Chris La Tray is feeling like a poet again (and also shares some poems from 2025’s Voices for the West compilation).
What I mean by “feeling like a poet” is the sense of awareness to the world beyond the task list. It means looking for and acknowledging the return of all my bird friends and relatives, more who arrive at the end of their migration here every day. When we cloister indoors all the time it is easy to overlook, or even forget, all the lives that are being boisterously lived all around us, all the time. Recognizing this and reveling in it is what makes me feel like a poet again.
I updated my /now page.
Hank Green on How We Form Opinions, and why it matters right now.
My dad would have turned 90 today.
I’ve really struggled this week, but we did our best to celebrate his birthday by raising a glass in his honor at The Dubliner, his fav bar (where we ran into a few of his old friends, incl Walt, a close friend), and at Cold Beers, our local bar during his last years..
Was great to see Lauren, who was the bartender at Cold Beers that was so gracious to us while he was on hospice. She keeps a thank you note in her wallet I wrote her back then.
I have no idea who Srnka was, or how I acquired this, but I’ve been using this tape measure my entire adult life and it’s apparently older than I am.
Had a fun evening at the ASU fan fest. Always great to catch a spring practice at the stadium, especially when it involves photos with the conference trophy and the Territorial Cup!
I think this 2008 post by Zeldman speaks to what became the fatal flaw of twitter: a shift from a new way to connect with other people—the “social” in what was then called social networking—to publishing & distribution (renamed social media), which had an entirely different set of incentives.
There were seven new National Heritage Areas designated in 2023, but I never got around to updating my list. But as I plot out an upcoming road trip, I figured it was time to update the list and see how many of these new ones I still need to mark off for my NHAs quest. The answer: none—whew!! 😆
😆 “This is a motherfucking website.”
Craft Beer Quick Stop. 📍
Among the very best craft beer bottleshops in metro Phoenix is this crappy looking converted Circle K. Like an old used bookstore, it’s just crammed to the brim with good selections. I believe it’s the same owners as the old convenience store who just shifted businesses, but kudos—they nailed it!
I’ll be hopping on this Monday evening:
Below and Beyond Perry Mesa: The Archaeology of Greater West Verde Area Central Arizona
We surveyed 3,200 acres of a largely unstudied area extending north from Cave Creek between Perry Mesa and the Verde River basin on behalf of the Tonto National Forest (TNF). The results have exceeded our wildest expectations, including re-recording and new discoveries of entire pueblo communities that challenge the existing models of settlement, agriculture, and regional exchange within the greater Verde River region.
Here’s the link to register (for free).
As I plot out how to re-organize my site in my transition from Wordpress to Kirby, I’m struck by how big of a role WP’s structure of “page vs post” + “category vs tag” plays in how I think about it. It’s hard to step outside that framework and think about how I can best use Kirby’s flexibility.
I finally published a page listing the Geographic Extremes of the US that I’ve visited. This isn’t an actual quest, per se, but just something fun to keep track of.
After a cancelled weekend camping trip, and a failed visit to the MVD for new license plates, we took advantage of the nice weather to ride our bikes up to the new 12 West Brewing location, which took over Whining Pig spot in our ‘hood. Hoping to launch a website for my wife’s travels & quests!
Weirdest factoid: Phoenix, Arizona is the highest (in elevation) major city of more than a million residents in all US territory. 🤯
Whoops! Looking through my website drafts folder, and realized that I completely forgot about a quest I adopted 8 years ago. I still have two objectives remaining!
If you have an aging parent, and your own website, you should do this.
Made some progress on my county quest last weekend. Light blue are counties I revisited, darker blue are newly completed ones. My full map is at the link.
I’ve started work on a complete teardown + rebuild of my main website, rscottjones.com. I’ve grown tired of Wordpress, and its complication, and excited by a new platform I’ve been poking around with. Anyway, I ran across my first blog post (Jan 2007) on this WP install: Scott Jones, Site Steward.