I learned that word from Fantastic Four.

Funny, you don’t look Japanese.

I was a HP/Agilent/Verigy/Advantest customer for many years. First on 83000 tester then V93000. Visited Böblingen about 10 years ago. And Gumma factory for Advantest, too.

I am growing Japanese maples from seedlings. The little helicopters have colonized my front yard, and I am nurturing them.

Listening to the Claypool-Lennon Delirium new album, “the Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy.” Artwork à la Rick Griffin. Crossed with Mesopotamian bas-relief, I think. The #music is also great, ☺️

A black-crowned night heron, seen earlier today in central #Hsinchu, #Taiwan. #Birds

“Don’t Let it Bring You Down,” Neil Young covered by Samantha Fish. This version is fantastic. #Music

Pomona City Hall, seen yesterday morning. I like this style of prestressed concrete architecture. Not just a rectangular box. A casual web search does not reveal the age of the building. That said, I neglected to look at the cornerstone. Geometry tweaked in Lightroom. #Pomona #California

Los Angeles has Civil War generals and battles as street names. #Pasadena has #Napoleonic names. At least this one. ❤️❤️❤️

This is more fiddle-forward. Thank you Apple machine learning for a good “you may also like” algorithm. Erynn Marshall “Calico.”

That book was excellent. Have you read the Svetlana Alexievich book, “Voices from Chernobyl”? There are so many harrowing stories in that one. Her oral history of woman in USSR armed forces in WW2 is also outstanding. Maybe I should be recommending happier books.

Gray. Very clearly gray. See below where I zoomed in. /s

I am in the local Yemeni cafe. Because it is Eid Al Fitr, they handed out candy. To my surprise, the candy is from Poland. The Polish says “Krówka” = little cow, and “mleczna,” = milky. #Coffee

Homemade guacamole with homemade chili oil (la yu). The chili oil was made with chipotle peppers, so this is more on the Mexican side of fusion cooking. #AmCooking

Ella Fitzgerald covered Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.” This works amazingly well as a big band song. From 1969. #music

Finished product. 2/2 #AmCooking

Listening to Black River Delta album “Bottleneck Sessions.” I am a sucker for slide guitar. #Music #Blues

Soundtrack for your reading

Chinese New Year food at the 99 Market yesterday. Kung Fu Panda tie-in with Lay’s. I do not understand the family / social dynamics, but I imagine it to be, “our children will not eat traditional New Year’s food, why fight with them at a joyous time? Fine, fine, I give up. Have chips.” 1/2

Listening to the Haggis Horns “Enter the Haggis.” The soundtrack to a 1970s Scots-ploitation film that was never made. #music #funk

My 3rd sambal. Another mixed Mexican/Peranakan one, with Chipotle and Morita Chile as the main spice. I guess I could call this Ñoña cooking. #AmCooking

Making sambal in a mortar & pestle. Feeling very hardcore for doing everything by hand. Decided to replace the East Asian dried chilis with Mexican: 1/2 Chile Morita & 1/2 Chile New Mexico. Because I don’t want to have it as 辣 (la, hot) as an authentic version would be. #AmCooking

Read @adamroberts.bsky.social ‘s book “High,” and loved it. My spoiler-free review, that fits into a single post: An assassin as protagonist. Mars. Oligarchs. Delightful Any resemblance to Mars-obsessed, ketamine-fueled tycoons? In the reader’s mind’s eye. Highly recommended. #books #SF

Listening to an album that I owned on CD, and *just noticed* the cover art. Hank Crawford, from 1983, “Indigo Blue.” #music #jazz

Products for underage drinkers, 2025/2026 edition. Boba Pops liqueur. Wonder what euphemisms are used in the internal marketing docs at this company.

Listening to Jimmy Smith live album from 1972. What could be nostalgic music if I had been exposed to it at that age. But I wasn’t. Glad I heard it tonight. #music #jazz

Color balanced by assuming the towel is neutral white. Does this help a bit? At least your hand looks better. ☺️ I can’t add the sparkles to a still, sadly.

Mazzy Star, 1990

Stock photography in unrented space in the B1F of Audi House, #Singapore. Love how the fake cafe has a sign that says “Signage” in both orientations. The second photo shows a 1x image, with terrible selection. Of course, this might not be visible on a website. At wall size, 🤷

Seen as we waited for the bus, this morning. A very interesting way to clean the outside of your windows. In Joo Chiat, #Singapore.