Marc Amos’ Journal

Writing again

2020-05-29T00:24:01Z

Sure, ~~I write on Twitter~~ a bunch and I’ve written a few things on my company’s blog—though, even over there it’s been 9 years—but it’s been more than 14 years since I’ve written anything resembling a personal blog post.

So, here I go with a new ~~blog post~~ journal entry.

For the record, I think journal entry sounds a bit nicer; it’s probably my old age.

I’ve got a list of topics I aim to write about; some are personal, some are professional, some are technical, and some are silly. It’s really going to be all over the place, kind of like a messy (but hopefully well-written) brain dump.

I’m going to try like hell to write often and if you’d like to be notified when I do, there’s an ATOM feed you can subscribe to ~~and I’ll spam my Twitter account, so go follow me~~.

P.S. It’s been a while and my writing muscle is weak, so please bear with me as I fumble with spelling, grammar, etc. Oh, also, this website is brand new, so it may have bugs and/or missing features that’ll get sorted over time.

Until I write again!

The definition of success

2020-05-30T01:12:30Z

On April 12^th 2012 my very good friend, Matt, passed away after battling dermatomyositis.

There are so many things I could write about him, our friendship, his unexpected illness, what his death did to his family and friends … ugh … but for now I want to share a poem that was distributed during his viewing/wake:

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading that poem, in that moment, hit me hard — Matt was the embodiment of every line.

I think about Matt quite a bit, and whenever I do my thoughts eventually drift to this poem. It’s a nice reminder of what’s important in life, and what isn’t.

Hot peanuts recipe

2020-06-03T00:30:28Z

Here’s what they look like just before going into the oven.

Ingredients

6 cups of unsalted cocktail peanuts
6 tablespoons of lime juice
3.25 tablespoons of chili powder
1 tablespoon of Milpas Pico de Gallo seasoning
4 teaspoons of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

Steps

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of your oven and preheat it to 250℉
Whisk everything except the peanuts in a large bowl
Add all peanuts to the large bowl, and toss to coat
Divide the coated peanuts between two large, rimmed baking sheets
Bake them for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes
Let them cool completely

One-egg cooking pot

2020-06-17T16:34:27Z

Every night, as we tuck-in our kids, our four year old asks me…

Dad, can you

check on me, and

ask mom to check on me, and

make one egg in a one-egg cooking pot, and

ask mom to make me a breakfast drink?

He’s asked this every night for almost a year now and I’m going to miss the hell out of it when he stops.

P.S. This is the one-egg cooking ~~pot~~ pan he’s referring to; we use one to make fried-egg sandwiches most weekend mornings.

Our new Intex pool

2020-07-06T19:23:20Z

Sharon and I decided to get the kids a pool and ended up buying the Intex® 12' by 30" Metal Frame Pool Set (SKU: 28211EH). I use the term ended up buying because stock was so low everywhere we looked, we were lucky to find anything at all.

While we waited for it to arrive, we knew we had to level an area of our sloped yard, so we decided to dig the high side down instead of building the low side up because ~~we’re~~ I’m cheap and didn’t want to buy the necessary materials. It’s free to dig, I declared, and I could foresee built-up material being washed out by heavy rain, and I ain’t having that.

The whole family got involved and we took photos of most of the process:

We decided where we wanted the center of the pool to be, put a stake in the ground, tied a six-foot long string to it, and used some orange spray paint to define exactly where we needed to dig.

First, we dug up the sod along the orange line…

…then we dug up the rest of it.

Then we started digging down, because this section of the yard is far from level.

We kept digging…

…and digging. When we thought we might be close to having a level surface…

…I used a string level to check. We repeated the dig and check routine until, eventually, it was good enough for pool Jazz.

We then used an 8 x 8 inch tamper to help flatten and compress the small rocks and loose dirt.

Once the surface seemed flat and compacted enough, we put interlocking rubber mats down hoping they’d protect the pool from any small rocks we didn’t remove and make it a little more comfortable. This was when it became clear just how uneven the surface still was, which was a little sad, but we pushed on…

…and finished after making some basic cuts and running a broom over it a few times.

Next, we put down a 12 by 16 foot tarp. It’s smaller than I’d prefer, but it was the only one we had on hand and we wanted to keep moving forward. Next spring, before we set the pool up again, we’ll replace it with a larger one.

We put a toddler’s plastic pool in the center of the hole and said, “The new pool’s ready!” to our kids; their reactions ranged from genuine concern to exaggerated eye-rolling, so I punched a new hole on my Dad Card®

With the ground pretty much done, it was time to start building the (real) pool; the instructions suggested rolling it out and letting it warm up in the sun for a while to make it easier to work with, so that’s what we did.

It was much easier than expected to set up its frame and legs; it probably took us ten minutes at most.

We carried it over to the hole and plopped it in, then realized the hole was just a little too small; a couple of the legs had to be angled inward and inch or two. That said, once it was filled with water, the liner bulged out and pinned the legs in position, so we didn’t bother to make any corrections. Next spring, before setting it up again, we’ll widen the hole a bit.

Setting up the connections, hoses, and the filter-pump was relatively easy.

The instructions suggest walking around in the pool and nudging the liner’s floor outward with your feet as it fills up with water; it worked, because there are no annoying wrinkles.

All three boys got their bathing suits on and hopped in … but it was cold. Only the oldest boy stuck with it for more than 10 minutes because, well, he’s part fish.

Three and a half hours and 1,720 gallons later, it was full…

…so the boys jumped back in and had the time of their lives.

All that remains is getting rid of this pile of dirt and rocks.

It’s been about a month since we set the pool up and there are a few things we’ve learned along the way, and plenty of things we still need to figure out:

As shown above, the hole would benefit from being a little wider and flatter.
The tarp is too small; on two sides it doesn’t go up and over the wall of dirt, and that dirt has caved in. Nothing bad has come of that, yet, but it wouldn’t surprise us if it becomes a problem before the season ends.
We thought we’d need a ladder, but even our youngest boy can hop in / out on his own.
We have no idea how long the pump should run and the manual only says Filter run time depends on pool size, weather and usage level. So, we tend to let it run for about 8 hours a day on days we think the pool will be used … but we’re not sure if it should run every day, regardless of use — time will tell as we figure this out.

Also, the chemicals … ugh, we’re still figuring that out, too. For example:

When do we need to use 'shock'?
How often do we replace the chlorine tablets?
How many chlorine tablets … which size tablets?

