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Pretty Good Hat

My little data vis all for my Peloton rides broke a couple of weeks ago, but clever developers found a way to continue using the API, so it’s back, for now. I wish Peloton would publish an official auth flow; they would see an explosion of support and interest from small and big developers, I think.

A screenshot of my little Peloton data app called RideShare. It is showing a climb ride with Christine and a historical plot of inactivity recently.

a bit of a text editor screen showing some helix configuration in toml

A bit of text editor showing helix configuration in toml. The first two characters of words have been replaced by red highlighted random characters, which can be navigated to by typing the two letters.

This feature of [Helix] is so good! Typing gw replaces the first two characters of words with random letters, and then typing those two letters navigates immediately to that word, selecting it for further operation like copy or replacing. In this example, gwcx would take my cursor straight to the word “register.”

Josh Ritter on a low stage in a cathedral. A huge pillar rises beside the stage and the stone walls are lit with blue and purple light. Warmer golden color lights up the large window behind the stage. Josh is smiling and singing, with his eyes closed and chin raised. To his right is a grand piano, where Sam Kassirer sits, head down, playing.

Seven years since the last time, I saw Josh Ritter in concert last night. He played from a small stage in a cathedral, flanked by wood and stone and stained glass, giant pillars, and Sam Kassirer at a grand piano. It was a joyful show that made me feel like part of a community in this city where we now live.

Every heart is a package, tied up in knots someone else tied.

This post from Julia Evans about using Helix was just the bump I needed to check it out, after installing it but never really giving it a try some time ago. I really like how quickly it’s immediately useful without much extra work or time. It will take some adjustment from vim navigation and commands, so perhaps won’t stick, but for now I’m appreciating the intentionality of thinking about what I need to do in the editor, and find so far that I’m picking it up pretty quickly.

For what it’s worth, the only additions I’ve made to Julia’s configuration so far are for some cursor differentiation and one hard-to-break vim convention:

"0" = "goto_line_start"

# from https://docs.helix-editor.com/configuration.html
[editor.cursor-shape]
insert = "bar"
normal = "block"
select = "underline"

Happy to confirm that Lightroom continues to work for library management and export after cancelling my Creative Cloud subscription. I’m rarely shooting in raw anymore, so I was mostly paying just for access to my own back catalog. Not anymore! So long, suckers!

I’ve been experimenting with using Flickr again. There are some innovations of more modern photo sharing that it simply hasn’t kept up with. For example, there’s a guy who spams the largest Seattle photo group with generated images of waify women looking different kinds of plaintive and wispy, and there’s no way for me to tell Flickr, “don’t show me anything from this guy.” It’s frustrating that its model of sociability hasn’t evolved with some of the baseline functions of social media.

I walked a lot when I was back in Flagstaff a couple of weeks ago. Downtown Flag is perfect for the many photo walks I’ve taken there over the years, being full of alleys, shops and restaurants. On this night I had a solo dinner — a big bowl of ramen from Sosoba — and walked past a dozen familiar shopfronts, all busy and warm with people.

Teatro was previously a favorite place named Criollo, where we were regulars for breakfast. The last time we were there was a Valentine’s Day; we came in late, and they were absolutely packed, but the hostess recognized us, welcomed us and squeezed us in at the bar. We’re not yet regulars anywhere in our new hometown, and I miss the easy familiarity and routine of a favorite spot.

An alley leading into the distance, with a car crossing the frame midway. In the background are sunset-lit clouds, and otherwise the alley is dim.

A big bowl of ramen on a wooden outdoor counter

Railroad tracks lead toward a horizon lined by small buildings. Low cumulous clouds are bright on the horizon but shadows from behind the photographer are long, indicating evening. An oncoming engine’s headlight can just be seen in the far distance.

The front patio of Flagstaff’s Pay N Take. People mingle under blue umbrellas in low late evening light. The interior is lit and welcoming.

A restaurant photographed in low light from across the street. In the foreground is a bike locked to a dark green rack. A car is blurred in motion and obscures the restaurant, named Teatro.