Major new product in the Nelsonsphere: my travel postcards. Our recent cruise to Italy, France, and Spain is a good example to start with. I plan to keep updating this going forward.

I collected social media posts for 41 different trips I’ve taken in the last fifteen years. I think of each post as a postcard: a little thought in the moment, hopefully an image. When collected each thread becomes a diary of a trip and the collection as a whole is a summary of much of the travel Ken and I have done. It’s a lot, some 1900 photographs!

I started tweeting travelogues back in 2009 or so but only got intentional about these as a sort of diary a few years ago. So the newer ones are better written.

I’ve got technical notes on how I built this using AI coding. It’s pretty straightforward with the recent Mastodon threads, it’s basically just a thread unroller. But for older posts I had to do some heroics with heuristics to identify travel tweets. And lots of image recovery involving using the Wayback machine and Flickr and Google Photos archives to find my originals. I might have managed the basic unroller on my own but I never would have done all the archive retrieval without an AI’s help.

When I was a young boy I played cards with my friend and his Sicilian father. Dad would cheat. He’d palm cards, fudge the score, take extra turns. When I got to age 9 I realized he was cheating and I was so mad. Cheating was wrong! I realized much later that he was teaching us a lesson. That while it might be wrong, sometimes people will cheat you. He taught us to recognize being cheated.

When I was 15 I applied for a job at the local grocery store. Part of the hiring process was a test for produce codes. I had not memorized them, I went to the beach instead. I was screwed. But someone else had brought a cheat sheet and offered it to me. I was shocked, cheating was unethical! I declined and I did not get the job.

The finale of Heartstopper has a nice moment of queer solidarity. Charlie can’t get permission from the school to start an LGBT club. His art teacher offers to help and says “historically, us queers have never asked for permission to exist.” It’s an important lesson in surviving as an oppressed minority.

When I was 16 I started having sex with other guys. That was illegal in Texas then. Not so much my age (although maybe that too) but the fact that two young men loving each other was a crime. That was a law I joyfully broke as often as I could.

The US is currently falling into fascism because of a political movement empowered by its willingness to cheat and corrupt. I’m not advocating for that kind of wholesale ignoring of ethics. But it’s important to recognize when you are being cheated. And to know when you yourself can break the rules a bit, whether to get an advantage that harms no one, or for civil disobedience, or just to get laid in a place that has made you an outlaw.

A small update to my linkblog that you probably won’t notice: I’m now using self-hosted linkding as the backend instead of Pinboard.

I switched to pinboard back in 2011 and have appreciated having a hosted service all these years. But development on the product stagnated long ago and the last few years service quality has been erratic. Right now the service is down because the domain registration expired. It’s galling that I had to log in to Nazi Twitter to even see what’s going on with the service.

I’ve been running my linkblog since 2003 and have rearchitected it a few times. The last big change was about four years ago when I built a custom static site generator to format the link database as a web page. I got that code right, I haven’t really had to touch it in four years. It may be the last piece of substantial software I ever write without AI tools. I had Jules make the minor linkding code changes yesterday.

For the first time in about 25 years I’m running a Linux desktop. It’s great!

I used to use Linux all the time. But even back in the early ’00s all I was running for work was ssh terminals and a web browser and Windows did that just fine. And for gaming you had to have Windows. I had a few years of using a Mac, then switched back to Windows once WSL got good enough to have a local Unix.

But I liked to try Linux out every couple of years. Last month I installed Bazzite on an external drive to test it out. I liked it so much I’m now converting entirely. I even bought a new computer and monitor for it.

A key factor in switching is that Bazzite is a particularly well-engineered consumer product. It installs simply with a bunch of codecs and drivers so that my fancy HDR monitor simply worked. Bazzite is a gaming-oriented OS and it only exists because Valve put a lot of effort into making Linux gaming work with the Proton compatibility layer. These days Linux plays most games better than Windows itself does and thanks to the success of the SteamDeck, a lot of devs are testing on Linux.

KDE Plasma is another key part of my good experience. It took 27 years but Linux finally has a pretty usable desktop environment out of the box. Multiple monitors work, display scaling works, HDR even works! There’s still some rough edges but all in all it’s pretty good. A lot of things work better than they do on Windows.

I’ve been having a lot of fun tinkering with stuff. Quieting fan noise, getting wake-on-LAN working, streaming Plexamp to my Sonos... Some of these things are probably doable in Windows too but it’s sure a pleasure figuring it out in Linux. Having AIs to ask questions of is a big help too, I wouldn’t have found this so easy two years ago.

