{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"Micro.blog - David Walbert","home_page_url":"https://micro.blog","feed_url":"https://micro.blog/posts/dwalbert","_microblog":{"about":"https://micro.blog/about/api","id":"10333","username":"dwalbert","bio":"Hand-tool woodworker, writer, and historian. Also an avid gardener and curious baker; formerly a physicist, a web developer, and a homeschool educator (though not all at once). ","pronouns":"","is_following":false,"is_you":false,"following_count":104,"discover_count":0},"author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2026/02/10333.jpg"},"items":[{"id":"96184904","content_html":"

@JohnBrady Apparently it wasn’t!

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/96184904","date_published":"2026-08-22T00:21:01+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"00:21","date_timestamp":1787358061,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"96155945","content_html":"

@todd Well thank heavens for novel evidence. It isn’t like we’ve known since the 70s that staring at screens all day makes you a slack-jawed moron.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/96155945","date_published":"2026-08-21T14:09:59+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-21 14:09","date_timestamp":1787321399,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95924959","content_html":"

@isaacgreene No, but I see no way to keep a horse and wagon in this city.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/95924959","date_published":"2026-08-17T17:27:08+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-17 17:27","date_timestamp":1786987628,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95773251","content_html":"

@bradleyandroos There used to be something like this where I live… 20 or 25 years ago, I’d forgotten all about it. I recall the major limitation being that while lots of people liked the idea of using it to pay for cool local stuff, the people who made/grew/sold the cool local stuff could not then use it to pay for housing, (most) food, medical care, gas, etc., let alone their actual business costs. (If there were such a thing in Durham now, and someone wanted to pay me with it at the craft market, I’d refuse it for exactly that reason. I am, however, always open to actual barter.)

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/95773251","date_published":"2026-08-14T17:17:49+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-14 17:17","date_timestamp":1786727869,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95772408","content_html":"

@ReaderJohn Ceteris paribus, it’s always more fun to use big words.

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@JohnBrady Oh, that makes sense to me. So much that I ordered a book of his poems. (BTW when I searched the web for “Tu Fu poems in English” I was informed that the English translation of “Tu Fu poems” was “Tu Fu poems.” And they say web search has gone downhill!!)

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/95731435","date_published":"2026-08-13T23:54:10+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-13 23:54","date_timestamp":1786665250,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95711319","content_html":"

@davoh How dare you not organize your every thought around the needs of social media?!

\n

Seriously, I always enjoy your sketchbook postings.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/95711319","date_published":"2026-08-13T16:38:14+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-13 16:38","date_timestamp":1786639094,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95698849","content_html":"

@JohnBrady How do you know he has no money? He has business cards, maybe he does consulting on the side.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/95698849","date_published":"2026-08-13T12:46:34+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-13 12:46","date_timestamp":1786625194,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95575675","content_html":"

James Rebanks:

\n\n
\n

On one level, clearly, a drought is just bad luck, the savage will of the gods. If it doesn’t rain for long enough, then every farming system grinds to a halt. But the severity of how drought affects a place is shaped by how it has been managed before. And the fact is that a lot of British farmland is now being farmed so efficiently — in monocultures, and fed with synthetic nutrients — that often it has quite low levels of soil organic matter. Now, this can work fine in years where there is plenty of moisture. But over time, we also know that degraded soils dry out quicker in droughts.

...
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@canneddragons The trouble with that distinction is that the relationship between waiter and diner is thin and temporary, and therefore needs a focus for conversation, whereas the relationship between actual friends is (supposed to be) thick and durable, and so conversation should not require an externally provided focus. And there is no clear, direct path for those thin/temporary relationships to become thick and durable, let alone “community.” In fact I think Facebook, for example, operates the other way around: by forcing actual friends to interact in public, among thin relationships, forces thick relationships to behave like thin ones and thus thins friendship. At least that seems a good way to describe the reason I got off Facebook several years ago.

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@dwalbert @JohnBrady Here’s your color. The aqua blue vanity lamps are also new.

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Repainted what is essentially my studio bathroom, formerly my daughter’s bathroom, which I had permitted her to paint bright salmon pink. Color yes, pink no. It was the most annoying room I have ever painted—all obstacles, no room to maneuver—but it’s done, and now I get to build a wall cabinet.

