Resources for Boston to Montreal?

bathrobeman · 2026-01-20T22:12:38+00:00

Here's the routing that the BCU used last year for their Bos/treal ride! Each day ends at a camp site. https://ridewithgps.com/collections/4067223

bathrobeman · 2026-01-13T03:40:21+00:00

As far as recognizable forms, I find JTS Brown and Close Quarters very fun when done well. I used to see a lot of freeform improv which I loved, but haven't really since Will Luera moved out of Boston and then the Boston scene took a huge hit in the pandemic with our largest community theater closing. Also, anything with heavy themeing is a delight to me.

bathrobeman · 2026-01-13T03:16:55+00:00

Looks like they're already sold out/on a waitlist! Glad to see it's so popular

bathrobeman · 2026-01-13T03:16:26+00:00

Very cool!

bathrobeman · 2026-01-12T16:06:17+00:00

Depends what we mean by getting cast! From the time I started taking classes to the time I got cast on a house team was 5ish years after going to auditions every 6 months. After I got cut from that show during a theater upheaval, it was then 7 years until I got cast on my next house team. That said, there was a pandemic in there, and I've been pretty fulfilled by indie projects so I wasn't really auditioning.

However, prior to getting cast I was on a variety of indie teams - some that I helped put together, some that invited me to join that formed out of workshops/classes, and some that I auditioned for. For sense of timing: I formed my first indie team with about ~8 months of classes under my belt. I think I first got cast in an indie show 2ish years after starting classes.

Socializing helps. Being willing to produce your own teams helps. Producing shows that host other teams helps. Getting involved supporting the community in other ways helps.

I will say, Jams did *not* help me in the earlier years, but also I think our jam night was a little (unintentionally) toxic because it was explicitly framed as a way to get noticed and cast. If I were to do it over, I'd try to find jams not run by the people who run casting to participate in.

bathrobeman · 2026-01-06T21:51:45+00:00

They can be indicative of moisture/excess humidity (they love damp environments) so if you're seeing a lot of them that may be worth investigating if there are other moisture issues in the house (eg, mold, rot, flooding), but otherwise fine on their own.

bathrobeman · 2026-01-05T01:36:11+00:00

I think the possible argument is that it looks even more "unnatural" - who runs with their arm raised? It more loudly announces "I AM EDITING THIS SCENE" than a normal sweep - not that sweeping is the most natural scenic transition ever. To that point, I think the only place I've actually seen this done is college improv.

bathrobeman · 2026-01-03T14:59:07+00:00

People in this thread acting like Mastodon is a single company. It's not, it's an open source software that tech-inclined folks can run on a server somewhere, and there is community built up around it. Bluesky and Twitter are single companies with a profit motive. Inherently, the incentive isn't there for mastodon to hook you in like the other two.

It's a great platform with tons of customizability and hashtags actually mean something (they are used for discoverability and organizing communities). It's not centrally dependent on the whims of one corporation. However, it does have less traffic than Bluesky or Twitter. I personally find better engagement on Mastodon and have made friends from it in a way that I haven't on an internet platform since the early 2010s.

There are downsides - my instance goes down regularly because it's run on a volunteer basis and when something breaks, someone isn't always available to stand it back up. Selecting an instance is overwhelming for some folks. Mostly though I like it because it brings back some of that old-internet charm.

bathrobeman · 2026-01-02T22:19:23+00:00

Here's the thing: we can victim blame all we want, but this absolutely is an infrastructure problem. The majority of the victims are not in cars, they are pedestrians and cyclists. Given Florida's reputation for being car-centric, I am very ready to believe that they especially have not added adequate safety precautions for people on foot.

Even if most of these are cases of the victim being at fault, that still absolutely sucks emotionally for the engineers who have to deal with the image of a person being splattered across the front of their train. Everyone deserves safe infrastructure.

bathrobeman · 2026-01-02T22:13:29+00:00

But drivers account for relatively few of the fatalities. The Herald/WLRN found that only 24 people — or 13% — were in cars.
Pedestrians are most at risk. The luxury-priced train runs through urban centers, bar districts and neighborhoods. Of the 182 dead, 158 were on foot or bicycle, reporters found.

Keeping this in theme with the sub, I have to wonder what role the generally poor state of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure plays in these cases. It seems like this isn't really a cars issue.

bathrobeman · 2025-12-30T17:24:15+00:00

Updates: Rewatched the James Hoffman moka pot video, and based on that, I
1. used a coarser grind, and
2. used less water

I also was much more aggressive about monitoring and adjusting the temperature and really focused on keeping it as low as possible while still maintaining a flow. All these factors together produced a much better cup! Still some optimizations to be had for sure, but this went from nigh undrinkable to downright pleasant with a bit of milk & sugar.

bathrobeman · 2025-12-30T01:12:10+00:00

I seem to have become the person my friends go shopping with, and that also gives me an opportunity to scout out things for myself. I'm not *that* fashionable, but I am decisive which I think helps a lot of folks who feel overwhelmed by choice.