The instructions on these things are very hand-wavy with specifics—just like the pump’s manual, it all depends on weather, usage level, etc. So, we picked up a water testing kit and our first test showed that our water was a little too acidic; a quick search told us we could add baking soda to move the needle closer to alkaline, so that’s what we did and a few hours later the water looked much better.

Add DuckDuckGo-powered search to your website

2020-07-07T20:08:30Z

Copy and paste the HTML below
On the second line, change the value attribute to your website’s URL

<form method="get" action="https://duckduckgo.com/">
    <input type="hidden" name="sites" value="https://your-url-here.com">
    <label for="search">Search</label>
    <input type="search" id="search" name="q">
    <button type="submit">Go</button>
</form>

Update: March 21, 2025

The above was utilized on this website for nearly five years, but I switched over to using PageFind on a dedicated Search page.

A near miss

2021-01-09T16:23:00Z

Back in 2002 I was on my motorcycle, sitting here in traffic, feeling sweaty and frustrated. It was a hot summer day and I was wearing jeans, a shirt, a leather jacket, gloves, and a full-face helmet while sitting a few inches above a 195 degree engine.

So, yeah, very sweaty.

In the rare moments the car in front of me inched forward, it would take a few seconds to lift my foot off the ground, put the bike in gear, let out the clutch, twist the throttle a bit, and move forward as well. After doing this for (what seemed like) the millionth time, I decided there was no reason to keep up, so I hung back a while until there was a decent amount of ground to cover … which was a good decision because otherwise I would’ve been hit by a truck.

Driving towards me in the opposite lane, a truck nonchalantly drifted into the gap ten feet in front of me. I froze as it crossed my lane and, maintaining its speed, slammed into the convenience store to my right with enough force to lift the rear wheels into the air.

After I shook the what just happened feeling, I looked over my right shoulder and saw a few people trying to pry the driver’s door open. I wish I could tell you that I tried to help, but I didn’t, and sitting here now I’m not sure why; I was less mature? Less empathetic? A jerk?

All of the above.

An adventure in United States healthcare

2021-01-10T03:21:00Z

I know this is minor compared to what others have dealt with, but it’s the worst I’ve experienced … so far.

During a recent checkup, my doctor suggested that I get a mole on my back looked at by a dermatologist.
I made an appointment with the dermatologist that my doctor recommended.
At the appointment, I’m told the mole should be removed and biopsied.
Would you like to do it right now, they asked.
I replied, No, I’d like to determine how much this will cost; I’ll be in touch.
I called my insurance company and asked, Based on my plan, how much will having a mole removed cost me?
They replied, We can provide you with an estimate if you provide us with the procedure codes, which you can get from the dermatologist.
I called the dermatologist and said, I was there the other day and was told I should have a mole removed; I want to get an estimate from my insurance company first, and they need procedure codes from you.
They gave me two codes.
I called my insurance company back, explained everything again, gave them the two codes, and was told I’ll get an estimate in a few days.
I received the estimate: $91.92.
I decided that’s an amount I’m willing to pay, so I made the appointment.
I have the procedure done; 40 minutes of waiting on a table, 5 minutes of numbing the area, and 15 seconds of slicing.
A couple of weeks later I received a bill for $604.00. Am I even surprised? Nope.
I called the insurance company and was told, the initial estimate wasn’t wrong, your share of the cost is $91.92 for the two codes provided, however there were other fees such as the biopsy and a facility charge.
I called the dermatologist, transferred to the billing department, and was told the same thing, this procedure incurred a cost from the dermatologist, the biopsy process, and the facility that the dermatologist uses.

I don’t know when, during this process, being an average person with average questions bit me in the ass, but I think it was around step #8 or #9. When I called the dermatologist to ask for codes, they interpreted my request as only the codes that apply to the process of removing a mole – the numbing and the cutting.

Maybe I’m naive, but I’d like to think the dermatologist would’ve been, you know, human and said something along the lines of, just in case you weren’t aware, there are going to be other codes associated with this procedure, but nah, they didn’t.

So, I’ll chalk this up to a lesson learned: next time I’ll either ask more questions about the various layers and their codes, or I’ll just go to a local clinic instead.

Oh, and the biopsy results came back clear/negative.

If it rained food

2021-03-05T13:15:00Z

This morning, while the five of us ate breakfast, I asked everyone, If you could turn rain into one type of food, what would it be?

Noah, age 5: cake
Jonathan, age 7: pistachios
Will, age 9: pizza
Sharon, age forever 24: potato chips with French onion dip
Dad, age ancient: lightly salted cashews

My favorite music as of March 2021

2021-03-16T04:05:00Z

Inspired by Joe’s An album a day project, I thought I’d do something similar, but which requires far less commitment: share what I’m listening to that’s on heavy rotation every once in a while.

As I seem to have two– or three–month long cycles in which I discover new artists, albums, or songs to obsess over—and eventually tire of—I’m officially committing to doing this again (and again) in the future. It’ll become a series of some sort; every two or three months I’ll write a new entry that shares the music that I’ve been very into since the last entry.

This series will be tagged favorite music, which will make it easy to follow along.

George Clanton

George Clanton—that’s right, Clanton and not Clinton—has a handful of albums that range from very good to extremely perfect.

Listen to George Clanton on your favorite streaming service.

Cobra Man

With a name like that, how can you not be intrigued?

Listen to Cobra Man on your favorite streaming service.

That’s it for the first entry in this series. I genuinely look forward to writing another one once I discover new music to obsess over…

There are a bunch of us!

2021-03-23T01:41:00Z

In a rare moment of boredom, I searched the internet for other Marc Amoses and found these fine people…

This Marc Amos is a Strategic Talent Program Leader at Cummins, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio.

This Marc Amos is an Assistant District Attorney at the Sixteenth Circuit Court in Mississippi.

This Marc Amos is a Technician at iScape in Queensland, Australia.

This Marc Amos is a Project Manager at Eversheds Sutherland in Birmingham, West Midlands.

This Marc Amos is a General Manager Social Enterprise at McCallum Disability Services, Inc, in Melbourne, Victoria.

This Marc Amos is the Owner of Aimsworx in Denver, Colorado.

This Marc Amos was an Immigration Attorney at Amos & Amos, PLLC in Goochland, Virginia.

