honeybees choose individual routes to foraging locations.  Bees seem more complex than most people think.
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)00084-9

While I enjoyed a good argument when I was younger, I find I no longer want to waste the energy and time necessary to prove I'm right about something.  Given people's tendency to ignore documented facts and hold on to misinformation, it's not worth the effort.  It's easier to walk away from argumentative people and go do something I enjoy instead.
https://wangcong.org/2026-06-30-why-i-stopped-arguing-with-people.html

One of the best things about being near retirement is I no longer need to worry about having to endure another technical interview.  The majority of interviews I've been subjected to have been absurd and unpleasant.  A couple have been bad enough that I've extracted myself early by telling them I was no longer interested in their company.  The looks on the face of the interviewers when they realized they would be denied further opportunities to torture me were priceless.  It reminds me of the time an interviewer told me I had more experience than they expected and asked my age.  I responded that I thought it might be illegal to ask that question which turned his smug look into a worried one.
https://nelson.cloud/what-i-actually-want-to-say-in-tech-interviews/

Apparently laughter was key to humans developing the vocal control required for speech.
https://thedebrief.org/new-research-suggests-human-laughter-may-hold-a-15-million-year-old-secret/

This article about keeping historical events in perspective states that humans are really bad at doing so.  The example is that Oxford University is older than the Aztec empire which I wouldn't have thought was true.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/university-oxford-older-than-aztec-empire-other-facts-will-change-your-perspective-history-1529607/

Our ability to see things does not work the way most people believe it does.  Human eyes perform motions called saccades, rapid movements which do scanning of objects which the visual cortex helps combine into a complete picture.  I first read about this in Jeff Hawkins' books On Intelligence and A Thousand Brains, both of which are well worth reading.
https://ishan.co/no-way/

Older tech workers are retiring (voluntary or involuntary) in larger numbers than usual.  At some point, I think this might catch up with companies similar to the way Ford was forced to rehire 350 veteran engineers to help fix the problems caused by their attempt to let AI do most of the work.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/older-tech-workers-are-tapping-out-early-heres-what-that-looks-like/

link dump #10

 

I follow a lot of RSS feeds which makes it easier for me to discover interesting web pages without having to visit my list of interesting blogs which aren't updated often.  I hate to send these interesting links via email since it feels too much like a teacher giving homework... here, go read all of these web pages and report back to me.  Instead I think collecting them in a blog post is a friendlier way to pass links along.

A fair number of chefs seem to like American cheese for its ability to melt smoothly on burgers.  I'd much rather have a cheese with more flavor such as a medium sharp cheddar even though it's not as attractive when it melts.  Swiss and Blue cheese are also better choices for me than American cheese.
https://www.seriouseats.com/whats-really-in-american-cheese

One of the books I'm currently reading is Alas Babylon.  I've been on a post-apocalyptic kick lately, having recently finished Earth Abides, which like Alas Babylon, I probably hadn't read in 40 years or more. I've also enjoyed The Postman and On the Beach (my personal favorite in this sub-genre).
https://grubstreethack.wordpress.com/2019/12/07/book-review-alas-babylon/

I just read about a company called Elite Obsolete Electronics which is upgrading classic Apple iPods with modern storage devices and better batteries.  I've got a first generation iPod Classic with the click wheel which I've considered doing an upgrade like this but the fact that it has a Firewire interface raises the complexity of synchronizing music to the device.  There's  also the issue of trying to convince Apple Music to sync to such an old device.  Given those issues, I'm probably better off going with a Tangara which is a crowd funded device created with all modern technology.

It makes me sad to read about technology like Stinger missiles which we've forgotten how to produce.  I fear AI is just making this worse.  It's cool that they were able to call engineers in their 70s to come back to teach younger engineers how.  Since I'm retiring early next year, I'm hoping there's no reason that some company tries to lure me back to the workforce.  I always thought the year 2038 date problem would be the reason I'd get pressured, but it looks like there might be more reasons than that.

