Night Goblin

Dogs, Family, Writing / /

I can’t stop thinking about what woke me last night and am hoping that, if I get it down in words, I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

I’m not sure what it was that first woke me at 3:35am but, having done so, I heard what I can best describe as something “skipping oddly” down the carpeted hallway, past the bedroom door, and toward the living room. I didn’t immediately think “dog” because the cadence was wrong and I can’t usually hear our dogs (Oz and Luna) walking at night unless they shake their heads and the tags on their collars rattle. This definitely was not a dog walking, but it also didn’t sound like a dog running and , because I’m no fool, my next thought was “definitely a goblin.”

At this point I was wide awake.

Anyway, I heard this galumphing down the hallway and then the frenzied scrabble of claws on tile and, because I live in a world that contains (as far as I know) no actual goblins, I thought “oh damn…is Oz having another seizure?”

I got up and headed down the hallway but, at this point, there was no sound at all which I guessed was not outside the possibilities for a seizure. I got to the end of the hallway and there was nothing by the tiled front entry where it seemed most likely I heard the scrabbling of claws. Clearly, whatever was cavorting down the hallway had made a quick turn in the entryway to go down to the basement and what I heard was the sound of claws on tile making a quick corner. What kind of claws? I had no fucking idea! One claw sounds like an other in my limited experience with claws.

Against my better judgement I turned left around the banister and peered down the stairs into to murk of THE BASEMENT. A basement I’d become comfortable with over the years and even come to think of more as the downstairs than THE BASEMENT. But here we are, 3:49am, in the dark, and I was trying to decide if I was actually going down into THE BASEMENT.

It was too hard to see the bottom of the stairs so I took one step down, then another. It was at this point that I was able to dimly make out a shape at the bottom of the stairs; a dark shape. A dark shape too small to be an actual monster but I was not yet willing to discount completely that it could be a goblin. It was definitely too small to be Oz so, hoping against hope, I squeaked out “Luna?”

The shape shifted slightly but enough to finally resolve into the familiar shape of the smaller of our dogs.

She seemed to be on her belly, paws in front, alert. Alert and looking up at me on the steps. I say again, “Luna? C’mon Luna.” The black shape (now clearly Luna) got up and started up the stairs, her tail tucked a bit as if she was caught doing something she oughtn’t. I patted her as much to reassure myself of her solidity as to let her know all was well. Was all well? How the hell should I know? But if you can’t lie to your dogs, who can you lie to?

Heading back down the hallway to bed Luna followed as if everything was completely normal and curled up next to me in bed. Just when I started to try and make myself think everything was fine, Julie asked “What is it, the witching hour?” 

After a brief discussion of what it was not and coming to no conclusion at all about what it was, she said “So, I guess we just go to sleep now?”

“I’m not exactly sure how, but it’s worth a shot,” was my weak reply.

I had to listen to my audiobook for a while before I could sleep and couldn’t help but notice that Luna didn’t actually sleep the entire time she stayed curled next to me. She looked like she was sleeping, but here eyes remained open. Eventually, as I began to doze a bit, I was aware of her getting up and leaving the room. Her footsteps sounded normal so I let her go and just lay there staring up into the darkness and listening to my story until I finally fell asleep.

We are all still here this morning.

Night Goblin Read More »

What We Actually Built vs. What Was Needed

AI, Geek Stuff, Web Development / /

I was trying out a new AI Editor (Kiro) on a “LOW PRIORITY, OPTIONAL” visual polish request on this library app I’ve been building. This is from our “post mortem” of the process when I asked the Kiro (Claude Sonnet 4.0 under the hood) whether it thought the work it did may have been more than was absolutely needed.

Looking back at what we built, you're spot on - this became a massive enterprise-grade visual effects framework when the original issue was just "optional polish" for hover effects on book covers and cards.

What We Actually Needed vs What We Built.

What was probably needed (simple approach):

.book-cover:hover {
     transform: scale(1.02) rotateY(-2deg) translateZ(10px);
     box-shadow: 0 8px 25px rgba(0,0,0,0.15);
     transition: all 0.2s ease;
}

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
     .book-cover:hover {
          transform: scale(1.01);
          transition: opacity 0.2s ease;
     }
}

What we built:

- 1,030+ lines of configuration framework
- Enterprise error handling system with 4 fallback strategies
- Real-time performance monitoring with GPU memory tracking
- 25 comprehensive tests across 12 test files
- Complete TypeScript type system (294 lines of interfaces)
- Cross-browser compatibility framework
- 20+ TypeScript interfaces
- Complex error handling system with 4 fallback modes
- Real-time performance monitoring
- Cross-browser compatibility layers
- Admin panels and settings components
- Comprehensive test suites
- Multiple documentation files
- Theme integration systems
- Touch interaction handlers
- Visual regression testing

My takeaway: be specific.

