Scripting News at 25
by Anton Zuiker on October 8, 2019
Dave Winer celebrated 25 years of Scripting News yesterday, marking an anniversary that perhaps no other person can match: two and a half decades of daily writing on his blog.
I’ve been reading Dave for about 20 of those years, almost every day going to his site to see what observations and insights, and links and images, he’s putting up. And I’ve documented here on my own blog—on the About page and in many posts—how influential and useful his many software tools have been been to me. Just the other day, I was telling my colleagues about our epic bicycle ride through Times Square, and how it’s because of Dave that we have the Duke River of News to see in one place what’s happening across Duke University.
I am grateful to Dave, thankful for his friendship and example. I salute you, Dave.
I hope you’ll read Scripting News, too. Dave’s made it super easy to get his daily writings sent directly to your inbox. Subscribe on this page.
It's her climate
by Anton Zuiker on September 20, 2019
Malia Zuiker on Global Climate Strike day
Malia joined the Global Climate Strike today. I’m proud of you, Malia!
Looking upon rings and craters
by Anton Zuiker on September 8, 2019
Nearly every day for the last 20 years, I have visited kottke.org to see what interesting video or article or book or inquiry Jason Kottke has encountered on the web. Jason is interested in astronomy, among many other topics, and he regularly encounters awe-inspiring photos of space, such as the Entire Plane of the Milky Way Captured in a Single Photo.
During my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Vanuatu, I was awed by the brilliance of the Milky Way; Paama Island had zero light pollution, so every night was spectacular, whether a flood of moonlight or the effervescent Milky Way a bright blanket overhead or the red glow of Ambrym’s volcano mesmerizing us as we sat on the black-sand beach.
Friday night, after dinner, we walked down the gravel road to a neighbor’s house. Kumar, the father of Oliver’s friend, is an astronomy enthusiast and telescope collector. He’d texted earlier in the week to thank me for the jar of homemade hot sauce I’d left on his porch, and to invite us to look at the night sky. He was excited to be able to see Saturn, but the planet wasn’t yet clear of the tall trees, so he had a telescope focused on the half moon. Wow, each of us exclaimed as we peered into the eyepiece—the craters along the line of shadow were especially eye-catching.
While we waited for Saturn to move higher in the sky, Kumar pivoted us around to locate Polaris, the North star, and to identify the handle of the Big Dipper. Eventually, Kumar found Saturn in the scope, and I looked in, found the right way to hold my head and focus on my eye, and there was a small circle of light surrounded by a bright ring of light. Amazing.
I once visited the most powerful (at the time) telescope, but didn’t get to see anything because of the weather conditions atop Mauna Kea. That was a memorable experience nonetheless, just as looking up at the moon, the stars, the planets whenever and wherever possible should be. I’m in my place among a vast and beautiful universe.
On track
by Anton Zuiker on August 31, 2019
Anna wanted to come home for the long weekend, so she caught Amtrak’s Piedmont train in Greensboro and got off in Durham, where I was waiting. As we drove to Ninth Street, where I needed to pick up some feed and supplies for our backyard chickens, Anna asked me if I’d ever taken the train.
“Yes, when I was in college [at John Carroll University], I used to take Amtrak between Cleveland and Chicago,” I replied.
I didn’t have time to tell her about the night I got kicked out of the Cleveland station, where I was waiting for the 4 a.m. train. I also didn’t have time to reminisce about the family trip when I was a boy, the seven of us boarding the train in Winnemucca, Nevada, and marveling over the next days from the observation car as the train climbed through the snowy mountains then the arrival into the Bay Area. When we returned to Winnemucca in the middle of the night, we discovered the station wagon had had its gasoline tank siphoned dry, and I helped my dad push the car through the empty streets to a gas station.
Today, I parked the minivan on Ninth, and Anna and I walked across to the Regulator Bookshop, where I wanted to buy a copy of Save Me the Plums, the delightful memoir by Ruth Reichl. I had listened to the audio book a few weeks ago, and was mesmerized by Reichl reading her account of the years she was editor of Gourmet, that stellar but now-gone food magazine.
I never reached the professional heights that Reichl did, but her love of putting good writing and food and story into the pages of a magazine resonated with me, made me recall my time as a food editor for Northern Ohio Live and my own tussles with the publisher. (I wrote about my love of magazines here.)
Another book I read recently was The Library Book, by Susan Orlean. It, too, was wonderfully written. Libraries, like magazines, are all over my blog archives. I’ve written about libraries in Caldwell , Cleveland, and Copenhagen and in Frederiksted, Paama, and Chapel Hill. If you’ve ever been in a library—decades ago or last week—read Orlean’s book!
Next door to the Regulator is Hunky Dory, a record shop. We stopped in to take a look. I was hoping to find a used turntable so I could play the Bruce Springsteen records I have at home. I went the other night to see the film Blinded By the Light, about a boy in the U.K. who finds direction through the words and music of Springsteen. Such a good movie that I cried big tears, my face dripping. A few weeks ago, Anna and I had seen the film Yesterday, a fun take on the timeless music of the Beatles.
We still don’t have a way to play our records in the house, but I do have a new Yamaha guitar and the goal to learn to play this instrument, and I have inspiration from writers and singers and chefs and countless creative individuals who fill our libraries and cinemas and stomachs and souls.
Walk and talk
by Anton Zuiker on July 12, 2019
The U.S. Men's National Team scores another goal.
June was a whirl, as it is every year at work as the fiscal year comes to a close and we scramble to compile a year-in-review presentation about our massive and complex department. We also completed a research strategic plan. At home, we threw a graduation party for Anna, then took a road trip to Cleveland to celebrate Dan’s 80th birthday. It was a gorgeous weekend in Cleveland, perfect for a lunch cruise on the lake, then drinks along the Cuyahoga and a walk on the underside of the Veterans Memorial Bridge, an Indians baseball game, and (for me, Tom, and Michael) the UNMNT win over Trinidad and Tobago.
Somewhere along in the month, the ABIM Foundation announced the winners of its inaugural Trust Practice Challenge, and Voices of Duke Health was on the list. The foundation’s leader wrote about our project earlier this week, and invited me and the other winners to fly west next month to participate in the foundation’s forum at a mountain resort. I’m looking forward to demonstrating our podcast and discussing the joys of listening.
Yesterday, my friend Dave Winer called, finding me at my desk with time on my hands. We had a long, enjoyable conversation—the kind that ambles along and feels relaxed and deep at the same time—and afterward Dave posted this nice note and mention of Voices of Duke Health.
I have much more to report, and now that I’ve moved the Zuiker Chronicles to yet another host (Opalstack, this time), I’m ready to write and write and write.
BTW, yay U.S. Women’s National Team for your World Cup championship! We watched and cheered and celebrated your victory.