Carpe Diem, Spring in CA

Adventures in the Past Few Months

Our calendar has been packed the past few months with short adventures and weekend trips, all flavored with a strong dose of short notice spontaneity and disorganization. With the project shutdown and layoff I felt the need to take advantage of every single day between the announcement of the project shutdown and the end of my notice period when I would be officially unemployed. It was such a whirlwind of last minute plans we even packed for trips that never happened!

Tahoe Northstar

Our adventures began with a last-minute trip to Tahoe Northstar. We booked our stay at 10 PM the night before leaving  yet still managed to travel in style. I rented a Tesla Model Y to try out self-driving during the long (for us) trip up to the mountains. The car added some fun for me, though I’m not sure the kids noticed much difference. Continue reading “Carpe Diem, Spring in CA”

Recovering a blog… for dummies

Part 1 – Dissolution

In 2023 I let my domain registration and hosting services lapse. I had owned jonmcosgrove.name since about 2013, and babylonman.com for even longer, perhaps since about 2010. Somewhere in there I also registered joncosgrove.com. All of which at one point or another was the dns pointing to my WordPress blog hosted at Bluehost.

For several years my activity was low but consistent. Then a few years ago posting consistency declined. The trend is clear in the post history. Continue reading “Recovering a blog… for dummies”

Fresh Kill, Twin Peaks Region, CO

Even before moving to Colorado I was invited to join Dan and Cory on their annual elk hunting trip. Around April each year they put in for first season rifle tags in an area Southwest of Carbondale, unit 43. This year they each got an A tag, which is good for any sex elk (cow or bull), along with the 3rd in the group, their friend Josh.

We left on a Friday at sunrise, I on my motorcycle riding from Boulder, and the others in Dan’s truck driving from Arvada. I had wanted to ride to cover the mountains and take the opportunity to ride the approximately 20 miles of dirt roads leading toward the hunting camp. Continue reading “Fresh Kill, Twin Peaks Region, CO”

Laid off!

Apple leadership made the decision to “wind-down” the Titan program. All of us on T172 were told in an all hands meeting on Tuesday, February 27, 2024.

Initially I had feelings of relief, some uncertainty, and excitement. Relief that the leadership finally made a decision and we had clear direction regarding the project’s future. Our project had been furiously working on short term deliverables while having no long term clear direction or vision for almost two years. While it wasn’t the decision I had really hoped for, at least it was a decision. Continue reading “Laid off!”

2022: Goals

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In contrast to past years I’m switching to quarterly goals for 2022. Here is a list of my goals for Q1 2022. I plan to update this post at the end of each quarter and reassess at that time for the next. Q1 1/1 – 3/31 Read 5 books (at least 2 fiction) Post 3 blogs and / or project pages Decide go / no go: building an ADU and finalize the project plan with design and permit application if decision is a go < 200 lbs weekly average during week 14 2.7 W/kg @ 20 min performance ( baseline 2.56W/kg@20mi: 92.5kg) Ride 450 miles Make an NFT Q2 Q3 Q4 Summary

3 weeks in CO, Golden-Fort Collins-Breckenridge-Boulder, Colorado

As a higher elevation followup to our 3 weeks at the beach earlier in the year we planned a 3 week trip to Colorado for late fall this year, and we just got back.

My company has instituted a pilot program which officially allows remote work outside of your home state for 2 weeks per calendar year. Actually this was extended to 4 since planning the trip but I digress. When this was announced I jumped on it telling my group I’d be elsewhere for November before we had the trip planned. Most of the details came together pretty quickly and we booked stays in all our past locales. And with the expectation of a full week off for Thanksgiving from my job, we were able to stay for more than three weeks.

Continue reading “3 weeks in CO, Golden-Fort Collins-Breckenridge-Boulder, Colorado”

Max, with help from gpt-2

This post is written with the assistance of GPT-2. Sections written by me are used as model prompts, and the model output is then modified or curated and able to be used again in following prompts.

Beginning of post

August 23, 2021:

[P1] Megan woke me early in the morning around 3am and said it was time to go have a baby, her water had broken an hour earlier. We sprung into action, though with a tiny bit less apprehension than the first time with Jane. After a long day but mostly typical delivery Max Thomas Cosgrove was born. Birth specifications are as follows:

Length: 50.8 cm (1′ 8”)

Weight: 3.15 kg (6 lb 15.1 oz)

Head Circumference: 36 cm (14.17”)

Apgar One: 9.0

Apgar Five: 9.0

Gestation Age: 39 2/7 wks

[S1] Having another baby was the goal, so that we could round out the family and give Jane a sibling. There are a lot of factors that go into any pregnancy. Luckily for us Megan didn’t have any issues getting pregnant. Recently I’ve noticed that it’s really hard for many to get pregnant. This one was a little different than Jane, mostly because we are so busy keeping up with Jane already. The pregnancy passed quickly and even since Max has been here life just keeps rushing on by. Continue reading “Max, with help from gpt-2”

Camping, Winter to Spring 2021

As of last January, we had 4 camping trips booked. Our goal was to get out and use the new VAN and enjoy some travel despite the pandemic. Looking back I think we did well to anticipate and beat at least part of the reservation rush since in November I was able to easily find spots for all our trips through May which was the end of the 6 month window allowed for bookings. For later bookings we are limited to the few days that come available at each morning at 8 AM, 6 months out.

Our 2021 camping season didn’t start well. The first trip in late January to Calpine Fire Lookout was canceled due to state COVID restrictions. We’re thankful the Forest Service protected us by canceling our solo stay in a one room fire lookout station in the middle of nowhere with no other camping facilities within a few miles. The fire lookout is open for use now, alas dozens of subsequent attempts to find an available reservation have failed, until today, so we’re now reschedule for a two night stay the week of Thanksgiving.

 

Continue reading “Camping, Winter to Spring 2021”

3 weeks at the beach, Capitola, CA

Since the pandemic began, I watched my coworkers’ locations change throughout the year. Some moved permanently out of state to places like Montana, Michigan, New York and Texas. Others have moved within the state but out of the Bay Area, also for the long term. And most seem to have done some extended traveling. It was nice this past summer to have some routine going to work in the labs and having a normal workday again, but after talking to another engineer on the project who doesn’t do lab work and who spent three months working from Hawaii it’s hard not to get a bit jealous. He told me because of the time zone he was off work by 3:30 PM every day and spent the afternoons surfing.

My current job will never be fully remote, although I can do much of it from anywhere, and Megan’s clinic days mean that for now at least, we can’t easily move to Hawaii. But I’ve been feeling all along during this pandemic that I don’t want the opportunities it presents to pass by  unnoticed since it is (hopefully) a very unique situation and time. So with this as context, when Megan asked for some input on a weekend beach rental for my birthday this year, I asked why not go for a month instead.

 

Continue reading “3 weeks at the beach, Capitola, CA”