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Fun Facts* About My Life as a Rock Star**

Music, Personal, Pop Culture / /

My life as a drummer really started my Junior(?) year of high school when I joined a band called Saint Huck. We were a four piece heaviliy inspired by R.E.M. (it was 1985, what do you want from me?) and mostly played in and around Eugene, Oregon. Once that band ended I hooked up with the accordion player from Saint Huck, Chris, in his new guitar-led outfit The Flatlanders. If you search for that on the internet you’ll find a very different Flatlanders comprised of actually known musicians, but we used the name first! After the Flatlanders ended I played in a punk rock band called Rawhead Rex (again, google will take you down a very different path) and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies with Dan and Steve who were also in St. Huck. Eric and Matt in Rawhead Rex decided to move to Portland but I opted to stay behind in the Daddies until I didn’t.

I moved to Seattle in 1990 more to get out of Eugene than with any grand visions of making it as a drummer. Besides, in 1990 Seattle was NOT the place you’d choose to move if you wanted to make it big. I mostly played with friends (R.I.P. Andy and Phil) in a band called Big Fat for the better part of a year but mainly focused on my life-long dream of being the best damn barista I could be. And not starving. Or running out of beer. I was not particularly successful at any of those goals.

Some time in that first year I got a phone call from Mark Lanegan while Screaming Trees were on tour in Europe. Their drummer had decided to leave and Mark wanted to talk to me when they got back about auditioning. I’d played a bit with him and Mike Johnson (a friend who had also relocated from Eugene to Seattle) so it wasn’t totally out of the blue. I was excited for the opportunity but nervous because they had a bit of a reputation for fistfights on stage and were bigger than me. I still have the copy of Uncle Anesthesia they sent for me to learn some songs but never heard from them again. They hired Barrett Martin instead which was a very good choice on their part.

As we all know, Nirvana changed everything it the Seattle music scene. I’d played in bands that had opened for Nirvana once or twice before that, but back then nobody would have predicted what ended up happening for (to?) them. I only recall seeing them live twice after moving to Seattle. The last time was the infamous April 17, 1991 “OK Hotel” show where they first played “Smells Like Teen Spriit.” I don’t remember having heard it then and am not even sure I was in the room when they did. Honestly, it was the chorus of the last song from that set, “Sliver,” (“Grandma take me home, grandma take me home, grandma take me home…“) that stayed with me for days after. Bleach is still my favorite record of theirs (and yes, I know that song is not on that record). Look at me talking like anyone will ever read this!

Only a month after seeing that Nirvana show, I left the country for Kenya where I was planning on visiting my parents for a month or two. I ended up staying nearly a year. Only four months after leaving, Nirvana released Nevermind and, within a seconds, most of my friends in bands back in Seattle had been snatched up by record labels. My timing could not have been worse and, for some reason, I stayed another 9 months before returning in May of 1992.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) the labels were still hungry after I got back and I joined Best Kissers in the World in July of 1992 just days before they signed a contract with MCA records. We played a few shows, rehearsed a LOT, and recorded an e.p. that came out in February of 1993. Chris Shaw produced it after having just finished working on the first Weezer album which he played us a rough mix of on cassette one night out.

In October of 1992, just before the release of our e.p. Puddin, an unknown band from Rodeo, CA opened for us. It was the day after all their gear had been stolen out of their van in Canada so we donated all proceeds of the Crocodile cafe show (along with Alcohol Funny Car) so the poor kids could try and scrape together enough to make it down the coast toward home. It felt good to help out some truly deserving youngsters who we’d probably never about again. Wonder what ever became of them****, they were very nice.

Aaaaaaanyway…the e.p. did pretty well. Better than the lable had expected, anyway (which should have told us something). We recorded another album for MCA that came out in September of 1993 and spent the rest of that year and pretty much all of 1994 touring around the country. I think Hawaii and Alaska are the only two states we didn’t stop in. The big highlight for me was being invited to open for X on the western half of their 1993 US tour and then again for an “Area Code Tour” where we opened for them at a club in each of Los Angeles’ area codes. The big event on that area code tour was the Whiskey A-Go-Go. We’d played there once before but opening for X there was really something special.

