June 2026

Misc > What Was Up

Doings
- I sewed a button back onto my shorts. Huge news, I know. First time doing this. Needle and thread. Followed youtube vids.
- I went on a Foraging tour with Wildman Steve Brill - foraged (and ate) plants in Central Park. Great experience! I'm excited to become more confident on identifying the plants we saw.
- I've finally gone back to the sketch I made in January for Pools (2025)#Paint a picture and have started painting it (still in progress).
- Finally got my record player set up. I already had the record player but no amp/speakers for it. I bought "ART DJPREII Phono Preamplifier" from Amazon and then took some old computer speakers which my dad had lying around. I've had the record player itself for almost a year -- it was a curbside find from my parents' neighborhood. Now I can actually play records on it!
- I'm building back up some dream recall, which is why I've been making some recent notes about dreams.
Blogs / videos / podcasts
- Hank Green - "What is 'Slop' (and why it gives me hope)" - The 'hope' part is that as low-effort AI generated content becomes easier to make and thus there is more of it (this is the "slop"), real human effort will become the more scarce thing and thus people will appreciate the value of human effort more.
- Podcast: Skeptics Guide to the Universe#Episode 1087
- I found a blog called "Escaping Flatland", specifically because of this dating advice article which is resonating strongly with me, but I think I'm also going to enjoy many of the other blog posts/topics.
Theater
- Saw a production of the play Uncle Vanya (first time seeing it) by the Hudson Classical Theater Company. They perform in a park. Nice to be outside although it is a low budget production.
- Saw a free production of Shakespear's Tragedy of Julius Caesar performed by NY Classical in Central Park. It was very well done, and an enjoyable show! It was semi-immersive because they had us walk+settle to different (near) locations in the park for different scenes of the performance. Similar to Into the Woods Immersive Performance (though the ITW experience was much more epic in my opinion).
Music
- Loving the song "Each Time I Die" by Bones & Beaker. (Title sounds morbid but it's more reincarnation-esque.) The rest of their album doesn't really resonate with me though.
- I saw Larry and His Flask live! Larry and His Flask#June 2026 Concert
- Saw Streetlight Manifesto live at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park! Really fun concert (it's my fifth time seeing them live). They were opened by a band called Whilhelm Screem, and then The Aquabats!. Aquabats was really fun (I had listened to some of their songs in the past).
- Right after I coded up a quick little project, Oh My Rockness Genre Enrichment, I used it and went to see some live music by two bands called Um, Jennifer? and Dune Blue.