No excuses, I’ve been pretty bad at updating over the last few months. Here’s an Autumn Edition of the Weekly Bump, and maybe it should be call Seasonal Bump but I’m stubborn.

I continue to mend from the spinal surgery I had in May. I’ve now been cleared to do whatever I want, but some days, it still hurts. I’m slowly adding things like rowing and pushups to my routine.

I voted Monday. Please vote. 🇺🇸

Some things I’ve been enjoying.

Loving my new iPhone 16 Pro. I went down a size from the Max to the regular sized pro phone this year, and so far I like it. I was using the Apple Silicon case but now have settled on this Native Union case. This case has a nice tactile feel, and the angle of the cutouts for the Camera Control is pleasing and very usable.

This autumnal candle is both inexpensive and enjoyable. I have burned it so much that it’s almost gone.

This Lake Como video is a place of peace playing over my desk here in Decatur. I do mute the music, sometimes.

We attended Landlocked this weekend, I think our third year in a row. Tickets sold out in less than an hour. Oysters were eaten, a spicy tostada from Gene’s was spicy, and many boat drinks and beers were enjoyed. Great to be able to support Oyster South while having so much fun.

Week 30 felt like it went by way too fast. My kids' last week of Summer, as they go back to school tomorrow. All four of us went to the Atlanta United Leagues' Cup game Friday night, which they lost on Penalty Kicks. While it was a good time because all four of us were there, it's been a rough season to be an Atlanta United fan. After seven years, since their first season, of having season tickets, I think I might be canceling for next season, because they raised the price again. We haven't been having as much fun at the games as we used to. I'm still waffling though.

This week's media consumption has been Olympics, Olympics, Olympics. I really enjoyed watching the Opening Ceremony live, and am really glad I have nothing to do with LA 2028 because that thing would be a hard act to follow. There are currently three TV's in our house streaming different sports. I am, of course, watching the surfing from Tahiti, which is once of the coolest venues on our tour. My older son has been fencing for years, and this is one of the very few opportunities to watch that sport at its highest level. The whole family has been watching those events.

Watching the USA basketball teams is, for me, just so much fun. I'm excited for another week of this. The huge smile on Kevin Durant's face during their game against Serbia brought a smile to mine, too.

I really enjoyed this Atlanta Michelin Eats Video from a YouTuber who I wasn't previously familiar with, Mike Chen. A few of my favorite spots were featured in this video, like Fred's Meat & Bread, Arepa Mia and Food Terminal. It still had some that I haven't tried, and those have been added to me to do list. There's something fun about watching travel and food videos about the town you live in.

I finished four books this week.

After really enjoying my read of Moonbound last week, I managed to find Sourdough by Robin Sloan on Libby and it was available! This one was a quick read, delightful as well, and I will read his other book as soon as the queue comes up. This book made me want colder weather so I could enjoy a nice bowl of soup and a piece of sourdough.

I continue to plow through all of Erik Larson's books, this week it was The Demon of Unrest. This one is mostly about the start of the Civil War and Fort Sumnter. It provides a real lot of details about the transition from the Buchanan administration to the Lincoln administration and the origins of secession. It's not one I would recommend unless you are really interested in that amount of information on that topic, but I really got a lot out of it.

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang had been on my Libby queue for a really long time, I think since last Summer. This book about a chef working for a billionaire in a timeline where planet's food supply has been disrupted is well crafted and worth your time, especially if you're really into food. It actually paired well in a weird way with Sourdough above, without any intention to pair them on my part.

Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Niobe Inazō reads like a guide to the chivalric traditions of Japan. I mainly read this looking for parallels to Stoic thought, and they were there. It is a very old book, and felt old.

I've been meaning for a few weeks to find one of these entries to talk about the pair of Ray-Ban | Meta Glasses that I bought and have been using. First, I don't particularly trust Facebook/Meta, and I have turned off anything even remotely creepy with these. No location services especially. I mainly use them when I go for walks, which have been much more frequent since my surgery in May. For this purpose, these things are an amazing combination of sunglasses/headphones/camera. The pictures they take are actually pretty good, the headphones are serviceable. I'm getting a fair amount of use from them. Again, not wearing these anywhere where taking pictures would be creepy.