Drunk engineers often have good advice.  I don't agree with all of it but there are some gems in this list.
https://luminousmen.substack.com/p/drunk-post-things-ive-learned-as

I worry about young people who are losing the powers of concentration required to watch a movie or read a book.  I wonder how many people still want to watch a longer classic movie like Lawrence of Arabia (one of my favorites).
https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2026/01/attention-span-problems-viewing-movies.html

The idea of starting a country where crocs and reply-all emails are banned appeals to me in a strange sort of way,  I also like their idea of selling titles for people to boost their LinkedIn profiles.  In case you can't tell, I'm definitely not a fan of LinkedIn
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260330-slowjamastan-the-worlds-newest-nation-youve-never-heard-of

Often it's hard to people's minds but no one should have to suffer like the doctor who helped proved that washing hands could save lives.
https://boingboing.net/2026/04/07/the-doctor-who-proved-handwashing-saves-lives-was-locked-in-an-asylum-for-it.html

Even though I've got no where to put it, I kind of want this Lego Star Trek TNG Bridge.
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-256838/Menapian/star-trek-tng-enterprise-d-bridge-diorama/#details

If LED lights can damage paintings, I wonder what effect they have on people?
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2013/01/04/led_bulbs_can_damagepaintings-1-1518123/

link dump #8

 

I follow a lot of RSS feeds which makes it easier for me to discover interesting web pages without having to visit my list of interesting blogs which aren't updated often.  I hate to send these interesting links via email since it feels too much like a teacher giving homework... here, go read all of these web pages and report back to me.  Instead I think collecting them in a blog post is a friendlier way to pass links along.

Here's an interesting look at how NASA engineered a fault-tolerant computer for the Artemis II mission.  It is able to handle bit flips due to cosmic rays which apparently aren't uncommon in space travel.
https://cacm.acm.org/news/how-nasa-built-artemis-iis-fault-tolerant-computer/

I'm an avid follower of space technology and was interested to hear that a new memory device which could withstand the exceptionally high temperatures on Venus has been invented.  I wonder whether a CPU to function in such a hostile environment can be created and whether there's a way to connect them.
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-new-computer-chip-could-finally-withstand-the-hellscape-of-venus

Apparently rich techies are paying to get on a waiting list to have their brains digitized.  The process is 100% fatal.  There seems to be a ridiculous leap of faith required to take advantage of this technology.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/science/5809555/sam-altman-nectome-brain-computer/

This essay echoes many of my feelings about using Apple devices these days.  I still like their hardware but their software continues evolving in ways I don't find particularly useful and occasionally I find myself wondering what the hell they're thinking customers want.
https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2026/04/12/1330

Physicists have managed to entangle two helium atoms which has interesting possibilities.
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/quantum-physics/really-really-weird-physicists-entangle-two-moving-atoms-for-the-first-time-validating-spooky-quantum-theory

NASA has a Daily Moon Guide which might be useful.
https://science.nasa.gov/moon/daily-moon-guide/

This poll which indicates that print books still dominate American reading habits surprised me.  The convenience of e-books and e-audiobooks had made print books a last resort for me.  I only use them for books not available in electronic form.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/09/americans-still-opt-for-print-books-over-digital-or-audio-versions-few-are-in-book-clubs/ 

For a while, Scotland seemed to dominate original thinking.  It's amazing how many fields they excelled at - economics, engineering, medicine, etc.
https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-why-scotland-succeeded

I've read a number of books about the early days of hacking which included phone phreaking but I don't recall reading about a blind hacker who called himself "Joybubbles".  Apparently his exploits inspired other phone hackers.
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/joybubbles-documentary-rachael-morrison-interview

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

link dump #7

I follow a lot of RSS feeds which makes it easier for me to discover interesting web pages without having to visit my list of interesting blogs which aren't updated often.  I hate to send these interesting links via email since it feels too much like a teacher giving homework... here, go read all of these web pages and report back to me.  Instead I think collecting them in a blog post is a friendlier way to pass links along.

Given the fact that Microsoft is warning people that their CoPilot AI assistant is for entertainment purposes only and should not be trusted, this study showing people blindly trust AI results is disturbing.  I believe the results from this study since so many people fall for phishing emails which contain painfully obvious errors.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/study-do-what-chatgpt-tells-us

Speaking of absurd beliefs, apparently some people think that blood banks maintain separate supplies from donors who have never been vaccinated.  I've been donating blood for over 50 years and have seen no evidence that separate blood supplies exist.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/more-people-requesting-unvaccinated-blood-themselves-or-their-children

This article about the memory devices used in the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer) also contains detailed descriptions of other memory devices used during that time which were considered.  I remember these older technologies since I'm older than dirt.
https://2earth.github.io/website/20260304.html

