Planet Iron Blogger SF

July 13, 2026

Certainly Strange

Gussied Up Strawberry Shortcake

A friend was hosting a party and so I made a gussied up strawberry shortcake. I decided to use diplomat cream and ladyfingers. This may or may not have been inspired by the fact that I had leftover ladyfingers from when I made tiramisu earlier.

by Steen at July 13, 2026 05:31 AM

July 09, 2026

Doctor Popular

How The Watchmen Inspired Comic Sans

Did you know that Comic Sans is heavily based on the lettering of dark, gritty comics like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns.

Text from wikipedia that says

Given it’s current reputation, I never would have guessed Comic Sans took inspiration back to two of the darkest and most influential comics of the 1980s, so I had to see it for myself.

Batman ripping apart a riffle and saying Comic Sans version Batman ripping apart a riffle and saying original version

I started by replacing the lettering in a classic Batman panel with Comic Sans. Then I did the same thing with a few panels from Watchmen.

Three panels from Watchmen, showing Rorschach challenging Dr. Manhattan to keep him in order to keep a secret safe. Comic Sans’d Watchmen Three panels from Watchmen, showing Rorschach challenging Dr. Manhattan to keep him in order to keep a secret safe. Original Watchmen

I was really impressed by how well Comic Sans worked in these comics, especially in that Watchmen panel. I mean… holy cow! Comic Sans looks nearly identical to Dave Gibbon’s original lettering.

I originally Comic Sans-ified these comics as a joke, but the results aren’t as weird as I had expected. Thinking about it more, I think it’s because we usually think of Comic Sans as mixed-case usage, but comics are usually lettered in all uppercase. Case in point:

Batman ripping apart a riffle and saying Comic Sans’d with mixed case usage

The lesson here is that Comic Sans is surprisingly good for lettering comics, but only if you use it correctly (no lowercase!).

Also, Dave Gibbons deserve some heavy credit for his influence on Comic Sans font.

If you’re interested in learning more about Comic Sans, including why some people with dyslexia find it easier to read, check out this special episode of Very Special Episodes.

The post How The Watchmen Inspired Comic Sans appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at July 09, 2026 08:56 PM

I Like Turtles

Stockholm

/2026/07/09/stockholm.html

July 09, 2026 07:00 AM

July 05, 2026

Doctor Popular

Bangladesh (chiptune cover)

I’ve had the melody to Ian McConnell’s “Bangladesh” floating in my head for weeks, so I decided to pull out my old Game Boy and record a chiptune version of the song:

You can download my chiptune versions (including a version closer to the original BPM) on Bandwagon. Huge thanks to Tanner4105 for mastering these.

And here’s Ian’s original version:

The post Bangladesh (chiptune cover) appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at July 05, 2026 08:45 PM

July 02, 2026

Matt Spitz

Reflections on building with AI

As much as I enjoy writing software, I generally won’t unless I have a particular problem to solve, even if it’s a manufactured and silly problem to solve. I’ve been itching to try out this newfangled way of working with AI development tooling, and I finally found a complex problem to try it out!

I write this post to capture my experience and reflections after building and shipping some real code. This post isn’t going to include any crazy revelations about AI development workflows – the internet is a firehose of AI-pilled one-upmanship already. But if nothing else, it’ll capture a moment in time that may be laughably different in 6-12 months.

My friend runs a small online school that trains laypeople on relevant religious topics to make them more effective in their jobs – think volunteers who teach Sunday School or teachers teaching at a Lutheran school for the first time. Like many schools of all sizes, he was using Canvas as a Learning Management System, and the massive outage ransomware attack gave him an opportunity, let’s say, to reevaluate his tech stack.

Project the first: LMS

My first project was to host the open-source version of Canvas in our own AWS instance. There’s a repository, now a few years out of date, containing some simple docker-compose files to build and host the LMS. As much as I love being my own SRE, I have no interest in plodding through error logs in buildfiles, but with some copy-pasta in and out of the Claude web UI, I eventually got it working and upgraded to the latest version. Claude was scarily good at knowing what to try next. Where it really shone was in proposing some high-value monitoring for my new application and using the right incantations to set up the Cloudwatch metrics, alerts, and email subscriptions for those alerts. AWS is a very flexible service that allows one to do almost anything, but none of it comes easily. It’s been a while since I’d wrapped my head around the data model for AWS monitoring, and I certainly wasn’t comfortable with the syntax in the CLI for setting everything up. Claude crushed it, and when I had issues, we were able to debug them quickly.

