One Post Wonder has completed its move and the URLs have been changed over.

I'm sure a glitch or two will be found, and I'm sure folks will report them here, or by emailing me, or even via the little bug icon. All of the above are fine.

A security warning is seen when the old personal blog URLs are used, so if you see that, just update your bookmarks to point to the new location of your blog. But you probably just have onepostwonder.com itself bookmarked anyway. And there's no issue there.

I want to thank the folks who very generously donated to help cover the costs of running One Post Wonder. Yes, I did blush.

We should be good for another year. OPW now lives on the same box with boutell.com, which is a big enough site that OPW can pretty much hang out in the margins without significantly increasing my hosting costs. Unless it gets big. In which case, it becomes a business anyway. So we're good there.

Thanks again for your support and understanding. You got me motivated to knock out the whole move in one evening.

And now back to my regularly scheduled locked posts for friends... just like everyone else on One Post Wonder. It's nice being home.

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9/24 '15 9 Comments
So...... I'm feeling awkward and confused. Like, I should have invited friends to join OPW, sent out lots of invites. Because I love your creation, find it extremely pleasant to use. But somehow I never got around to spreading the word. Because Life, I guess. But still.
Well... I wouldn't beat myself up about it. At some point, the thing has to be compelling enough that people who don't know me personally tell their friends about it just because they want to use it. If it reaches that point, awesome. If not, I won't club my friends too hard to flog it.
It has reached that point ... though some of the friends who didn't know you personally do now!
Yes, I was just thinking that — that ever so slowly, One Post Wonder is actually spreading along the Shelle Axis.
Hey Tom, I am getting an error that the security certificate does not match the url when I browse to the site using chrome. I can get past the error, but I figured I would mention it anyway.
Hey Shelle, I do not get that error in Chrome. Maybe you are trying to follow an old link? Is it a URL you can share with me?
www.onepostwonder.com
I fixed this thing.
ohhh DAMN it. Can't believe they gave me a cert that's not valid with the www. in front. But you can just go straight to onepostwonder.com, get rid of the www.
 

Sautee garlic, mushrooms and a little spinach in olive oil. Add 1/2 cup black beans, a half-teaspoon of cumin, a dash of salt and half a tablespoon of grape must.

What — no grape must in your kitchen? Use soy sauce, if you have one of those fancy "digestive systems" I've heard so much about, or a really swanky vinegar if you're like me.

Mash well with 1/4 cup of oats (quick oats will disappear better, but it doesn't really matter). Add a little liquid for easy workability but don't drown it.

Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Set a timer so you don't get impatient.

Make patties and pan-fry in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat the oil as much as you dare (olive oil scorches easily; we're talking medium low here). Cover and pan-fry for 4 minutes on each side.

Add fixins to taste and serve.

Makes roughly 3 patties.

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6/22 '15 2 Comments
Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

I went through a black-bean-burger phase for a hot minute a few years ago, which died when I couldn;t find a recipe that stuck together.

Speaking of grape must, how's your digestive system with grape seed oil? It's pricey but I think its temperature issues are slightly kinder than olive oil.
Hmm, worth trying. (I can also handle canola oil, so I'm not dyin' for high temperature cooking oils over here.)
 

So I did this today. And then rode twelve miles home via Lindbergh Boulevard, for a total of 26 miles.

I didn't realize I'd covered so much ground until I recognized buildings on the outskirts of the airport.

The Heinz Wildlife Refuge (aka the Tinicum Wildlife Refuge) has many miles of hard-packed gravel trails in decent condition for cycling, even with cheap-hybrid-bike tires.

I was trying to follow the East Coast Greenway. There's lots of signage for it now, but you still get dropped off the face of the earth sometimes. I kept finding it though.

I want to pedal to my mom's house in Connecticut in the worst way. It's smack on the Greenway.

I don't have to take off work! I can just get up at 6am, pedal until it's too hot, and hide out in an AirBnB somewhere! We all need practice with remote working anyway. That's totally practical right? Hey it actually might be.


