Categories
Uncategorized

macOS Web Launcher

Here’s a niche one… If you use the “Launchpad Key” on a keyboard while using macOS you know it’s a handy way to launch an application. I use it constantly. But if you want a similar experience for going to a web site (as in, visiting a web site in your preferred browser) and you don’t have Keyboard Maestro or a Stream Deck, I have another solution that uses Apple’s Automator.

Launch Automator and create a new application…

On the left Library should be selected, if not, select it…

Click on “Get Specified URLs”…

It will load up on the right side with Apple’s web site specified…

I changed it to mastodon.social in this example…

Now select “Display Webpages” from the second column…

It will get added to the right panel…

If you click the Run button you might get this warning… it will probably work just fine anyway. Test it out!

If everything worked you can Export it…

Give it a name (I chose “Mastodon”) and save it as an application in the Applications folder…

Okay, it should be ready! Hit the Launchpad Key…

…and start typing the name of the Application/web site and it should pop up… Hit the return key to open it and you should go right to the web site in a new tab in your preferred browser!

I’ve made a few of these for sites I need to visit and it saves me the time of switching to my browser and opening the site in the usual/classic ways. Keyboard Maestro can make this even faster by just using a system wide unique key combo of course.

Note: This post contains an Affiliate Link. Read More.

Categories
Uncategorized

Scrappy Hour Group Bike Ride

Scrappy Hour Group Bike Ride

I started riding more often in 2024 and was riding anywhere from 3 to 6 days a week but always solo. My old pal Matt mentioned a group ride called Scrappy Hour and described it as a “casual slow roll” ride, which sounded right for me because I don’t really go fast, I just cruise around.

So I joined Matt last October for my first real group ride, and it was fun and easy, so I did it again in December and while it was a little cold it wasn’t too bad. Matt couldn’t join in but my old pal Mike was there and I saw Nora (another Milwaukee person I know) again. Otherwise I really don’t know many people on the rides (yet) but that doesn’t really matter, it’s just about getting out and riding in a group.

The most recent ride (this past weekend) saw me and Matt, along with my neighbor Michael, meet up at Rocket Baby in Tosa to do a smaller group ride that meets up with the larger group. We met Meg and Paige there and the five of us biked down to Cathedral Square Park together. The roads are not very busy on a Sunday morning at 9am so it was pretty easy going, and mostly downhill!

I will say that the Tosa leg was not as much of a “slow roll” as the Bay View legs have been… I guess when you let people half your age lead it can go a bit faster. (Disclaimer: I’m not totally sure but I’d guess I’m one of the oldest people on these rides. Not that age matters but I’m not exactly in great shape like some people are.)

I made sure I would not be cold on this ride. I wore my winter boots and wool socks, balaclava, ski goggles, a scarf, and then two long sleeve shirts with two sweatshirts, and long underwear with insulated exercise pants. I also had my medium winter gloves on. From Matt’s advice I threw a jacket and hat and heavier gloves into a backpack and then used those for the “standing around” part of the ride to stay warm when not moving. I also had some USB hand warmers. I did not get cold, unlike my companions. (Sorry, guys!)

The ride back was just me, Matt, and Michael and the hills were killer. As in, they killed my will to live. I was going slower than I’ve ever gone on a ride. Somehow we took a path that seemed to have even more hills and at the end my legs were jelly. The whole trip for me was 5.38 miles there and 6.4 miles back. I’ve done rides that long or longer without issue, but they are at my own pace and avoiding large hills.

Oh, I forgot! The ride has this whole “coffee outside” thing. The idea is you ride to the location (takes about 30 minutes) hang out outside for about an hour drinking coffee, socializing, etc., then head back (another 30 minutes). So it’s like a 1 hour ride with a 1 hour break in the middle. I don’t drink coffee but did bring some hot chai tea in an insulated mug for this one. Sometimes there are snacks as well. Again, it’s all really chill and a nice little community of people who like to ride bikes.

Right now if you want to find out about rides check out Scrappy Hour MKE on Instagram. They are in the process of adding a Bluesky account (which I’ve asked them to bridge to the Fediverse) and they’ll be starting a mailing list as well. (Email scrappyhourmke@gmail.com to get added!)

The next ride is Sunday, February 23rd, 2025 and typically the main group leaves from Cactus Club in Bay View at 9am, and then there might be groups leaving from Interval Coffee on the East Side/Riverwest and Rocket Baby in Wauwatosa, but the Bay View is the only “for sure” one and the rest are TBD closer to the date. (At least I think that’s right.)

Categories
Uncategorized

WMSE Art & Music – Fight the Power

I posted about the Sydney Hih piece I made for the WMSE Art & Music event, but I made a second piece as well this time! I used the boom box that the character Radio Raheem carries around in the film “Do the Right Thing”.

I remember seeing the film when I attended UWM and took a lot of film classes. The issues addressed in the film haven’t really changed much over the years, as we’ve seen in 2014 (twice) and 2020 and on and on and on over the years. It’s 2025 and in some ways shit is even worse than ever before.

But… I digress. “Fight the Power” seemed like a good title for this piece, as it’s something we need to keep in mind daily in these uncertain times.