Project the second: SIS

My friend runs the administration of his school in spreadsheets. This includes setting up courses, and tracking contact information for instructors and students, whether the instructors had been paid, student registration and payment status, student cohorts, and grouping courses into programs. At the scale he was working with before, this was easy enough, but he got some more interest in his school, and you can see how this would get out of hand quickly. Larger schools use a Student Information System to track all this and sync it into their LMS.

After some iteration with Claude, my friend had generated an 8000-line single-page HTML file that largely expressed the feature set he was looking for using localStorage as a database. In itself, it’s wildly impressive that with Claude’s help an amateur who hasn’t developed software in decades could produce a functional proof of concept. My second project was to productionize this SIS, which gave me a chance to play around with Claude Code.

Breaking out the storage layer to use a server turned out to be relatively easy – the hard part was untangling the tech stack into something reasonably maintainable. Claude and I rearchitected the data layer away from an enormous blob that gets read/saved all at once, broke out the client-side JavaScript business logic into a decomposed TypeScript codebase, converted all the vanilla HTML components into React, restyled the whole thing for consistency, and then added ~500 unit and end-to-end tests to capture all the new behavior.

Holy goodness gracious, Claude did a fabulous job. Similar to learning the ins and outs of the AWS CLI, I have little interest in doing migrations to known-better frameworks or hunting down visual bugs on the web. It took some coaching to get Claude to create side-by-side setups of the original HTML app and the new frontend, programmatically take screenshots of each, compare them, and make changes based on the visual diffs on its own. But once I got it going, it got about 85% of the functionality and look/feel on its own. And now that everything is typed and well-tested, I feel confident in making iterative improvements and adding new features going forward. Bravo.

Workflow

Claude Code is very powerful, but it still needs a lot of guidance in how to approach projects. After failed prior attempts at one-shot coding complex projects, I’ve learned to create a new git branch for a series of changes, ask Claude to generate plans for complex projects, and to use a shared task list with Claude, systematically guiding it through development, one task at a time. It was ~85% correct in building stuff, so I couldn’t just let it run on the task list, and when I tried to do a few tasks at once, Claude would sometimes go off on a crazy tangent trying to do something completely off the rails. I would have expected Claude to provide me more guidance on how best to make the most of its immense power.

I found that outlining my expectations for workflow and architectural guidance in a CLAUDE.md helped, but I don’t think that Claude would have done this on its own. For example, I had to instruct it to add tests after each change or tell me why it wouldn’t add tests for that change, and I needed to tell it to run tests and commit after each incremental feature. I’m surprised that it wouldn’t have done this on its own, and it has me worried about folks building without basic software engineering discipline (more on that below).

Especially for the major migrations to TypeScript and to React, Claude churned for a very long time refactoring and testing, refactoring and testing, etc. As a lowly Pro user with occasional usage credits, I found that it spent my tokens and exhausted my session limit quickly. When at my desk, this translated to a lot of sitting and waiting, nudging it along from time to time. But hooking my Claude Code session up to the mobile app was a gamechanger. I couldn’t do real development or poke-test the app, but I could easily guide it through a refactor. When my session ran out, I’d set an alarm and poke it from the mobile app once I had more tokens. Side note: I’m now very reacquainted with UTC time.

It wasn’t great to feel chained to my desk when I had tokens to burn, and I wasn’t thrilled to have yet another chat app on my phone, but it’s truly incredible to be able to guide Claude on the go.

Execution vs. expertise

Through my advising work, I’ve seen many companies that leverage AI for execution to great success, but those that are using it as a substitute for expertise end up creating tons of technical (and sometimes organizational) debt and are left struggling to dig themselves out of it. Execution without expertise is just debt on autopilot, and this was my experience on these projects, too.

Claude is fabulous at taking a scoped problem and executing on it quickly and with relatively high quality, and at times, it can go the extra step of proactively hardening, refactoring, or testing code. Truly unbelievable. However, I don’t think I would have gotten to a positive outcome without personally using my experience and expertise in software development to guide Claude.

The way my expertise manifested was in the approach to (re)building the app and in the vocabulary to discuss issues as they arose. I tried to get Claude to propose a way to restructure and productionize the code, but it ultimately took my strong direction to refactor the data model, to pull out a server layer, to extract client-side logic into TypeScript, and then to convert the frontend to React. When getting to visual parity, it couldn’t figure it out until I instructed it to use parallel servers and screenshots. And when things went wonky, my approach to debugging and fluency in engineering ultimately enabled us to get to root causes in a way that didn’t just stack up extra technical debt.

Takeaways

My primary takeaway from all of this is that we’re going to have SO MUCH MORE BAD SOFTWARE out there. Anyone can very quickly build an app that looks and feels correct, and for the right product and quality risk, this is incredible. But productionizing these apps and maintaining them, especially with more than one person, is a much harder problem that requires product development expertise, and I don’t see apps like this replacing all SaaS apps everywhere any time soon.