Bazzite was a great first date but I’ve since switched to Nobara Linux. They’re very similar, both Fedora variants. Bazzite is an immutable OS which is great for an appliance like a TV PC but not so good for tinkering. Nobara is a more traditional “install what you want” setup. I could also just use Fedora directly but the extra customizations and drivers add enough value add I am glad to have it.

In 1983 Steve Dyer created the Usenet group soc.motss, possibly the first-ever online LGBT community. It was an important part of my life in the early 1990s. There’s a couple of good retrospective histories of motss: Avery Dame-Griff and David Auberach.

I wanted to re-post Steve Dyer’s original October 1983 post from when motss was first created. At 1AM!

Subject: Net.motss is born!
From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer)
Path: watmath!utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!wjh12!bbncca!sdyer
Date: Fri, 7-Oct-83 01:05:04 EDT

Net.motss is a forum for the discussion of gay-related issues of interest to all members of USENET. Its name is an acronym for “members of the same sex”, coined by contributors to net.singles as an analogue to MOTOS–“member of the opposite sex.” It is therefore, unfortunately, a euphemism of sorts–an alternative to the preferred ‘net.gay’. Nevertheless, the proponents of the group have gladly passed on this minor issue so that the group should be swiftly formed.

It is designed to foster discussion on a wide variety of topics, such as health problems, parenting, relationships, clearances, job security and many others. Gay members of USENET will find this a supportive environment for the discussion of issues which have immediate impact on their everyday lives. Those who aren’t gay have an opportunity to be informed by the discussion, and are encouraged to read the news items and contribute their own questions and opinions.

Net.motss is emphatically NOT a newsgroup for the discussion of whether homosexuality is good or bad, natural or unnatural. Not is it a place where conduct unsuitable for the net will be allowed or condoned. Rather, like every USENET news group, it is an opportunity for people all across the world to express their opinions, exchange ideas, and come to appreciate the diversity within the USENET membership.

/Steve Dyer
decvax!wivax!dyer
decvax!genrad!wjh12!bbncca!sdyer
…!ima!bbncca!sdyer

I like a few things about this. The statement this was a safe space for LGBT people, not a forum for debate about our existence. That it was a world-wide community. The inclusion of health as a topic, this at the start of the AIDS crisis. And the fact that the name was a below-the-radar euphemism. The phase members of the same sex has a history going back to Kinsey and the 1970 US Census!

Cheese enchiladas are some of my favorite old school Tex-Mex food. Corn tortillas, orange cheese, smothered in a beefy thick gravy. The gravy is not like a typical Mexican enchilada sauce: no tomatoes or tomatillos. Instead it’s more of a Southern gravy like you’d put on biscuits or serve with turkey, but spiced with chile, cumin, oregano, and garlic powder. The key thing is it’s made with a roux. And a lot of roux, it really is a thick gravy. You never see this sauce in California or New Mexico and I suspect not in Mexico itself except maybe at the border. But it’s everywhere in Texas. it’s a defining element of Tex-Mex cuisine.

There’s an early recipe for the Tex-Mex gravy in the 1908 Gebhardt Chili Powder Company cookbook. This cookbook was written for Americans for whom Mexican food was exotic. It was written mostly to sell their chili powder, a spice blend of mild chiles (probably ancho), cumin, oregano, and garlic powder. (I made a PDF of the book from these scans.)

Salsa de Chili—Chili Gravy
This may be made of any brown or meat gravy by adding to each one-half pint of gravy, one teaspoonful of Gebhardt Eagle Chili Powder, stirring thoroughly and cooking for ten minutes. This makes a very rich sauce for fried eggs, cooked rice, baked beans, etc.

Note it doesn’t mention enchiladas. There’s no enchilada recipe in the copy of the book I have. But this is our Tex-Mex gravy! Although it’s awfully light on the spice.

Robb Walsh’s Tex-Mex Cooking has a modern version of the same gravy, see the NYT version. It’s a 4:1 mixture of chicken broth to roux with Tex-Mex spices added. Walsh’s recipe says

The lifeblood of old-fashioned Tex-Mex, chili gravy is a cross between Anglo-brown gravy and Mexican chile sauce. It was invented in Anglo-owned Mexican restaurants like The Original.

One of the best things on our trip to Cambodia in March was a street food tour in Phnom Penh led by Urban Forage. They provided a great guide and a tuktuk and driver. It was an amazing chance to try all sorts of casual snacks and meals, the kind of stuff that always looks so interesting but too intimidating to try on my own. Places were vetted for food safety for delicate Western stomachs and our guide did a great job teaching us about the food.

It was so fun and delicious! There’s some photos here and here. Cambodian food is roughly similar to Thai and Vietnamese food, but is its own thing.

