Feel free to look up the TouronsOfYellowstone Instagram account for a fun follow…

Honestly, this baffles me. I work in K12 as a CTO, and when hiring techs or network admins, I always let applicants know during the interview when I will make the hiring decision, and they will receive an official letter of regret if they are not hired. I always keep resumes on file, as you never know if other opportunities come up. Why would any organization want to burn bridges with potential hires?

Maybe it’s just me being Gen X, but not hearing one way or the other would prompt me to pick up the phone, and at the very least check back to ask if they’ve made a decision after a week (maybe two) if I’ve interviewed…

That’s the first guitar my parents ever got me - a 1983 Aria Pro IIrs “Wildcat.” Made in Japan (in the famed Matsumoku factory), it’s a Strat copy with dual humbucker pickups, and a push-pull volume knob that will coil-split either, for a good single-coil sound as well. For an inexpensive instrument (I think it was around $200 in 1983) it’s very well built. That’s why I’ve kept it all these years…

Well, I can say definitively that I know what is making that clicking sound. It's hard to see since the cable is in silhouette, but there are silver-colored spirals wound around the cable, and the sound is made by the plastic sheathing of the black cable wobbling inside of those metal spirals. The spirals are made of aluminum, I'm pretty sure. Those spirals are put there to stiffen the the hanging cable, and appear on the hanging cable between every set of poles (not just these, that are wiggling). There are two spirals mounted on each cable between the poles. I assume the spirals are mounted there to provide damping, just in case the wind does cause the cable hanging between the poles to swing too much. But, there was no wind blowing when I shot this video (Dec 5, 2023). The voice you hear is mine, just speculating on what might be causing the oscillating cable...

Sadly, the article is mistaken (in terms of “failing”). They started an athletics program where none existed before, so they more than made up for lost academic students and replaced them with student athletes. New enrollment spiked so high, in fact, that hey actually had a housing shortage due to too many students, and had to provide emergency housing off campus in local hotels.

His plan worked for its intended purpose- to scare away any LQBTG identifying (or even LQBTQ tolerating) students and staff, and replace them with less tolerant people.

I had left a review on the App Store warning users that Memmy is still broken for any instance that uses late v18 or any v19. The dev responded that they would issue a fix soon.

Still, since I needed something that works, I tried a few of the many Lemmy apps. Voyager is nice, but Avelon is the only app that stays in portrait while I scroll lying down, so that’s what I’m using presently.

I'm enjoying Memmy right now. My only gripe is that I'd love to see in-app orientation lock. It's the one feature of Apollo that made me go for their lifetime purchase. You could easily set portrait mode for reading while lying down (I do this a lot - browsing while prone on the couch or in bed), and it would auto-rotate to landscape for videos, but stick to portrait for everything else (articles). I don't know how Christian finally managed it (it took quite a while before he implemented it), but it worked great. The old Reddit "Antenna" app had it first.

But other than that, great work. I'm really enjoying the 'swipe to navigate' which allows it to feel a lot more like Apolle for now. Thanks for all of your hard work, and I hope you're enjoying a break from it for now.

Cheers.

Sure. I’m definitely of the opposite mindset. “Buy once , cry once,” is my philosophy. I wasted too much time and money in my youth, so always try to save up for quality items.

Which isn’t to say that one can’t find inexpensive things that are of good quality, of course.

Cheers.

So, as a long time backpacker, I found my holy grail series of packs from Nunatak gear.

A couple of seasons ago, I ran into someone beta-testing a Nunatak "Bears Ears 50" model pack. It carries a bear canister at the bottom of the pack, at the hip. It's such an obvious and simple idea, and it's amazing that no one else really ever designed it. But Jan over at Nunatak build this for himself, as a climber as well as a backpacker, who often spends time where a bear canister is required.

I live in Bishop, California, and all of the areas nearest me require bear canisters for overnight trips. So, I was intrigued.

I checked out the pack that this guy was beta testing, and when I asked what he liked best, the answer surprised me. I thought it would be the weight distribution, or the minimal pack weight, but instead he pointed out that the hip-belt water bottle holders were the best he'd used.

I was using an Osprey Exos at the time, and this was a major frustration for me. Water bottles slid easily into the side pockets, which are angled for ease of use, pulling a bottle in or out. But it turns out that if you bend over (to tie your shoe, or pick something up off the ground, or even lean over to take a photo) then a full bottle would slide out. I use Smartwater bottles, as most do these days, and when it happened one one trip, the darned bottle hit a rock and cracked, making it useless to me. Frustrating.

The Nunatak uses a water bottle holder that is just foolproof. They don't fall out, are ultralight, and are mounted slightly behind the hip, making it so your arms don't hit them when hiking, but are still very easy to reach.

The unique bear can system is also perfect for me. Having a canister lowest in the pack makes for a much more natural weight distribution while hiking and especially when climbing or boulder scrambling. The Nunatak Bears Ears is perfect for that.

The original Bears Ears 50 is frameless, and that works fine for me almost all of the time, but Jan has designed framed versions that are now available, as well. For a pack with up to a 30-lb load rating, it is ultralight, and durable.

Oh, you don't HAVE to carry a bear canister, either. Nunatak sells a bag-in-lieu-of-canister solution, which I have used in areas that don't require a bear canister. It's basically a bag roughly the size of a standard bear canister that you can stuff with anything you like, and put it in the place where the bear canister would go. I've stuffed it with my quilt, and extra water bottles, when I was hiking in an area that didn't require a canister.

Anyway, here's the link to their site for their Bears Ears series of packs:

Nunatak packs

Heh. Entirely unintentional (I think - maybe it’s subconscious?). In 1990, I originally ordered a Clapton Strat in Midnight Blue, but it was taking so long I asked what they had in stock, and they had that Frost Red one, so I took that instead. I really wanted a blue Rickenbacker, but couldn’t find one on Reverb that I like (no chips or wear), so I ordered new from Sweetwater, and I liked Fireglo better than Jetglo or Mapleglo. The Ultra Strat - I really wanted an ash body, and that was the nicest color in the series with an ash body. I guess the red theme just sort of happened…

The iPhone does have a pretty good night mode, but this wasn’t shot in that mode, as there was plenty of ambient light.

I think this one was in wide angle. I do always shoot in RAW, though, so I can post process in Lightroom. The iPhone does do a lot of color processing on-camera, which I don’t usually like, hence my preference for RAW photos to tweak later.

I debated quite a bit before deciding not to bring my “good” camera. But, as they say, the best camera in the world is the one you have with you when you see something interesting…

Kyoto was great. If you’re not familiar, and aren’t sure what to see, I highly recommend a tour guide. They can show you what you want. Kyoto has a famous geisha district “Goin” which has a fascinating history, if you enjoy cultural history. A food tour would have been great there, as well - but we did that for the Izakaya area in Tokyo earlier that week…