All that said, it’s really, really fun to build with these tools – they unlock an incredible level of execution and possibility for creativity. The future is now.

July 02, 2026 07:00 AM

June 29, 2026

Certainly Strange

Ferry Building Lasers

We headed over to the Ferry Building this weekend to check out the lasers they have going down Market Street  

by Steen at June 29, 2026 07:59 AM

June 27, 2026

Doctor Popular

Selling comics and crafts at A*PE this Sunday.

I’ll be selling art, comics, denim goods, and photo zines at @ape_sf (3386 18th St, San Francisco) this Sunday June 28th from noon till 6. I might even bring some old issues of Hamburger Eyes to sell too.

A collection of things I'll be selling this Sunday. There's a yo-yo, a tutorial book, a copy of my American Analog Zine, and some other comics.

Also vending at this event are:

note: the featured image says June 21st, but the correct date is June 28th.

The post Selling comics and crafts at A*PE this Sunday. appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at June 27, 2026 04:35 PM

I Like Turtles

Cooking with Baloney

/2026/06/27/cooking-with-baloney.html

June 27, 2026 07:00 AM

June 26, 2026

Doctor Popular

Character Telephone, a Drawing Game For Artists

I recently met up with my old friend Mike Hales to try out a new drawing exercise I call “Character Telephone”. The goal is for each artist to spend ten minutes drawing a new character, then swapping their pages and redrawing each others character in their own unique style.

The timer isn’t super important, but I think it keeps the challenge moving nicely. I’m sure you could do a similar challenge with more artists by passing the pages around and encouraging each artist to only reference the most recent version of the character. That way the character sort of evolves as it gets passed around.

Two drawings of a mustached man in a t-shirt that simply says Two drawings of a unique character. The character is a pair of jeans with a floating robotic head above the waiste. The drawing on the left was drawn by Mike, then redrawn by Doc on the righthand side of the page. Two drawings of a robot holding a cat. The drawing on the right was originally done by Mike, and the drawing on the left is the version drawn by Doc. four small sheets of paper on a table. Each paper has two similar drawings on it, but each drawing is in a different style. So there are two drawings of a guy drinking coffee, two drawings of a robot, etc.

The post Character Telephone, a Drawing Game For Artists appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at June 26, 2026 04:05 PM

June 21, 2026

Certainly Strange

Film Festivals… again

This year is the Frameline film festival’s 50th year, and we’ve made it out to some great films! Most of them were very very arty (I say this affectionately). Possibly because I am the one picking the films to see from the program, haha.

by Steen at June 21, 2026 09:44 PM

I Like Turtles

Angel Island

/2026/06/21/angel-island.html

June 21, 2026 07:00 AM

June 20, 2026

Doctor Popular

The Knicks, the Watercolor Painter, and the World’s Most-Popular Artist

There’s a pretty wild story unfolding about one of the world’s most-followed artists, the New York Knicks, and an up-and-coming painter. At the center of this controversy are two Knicks paintings that are far too similar to ignore, so I’m going to do my best to document what we know so far.

The Knicks Commission

Gavin Snider had only been a full-time artist for about 10 months when the New York Knicks hired him to create a painting ahead of the 2026 NBA Finals. After a tight turnaround, Gavin delivered and his painting was shared on the Knicks’ social media pages. Shortly afterwards, Devon Rodriguez shared an oil painting that depicted a nearly identical composition with many of the same characters and details in it… right down to the jersey numbers in the foreground.

A watercolor painting by Gavin Snider that shows a large crowd in Madison Square celebrating the Knicks. The art is stylish with a focus on red and blue colors. The characters are slightly cartoony, showing joy in their faces and wearing Knicks gear. A, oil painting by Devon Rodriguez that shows a large crowd in Madison Square celebrating the Knicks. The composition of this painting is nearly identical to the one by Gavin Snyder. The buildings are the same, the signs on the buildings are the same, there are other similarities like a Knicks flag and a large foam finger glove that are in the same places. Even the numbers on the jerseys are the same.

According to Gavin, the overlap went far beyond the general idea of painting Knicks fans in New York, stating that his painting used 67 different reference photos, including screenshots from Instagram Reels and Google Street View.

A comparison of the two paintings, showing how the flag and background umbrellas in Gavin's painting look identical to the ones in Devon's painting. Text from Devon that says

More Similarities Surface

After the controversy began, Gavin noticed that another one of Rodriguez’s recent works appeared compositionally similar to one of his paintings from 2025.