WMSE has been an independent radio station fighting the establishment for over 43 years, and introduced me to so much amazing music over my lifetime that I though this music-related art was a good fit.

Like my other frame, I did the same prep work of sanding, painting, staining, clamping, gluing… I still really like this illustration. I drew it on an iPad using Procreate but tried the linocut style again and think it worked well.

The plate was the largest I could create that would fit on my press, which is 9 inches wide. Luckily it’s about the limits of my printer as well. (Though I could probably print in multiple pieces and assemble if needed.)

I ended up making one test print and then one final print for this. I don’t know if I’ll make more… maybe at a smaller size (on handmade paper?) but I do like this as a large print on some high quality paper.

As with all the art I donate I really hope someone is willing to bid on this and give it a home, while also helping to keep WMSE running and on the air for years to come.

Categories
Uncategorized

I Made Peanut Butter

Home made peanut butter in a food processor

We normally buy peanut butter because I use it for making granola bars, smoothies, and baked goods. I rarely just spread peanut butter on something and eat it. As I’ve been trying to be more and more aware of the foods we eat and what’s in them (and where they come from) I noticed the ingredients listed sugar and palm oil.

I know palm oil is a controversial ingredient so I did some searching and found this page on SKIPPY Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Spread. They claim it’s “the good palm oil” and okay, but why? And also, there’s added sugar. I’m sure there are reasons for this but I don’t think they are needed.

Home made peanut butter in a food processor

So I looked up “how to make peanut butter” and damn, it’s pretty simple. Peanuts and a food processor. You can add in some honey, oil, salt, or whatever and just blitz it. The instructions I found said it takes a bit of time to come together and look smooth and creamy, and it did. I also did end up adding just a bit of honey and some oil, thinking that would help mix it all up.

Home made peanut butter in a food processor

The process was simple though, and I started with a 16 ounce jar of dry roasted peanuts and ended with roughly 16 ounces of peanut butter. (Maths!) The cost of a jar of peanuts was pretty similar to the cost of a jar of peanut butter, so there’s not exactly a huge cost saving. It’s more about being able to make your own, knowing what goes into it, and buying one less thing. (Sort of, I still bought peanuts. I just need to find a source of free peanuts now!) Actually if I can buy bulk peanuts for cheaper I could potentially save a little bit of money. (But not time. That’s the tradeoff, right? Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death as the old saying goes.)

Home made peanut butter in a food processor

The one downside to this is that you are using a food processor to make peanut butter. First you need a food processor, and second you need to clean peanut butter out of the food processor. Peanut butter is sticky and messy and difficult to clean. So there is that, again, the time element.

Home made peanut butter in a container

As I mentioned, I rarely just spread peanut butter on something, which is good, because I plan to keep this in the refrigerator. It should be fine in the cabinet but should last longer refrigerated. (Honestly this is the part I researched the least so if you have insights please share them.)

This method should work for any nut butter, so cashews or almonds might be worth trying in the future. I really just need to work out a scheme to get free nuts now and I’ll be all set!

Home made peanut butter in a container

Feel free to check out my Granola Bars v2 recipe. The page it is on has no ads, no tracking, no pop-ups, and none of the annoying shit most recipe sites tend to have.

Note: The second time I made this my daughter helped out, and she pointed out we should let the food processor run even longer, and we did, and the peanut butter was much smoother! Lesson learned.

Categories
Uncategorized

Game Show Buzzer System V2

A set of game show buzzers

A set of game show buzzers

The name “Game Show Buzzer System V2” is a misnomer but I’m gonna go with it… See, I’ve built more than one “Game Show Buzzer” type of system since the original post but they were not documented here for various reasons… Anyway, this is a system I designed quite a while ago but just recently had someone actually want, so I built it.

A set of game show buzzers

See, typically I sell one (or more) of the Big USB Buttons or even these Survey Says Buttons, but this system doesn’t use multiple individual self-contained buttons, but a control box you can plug multiple buttons into. This specific system has just two buttons but the original design had either three or four, though doing up to six (or even eight) buttons would be trivial.

A set of game show buzzers

The control box plugs into a computer via USB and can send keys, keystrokes, USB MIDI data, or serial data. Each button plugs into the control box using a TRS cable. (That’s a 3.5mm Stereo Cable for you non-nerds in the crowd.) The TRS cable has three connections (Tip, Ring, and Sleeve) which is perfect for a button and LED.

A set of game show buzzers

The trick is in the code… meaning the programming is whatever is needed. For this specific build we did a USB MIDI noteOn for each button, followed by a five second lockout so no button could be pressed for five seconds. I’ve done systems where the “host” (using the control box) can reset the system, say for instance if the person/team who buzzes in first gets the quiz answer wrong, so that another team can try to buzz in and answer. Lots of possibilities, again, the magic is in the code.

A set of game show buzzers

I’ve built enough of these that I really should formalize things and come up with a system where you can choose the components and features and then place an order… It’s still sort of a custom thing (code always is anyway) but I think I have it down enough that a base system is in order.

A set of game show buzzers

Anyway, this was another fun project, though it was a bit rushed (got it built and programmed in a matter of days before it needed to ship) so there are a few small improvements I’ll be making next time.