The weather in New York is just amazing right now. It has been in the 70s most days, with mornings in the park absolutely stunning. The majority of the tourists are gone from the city, but the park is filled with runners training for the NYC Marathon. They pour over into the middle bike lane occasionally, but the loop around the park is smooth. There have been a number of squirrel violations, including being out of the tree without a permit, shaking tail at us unnecessarily, and even asking to be fed.
Monday was the final edition of our Burger League. Where we go around to different restaurants in different boroughs and try hamburgers. It has been an amazing experience for trying out new burgers, restaurants, and parts of town. We have gone to places we never would have tried if we hadn’t gotten the explicit invitation. We’ve experienced a variety of burgers from smash burgers to classic French burgers—which is one of our most favorite types of food in the world, and we are a little sad that it is all over with.
One of the things that Zohran Mamdani has been campaigning on is free busing. Something I am 100% behind in any community. It should be free for anyone to step on a bus and take it wherever they need to go. This should be a default socialized aspect of our communities right alongside libraries, roads, fire department, and police. I know that there are so many people believe “we can’t afford it”, but I will never listen to that argument as a default response from any Democrat or Republican after this latest administration.
Reading the story about how thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart in the Guardian left me thinking about the “human in the loop” aspect of artificial intelligence all week. It is literally the man behind the curtain of the AI hustle, and the real labor exploitation going on to shift how companies do business in a global market. It is something I will be doing more studying on as part of my work on my new company Naftiko, and something I think will continue to play a significant role in how power flows surround technology.
I found the dissent from Sonia Sotomayor this week to the Supreme Court’s Ruling regarding Trump’s use of the military in Los Angeles pretty powerful this week, “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.” I find it pretty disturbing that our Supreme Court has Trump’s back on all of this, but I guess he did make it pretty clear what he was doing when he appointed his judges.
When Audrey and I went for the last Burger League burger, we went downtown by the financial district, which is a pretty lame part of town overall, but for some reason I love the old buildings and architecture which managed to resist much of the car culture. The roads are smaller, and the buildings are older and from another time. They are brick instead of glass. I love wandering these streets. They remind me of another time and space, where New York was further away—on another coast, and often times in a movie. I like exploring that time and space.
We just came back from pizza at Rubirosa, a very delicious Italian restaurant in the Nolita neighborhood in NYC. We had their Tie Dye pizza and a sausage and broccoli rabe pizza. It was a delicious thin crust pizza that was simple and flavorful—reminding us that we need to try more new pizza joints. I also had two Original Sin ciders, which were nice and dry and easy on the bubbles in the belly—which I appreciate. It was a nice place to go after Audrey ran in the Bronx 10 Miler today, but of course as soon as we get home she is hungry again.
My work weeks are starting to get busier, and occasionally I have to take calls between 8:30 AM at 11:00 AM in the morning. Something I will have to juggle more often as we come out of summer into a busier time of year. Trying to explain to an 85 lb Rottweiler who operates on a schedule that we have to wait a few hours to go for a ride in the park is not the easiest thing to do. This morning we waited to go on a ride until Audrey got back from her race, and Poppy kept asking me to go directly, only to take a break lying next to the bike in the office.
I am getting some new tattoo work started this week. It is work I first planned in the early 1990s, but never followed through on because I was getting in trouble with the man, and after getting scanned for tattoos while naked—I lost the desire to get tattooed. So I didn’t get tattooed in the 1990s because of a fear of the man, but this century I didn’t get tattooed because of my weight. While I haven’t lost all the weight, I’ve definitely lost a lot of fat, and have gotten a lot stronger, so I’m rewarding myself. I will wait until it is all done to share any photos.
The tattoo I am getting represents my head space in the 1990s, leaving me thinking a lot about life in the previous century, and just how far I’ve come. While the imagery for my tattoo is a little dated, it very much reflects what has kept me alive and allowed me to thrive in the world today. I am still unsure I will share the photo publicly because it holds a lot of personal meaning for myself, and really isn’t about anyone but me. We’ll see. It will take me a couple more months and a lot more pain and working through old memories before it is ready to share. If I do at all.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard
