Adventure!

This is a post in response to Pablo hosting of IndieWeb Carnival for April, 2026 on the theme of “Adventure.”

My parents contextualized difficult times as “an adventure.”

Moving day was an adventure. Broken down car while on a family trip? Adventure. Sunburn during the summer? Adventure.

I think it’s a valid way to think about the world.

Life is an adventure. Human beings like me, and you, are subject to mortality, death, pain at every minute. People–young and old–have heart attacks and strokes every day. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. This is not fun to think about. The truth of it has the capacity to stop people from moving forward. It can freeze us to inaction. But it’s good to sally forth. We must live our lives.

I find the framing of “adventure” useful to me. Dropping off a postcard at the post office could be every bit as dramatic as Frodo and Sam’s trip to destroy The One Ring. It’s certainly more real than those fictional Hobbits.

Recently: Virginia Hats were unexpected interactions with out-of-towners. I met Pelican in the water. And there have been other Airport Adventures.

These might be just weird happenstance, but somehow that “adventure” framing makes it feel more dramatic.

I’m not sure what this adds up to, but I’m content with the worldview that I inherited from my parents.

April 30 2026 adventures indieweb-carnival musings Make a comment

Good weekend.

It was a productive weekend.

What on earth do I mean by that? I mean, I use that word: “productive”–it sounds like I worked. But I didn’t.

It was a “good” weekend. But that doesn’t sound like anything.

The adjective is useless. Good writing communicates better than platitudinal words.

I did things! We went on the San Diego Book Crawl. We visited great bookstores. I got books on sea creatures, typography, a short comic. I bought a hair clip for my sweetie which has the Eye of Sauron on it.

I sent thank you notes.

I added various paper items to my notebook/scrapbook. I did some drawing. I did some brainstorming.

I did laundry.

I went through excess things and piled them together with the intent to drop off at a charity shop (Goodwill Industries).

I made bone broth! All the chicken bones and such from the last 3 months boiled down to stuff we can make soup and cook with.

I went to the beach. The waves were chaotic but there were a few good rides.

I saw some of the Ocean Beach parrots flying around crazily and squawking at 7 in the morning.

I delivered my art piece to the OCEAN/BEACH show for May at Subterranean Coffee.

Oh, and there were a few dog walks.

“Good” is an inadequate word to encompass the above. “Productive” is also inadequate.

But there are photos. And links. Thanks for reading.

The beach at OB was bouncy. Not great for waveriding but I got a few corners.

This is the view of Verbatim Books from the main parking garage kitty corner across the street. It was a great crowd.

Me, inside Verbatim Books. I acquired a cloth patch I’ve affixed to my main bag. That’s another thing I did this weekend.

One of the cats at Libélula Books & Co in Barrio Logan. It was also Chicano Park Day! But the crowds were not too terrible at that end of the neighborhood,

Links:

April 27 2026 books bookstores memories swim2024 Make a comment

Detail from my painting “Galletas de Mar pero no comer AKA Pieces of Eight of Alta California” which is part of the group show which will open next week at @subterranean_northpark Subterranean Coffee / curated by Trixie @arthang_sandiego

Home away from home near sunset.

Birthday Non-Post

It was my birthday last month.

It was low-key.

I loved it.

I went to the beach. Kite surfers were out in force this afternoon. For my birthday session.

I got birthday wishes from AARP. That’s The American Association of Retired Persons.

Happy Birthday, Joseph! Cheers to Your Best Year Yet! We wish you the best on your special day. Let’s celebrate with a surprise to kick off your best year yet!

I am not retired. Nowhere close. I am working age still.

I am working age. Incidentally, my first week of work went great.

My bank also emailed me birthday wishes:

Celebrating you on your special day! We are so grateful you are part of the Mission Fed family and wish you all the best in the coming year.

And the San Diego Padres sent me an email too:

We wanted to take a moment to wish you a very happy birthday! 🎉 As a faithful Padres fan, we hope today you feel like an absolute MVP.

Whether you’re celebrating with family or friends, near or far from Petco Park, we hope your birthday is a HOME RUN!

Enjoy your day, slugger!

I also heard from family and friends.

My wonderful girlfriend Kelly and my good friend Erin took me to dinner that weekend, and we went and saw the movie Project Hail Mary.

I enjoyed the book. The film did not disappoint.

For me, my own birthday is matter-of-fact.

I’m glad to be continuing to be moving forward in time! I suppose there are milestones tied to my age yet to come–maybe senior discounts. But I don’t need candles and party favors.

I had a terrific birthday weekend and cannot really imagine any better birthday weekend.

I want to have lots more birthdays.

LOTS.

Onward!

April 19 2026 belated birthday 2 comments

Beachcombing, surfing, sunbathing, bodyboarding, fishing. All the things at OB.

when I call you don’t pick up anymore

I really love the band Hospitality. Something dreamy but also arch and ironic but also deeply heartfelt. It’s got all the contradictions that I love so much in artists I encountered once I hit my 30s and 40s.

