V as in Verve

2025 Fall Colors Tracker – Portland Japanese Garden Witness the fleeting beauty of autumn at Portland Japanese Garden. Join as a member for endless visits this season, or reserve your single-day admission.

Portland Japanese Garden tracks fall colors progress in its garden:

japanesegarden.org/fall-colors-...

Acrobat inverted on another acrobat’s feet.

Doing bicep push-up while balancing upside down on my friend’s feet is how I spend my weekends.

Redacted screenshot of a post with only words “he is correct” visible.

One acrobat balancing upside down on top of another acrobat’s feet.

Had someone told me a decade ago that this is how I’ll be spending my free time, I would’ve laughed.

Things that don’t belong on athletic shorts: zippers, rivets, metal branding pieces, belt loops, pockets, cords. The struggle of finding shorts that have none of these things is real.

Worked for a company that serviced these gift cards. Little known fact: the redemption rate for these gift cards is surprisingly low, around 55% They are much cheaper to issue than cash.

Seems to be rolling through town. Last night and this early morning two neighborhoods near me lost power.

Needle tatting instructions booklet with a set of two tatting needles and a threader resting on top of it.

Today’s find at my favorite yarn and books store. Needle tatting instructions and a set of different-sized needles.

Yes, please.

Orchid Show & Sale Saturday & Sunday on April 26 & 27, 2025 At Smith Memorial Student Union at Portland State University Smith Ballroom (3rd Floor) 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Looking forward to attending this event.

Image of reviewers rating their stay as 1 (poor)

I am surprised it is still in business.

Book cover for A Wizard of Earthsea, A Graphic Novel, by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham. Cover illustration shows a person walking out of the splashing tide on a beach, seen from above, with a long dark shadow stretching out behind them across the sand.

Holy heck. I just discovered that there's a brand-new graphic novel version of A Wizard of Earthsea by @ursulakleguin.com, adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham. It's due out on March 11. Here's the link on @bookshop-org.bsky.social ... 📚 #SFF

bookshop.org/p/books/a-wi...

Describe your in-person social skills with a gif.

Bluesky is getting its own photo-sharing app, Flashes More good news for those looking to exit Meta’s social app ecosystem in favor of a more open alternative: An independent developer is building a photo-sharing app for Bluesky called Flashes. The soon-to-launch app is powered by the same technology that…

Bluesky is getting its own photo-sharing app, Flashes

We played Tournament at Avalon this evening and it made me appreciate games with built in catch up mechanics even more. The worse you do, the harder you wreck your opponents on the way back up.

“Today I learned the limits of paprika”. I want that on a poster.

YouTube video by Brainattion Хоббит El hobbit The Hobbit USSR 1985 REAL English subtitles

Here you go: youtu.be/ajknsrDX-VY

If you ever find a copy of an old Soviet television version of The Hobbit, you’ll be amused as well.

Heard many great things about it. Curious to read your thoughts on it.

Make a list of meals. Assign each meal a sequential number. Run a random number generator to pick five numbers. Prep those that come up. Do the same each week. Let RNG handle the low stakes decision making and save yourself from analysis paralysis.

The sky after sunset with a gradient of color from bottom to top of orange and yellow close to the bottom, then some darkened clouds as the sky gets more blue. And darker blue all the way to the top. Above the layers of clouds is a bright streak with a pinpoint bright spot at it's lower end. From the bright tip, the tail extends toward the to of the image, becoming fainter the farther up. It is diagonal in the dark blue sky. It's a comet "C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)". This image has been edited to bring out the comet. It was difficult to spot by eye.

And there's a comet!
So this week we've had at least two aurora shows, and now a comet! What stellar portents! 😄
This is comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). It's not new, but the last time it swung through the inner solar system was ~ 80,000 years ago. So go have a look for it, if there's no clouds

From to to bottom, blue sky over a high ridge covered in green conifer trees. Some of the ridge has grey stone exposed. Below the ridge is a steep drop to more tall trees and colorful shrubs changed by the Fall season to gold and reds. Below these is more step slope covered in grey boulders dropping down to the edge of a lake. The lake reflects some of the colors from the Fall cliff shrubs. Further down across the lake is a small island with a few smaller trees on it that also reflect into the green water. At the bottom of the image the bottom of the lake can be seen through the clear water. On either side of the image there are the dark silhouettes of large trees.

Yesterday's adventure into some high country was full of color for Fall, amid small lakes and tall sub alpine firs. #fall #leaves #lakes #hiking #photography #landscape #Pacificnorthwest #alpine

The Subprime AI Crisis None of what I write in this newsletter is about sowing doubt or "hating," but a sober evaluation of where we are today and where we may end up on the current path. I believe that the artificial intel...

The Subprime AI Crisis

“Generative AI must seem kind of magical when your entire life is either being in a meeting or reading an email.”

www.wheresyoured.at/subprimeai/

“Tiktok is the British museum of the internet” is my insult of the year.

If someone consistently takes more than they ever give back, let them go. They appear to value you for what you give them without giving anything in return and that will always sting.

Kindly set them free. They earned your absence. Let it be your final and generous gift, both to them and to you. 💖

We’ve been using them for a few years and they work very well - not a single nest in their vicinity.

They will not prevent wasps near BBQ. They will deter them from building a nest in your yard.

A person in a green kayak sits in a lake with beams of sunlit mist rising from the lake. The far shore is blanketed in dense conifer forest in the shade of the dawn light. Above it all is a huge mountain with glaciers and snow.

It's about to get hot.
Imma post something cool.

Two acrobats against a light background. One is inverted on the second acrobat’s feet.

Asymmetrical balances make me swoon.

I found the ice gnome kingdom!

Update the app. It is there.