My favorite music as of July 2021

2021-07-13T21:21:00Z

It’s time for another entry in my “favorite music” series … and it’s a bit late because, honestly, I can’t stop listening to George Clanton (who I mentioned in the last entry in this series).

That said, there is one new album that’s getting a lot of play lately…

Fat White Family: Serfs Up!

Mark Twain’s sister, Shania, once said: don’t judge an album by its cover, but I can’t help it: this album’s cover is bad. It don’t impress me much.

The songs, however, are absolutely fantastic and that’s all that matters:

Listen to Serfs Up! on your favorite streaming service.

“I didn’t see any stooges”

2021-08-13T21:15:00Z

There’s a DVD player in our minivan and when we take a long road-trip we let the boys watch a movie to give us some peace and quiet (it’s ahhhhh-mazing).

At the start of a recent road-trip, Sharon pulled out a couple DVDs that she picked up at a yard-sale, one of which was a classic: The Three Stooges. I immediately said, oh man, give them that one. They love that type of stuff — hell, they practically live The Three Stooges life without even knowing it. We gave them the DVD and began our road-trip.

For about 20 minutes there was nothing but silence from the boys and I distinctly remember saying to Sharon, Weird, I really thought this would make them laugh.

You can probably guess where this is heading…

A little while later, our 9 year old said, Mom, dad, there are some bad words in this movie, and I assumed he meant bad words such as jerk or idiot, etc. I told him, It’s OK, that’s just how the Stooges are (or something along those lines).

90 minutes later they took their headphones off and our 7 year old said, “I didn’t see any Stooges,” and it finally dawns on us: Sharon and I didn’t open the DVD case to see the disc inside — what did they just watch?

Sharon reached back, found the eject button, and grabbed the disc: Office Space.

Eh; it could’ve been much worse.

Patriot (TV show)

2021-09-27T19:47:00Z

Sharon and I are nearing the end of season two of what is one of the best shows we’ve seen to date, and we just learned it’s not being renewed for a third season.

What the hell, Amazon?

I want to tell everybody to watch it because the story is unique, the characters are amazing, the cinematography is beautiful, and, ugh it’s just so good. Now I can’t, and won’t … but if you’re a masochist, here’s a trailer to get you in the mood:

A drip coffee maker brewing / timing tip

2021-11-05T20:43:00Z

I was last-week-years old when I learned something about coffee that—I’m embarrassed to admit—I should’ve known decades ago: if a drip coffee maker isn’t yet finished and you grab the carafe to pour yourself a cup, two things are probably true:

that cup of coffee is going to be stronger than you may want, and
the remaining coffee is going to be weaker than you may want.

Best to let the entire thing finish, blend a bit, then you pour the first cup.

A typical weekday: second half of 2021

2021-12-04T19:15:00Z

I think it’ll be interesting—and nostalgic—to look back at this series, many years from now, to see how my life changes over time.

This series will be tagged “typical weekday”, which will make it easy to follow along.

I wake up at 6:45 am and Sharon and I make coffee, breakfast for the boys, and help get them and ourselves ready for the day.

At 7:30 am, the boys and I head out the door and I drive them to their school; fortunately they go to the same school at the moment, so it’s just one stop for me.

I’m in the office by 8:15 am and I spend 30 - 45 minutes taking care of non-development work such as reading and writing emails, financial status checks, and seeing what’s happening in a few different Slack teams.

Between then and about 11 am I do the real work, which is writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or taking meetings with clients to discuss new or ongoing projects.

At 11 am I’m ready for lunch—the most important part of the day—so I/we usually visit one of the local places for dine-in or take-out.

Depending on the length of lunch, I’m back in the office sometime between 11:30 am and 12:00 pm, and I catch up on any new emails.

After lunch, it’s coffee time, so I go and brew (or buy) that.

I get back to the real work around 11:45 am – 12:15 pm, depending on how long lunch was.

Around 2 pm, if the weather isn’t terrible, I’ll sometimes take a 15 – 20 minute walk around downtown Beverly with one/both of my coworkers. It’s a nice way to clear my head and, sometimes, it’s when I come up with solutions to coding problems I’m having.

Depending on the length of lunch and the afternoon walk, I’m usually back to the real work again around 2:30 pm, and that continues until I’m done working for the day, which is…

Around 4:45 pm, I wrap up the real work and spend the next 10 or so minutes checking emails again, and looking at the next day’s schedule to make sure there are no surprises.

By 5 pm I’m in my truck and on my way home for dinner.

Around 5:15 pm – 5:30 pm, I’m sitting down for dinner with my family and we chat about the day, etc.

The time between 6 pm and about 7:15 pm is probably the least consistent time of my day; there’s numerous things I could be doing primarily based on what’s happening with the boys.

Around 7:15 pm, we start introducing the concept of bed time to the boys—it’s a surprise to them every night.

By 7:45 pm we’ve tucked the boys into their beds and Sharon and I are on our own. We’ll generally do one or more of a handful of things:

One/both of us may tackle a work-related thing on our computer
We’ll watch an episode or two of a show
We’ll pick up around the house
I’ll play a video game while she does a task she planned to do
One of us will go hang out with a friend while the other stays home and does something mentioned above

By 10 pm, maybe 10:30 pm, we’re both ready for bed … which really means we lay in bed and read for a while. Sharon usually reads a book on her phone while I’m doing the same, or reading a physical book, or just perusing the internet.

I personally tend to go lights out and fall asleep between 11:00 pm - 11:30 pm.

My favorite music as of December 2021

2021-12-17T01:46:00Z

It’s winter now, nearly Christmas, and I’ve finally moved on from George Clanton … to Magdalena Bay, who are very similar .

I have a couple of non-synth-pop favorites, too…

Magdalena Bay: Mercurial World

Sharon and I saw this duo live in Boston a few months ago and I had no idea who they were at the time. Their on-stage presence was, uh, interesting, and their music was absolutely fantastic; here are some of my favorite tracks:

Listen to Mercurial World on your favorite streaming service.

Dougie Poole: The Freelancer’s Blues

This is one of those rare albums where every song is great; I’m literally just embedding four of them at random:

Listen to The Freelancer’s Blues on your favorite streaming service.

James McMurtry: Live in Aught-Three

It was about 6 years ago that I developed a taste for the folk-rock/Americana music genre and I consider this album to be my absolute favorite example of it:

Listen to Live in Aught-Three on your favorite streaming service.

