Great Conversations and Creative Experiments

Morning routine. Coffee Culture Annex for day planning—tried the quiche Lorraine. Wide-ranging conversation with Jim. Photo shoot setup. Calendar work. New Zealand prep. Arranged Breitenbush drive. Exercised. Photo shoot with Joey. New Year's Eve celebration at Michael and Mary's. Edited and posted images.

Three Gatherings, Each With Its Own Rhythm

January 01, 2026

These notes describe the events of Wednesday, 12/31/2025.

I listened to the Lex Friedman interview with Michael Levin during my morning prep. He mentioned something called a map of Mathematics that I need to follow up on—one of those intellectual breadcrumbs that podcasts drop and that can lead to fascinating tangents if pursued.

I went to Coffee Culture Annex to squeeze in a bit of day planning before meeting with Jim. In an effort to reduce carbs somewhat, I'm trying their quiche Lorraine. I'm not generally a quiche Lorraine fan, but this one seemed pretty good. Small dietary adjustments accumulate over time, and finding palatable alternatives makes sustainability more likely.

The conversation with Jim ranged widely across multiple topics: the holographic universe theory, a Levin conference, the map of mathematics I'd heard mentioned in the podcast, teasing apart dimensionality, the Bobiverse series, Maxwell's equations, and decoding the universe. These regular meetings provide a different kind of mental engagement than most other interactions—less about problem-solving or coordination, more about pursuing ideas wherever they lead. The topics connected in unexpected ways, each one opening new questions rather than closing old ones.

I returned home and worked on additional setup for the photo shoot, continued puttering with the lighting arrangement and equipment placement. Calendar work consumed some time, as did further preparation for New Zealand. I arranged a drive to Breitenbush on Friday, adding another element to the weekend's social plans. I ate lunch, then continued refining the photo setup until Joey arrived.

From the shoot

The photo shoot with Joey allowed me to test the lighting experiments I'd prepared the day before. The snoots, gobos, gels, and projectors created different effects, and the session gave me practical experience with tools that had been mostly theoretical until now. There's always a gap between imagining what lighting might do and seeing what it actually does with a real subject in real space. Joey's willingness to experiment made the session productive, and I edited and posted a couple of images afterward.

I attended the New Year's Eve celebration at Michael and Mary's, which provided a different social context—less structured than the photo shoot, more festive than the morning conversation with Jim. The evening had its own rhythm, marking the transition from one year to another with people whose company I value.

Booking.com seems to be a terrible way to make hotel reservations, particularly if you need to make any adjustments to your reservation. The interface, the process, the way information is presented—all of it feels unnecessarily complicated compared to other booking platforms. Sometimes you don't realize how much a tool's design matters until you encounter one that gets it wrong.

The day moved through three distinct gatherings, each serving different purposes. The conversation with Jim fed intellectual curiosity. The photo shoot with Joey advanced creative skills and tested technical possibilities. The celebration at Michael and Mary's marked time and maintained social connections. Together they formed a day that balanced thinking, making, and being with others—three modes that portfolio living requires but that don't always align so neatly in a single day.