This post spans two weeks, partly because one of those weeks was a very busy work trip, and the second of those weeks was a vacation. Here we are in the 30th week of the year, wow.

I had the fun, and stress, of taking my first work trip, to Los Angeles, since my spinal surgery in May.  One day in our new office in El Segundo, and two days in Santa Monica. Some pretty intensive meetings, and lots of interesting conversation. Overall, it went well, but I learned that I do have some physical limitations, and sitting in a hard chair for 6-8 hours a day in a meeting ended up causing some soreness. The flights, at least, went by without any issues.

I landed back in Atlanta, via a red-eye, to drive with my family from Atlanta to a beach house we rented for the week down in 30A in Florida.  I then had a week that was mostly off, going to the beach with my family each day. Reading on the beach while listening to music is one of my happiest places.  The beaches down there are some of the nicest in the US. We also always make time to head to Seaside for a day of walking around in the shops, and browsing the stacks at Sun Dog one of my absolute favorite book stores. We also send some postcards from the cute post office there.

I finished Moonbound by Robin Sloan. I’ve always been a sucker for Aurthurian fiction and this inventive and interesting science fiction take on that classic tale was no exception. I hadn't previously read anything by Robin Sloan. I am going to read his other two books, I added them to my Libby queue as soon as I finished this one.  Recommended.

I also finished Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami, who is one of my favorite authors. This one reads like a career autobiography, with many interesting notes on his perception of his progression as an author. I found a lot to be inspired by while reading this one on the beach and away from work.

I also finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. This "Lady Astronaut" novel is an alternate history of the US where a major disaster has altered the course of history and space exploration. Lots of social commentary, as the book happens in the 50's and 60's, and I really enjoyed it.

I read using my Boox Palma the entire week I was on the road for work and at the beach. It's a great device for both travel and at the beach. My daily carry beach bag for the Palma, my iPhone 15 Pro Max, wallet etc. is the Channel Sacoche in Black from Makr. It is the perfect size for everything without being too big. They don't have any made right now, but said they would be making more soon. They aren't cheap, but are really high quality.

One very recommended gadget that we use at the beach is our Ultimate Ears - WONDERBOOM 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker (I'm linking to the 4 because they don't have a page on their site with the 2 any longer.) I bought this speaker on clearance from Best Buy in 2020, and we use it all the time, it has held up really well and sounds great. I have it attached to a HeroClip to make it easy to hang from the umbrella or chairs.

With the holiday, and how overwhelmed I have been returning to work during our busiest season, I decided to combine two weeks of updates into a single post. For those in the States, hope you have a great 4th of July weekend.

I've had a pretty great, but stressful, couple of weeks. I continue to be able to do more and more post-surgery, and went to the gym a couple of times this week. I'm mostly still just walking, but am starting to work on my mobility and doing some band and body weight strength stuff. Some really sore days.

Last Saturday, we went to an Atlanta United game (We have season tickets.) for the first time since before my spinal surgery. Unlike pre-surgery, I was able to stand for the whole game. The game ended in a pretty amazing play that's worth watching if you haven't seen it. I've never seen anything like it.

I finished "There Is No Antimemetics Division" by qntm. I found this science fiction book to be quite a mind expander, very inventive, has a certain modern-Lovecraft vibe to it too. Highly recommend. You can find more information on qntm's site. I'm going to be reading everything else by him.

I also finished "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larsen, the second book of his I've read in a few weeks. This one was great, a lot about the time period, German U-boats, the beginning of WWI and the US's entrance into the conflict. I really didn't know much about the Lusitania going in, so I soaked up a lot of new information. This won't be the last Erik Larsen book I will be reading this year.

I watched this Salt Hank video about making Anthony Bourdain's favorite sandwich, which led me to make this sandwich, and now it's one of my favorites, too. I've made it a couple of times, and I have to say that it will be a permanent part of my lunch rotation moving forward. I wish I had known to go and try it where he discovered it in São Paulo. I was there two years ago.