A log of the books I read

2021-12-22T19:10:00Z

I thought it’d be nice to start logging the books I read, so I whipped up a reading list. It goes back a number of years, but due to my lousy memory the details get foggy the farther down you scroll; that said, I plan to keep it accurate from here on out.

So, yeah, go check it out – there’s now a link to it in the main navigation.

Tacoma log

2022-03-12T23:40:00Z

Last summer I bought my first new vehicle: a 2021 Toyota Tacoma. As a few Tacoma owners would confess, “I’ve wanted one since I saw it in Back to the Future,” and as I’m at the mid-life crisis age—when is that anyway, 40’ish?—I said screw it and pulled the trigger.

Since it’s a new vehicle that I’ll hopefully own for a very long time, I thought it’d be neat to log its various milestones and modifications. Yeah, this feels a bit dorky to do but whatever; I think it’ll be neat to look back at how the truck has changed years from now.

Check it out: 2021 Toyota Tacoma log.

A dinner opinion

2022-03-20T23:56:00Z

Tonight, shortly before dinner, our six year old said to us, mom, dad, what’s for dinner I don’t like that. No pause to wait for us to answer him—just straight to …I don’t like that.

He was right, though; he didn’t like the dinner we served.

Jonathan’s first book

2022-05-07T16:05:00Z

Without any encouragement or knowledge on our part, our eight year old son wrote and illustrated a book.

Sharon and I read it and were blown away; it has illustrations, a legitimate spin towards the end, and it’s part of a forthcoming series! It is a bit dark and Sharon and I were slightly concerned at first, but in the end it’s mind-blowing that he wrote it at all, so we’re going with it and encouraging him to make progress on the second book. Who knows, maybe he’ll become the next Stephen King (minus the weird underage sex stuff that happened in IT).

Naturally, I made a website for him so it can be shared; take a look: The Neighbor’s House: Dead Pieces

Smooth snailing

2022-05-15T01:08:00Z

The iPhone 13’s macro photo mode captured a nice shot:

Our COVID-19 log

2022-05-25T20:38:00Z

Thursday, May 12^th, late afternoon: Will (10 years old) says he is really tired; we attribute it to a jogging contest thing he participated in at school earlier in the day.
Friday, May 13^th
1. Morning: Will falls asleep on the couch after breakfast, before school.
2. Early afternoon: The school’s nurse calls to say Will is very tired and nearly asleep in her office, …but, otherwise, has no symptoms….
3. After school: Sharon takes Will’s temperature and it reads 102° Fahrenheit. He’s given a rapid home test and it clearly shows he is COVID-19 positive. He immediately goes to his bedroom to isolate and everybody else puts on a mask.
4. Evening: Sharon and I
  - start texting people to let them know,
  - cancel all plans for the coming 7 - 10 days,
  - and make appointments to get PCR tests for everyone except Will.
Saturday, May 14^th
1. Morning: Everyone except Will goes to the local urgent care to take PCR tests.
2. General: We buckle down, keep Will isolated in his bedroom, and spend time in and around the house and yard. (This is the part of lockdown that I enjoy.)
3. Evening: Will starts to feel better.
Sunday, May 15^th
1. Morning: Jonathan (8 years old) tells us he’s feeling very tired.
2. Afternoon:
  - We take Jonathan’s temperature and it reads 103° Fahrenheit. We give him a rapid home test and it shows he is COVID-19 positive. He immediately goes to his bedroom to isolate.
  - Will feels great.
3. Evening:
  - We’re wondering if Saturday morning’s PCR test results are coming soon… hopefully… please?
  - Noah (6 years old) sleeps on our bedroom floor because he can’t spend the night in the bunk-bed he shares with Jonathan.
Monday, May 16^th
1. Morning: Noah, Sharon, and I take rapid home tests. Despite showing zero symptoms, Noah is COVID-19 positive. Sharon and I are negative.
2. Late morning: Jonathan feels great.
3. Afternoon: Saturday morning’s PCR test results finally come in and they report that Noah, Jonathan, Sharon, and I are negative—or, we were negative back on Saturday morning. So … it’s useless information at this point.
Tuesday, May 17^th
1. Morning: Sharon and I take rapid home tests; we’re both negative again.
2. Evening: Sharon feels a bit achy and has a sore throat.
Wednesday, May 18^th
1. Morning: Sharon and I take yet another rapid home test and we’re negative again.
2. Early afternoon: Sharon visits CVS for a second PCR test due to still having a sore throat.
Thursday, May 19^th
1. Morning: Will goes back to school.
2. Evening: Sharon’s second PCR test result comes in: negative (but, she’s still feeling somewhat lousy).
Friday, May 20^th
- Morning: Sharon takes a fourth rapid home test: positive.
- Morning: I also take a fourth rapid home test: negative.
Saturday, May 21^st, morning: I take a fifth rapid home test: negative.
Sunday, May 22^nd, morning: I take a sixth rapid home test: negative.
Monday, May 23^rd
- Morning: I take a seventh rapid home test: negative.
- Morning: Jonathan and Noah go back to school.
Tuesday, May 24^th, morning: I take an eighth rapid home test: negative.
Wednesday, May 25^th, morning: I take a ninth rapid home test: negative.

General thoughts

The whole isolate the infected from the uninfected thing didn’t go that well after the evening of Sunday the 15^th. Whether it was kids forgetting to keep their mask on, or the daily who’s positive now surprise, or Sharon and I thinking screw this, lets just get it over with, we definitely didn’t isolate as well as we could’ve.
Despite testing positive on a rapid home test, Noah never had a fever, never showed any symptoms, and never said he was tired, achy, etc.
Sharon had to bail on what would’ve been a great work-related trip to Wisconsin; I know she was looking forward to that so much.
We missed a lot of baseball—both practices and games—and I’m a little sad about that.
I never felt lousy, showed any symptoms, or tested positive.

Ten and a half

2022-05-31T12:20:00Z

On this day, back in 1989, my dad passed away at 30 years old.

I was about ten and a half at the time; only old enough to create and retain a few memories that have lasted this long: the way he looked, what he drove (how odd is that?), and a handful of vacation-like events we enjoyed together.

There are so many other things I cannot remember: his voice, his general personality, or any day-to-day interactions he had with my sister, my mom, myself…

My oldest son is now about ten and a half and I sometimes find myself thinking: if I were to go tomorrow, he and his brothers will have access to so many videos of me, and I’m glad they’d have them because the same is not true for me and my dad … and that sucks.