Two paintings side by side. The one of the left is by Gavin, the one on the right is by Devon. Both show the interior of a basketball stadium mid game. The perspective is nearly identical, the message on the billboard is the same, and the players are almost lined up in the same position on the court. Gavin's style is loser and more watercolory using only red and blue. Devon's piece has a little more detail and more realistic depiction of some characters in the foreground.

Questions About Process

Devon Rodriguez is one of the world’s most-followed visual artists, second only to Banksy, with roughly 44 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. He’s demonstrated serious artistic skill over the years and painted portraits for celebrities like Oprah and Nicolas Cage.

Which raises an obvious question: why do Devon’s two newest paintings look so similar to works that Gavin had previously shared online?

two paintings side by side. The paintings have different styles, but identical composition. One is by Gavin Snider and the other is by Devon Rodriguez. The one by Gavin is marked as the An image from Threads accusing Devon of using generative AI

Some commenters have speculated that AI tools may have been involved, while others believe the similarities could be explained through heavy referencing, tracing, or other traditional techniques.

I can’t definitively say whose work came first or what process was used to create either piece. What strikes me is that both artists are unquestionably skilled painters. If one image was derived from the other, I wonder whether someone used AI tools to introduce small changes to the original composition before tracing and repainting it in their own style.

That’s only speculation on my part, but I don’t believe either of the images we see here are purely the result of generative AI output.

Statements and Responses

Gavin has since released a public statement addressing the situation here https://www.instagram.com/p/DZptTFdjZyC/

After the controversy began circulating online, Devon Rordriguez posted a behind-the-scenes video showing the creation of his painting on Instagram, but didn’t address the allegations directly.

Devon deleted that behind-the-scenes video shortly after posting it, but I’ve shared a copy on the Wayback Machine for reference.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get any definitive answer as to what happened here, but it looks to me like one of these artists copied the other.

What makes this story interesting is the popularity of the artists involved and the allegations of how generative AI may have been used, even if the final results were both hand painted.

update 1 (June 16th, 2026 9pm):

Since this article was originally published, Devon Rodriguez has removed both Knicks-related paintings from his social media accounts and has taken the corresponding prints out of his online shop. I’ve included archived screenshots below showing the posts before they were removed.

A screenshot of Devon's 18 most recent Instagram posts. 10 of these posts are about the two Knicks prints he was selling. ten of these posts have been removed from Instagram A screen shot from KeepSmiling.co, Devon Rodriguez's shop, showing an art print for sale for $199. Text on this page says removed from shop Screenshot of an Instagram post showing Devon holding an original piece of art titled deleted IG post A screenshot from Devon's online art shop that shows a print of removed from shop

Of course, removing the posts does not confirm or disprove the plagiarism allegations. There are many reasons an artist might choose to remove artwork from public view.

Gavin Snider’s Knicks paintings remain online, and neither artist has issued any additional public statements since Gavin’s original response.

The post The Knicks, the Watercolor Painter, and the World’s Most-Popular Artist appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at June 20, 2026 10:21 PM

June 13, 2026

Doctor Popular

#SidewalkFriends: Best Fiends

I like to keep an eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon.

The tattered remains of stickers on a street pole inspired this drawing of a knight and an imp.

A digital drawing of a knight being carried in the air by an imp with small wings. The drawing is mostly black and white with some red. It's digital, but has a lot of graininess and stippling to create depth. The digital drawing is on top of a photo of a street post on Valencia St, which makes it appear as if the characters are flying in front of the pole. A photo of some sticker residue on a pole in San Francisco. The stickers are long gone, but the white paper that remains contrasts nicely on the dark green street pole.

The post #SidewalkFriends: Best Fiends appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at June 13, 2026 04:11 PM

June 10, 2026

I Like Turtles

Lazy mornings

/2026/06/10/lazy-mornings.html

June 10, 2026 07:00 AM

June 08, 2026

Certainly Strange

Clown Show

I am unironically obsessed with clowns, and I love that clowns are currently having a bit of a resurgence. We went to see another show at Church of Clown this weekend, and it like it was made entirely for me. It had clowns, elves, fantasy, and magic. Absolutely beautiful. As you may know, I am … Continue reading "Clown Show"

by Steen at June 08, 2026 03:43 AM

June 07, 2026

Doctor Popular

Upcoming Events in San Francisco

Happy #NationalYoYoDay, folks!

I’m hosting two delightfully nerdy events in San Francisco this week:

The Cartoonist Conspiracy of San Francisco (@CartoonistSF)

Tuesday, June 9 • 7–9pm • Finjan Qahwa Cafe

Bring drawing supplies (pen, eraser, etc), make comics, and meet fellow cartoonists.

