Axoplasm / Blog / 2022

dec

Narrow urban forest path shrouded in fog and mist. The deciduous trees (mostly maples) are bare of leaves. English ivy creeps up the trunks and along the forest floor. Air is ripe with the smell of vegetation, fir trees, and wet leaves. The fog lends a fe

The Local Legend

2022-12-30

I’m not resolving this per se but I am setting the goal for myself of claiming — and keeping for all of 2023 — the Local Legend laurels for six Strava segments on my favorite hill

X-ray of my left collarbone, showing clean breaks in two places

Car insurance as health insurance

2022-12-12

Why my car insurance company was a better health insurance company than my health insurance company

nov

Selfie taken while riding the cargo bike, downward view, my face only partially visible, several bags of groceries on the bike behind me

Five times my bike has touched a car♥

2022-11-14

In the 20 years and 100K mi that I have ridden on Portland area streets, my bike has contacted a car five times

handmade sign at a very muddy cyclocross race, showing a raised middle finger and the text “we’re #2”

Not a Joiner

2022-11-09

Something I have known about myself since childhood is that I am Not a Joiner, but despite myself I have wound up in a community

oct

A mostly-bare desk in a darkened, empty office. 2 notable groups of objects on this desk: 1. a plastic baby doll marked “TolaData,” 2. a small pile of personal photographs & effects

Back to the office

2022-10-17

I was back in the office for the first time in 30 months

sep

Boris on stage at Revolution Hall, Portland Oregon, September 17 2022

Boris at Revolution Hall

2022-09-19

I do seriously wonder why I enjoy punishing myself like this

aug

Backpackers traversing a hillside, Mt. Jefferson in the near distance

Every other week off the grid is not enough

2022-08-26

“How can these OLD PEOPLE walk SO FAST without STOPPING?“

Low perspective photo of our dog Kuma on the beach

Marathons

2022-08-14

I can run a marathon forever if I don’t ever stop running

jul

Minnesota

2022-07-14

We spent a long weekend laying my father-in-law to rest

Read the Constitution, it might surprise you

2022-07-04

On America Day™ I encourage all my friends to read the Constitution. It won’t even take an hour!

I ran the numbers

2022-07-04

For no reason at all I ran the numbers on my other obsessive website

Four books in a pile: DISPATCHES FROM ANARRES, CYCLING REVOLUTION by Patrick Field, ENDLESS LOOP by Mark Jones Lorenzo, and FIRST PERSON SINGULAR by Haruki Murakami

A book full of famous girls

2022-07-01

“Did you RIDE YOUR BIKE HERE?”

jun

It was bound to happen eventually 🤒

2022-06-25

I’m the first person in our family to test positive

Sticker on a bike rack reading “53 miles per burrito”

If I could somehow metabolize gasoline…

2022-06-10

…I would get 718mpg and it would cost me less than 1¢/mi

Historic photo of a cargo glider crashed in a hedge in Normandy. © United States Army Center of Military History

A D-Day story

2022-06-06

A memory of a memory of D-Day

may

Young ballet dancers practicing in studio, wearing N95 masks & tutus

Ballet explainer for ballet-illiterate ballet parents

2022-05-27

It took me like 5 years to figure out ballets have plots in the same sense as Fast-n-Furious movies. You don’t have to understand “what’s happening,” you’re not here for the plot. You’re just here for a specific kind of technical mastery.