Here’s a list of planning details that needed attention as we got closer to traveling to Japan with our nephew and his dad.
Category: Living
A Cyclist’s Oasis
Even my phone overheated while cycling through Nordeast Minneapolis. Finding relief, I took a quick break in Surdyk’s walk-in beer cooler. A six-pack of Bauhaus Lounge Wizard in my backpack kept my back cool on the journey home.
Saving Lives, Saving Money
On my cycle ride, waved to and thanked needle exchange workers. The service costs about $20 per user per year. One syringe-infected AIDS patient requires over $120,000 per year in public health services. Six states ignore this reality and do not permit needle exchange programs.
Hydroponics 101
This week I’ve been prototyping systems for maintaining water levels while rooting plant cuttings. This morning I built a “production” system that includes a float valve connected to a water supply to top up the tank automatically.
Cognitive Itch*
Spotted an octopus’s garden on my cycle ride. My earworm for the rest of the ride was inevitable: I’d like to be\…\In an octopus’s garden\In the shade. (*Cognitive itch: the cause of an earworm.)
That’s Closed! No Ice Cream!
Today I had to teach about sentences starting with “That.” In preparation for the class I plugged a convoluted sentence into ChatGPT: although correct, it suggested not starting sentences with “That.” After all that I needed ice cream as a reward, but the store was closed.
Science Experiment: Siphonic Action
The problem: maintaining water levels for rooting cuttings while we’re away, traveling. The solution: siphonic action. The blue container represents a reservoir that will be topped up via a float valve. Prototype 1, here, has too many points of failure. Next up: straight runs from the reservoir.
Drip irrigation Going Undercover
Arranged drip irrigation tubes in large planters on a roof deck of our building. Once the plants establish themselves, they hide the tubes.
Mad Max: Nordeast
While cycling in Nordeast Minneapolis, I was stopped in my tracks by a moving art installation that evoked the Mad Max movies. Nordeast Minneapolis is home to hundreds of artists.
Not Instagram
Looked down as I walked out of Five Watt Coffee after sipping an Americano.