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Mt. Tabor Park is a treasure ❤️

A reservoir with a reflection of clouds and trees under a blue sky with scattered clouds. A small structure with a flat roof is visible on the far side of the water.

A vibrant green hill with a blossoming white tree and scattered yellow wildflowers, under a blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds. There is a black fence at the hill’s crest.

A tranquil landscape with a calm body of water reflecting a partly cloudy sky, a tree line, and a vibrant green grassy hill.

Landscape view with cumulus clouds in the sky over a city area with trees and blossoming trees in the foreground, residential buildings in the mid-ground, and a forested horizon in the background.

A duck swimming on a body of rippled water.

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Waiting for service…

Outdoor seating area of a taqueria with red and blue umbrellas, picnicking tables, and a dog sitting by a table on a sunny day.

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Portland, Oregon. 2nd March, 2024.

A rain-speckled window with a sheer white curtain partially revealing a view of a green exterior. A small white stool sits by the window bearing a cactus and another potted plant.

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Black and white diptych of a single bird perched on a wire against a cloudy sky; the composition is split into two sections showing the bird on different wires.

I noticed this bird from my kitchen window, took out my iPhone, zoomed in to 8x (digital) and took a few photos, and a few more when it flew over to another point. These two were picked from those, and even though they were monochromatic to begin, I converted to B&W as it was distracting.

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Spent about an hour messing with this simple patch last night.

An array of electronic music equipment, including a Moog Mother-32 semi-modular analog synthesizer, a Moog Mavis synthesizer, and an Elektron Analog Rytm drum machine, connected by patch cables on a table.

I started wanting to make some beats using the Elektron but I ended up just having fun with drones using the Moogs.

I am new to beats, and those seem very hard in comparison. Good procrastination 😂

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🥰 Jenni and I got married

Jenni and I got married on the equinox with a short and sweet courthouse ceremony 😊

A couple dressed in wedding attire stands under cherry blossom trees, with the woman holding a bouquet. The background shows a park with people and buildings.

We were joined by two good friends who served as witnesses. The view from the courthouse was really nice.

Four people smiling for a selfie indoors with a scenic view of a river and bridges in the background. A man and woman in wedding attire are in the foreground, while two women in dresses stand behind them. The landscape suggests a sunny day.

It was a lovely day so we had an opportunity to get some pictures at the cherry blossoms by the river.

A happy couple dressed in wedding attire, the individual on the left in a suit and the individual on the right in a lace dress, smiling and posing for a photo under blooming cherry blossom trees.

Following that we got some drinks and snacks and that was that. It was all we had hoped for.

Two people dressed in formal attire sharing an affectionate kiss at a bar, surrounded by shelves stocked with bottles and green potted plants. The walls are made of emerald green tiles.

19th March, 2024 ❤️

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📷 Stride Walk at Shamrock Run in Portland

Yesterday, I participated in the Stride Walk. Jenni ran the 8K and had a different start time and route. It was a lovely, cool, and sunny day.

A person takes a selfie amidst a large crowd wearing green shirts, some with festive accessories, at a starting line for a Shamrock Run event in Portland.

A park scene with cherry blossoms in partial bloom. People are walking along a path, some wearing green shirts, with a person seated on a bench. In the background, a steel bridge spans a river.

A person standing in a park on a sunny day, wearing a green shirt with the “FoPo Running Club” logo, a numbered bib, a finisher’s medal, a cap, and glasses.

Activity Stats

Distance: 3.77 miles
Elevation Gain: 105 ft
Time: 1h 02m

P.S. The route was a loop from Naito Parkway, to Steel bridge, to Tilikum bridge, and back to Naito. It was supposed to be 4 miles but the turn after Tilikum was changed for some reason to Bond Ave. instead of Moody Ave. I was puzzled and wanted to ask the volunteer there but they were on a phone call, and I didn’t want to stop.

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Sharing thoughts with my morning reading buddy.

A cat lying on a green textured couch looks at a book held by a person, with bright sunlight coming through a window draped with sheer curtains.

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Happy Leap Day! Be safe out there!