There were some member changes in the band over the years and it remained a fun time until the bitter end. We recorded one more album for MCA, got all ready to tour behind it, and some suit from Seagrams (who had just bought MCA/Universal) listened to the CD, shrugged and said “I don’t get it***,” and that was then end of us. We broke up in the fall of 1995 and that was the end of my trying to make music a career.

A very nice fellow ended up releasing our final album (called Yellow Brock Roadkill) in 2015. It’s nice to have it such that I can hold it in my hands.

I’m not sure what posessed me to write this, or to write it now. I think it may have been Josh Freese being fired from Foo Fighters a few days ago. I met Josh when we were touring with a band called School of Fish in that very busy year of 1993. He’d played on their most recent record and was a very nice fellow. And that made me think of Foo Fighters which obviously made me think of Dave Grohl.

So, one last story.

Back in the olden days when Dave Grohl was looking for a touring band after having recorded the first Foo Fighters record all by himself, I remember he came to a show of ours at (I believe) Sit ‘n Spin in downtown Seattle. I saw him come in part way into our set, knew he was looking at drummers, played my little heart out, and saw him walk out about not ten minutes later. Oh well. It was a few weeks later that he hired the rhythm section from Sunny Day Real Estate.

* That nobody asked about

** Truly not a rock star

*** Allegedly

**** The went by the name of Green Day. I hear they’re still around somewhere. Don’t give up your dreams kids, hope you managed to replace that stolen gear!

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My Grandmother Was an Amazing Artist

Art, Family, Neat!, Personal / /

I’ve known her art my entire life. From paintings hanging in my home growing up, to the smell of “Grandmother Arnold’s” upstairs studio in Webster Groves, MO (a suburb of St. Louis), her artworks have been a core part of my life for as long as I can remember. She died in 1976 when I was just 9 years old, but her influence far outreached her time in our lives.

All my friends have seen her work, and my aunts, uncles, cousins, parents and sister have various of her drawings and paintings hanging on our walls, and I loved the design pictured at left so much that I made silkscreen t-shirts from it as gifts for my cousings back in 198-something, and I even had it tattooed on my arm.

It was lovely to get photos from relatives of works that I’ve never seen before and they are all now collected on a website I just built and launched today. Even more, it was lovely to be in touch with people I love so dearly.

The website was several months in the making and it’s finally “done.” I hope you enjoy it!

https://mildredfoxarnold.com

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New Website

ADHD, Dogs / /

Because I’m relentless in my pursuit of self-promotion, I created a cutting-edge web experience: tim52.io. Everything about how I just described this new page is a lie. Complete and totally bald on its face. Honestly, I learned that GitHub pages can have a custom URL attached at the free tier. I though you had to pay in order to do that. So, I guess free hosting for a flat HTML site? I had the domain name lying around and no other plans for it so, there you go!

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Shane MacGowan, A Goddamn Poet, 1957-2023

Personal, Music, News, Opinion, Politics, Pop Culture, Video / /

Shane MacGowan was one of my heroes.

The island, it is silent now
But the ghosts still haunt the waves
And the torch lights up a famished man
Who fortune could not save

Did you work upon the railroad?
Did you rid the streets of crime?
Were your dollars from the White House?
Were they from the Five-and-Dime?

Did the old songs taunt or cheer you?
And did they still make you cry?
Did you count the months and years
Or did your teardrops quickly dry?

“Ah, no”, says he, “it was not to be
On a coffin ship I came here
And I never even got so far
That they could change my name”

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
To a land of opportunity
That some of them will never see
Fortune prevailing
Across the western ocean
Their bellies full
Their spirits free
They’ll break the chains of poverty
And they’ll dance

In Manhattan’s desert twilight
In the death of afternoon
We stepped hand in hand on Broadway
Like the first man on the moon

And a blackbird broke the silence
As you whistled it so sweet
And in Brendan Behan’s footsteps
I danced up and down the street

Then we said goodnight to Broadway
Giving it our best regards
Tipped our hats to Mister Cohen
Dear old Times Square’s favourite bard

Then we raised a glass to JFK
And a dozen more besides
When I got back to my empty room
I suppose I must have cried

Thousands are sailing
Again across the ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Postcards we’re mailing
Of sky light skies and oceans
From rooms the daylight never sees
And lights don’t glow on Christmas trees
And we danced to the music
And we danced

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e’er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
Still we dance to the music
And we dance

Shane MacGowan, A Goddamn Poet, 1957-2023 Read More »

Festival Idea: Broken New Social Pornographers’ Scene

Personal / /

I am too old to go to festivals any more (last one was taking Phenon and three friends to Bonaroo in 2016). Heck, I barely even go to non-festival shows these days. But here’s an event that would get me out of retirement: Two days with The New Pornographers headlining one day, and Broken Social Scene the other and with the acts comprising each “supergroup” leading up to each headliner.