A Cartoonist Conspiracy flier that shows a drawing of a man with a rat on his head. The rat is pulling the man's hair, like Ratatouille, and making him draw a sexy drawing of another rat. The info on the flier says

San Francisco Yo-Yo Club

Saturday, June 13 • 2–5pm • 826 Valencia St

Learn tricks, show off your skills, or just come throw a yo-yo with us.

A yellow circular creature playing with a yo-yo. It sort of looks like Pac-Man but with arms and legs. It’s yo-yoing and almost hit a parrot that was flying above it. The flier says “SF Yo-Yo Club at 826 Valencia. All ages. On the second Saturday of month. Human-made art by DocPop.”

Both of these events are free, all ages, and beginner-friendly. Come make something, learn something, and hang out with some wonderfully nerdy people.

And please support the awesome businesses that host us!

The post Upcoming Events in San Francisco appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at June 07, 2026 03:52 PM

June 06, 2026

I Like Turtles

Last day of school

/2026/06/06/last-day-of-school.html

June 06, 2026 07:00 AM

June 01, 2026

Certainly Strange

DocFest

This weekend we ate at Fable SF and saw some documentaries for DocFest. The documentaries we saw were fantastic and I really enjoyed them. I always like going to the Roxie in general. In fact I just found out that they will be showing the Utena movie next month. And I might have to go … Continue reading "DocFest"

by Steen at June 01, 2026 03:51 AM

May 30, 2026

I Like Turtles

Musical week

/2026/05/30/musical-week.html

May 30, 2026 07:00 AM

May 26, 2026

Doctor Popular

“The City Is My Sweetheart”: Remembering the Art of Peet Lum

As another big move comes to an end, it’s time to figure out where all the art goes. I’ve collected a lot of small paintings and sculptures over the years, so this process always fills me with nostalgia for the San Francisco artists I’ve met along the way. None hit me harder than these two paintings by Pete “Peet” Lum.

Two paintings by Peet Lum. Both are drawn on pieces of found wood. One is a very wide (4 foot) painting of clouds and cassette tapes in red, black, and white. It says A detailed look at a painting by Peet Lum. It's a painting of a floating cassette tape in the clouds. Text says A close up view of a painting by Peet Lum. It shows a floating cassette tape and a cloud, with text saying

I think this is the fifth home where I’ve hung these two paintings over the past twenty years. Every time I unpack them, I end up thinking about Peet and that era of San Francisco all over again.

Peet was a fixture of the San Francisco art scene in the mid-2000s. He played drums with the Human Beans, painted graffiti as “Goonies”, and could regularly be found selling his paintings on sidewalks around the Mission District. His paintings often featured cassette tapes, clouds, telephone poles, and whimsical phrases like “The city is my sweetheart” or “We never sleep”. He frequently used found objects, like 2x4s and chunks of wood from construction sites, and kept his palette limited to 3 colors at a time.

A black and white photo showing Peet Lum on the sidewalk, beside several of his own paintings. Some are drawn on canvas, most are on pieces of 2x4 wood scraps. The paintings show ghosts, cassette tapes, bicycles, and other cute objects. Some have text written on them like photo by HabitForming

His pieces were incredibly cheap, probably ranging from $5-$50, which was perfect for broke-ass artists like myself who loved his work but didn’t have much to offer for it. Peet Lum wasn’t necessarily a famous artist, but if you lived in the Mission around 2005–2006, there’s a very good chance you have one of his paintings hanging somewhere in your home.

photo by Zachary Morriss photo by Rio Coffelt Roth-Barreiro photo by Maya Greven photo by Eddie Coddel

When he wasn’t selling paintings, Peet was tagging the city with two recurring characters: a Pac-Man-style ghost with spiraled eyes and a melancholy little bear with a fang hanging out and a heart on its chest. His graffiti name was “Goonies,” though he rarely needed to write it. The characters, along with short phrases lifted from his paintings, were recognizable enough on their own.

photo by HabitForming photo by SFrances photo by Loser photo by Jay Kullman photo by RatRaceForSpace photo by Loser

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve described Peet’s work to friends only to hear, “Oh yeah, I had one of his paintings. Whatever happened to that guy?” Sadly, Peet passed away on May 25th, 2006.

A flier that says Photo by Petalum

Peet’s art had a huge influence on me, but I didn’t know him personally. Our bands played a few shows together, and I’d chat with him whenever I ran into him on the street, but we never really hung out beyond that. I loved his characters, his phrases, and the clean, crisp lines in his work, but mostly I loved how much Peet cared about this city.