Here’s a song called Friends of Friends: Actually, it’s so good I’ll link to two versions. One is live, one is an album version. The second has a music video with Alia Shawkat in it. It also has either Gabe or Max from “Gabe and Max’s How to Get the Dreamlife of Your Dreams Using the Internet Thing” (Linked from 2007 post Misc and Max).

when I call you don’t pick up anymore

I wish Hospitality were still making music. Alas, wikipedia uses the past tense about them.

It appears that the first time I put them on an annual mix was in 2014 New – which was originally on Slacker Radio back when I was still working there. It was also on an iTunes mix: 2014’s Mixalicious. I’m guessing any band that will do a Steely Dan cover will interest me. Worldweariness and witty will win me over every time.

Probably why I enjoy Kitty and Stew come to think of it.

Go try some music today. Try music recommended by a person, not an algorithm. Even if that other person got it from some sort of algorithmic amplification, take it in from some human being recommending it because it felt right going into their ears and they liked it enough to share it.

My 2026 playlist is collecting entries at a certain pace. Here’s the link: found faux fur tag. It’s got 43 tracks on it. And today is Day 108 of the year. Forcing meaning out of that number, I add 0.398 tracks per day to my playlist. That is the kind of metric that sounds meaningful. It makes it sound like there’s an inexorable and rational process by which music gets added to my list. It hides the actual stutter to the way music gets added to a playlist. Music gets added when it gets added. After inspiration. Sudden inspiration.

I am reminded of the term “punctuated equilibrium.” That’s about evolution. You can read about it on Wikipedia.

How does change occur? Is it smooth? Or does it happen in stutters and jumps?

Or both?

Enough big thoughts. Carry on! Evolve!

April 18 2026 hospitality kitty music stew Make a comment

I write.

I moved another page which I’d brought into WordPress out of WordPress.

And so, the new Writing page, which will continue to be a sort of work in progress. I really want to provide a bit more context, add more dates, and some nice summaries. Maybe even word counts?

New job is going well.

I still have a beach deficit, but I’ll be getting out in the water SOOOOON.

April 17 2026 writing 2 comments

Another sketchy opportunity

From a gmail address. Emphasis in original. I am pretty sure this would be violating the law and violating contractual agreements which might get made should an actual “job” get booked.

Subject: To Joe Crawford

Hi Joe,

This is %REDACTED%, and I’ve found your contact from LinkedIn.

I’ve been managing an outsourcing team for the past two years, and I’m currently expanding our network with US-based developers. Most of our team is made up of developers from LATAM and Eastern Europe, and we have strong experience helping people find remote opportunities and move through the hiring process quickly. We’re now focusing more on the US market because the opportunities and compensation are much stronger there. One challenge we often face is that some of our developers are highly skilled technically but not fully comfortable handling interviews in English, which is why I wanted to reach out to you.

If you’re open to working with us, we would help strengthen your LinkedIn presence, submit opportunities through your account and our US account, and support you throughout the technical interview process. Your main role would be to attend interviews, while our team helps with preparation and ongoing support. Once a contract is secured, we would work under a revenue-sharing agreement. You’ll get paid typically 30 to 50 percent. Using a business bank account doesn’t remove taxes, but it helps track them properly. When you pay developers as contractors, that money is treated as a business expense. So instead of being taxed on the full $10k you receive, you’re only taxed on the remaining profit after expenses—in this case, $3k to $5k.

And the most important thing is we will schedule with you and companies and support you through interviews so you’ll get hired with our support, and you can handle this job with just a little support because software development will be handled by our side, and you just need to join the daily interview normally during 30 min – 1 hour with our submission.
So once you get paid from the company, you just send us our cut.
There is no risk to you because we only get paid through you.

The goal is to help you secure strong long-term remote roles more quickly and build confidence throughout the process. To keep things comfortable, we would focus only on remote positions, and with the right fit, it may be possible to manage two to three projects over time. Of course, that would depend on your own preference and availability.

I hope we have a chance to collaborate. If you’re interested, we can schedule a meeting and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.

Best, %REDACTED%

April 15 2026 scam One comment

Zoomies

Yesterday the dog got zoomies.

Zoomies are what Americans (others too?) call it when a dog runs around in circles in what looks either manic or fun or maybe both.

Kelly had gone to work. And Gwen came back in from the walk, looked for her, and lacking Kelly in the apartment, the zoomies commenced.

It was cute but also sort of not super cute. But the energy dissipated soon enough.

It’s a busy week with big changes, and so the theme of emotional regulation is on my mind. Or rather, it’s a week where emotional regulation is something I’m focused on because there’s so much happening.

So here’s to keeping an even keel–I don’t drive boats but I can utilize the “even keel” idiom just fine. I can imagine what it’s like to drive a boat. Pilot a sailboat. Whatever.

I started a new job, there’s evidence of what it is on the site and in the big silo where people keep professional histories. But it’s a good one. Two days have felt like four. But it’s also been very pleasant so far. I believe I’ve found a terrific match for my skillset and I’m enjoying the process of onboarding.

There’s more, and more fun that’s been had in the past week.

But in the meantime, I’m back to it now.

Onward! As I say.

April 15 2026 musings 2 comments