\n\"my\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/08/08/repainted-what-is-essentially-my.html","date_published":"2026-08-08T17:03:10+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-08 17:03","date_timestamp":1786208590,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95412048","content_html":"

@JohnBrady I need to buy something new to haul my crap to craft markets and “not gray” is becoming a serious consideration.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/95412048","date_published":"2026-08-08T16:27:56+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-08 16:27","date_timestamp":1786206476,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95407620","content_html":"

@JohnBrady The physicality of the “performance” is also interesting to me:

\n

>“I think it really is the organ playing the church and not the other way around,” Lependorf said. “You move two inches in any direction and it sounds not subtly different — very different.”

\n

That seems to give an immediacy that you wouldn’t expect in a piece of music where you have to wait years for a chord change.

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@canneddragons The first year I did this, 2024, we actually got rain in spring, and it was so crazy with color in May I had girls using the yard as backdrop for selfies. Bizarre.

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View from my driveway after the wettest July since the 1930s

\n\"Vertical\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/08/08/view-from-my-driveway-after.html","date_published":"2026-08-08T14:04:51+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-08 14:04","date_timestamp":1786197891,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95357792","content_html":"

@canneddragons I’d forgotten about that movie, I need to keep a “to watch” list taped to the inside of the TV cabinet door.

\n

On the Puritans—there’s a wonderful novel by Marly Youmans, Charis in the World of Wonders, about a young woman in 17th century Massachusetts, that I recommend to everyone not only for the storytelling but for the way it shows both the reasons for and the limitations of the strictness of Puritan community.

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Speaking of buying things: The very last straw for me with SquareSpace was discovering that without my choice or even knowledge it was now possible to buy, via my website, a $30 spreader in four easy payments of $7.50. Make a new plan, Stan. We’re finished.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/08/07/speaking-of-buying-things-the.html","date_published":"2026-08-07T12:58:53+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-07 12:58","date_timestamp":1786107533,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95348119","content_html":"

Why is it that there are more items for sale on the internet than protons in the sun but I cannot find the thing I actually want

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/08/07/why-is-it-that-there.html","date_published":"2026-08-07T12:53:14+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-07 12:53","date_timestamp":1786107194,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95300056","content_html":"

@jabel Here’s a song for the occasion, if you don’t already know it.

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@ablerism Thanks for the reminder that I need to listen to more Claire Holley.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/95299910","date_published":"2026-08-06T15:46:43+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-06 15:46","date_timestamp":1786031203,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"95049323","content_html":"

@jabel sorry, it is of course rock YOU like a hurricane. Long day. Still haven’t heard it at a market.

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@jabel heh… yeah. If you want to go that direction, though, I have never heard “Rock Me Like a Hurricane” or “Rock Me Amadeus” at a market.

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@jabel Hearing that song for the second time this morning and the third week in a row was what prompted my post

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@jabel ok, that I have not heard at a market. :)

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Challenge: Create a two hour setlist of cover songs appropriate for a farmers market busker that does not contain any songs you have ever heard sung or played at a farmers market.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/08/01/challenge-create-a-two-hour.html","date_published":"2026-08-01T13:57:43+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-01 13:57","date_timestamp":1785592663,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94992223","content_html":"

@isaacgreene But what color, is the question.

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@dwalbert NB that is a blue jay not an eagle. It being well known that eagles do not read Whitman.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/94987808","date_published":"2026-07-31T18:42:06+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-31 18:42","date_timestamp":1785523326,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94987117","content_html":"

This one is titled “To Me the Converging Objects of the Universe Perpetually Flow,” which is what happens when you fill the time between customers at the craft market reading your pocket edition of Walt Whitman and doodling.