San Francisco’s art scene in the 2000s felt so full of energy and possibility. There was amazing art and music everywhere, and the city still felt affordable enough for weird little scenes like this to thrive.

Whenever I see Peet’s work, I’m immediately transported back to my early days in this city and how exciting it all was.

If you have a story about Peet, or photos you think I should include in this post, you can leave a comment below or email me at doc@docpop.org. And if you have any of Peet’s old work laying around, I’d love to add it to my collection. I’m still broke, but maybe we could trade stories or yo-yos 🙂

The post “The City Is My Sweetheart”: Remembering the Art of Peet Lum appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at May 26, 2026 08:10 PM

May 25, 2026

Doctor Popular

Stephen Colbert’s Best Post-Cancellation Stunt Yet

In the annals of post-talk-show-cancellation stunts, Stephen Colbert hosting an hour-long episode of a Michigan public access show might be my new favorite. Jack White serves as the “volunteer musical director,” playing the perfect straight man to Colbert’s silly schtick and the episode is full of other great cameos that I won’t spoil here.

Jack White and Stephen Colbert holding a hot dog and about to each take a bite of it

The whole episode is charming, chaotic, and incredibly fun to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTXB5uT_C4

I’m excited to see whatever Stephen does next, especially if it involves a tour of public access TV shows across the country.

And since I couldn’t find a more graceful place to put this: fuck Brendan Carr and Trump for pushing Colbert off the air because their fragile egos couldn’t take a joke. The right loves to pretend they are defenders of free speech… up until someone criticizes them. Then they use the full power of the state to censor their opponents, while bragging about it.

The post Stephen Colbert’s Best Post-Cancellation Stunt Yet appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at May 25, 2026 04:20 AM

Certainly Strange

Popcorn

We recently switched to a different (larger) popcorn kernel, and I didn’t account for this when measuring it out by eye. These popcorns popped up much larger than the old ones, and the volume was so great that they lifted the lid off the pot. They could not be contained!

by Steen at May 25, 2026 04:14 AM

May 24, 2026

I Like Turtles

Camping and cottages

/2026/05/24/camping-and-cottages.html

May 24, 2026 07:00 AM

May 18, 2026

Doctor Popular

Reading eBooks with RSVP Nano

After seeing a few cool Instagram videos about it, I decided to try out Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (aka RSVP) to see how well it worked for me. Mostly I was excited to try out John Decebal’s RSVP Nano app for ESP32-S3 microcontrollers. These devices are around $30 each and John’s app is totally free.

Exploring the world of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation via the RSVP Nano app on an ESP32 microcontroller.
Currently testing it out with @charliejane's "All The Birds In The Sky".

— Doctor M. Popular (@docpop)2026-05-17T01:36:07.443Z

RSVP is a method of presenting eBooks that doesn’t require the reader to move their eyes much. Text is displayed one word at a time, and you can control how fast it appears. Some people use this method to improve their reading speed, but I just thought it sounded fun to try.

It’s like a teleprompter for ebooks!

There are several free RSVP apps for mobile and the web that you can use to try this method out. I don’t have any specific recommendations yet, but you could copy the text from this post and try reading it in something like ReadRSVP to get a feel for the technique.

If you want to give RSVP Nano a try on your ESP32-S3 device, here’s what you’ll need:

Supported file types: EPUB, TXT, Markdown, HTML
Hardware: ESP32-S3 device + SD card (32GB or smaller)
Software: Chrome or Edge (for the web flasher)

Installing RSVP Nano was surprisingly easy thanks to John’s web flasher (Chrome or Edge required). I hooked my microcontroller up to Wi-Fi for over-the-air updates, and this thing is already packed with features.

I’m currently testing it out with Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky. If you try it out, let me know your thoughts below.

If you’re interested in buying one of these ESP32-32 microcontrollers, consider using John’s affiliate link to help support his work-> https://www.waveshare.com/esp32-s3-touch-lcd-3.49.htm?&aff_id=153227

I’d also recommend giving John a follow on Instagram to see what cool new features he’s working on now.

The post Reading eBooks with RSVP Nano appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at May 18, 2026 02:36 AM

May 17, 2026

Certainly Strange

Board Game Night

We have reached a level of stability in the process where we can do things like have board game night again! I also walked to the library and found a cool book about textiles. It is like I am becoming myself again.

by Steen at May 17, 2026 08:35 PM

May 15, 2026

I Like Turtles

New gear day

/2026/05/15/new-gear-day.html

May 15, 2026 07:00 AM

May 11, 2026

Certainly Strange

Many Treats

I took the week off to focus on unpacking and organizing, and so I diligently cooked every random thing I could think of in order to avoid unpacking and organizing. I made pelmeni, using Max Miller’s recipe I made Schmoo Torte And, since schmoo torte calls for twelve (12) egg whites, I had twelve egg … Continue reading "Many Treats"

by Steen at May 11, 2026 05:21 AM

Doctor Popular

“How To Die (and Other Stories)” by Mike Monteiro

Mike Monteiro and I met up at Dynamo a few weeks ago to catch up and eat some Fernet-flavored donuts. We had a great chat and he even gave me a copy of his newest book, How to Die (And Other Stories). I’ve been carrying it around with me ever since.