I'm not surprised that repeated clonings from different generations of the same line of cloned mice has caused problems.  Entropy is a cruel mistress.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a70861443/scientists-cloned-a-mouse-for-58-generations-the-results-were-catastrophic/

Recently a magnetic tape containing source code for UNIX v4 was discovered.  I found the procedure used to extract the data from that old tape fascinating.  Stories about magnetic tape make me nostalgic for large computer rooms.  A row of tape drives constantly seeking and reading is a visual indication of a busy computer.  Tape drives were always my favorite peripheral devices to maintain.
https://irreal.org/blog/?p=13661

I'm not sure I would trust any Internet connection sufficiently to try using it to install directly from it to an SD card to boot Linux.  That being said, the technique is quite interesting.
https://astrid.tech/2026/03/24/0/curl-to-dev-sda/

Here's an account of the role which the Parkes Observatory in Australia played in monitoring the Apollo 11 mission.
https://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/apollo11/

Too often people focus on negative stereotypes of people on the autism spectrum while ignoring their creativity and other gifts.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-different/202601/what-the-world-got-wrong-about-autistic-people

It makes me happy to know that John Fogerty has regained control over his music catalog.  His songs are in many of my favorite playlists I have on my phone.  This NPR Tiny Desk Concert shows what I love about his music.
https://laughingsquid.com/john-fogerty-npr-tiny-desk/ 

link dump #6

 

I follow a lot of RSS feeds which makes it easier for me to discover interesting web pages without having to visit my list of interesting blogs which aren't updated often.  I hate to send these interesting links via email since it feels too much like a teacher giving homework... here, go read all of these web pages and report back to me.  Instead I think collecting them in a blog post is a friendlier way to pass links along.

Tracy Kidder, the author of the excellent book The Soul of a New Machine, died recently.  Here's some memories of Tracy from the daughter of one of the engineers featured in the book.  Her memories emphasize the importance of not letting work interfere with spending time with your family.
https://www.jessamyn.com/journal/2026/03/tracy-kidder-rip

I plan on re-reading The Soul of a New Machine.  A while back I had saved a link to an article with interesting notes on the book so I could access them while enjoying the book.
https://auxiliarymemory.com/2017/01/06/rereading-the-soul-of-a-new-machine-by-tracy-kidder/

Kim Stanley Robinson, author of several books about Mars, has pointed out how ridiculous the idea of emigrating to Mars is.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2520312-author-of-red-mars-calls-bullshit-on-emigrating-to-the-planet/

NASA's plans for a moonbase seem rushed to me.  I worry that they'll be sacrificing safety to meet arbitrary goals.
https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/nasa-announces-near-impossible-space-plans-including-usd20b-moon-base-and-humanitys-first-nuclear-powered-interplanetary-spacecraft

It's getting harder to get a look at the night sky which is clear of satellites. That's sad since seeing stars is one of many reasons I enjoy living in a more rural area.
https://petapixel.com/2026/03/21/as-spacex-launches-its-10000th-satellite-a-photographer-captures-the-impact-on-the-night-sky/

CERN has succeeded in transporting antimatter particles in a containment trap.  This allows them to distribute samples for experimentation at other laboratories.
https://home.cern/news/press-release/experiments/base-experiment-cern-succeeds-transporting-antimatter

Scientists have byproducts of bourbon production into super capacitors, probably extra tasty super capacitors.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/03/how-chemists-turned-bourbon-waste-into-super-capacitors/

There's evidence that Romans used a weapon similar to a machine gun 2000 years ago.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a70698814/archeologists-uncovered-evidence-of-a-2000-year-old-machine-gunand-the-damage-it-did/

Stephen Colbert and his son are developing a new Lord of the Rings film.  This article also mentions Andy Serkis' project, The Hunt for Gollum, which I haven't heard about in a while.
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-movie-stephen-colbert-warner-bros-1236698684/

Recently I read about a documentary about Lowell George of Little Feat fame.  It's available to watch free on Youtube at the link below and I enjoyed watching it yesterday.  I hadn't realized that Lowell collaborated with Frank Zappa.  I had also never noticed that he used a Craftsman 11/16" spark plug socket as the slide for his guitar.  Apparently his reasoning was that it would be easy to replace if it ever got lost while it might be hard to find the same type of bottle had he used if he used a bottle neck as many musicians who play a slide guitar do.
https://youtu.be/VZ8EKw46Ce8?si=TESumuPdWsGPj-f3

link dump #3

I follow a lot of RSS feeds which makes it easier for me to discover interesting web pages without visiting a lot of favorite blogs which haven't been updated.  I hate to send these interesting links via email since it feels too much like a teacher giving homework... here, go read all of these web pages and report back to me.  Instead collecting them in a blog post seems like a friendlier way to pass links along.