\n\n

\"chip

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/31/this-one-is-titled-to.html","date_published":"2026-07-31T18:29:27+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-31 18:29","date_timestamp":1785522567,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94939373","content_html":"

@jaheppler This is great.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/94939373","date_published":"2026-07-30T23:05:30+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-30 23:05","date_timestamp":1785452730,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94939232","content_html":"

@drwalt The trouble with posting stuff on Instagram is that once it slips off the feed, it’s gone. Some curious person searching the internet wanting to learn about the topic won’t find it. You can’t do a meaningful dive into a digital collection if all you can do is scroll sequentially. And of course social media limits what you can effectively post, and how it can be read. It’s much easier to post to Instagram than to maintain a blog or a museum website, and you don’t need anyone on staff with technical expertise… but you can only reach people who already follow you for a very short time.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/94939232","date_published":"2026-07-30T23:02:43+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-30 23:02","date_timestamp":1785452563,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94879027","content_html":"

@isaacgreene That’s a good thing to do. I love that piece.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/dwalbert/94879027","date_published":"2026-07-29T23:07:39+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-29 23:07","date_timestamp":1785366459,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94803485","content_html":"

This is, I don’t know what. Reptilian love child of Pennsylvania Dutch and Zuni?

\n\"turtle\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/28/this-is-i-dont-know.html","date_published":"2026-07-28T17:20:33+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-28 17:20","date_timestamp":1785259233,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94739465","content_html":"

Recently there have been several major mathematical breakthroughs enabled entirely by AI: both proofs and counterexamples to long-held conjectures. Ordinarily I read about this sort of ting with interest. Now I find I simply don’t care. Mathematics may have its uses but it is not interesting because it is...

social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/27/recently-there-have-been-several.html","date_published":"2026-07-27T15:10:19+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-27 15:10","date_timestamp":1785165019,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93841675","content_html":"

At Roy Underhill’s window-making class, 2022… At the end of the first day he went around the room sweeping the entire class’s shavings to each bench and took these faked photos.

\n\"me,\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/11/at-roy-underhills-windowmaking-class.html","date_published":"2026-07-11T19:51:58+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-11 19:51","date_timestamp":1783799518,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93723937","content_html":"

Facing the usual early-July glut of cherry tomatoes I made confit: basil leaves in a baking dish, a layer of whole cherry tomatoes, a few crushed cloves of garlic, a liberal sprinkle of salt and enough olive oil to come about halfway up the tomatoes. Roast at 325F for maybe an hour until slightly brown on...

social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/09/facing-the-usual-earlyjuly-glut.html","date_published":"2026-07-09T18:00:00+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-09 18:00","date_timestamp":1783620000,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93616863","content_html":"

“It is any thing but agreeable to be haunted by a suspicion that one’s intellect is dwindling away; or exhaling, without your consciousness, like ether out of a phial; so that, at every glance, you find a smaller and less volatile residuum.” —Hawthorne

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/07/it-is-any-thing-but.html","date_published":"2026-07-08T00:43:17+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-08 00:43","date_timestamp":1783471397,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93593439","content_html":"

New woodworking website is live.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/07/new-woodworking-website-is-live.html","date_published":"2026-07-07T16:17:39+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-07 16:17","date_timestamp":1783441059,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93583108","content_html":"

When I finished Gabriele Tergit’s Effingers last month I wanted to post something here more than the “finished reading” flag that feels like awarding myself a medal; but I didn’t get around to it. Read Morten Høi Jensen’s review instead, and then do read the book:

\n
\n

For the most part, they are characters we only ever know socially, as it were, either in dialogue or by their consumption of goods. Yet by fixing the narrative in their various households and domestic concerns, Tergit’s novel rebels against the remorseless one-way traffic of history. Here, banal instances of private life jostle against...

\n
social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/07/when-i-finished-gabriele-tergits.html","date_published":"2026-07-07T12:31:37+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-07 12:31","date_timestamp":1783427497,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93555564","content_html":"

Ran across this fascinating toy that lets you see the night sky from any point on earth at any time in history.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/06/ran-across-this-fascinating-toy.html","date_published":"2026-07-07T00:12:23+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-07 00:12","date_timestamp":1783383143,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93531640","content_html":"

Hey folks, I need to ask a favor if anyone has a few minutes. I am replacing my SquareSpace woodworking website with a new, hand-built one and would like a few people to test it out for me: look around, see if you run into any problems, and reply here or send me a message through the contact form.