We finished watching The Bear: Season Three. I wish there was more that I hadn't watched yet, but that's all there is for now. I couldn't be more enthusiastic about this show. The music selection and how the music is folded into the episodes is just so good. Here's an unofficial Spotify Playlist. Finally, watching episode six, the "Napkins" episode, I was struck by how it is, in part, an homage to Groundhog Day, one of my all time favorite movies. (If you're familiar with Groundhog Day, and you watch this episode, you'll get it.)

Having this device has made me realize how frustrated I am with the lack of any kind of innovation with the Kindles in recent years. I do love my Paperwhite, but there's so much more that Amazon could be doing. More competition in this market is great, and I hope the press that the Palma is getting turns into more readers.

This week has been a lot, trying to balance my health restrictions due to my spinal surgery recovery with a ramping up work schedule and still also digesting as much WWDC content, both from Apple and from third parties, as I can. I've struggled with my energy level, but generally feel good. I go back for some x-rays and to see my surgeon this week, hoping for a good progress report, and some lifted restrictions.

This week, I finished Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Many of you will have heard this title because of the Netflix show. I will admit that I have not finished the Netflix show, but I had started it before deciding to read the book. The book holds much of the same plot arc, but largely occurs in China with Chinese characters. I really enjoyed the book, and will definitely now finish the show. I also plan on reading the second book.

I also finished The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant this week. I found this book via Ryan Holiday's excellent Reading List email newsletter. I highly recommend that one, it's helped me find some really incredible books. I adored this book, which is about a true story of a Siberian Tiger attack in 1997. The book is part history, part detective story, part biology, and all captivating. I learned so much about tigers, the Russian Far East, the relationship between primates and big cats, and the on-the-ground outcomes of perestroika. Add this one to your list. It also led me to this excellent YouTube documentary.

A reminder that you can find me on goodreads. I am trying to read a little less this year, with my goal being around 75 books by year's end.

On to WWDC, I watched the Keynote and State of the Union live. I think Apple knocked it out of the (pardon the pun) park this year. My less technical friends and family seemed less excited about this keynote than others from years past, but I think the focus that Apple chose, and what they are releasing, are the perhaps the best possible options for the good of the company. Having said that, I want more foundational iPadOS improvements.

I, of course, had FOMO about not being able to attend, but my health comes first. I miss the in person format, especially with the sessions. I've watched about 15 sessions, and these pre-recorded ones just aren't as effective for me. I have the iPadOS beta installed on my iPad mini, and haven't found many rough edges so far. (The more interesting stuff that was announced isn't in the betas yet.) I did play with the new Calculator app and Math Notes with my Apple Pencil. It's really well done, but not something I can see myself using on a regular basis.

These Macintosh Wallpapers that Basic Apple Guy captured have a really nice retro touch for us old timers.

Some other stuff I watched and enjoyed this week:

I loved Marques Brownlee's visit to the iPhone testing labs.

This NYT Cooking "A Day in the Life as a Candy Factory Worker" video about the Smarties factory in New Jersey was cute, as it's part love story.

I'm in my SaveAFox Phase.

C.R.E.A.M. by OMA

My wife and I started Mr. and Mrs. Smith this week. So far, two episodes in, I am hooked and really enjoying it.

Want to say, at the end here, R.I.P. Jerry West. A man who I looked up to.

I've decided I am going to try to do something roughly in the vein of The Installer Newsletter, which I look forward to every Saturday. Many browser tabs are opened.

I've been recovering from having lumbar spinal fusion surgery over the last few weeks, and have been limited in terms of what I'm able to do. I returned to work this week, but my energy level is nowhere near as robust as it normally is, yet.

This week, I finished On Photography by Susan Sontag. She passed away 20 years ago, but many of the thoughts about the art of photography in this book endure. With the emergence of digital photography and now ai applied to photography, someone could easily write a thoughtful sequel to this book.

I also finished In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen. This non-fiction book about William E. Dodd, who was the US Ambassador to Hitler's Germany in 1933, was actually a pretty quick read. I am going to read more Erik Larsen in the short future. Lots of really interesting pre-war context in this book. Shout out to Libby for making it easy to borrow these Kindle books from our Public Library.

I watched Godzilla Minus One the moment it was up on Netflix, and have been re-consuming it in bits and pieces in my home office while doing glamorous CTO tasks like my expense report. It's excellent, not just the best Godzilla movie, but a really good movie in it's on right.

I've also been watching a lot of music on YouTube while spending my doctor mandated times on the couch here at home. Lots and lots of OMA, who do instrumental covers of hip-hop songs, this video is a good jumping off point for them, but you can't go wrong with anything on their channel. Perfect background music for your day. If you want something a tad more aggressive, this live performance by DJ Z-Trip is a classic.

I've been enjoying the new multi-column layout that Threads has released on the web. It works pretty well on iPad as well. I do wish they had lists, like vintage Twitter did, that's how I consumed so much of my Twitter content over the years.

I'm (still) playing a ton of World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria. I'm enjoying it so much that I didn't even start playing the new Destiny 2 expansion as planned this week. My gaming time is limited as I am only allowed to sit up for 30-45 minutes at a time. Still also doing Wordle and Spelling Bee almost every day too.

Super excited that SDW updated his site this week, he's one of the more inspiring folks on my radar. I subscribed.

I listened to a lot of podcasts this week, catching up on the ones I missed. The State of the Hardware 2024 Episode of Cortex is the one that had me buying a new microphone for future audio pursuits. Really enjoy all the "State of the" episodes of Cortex.

Seems like enough for this week. Hope you have a great weekend. Really looking forward to WWDC on Monday. Wish I was allowed to travel for it.

How are you? I’m doing okay given the circumstances, and I truly hope you’re doing well at this crazy moment in history. I should mention that I am currently looking for a job in digital products and you can read more about my background on my LinkedIn profile. I’m long overdue for some sporadic blog posting, so here goes, here are some things I have enjoyed lately.

Something to Read: A great TechCrunch article by Darrell Etherington about improving your at-home videoconference setup on any budget. This article goes into a lot of detail and has excellent videos inline that help along the way. Even if you think you have a great setup, worth a read.

Something to Listen To: I really enjoyed the most recent episode of Switched on Pop, an excellent podcast about pop music. This episode, Why lo-fi is the perfect background music, covers the rise and origins of lo-fi music, including J Dilla’s influence on its origins and Adult Swim’s role in its popularity. I've been listening to a lot of this style of music for a long while, this was a lot of information that I didn't know, and was very interesting to learn.

Something to Listen On: I’m loving my $20 IKEA Frekvens Portable Speaker. It’s become the speaker that I take out to the backyard to work on some project or to the front porch to listen to something while I have a beer and relax. I don’t think you can order them online, but I highly recommend if you have a means of obtaining. The sound is really good for such a little speaker, and the device was created in conjunction with Teenage Engineering. You may have heard of them because of Playdate, but I’ve wanted an OP-1 since basically forever.

Something to Snack On: I discovered Honey Mama’s, I believe, through the Random Show, which is a podcast that Tim Ferris does with Kevin Rose. In any case, these bars, and I love love love the Mayan Spice flavor, are made with honey, instead of refined sugars, cocoa, and other ingredients depending on the flavor. The Mayan Spice are a little spicy and a little chocolatey, are a nice treat. I will say that these are not cheap, and take a little while to ship if you don’t have a store near you. Worth the price and wait, in my opinion, I just had one after lunch.

Not so weekly these days.  This episode is very focused on paper goods. 

I've really been digging the slim and tall format of these Ro-Biki Notebooks from Yamamoto Paper. I've adopted them for my Bullet Journal, and the format seems to be perfect for my simple adaptation of the system. The paper in these notebooks is fantastic, and works well with both my beloved Signo gel ink pens and the fountain pens I am using from time to time.  I am currently using the  "Star Map" edition pictured above which is a lovely dark green color. The covers of these notebooks are a waxed stock that develops cool character as you beat it up. These aren't cheap, but are a high quality product.  They ship from Japan, so you need to be a little patient with arrival timing. 