A six year old’s grocery list

2022-07-30T21:11:00Z

According to Noah we need cookies, millk, bred, sereols, wodrmelin, bunaz(?), graps, oreo, eeg / egg, and selsr.

I love this.

Update: In April of 2023, he wrote another adorable grocery list.

Funk’s old brother

2022-08-14T23:15:00Z

Sharon, the boys, and I were driving somewhere a few days ago; we were listening to the radio and Fatboy Slim’s The Rockafeller Skank came on.

A moment later I heard Sharon singing along: Right about now, the funk’s old brother, check it out now, the funk’s old brother….

I love her so much.

P.S. If you’ve not heard the song, these are the actual lyrics, and here it is on YouTube.

pspsps

2022-11-03T12:34:00Z

I’m generally not a person who puts stickers on their vehicle—well, except for this one (#3 Silly sticker)—but I appreciate looking at the stickers other people put on theirs.

I recently saw this one and instantly fell in love:

My job history

2022-11-29T03:30:00Z

My friend Johannes and I were recently chatting about the jobs we had before becoming web developers.

As I was describing all of the random things I’ve done for a paycheck I thought to myself, I should really write this down…

Mid 1990s: amateur janitor at Cornell Orthotics and Prosthetics in Salem, MA

I was around 15 years old and rode my bike here after school to do basic cleanup work; I swept floors, took out the trash, wiped down counters, etc. My only real lasting memory from this job was discovering who Tom Petty was because they played his tapes in the manufacturing area over and over again.

Mid 1990s: general employee at the Roller Palace in Beverly, MA

In the beginning I worked at the skate rental desk, handing out skates and making minor adjustments or repairs. Eventually I became a skate guard out on the roller rink, blowing my whistle at the fast and the furious.

Side-note: I dated a girl who worked at the snack-bar, which is where cool kids would ask for a ‘suicide’ (a drink made from every flavor in the soda machine) and pizza slices with mustard on them (don’t ask; kids are weird).

Mid/late 1990s: shop assistant at … I can’t remember the name

In my last year of high school, the job placement person got me a job at a nearby auto mechanic that only worked on those big oil trucks that deliver heating oil straight to homes. Like my first job I was basically a janitor, however the two brothers that ran this place treated me well and made me feel like one of the team; I really enjoyed my time here, short as it was.

Late 1990s: salesperson at Circuit City in Danvers, MA

I started where they start all new salespeople: in the ‘Ace’ (accessories) department, where I sold small-ticket items like cordless phones, portable tape and CD players, batteries, etc. Later I transferred to the home audio department, which felt a tad more dignified. It was here that I met some great friends—including the Best Man at my wedding—one of whom became a roommate in my first apartment.

Early 2000s: salesperson at Michaud Mitsubishi in Danvers, MA

There was this one really bad day at Circuit City where I simply quit without giving notice—as of today I can’t remember why. Regardless, on the way home, without thinking, I pulled into a car dealership to ask for an application and a day later I was selling cars. That job…ugh…it was absolutely terrible and wonderfully life-changing at the same time: somebody who worked here convinced me to take night classes with him to learn web development at UMass Lowell. If you know me now, you know how that turned out.

If I hadn’t mindlessly pulled into that car dealership, hadn’t landed that job, would I be a web developer today?

Early 2000s: customer service rep, then assistant manager, at Sprint PCS in Danvers, MA

I quickly left the car dealership and landed a job at a mobile phone store. At first I was a customer service representative, and later I was asked to be the assistant manager. My only strong memory of this job is it’s where I was on September 11th, 2001.

Side note: I continued taking the web development night classes while working here.

Early 2000s: salesperson at Tweeter in Danvers, MA

Yet another salesperson job. I sold high-end home audio and video equipment, but I was fizzling out; my desire to talk people into buying things was gone. I had just met Sharon and was focusing on increasing my meager web development skills in my free time. While it was neat to be surrounded by high-end equipment, the job was commission based and I had fizzled out, so I made almost no money.

Side note: the web development night classes wrapped up while working here.

2003: truck driver for Moynihan Lumber in Beverly, MA

Despite being done with the night classes I was not yet ready to apply for jobs in that industry, so I found myself another regular job. This time, however, I was hell-bent on doing anything other than being a salesperson again, so I landed a job driving a big delivery truck for a local lumber company. If you purchased windows, doors, or millwork from Moynihan Lumber in 2003 and asked for it to be delivered, there’s a fairly good chance I pulled into your driveway and dropped it off. To be honest, I loved this job because I was alone most of the time, I got to drive a big truck, and I was doing manual labor (which I enjoy)…it was like nothing I had done before and I would’ve stayed longer if it weren’t for the potential to earn more money via web development.

Side note: I spent many nights and weekends continuing to learn more about web development while working here.

2004: web developer for a now-defunct financial company in Beverly, MA

I finally had the confidence and maybe the skills to apply for a web developer position. After applying for a bunch of beginner roles, I landed at a financial company and was tasked with designing and developing their website. I was in heaven. I can’t even describe what it felt like to land that job, to hold an almost wizard-like status in the eyes of the people I worked with, and to be paid (decently) to do things I genuinely loved doing.

2005: web developer for Net Atlantic in Salem, MA

After the now-defunct financial company earned its now-defunct status, I landed a new role as a manager (and web developer) of a small team at Net Atlantic. This job became very stressful very quickly as there were four of us and we each juggled 4-8 website builds at a time. I had no say in the sales part of the process and, as a result, I didn’t last that long.

2006: web developer for a now-defunct agency in Salem, MA

This was the first job that seemed to match my general expectation of a cool web agency; everybody was happy and having fun, the money was good, the client list consisted of names most everybody had heard of, there was a pool table and a keg of beer, the lunches were free (most of the time), etc. I really loved this job and the people I worked with—in fact, it’s where I met Michael, and he and I (and Johannes) now run our own agency, but more on that later. The only reason I left this job was because…

2008: self-employed web designer/developer at Boston Web Studio in Salem, MA

…I decided that I’d like to try doing it on my own. I put on my this-is-a-huge-risk pants and started my own one-person design and development agency called Boston Web Studio. The timing was great because Sharon and I were recently married, we lived in a very affordable apartment, and we didn’t yet have children; our expenses were low and we would survive if the first handful of months were shaky. Over the years my client list increased as did my income—it was wonderful and I was happy.