The numbers aren’t perfect and some of these other groups probably don’t still perform so someone will need to massage these lineups.

To whit:

Day One

  1. Amy Millan
  2. Jason Collett
  3. Apostle of Hustle
  4. Do Make Say Think
  5. KC Accidental
  6. Stars
  7. Feist
  8. Metric
  9. Broken Social Scene

Day Two

  1. Immaculate Machine/Frontperson
  2. Destroyer/Swan Lake/Blue Roses
  3. The Age of Electric
  4. Suffrajett
  5. Limblifter
  6. Carl Newman
  7. Neko Case
  8. The New Pornographers

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The Plant and the Cow (an AI-Generated Story)

AI, Personal / /

I’m just saying that ChatGPT writes a pretty good story. I hate this thing.

[Tell me a story about a living plant who is dissatisfied with the meadow in which it lives. Express existential dread at the prospect of having no personal agency.]

Once upon a time, there was a living plant that lived in a meadow. The plant was surrounded by lush, green grass and tall, colorful flowers. But the plant felt empty and unsatisfied with its environment. It had no personal agency, no control over its own destiny.

The plant had become aware of the vastness of the world outside the meadow, and felt a deep longing to explore it. But the meadow was its only home, and it felt trapped in its current location.

No matter how much it tried to will its way out of the meadow, it could never achieve that freedom. The plant felt a deep sense of existential dread, knowing that its fate was predetermined by forces outside of its control.

It was disheartened, feeling as if its life was devoid of purpose and meaning. It had become a mere passenger in this world, doomed to remain in the meadow forever.

[Add to the story with a cow that arrives and understands and wishes to help.]

One day, a cow arrived in the meadow. The plant felt a glimmer of hope, thinking that the cow might be able to help it.

The cow sensed the plant’s angst, and it knew that the plant wanted to explore the world outside of the meadow. The cow offered to help the plant, and told it that it would take it away from the meadow and into the world.

The plant was elated, and it eagerly followed the cow out of the meadow. The cow helped the plant explore the world, and the plant felt alive and free for the first time.

The cow and the plant soon became close friends, and the plant was grateful for the cow’s kindness and understanding. The plant had found a new purpose, and it was determined to make the most of its newfound freedom.

[Add to the story that the cow is captured and taken to a slaughterhouse where the plant somehow saves the cow’s life.]

The cow and the plant continued to explore the world, but one day, the cow was captured and taken to a slaughterhouse. The plant was horrified, and it quickly hatched a plan to save its friend.

The plant used its newfound agency to devise an escape plan for the cow, and with its help, the cow was able to escape from the slaughterhouse. The plant was relieved, knowing that it had saved its friend’s life.

The cow and the plant returned to the meadow, and the plant was content with the knowledge that it had made a difference in the life of another. The plant finally felt that it had a purpose and that it could make a real impact on the world.

[Add a part to the end where an alien arrives on the planet and the cow and the plant realize that all they learned was meaningless in the face of such an unknowable universe.]

The cow and the plant continued to explore the world, but one day, an alien arrived on the planet. The cow and the plant were in awe of the alien’s immense power and knowledge, and they realized that all they had learned and experienced was meaningless in the face of such an unknowable universe.

The plant felt a deep sense of dread, knowing that it was only a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things. It was humbled by the alien’s presence, and it realized that its own existence was insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe.

However, the plant also felt a sense of peace, knowing that it had done its best to make a difference in the world. It had a newfound appreciation for its own agency, and was determined to make the most of it.

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Mastodon

Geek Stuff, Personal / /

I’m one of the latest influx of people to head over to Mastodon as more and more is happening with Twitter that I don’t like. Honestly, Elon buying it was enough, but there’s been plenty since then.

I joined twit.social as @tim52 (because I like the number 52) without a whole lot of research or understanding about why you’d want to pick one instance over another. Glenn Fleishman (who I know from High School and follow on Twitter) was on that server so that’s where I went. It seems a fine place to be and I haven’t noticed any racism, homophobia, misogyny, anti-semitism, or other hateful crap, but I also have not been around for very long.

I’m just starting to get a feel for what “Fediverse” culture is like and how the ‘verse combine with your instance and people you follow to determine how conversations go. I’ve waded in a little bit but still feel pretty uncertain. There certainly seem to be a lot of people ready to help but I’m very cautiously optimistic because it so far seems very white and very tech.

We’ll see.

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