Adventurenet.net

Monday April 28th, 2025

Postcards first!

One of my custom made postcards of a Flat-backed Millipede under an ultra-violet light.

Also, that’s my Sharpie brand marker that I use for regular postcards.

Cheap postcards with a glossy back get the Pilot brand marker.

I have a three-day, two-night camping trip planned for the last weekend in May and I am beginning to make purchases for this trip.

I plan to try out gas stove cooking for the first time and so I have purchased a set of cooking pot/cup/bowl things.

I also bought a cheap kite off of eBay.

In my last post I describe going to Jamaica Bay and that is where I picked up this lovely woodpecker postcard which has been shipped of to the United Kingdom.

I wish I had bought more of these.

This card is going to a flower person, so I added plenty of flower stamps to the back of the card.

I had a chat about a potentially lost plant on this card.

The Pea Hawthorn.

I have come to learn that the plant has been found and is no longer at risk of extinction.

This next postcard features a Runza French fry box.

Tuesday April 29th, 2025

Today I lost my DuoLingo streak that was over 1,600 days.

The announcement that contract workers were being laid off and replaced with AI slop upset me.

I’m not anti-AI, but I am anti-AI-slop.

DuoLingo’s quality has been going down for some time and this was the last straw for me.

I’m frustrated that the CEO tried to say they weren’t getting rid of workers, when they did.

I’m frustrated at an app that has been dropping in quality and trying to add a second higher cost tier by making the existing tier worse.

I’m frustrated by broken tests that blocked me from completing tasks.

The good news is that through other apps that I have installed after removing DuoLingo, I am now able to read kana.

I was learning with DuoLingo, but I’m learning faster with other apps.

Again, I’m not anti-AI, but I am against using AI as an end product.

It’s a tool, not a one-stop-shop.

I really loved that stupid bird. 💔

Wednesday April 30th, 2025

Loganberry!

That guy in Michigan that I send a bunch of postcards to had a birthday recently.

As a reference to one of our favorite television shows I ordered Loganberry jam for both of us.

I love trying out new foods and jellies, jams, preserves and marmalades are a great way of trying some foods that would otherwise be hard to eat.

Mustang grapes, for example.

Today’s goal is to bring books to Manhattan after my partner Lauri gets off of work. These will be donated to a little book thrift store.

I forgot the books.

Thursday May 1st, 2025

A postcard for Tommy in Michigan discussing the wild week I am having.

A postcard to Dan in Texas about how I recently ordered a comic book subscription to my home.

I forgot to take pictures, but we completed a letter of the food challenge A to Z of food where we try to eat at a restaurant for a country representing every letter of the alphabet.

A for Argentina is now complete thanks to some delightful empenadas.

Off to a Broadway show!

Dead Outlaw

This musical certainly hits different.

I have thoughts about humanity after seeing this show.

They aren’t positive thoughts.

Friday May 2nd, 2025

A postcard to Tony in Michigan!

Maybe one day I’ll send postcards to a Tony in a different state.

Besides postcrossing, I also send letters and postcards to Letters Against Isolation.

Oh!

Five Below has stickers of things with butts right now!

So I’m sending Tony another card of stuff.

With butts.

Also I should probably buy my wife flowers at some point in our marriage.

I should also find ones that won’t hurt the cats.

Mission accomplished.

Saturday May 3rd, 2025

I was debating going to a monster truck show today.

It’s been on my adventure list for a long time, but it’s kind-of expensive.

I found on ticket that I was willing to pay for, but I was waiting to see if prices would go down and just before the show they actually went up, so I decided not to go.

For the price, even the lower price, I could do something that I’m more interested in.

I have retired this adventure, but I may return to it one day.

Instead I will take a solo trip to the science museum.

They have leaf-cutter ants.

I love the bugs here.

There is a big central area with plants that the leaf-cutter ants feed on, and then there is an over-head passageway that the ants can take to bring the leaves to these glass jugs.

This is the over-head passage.

I see that we now have feathers on T-Rex.

Love it.

Oh, look at all of these icons on the wall.

I hope there’s one I can childishly giggle at for being a potential sex term.

Heh heh.

Nice.

In my previous visit, I did not make it to the big gift shop.

I did not know this was here.

It’s three-stories tall!

I should get another gift for Lauri.

Perfect.

Time to head home.

Sunday May 4th, 2025

One of my custom-made postcards is on its way to Indonesia.

Had a nice chat about making soup with leftover vegetables on this postcard.

This postcrossing user is a stamp collector, so I shared some leftover stamp sheets that I was saving in case I pulled a collector.

There are no more stamps on them, but I have seen the collectors request the empty sheets as they still have artwork and a title on them.

Happy to oblige.

Into a folded newspaper you go, postcard.

Now time for a postcard to Tommy in Michigan.

The cardboard on this one is black, so I got to use my white-ink gel pen for this one.

Tommy never sent me a text about receiving this card.

I wonder if it got delivered.

Still working on fantasy map doodles and tried out some new things on this card.

This is the side of a cliff. With rocks.

On this card I also talked about making soup.

I made soup.

Leftover veggies, water, and curry powder.

This week had a few negative moments, but they felt like moments of growth.

Of new knowledge.

Have you ever seen that movie The Neverending Story?

There’s a part of that movie that I think about a lot.

The dog dragon Falcor is sick and an old lady with a giant injection needle jabs the dragon who howls in pain and the old lady says “It has to hurt if it’s to heal!”

The negative moments can lead to improvements and more positivity.

I think I’m on a path to more positivity.

Penny says “Zzzzzzz…”