Category: Cool Stuff On The Internet

Things that interest me, inspired me, made me laugh, or taught me something.

Some Podcast Fun For Your Listening Pleasure!

Carl Setzer
greyscale photography of condenser microphone

I’ve long been a fan of Wil Wheaton. So it was pretty delightful to get the email (that’s how I consume most of my blog posts right now) letting me/us know that he was on the Katee Sackhoff podcast. Which got a “wait, what!?! Katee Sackhoff has a podcast? Man, it really bugs me that I missed that. However, I don’t really follow her, so I guess I can excuse myself. I have fixed that, though, by subscribing.

Now, I’ve been aware of Katee for years. I remember back in 2003 the launch of the new Battlestar Galactica, and the furor/uproar/noise about Starbuck being a woman! In my circle of geeky friends, I seemed to be one of the few unbothered at all by that. Mostly, I like to see what the creators create. I really liked this Starbuck! I thought she was an amazing, dynamic, complex, and interesting character. (*Sidenote: in hindsight, the character that should’ve caused the most consternation was Commander Adama, who was NOT even close to the Lorne Greene character.) And I love the character Bo Katan from Clone Wars and The Mandalorian.

I thought she did an amazing job as host. Guiding the discussion just enough to keep things moving (Wil did a nice job as a guest, too) without tripping over her guest. They clearly value each other, treat each other with grace and respect. It was just so delightful.

Wil was on to promote his new podcast “It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton“. Now, I need to confess that I haven’t listened to any episodes yet. Que a whiny “there’s so much content…” bit. I had every intention of changing that state. However, I feel the need to move the timeline up on that. Yeah, the reason I pushed this podcast to “I need to listen to this…today…” was simply having two people who I value together. Those sorts of alignments need to be celebrated.

I’ll post when I’ve given Mr. Wheaton’s project a listen. Hey, let me know: have you listened yet? What do you think?

Some Random Observations

Carl Setzer1 Comment
road landscape person grass

Well, it’s the last day of April. So now we move past April showers into May flowers, right?

Anyway, Pinterest dished up some fun images today that I wanted to share.

As many of you know, I love cycling. This little collection of drawings delighted me deeply.

And I’ve felt the delight of this one:

This was from an ad, but really felt cool. When I was living the hardcore “bike life”, u-locks were a bit of a pain to manage. I either had mine tucked in a backpack or mounted to my downtube. Neither were optimal. Then I came across one of these:

I would’ve LOVED this back in the day!

Seeing this makes me miss those days and make me want to up my biking game.

Now for a wee shift. I found this motivational statement that deeply resonates with me.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a fantastic last day of April and launch into a May that meets all your needs and drives you forward.

AI Generated Island Vibes

Carl Setzer

I have a fondness for YouTube music videos and often play them in the background while I’m working. Lately, I’ve been feeling island vibes, so that’s what I’ve been choosing. Today, this one rolled into my algorythim and, well, AI is struggling.

The music is fine, pretty much spot on for my mood. But the video, though…oh my! We have cliffs that move into each other, and then fade away, boats just appearing in bays, a speed boat zipping across the sky, and my favorite: two party boats, one of which is speeding backwards with another boat, right off the stern, moving at the same speed but sideways. Ah, physics!

So, AI is pretty amazing and has a lot to offer, but it’s not quite ready to take over the world.

Some thoughts on cycling

Carl Setzer2 Comments
I found this gem here on Pinterest.

Some of you may know that for a good chunk of my life, I was a rather militant cyclist. I lived downtown Seattle (properly, on Capitol Hill and First Hill) for the better part of a decade without owning a car. I really loved living life this way…mostly. After a few painful altercations with cars, though, I stepped away from this path. But bikes hold a dear place in my heart. So this cartoon resonates with me. I still ride, just not as much. And I’m a bit more humble of an environmentalist.

I hold some cycling aspirations. RAGBRAI, for instance, sounds like a blast! Part of me has long wanted to ride the STP (Seattle to Portland), but it seems, shall we say, antithetical to introverts. Of course, the same can be said for RAGBRAI.