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A hanging potted plant with small green leaves and a green glass ornament is in focus with sunlight on it. Large green leaves from a different plant are in the foreground, and a cast iron skillet in the background on a kitchen rack.

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Hold on, I gotta go rearrange my entire schedule for the day for that 1pm sunshine…

A screenshot showing weather conditions for the day. Every hour has a “cloud” icon, except for a “sun” icon at 1pm.

Important Update:

I’ll take it!

A backyard with a well-maintained lawn, leafless trees, a trellis, shrubs, and a solitary pink chair under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

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Downtown grit

A textured metal sculpture in the foreground with a modern building featuring reflective pink and purple windows in the background, and bare tree branches overlaying the scene.

A downwards tilting street sign reading “SW 5th AV” and a sticker on its surface with a hand drawn penis and the words, “suck dick”.

Two potted plants placed on a makeshift windshield ledge of a truck with faded blue paint on the glass, and yellow lower section, with a sign above that reads, “Mexican food”.

A person taking a selfie in a window reflecting an urban street scene with parked cars. The window has a grid of white dots.

A low-angle view of a tall modern skyscraper with a glass facade against a cloudy sky.

A vertical stack of weathered spherical stones of varying sizes, seemingly carved or sculpted, mounted outdoors on a pedestal with an urban background comprising trees and buildings. The stones have hand written numbers from 1 to 19, top to bottom.

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It’s fascinating that currently the most popular show on a top streaming service in the US, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, has the protagonists in an arranged marriage.

P.S. It’s a fun show.

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A tabby cat resting on a patterned blanket with patches of light filtering through an object with circular cut-outs, casting a pattern of shadows over the scene.

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Portland, Oregon. 3rd February, 2024.

A walkway with a mesh fence on either side leading towards a cityscape, with a cable car system overhead and people walking along the path.

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About 75% of the time I write a reply to anything on any social media platform, after I’m done writing and editing, I (intentionally) hit “Cancel” instead of “Submit”. Works really well!

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70 Flights on Mars

When Perseverance rover landed on Mars, it brought along a little helicopter in its belly. The helicopter, named Ingenuity, was a 30-day technology demonstration sent to see if we could fly an aircraft in the very thin Martian atmosphere.

As is often with NASA’s robotic missions to Mars in recent times, it did that, and exceeded all expectations. It became a companion to the rover and performed about 70 flights over the nearly three years that it flew on Mars. Then last month it encountered an accident that left one of its propeller damaged. That ended the mission.

I’ve been fascinated by this little flying helicopter and have often looked at the photos it was sending back. So much so that I have now compiled a video of all the photos taken by the navigation camera on Ingenuity. This downward pointing camera photographs the ground below it, and so the helicopter is always seen by its shadow, scuttling about the Martian landscape for a cumulative 17 km (10.5 miles) over its mission timeline.

No doubt, Ingenuity has shown that a flying robot is a very useful tool in exploring Mars, like wheeled rovers showed over the last few decades. Perhaps enough that future missions will bring more along.

For more information and a lot more interesting media, like the locations of all these flights, check out its official website.

Direct link to video file

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Went out to take some photos this afternoon…

Urban park scene with a walkway, dried vegetation, two children playing on a grassy hill, and modern buildings in the background.

Ran into my friend Tim…

A man with a beard holding a camera, standing on a wooden walkway in a park with bare trees and a modern building in the background.

Black and white photograph of a modern building with vertical lines on the façade, trees, and a unique-looking tower in the background. There are people walking and a person with two dogs on a grassy area.

A panoramic view of a clear blue sky between two modern high-rise buildings with a visible helicopter appearing to fly in between.

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Silhouette of a “monkey puzzle” tree and residential houses at sunset with clouds illuminated by the golden light against a darkening sky. Power lines intersect the view.

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Downloaded a small dataset of cat and dog images for training a simple classifier. Super surprised that one image in the test data is a photo I took some years ago.

Update: Ok, so I double checked and it seems like I was wrong. But I was convinced that I was right. Ugh. Sorry about that folks.