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6/1 '15 7 Comments
Remember that time I biked to Millersville PA from Newark on the hottest day of the summer? (Just looked it up - 47.5 miles)

And I made it, but when I got up the next morning and tried to bike back, I completely fell apart, so I called you and Gwost from Lancaster to see if he could borrow his parents' car to come pick me up.

When you arrived, I had made it about another 10 miles from where I called you and as soon as I saw you coming I just kinda fell over. Things get a little hazy from there. I remember somehow getting into the vehicle. And one of you packing up my bike. And then you handed me a cold gallon jug of apple juice and said "I thought you might need this" and I drank the entire thing. I don't remember getting back to Newark or doing anything else for the rest of the day.

Anyway - if you need a pit crew for any sort of major long distance bicycling, don't hesitate to call on me.

I owe you a big one.



I'm exhausted just reading that!
FWIW, I might take Ted to Heinz/Tinicum today, rain be damned. I'm going to see if I can get him interested in bicycling again, and since he likes that place anyway (it's one of his favorite walking sites), it might be a good fit.
Long ride in the heat! Today would have been nicer, but alas the whole job thing! Like the idea of working in the afternoon siesta.
Yes, it was much too hot Sunday, I can be a bit crazypants.
You biked a marathon!
 

Yesterday I brought a group of people to the Musem of Modern Art in New York City. Due to minor mishaps I had two extra tickets.

This is not a huge deal and I immediately considered just writing them both off as donations, it's a worthy cause after all. But we did decide to try offering them to folks in the ticket line, for something less than original price. Waste not, want not. Habits of a lifetime.

Nobody was interested. As someone in our group pointed out, this could be because they didn't know if I was honest, and that's a good point, although it's also easily solved: come with me when I go through the entrance; see if you get in or not; pay me then.

But what stopped me from even suggesting that was the looks people gave me. They weren't doubting looks. They were incredulous, snooty, dismissive looks.

You speak of MONEY, sir? You disturb the AESTHETIC of this LOBBY? How GAUCHE! This is an ART MUSEUM!

These are the same people who probably wrote poignant tweets when they encountered the Minimum Wage Machine, a performance piece in which anyone can turn a crank to produce a trickle of coins, which is exciting until you realize they are being disbursed at the rate of $8 per hour and gradually become depressed by the knowledge of how little that is.

Screw those people and their faux concern for the truly poor and their open disdain for the middle class. I'm glad I made them see me and my Target clothes and my perfectly good extra tickets.

(Yes, I'm sure I'm misjudging somebody in that line, but they'll live. Very well.)


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5/24 '15 11 Comments
Is MOMA even an "Art Museum," though? I'm not an art snob, I swear (I really dig MOMA), but I feel like it's become just a checkmark on a tourist's guide of THINGS TO DO IN NEW YORK. At my most cynical, I fear it's a big stack of paintings on top of an overpriced gift shop.
Wow, I wish I'd been there for this. You just had your own Occupy MOMA performance art exhibit and nobody juried it.
Seriously, I should have made a poster or something. Right now the sixth floor is showing a Yoko Ono retrospective. In 1971 she announced a show at MOMA, then when no one could find her work or any official acknowledgement of it, she explained she'd released flies in the lobby. Give it 44 years and that turns into a curated show of all your shitty hair-locket poems.
I could come back and do this with a cameraperson.
But then it would be planned. It's still tempting, though.
Jeez, you'd think any New Yorkers in line (or on line, as they say) would have taken you up on it just for the time saving factor, never mind the money.
That's an excellent point. It is quite possible that my read of their reactions was accurate, but none of them were from NYC.
WATCH YOUR STEP IN NEW YORK, MARABEL - THE WHOLE PLACE IS FULL OF HUCKSTERS AND CRIMINALS WHO WILL TAKE YOU FOR EV'RY HARD EARNED DOLLAR YOU HAVE IF YOU LET 'EM! WATCH OUT ESPECIALLY FOR ANYONE WHO TRIES TO SELL YOU ANYTHING ON THE STREET OR IN A MUSEUM LOBBY.
Point. I probably looked even shadier than I realize.
You weren't wearing that hat in your profile picture, were you? :-)
 

OK Philly, it's Primary Election Day! I'm voting for:

MAYOR: Jim Kenney. Not much of a surprise. Broad support for him. He's an honest guy, rooted in the community and highly intelligent. He's taught local government at Fels for years. I prefer his labor connections to Anthony Williams' charter school dollars. I think Kenney is our next consensus Mayor.

