Joe Cieplinski

Inwood Hill Park, at the northernmost tip of Manhattan

Winter scene of creek and bare trees.

Small metal statue of a baby buffalo, with a light dusting of snow.

There are too many candidates for my favorite new album of the year 2019, but Leprous’ Pitfalls has to be up there in the top 5.

Looking straight up at a Hemlock tree, with grey skies.

Now listening to Opeth’s In Cauda Venenum. I think @muncman has finally made me a fan of this band.

Congrats to @danielpunkass on shipping Black Ink 2.0. Insta-buy for me. red-sweater.com/blog/3529…

Spent a good deal of time this weekend touring parts of Central Park, with the city’s urban rangers as guides. Gives you a whole new appreciation for how much design goes into every aspect of the park’s planning, and how that design is still ongoing.

If I were clever, I would have figured out a way to integrate all my posts for mbnov into some cool message that was revealed only when you read them all backwards, or something. But I’m not clever.

mbnov

Hope folks had a fantastic Thanksgiving. I certainly did.

mbnov

Great view of Venus right now, just below the crescent Moon. With Jupiter and Saturn both close by as well.

Inwood Park, Manhattan. Late fall trees with sun peeking through.

I like to check in on property values in my old stamping grounds of San Francisco now and then, just for fun. Who knows, maybe I’ll want to move back there someday? Looking at it now, I’d say someday is still a ways off.

mbnov

The older I get, the less I need to be to be happy. If I could make enough money to get myself a private olympic-sized swimming pool, that would be about enough for me. So however rich that is, that’s my new long-term goal.

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Since music software gets broken over time with OS and plugin updates, I was excited to find an old Logic project I made over a decade ago worked (with a few exceptions I can work around). I may be able to redo the mix for a few songs I like but never pleased me.

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Found out this morning that one missing “s” from an http in a css file background image call led to my RECaf website reporting a warning to browsers for months that the site is not secure. Oops.

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Lower East Side street, One World Trade Center in the distance at Sunset.

Been spending most of today in the company of myself. And it’s been nice. Really needed a break from people all week, and I finally got it.

Currently enjoying a quiet dinner alone.

mbnov

How the heck am I supposed to use woebegone in a post?

Ok. Nevermind. Wasn’t that hard.

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Woke up at 5 am this morning to a strange hum coming from some sort of machine outside on the street. Still not sure what it was. I didn’t bother to get out of bed to check. Such is life in the city.

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Took a walk to the northern tip of Manhattan, not far from home, through the hollow of Inwood Hill Park this morning. Not many more days left, I reckon, before it gets too cold to enjoy that stretch.

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This is the second day in a row I feel myself wanting to hide in a dark room by myself, rather than deal with other humans. Unfortunately, circumstances make that rather inconvenient today. Will need to schedule some alone time soon.

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“And though each spring do add to love new heat, As princes do in times of action get New taxes, and remit them not in peace, No winter shall abate this spring’s increase.”

—John Donne

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I’m not one to be overly obsessed with build times, but the results being reported from some new MacBook Pro 16-inch owners sound promising.

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I had written off my neighborhood for Mexican food options a long time ago. But today, I discovered a place within reasonable walking distance that serves superb tacos. This makes me very happy, indeed.

mbnov