Nathan Fillion has been dropping hints lately which make are making fans suspect that some type of Firefly sequel might be in the works.  If I had the power to bring back a single show, it would definitely be Firefly.
https://www.ign.com/articles/nathan-fillion-is-getting-firefly-fans-all-sorts-of-excited-over-20-years-after-the-show-was-canceled 

I find a lot of anti-AI sentiment among techies and artistic types in various places.  I've lost the link, but I recently saw a CTO complaining that he got the axe because his company was replacing some executives with AI.  There's a company I definitely wouldn't want to work for or to reply upon as a customer.  I'm lucky because I'm very close to retirement with more than enough work to keep me busy until I pull the ripcord.  I feel sorry for younger engineers who have to deal with the instability AI is causing.
https://www.scottsmitelli.com/articles/you-dont-have-to/

NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) just managed to nudge a binary asteroid system.  There may be hope if we manage to detect a killer asteroid early enough to launch a mission.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/03/nasas-dart-mission-shifted-the-orbits-of-two-asteroids/

The news that younger males are clinging harder to outdated gender roles than older generations do depresses me.  One can only hope that they alienate partners before managing to reproduce.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/05/gen-z-men-baby-boomers-wives-should-obey-husbands

Videos of launching small cars via trebuchet are entertaining but I really wish they has stuck to launching Yugos or other worthless cars.  A classic Austin Mini seems too valuable to waste this way.
https://www.jalopnik.com/2117130/watch-cars-launched-by-trebuchet/

link dump #1

I follow a lot of RSS feeds which allows me to find a lot of interesting web pages.  I hate to send them via email since it feels too much like a teacher giving homework... here, go read all of these web pages and report back to me.  Instead collecting them in a blog post seems like a friendlier way to pass links along.

I'm fascinated by miniatures so I find these very realistic RC trucks very cool.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/custom-rc-shop-recreates-real-life-work-trucks-that-are-fully-functional-just-mini

Speaking of miniatures, these models of classic computers remind me of my days as a field engineer in mainframe and mini computer data centers.
https://www.miniatua.com/work/ibm1401/ 

Someone took the time to recreate the Top Gear studio using Lego.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/someone-recreated-the-top-gear-studio-in-lego-and-so-can-you 

Did you ever wonder where the expression 'peanut gallery came from?  It's older than I thought.
https://theconversation.com/the-complicated-origin-of-the-expression-peanut-gallery-148897 

This sliderule simulator teaches you how to use one for calculations.  I should use it remember how to use one of my small sliderule collection. 
https://hackaday.com/2026/02/18/sliderule-simulator-teaches-you-how-to-do-calculations-the-old-fashioned-way/

Memories of a very dear friend

It's been a week since we got the sad news that a dear friend of ours had passed away unexpectedly.  Since that time, David has been in my thoughts a lot.  Because I had the pleasure of working with David at 5 different companies for a total of 16 years and had also enjoyed his company after work on a regular basis, I know a number of his work friends.  I tried to help share the news of David's passing.  One of our friends responded by commenting how well David and I had clicked which made me smile.

I met David in 1990 when I left a contracting position at the Washington Navy Yard for a job with Sprint International which created equipment for Sprint's packet switching network.  My boss at Sprint was a Brit I had previously worked with at GEISCO.  My boss was a firm believer in getting out of the office at lunch and arranged regular outings to various ethnic restaurants in the area, something he had also previously done at GE.  I think it was at one of those lunches where I first met David.  As we chatted, it became obvious that we had similar tastes in books and movies.  We started eating lunch together on a regular basis.  My boss was also keen on regular after work happy hours, which occasionally involved playing darts.  David and I enjoyed many of those gatherings, sometimes playing darts.

Initially at Sprint, David and I were working on different types of PADs (packet assembler/disassembler) network nodes at Sprint.  I was working on a QLLC PAD which enabled IBM equipment to connect over Sprint's X.25 network.  David worked on more traditional PADs until Sprint started developing Frame Relay, which was a hot new network technology at the time.  Frame Relay was the perfect place for David as he picked up new technologies so easily.