CITY COUNCIL AT LARGE:

Helen Gym: forced the Parking Authority to cough up their profits to the schools like they are required to. Saved the last public school in Nicetown.

Paul Steinke: successfully led the Reading Terminal Market in complex times.

Jenne Ayers: wonky in the right ways. Interested in data-driven do-gooding like the STRIVE partnerships in Cincinnati. A milliennial, for a change.

Tom Wyatt: the local community gardeners like him. (Hey, that's important in our household.)

Sherrie Cohen: key issues for her include libraries and public pools. Widely endorsed.

DISTRICT 1 CITY COUNCIL: Squilla's decent. Nobody's running against him. Zzzz.

HELL NO: Wilson Goode, Jr: a little bird tells me he "can't read a spreadsheet." Frank Rizzo, Jr.: accepted a DROP retirement plan the first time around; these were never meant for City Council. Blondell Reynolds-Brown: in hot water for ethics reasons in 2013.

NAH: Allan Domb is running a straight "I am good at the business things" campaign with no interesting ideas on what he'd do on council. We could do worse, but we could do better.

CITY COMMISSIONER: not excited about any of the Democrats, and I'm one. But in the general election I plan to vote for Al Schmidt, a Republican. He's got a deep resume and has been doing the job well for a while.

JUDGE OF THE ANYTHING: THIS SHOULD NOT BE AN ELECTED POSITION. WHAT. THE. FRICK. So, let the Philly Bar Association's website tell you who is at least a competent lawyer, and vote accordingly. See the comments.

BALLOT QUESTIONS

"Abolish the SRC and return control of schools to the City:" no. The state's not great, but we had corruption problems on our own, remember?

"Commission for women:" yes.

"City agencies to prepare plans for participation of those with limited English skills:" yes. Anything to anger Joey Vento's ghost.

"Commission on universal pre-kindergarten:" DEFINITELY.

See below for useful links for making up your own mind. (What, you're just going to vote my slate? Um, I mean, sure. Do that, thousands of you.)


Download a sample ballot:




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5/19 '15
 

I cannot stop playing this awesome little game.

You ramble around a tiny solar system, exploring and discovering crazy stuff. That's it. It's great. Still in alpha, way more fun than "finished" things I've played with.

After weeks of playing with absolutely no googlin' for spoilerz, I finally broke down and peeked at a playthrough to find out how the heck you land on that wacky disappearing moon. Turns out it's something I never use because the controls are difficult on a mac and I forget how to use stuff that seems less important. So I don't feel so badly about missing it.

Speaking of which, for the benefit of others who were horrified when that other page with the keyboard controls went down:

Outer Wilds Keyboard Controls

>> Player Controls <<

move - wasd
look - mouse
interact - e
jump - space
open/close map - m
toggle flashlight - f
toggle telescope - middle click
zoom in - left shift
zoom out - left ctrl

>> Probe Controls <<
launch probe - right click
forward snapshot - right click
reverse snapshot - q
retrieve probe - hold right click

>> Flight Controls <<
thrust horizontally - wasd
thrust up - left shift
thrust down - left ctrl
pitch/yaw - mouse
acquire target - left click
match velocity - space (target required)

>> Ship-Only Flight Controls <<
toggle landing camera - q
engage autopilot - r (target required)

Don't thank me, thank archive.org.

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4/12 '15 3 Comments
I finally broke down and wiki'd the two or three things I hadn't figured out, just to know there isn't More Out There in the alpha and get my brain back for a while. (: I look forward to the full version of the game.
Just watched the trailer. Looks frickin awesome.

I won't be downloading it.

Because it looks frickin awesome.
DAMMIT, TOM!!!!! I need an amusing and slightly challenging distraction like I need another hole in my head.
 

Riffing: check out NASA administrator Charles Bowden looking the Balrog straight in the eye and bellowing "you... shall... not... pass!"

Warning: Barbie wants to take your child's brain into the cloud. Brr brr brr brr brr!

