When Lily was about two she told me she wanted a song about "no". This was ten years ago, and I don't remember why she wanted this, but I made something up:

This is a song about no.
This is a song about no.
This is a song about no, no, no.
This is a song about no.

The song goes... No no no no no no no no no.
The song goes... No no no no no no no no no.
The song goes... No no no no no no no no no, no, no.
This is a song about no.

It's useful anytime the kids want a song about something I don't know a song about. For example, it often served as a song about "turtle". Of course the more syllables the subject has the harder it is to sing, but that just makes it more fun.

My older two kids (12y, 10y) like contra dancing, but but have been increasingly unhappy with the available opportunities: a family dance is "too boring", and BIDA is "not enough kids my age". What they wanted was a regular dance, but just kids. So we had one!

Ghiblified for privacy

We invited people ages 9-13: I really wanted to keep the age range narrow so the kids got the feeling of dancing with people their own age. I set up a spot for parents to hang out in another room, or they were welcome to drop off and head out. The lower age limit meant Nora (nearly 5) was watching from the sidelines, and a few other younger siblings stayed home. I did allow two 8yo younger siblings who can hold their own at a regular evening dance.

I like my far-UVC Aerolamp a lot, but haven't been using it much: each time I wanted to get it out I needed to put it up on a tall stand, and ensure it wasn't going to get knocked over. This evening I attached it to the wall, which is great:

Julia and I had been giving half since 2014, but in 2025 we drew on our savings to donate 81%. It looks to us like we're in a critical window for keeping the introduction of very powerful AI systems from being disastrous, and we want to do what we can while we still can.

Here's what that looks like in the context of our overall spending:

Cars and trucks are getting bigger, and I had a vague sense that fuel economy regulations were partly to blame. Looking into it, it's hard to say how much is regulations vs people wanting to buy vehicles that look rugged, but the regulations really aren't helping.

This chart is the core of it:

This is what manufacturers were looking at when they decided to build today's cars. To figure out the target fuel economy for a vehicle you first calculate its "footprint", which is the area between the wheels. On our 2013 Honda Fit that's 4.8ft side-to-side and 8.2ft front-to-back, for a footprint of 39sqft. Then you ask if it's a car or truck. This tells you which curve to use, and where along it to look.

If you ask the internet how to prepare pasta you'll hear two things:

• You must salt the water.

• You must serve it mixed with the sauce.

I disagree on both.

I've been cooking pasta since I was a kid, and I prepare it the way my mother (who grew up in Rome) did: