After seeing some friends discussing retirement destinations they were considering, I decided to write up how we approached that decision. It’s taken much longer to write that post, in part because we were due to update our Life Block Planning. Still hoping to get it published this week, though.
Enjoyed this hour-long PBS documentary on the Rails to Trails movement.
Rode over to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for coffee with my mom as ride 5 for #coffeeneuring2025. Forgot to take a photo of said beverage, but here are some outdoor shots.
Scored all this candy while trick-or-treating tonight. šŖ
Micro.blog improvements Iād like to see
Micro.blog is an indieweb platform I use as an interesting melding of blogging and social media. Iām a big fan of its approach to an online presence. As it continues to get better and better, I wanted to toss out some improvements Iād like to see.
Highlight titled micro.blog posts in the feed
Perhaps using a light background color, to make these longer posts stand out more in the feed. Right now, theyāre completely de-emphasized, especially compared to quick photos with four photos, and therefore very easy to miss. Thatās a shame, as those posts are nearly always longer, well authored blog posts that deserve more attention.
Show Bluesky photos
I know thereās some issue with how Bluesky (or AT Proto?) deals with photo attachments that makes this hard, but it very much detracts from following bsky accounts/conversations within micro.blog, especially replies to crossposted posts. Fixing this, if possible, would allow for following Bluesky posts from within micro.blog, which is just too problematic without image support, at least for me. At minimum, Iād like to see a placeholder or some other indicator that an image is not being displayed.
Multiple photo upload
This would make micro.blog much better for photo-rich and travel blogs. Uploading them one-by-one feels like unnecessary friction. Iād especially appreciate a feature that allows you to insert markdown/html for all items uploaded at the same time, as Mimi Uploader did. Multi-select uploads makes it so much easier to scroll through my photo album, pick which ones I want to share (which often involves selecting and deselecting until Iāve decided on the four that work best together), and upload them all at one time. Right now, I end up uploading unnecessary photos because I add one that I later decide doesnāt make the ātop 4 cutāā¦so now I have to go back and delete that unintentional upload (haha, no I donāt, I just leave it there as clutter because Iām too lazy to spend more time trying to fix it).
Reorder photos prior to posting on iOS + MacOS app
This would make things much easier for a similar reason as above. Because the first photo is often used as the image in social media previews, you might want to decide on the photos to be shared, then rearrange for the most appropriate one to be highlighted in the social preview. Right now, the easiest way to do this is to simply start an entirely new post and then go copy pasta each of the individual uploads in the new order. Or, like me, you just say fuck it and start a new post and re-upload each one because thatās less.
Select multiple photos on upload page
Iād like to be able to batch add to a collection, or copy markdown for a post. Again, selecting one by one and pasting into a post is frustratingājust so many extra clicks.
Allow replies with photos
Disallowing photos in replies actively inhibits substantive replies, imo. And while I know about the upload/markdown workaround, about 80% of the time thatās enough friction to dissuade me from commenting.
Make the category field persistently visible in apps, if desired.
I understand wanting to keep a simple interface for writing, but for those of us who want to categorize each post (without having to use workarounds for filtering) itās just unnecessary clicks/taps for no good reason. I love sharing a number of posts while traveling, for instance, and would love to add each of them to a specific trip category. But this requires a bunch of extra clicks each post. And because itās āinvisibleā at the time of posting, Iāll often be in a hurry or simply forget and then that post is orphaned from the rest of the category. Iād love for the category field to remain persistent based on your last choice in displaying/hiding it.
Better documentation
There are so many great, but slightly hidden, features in micro.blog that donāt seem to be documented. For instance, one of my items above was going to ask for a link to all the photos that arenāt in any post. But before publishing, I went to doublecheck that it didnāt existāand just discovered that on the uploads page, a linked date means that that upload is associated with a post. Well, thatās definitely not in the documentation.
That’s my list!
The best platforms are the ones that continue to improve, and micro.blog definitely continues to get better and better. I’m a happy member and am always excited to share its vision with friends.
I hid a small bin with all my SSDs in it when we traveled last. It was a new hiding spot that I thought was much better than my old spot. I cannot, for the life of me, remember where the hell it was. Ain’t no burglar finding itānor me apparently.
This must be where Oreos come from
Killing off an old project today. RIP BetterAdventures.Club. Great memoriesāI still gets the feels. Started its predecessor (my first sole entrepreneurship) six years ago as a hedge on a mobile questing app I was working on with friends. Life intervened, of course, and I’ve since moved on.
If youāve followed along on our window replacement that began back in July, weāre still waiting for a replacement one to be installed. Looks like the shutters may arrive even before itās ready. Sighā¦
Today is a good day to check with your friends, family, and neighbors about whether they’ll be affected by the SNAP cuts and seeing how you can help out.
What happens when you turn a national monument into a billboard?
JP posted about a video explainer on billboard advertising, which immediately conjured up the image of a billboard in the now-defunct Papago Saguaro National Monument. Here was my comment on his blog post:
Interesting video. You’re familiar with Saguaro National Park, which of course was originally designated as a national monument. Well, that happened in part as a response to the abolition of Papago Saguaro National Monument (now Papago Park, among other things) in Phoenix a few years prior. It was the first occasion that a national monument was decommissioned, which happened primarily due to inadequate funding that led to vandalism and substantial resource damage. Nearly all of the national monument’s iconic saguaros, for instance, were stolen for use in local landscaping. One of the other noteworthy impacts were the regular painting of advertisementsābillboards, essentiallyādirectly onto the buttes protected within the monument boundaries. Anyway, you’d think that The Thing billboards would be the first thing to pop into my head as an Arizonan who loves road trips, but nope, it was the billboards ruining Papago Saguaro National Monument.