In 2011 and early 2012 I subleased office space from my friends Michael and Johannes while they ran their small agency, Booyant. Being in the same office space, we became good friends and would occasionally subcontract client work to each other where helpful; I would tackle some of their front-end development overflow, and they would assist me with design and back-end development challenges that were above my pay grade.

2012: self-employed front-end developer and partner at The Outfit in Beverly, MA

In mid 2012, Michael, Johannes, myself, and two designers decided to shut down the small agencies we were running and start a new one together—that’s how The Outfit was born. These last 14 years have been a wild and fun ride; here’s hoping we keep it going for another 14 or more… but not too many more, because retirement sounds nice.

A seven year old’s grocery list

2023-04-06T14:25:00Z

According to Noah we need millk, oreos, kokeys, bred, butr, estr emunems, wite frostin, hi see frootpunch, pinappul jooses, jinjrrall, shrbrt, choclits, strobare jello, dad cremrs, veje dips, sawr dow bred, babe carit, peprs, and corn.

If you missed it, he wrote his first grocery list last year and it’s also wonderful.

Getting older

2023-05-05T12:58:00Z

When I got home from work yesterday, Noah, our youngest at age 7, came out to greet me. He was happy that I was finally home so he met me in the driveway and gave me a big hug.

He doesn’t do this often anymore, and someday—probably soon—he’ll stop altogether; his two older brothers don’t do it at all anymore.

There will be a final time you pick up your kid, or tuck them in, or read them a book, or hug them in your driveway when you get home. It’s normal, but it’s also a bit sad, so enjoy those moments while you can because when they stop, they leave a little hole in your heart.

Cape Cod 2023

2023-06-26T14:10:00Z

We stayed in Hyannis and visited a few choice locations: The Barnacle, Craigville Beach, Añejo Mexican Bistro, Katie’s Homemade Ice Cream, and Kalmus Park Beach.

Default Apps 2023

2023-11-26T17:14:00Z

I just came across this great post from Chris Coyer (who borrowed it from MattCool.tech, who borrowed it from Tracy Durnell and friends).

I’ve been in a writing slump since my last post—I blame Cyberpunk 2077—but when I came across Chris’ post, I knew it’d be fun and easy to make one of my own, so here we go…

Mail Client:: Gmail.com / Gmail app
Mail Server:: Google
Notes:: Apple Notes
To-Do:: Apple Reminders
Photo Shooting:: iPhone
Photo Editing:: A mix of Apple Photos and Affinity Photo
Calendar:: Google Calendar
Cloud File Storage:: Old stuff in Dropbox, everything else in iCloud
RSS:: NetNewsWire
Contacts:: Apple Contacts
Browser:: Chrome for web development, Safari for everything else
Chat:: Slack and Apple Messages
Bookmarks:: Safari’s bookmarks
Read It Later:: Safari’s Reading List
Word Processing:: Google Docs
Spreadsheets:: Google Sheets
Presentations:: Google Slides
Shopping Lists:: Apple Reminders (a shared list with Sharon)
Meal Planning:: Nothing
Budgeting and Personal Finance:: Nothing
News:: NPR, Politico, MSNBC, and CNN
Music:: Apple Music
Podcasts:: Apple Podcasts
Password Management:: 1Password
Code Editor:: VS Code
VPN:: Nothing

A bunch more that aren’t part of the common list:

Reading:: Apple Books
Desktop window management:: Moom
Calculation:: Soulver
Project management:: Jira
Local web development server:: Laravel Valet
Database server:: DBngin
Database manager:: Sequel Ace
Web design:: Figma
Invoicing and time-tracking:: Harvest
Website asset management:: Cloudinary
Version control:: Tower
Code repository management:: GitHub
Ad blocking:: AdBlock Pro and Vinegar
Video calls:: Google Meet and Zoom

Noah’s to do list

2023-12-05T20:47:00Z

Write book: ? – 6:50
❤️ note: 6:50 – 6:70
Look for lamp: 7:00 – 7:20
Look at LEGOs: 7:20 – 7:40

There’s so much to love:

That writing a book is on a seven year old’s to do list
That he’s writing a love note—to who?—and it’ll take him until 6:70
That he’s giving himself twenty minutes to find a lamp
That he’s looking at LEGOs (though, I’m sure he meant play with them)

It’s little things like this that fill me with joy and make the hard work of raising kids so, so very worth it.

2023’s most visited pages

2023-12-22T23:50:00Z

I have no idea – I don’t track that stuff, but I bet the home page earns the prize. I suppose you might call this Guessalytics™. Sign up for my newsletter.

Watch charger, meet iPhone

2023-12-26T21:00:00Z

I’m the kind of person that learns about neat tech stuff long after everyone else has, so brace yourself as I tell you about some neat tech stuff you probably already know about.

The family and I were on our annual two-hour drive home from seeing family during Christmas when Will tells us his Apple Watch is nearly dead. Sharon asks, I know our watch charger is here in the van, do you think we can charge his watch with it somehow?

Our minivan is equipped with a couple of USB-A ports, but the watch charger is newer and USB-C, so my brain starts turning (rare) and I wonder out loud, Maybe we can plug the watch charger into the bottom of my phone? (It’s an iPhone 15 with USB-C).

Sharon took note of each device’s battery level—the watch was at 6% and my phone was at 95%—and connected them together. What do you (probably already) know? It worked! The Watch made its little ding noise and the green lightning bolt appeared on its screen.

About 45 minutes later we took another look at both devices’ battery levels and the watch was at 85% and my phone was at 75%.

[Insert impressed dad face here.]

Don’t wash electronics

2023-12-28T19:28:00Z

My mom recently showed me this photo, taken 41 years ago (1984) on Christmas day:

My dad—at 24 years old—is wearing the black shirt, my uncle is wearing the white shirt, and I’m kneeling on the floor. We’re in my grandmother’s house surrounded by red floral wallpaper above olive-green carpeting.

When I saw the toy on the floor—a Tomy Toys Monster Machines Mad Masher—in front of the younger me, a core memory came rushing back from the deepest recesses of my mind: I ruined that toy by washing it.