As it's December, it's time for a new "planner plan" for 2019. This year, I am straying from the Hobonichi Techo and Hobonichi Weeks that I have been using for the last few years and giving the Jibun Techo system a try.  I bought a fairly expensive setup from one of my favorite online stationary retailers, Baum-Kuchen, that is centered on the B6 Slim format and includes a BK x The Superior Labor leather case. If you want to get an idea on how one might use this planner, here's a great article detailing some of the features of this cool planner setup with good shots of the folios and some ink tests, if that's of interest.  There are more similar stories of how people are using this planner here. I'm hopeful that I will stick with daily use of this system better this year than the last couple of years with the Hobonichis. I purposely went for something smaller to ensure that I will carry it around. The Ro-Biki notebook that I am using for the Bullet Journal fits in the case with only a small amount sticking out. 

I've also become interested in the idea of keeping a five year journal, and since I've just hit a big birthday, this year seems as good a time to really start and lean into this idea. It pairs well with my current interest in Stoicism and reflection. For this purpose, I have chosen the Hobonichi 5-Year Techo A6.  This size is currently available from Jet Pens if you don't want to order it all the way from Japan.  

Lastly, for now, I have been a fan of The James Brand for a while. I carry their Elko knife in my pocket all the time, use one of their key hooks for the daily carry of my keys, and own a couple of their other knives. So I was really interested, and immediately ordered the LTD Benton pen when it was released. A sweetener is that it comes with a limited run of 600 set of Field Notes books that match the pen. If you know me at all, you know that I had to have this pen, and those sweet sweet notebooks. I really like the super clean lines of the pen, which is a ballpoint out of the box. My only reservation on recommending this is that the click mechanism for the pen is plastic, which is not something I really expect in a pen that costs this much. Having said that, I am happily using mine. 

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done one of these. No excuses, but I’m also not putting too much pressure on myself. We went to the beach for a week, and I was at E3, which I should probably write something about.

Since it’s Summer and we went to the beach, one thing that’s been top of mind for me has been sunglasses. I’ve typically worn Ray Bans, which are $100+ a pair. Not all sunglasses look good on me, but the Wayfarer models usually look okay. Unfortunately, I have a horrible track record of scratching or losing them. At $100+ a pop, that’s shitty.  Additionally, I have an iPhone X, and actual Ray Ban Wayfarers don’t typically work with FaceID.

Enter Goodr, I discovered this brand via a professional runner who I follow on Instagram. (I follow a bunch of fitness athletes on Instagram. It’s one of my strategies for keeping myself motivated and inspired to work out myself.)

Goodr glasses are roughly Wayfarer shaped, but they only cost $25 a pair. They also, although you mileage may vary by color, work with FaceID. So I can lose or damage a pair of these, and not feel like I wasted a C Note. They also make pretty rad holiday color ways. The most recent is the “Betsy Ross” pictured above, which I purchased for my 4th of July fun.  (I’m not getting any referral credit or anything, I am just recommending these glasses because I think they are great.) 

One other item I wanted to call attention to this week is the limited availability of new Hypercritical shirts from John Siracusa.  As a long time fan of his reviews, blog, podcasts new and old, and social media, I own one of the original shirts, but was delighted that these were available, and in new colors. I went for the color pictured, but there are others. I have found that I have too many black t-shirts, and I am feeling the need to mix it up a bit more. These shirts are only available until June 29th, so better get hopping and get one if you’re going to want one.

Last but not least, the Andys are at it again. They will be conducting an XOXO Festival in Portland this year, and the registration application is currently available, through June 29th. I have attended three of the previous XOXO Festivals. All of them were great experiences, I met great people, was exposed to interesting ideas, and left inspired and refreshed. I could not recommend it more. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit into my September calendar. We’re taking the kids to Walt Disney World for a week the following week.  Hopefully I can still get some of those sweet sweet XOXO Field Notes if they make them.

See you next week?  I hope so.

Hope everyone’s had a great week.  It feels like Spring has officially sprung here in the Atlanta area. Last weekend was crazy busy, with a really enjoyable Foo Fighters show, which was the first ever concert at the newly renamed Georgia State Stadium, which used to be Turner Field.