A man holding a donut in front of his face, intentionally blocking his identity. This is Mike Monteiro, being sily with a donut. Mike has a long grey beard, which you can see from behind the donut. The photo is taken in the beautiful back patio of Dynamo Donuts on a sunny day.

This is partly because we are mid-move and all of my other books are in boxes, but it’s mostly because I enjoy Mike’s writing so much. I honestly don’t read as many books as I’d like to these days, but this one is such a fun read that I can’t put it down.

A completely empty bookshelf, except for one copy of

How To Die is a collection of beautiful, sarcastic, and funny essays about everyday life. Each chapter starts with a simple question like “How to wash the dishes” or “How to read a book”, but the answers always are far more thoughtful and interesting than you’d expect. It’s less like an advice book, and more like sharing stories over coffee (or donuts).

Mike has been answering reader-submitted questions like these in his weekly newsletter for years, and this book collects many of those, but I highly recommend it book form even if you’ve already subscribed to his weekly rambling.

You can grab How to Die (And Other Stories) as either a hardcover or an ebook.

I can’t recommend it enough.

Doc Pop holding a copy of

If you happen to be in San Francisco on May 11th, you should check out Mike’s event at Booksmith with special guest Annalee Newitz.

The post “How To Die (and Other Stories)” by Mike Monteiro appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at May 11, 2026 03:43 AM

May 09, 2026

Doctor Popular

One of the Coolest Music Videos I’ve Ever Seen: A Brutal Time Loop Done Right

Today I stumbled on this insane music video for “Bubble” by Yorushika, and I fell in love with it. Within the first five seconds, a man finds himself in a chair in a hotel room. As he tries to figure out where he is, a stranger in a dark trench coat bursts in and shoots him. He dies… only to find himself once again sitting in the same chair, in the same hotel room.

As a jazzy guitar riff plays, this time loop repeats over and over as the man desperately tries to escape his fate. Watch the video here:

It’s perfect, absolutely perfect.

The best part of “Bubble” is that it reminds me of a choose-your-own-adventure-style comic by Jason Shiga. In “Knock Knock,” you find yourself in a similar time loop. Waking up in a bedroom with a few seconds to evade being murdered by a stranger for some unknown reason. You can try to hide under the bed, escape through a window, or fight back. There are hundreds of ways to die in “Knock Knock,” and about half of them show up in “Bubble,” too.

A photo of a newspaper column titled

The post One of the Coolest Music Videos I’ve Ever Seen: A Brutal Time Loop Done Right appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at May 09, 2026 05:07 PM

May 07, 2026

I Like Turtles

Bache 2 Breakers

/2026/05/07/bache-2-breakers.html

May 07, 2026 07:00 AM

May 04, 2026

Certainly Strange

Moved in, weekend off

We took the weekend off from moving stuff to just relax. We turned in the keys to the old place on Thursday, and now all that remains is to organize and unpack. And there is no longer a time crunch on any moving stuff. So I think it is important to just relax for at … Continue reading "Moved in, weekend off"

by Steen at May 04, 2026 04:17 AM

April 27, 2026

Doctor Popular

The Art of Bus Stop Benches in San Francisco

The San Francisco Bay Area Bench Collective is an activist group that installs benches at public bus stops. A pretty awesome task, if you think about it. The benches are usually installed with a brown coat of paint, but some of them have been getting more decorative lately.

Like this jazzy bench at the corner of Mission and Valencia.

A wooden bench on the sidewallk at the corner of Mission and Valencia (where the 14 and 49 stop). The bench has been installed illegally, but looks very nice and is attached to the ground. It has recently been painted to look like the popular

Or this cosmic bench on Telegraph in Oakland.

A photo of a bench in Oakland. It shows the face of a blue woman with purple hair and things growing out of her head. Maybe cosmic flowers? A bike lane is visible behind the bench. A post from Little Hot Mess on Mastodon that says

Or my favorite new bench at the corner of 18th and Mission.