I can remember it clear as day: at some point during the next spring (1985), I was playing with that toy in a muddy area of my babysitter’s yard and, wanting it to be clean before I was picked up, I took it into her bathroom, turned on the sink faucet, and started washing it.

A moment later, my dad arrived to bring me home and saw what I was doing. Figuring it was probably too late, he kindly told me what happens when water and electronics mix. Needless to say, I have no memory of playing with that toy ever again.

So, here’s the lesson: don’t wash electronics.

CSS your RSS with XSL, LOL

2024-01-11T20:23:00Z

Have you ever tapped an RSS/ATOM feed link? Most often, you see something that looks like this:

Did you know you can transform that with HTML and CSS to make it much nicer on the eyes? Me neither! Well, now I know, thanks to a blog post by Darek Kay.

Not one to miss out on anything fun, I made my own feed look a bit more fancy using what I learned.

Snow Me

2024-04-02T21:32:00Z

A book about snowmen, by Noah (age 8).

Snow Me

Left page: This book is to my family.

Right page: Everyone loves Christmas. All the snowballs and igloos and the snowmen and snow-globes.

And sometimes when we’re all asleep, the best snowmen come out to play.

And on the best nights, they always come.

You’re beautiful, call me sometime

2024-04-26T15:10:00Z

I heard she was going to the nearby coffee shop to meet a new colleague of hers at 2pm, which gave me an hour to think about how I might slip her a note.

On a small piece of paper I wrote, You’re beautiful, call me sometime followed by my phone number. An hour later I took a moment to build up some courage, then walked to the coffee shop.

I saw her and, thankfully, her back was to me. I ordered a small coffee, pulled the note out of my pocket, and walked towards her. When I was close enough, I slid the note onto the table making sure the words were visible, but kept walking towards the exit. Her new colleague inhaled nervously, and as I opened the door to flee I could hear her laugh and say, That’s my husband.

I’m proud to say: she called me later that afternoon.

My favorite music as of June 2024

2024-06-05T18:02:00Z

Embarrassingly, it’s been a long, long time since my last favorite music entry, but I finally have some to share.

Skyway Man: The World Only Ends When You Die

Listen to The World Only Ends When You Die on your favorite streaming service.

Leifur James: A Louder Silence

Listen to A Louder Silence on your favorite streaming service.

Tony Allen: Film of Life

Listen to Film of Life on your favorite streaming service.

My favorite music as of October 2024

2024-10-29T19:38:00Z

Chet Faker: Built on Glass

This album is a fantastic blend of soul, downtempo, and electronic music. A bit of a rare mix, as far as I know.

yearsSince

2025-05-21T19:00:00Z

My website has a few places where I share how many years have passed since something happened. For example:

Nobody has figured out how to stop time, so I needed to deal with the fact that those year numbers won’t stay accurate for very long. Here’s how I did it:

I use JavaScript to calculate how many years have passed since a specified date
My website is built with Eleventy, so I use that JavaScript in an Eleventy shortcode, which makes it easy to utilize anywhere I need it
My website automatically rebuilds itself once per day, and it’s during this rebuild that the JavaScript recalculates all of the year numbers

How it works

In a directory named /src/_shortcodes is a file called years-since.js:

export default function yearsSince(dateString) {

    // Is the passed-in value (dateString) really a string? Is it formatted as required?
    if (typeof dateString !== 'string' || !/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/.test(dateString)) {
        throw new Error('The `yearsSince` function requires a valid date string in the format "YYYY-MM-DD".');
    }
    
    // Convert dateString into a Date object.
    const startDate = new Date(dateString);
    
    // Is the new Date object (startDate) a valid, parsable date?
    if (isNaN(startDate.getTime())) {
        throw new Error(`Invalid date string passed to "yearsSince": ${dateString}`);
    }

    // Extract the year from startDate.
    const startYear = startDate.getFullYear();
    
    // Get the current date.
    const now = new Date();

    // Extract the year from the current date.
    const currentYear = now.getFullYear();

    // Calculate the difference between the current year and the start year.
    let years = currentYear - startYear;

    // Determine if the anniversary of the passed-in date has already occurred this year.
    const hasCompletedThisYear =
        now.getMonth() > startDate.getMonth() ||
        (now.getMonth() === startDate.getMonth() && now.getDate() >= startDate.getDate());

    // If the anniversary has already occurred this year, return the full number of years,
    // otherwise subtract 1 since the current year’s anniversary hasn’t been reached yet.
    return hasCompletedThisYear ? years : years - 1;

}

years-since.js is imported into the eleventy.config.js file:

// …
import YearsSince from './src/_shortcodes/years-since.js';
// …

export default async function (eleventyConfig) {
    // …
    eleventyConfig.addShortcode('yearsSince', YearsSince);
    // …
};

Finally, I use that shortcode in my content. For example:

…running The Outfit for {% yearsSince '2012-06-01' %} years and…

My JavaScript and Eleventy skills aren’t the greatest, so I welcome all feedback, criticism, etc.: marcamos@gmail.com.

My favorite music as of July 2025

2025-07-11T23:21:00Z

Vegyn: The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions

Whatever sub-genre of electronic music this album is in is now my favorite sub-genre.

Benjamin Clementine: By the Ports of Europe

This song is … unique, and by-golly I can’t get it out of my head.

Mondo Cozmo: Plastic Soul

Mondo Cozmo’s music is fun and catchy. That’s the whole review.

Walter Astral: Hyperdruide – EP

A psychedelic-techno sound with Middle Eastern vibes, by a French duo.

Six months, sixty pounds

2025-07-16T20:18:00Z

At the end of 2024 I weighed 257 pounds, and today I weigh 197.

That’s 60 pounds lost thanks to a Tirzepatide called Zepbound, which is a GLP-1 receptor agonist … whatever that means. You may have heard of Mounjaro, which is another brand of the same medicine, or perhaps Ozempic or Wegovy, which are similar—they’re Semaglutides (again, no idea)—and offer the same benefits. They’re injected medicines that can help some people lose weight, but I suspect these other brands have bigger marketing budgets because it seems that relatively few people know about Zepbound.

A talk with my doctor

Back in December of 2024 I was watching a show on some streaming service and an ad played for a medicine that’s approved for people with obstructive sleep apnea. I’m one of those people; I use a CPAP machine when I sleep and I had been somewhat desperate to end my dependency on it. I made a mental note of the medicine’s name, Zepbound, to bring it up with my doctor at an upcoming check-up.