Iām glossing over much of the story1, of course, but the big lesson is that designations alone donāt equate to actual long term resource protection. You need an adequate budget, resource protection rules that are routinely enforced, and a broad culture of respect towards (and pride of) the place to ensure that itās not simply āprotected in name only.ā As an early national park unit designated prior to the establishment of the National Park Service, serviced by a single part-time absentee caretaker, and surrounded by a fast growing metropolitan area in an only recently established state, Papago Saguaro didnāt have enough of those things to last the test of time2. Luckily, much of the original acreage was eventually transferred to local governments and turned into Papago Park, the Desert Botanical Garden, and the Phoenix Zooāwhich are all, quite literally, Phoenix Points of Pride today3.
Contrary to its reputation for urban sprawl, the City of Phoenix was an early pioneer in protecting open spaces for recreation. In 1924, while Papago Saguaro was struggling under federal mismanagement (perhaps ālack of managementā might be a more accurate description), the fledging city bought 13,000 acres of South Mountaināan area five times as large as the city itselfāto establish the worldās largest city park, preserving the land as a āpleasuring groundā for its residents. It was a bold move, and a smart response to the problems encountered at Papago Saguaro.
And it helped set the course for Phoenixās impressive desert preserves. Today, metro Phoenix boasts four of the five largest city parks in the country, as well as the nationās largest county park system, too.
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A more complete telling of the story can be found in an out-of-print book called Papago Park: A History of Hole-In-The-Rock from 1848 to 1995 (by Jason Gart, Pueblo Grande Museum). I have a photocopy of the book somewhere; itās a fascinating history. I havenāt found any better sources on the national monument period. ↩︎
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Iāve visited nearly every one of the ādecommissionedā national parks as part of my Former National Park Units quest. Each of them has an interesting story behind their designation and/or dissolution. National Parks Traveler has a good series on many of these stories called Pruning the Parks. ↩︎
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Frank Lloyd Wright even proposed that the state capitol be moved to the former national monument site, designing an unsolicited āoasisā of democracy in the desert. It was rejected, with one legislator complaining that it looked like an āoriental whorehouse.ā ↩︎
We grabbed coffee at the Buzzed Goat this morning for #coffeeneuring2025 ride 4 of 7, using our new folding ebikes. Bummed we somehow forgot to take a photo of the bikesā maiden voyage. š¤¦āāļø #coffeeneuring
Action inspires hope, not the other way around.
Ebiking as cheating
Last week, someone in a car with a road bike strapped to its hitch drove past and yelled āyouāre cheating!ā as I was riding my ebike along the bike lane in my neighborhood.
Itās not an uncommon insult hurled at ebikers: that weāre somehow cheating.
Butā¦cheating at what, exactly??
If I was using an ebike in a human-power-only bike race, that would be cheating. But shit, Iām using an ebike instead of a car. Yes, Iām getting a bit extra assistance from the pedal-assist motor, but Iām still pedaling. The bike does nothing if I donāt pedal.
Gears give you a mechanical advantage too, but you donāt hear many cyclists complaining about cheating if youāre on a road or mountain bike and not using a fixed gear bike. And besides, isnāt biking itself just cheating at running? I mean, youāre using a mechanical advantage to power yourself faster and with less effortā¦
So really, the guy who yelled at me was the asshole that was cheatingāhe was driving! At least I was pedaling, even if I was I getting 30% assistance (carrying a load of groceries, on a much heavier bike than heād ever consider riding). Even worse, he was presumably driving his bike somewhere so that he could ride it (likely for exercise). Thatās a bit like driving a half mile to the gym to use the treadmill, instead of simply jogging there.
If youāre replacing car trips, youāre not ācheatingā by using an ebike. And even if youāre using one for exercise, youāre not cheating either. You get to decide how you want to exercise.
If it gets you out, then thatās a good thing.
Thatās been the biggest takeaway for me in owning an ebike. I use it waaaaaay more than I did my āacousticā (aka, not electric) bike. I ride far more often than I did before, and for much longer distances. The assist I get helps me more safely power through bike-adverse intersections while also making it easier to ride when itās hot af outside. I live in Phoenix, so this is relevant for half the damn year. I wouldnāt ride to happy hour in 88Āŗ before, let along 98Āŗābut Iāll ride there in 118Āŗ on an ebike without a second thought.
Iāve had my ebike for two years now, and I have 300+ roundtrips on it, which far eclipses the number of trips Iāve taken on my mountain bike and city bike, combined, in the last decade plus. Itās clearly enabled more riding for me. I donāt consider it cheating, because Iām not cheating myselfāinstead, Iām empowering myself to ride more often, and for greater distances. And that sure seems like a win for me.
Along the Great East Road in Zambia.
We circled tomorrow’s ASU football game as a prime day for an extended tailgating session (aka, even longer than the 5hrs we usually devote), since it’s an earlier 5pm kickoff and we expected the weather would have cooled off. Unfortunately, it’ll still be 85Āŗ…damn.
Today’s #Coffeeneuring ride 3 of 7 was trying out the Kolache Cafe and grabbing a simple coffee. It’s my first time trying kolacheāI had a ham/egg/cheese breakfast kolache, plus a strawberry cheesecake kolache. They were fine, though I don’t think this place will make it into our rotation.
Finally updated my NPS Affiliated Areas quest to reflect my summer visit to Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site. Only 3 sites remaining, though it’ll likely be awhile before we get back to Alaska.
Itās raining in Phoenix again this morningā¦which is great. But damn, letās get some of this precip later in the winter so we can snag a great wildflower year instead.