A heavy metal mural on the side of a smoke shop in SF. There is a bench installed on the sidewalk and the muralist has painted on that too, in a way that fits with the bigger mural behind it. It's a painting of a big yellow monster, and skulls, and blood. A closer look a the bench in front of the mural. This shows the sharp teeth of some hideous monster A further away look at the bench and mural on the side of a smoke shop. It shows monsters and skulls painted in a heavy metal style.

That last piece was created by Noah Peacock. He did the mural on the smoke shop there, and when the bench was added in front, Noah must have decided to work it into the final piece. It looks great.

As a note, I didn’t want to bother folks who were waiting for the bus, so I waited until the benches were empty before taking my photos. So imagine these same benches, but with your friends and neighbors using them.

The post The Art of Bus Stop Benches in San Francisco appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at April 27, 2026 04:32 PM

Certainly Strange

Housewarming Tiramisu

For months now, I have been obsessed with the idea of making a tiramisu once we were moved into the new place. I couldn’t tell you why. It just really captivated my mind. Well, this weekend, I finally made that happen. And it was everything I dreamed of.

by Steen at April 27, 2026 04:34 AM

April 23, 2026

I Like Turtles

Charleston

/2026/04/23/charleston.html

April 23, 2026 07:00 AM

April 20, 2026

Certainly Strange

Meal Milestones

We moved all our stuff over yesterday and it was exhausting and terrible but. We are here now! And last night was the first night we spent at the new place. I am so excited about our new home. The first thing I cooked on our new stovetop was popcorn. As we sat down at … Continue reading "Meal Milestones"

by Steen at April 20, 2026 06:11 AM

Doctor Popular

Fresh new Art In New Hood

We moved into our new place on 16th and Julian Ave, and I haven’t had time to install the curtains yet. So when the sun came out this morning at 6:30 AM, I was up with it. I decided to check out some new street art in the alleys and streets around us, starting with our own back alley, which seemed to have a ton of fresh paint.

Then I walked down Erie St, which was filled with awesome new pieces.

I headed back to 18th and Mission, a popular graffiti spot that is frequently covered with new pieces.

And I wrapped up my walk with a stroll through Clarion Alley.

The post Fresh new Art In New Hood appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at April 20, 2026 05:39 AM

April 19, 2026

I Like Turtles

Green whale

/2026/04/19/green-whale.html

April 19, 2026 07:00 AM

April 13, 2026

Certainly Strange

Life

April 18 is the Big Move Day, and life is hectic due to this. But also, we are getting excited for being in the new neighborhood And the SF Public Library has been doing a ton of really cool events at its main branch lately. Like last night, when it had the mobile gamelan there!

by Steen at April 13, 2026 03:03 AM

Doctor Popular

Joshua Ellingson demoing Pepper’s Ghost Illusions at Artist’s Television Access in SF

The Artist’s Television Access is an art space on Valencia and 21st st in San Francisco. On Saturday evenings, they’ve been doing a series of short films, live electronic music, talks, and more. This week’s set featured some rare footage of Clara Rockmore performing theremin in Bob Moog’s house, vintage ads for IBM, and Joshua Ellingson demonstrating the Pepper’s Ghost illusion along with his modular synthesizer.

Joshua standing behind his modular synthesizer and twisting buttons. This was shot at The Artist's Television Access in San Francisco before Josh's talk.

From the ATA’s description of the night:

Fine-tuning through the ultra-rich ether, we have discovered some, uh, “special” frequencies that ‘charm’, and re-animate concepts of contemporary A/V installation/performance, with jolts of juice both natural and ‘super’. Mission whiz Josh Ellingson marvels all with demos of his current works – thee eye-popping Pepper’s Ghost, as well as his re-wiring of cult director Sid DavisAge 13. Anchoring the second half is a co-hit that threatens to crack through the ‘Quantum Consensus’: the US premiere of Riar Rizaldi‘s Tellurian Drama, a 20-min anomaly that asks way more that it answers, on the uses and possible abuses of an obscure Malabar Radio Antenna, on the island of Java in the Indonesian archipelago during the Dutch colonial period. Berlin skeptic Thorsten Fleisch contributes Astrogolem, his digital hypothesis on a time-traveling Nikolai Tesla, while Craig Baldwin shares his own revelations from his speculative history Spectres of the Spectrum (exc). PLUS Piercing the Unknown, Hippies High on Alpha, Clara Rockmore’s Theremin, and other inquiries into novel pop-music forms flowing from those magickal waves of electricity! $13

The post Joshua Ellingson demoing Pepper’s Ghost Illusions at Artist’s Television Access in SF appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

by doc at April 13, 2026 02:48 AM

April 12, 2026

I Like Turtles

Banana ball

/2026/04/12/banana-ball.html

April 12, 2026 07:00 AM