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013: Nature's changing course

013: Nature's changing course

April 5, 2026
7 min read
bookmarks
media-notes
2026
2026-04-05
weeknotes

Hello world!

I took the photo above on my way to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles at PNC Park — the most beautiful ballpark in America. If the purple cows remind you a bit of Andy Warhol, that’s for a reason: this photo was taken right outside the Warhol Museum, a few steps from the ballfield.

I created a collection on gram.social with all the cover images I have used for weeknotes so far. I’ll continue adding photos to this collection as I publish. This is a great way to support my 2026 goal of tracking my favorite photos of the year as it progresses.

Speaking of photos, I posted one of my favorite photos of Plop with a caption I love on his Mastodon account to celebrate #WhiskersWednesday.

💫 To sleep, purr-chance to dream.

🔖 My Favorite Stuff from the Internet This Week

🧰 Tools

I’d had my eye on Grimmory, the independent community fork of Booklore since it was announced. The notes for the v2.3.0 release were enough for me to give it a go.

🐾 Movement

I was active for about three hours this week, covering a combined 36.8 mi (59.2 km) between activities on foot and on bike. I usually designate Mondays as rest days.

I decided last fall that I would very likely replace my bike this spring. I have already spent more than the cost of the bike on repairs. My Sunday morning ride was cut very short by yet another mechanical failure. While I was rather frustrated by my predicament, I am so glad I chose to ride the half-mile loop at Pittsburgh’s Bud Harris Cycling Track. Being completely unable to pedal on an interstate bike ride would have been much worse. I’m officially accelerating my bike search.

🌱 Gardening 2026

I started a tray of Autumn Beauty and Mammoth Grey Stripe sunflowers this week given how nice the weather has been. Unfortunately, there are two nights with below-freezing weather forecasted overnight. I brought everything I planted inside and will wait until next weekend to plant anything else.

(I chose the title of this week’s note on Saturday based on how things are going with this year’s gardening efforts.)

📖 Reading

I started reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead this week. I read the first half for book club and the discussion was at Margaux. I heard very little about the book before picking it up. Other than expecting strong writing, I had no expectations about what I’d find as I read.

I am enjoying the book so far although I have had to stop reading a few times given how sad and desperate the protagonist’s situation is at times. During the book club discussion, I learned that this book is a Pulitzer Prize-winning modern retelling of Charles Dickens’ novel “David Copperfield”.

🔗 Social Reading

I keep track of my reading in various places across the Internet. I track every book I read as @bbrie on Hardcover and as brie on Rambling Readers. I also track each IRL Book Club.

🎮 Gaming

🌐 Web

I’m always curious about independent Web games. I found a really interesting new one:

😅 I was expecting a nice sweet game and that’s not what I got.

🔰 Ingress

Being able to acquire a Cat — even as a joke — was kinda cool so I approve of what Niantic Spatial did with Farmgress. Read more about it in Update 040126: Ingress Goes Agricultural.

🎧 Music

🆕 1001 Albums

This week’s selections in My 1001 Albums Journey were:

One of my complaints about 1001albumsgenerator.com is that I don’t get to rate Friday’s album until the following Monday. That means that 20% of the albums will have a delayed rating instead of a more immediate rating. Additionally, my weeknotes will have to include ratings from two different weeks — if I had insisted on using what the API offers. Instead, I will decide that the rating I publish in my weeknotes is official.

📊 Stats

  • 🎶 Total tracks played: 364
  • 🦄 Unique tracks: 260 | Unique albums: 30 | Unique artists: 25

I’m automatically generating these charts and putting them on the Web every twenty minutes now. I am really happy with the time I spent automating and refining my weeknotes workflow this week.

These charts help to give a nice view into day-by-day listening habits. For a bit more insight:

Top Artists

  • The Prodigy (76 plays)
  • Ludwig Göransson (50 plays)
  • Minutemen (43 plays)

Top Albums

  • The Prodigy - Their Law the Singles 1990 - 2005 (67 plays)
  • Ludwig Göransson - Black Panther (Original Score) (50 plays)
  • Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (43 plays)
  • The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love (28 plays)
  • Thelonious Monk - Underground (20 plays)
  • Luke Combs - The Way I Am (17 plays)
  • Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome (16 plays)
  • Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Live 1966 - The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert (16 plays)
  • Corrosion of Conformity - Good God / Baad Man (14 plays)
  • Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance (14 plays)

I discovered Corrosion of Conformity through their Good God / Baad Man release earlier this week. I was so impressed that I went and listened to another of their albums. I could seem them showing up in my stats more often.

Top Tracks

  • Tell ‘Em About Tonight (7 plays)
  • Firestarter (5 plays)
  • Out of Space (5 plays)

The song I played most often this week is my favorite track from Luke Combs’ release from earlier this year. I’m working my way through the discography of The Prodigy and I’m really excited about tracks like Firestarter.

🔗 Social Listening

I scrobble my music to my Koito instance at heard.by.brie.lol — as well as to bbbbbbbbrie on last.fm, bbrie on libre.fm, and briealeida on ListenBrainz.

Sporadically, I write song reviews on Crucial Tracks and album reviews on record.club.

✌️ Until next time

For the second time, I published a tiny version of last week’s note on Mastodon. I really like the “tiny weeknotes” idea. I have to build the habit and reckon with how much harder short things can be to write to continue the experiment. I am very happy that I’ve continued to publish here on lastweek.brie.lol each Sunday in 2026. While I write these with the full knowledge that each word is online and able to be archived, I have yet to share the URL anywhere or with anyone. That gives me motivation without pressure. I am thinking that I might start sharing the URL once I have six months (or perhaps one year) of this in the rearview mirror.

— Brie