First up was the “famous grandma noodle shop”, a home cooking restaurant with the kind of fish noodle soups I loved in Cambodia. This place was a restaurant with a choice of items but also very casual. We had both a chicken noodle soup and the fish noodle soup, both “curry” flavored but clearly Cambodian, not Thai. The rice noodles are super fresh, made that morning, kind of gelatinous and stuck together. The soup had such deep delicious flavor. And lots of fresh ingredients to liven it up: limes, basil, a bunch of unfamiliar herbs like fishwort.

The second place was a sidewalk stand near Wat Botum Park. Rice crepe with turmeric, stuffed with chicken and sprouts, dipped in fish sauce / lime juice. Also a rice flour ball with chives in it, fried, dipped in coconut cream. it reminded me a lot of dosas and idlis. Very yummy and seemed like solid daily food.

Our third stop was for a baguette with crispy pork belly inside, some herbs, also a fresh carrot pickle. Similar to banh mi. We enjoyed it, all nice and fresh, but at this point we started to realize we were in for a long haul of lots of food.

The fourth place was in the Russian market and served barbeque. Various kinds of pork cuts, we had spare ribs. Very crispy fried and quite fat. Was too full to enjoy it all but it tasted great.

Fifth was 54ល្ងាចស្រស់ (on Facebook) a restaurant with general Khmer foods, lots of beer, and a live band. Food was a mix of things, all pretty good. My favorite was a squid salad-like dish. This was where we had the stunt food, insects. One big tarantula was OK but silly: legs were delicious like soft-shelled crab. The spicy crickets were pretty good beer snacks. The place was a bit touristy but honest, a place I could imagine going even without a guide.

Absolutely full of food and beer, sixth the guide took us to a roadside stall selling a sweet dish. A rice crepe stuffed with fresh coconut meat and a rice candy, some sweetened condensed milk. Quite tasty in its simple freshness. It was a little like this video labelled num lon ong chek.

Our final stop was a return to Western familiarity. The wild cocktail bar, a French-run place with coffee, drinks, and spring rolls. Good cocktails, nice outdoor seating.

Street food tours may be my favorite new tourist activity! We also did one in Saigon that was fun but not quite as good as this one in Phnom Penh. But in Saigon we also did a cocktail tour from this company, that was terrific.

Edmund White died June 3, after a long and much-loved life as one of America’s great gay writers. His 1982 autofiction novel A Boy’s Own Story is his best known, a frank and honest story of growing up gay in the 1950s. Many gay men (including myself) found themselves in that book and the ensuing trilogy. He published 36 books including memoirs, autofiction, novels, historical treatments, and the 1977 Joy of Gay Sex. He is a foundation stone of gay English writing.

I’ve been mourning his passing these past few days. I didn’t know him personally but his writing and presence have been meaningful to me, particularly as I evaluate my middle-aged gay life. Some suggested reading:

• Obituaries: New York Times (archive), Guardian
• The Very Gay Life of Edmund White (archive), an appreciation by Aaron Hicklin
• Yiyun Li’s tribute, also her interview with White about their friendship
• Writers’ memories: New York Times, Irish Times
• Michael Carrol on being Edmund White’s husband
• Where to start with: Edmund White, a reading guide
• Goodreads list of his works sorted by popularity
• White’s contributions to the New York Review of Books
• White receiving a writer award from 2019
• Butt Magazine interview from 2006
• i love to suck, his SilverDaddies profile

I took an amazing trip to SE Asia last month, including Angkor Wat. I had a hard time finding good reading or other resources to learn from before I went, in part because Amazon is awash in AI garbage. Here’s some books and podcasts I found useful about the Khmer empire in general and Angkor in particular:

Ancient Angkor by Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques. The closest thing to a coffee-table book to preview what you will see. The practical information is outdated but the pictures and descriptions are good.

Empire Podcast #185: The God Kings of Angkor Wat by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. An entertaining and fully detailed account of the Khmer empire. It’s basically an excerpt from Dalrymple’s new book The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World.

Fall of Civilizations Podcast #5: The Khmer Empire by Paul Cooper. Another history, not quite as magically well told as Dalrymple but full of good information.

Angkor and the Khmer Civilization by Michael D. Coe. A highly recommended history of the Khmer region. Honestly I found this very dry and too detailed, but I did learn from it.

Lonely Planet Pocket Guide: Siem Reap & the Temples of Angkor. We didn’t use this much but it seemed like a useful practical guide. OTOH it dates to 2018 so things have changed.

My other advice for visiting Siem Reap and Angkor is: go. It is amazing. Plan for at least two full days of touristing there. Hire a private guide and driver if you can, it is absolutely worth it. (Email me for a recommendation.)