Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Recent updates

  • 15 Year Anniversary

    It’s hard to believe that my wife and I have been married for 15 years. Well, more than 15 years now. Our anniversary was on the 23rd of last month. It seems like after that much time you might get tired of someone, but I still find her fascinating and I love being with her and helping her succeed. She’s an amazing person and I’m lucky to have her in my life.

    Old Homestead martini with gin
    Yellowfin tuna saishimi
    Oysters Rockefeller
    Gotham Rib Steak
    Filet mignon with applewood smoked bacon over potatoes
    Lobster macaroni and cheese
    Creme brulee with a cup of coffee

    We celebrated by going out to dinner at Old Homestead Steakhouse in New York City and by going up One World Trade Center to the One World Observatory. We’d been to Old Homestead before, on a previous anniversary years ago, and it was still an amazing meal and an amazing experience. It’s pricey, but worth it, and I highly recommend trying the place out if you’re in the city as a tourist or for a holiday.

    According to my mom, I went to the top of one of the old Twin Towers (the old World Trade Center), but I don’t remember it, so the view was really impressive. Everything looked so far away and inconsequential from up there. And it was quiet. It was like being in another place and the city was just a bunch of toys down below us. It was weird going back down the elevator (which took us from the basement to the 104th floor in 47 seconds) into the bustle of the city. It was unfortunately a bit cloudy and rainy when we were there, but that just means we have an excuse to go back again.

    It has been an amazing 15 years and I’m looking forward to all the anniversaries to come. I love you, babe!

  • Diablo IV updated impressions

    This game is dark and the scenery is amazing. The characters are fairly well done, both in terms of complexity and voice acting. I’m enjoying it, but I feel like it doesn’t have the same impact as Diablo III, somehow. It doesn’t have the same grim feeling. Maybe I’ve just consumed too much media for it to have the same impact?

    I hit level 51 now, so I’m getting Paragon points, and I’m working my way through the main story. I’m on Act III now. I want to finish the storyline and then move up to higher tiers of difficulty. I’d also like to get through the main storyline before Season 1 starts. I wonder if it’s going to be the same as seasons in Diablo III.

    My main gripe with the game so far is that the cosmetic designs in the game Shop seem really uninspired and not worth the money, except for the Ranger, but I don’t play Ranger so I’m out of luck. Maybe that’s a good thing. I’m sure my wallet is thankful that the armor designers have no imagination.

  • Hazy Fifth of July

    This was the 5th of July at about 5:15 AM. The Verrazano Bridge is partially obscured by a haze of smoke that I thought was from Canada, but turned out to be from fireworks. It was kind of a Bronx firecrackers or gunshots moment.

    The humidity and low wind took the AQI up to about 300 that night, but thankfully it cleared up by the end of the day. I want some normalcy. Except for traffic. It’d be great if that’d stay low like it has been all week.

  • Rediscovering cycling with folding bikes

    Moving to the Bronx was the right move at the time, but it came with some costs. One of those costs was the inconvenience of having to go somewhere else to do anything and everything, because let’s face it, the Bronx isn’t really that fun or friendly a place, and that’s especially true for bike riding.

    That wasn’t so much of an issue when we had a car with a bike rack, but thanks to someone who slammed into it while it was parked and totaled it, we have a new car with no hitch and no rack. Between that and the pandemic, our outings to go cycling basically came to an end for quite a while.

    Then we discovered folding bikes that actually ride well. We can throw them in the trunk of the car, pull them out, unfold them and be riding in less time than it used to take me to strap up our full sized bikes onto the old Allen rack we had. Granted, folding bikes have different capabilities and limitations, but it’s opened the door for us to get outside and do something we both enjoy again.

  • We went out riding around in Edgewater, NJ on Sunday before having lunch and getting groceries

    There are some great views of New York City from the waterfront there. I particularly enjoy seeing the old piers mixed in with the new ones. Some are only visible at low tide.

  • Goodbye, Twitter

    I went ahead and deleted my Twitter account tonight. I haven’t been using it much at all for the last few months, and even before Elon took over the platform, I realized that it wasn’t adding any positive value to my life anymore. Every time I opened it, I became enraged within minutes. The platform is designed to illicit an emotional response to keep you clicking and keep you engaged, but it went wrong somewhere and started feeding into the most negative things possible.

    I’ve known for years that I wanted to be done with Twitter. I started deleting posts older than a certain number of months, because the platform was regularly weaponized against people when social mores changed. Then, in March of 2021 I created a Mastodon account to start weaning myself off the outrage algorithm, and this weekend I realized that I just didn’t feel like opening the app or website anymore, so it was time for it to go.

    It’s weird. I opened that account in 2009, when I was living in Singapore, and it’s been with me ever since. Now, like MySpace and Friendster, I’m letting it fall by the wayside. Thanks for the fun, but I’m done.

  • Solid start for Diablo IV

    Man, I think I’m going to enjoy this one even more than Diablo III. The graphics look a lot better, the storytelling has been great so far, and I’m enjoying that they put in the effort to have so much voiced dialogue. I’ve tried all of the character types except the sorcerer, and so far my favorite is the necromancer.

    The intro to the game was great too. It had some serious The Last of Us vibes in the first encounter with people.

    I also like the MMO elements, where you run into random players while out in the world. That’s a nice touch.

    You can keep Legend of Zelda. This is the game I’m going to be putting time into.

  • Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, Day and Night

    Central Park, New York City. July 2019.

  • Looking at the books on shelves in comics and shows

    This panel is from James Tynion’s comic “Nice House on the Lake”, which is great by the way, but I love looking for scenes like this in shows and movies, where book spines are visible and you can get further reading ideas.

    I look at it like a reveal by the author or director of what they think are great books to read. In this case, it’s an awesome list and I see quite a few books that I’ve either already read or will definitely read in the near future.

  • Went out riding yesterday for the first time in a long time. Felt good.

    At Pier 64 – Hudson River Park

    In 2019, I was in pretty good shape but I kind of let that all go because of the pandemic. I’d like to get back to where I was, but my issue now is time. I have a long commute, so I have to figure out where to squeeze in the workouts. I’ll find a way to make it work.

    A boat called the Frying Pan docked one pier up. I have a feeling it’s a restaurant but didn’t want to investigate.