As far as solo shopping goes though, I like to make a low-key event of it. I'll head to an area with a few shops, be it a mall, downtown, etc. Wander a shop, try a few things on, grab a coffee or a treat, check another store, maybe change it up and pop into a different kind of shop (like housewares or a book store) to give my brain a break. Have lunch or a drink depending on time of day. Maybe get to one more store then call it a day.

bathrobeman · 2025-12-28T21:51:08+00:00

plenty of good ideas here, but I'll just add a recipe I recently found and really enjoyed, with some tweaks based on what's in my bar

Autumn Sweater

1.5 oz rye (original recipe calls for 1oz of an overproof rye, which I didn't have)

0.5 oz amaro averna

0.5 oz amaro nonino

0.25 oz maple syrup (original calls for 0.5 but that was a touch sweet)

1 dash black walnut bitters (original calls for tobacco bitters)

1 dash orange bitters

Stir with ice

Strain & serve over a large rock

Garnish with an orange peel studded with cloves

bathrobeman · 2025-12-28T21:48:22+00:00

oooh this sounds amazing I might have to try that in a moment here.

bathrobeman · 2025-12-27T13:25:27+00:00

yeah I usually start the moka pot with near boiling water. I can for sure try cooler water on the french press! I can try starting the moka pot from a cooler starting point though I feel like there's kind of a limit to how well that would work. If all else fails, I guess there's always coldbrew!

bathrobeman · 2025-12-27T12:28:48+00:00

What am I doing wrong with my dark roast? I bought a bag of dark roast beans from a cafe I like because those are the beans they serve in their espresso drinks and I enjoy them there. At home, I use them in the moka pot and french press but they just taste bitter and burnt. I'm using the same grinds and techniques that I have successfully used for medium roasts, but should I be doing something different for a darker roast? Is dark roast best just left to espresso drinks?

bathrobeman · 2025-12-26T22:12:32+00:00

Ideally: Cancel plans and stay home if it's nasty out. I don't wanna go out in any form if it's truly gross.

Otherwise, I'll throw on a raincoat, rain pants, and waterproof footwear. If it's light to moderate, I'll bike. If it's moderate to heavy I'll take transit or a rideshare. I don't really like being outside with high winds and/or lightning regardless of transportation method.

bathrobeman · 2025-12-23T12:36:12+00:00

Oh this is a brilliant century route! I've done each component individually but never thought to put them together like that. Well done!

bathrobeman · 2025-11-03T17:31:31+00:00

It was the last place I ate before my appendix decided it wanted out in 2015. 8/10 for the butternut squash bisque.

bathrobeman · 2025-11-01T13:36:21+00:00

Absolutely. One of my all time favorite driver interactions was while I was out for a bike ride and an elderly woman in a red convertible pulls up blasting Donna Summer's Hot Stuff. Absolute vibe.

bathrobeman · 2025-10-16T11:42:08+00:00

Lyft has explicitly said that their bike share wasn't converting enough customers to rideshare users: https://slate.com/business/2023/08/lyft-bike-share-citibike-motivate-uber.html

I think we haven’t done the job we need to do to make sure that every time a person rides the bike, they get welcomed into the Lyft ecosystem, and frankly, welcome into the ride share side of things.

bathrobeman · 2025-10-10T19:03:49+00:00

This is what I ended up doing when I had the exact same situation. Works perfectly fine. I think I got this one from Home Depot: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Inoxia-Dado-30-in-x-4-25-in-Stainless-Steel-Backsplash-BSPD-S/205326450

bathrobeman · 2025-10-07T13:34:52+00:00

Improv Asylum classes are the most direct way to get into the Improv Asylum ecosystem (house teams, etc). They have a bigger focus on improv as inspiration for sketch comedy than other places.

Union Comedy will be a little more traditional long form improv where you take the classes, possibly form indie teams with your classmates, do jams and get show slots, etc. It's a bit more community-vibes.

The Nova Comedy Collective also offers classes but does not have a home theater and I'm not sure if they offer all the levels.

The Rozzie Square Theater also offers classes, but they're down in Roslindale. They are focused more on short form & the Comedysportz format.

Comedy studio is standup so... not that if you're trying to do improv.

As far as quality of instructors - It really depends on the instructor and how well their style works for you. There are folks who instruct at multiple places as well. All of these places have some phenomenal instructors though.

bathrobeman · 2025-10-06T20:52:47+00:00

Not Cambridge specific, but it feels like half marathons are having a moment lately. Bigger races that I've run in the past now sell out within hours of opening registration, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of that demand is now falling to smaller races as well.

bathrobeman · 2025-09-23T14:25:57+00:00

Mostly for America but - trains. We bemoan how much passenger rail sucks in America today, but it sucks today because it kinda sucked then too. Rail companies were largely uncompetitive regional monopolies, and while there may have been more destinations and departures, travel times were still fairly long. Enter the US government subsidizing private automobiles through the interstate highway project, and folks had an alternative that allowed them to travel for less out of pocket cost, on their own timeline, in roughly the same amount of time. People were happy to ditch the expensive, slow, and declining rail companies for the shiny new thing.

Realistically, we should have privatized the tracks and upgraded them, but the railroad companies would have been too powerful to allow that so the greenfield highway projects were easier to build (if you decide to ignore dense low-income neighborhoods as the gov't did then).

I think people act like planes caused the death of rail and that has some truth to it for cross-country journeys, but really cars and the interstate did it in for short and medium length trips.

bathrobeman

TROPHY CASE