It’s been kind of a mundane week, with the exception of moving my office at work, which always is a distraction. I had been in my existing office for almost exactly a year, and while I will miss it’s quiet corner of the world charm, the new one is more centrally located for what I’m working on. It probably took me about three days total to get comfortable with the new setup.

Each week, this post has gone a couple of days later…Now on to things I’m enjoying.

At the beginning of the year, I got a chance to try some peated bourbon for the first time, and I have to say that it’s really grown on me. It’s definitely not the first thing I reach for every time, but it’s a unique taste that I have come to enjoy. Specifically, the peated bourbon from Kings County Distillery. There’s definitely a debate about whether it still should be considered bourbon, but I honestly don’t care, it’s really good.  Two warnings, it’s not cheap, and not super easy to find.

In keyboard addiction news, these Zambumon GMK Serika Custom key caps are currently available to back on Massdrop. (That’s an affiliate link.) These look really high quality, and really nice. I already have a keyboard in mind for them. I’ve had really good luck backing key caps on Massdrop. Again, not cheap, but so nice.

Finally, I read the first two issues of Weapon H, a sort of mashup between the Hulk and the Weapon X series. I have found these really enjoyable reads, and it’s a cool idea. Can’t wait for the rest of them to come out.

What a great weekend, we didn’t do much out of the ordinary, but it was a really relaxing and constructive couple of days, with some high quality NBA Playoff games, and an Atlanta United victory mixed in. I’m continuing to take it easy, and my energy has returned, albeit slowly. I mostly played Hearthstone and Vainglory over the weekend, I want to play more PC games, but didn’t feel like shutting myself off from the family to play this weekend.

We finished our Lego Ship in a Bottle this weekend. Lots of little pieces.

A post shared by Robert Occhialini (@bump) on Apr 22, 2018 at 12:05pm PDT

I did also take my sons to the Pop’s Pancakes pop up at the Spindle on Sunday. If you have the chance to try these pancakes from my buddy Jeff, you definitely should check them out. I had the breakfast sandwich with Delia’s Chicken Sausage, and I am hooked.

A couple of Kickstarters of note that I wanted to mention. Both are fully funded.

Time is starting to wind down on the Mark One Pen from the Studio Neat guys. This pen checks all the boxes, and my friends over at the Pen Addict podcast had nothing but nice things to say about it, which is good enough for me.

The second one is the Kira Mechanical Keyboard from the Input Club. These guys really know how to put together a nice board, and I currently have and use a White Fox at home.  This board is unique in that it’s the smallest footprint you can squeeze a full sized keyboard into. It’s a bit pricey, but compared to similar keyboards, it’s a good price for the high quality they produce.

Some things I am enjoying.

Picked up a Schon DSGN Limited Edition “Punk Rock Pink” pen a couple of weeks ago, and it’s become my EDC pocket pen. I’ve always like the Fischer Space Pen refill, and this colorway is striking. This color is sold out, but they have a lot of other combinations that are equally as nice.

Upgraded my computer audio monitors to these Mackie Monitors. (Amazon affiliate link) I had been using the same Bose setup for maybe ten years before this. These speakers also support Bluetooth, so I can pipe other audio to them when I am not using my gaming PC. They sound great, and are small enough that I didn’t really have to make any huge changes. I am running out of plugs to power things in my home office.

Finally, I ran my Twitter account through Watson after reading this Kottke post about Watson Personality Insights.

Here’s what came back for me:

You are skeptical.

You are authority-challenging: you prefer to challenge authority and traditional values to help bring about positive changes. You are dutiful: you take rules and obligations seriously, even when they're inconvenient. And you are hedonistic: you feel your desires strongly and are easily tempted by them.

You are motivated to seek out experiences that provide a strong feeling of organization.

You don't find either tradition or taking pleasure in life to be particularly motivating for you. You care more about making your own path than following what others have done. And you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment.

Still processing that.

I’d aimed to have this done on Monday, but my energy levels have been all over the place the last few days, and I just never got to it. Small subtext is that I had a medical situation a couple of weeks ago, and am recovering from it, but slowly. The energy levels are really the last thing to get back to normal when you don’t eat for a few days. I won’t get more specific than that, I’m reluctant to post medical related information on the internet or social media.

