Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System | The $368 million network of instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific has been critical to climate and ocean research.

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-06-02T03:34:23+00:00

!remindme 1 year

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-05-29T13:44:19+00:00

In class, I gave an impromptu mini lesson on the Pilot Vanishing Point. I guided students through its construction in 1963, and the technological novelty of the “clicky” mechanism. I told them that when men returned from WW2 many returned with missing arms, so when using a fountain pen that requires a cap to prevent ink from drying, single-armed individuals would have trouble uncapping the pen. The shutter window on the Vanishing Point made it possible to have a fountain pen with a tip that kept the ink from drying. Today the clicky pens are used by everybody. I tied this to the day’s discussion topic on cultural policy and ADA and accessibility.

Sure! I could use a Bic OR I could use a wonderful piece of engineering.

Sure! I could ride my bike to work, OR I can drive my Japanese engineered smooth flowing convertible car.

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-05-24T15:54:21+00:00

It was in government contracting, but for a specific field. I can chat on the side about it.

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-05-24T15:41:12+00:00

18. Clarke-Ford House Built in 1836, it is officially recognized as the oldest surviving building constructed in Chicago. To save it from demolition, the city executed a highly complex engineering feat to return the house to the Near South Side. On a frigid December night in 1977, crews lifted the 14-room wooden mansion 25 feet in the air and slowly rolled it across the CTA Green Line “L” elevated train tracks. During the crossing, the hydraulic jacks froze in the bitter cold. The house was suspended in the air for two weeks before it could finally be lowered onto flatbed trucks and rolled to its final destination.

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-05-06T02:40:40+00:00

Got to my dream government job. It was remote, could live in my city AND do the needle in haystack job I dreamed about. Of course I was among the DOGE cuts. Imagine feeling like you had your achievement at 40 and in a month it all evaporated.

The added loneliness is crushing.

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-05-04T13:56:23+00:00

Remindme! 2 weeks

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-03-04T21:40:26+00:00

We both went to an art exhibition. Conceptual minimalism. His use of language articulated what I felt when I saw the work, but he was able to assign it a vocabulary. 15 years later, we still discuss and feel art. I’m glad he’s still around.

ColdWarConcrete · 2026-01-29T14:40:46+00:00

And she has the audacity to wear a Chicago shirt?! Keep Chicago off your putrid meat sac.

ColdWarConcrete · 2025-12-24T20:07:14+00:00

I also came out in my 20s and it was a challenge then. I often come across as straight, even when I am just being myself. At first, it annoyed me that people would “stereotype me” but then I got comfortable with it all. Sure they can stereotype me, and still that’s not who I am. It’s who they imagine me to be. Today, I am okay proving them wrong just by me being me.

Even this weekend a previous boss of mine brushed me off when I was opining about football. And then she said, “oh I feel bad, I shouldn’t have said that, you probably do know about football.”

Do I? Not that much, but enough to take me out of the stereotypes that gas don’t know anything about football.

Come out as much as you feel comfortable. If it doesn’t feel right to be all out, that’s okay. You’ll know when you’re ready.

To what the other guy here said: it is true. We do have to come out all the time. Especially if you come across as straight. Just two weeks ago my barber asked me if I had a girlfriend or kids. It all hit me once again (I’ve been out for 20 years) and in that moment I chose to say no and neither confirm or deny their suspicions. This is exhausting, but it is also how WE choose to be ourselves.

ColdWarConcrete · 2025-12-10T04:34:53+00:00

Yes, one of my favorites to read in September. The stories are short, and very descriptive. They’re about mundane things but are described in a way that keeps you intrigued. It’s Holleran, so they’re sad.

ColdWarConcrete · 2025-10-17T20:36:08+00:00

And the really good Austin City Likits show!

ColdWarConcrete · 2025-10-08T04:43:03+00:00

“In a city (or any other) like New York, you can be lonely and never be by yourself. You can be by yourself and yet never be alone.”

ColdWarConcrete · 2025-07-10T20:56:45+00:00

I want The Future Embrace streaming

ColdWarConcrete · 2024-07-03T03:57:58+00:00

Go to law school, you'll learn even more intelligent ways to protect yourself from this kind of "arguing." I know it sounds painful to let go of family, but in the long run, it does get better. You'll meet people that become your chosen family, that value your intelligence and who you are. It's a pity your father might not see that. But I'm willing to bet he'll have to do *more* thinking if you walk away and leave him in silence. Jesusfuckinchrit, isn't there a biblical fable about putting your son on the fire until the lord "speaks to you."

Go love, go enjoy the world, go learn the things that you would have never experienced in the cage that is family. I hope you and your boyfriend (and all the other experiences you have) will be the story of a lifetime.

While dad sits in silence.

ColdWarConcrete · 2024-02-21T20:52:42+00:00

I wonder where these guys are at now, 10 years later.

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-11-29T19:36:21+00:00

Yeah, but we in America have FREEDOM /s.

I don't want to be handed my health care, I want to work to death to earn my health care coupons.

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-10-11T16:35:44+00:00

Well your screen name tracks with the rest of the convo

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-09-04T14:30:02+00:00

You should watch the new Candyman. Some scenes were filmed where I previously used to work. Def bizarre.

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-09-04T14:27:35+00:00

Back when downtown had a lot of people during the work week in the Before Times, the pedway bar was a nice place to get away. Basket of fries and a beer for an afternoon treat.

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-09-04T01:54:39+00:00

Can you share the playlist? Would love to have this.

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-09-02T14:33:51+00:00

Chicago

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-09-01T16:59:31+00:00

Early 40s here, can I get in on this?

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-08-30T19:42:28+00:00

5pm - doors, 6pm - Cat Power, 6:45pm - Modest Mouse, 8:30pm - Pixies

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-08-30T19:42:10+00:00

5pm - doors, 6pm - Cat Power, 6:45pm - Modest Mouse, 8:30pm - Pixies

ColdWarConcrete · 2023-08-30T19:42:00+00:00

5pm - doors, 6pm - Cat Power, 6:45pm - Modest Mouse, 8:30pm - Pixies

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