Oct 25, 2025

A short rooting guide

Let’s say there’s a game or sporting event going on and you don’t really have a dog in the fight, so to speak. Your favorite team or player is nowhere to be found yet you want to be involved and cheer for someone. But, you’re just not sure who deserves your support. Here’s a short guide to help you figure out who to get behind.

Before we start please take a quick pause and realize how lucky you are to be blessed with this situation. You’re able to sit back and enjoy a contest without any emotional involvement. You won’t experience the heartbreak of watching the team you’ve supported your whole life lose in a crushing defeat. Sure, you also won’t experience the thrill of watching them win a playoff game or championship. But let’s be honest – the chances of that happening are probably quite small, which is why you’re here trying to figure out who to cheer for during the World Series or NFL wildcard game.

Let’s get started. Go through the short questions below, pick your team, and then enjoy the game!

Is one of the teams or players from Canada? If so, go for them.
Does one of the teams or players have any association or history supporting Donald Trump? If so, pick the other team.
If neither team or player is from Candada or there’s a tie between supporting/not supporting Trump (and his ilk), then ask if either is from California? If so, pick them as California is pretty great.
If none of the above applies or is helpful go to the tie-breaker, which is simply to pick the team with the best colors and/or uniform design.

I applied this formula during this year’s MLB playoffs and settled on the Toronto Blue Jays, which I’m very happy with since they’ve advanced to the World Series. And even though they’re playing a team based in California, the choice was easy to continue supporting them. I mean, look at that logo!

blue_jays_logo Swoon

blue_jays_powder_blue Powder Blue?! Now you’re just showing off.

trump_dodgers Removing any doubts

Oct 24, 2025

ChatGPT

I came across this gem the other day on Reddit:

chatgpt_style

I’ve seen a lot of people claim that frequent use of em dashes is a telltale sign something has been authored by ChatGPT. For as long as I can remember – probably since college – I’ve used em dashes a lot in almost everything I write. If you scan the stuff I’ve written on this site I’m sure you’ll find them littered throughout.

So not only do I need to worry about AI replacing a majority of white-collar workers, which will cause massive unemplyment and crash the economy because no one will have any money to buy things. Which, in turn, will crash the stock market since the companies currently spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI “initiatives” won’t see any profitable return on their investment because, well, there aren’t any humans to buy stuff. Which means all our savings and investments will be worth pennies on the dollar.

The only way out of this mess will be some sort of Universal Basic Income, which would allow the humans replaced by AI to keep living. But Republicans, who basically control the government at this point, can’t even agree that asbestos is bad, clean air is good, and Nazis are bad. How on earth are we going to ever pass legislation as contentious as UBI? But maybe none of this will even matter if AI powered super-soldiers get loose or AI-controlled weapons go off-script and start “learning.”

So in addition to all these AI-induced worries you’re telling me that now I have to worry people will think everything I write has been generated by some type of AI service? What kind of hellscape is this?

Oct 01, 2025

IDLES

I’ve been on an IDLES kick lately, completely obsessed with them. They feel like the band we need at this time.

IDLES - Dancer live

IDLES - Gift Horse live

Sep 16, 2025

Wolf Parade

So good.

Wolf Parade - I'll Believe in Anything

Sep 08, 2025

Switzerland

It’s our 25th wedding anniversary this year so to celebrate we wanted to go on a big trip that involved an airplane and a passport. Late last year we settled on Switzerland, which seemed to check all the boxes for us. Big mountains, lakes, hiking – basically an amazing place with lots of natural beauty. Another huge bonus was the fact that we could do the entire trip without relying on an automobile, which is something I’m always interested in.

We flew into Zurich and then went right to Lucerne and spent a few days exploring the city, doing some mountain excursions in the area, and taking a boat trip on Lake Lucerne. Lucerne was probably the biggest surprise of the trip. I was expecting a sleepy little town, but instead found a pretty bustling urban center that was very cool. We both really enjoyed both the city and all of the mountains in the surrounding area.

After Lucerne we went to the Bernese Oberland area for a few days, staying at both Grindelwald and Wengen. We did some amazing mountain excursions and hiking as well as a nice boat trip to Brienz. Wengen had a really cool vibe. It’s car-free and nestled at the foot of the Jungfrau. It’s very quiet and peaceful and was something different from the busier, but still amazing, Grindelwald.

We left Wengen and headed south to Zermatt for a couple days. We were lucky enough to have a really great weather where we could explore the mountains and capture some amazing views of the Matterhorn. Zermatt is also car-free, but was quite busy. There were lots of people there hiking and doing mountain adventures so it had a great energy around the city. It seems like the entire town is made up of hotels, restaurants, and shops so it feels like one huge resort.

We took the Glacier Express train from Zermatt to St. Moritz, which was a neat experience. We got to see so many different areas of the country on the eight hour ride. We got off that train at St. Moritz and made our way back to Zurich. We spent a night there and flew out the next day.

I had such an amazing time and think it was one of the top trips we’ve done. I loved every place we visited and had so much fun navigating around the country using the Swiss public transportation system. The places we went and the views we saw were some of the most stunning I’ve ever seen in my life. The Alps are magical. Many of the places we visited literally took my breath away and I was just in awe of how big and grand the views were. Seriously hard to describe how great it is. I was fully expecting most of the hillsides to be brown since it was basically fall, but that wasn’t the case at all. Everything was lush green and the forests we walked through were like rain forests in many places.

I love being in places that feel “international” and Switzerland definitely made that impression on me. I’m guessing that’s mostly due to it being a really popular European tourist destination and is probably something you’d experience in other touristy areas in Europe. Still, I loved seeing all of the different people and hearing all of the different spoken languages as you walked down the street or just paid attention on the bus or train.

I’m really proud that we were able to put together a trip from scratch and it worked out. Better than worked out, I guess. It was amazing. There were a couple points early in the planning where we were overwhelmed and were like, “Let’s just go on a tour.” But we didn’t. We did the research and put together something we thought would be great and it was.

All in all, I’m just so thankful that we were able to take such an awesome trip. We’re celebrating our 50 year birthdays as well as our 25th wedding anniversary this year and I feel like the trip was a special one that matched a big year in our lives. I think it will also give us the confidence to plan more international travel in the years to come.

I’ve got a zillion photos and videos from the trip so it’s difficult to pick just a few. But here’s an attempt to capture some of what we saw.

switzerland_01 View up at the summit of Fronalpstock (accessible via chairlift from Stoos)