Plumbing: I replaced a tub spout today. Super easy, but I'm proud of myself anyway. Except this one is super noisy when you fill the tub, so I've ordered a nice Delta faucet with a pull-down diverter. The kind that automatically switches off the diverter when you stop the water. Which means no galactic conflict in the bathroom.


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3/29 '15 2 Comments
Re Barbie, um wow.
That's so cute how Ted Cruz thinks the core of NASA's mission is to inspire little boys and girls across this country. Really cute. Maybe we can get him a space helmet for Moron's Day.
 

Reading: The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women. I bought it cuz Shari Lipkin's Valentines is in it. I dig that story.

The book is very uneven, some of the first stories in the book are poorly edited. Too many of them are lazy as science fiction. But others, like Alice Sola Kim's "The Other Graces," are excellent.

And truth be told, like most people I care more about an internally consistent story than I do about adhering to the tenets of "hard SF," although I admire that as a challenging creative constraint.

Wearing: I recently ordered three pairs of dockers online and they fit. Roberta approves of the way they fit. For a guy like me, that's a major fashion breakthrough.

I'm also wearing a super warm, super fuzzy flannel shirt. It doesn't match the pants, but it's a Saturday morning.

Planning: this weekend I'm gonna be a dead sexy man. I'm gonna be so dead sexy, I'm gonna install a shower diverter. Boom chickawaba.

Next week at P'unk Avenue we are celebrating our tenth anniversary. Holy crap. I've been there for most of that. Holy crap.

I am fortunate to work with friends and to look forward to work almost every day.




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3/28 '15 5 Comments
Home repairs are sexy. now I want a "men fixing things" calendar. You should be September.
Achievement Unlocked: BOB DYLAN
I cannot confirm or deny what the man in me will do, or what he might ask as compensation.

I have no comment on the utility of a woman like your kind vis-a-vis locating said man.

Offer may be void in the event of adverse weather conditions.

Delivery not available.

Statements made herein are the opinions of individual employees and not those of The Man In Me, Inc. or its successors and assigns.

Some assembly required.
Flannel shirts don't go with dockers?
They don't go with black slack-y dockers very well. They could go worse, I suppose.
 

By Canadian artist Marian Bantjes, this lovely illustration of a classic spam email is on display as part of the Fraktur exhibit at the Free Library of Philadelphia. I was amused. The show is free and well worth your time.

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3/20 '15 1 Comment
That is really pretty. Who'd of thought to make art out of spam?
 

Well, I have a cool job now. And I go dancing when I can. And that leaves... not a metric ton of spare creative energy.

Creativity strikes, but I rarely come home eager to write something epic outside of work. I tend toward the bon mot; the long-form stuff tends to flow at work. This is not uncommon for people in creative jobs.

But, when I read some of my past LJ posts, I am flabbergasted by the outpouring.

I was hungry, and angry, and excited, and amazed, discovering and rediscovering things. Right now I'm in a different sort of place.

That's okay? I guess? For now.

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2/7 '15 6 Comments
What sort of long-form writing do you do at work?
This is strange to read because in my mind, you invent the world. You're like our very own Tesla except not batshit.
I sometimes wish my online postings were as flabbergasting and outpour-a-licious as they once were.

Deep creativity looks different in different contexts and at different ages.

And here's an analogy I often think of, when I find I don't have the patience to sit down and hammer things out at the keyboard: You know when folks go to an event, and instead of watching the event and participating, they hold up a recording device of some kind? We all know those folks. We've even been those folks. At some point, though, we put the devices down, because we realize that in framing the experience we are putting ourselves outside the frame.

For me, online writing is a little like that. I'm so engaged in *being* creative that I don't want to put a keyboard between me and how I am living and processing that creativity. Or that life change. Or any big moment or shift.

After I've moved through those spaces, I might sit down and make note of it, but in the moment I'm generally choosing to savor events in ways outside of journaling and blogging.
Hey, right, the Heisenblogging problem.
You're SO CUTE.
It's all the open source stuff, and all the "client communication" (i.e. talking to customers), and all the internal discussion at work that takes up my "longer than 140 characters" capacity right now, I think.