\n\n

There is...

social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/06/hey-folks-i-need-to.html","date_published":"2026-07-06T15:23:55+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-06 15:23","date_timestamp":1783351435,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93398757","content_html":"

Proposition: Video replay should be used, if it is used at all, only to correct on-field, real-time calls that may by objective standards have been incorrect: was the ball fair or foul, was the runner safe or out, was the receiver’s foot in or out of bounds, did the puck cross the line. Video replay should ne...

social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/07/03/proposition-video-replay-should-be.html","date_published":"2026-07-03T23:39:01+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-03 23:39","date_timestamp":1783121941,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93185902","content_html":"

Stories of European tourists being pleasantly surprised that we’re not all ogres over here have me thinking of Frances Trollope and remembering that I should be glad Americans don’t spit as much as we used to.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/30/stories-of-european-tourists-being.html","date_published":"2026-06-30T13:03:37+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-30 13:03","date_timestamp":1782824617,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93159681","content_html":"

Granted I chose my angles carefully, but the native perennials have managed this well so far without any city water, only what’s fallen from the sky.

\n\n
\n\"purple\"black-eyed\"every\n
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/29/granted-i-chose-my-angles.html","date_published":"2026-06-30T02:17:50+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-30 02:17","date_timestamp":1782785870,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92886662","content_html":"

“May Song II.” Four panels in a reclaimed window, 20×25 inches. The text is my somewhat free translation of a portion of Goethe’s poem “Mailied,” and all but one of the flowers depicted are drawn from photos of my front-yard flower meadow (in past years, when it rained).

\n\n
\n\"polyptych:first panel of carving. Text reads \"O Love O Love so golden fair,\" with two goldfinches on black-eyed susanssecond panel of carving. Text reads \"As dawn-bright clouds upon the hills.\" Trees in middle distance and far distance, sun rising overhead, birds flying at topthird panel of carving. Text reads \"Glorious you bless the fresh fields,\" wren with various flowers and greeneryfourth panel of carving. Text reads \"In blossom-mist the teeming earth,\" with a finch looking over its shoulder and a hummingbird among various flowers and greenery\n
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/25/may-song-ii-four-panels.html","date_published":"2026-06-25T15:22:41+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-25 15:22","date_timestamp":1782400961,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92882217","content_html":"

Rain barrel installed, after two additional (unforeseen but unsurprising) trips to Lowe’s. Now I expect either the eastern piedmont will turn into a temperate rain forest, or it will never rain again and we’ll all wind up as extras in a film version of Ezekiel 37.

\n\n

\"Rain

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/25/rain-barrel-installed-after-two.html","date_published":"2026-06-25T14:16:22+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-25 14:16","date_timestamp":1782396982,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92824813","content_html":"

Two inches of rain in the past week has Crabtree Creek rushing by at a normal height, but the wetland area by Raleigh Road tells the full story. The stumps in the first photo and the cracked earth in the last should be well under water. We have a long way to go before we’re out of this drought.

\n\n
\n\"view\"cracked\"water\n
\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/24/two-inches-of-rain-in.html","date_published":"2026-06-24T18:08:31+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-24 18:08","date_timestamp":1782324511,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92610504","content_html":"
\n

The empty coffee cup sits on the park bench. It has had a busy morning, filled with ambition, and now it has found its peace.

\n
\n\n

City Zen

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/21/the-empty-coffee-cup-sits.html","date_published":"2026-06-21T16:54:06+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-21 16:54","date_timestamp":1782060846,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92357658","content_html":"

Mary Harrington:

\n\n
\n

Most secular modern and post-modern creatives intuit that the age of naturalism is long since over. But this discovery confronts us with the enormous, gaping hole that yawns, where we’d expect to find a metaphysical framework able to give coherence and moral order to non-naturalistic artworks…. I submit that this is the real sickness in contemporary culture: not the abandonment of naturalism as such, but the widespread (and highly politicised) refusal to allow the reality of any metaphysical substrate able to sustain the artistic depiction of forms, and ends.

\n
\n\n

In other words: Why...

social.davidwalbert.com","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/17/mary-harrington-most-secular-modern.html","date_published":"2026-06-17T13:25:42+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 13:25","date_timestamp":1781702742,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92356895","content_html":"

This week’s work

\n\n

\"Sketch

\n","summary":"","url":"https://social.davidwalbert.com/2026/06/17/this-weeks-work.html","date_published":"2026-06-17T13:13:36+00:00","author":{"name":"David Walbert","url":"http://www.davidwalbert.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F02%2F10333.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"dwalbert"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-17 13:13","date_timestamp":1781702016,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}}]}