Fast-forward a week or so: I’m at the check-up and I ask my doctor, What do you think about me trying Zepbound? I want to stop using the CPAP and I’m hoping that losing some weight will help me get there. She talked to me about what it is, how it works, what the risks are, how my insurance provider might not approve it, etc., and we both agreed that I should give it a try. She put in an order for it that afternoon and a day later I learned that my insurance provider would cover most of the cost, leaving me with a $60 monthly payment.

I later learned that I was somewhat lucky; many people can’t get their insurance provider to pay for any portion of this type of medicine. I suspect I was lucky because I’m a CPAP user and because I also take Losartan for high blood pressure, and Rosuvastatin for high cholesterol. The suits at my insurance provider probably thought, This Marc fella might stop using three different things we’re paying for if he loses some weight, then they tapped the Approve button.

Starting Zepbound

I picked up my first box (of four syringes) from the pharmacist right after Christmas. Each syringe contained 2.5mg of the medicine and the instructions said to take it on the same day each week. I arbitrarily decided that I’d take it every Friday evening and weigh myself every Saturday morning.

What did it feel like? Immediate and effective. I took my first dose on Friday, January 3^rd, 2025 and the very next day I had no desire to eat until dinner time. When I sat down to eat that dinner, I had half of a portion before my stomach/brain said you better stop, mister, because you’re very full now. I was flabbergasted at how well it shut off the urge to eat, for better or worse.

The following Saturday, January 11^th, 2025, I was already down 9 pounds. I know some people might scoff at this and say that’s too fast, not healthy, etc., which, sure, but I wasn’t very healthy before either. I’m OK trading one kind of unhealthy for another if it gets me to a healthier place in the end.

Halfway there

In early April 2025 things were going well and it was time to visit my doctor again. She sees that I’m down about 32 pounds at this point and asks if I’m having any negative side effects (I wasn’t). She decides to let the prescription continue for just three more months. I’m 100% onboard with that since I’m losing about 10 pounds per month, and three more months would bring me to about 60 pounds lost.

Transitioning off

By mid-May 2025, I could tell the medicine’s effect was starting to fade; where before I’d look at something tasty and have zero reaction, now I want to eat it. I engage my rusty willpower muscle and I’m generally able to ignore that feeling, thankfully. Overall, the weight is still dropping and I’m down around 47 pounds in late May.

I took my 24^th and final dose on June 13^th, 2025, and weighed 201 pounds the next day – that’s 56 pounds lost. At that point I was fully on my own; I can no longer rely on the assistance of the medicine, so it was time to see how well I do with willpower alone. It helps knowing there’s a lot of progress that can be lost if I fall back into my old habits.

Blood test

I had a blood test done on July 2^nd, 2025 and the results were wonderful. Here are two notable before-and-afters:

Non-HDL cholesterol went from 222 mg/dL to 69
Triglycerides went from 371 mg/dL to 85

CPAP machine

Ah, I almost forgot, the reason I wanted to try Zepbound in the first place: my CPAP dependency. Admittedly I’m in a funny place with the CPAP; first, I’m really used to it at this point and there’s some sort of Pavlov’s Dog thing happening where I put it on and I immediately fall into deep, quality sleep. I’m afraid of losing that even if it’s only a temporary adjustment period.

Additionally, I need my schedule to be such that if I try to sleep without the CPAP and it goes poorly, the following day needs to be very light on plans so I can be tired and miserable without ruining other people’s day. ~~I haven’t really had a light day come up on the calendar yet, so, embarrassingly, I haven’t spent a night without the CPAP. When the opportunity arises, I’ll update this entry with the results.~~

I’ve slept without it!

Now

It’s now July 16^th, 2025, and when I last weighed myself—four days ago—I was 197 pounds. That’s 60 pounds down, and I can’t even remember when my weight started with the number one. I do have a stretch-goal of eventually getting into the 170s, which is going to take a lot of work (and cardio, good sleep, drinking a lot of water, proper food choices, etc.), but as the young people say, my body is ready.

Wish me luck.

P.S.

If this is something you’re considering, I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have – feel free to send me an email.

CPAP-free nights

I’m happy to report that I slept without the CPAP machine the past three nights – August 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th. Sharon reported each morning that she didn’t hear snoring or apnea events, and the sleep-tracking feature of my watch backs her up with a daily graph that shows almost zero awake moments. Success, so far!

Simple light/dark mode

2025-07-22T19:27:00Z

Demo

The code below is what I use on this website – scroll/swipe down to the footer and play with the options within Color scheme to see it in action.

Code

What follows will allow a visitor to choose between light mode, dark mode, or the mode their device is currently in (which I’ve labeled System). This System option is useful if the visitor’s device is configured to automatically switch between light and dark modes based on the time of day.

HTML

Fairly straightfoward HTML; mark it up however you see fit, just make sure the <input> elements keep these attributes.

<label>
    <input type="radio" name="color-scheme" value="light dark">
    System
</label>
<label>
    <input type="radio" name="color-scheme" value="light">
    Light
</label>
<label>
    <input type="radio" name="color-scheme" value="dark">
    Dark
</label>

JavaScript

A dash of JavaScript to implement the visitor’s Color scheme choice, save it to the localStorage on their device, and retrieve it when they come back.

const selectedColorScheme = localStorage.getItem('color-scheme') || 'light dark';

const applyScheme = (scheme) => {
    localStorage.setItem('color-scheme', scheme);
    document.documentElement.style.setProperty('color-scheme', scheme);
    document.querySelector(`[name="color-scheme"][value="${scheme}"]`).checked = true;
}

applyScheme(selectedColorScheme);

document.querySelectorAll('[name="color-scheme"]').forEach(radio => {
    radio.addEventListener('change', (e) => {
        applyScheme(e.target.value);
    });
});

CSS

When defining colors in the CSS, utilize the light-dark() color function to define two colors – light first, then dark. The visitor’s web browser will use one of these two colors based on the color scheme choice they’ve made.

/* For example… */

body {
    background-color: light-dark(#ddd, #333);
    color: light-dark(#111, #eee);
}

.other-elements {
    border-color: light-dark(#ffcc99, #cc0099);
}

My favorite music as of January 2026

2026-01-02T19:41:00Z

Superorganism: Superorganism

There’s something extremely catchy and youthful about this album, and I’ve probably played it at least three times per week since I discovered it in late November 2025.