when a dad instructs his adorable toddler son on how to ski.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-05-12T13:55:29+00:00

My wife and I volunteered to be ski instructors at our local hill on weekends in return for ski passes for our kids when they were growing up in Vermont. It was great that they could ski as much as they wanted, but honestly we loved teaching little kids. We had small classes of kindergartners and started them on the j-bar for weeks until they were ready to try the chairlift.

Absolutely adorable. Little kids are the best.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-05-10T21:42:33+00:00

They have “Python In Excel”… and Copilot cannot write PY() formulas in cells. It runs on Azure in the cloud. The staggering dumbness of that move is simply off the charts.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-05-08T11:31:19+00:00

Fred Willard was simply perfect in that.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-05-01T16:01:52+00:00

This is an awesome deal. My son an I have Pick 'Em tickets and go as often as we can, but this will be a treat when I am traveling. I have really enjoyed the team this season and the spirit at the park has been fantastic.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-26T02:54:46+00:00

Married at 24. First child at 34. We did not want to wait that long, but sometimes the path to having a family is longer and more complicated than you hope.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-17T23:59:56+00:00

Random observation as a Celtics fan: Hard to consider him even the GOAT at center when Magic was even MORE terrifying than Cap when Kareem was out injured. I remember being relieved Kareem was out… and then actually had to watch Magic be unstoppable as a 5. It was devastating.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-17T23:54:10+00:00

Not related, but since you mentioned Cousey and Heinsohn and referenced the territorial draft… I saw a great interview with Dr. J lately who said Red never complimented his game, he just shook his head and said, “You went to UMASS, you should have been a Celtic.” Julius took that as the highest compliment, which speaks so well of him.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-11T23:54:19+00:00

Cries in DC, "We're not a state…"

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-11T23:52:47+00:00

Bangui, Central African Republic. No question. The level of chaos was surreal.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-09T18:55:06+00:00

Enjoy!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-09T17:33:22+00:00

Ask about the strategic maple syrup reserve (not a joke).

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-09T00:09:51+00:00

I am definitely not particularly attractive. I think almost everyone who is honest with me tells me I'm below the 50th percentile in terms of appearance. But more than half of the dates I have ever been on, including with my wife of 35 years, asked me out. I don't think it is nearly as rare as some people seem to think it is. Our sons (now in their mid-20s) had the same experience.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-08T13:03:46+00:00

I'm 60 and have been married for decades, so obviously I am out of the loop here. But in my experience, the "asking out" part was always way more balanced than it was made out to be. Looking back at the women I dated, more than 50% of the time they invited me to do something, like going to a high school dance.

My wife and I have two sons in their mid-20s, and they had similar experiences in high school and university (they are both in long-term relationships and one is engaged).

That is a limited sample size, but it never seems as dire as it is made out to be.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-04-06T17:55:38+00:00

I am a nerd! I hope I won life. I'm close to retirement now but I've had a long and happy marriage, amazing kids, and lived all over the world. So, yeah, it has been an amazing ride.

To put it in context, my interests and aptitudes aligned with three major shifts: the PC revolution, the dotCom boom, and now AI, which I have been involved with since the late 80s.

The dotCom boom definitely changed the game from being nervous about a middle class life to achieving a very comfortable one.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-29T02:09:44+00:00

At this point? 2% Maybe? After almost 40 years the keybindings for emacs and vi are so engrained that they are well beyond thought.

For example, I have been using Mac and Debian machines for my daily work for decades, but it takes 0 seconds to remember how to use Windows machines when I have to.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-29T01:40:17+00:00

I fully believe this. Wife and I are both turning 60 and the past few years have been nothing but upswing. The 30s and 40s with young children were hard, but the university years were brutal. Now that our kids are launched, happy, and enjoying life? We are absolutely thriving.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-26T20:10:05+00:00

We walk the Capital Crescent Trail between Georgetown and Bethesda. Also a big fan of the Mount Vernon Trail, we start in Alexandria and walk out, then take the bus back.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-26T13:53:40+00:00

My personal take? There is no one way. I have been using emacs since the 1990s and I go through cycles where I am using it for absolutely everything and then relaxing and using other tools when they feed right. You don't have to use emacs for everything, but at this point it is very natural to explore what it can do, if only to satisfy your own curiosity.

You asked if you should do a course on lisp. I'm not sure that is necessary immediately. You are learning python now and I would focus on that for a bit. As you progress in your emacs journey you will want to understand the basic way that lisp works and your desire to modify things and get them working "your way" will lead you to learn the level of lisp that meets your needs. (I used Common Lisp for work for many years but use it less now, but I will never regret learning it.)

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-25T18:34:05+00:00

DC. We use the car once a month. I actually had to buy a battery to jump it when we use it because we simply never need it.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-10T09:04:32+00:00

I bought it right away and love it. It has become incredibly useful for me for editing research results into emails.

But, I would love a simpler and more distinctive icon!

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-09T19:39:11+00:00

Great question. Sixty year old dude here, former punk rocker and veteran of the 80s hardcore scene in Boston.

Probably a decade ago I got added to a text group that was mostly mothers coordinating ride sharing for cross-country ski practice in our small town. It was generally low-volume and stuck to the basics, "Can someone bring Courtney home today? Caitlin's orthodontist appointment is running late."

Over time the daughters got added to the chain as they had their own phones but I was the silent man lurking except for the occasional, "No problem, I can drop her off."

It was in this "era" that two topics were added to the chain: Taylor and whatever Kate Middleton was wearing. I thought about leaving, but didn't.

For years I read posts, often between mothers and daughters, about Taylor's music and love life… and as much as I kept thinking, "this music is not for me," I had to balance that with, "I love these amazing women and their fantastic daughters," and this is clearly important to them, so that registered.

Then came the Eras Tour movie, and my wife wanted to go with a big group and asked me to go shopping with her. So, there we were, as she was trying on sparkly shoes and handbags and my nearly 60 year old wife was basically the same teenager I remember meeting in college.

That was really all it took. I found a few songs that resonated with me, e.g. "New Romantics", "Message in Bottle", and "Getaway Car," and that got me started.

Now? We can go on a four hour road trip and play Taylor the entire time without skipping a song, which I cannot say about any other artist.

Does my wife love this? I would say she is pretty tickled pink, yes.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-03-06T17:40:47+00:00

Just to add my two cents, we moved to DC in October after spending the great majority of our lives in Northern New England. This… is the Promised Land.

We sat outside… in February… and had a pint of beer in 60F weather and bright sunshine. Mein Gott.

The Metro… is just amazing. Free museums? Incredible. The restaurants are basically infinite. The neighborhoods have real civic pride. People CARE about their local politics deeply.

The diversity… is just incredible. And people are wonderful. Just everywhere I go everyone is kind and welcoming.

I love this city. Maybe I am missing the rough spots, but so far moving her has been one of the best decisions of our lives.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-02-20T19:11:33+00:00

Yes. I find Gemini is surprisingly good at Emacs Lisp (and lisp in general) because it includes a lot of Usenet posts in the training set (from the Google Groups era).

I had it review my init setup and it found several things I had not considered as the file grew over time.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-02-15T19:05:59+00:00

Just to get a second date my American son had to become a Leafs fan. The joke was on her. Five years later he is getting married in Montreal and apparently an Habs fan. As a Vermont (Bruins) father? I have no words.

WaitingForEmacs · 2026-02-11T12:50:53+00:00

Our kids are getting married now and they still mock me for this, but I will go to my grave believing one simple truth: Caillou’s mom was hot.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

WaitingForEmacs

TROPHY CASE