---
title: "Dispatch #38 (April 2026)"
date: 2026-04-08T09:40:13-04:00
draft: false
tags:
- dispatch
references:
- title: "D.C. Just Experienced Its Largest 24-Hour Temperature Drop Ever"
  url: https://secretdc.com/dc-largest-24-hour-temperature-drop-ever/
  date: 2026-04-08T04:55:18Z
  file: secretdc-com-qmsrfn.txt
- title: "3D Print Your Way Out of Chaos With Gridfinity Modular Storage Systems: All You Need to Know | All3DP"
  url: https://all3dp.com/2/gridfinity-simply-explained/
  date: 2026-04-08T05:22:41Z
  file: all3dp-com-1skmik.txt
- title: "The Brand Age"
  url: https://paulgraham.com/brandage.html
  date: 2026-04-02T04:02:05Z
  file: paulgraham-com-9dskkh.txt
- title: "Daring Fireball: 'The Brand Age'"
  url: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/30/the-brand-age
  date: 2026-04-02T04:02:07Z
  file: daringfireball-net-fjywii.txt
- title: "The Kindness Of Familiar Faces | Defector"
  url: https://defector.com/the-kindness-of-familiar-faces
  date: 2026-04-02T04:02:13Z
  file: defector-com-jlgxd7.txt
- title: "Digital culture and entertainment insights daily: The feeling of the old world fading away"
  url: https://dirt.fyi/article/2026/02/the-feeling-of-the-old-world-fading-away
  date: 2026-04-02T04:02:18Z
  file: dirt-fyi-3hauqg.txt
- title: "Good trains"
  url: https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/
  date: 2026-04-02T04:02:19Z
  file: www-robinsloan-com-ebxc4s.txt
- title: "Why I Got Out Of The Gambling Business | Defector"
  url: https://defector.com/why-i-got-out-of-the-gambling-business
  date: 2026-04-02T04:02:23Z
  file: defector-com-3tadhg.txt
- title: "Stop Sloppypasta: Don't paste raw LLM output at people"
  url: https://stopsloppypasta.ai/en/
  date: 2026-04-02T04:02:25Z
  file: stopsloppypasta-ai-lzdmgr.txt
---

Finally warming up around here (though we did get hit by the [largest 24-hour temperature drop in recorded history][1] while we were up visiting my folks). We took the kids to a [Holi][2] celebration, which was a huge mess and a ton of fun. The colors don't come through here but I think the joy does.

[1]: https://secretdc.com/dc-largest-24-hour-temperature-drop-ever/
[2]: https://durhamcentralpark.org/upcoming-event/holi-the-festival-of-colors/

<!--more-->

{{<dither IMG_0004.jpeg "782x600">}}Face-first into the color chaos.{{</dither>}}
{{<dither IMG_0009.jpeg "782x600">}}Blue faces, red popsicles, and the kind of chaos that means the afternoon went well.{{</dither>}}

Then we drove up to DC, left the kids with my folks, and took the train to Baltimore to catch [my friend's][3] show and spend a little bit of time in the city. We stayed at the [Pendry][4] which was super nice -- we'll be back. Sold the old car while were up there -- 🪦 legend.

[3]: https://www.instagram.com/__carillon/
[4]: https://www.pendry.com/baltimore/

I did my yearly trip to Vegas to watch basketball with some old friends. Great times, and my one single bet hit (you can tell how much I like the actual gambling part of the trip). We had dinner one night at [Mott 32][5] at the Venetian, and I'm not really a fine dining guy but this was killer.

[5]: https://mott32.com/las-vegas

Claire went to visit a friend out in California, and I picked up a [double trailer][6] off CraigsList so I could take both kids around on the bike. We passed a couple as we were riding downtown and Nev yelled, "Look at us! We’re the luckiest kids in the world!" which I'm writing down here to remember forever.

[6]: https://burley.com/products/honey-bee

April's looking much calmer. I've got [a race][7] in a few weeks, feeling pretty good about that. I'd like to get to where I'm doing 3-4 big races a year; I struggle to get up off the couch without some kind of deadline. Otherwise, prepping that hackathon project I [mentioned last month][8] for our big reveal in early May, biking around town, and [Gridfinity][9]-ing my entire house.

[7]: https://tarheel10miler.com/
[8]: /journal/dispatch-37-march-2026/#pointless-palooza
[9]: https://all3dp.com/2/gridfinity-simply-explained/

### This Month

* Adventure: [Tar Heel 10 Miler][7]
* Project: finish that hackathon project -- a teammate's doing incredible work on the hardware side; I need to make sure the software is equally compelling
* Skill: live music performance (that concert we went to in Baltimore inspired me to sign up for a talent show, which I better get serious about in short order)

### Reading & Listening

* Fiction: [_The Strength of the Few_][10], James Islington (still loving this but it is a complex tale he is weaving; don't pull a Rothfuss on me man)
* Non-fiction: I'm not reading much non-fiction these days; [open to suggestions][11]
* Music: [_Tanto Tiempo_][12], Bebel Gilberto

[10]: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Strength-of-the-Few/James-Islington/Hierarchy/9781982141233
[11]: /about/#contact
[12]: https://www.turntablelab.com/products/bebel-gilberto-tanto-tempo-25th-anniversary-vinyl-2lp

### Links

* [The Brand Age][13] ([via][14])

  > That's not why brand age watches look strange. Brand age watches look strange because they have no practical function. Their function is to express brand, and while that is certainly a constraint, it's not the clean kind of constraint that generates good things. The constraints imposed by brand ultimately depend on some of the worst features of human psychology. So when you have a world defined only by brand, it's going to be a weird, bad world.

* [The Kindness Of Familiar Faces | Defector][15]

  > None of that happens if the internet exists. Instead of fleeing to Seattle in search of a purpose in life, Kurt Cobain would’ve joined a subreddit that made living in Aberdeen three percent more bearable, he would have expressed his jadedness with society on Thought Catalog, and he would have uploaded rough demos to his SoundCloud as his attempt at making it in the biz. He wouldn’t have met any of the people who either inspired his music or directly made it with him. More important, the Seattle scene itself never would have materialized. The internet disincentivizes people young and old from going out into the world, from making necessary human connections, and from forging a collective artistic voice together. That’s why there’s never gonna be another Cobain.

* [Digital culture and entertainment insights daily: The feeling of the old world fading away][16] ([via][17])

  > To be clear, this sorrow is not about nostalgia or “getting older”, this is about living in a moment when the question, “Has the world changed or have I?” is irrelevant because the separation of the self and the world no longer makes any sense.

* [Why I Got Out Of The Gambling Business | Defector][18]

  > Though the damage I did while at the company cannot be undone, I can sleep a little easier now knowing I am no longer a part of that rotten business. I encourage everyone else working at these companies to do the same as I did, and quit. The job can be walked away from; the casino, on the other hand, follows you everywhere.

* [Stop Sloppypasta: Don't paste raw LLM output at people][19]

  > slop·py·pas·ta  n.  Verbatim LLM output copy-pasted at someone, unread, unrefined, and unrequested. From slop (low-quality AI-generated content) + copypasta (text copied and pasted, often as a meme, without critical thought). It is considered rude because it asks the recipient to do work the sender did not bother to do themselves.

[13]: https://paulgraham.com/brandage.html
[14]: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/30/the-brand-age
[15]: https://defector.com/the-kindness-of-familiar-faces
[16]: https://dirt.fyi/article/2026/02/the-feeling-of-the-old-world-fading-away
[17]: https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/good-trains/
[18]: https://defector.com/why-i-got-out-of-the-gambling-business
[19]: https://stopsloppypasta.ai/en/