Great chicken, fries and dipping sauce – would get again for sure
Really nice early season conditions today (just some slow play on the front nine and some attempted shenanigans at the turn)
My body hates me now, but ran my 22nd straight Get in Gear 10K in 1:11:39, then walked 18 holes at Faribault Golf Club
Today SK called me up and asked if I wanted to go to the Minneapolis Institute of Art with her to see Art in Bloom (which honestly, I had never heard of, but it started in 1983). This annual event is free and features floral displays that interpret selected art from Mia’s permanent collection.
Turns out this event is super popular and you need to plan for crowds (both for parking and for getting around inside). The ramp and surrounding lots are $15, while valet is available at the main entrance for $20. The 2023 edition runs from Thursday, April 27 – Friday, April 30. Lots of pics after the jump.
Highly Recommended
The iOS built-in photo AI says these are Myrtle Warblers – we had a dozen of these out front in the rain this morning
Smaller than our last Weber, but the price was right and the free delivery and assembly was hard to beat. It will be a good summer with many cold ones in our hands
A few thoughts from last night:
- After decades of fandom, I need to be less emotionally attached to Minnesota sports teams. Still love ’em, but wow.
- Despite my support for Mastodon, I’m not confident in the backend tech stack and organization. This commentary from Justin Garrison, in particular, is very thought-provoking.
- “When you’re chewing on life’s gristle, don’t grumble, give a whistle”
Flap your feathers and stamp your hooves. It’s time to lend an ear to nature in Bucky’s Backyard. @TwoDots
Mississippi River Trail in Newport, Inver Grove Heights and South St. Paul – water levels manageable and Bob is back
I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger. I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was stronger…
— Faces
This converted church in Perham served up a huge burger (the single would’ve been plenty) and delicious church chips
We never met my aunt’s father, but so many great family stories during a beautiful service in Perham today ❤️
Tomorrow marks three months since I joined Mastodon. Just like with Twitter and Tweetbot, I don’t use the web interface of the instance I joined (mastodon.social), but have exclusively used the iOS and macOS Ivory clients, published by Tapbots. I love their work (thanks, Paul and Mark!) – the interface is familiar and polished and my timeline syncs well between devices.
Current stats: 110 posts, 26 followers and following 252.
So what are my thoughts on Mastodon after 90 days? I’ve already written a few posts about Mastodon that you can view here, but I thought I’d write a little today about some big picture things.
In general, I’m now probably spending about as much time reading through posts as I did with Twitter. That’s good *and* bad, as my curated follow list is producing quality content I want to read, but gets to be a lot once I get behind. Engagement so far is lower for me, likely due to having fewer followers here than on Twitter (and I don’t reply to a lot of posts). Also following a bunch of people new to me that I don’t know personally. Not hugely different interaction, though.
The “Mastodon culture” that some critics cite hasn’t really impacted my enjoyment of the platform so far. It definitely exists, but it’s been easy for me to filter out. I don’t really understand the debates about some things (Fediverse vs. Mastodon, intro posts when you have bios), while things like getting more people to add alt descriptions to images is a solid cause. I will never love hashtags, but at least I understand the connection between them and the limited search capabilities of Mastodon (hardly ever used hashtags or search on Twitter).
When everything started to go downhill with Musk and Twitter, there were lots of options that popped up: Post News, Spoutible, Bluesky, Nostr and others. I grabbed an account on Post when I got an invite and I thought I asked to be on the notification list for Bluesky, but I don’t think I will do anything other than Mastodon for now. There seems to be growing advocacy for the platform (and for continued feature improvements). I’d love to play around with my own instance (kingsbury.social?), but the learning curve is quite high compared to other things I’ve done online. Hope to get there eventually, though.
Many times when I get excited about new technologies, I sometimes lose empathy of how that technology is viewed and valued by others. This is probably not uncommon – just look at how much has been written about Twitter (which is significantly smaller than the other major social media platforms). The majority of my family never cared about Twitter and none of them have a Mastodon account. Ask a random person on the street about microblogging or the Fediverse and chances are good those things will be unimportant to them.
That said, I want Mastodon to grow and succeed. I don’t want to see bad actions (and bad actors) be rewarded in the market. An open internet is one of the best inventions humans have ever devised – let’s keep it going, no?
Great documentary on the Arrowhead 135 by director Marius Anderson at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, St. Anthony Main. Also fun to have the director and 2019 women’s champion Leah Gruhn afterwards
It was 32F with a little snow and wind at the beginning of our round today @ Gross National in Minneapolis – shot an 82 from the combo tees (with a “two-putt-max” rule in effect due to the rough and shaggy greens)
Yes, there were some cringeworthy moments, but overall still big fans of the series