Like most of the gaming world, I’ve really been enjoying Fortnite this week and for the last month or so. For those who aren’t gaming adjacent, it’s a “Battle Royale” style game that has skyrocketed in popularity. The game is available across a wide variety of platforms, but I play on PC. I am “bumpish” should you want to friend and play with me, but don’t set your expectations too high on what my level of skill might be. I’d love to play with you in any case. I’m only on a few times a week, and for a brief time, I don’t get much dedicated PC gaming in these days with family duties.

I’m also enjoying the rollover to the Year of the Raven in Hearthstone, which happened this week with the release of the Witchwood expansion. I exalt in the end of the mill deck era. There is one card, Shudderwock, which is totally broken and makes things less fun than they could be. Here’s a great video from Disguised Toast that elaborates on how broken, at least the animations, if not the whole mechanic are.

I did go to the Atlanta Pen Show for a couple of hours until I ran out of gas.  My new purchases were an “Aiken” pen from Carolina Pen Company, which is colored to look like the Northern Lights using the same material as this pen, and a Seed A5 case from my friends at Nock.

I did also buy some Gigante Note Cards from Nock while I had the chance in person. These folded over notecards are a favorite of mine, and I keep a couple in my pocket sheath with me all the time. They are essentially the smallest available notebook, with only 4 pages.

Top of mind for me on the music side is Black Moon Rising from the Black Pumas. There are listen links for a variety of music services on that page. At first I thought it was Cee-Lo Green, but it’s not. I haven’t been able to find anything else by them, they are from Austin, TX.

Last night we watched the first episode of the Pastry Chef season of Chef’s Table about Christina Tosi from Milk Bar.  If you have Netflix, I highly recommend this episode, I found it really inspiring. Be careful though, you can order just about anything in the episode from their web site. My cookies are on the way.

I’m thinking about getting a ReMarkable Tablet based on the recommendation of some folks online who swear by it.  Seems like it might either completely replace my work notebook, or it won’t work for me at all though, making the price tag a little tough to swallow. The iPad hasn’t really worked for me for this particular use case, and I love my e-ink Kindles, so the idea of the product might be in my sweet spot.

ttfn.

After struggling for a few months with wanting to update this site more, I think I’ve come up with a strategy, at least to start. I am going to try and do one of these “Weekly Bump” posts every Monday morning. Hopefully that will lead to more posts, but we’ll see.

Looking ahead to this week, I’m pretty excited for the Atlanta Pen Show, which starts Friday, April 13th and runs through the weekend. It’s always nice to see everyone in the pen community, although I never get to spend as much time up there as I’d like. I’m not heading up there this week with any specific pen in mind.

Looking even further ahead, I’m super excited about this new restaurant opening in Midtown Atlanta soon from the team that runs Brush Sushi Izakaya in Decatur. Brush is one of my favorite Atlanta spots, and is walking distance from our home.

Here are some things I enjoyed in the last week.

A post shared by Charlie Gray (@charliegrayphotographer) on Apr 7, 2018 at 10:58am PDT

Charlie Gray’s Instagram feed has some amazing portraits, with the most recent batch being focused on the new Wes Anderson movie, including this striking one of Bill Murray.

I really enjoyed listening to The Talk Show ✪: Ep. 217, With Special Guest Jason Kottke As a longtime super fan of both guys, this was one of my favorite podcast episodes so far this year. Even more so given that I feel like I have lived a lot of the subject matter in real time over the last 20 years. (This blog is 22 years old this year.)

Why I Love Compact Mechanical Keyboards and You Will Too: from The Wirecutter. I am about two years down this rabbit hole myself, and this post is the perfect place to start.

I really enjoyed Bladerunner 2049, and I am a huge Run the Jewels fan. I was astonished when El-P shared his rejected Blade Runner 2049 Trailer Score. While I like the Hans Zimmer score, what could have been is apparent. Looking forward to the movie that EL-P is going to score this year, which hasn’t been announced yet.