This sentiment delights me (some people suppress their inner child; I got mine a bicycle). Are there any comics/graphics that speak loudly to you?

PS: here’s the link to the artist’s page. He doesn’t seem to have updated it since 2017, but there’s plenty of fun cycle-centric comics here.

It’s National Library Workers Day

Carl Setzer
National Library Workers Day

A blog I follow, “The Poetry Department”, posted this note about National Library Workers Day. I deeply value libraries as well as those who keep them running. So, I urge you to honor a library worker in your life.

Ways of Making Tea

Carl Setzer

I love tea, and I have a particular fondness for English (or Irish, or Welsh) breakfast teas. Once (ages ago) I was lectured by a British chap about the proper way to make tea (and how I was NOT doing so). Therefore, this xkcd was perfect.

I’ve been a fan of this comic for ages. I’m sure I shared from them before, but thought I’d highlight a few of my favorites. And, if you haven’t, encourage you to follow them.

Here are my two favorite comics (and this is a solid tie):

and this one…

So, I hope you enjoyed and consider giving them a follow.

Exploring Music

Carl Setzer6 Comments
vinyl disk on loudspeaker

My friend Bill wrote a post a few days ago about the passing of Damo Suzuki, singer for the German rock band Can. I’ve always had a thing for quirky and eclectic music, so I was a bit bummed I hadn’t so much as heard of Can before now. So I commented such, and Bill recommended this album to me to learn more about them.

Tago-Mago by the band Can

I doubt many of you know that my first major in college was music. I listened intensely, absorbing how the instrumentation and chordal structure were communicating emotional energy. Sadly, I got out of practice for that kind of listening ages ago. But, back in the 80s, I studied lots of artists in depth. Not just pop, but Jazz, latin, classical, funk…my list was pretty extensive. I would give anything to have notes back from those days.

Can has a solid funk feel to me. I really enjoy the driving, repetitive bass tracks, and fluid drumming.

What struck me even deeper, though, was how easy it is to discover new music. Bill made a post, shared a YouTube video of a song. I listened, made a comment on his blog, Bill recommended an album to check out, and YouTube served that up to me instantly. All within a few-minute timeframe.

I remember getting together with friends and listening to records/CDs, and tapes. If I really liked the song, I’d see about borrowing a copy until I could buy one. In my little Seattle suburb, getting anything other than Top 40 generally meant a trip to Seattle. There was a cool record show really close to UW, and I believe the iconic Tower Records was serving Seattle’s music community back then. I love how easy it is now to discover new (old?) music.

Onwards!

A thing I just learned…

Carl Setzer
fog over calm sea

I just learned the San Francisco fog and I share a name, if not the spelling.

How the Bay Area’s Fog Came to Be Named Karl

Pretty fun and silly, but delightful nonetheless.

I hope you are all having a fun and productive Friday.

A Webcomic Recommendation

Carl Setzer

I love webcomics! “Loving Reaper” made its way into my Instagram feed some time last year. I adore how Ms. Jinya frames death as a gentle and kind entity. She captures such a wide range of emotions in her work. For me, from literally laughing out loud to tears. The one below is one of my favorite funny ones.

This one captures the sad category.

Thought I opted to use embeds from Instagram, it looks like she is more active on Webtoons. And here’s her website.

I highly recommend her work and hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Do you have favorites? Let me know!

Aerogel, The Coolest Of Matter

Carl Setzer
person holding laboratory flask

Ok, I have to be honest, I’ve never heard of aerogel until today. YouTube, in all its glory, recommended this video to me. And, well, I’m enthralled.

I’m sure YouTube offered me this since I’m a fan of both Neil deGrasse Tyson and Adam Savage. I feel gratitude for this video, so offer thanks to the great algorithm!

Anyway, aerogel is simply beautiful it’s appearance, and amazing in it’s properties. I really want to explore this further…in my spare time…*ahem*

Anyway, are you familiar with aerogel? With any applications?