After a couple years, I transferred to Sprint's Operating System group which gave David and I more chances to work together.  I enjoyed that opportunity since I discovered that he and I had compatible troubleshooting approaches.  I believe that came from both of us having started out working on computer hardware, him designing it and me repairing it.  

David and I enjoyed getting together outside of work which continued after I left Sprint in 1994.  It was at one of the after work gatherings that I remember us arguing over the actor's name who had uttered a line in the movie "Cool Hand Luke".  Fortunately, there was a movie store next to the restaurant where we were.  David and I left happy hour for a few minutes so we could consult the movie guides next door to settle the argument.  Other people at happy hour laughed at us for needing to prove our geek cred that way.  That's just one of many little happy moments with David that make me smile when I remember them.

The next time we worked together was in 2000.  At the time, David was working for a startup company which was developed financial problems, as many small startup companies do.  I was happy to help him get a job at 3Com where I was working at the time.  I was developing firmware for a number of ADSL modems while David was helping the ADSL architecture group.  This was another ideal position for David since network architecture requires expertise in so many different areas and David was always eager for opportunities to learn new technologies.  3Com was challenging since the schedules were incredibly aggressive.  That was because the group we were part of sold hardware to consumers which is a rapidly changing environment.

Later in 2000, David and I were both contacted by someone we both worked with back at Sprint who had taken a management position at a new optical networking startup company called Ocular Networks.  We both took the plunge and joined within a month of each other.  Ocular gave us the chance to work closely together on a regular basis.  David initially worked on a DS1 board while I worked on a DS3 board.  These boards provided electrical network interfaces which could be concentrated over the fiber optic network cables.  Like many early stage startups, Ocular required that we work 60-70 hour weeks for the first couple of years.  Fortunately things slowed down a bit after Ocular was purchased by Tellabs.  Tellabs moved our office from Reston to Ashburn.  It wasn't long until we discovered that our new office was very close to the Old Dominion brewpub which became a favorite place for after work gatherings.

The group of engineers I had met at Ocular, many of whom I had worked with at other companies, were so nice that shortly before I left Ocular in 2004, I organized an e-mail list to make it easier to organize regular get togethers as people left for new companies.  I often think how ironic it is that someone as naturally introverted as I am ended up in the role of organizer for activities outside of work.  That's due in large part to David and a few others like him who I couldn't bear the thought of losing contact with.

After Ocular, I took a position at AOL in the e-mail server group.  David also moved to AOL shortly after that and we found a way to work together again.  Unfortunately, the group we were with disbanded before too long and despite being moved to another group together, we both ended up leaving AOL.

For the next 10 years or so, we only saw each other for lunch or for an after work happy hour but fortunately those meetings were regular enough so we didn't lose contact.

In 2015, David joined a company called FourthWall Media, where I had been working for 5 years.  We got to spend another 5 years working together before a shift in company direction resulted in both of us getting laid off.  FourthWall was fond of company outings and I have happy memories of baseball games and visits to Top Golf to unwind.

The pandemic limited our in-person get togethers for a while but since I hated the thought of losing touch with David and a few others, I started a weekly video chat call on Skype which has been something we all looked forward to each week.

Over the 35 years I've known him, David has been someone whose company I have enjoyed and whose opinions I have valued.  He was an absolute joy to work with since he's very knowledgeable and extremely easy to work with.  We've shared recommendations for books, movies, music, and beer.  In the week since I learned of his passing, I've encountered a number of things which I wanted to share with him only to remember that he's no longer available.  He will be missed more than words can express.

Here's a picture of David and me at the Lost Rhino Oktoberfest in September, 2023.  I'm at the front left and David was directly across from me, looking at his phone.  This photo makes me smile because we spent part of the day trying to answer trivia questions posed by the musician who was playing.  We were up to our old geeky tricks that day.

Experience versus enthusiasm

We live in a somewhat rural area which means we have a well as there's no municipal water supply available.  Last week we discovered that we had no water pressure.  Since our house is 24 years old and supposedly well pumps seem to have an average lifetime about 20 years, this was an inconvenience but not a huge surprise.

What I found interesting was observing what it took to get the problem resolved.  The plumbing company we called did an excellent job.  They had a young plumber out to diagnose our problem within 4 hours of us reporting the problem.  The plumber they sent was very nice and extremely diligent.  Since he dealt mostly with houses on the eastern and more suburban portion of our county, he wasn't familiar with wells.  However he was able to get advice on how to troubleshoot the problem from more experienced plumbers at his company and after 3 hours, he determined that our well pump had finally died. 

