Another video from my New York files, this time a quick scan of the many views and sights we saw in the Big Apple.

I've been cautiously dipping my toe into the (decidedly non-corporate) fediverse of social media by spinning up an account on Mastodon. It has been an interesting week watching the platform soak up Twitters migrants this past week, including yours truly. Come follow me:

Another short video from our New York trip earlier this month, this one featuring the kid and some of her adventuring highlights.

A couple weeks back we took a short trip to New York City. I took about 30 minutes worth of footage on my phone, but I put together a much shorter sampling here.

8r4d I put together a little video from a few seconds of the thirty minutes of footage I took in NYC. It's over on Youtube and when I upgrade this site to let me embed videos maybe I'll repost it. For now though, you need to click the link:

8r4d It was rain-snowing this morning downtown and we got a rainbow... in November. The simulation is officially glitching.

I've been feeding my coding hunger lately and I propped up some old gaming library stuff that I wrote a few years ago, updating it as a standalone puzzle game. It's now a little crossword clue type game posted at the link below. Each day it randomly creates a new puzzle to solve. Five words, scrambled into bite-sized chunks, and you need to build the words and try to solve all five to win. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

8r4d And not that this view from my office is ever really bad, but at 730am it is pretty glorious seeing the tallest towers in the city alive and all lit.

8r4d I don't like the lack of daylight during this deepest part of the equinox adjacent season, but I do like walking through downtown at 730am when everything is glowing.

squwetchy I may have posted this sketch before from #newyork, but I wrote a short #blog post to accompany it now. New York was really eye opening from an #urbansketching perspective, giving me a lot of good chances to draw on location and also do so with limited tools and time.

8r4d Now that vacation is over, the holiday season is upon us, and with the lovely warm(ish) weather today I hung the #christmas lights up on the house. I'm not the first on the block but officially I think I'll leave them dark until December first.

8r4d Sunday Runday? Almost. My days of confinement to the track and treadmill at the rec center might be ending soon. The physiotherapy efforts to rehab my #kneehab are improving my prospects of running outdoors again soon. I mean, that ice and #snow are gonna be serious factors to consider, but maybe when those sidewalks are a little more clear I'll be a little less injured.

8r4d Stuffed after a full afternoon and evening out celebrating the wedding of one of my running crew and his new bride, followed by a full multi-course Chinese dinner with every kind of seafood imaginable. None of us will need to eat for a week!

squwetchy One of the small handful of souvenirs I brought home from #newyork was a #sketchbook. How exciting, you muse sarcastically. But this particular leather-bound Italian-made journal came from the gift shop at the New York Public Library and bears an authentic NYC #library stamp embossed on the cover. Even empty it is a thing of beauty and quality and as soon as I figure out what I plan to draw in it, it will likely get even more awesome.

adventuredog Friday night and it's time for catching up on our cuddles quota in the comfy chair.

adventuredog Friday foot dog. She's curled up at my feet while I'm doing something resembling work. Ah, a dog's life huh?

If you enjoy reading accounts of travel then it's really too bad that I'm not going to post scans of my paper travel journal anywhere anytime soon. On the other hand, I started jotting down some thoughts over at my adventures blog, starting with a post I wrote literally from my phone while on layover at the Toronto airport on our way home:

See those stars? They're new here and work a bit like hearts or likes or kudos, except every post can have a maximum of just 10 before it fills up with love, and there's nothing stopping you from giving all ten of those stars yourself because it's all anonymous and no one, not even me, will know. (One is fine, too tho!)

adventuredog Cricket had her own adventure while we were off in New York. She spent a few days at the daycare kennel. Apparently she did super great and made fast friends of the staff. She was #happy to see us tho and even happier to get home. #crazyeyes

castironguy We ate authentic New York #bagels almost every morning last week, and on the way home the kid was lamenting how the grocery store version wasn't gonna compare. Sourdough to the rescue? Of course there was a recipe online and this stack just came hot out of the oven for a couple days worth of breakfast back in Edmonton. #baking

8r4d Back home after a full (no, FULL) day of traveling, New York to Toronto (with a seven hour layover) and back to Edmonton and falling into bed just before midnight local, I was awake at 5am this morning, feeling like 7am NYC time, and pulled out one of my souvenirs even as my #coffee was brewing. Anyone who's been to the Big Apple will recognize the classic New York street vendor Happy to Serve coffee cup. I got a ceramic version at the MoMA design store, and I already miss the sounds of sirens and honking while I drink my joe and look for escaping sewer steam.

8r4d I think I saw a beet farm down there somewhere...

8r4d Heading to the subway... towards a shuttle bus... onward to an airplane... and eventually back to a frozen car in a parking lot somewhere close to home. #newyork #travel

8r4d One last post before bed.... and a long day of travel home. A view of the city from the top of World Trade Center One. New York was always here but I don't think I ever gave it much thought until 2001. And then what happened a block away from where I took this pic to the buildings that bore that name brought it into focus and shaped the direction of history for most of us. The kid had a nine-eleven year herself, traveling to Gander NL this summer and today through the memorial and up into the sky. A kind of complete circle in a way, for us at least. #newyork