Lately, I've found myself in a bit of a conundrum: what domain to use for a new "portal" website that I am planning.  It's not going to be anything too elaborate, as it's more or less going to be a self-hosted version of what people use Linktree for, using a content engine called Linkstack.  The portal site would contain links to this site, the…

From December 11-13, I took a weekend trip down to Augusta County, completely unsupervised.  That was a switch from what usually happens.  Normally, when someone is solo traveling, it's Elyse, and I'm home because I have to work, but this time, Elyse stayed home due to other commitments, and I took a trip down by myself.  It was a pretty simple trip, but I had a good time. 

YouTube video by Castle Compass

Recently, the Maryland legislature passed a law that made a number of changes to vehicle registration in the state.  Most of it was fairly mundane, with changes to the fee structures and such, but one change stood out to me.  That was changed the requirements for historic vehicles, and I found it to be a bit short-sighted.  The memo that MVA put out about the changes…

This year, I spent my Thanksgiving on the road, volunteering my time and money for Commonwealth Coach & Trolley, a Roanoke-based museum that owns a collection of vintage vehicles, largely transit buses.  Along with Elyse, I serve on the museum's board of directors.  On this particular occasion, I was transporting a recent acquisition down to its permanent home in Roanoke.  This was a former WMATA unit, bus 6181, a…

Recently, District of Columbia delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced a bill to Congress that would change some local officials' job titles in Washington, DC.  Specifically, it would redesignate the mayor as "governor", redesignate the DC Council as the "Legislative Assembly", redesignate the members of the DC Council as "representatives", and redesignate the chair of the council as "speaker".  This bill was introduced to show that the DC government is "prepared to make the transition from district to state."  Here is the press release that Norton's office put out:

On June 14, 2025, Baltimore held its Pride parade, which ran along Charles Street in the northern part of the city.  It was a very festive event, with an overarching message of love, equality, and inc...

If you've been looking for me on Flickr lately, you're not going to find me there anymore.  My account was recently removed from the platform for alleged violations of their terms of service and/or community guidelines.  I found out while I was out on Halloween, and spotted this in my email:

Recently, there was a lot of discussion in the news about the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, part of which was built in 1902, and part of which was built in 1942, in order to make way for the proposed White House State Ballroom.  My opinions on this entire project are mixed, and I suspect that most people are getting upset about the wrong things, and it also reveals a lot about how little people know about the White House.