The next day he returned early with a more experienced plumber (one closer to my age) who was familiar with wells and rural water supply equipment.  The two of them worked hard to replace our well pump in very cold temperatures (15-20°F).  During the times they came into the house, I had a few chances to chat with the more experienced plumber and found him to be not only very knowledgeable but also a really nice guy.

It struck me after they had left that the older plumber and I have found ourselves in somewhat similar situations.  I'm one of the two oldest engineers on our team at work and I'm definitely the oldest who still works full time.  I work on things that the younger engineers don't have experience with such as firmware, device drivers, and operating systems.  From time to time, the need to deal with old technology such as a serial port crops up and I'm happy to do it because it brings back memories of a simpler time.  I also seem to get all the core dumps to analyze which I find to be challenging puzzles.  Who needs brain teasers like Wordle when I can spend hours solving a crash?

I guess the lesson to be learned it that it's useful to have engineers of varying degrees of experience on a team as learning from people who have been around some type technology longer is more efficient than younger techs having to learn everything on their own.

Antisocial with a reason

I'm sure people have noticed that I've been much less social since the start of the pandemic.  That's in large part due to the fact that my wife has autoimmune issues which put her at increased risk from viruses such as Covid-19.  To limit the likelihood of her getting infected, we both mask up whenever we're inside in public spaces.  While this is acceptable for quick shopping trips, it doesn't work well for meeting friends in restaurants or at parties unless there's an option for outdoor dining.

The need for outdoor dining has limited when it's feasible to meet people to times of the year which offer reasonable temperatures to brave the patio.  Those times happen to coincide with when I've got 5+ hours of weekly yard work to complete.  The need for dry weather while mowing can make it difficult to find a mutually agreeable time to meet.  Sadly, patios tend to fill up during prime dining hours.

It may come as a surprise to people that some of us need to be careful because the media offers so little coverage of Covid-19 these days.  The common wisdom seems to be that Covid-19 is no more dangerous than the flu which is definitely not true.  It's easy with an Internet search to find wastewater data which helps track infections through monitoring of sewage treatment (see link below).  Sadly this doesn't always paint a completely accurate picture of infection levels in more rural areas such as ours where municipal water and sewer service are not available so we're forced to infer using the data from surrounding areas.

https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-currentlevels.html

My wife and I both miss seeing friends as often.  We also miss live music and dining out.  Hopefully we'll be able to eventually return to doing the things we enjoy without the need to be so cautious.

We lost another dog to cancer

About a month after we lost our dog Bandit to osteosarcoma in March, we adopted a sweet female pit bull mix named Greta.  The jump from an 84 pound Lab, Shepherd, Husky, Pit mix who was strong enough to be considered a force of nature to a 49 pound pit bull mix made Greta seem petite.

Her happy personality was on display from the moment we picked her from the animal shelter.  She happily cuddled in my wife's lap for the 30 minute ride home.

She had had a rough early life, having been bred at least twice by the age of 2, followed by being abandoned in a fenced outdoor holding pen at a shelter in West Virginia.  Luckily for Greta and for us, she was transferred to the Loudoun County Animal Shelter which is where my wife discovered her.

Despite having shorter legs than Bandit did, Greta loved accompanying my wife on 2-3 mile walks once or twice a day.  She found people much more interesting than other dogs or toys and had a number of friends in the neighborhood.

Bandit had always wanted to be a lap dog but Greta was actually small enough for that to be a regular occurrence.  It's hard to tell whether she enjoyed it more or whether we did.  She was extremely affectionate.

 

In early September, we noticed some swelling on her neck, so my wife took her to the vet.  To the vet's surprise, it was not an infection but instead turned out to be lymphoma and a fairly advanced stage at that.  Apparently that's rare in a dog so young.  She was prescribed steroids which did a wonderful if somewhat temporary job of reducing the swelling.  It was lovely having an extra 6 weeks of time with her where she was relatively symptom free.

Unfortunately once the final dose was done, her swelling came back with a vengeance.  It quickly advanced from being an uncomfortable nuisance for her to starting to obstruct her breathing.  I'll never forget the look in her eyes which seemed to question why this was happening to her.

She was sweet and loving to the end, despite all she was going through.  We'll always miss her even though she was only with us for 7 short months.