Andrew Watts
@awatts.bsky.social
Basically, “just zis guy, you know?”. For money I work as a programmer / data analyst at URMC. Degrees in Linguistics. For fun I play too much Zelda and fumble around on bass. Film lover. Urbanist / YIMBY. Kind to cats.
Pinned
Andrew Watts
@awatts.bsky.social
· Jan 3
So hey, if I don’t know you and my first interaction with you is a rude reply to one of my posts, you’re getting a “hide for everyone” and a block. Don’t be that person.
Saw someone (very deliberately not saying who) post that post-COVID wages have matched or outpaced inflation. Popped over to BLS's CPI calculator and confirmed that if that were true for me, then I would be making $20,000 more a year than I am. So... cool. cool cool cool. I love 2026 America.
September 18, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Saw someone (very deliberately not saying who) post that post-COVID wages have matched or outpaced inflation. Popped over to BLS's CPI calculator and confirmed that if that were true for me, then I would be making $20,000 more a year than I am. So... cool. cool cool cool. I love 2026 America.
Portrait of a cat who already lost all of the toys you just got out from under the fridge and oven.
September 13, 2026 at 9:48 PM
Portrait of a cat who already lost all of the toys you just got out from under the fridge and oven.
Tried to get a walk in before the thunderstorm hit. I got a walk in. And a run. And a change of clothes.
September 13, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Tried to get a walk in before the thunderstorm hit. I got a walk in. And a run. And a change of clothes.
Last time I went to the DMV (2016) I was impressed with how fast and efficient it was. Today I’ve been here for an hour and a half and every time I check the queue I’m 30 minutes from my turn. All I need to do is hand them my form and pay after having my photo taken (minutes after I arrived).
September 9, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Last time I went to the DMV (2016) I was impressed with how fast and efficient it was. Today I’ve been here for an hour and a half and every time I check the queue I’m 30 minutes from my turn. All I need to do is hand them my form and pay after having my photo taken (minutes after I arrived).
Not exactly doing a #100DaysOfPractice but @writerethink.bsky.social is with her UU pals, so I'm thinking about how to do more productive practice. Picking some elements from songs I like from Drumeo's library where I could improve. 1) The Strokes "Selfless" has a long part with just hihat 8th notes
September 9, 2026 at 12:14 AM
Not exactly doing a #100DaysOfPractice but @writerethink.bsky.social is with her UU pals, so I'm thinking about how to do more productive practice. Picking some elements from songs I like from Drumeo's library where I could improve. 1) The Strokes "Selfless" has a long part with just hihat 8th notes
I need to be excused from working today. A cat requires that I follow her to a box, where she will lay down flat and I have to pet her very hard while she purrs so loud you can hear it across the room, until she gets bored with it and starts biting me. This will be repeated many times.
September 8, 2026 at 3:45 PM
I need to be excused from working today. A cat requires that I follow her to a box, where she will lay down flat and I have to pet her very hard while she purrs so loud you can hear it across the room, until she gets bored with it and starts biting me. This will be repeated many times.
Goddamn. I was signaling a right turn (in the car - at least it wasn’t on a bike where I’d be guarantee to be dead) and a pickup truck tried to pass me on the right *using the bike lane* because I slowed down. What the fuck is wrong with drivers?
September 6, 2026 at 2:07 PM
Goddamn. I was signaling a right turn (in the car - at least it wasn’t on a bike where I’d be guarantee to be dead) and a pickup truck tried to pass me on the right *using the bike lane* because I slowed down. What the fuck is wrong with drivers?
My brain is so cooked. I tried cooking a veggie burger for 30 minutes (instead of seconds) yesterday. I put an open can of wet cat food with lid back in the pantry instead of the fridge overnight. And the past two days I've given my wife my daughter's smoothie and put hers in the fridge.
September 4, 2026 at 12:30 PM
My brain is so cooked. I tried cooking a veggie burger for 30 minutes (instead of seconds) yesterday. I put an open can of wet cat food with lid back in the pantry instead of the fridge overnight. And the past two days I've given my wife my daughter's smoothie and put hers in the fridge.
My fun fact for the day: in theory you can renew a NY enhanced license online. But in practice your id photo on file will be deemed too old and you have to find a time to go to the DMV anyway.
August 28, 2026 at 7:43 PM
My fun fact for the day: in theory you can renew a NY enhanced license online. But in practice your id photo on file will be deemed too old and you have to find a time to go to the DMV anyway.
Our dumbest cat is chittering at me and looking under the stove, which is her way of saying, “Help! I knocked all my favorite toys under here for the 3rd time today.”
August 27, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Our dumbest cat is chittering at me and looking under the stove, which is her way of saying, “Help! I knocked all my favorite toys under here for the 3rd time today.”
The guy 2 houses up smokes, but his wife makes him go outside to do it. It’s amazing how much it stinks in our house when he does and how much smokers don’t realize the extent of the spread or how much it sucks for other people.
August 27, 2026 at 12:29 AM
The guy 2 houses up smokes, but his wife makes him go outside to do it. It’s amazing how much it stinks in our house when he does and how much smokers don’t realize the extent of the spread or how much it sucks for other people.
Over on Mastodon, I learned that someone developed a screensaver module for macOS 15+ that lets you run After Dark screensavers (running on a 68k emulator) and it even can even download them from the Internet Archive for you.
morphing.cloud/afterglow/
morphing.cloud/afterglow/
Afterglow — classic After Dark screen savers on modern macOS
Run classic After Dark screen saver modules — Flying Toasters, Fish!, Starry Skyline, and more — natively on macOS.
morphing.cloud
August 26, 2026 at 11:20 PM
Over on Mastodon, I learned that someone developed a screensaver module for macOS 15+ that lets you run After Dark screensavers (running on a 68k emulator) and it even can even download them from the Internet Archive for you.
morphing.cloud/afterglow/
morphing.cloud/afterglow/
Reposted by Andrew Watts
RIP Dolly. I’ve been listening incessantly to the cover of “After the Gold Rush” she did with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. That the immense technical skill she had as a vocalist was possible to overlook in light of her other gifts is a testament to her achievements. youtu.be/o2XcBL6kWn8?...
Harris, Parton, Ronstadt on Late Show, March 24, 1999 (full, stereo)
YouTube video by Don Giller
youtu.be
August 25, 2026 at 6:30 PM
RIP Dolly. I’ve been listening incessantly to the cover of “After the Gold Rush” she did with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. That the immense technical skill she had as a vocalist was possible to overlook in light of her other gifts is a testament to her achievements. youtu.be/o2XcBL6kWn8?...
We’ve had our new fridge for about a year and I thought it was probably due for a new water filter. Flipped the cover down and there was a cap over where the water filter goes. The “spare” filter in the kitchen drawer was the original filter we never installed.
August 23, 2026 at 8:52 PM
We’ve had our new fridge for about a year and I thought it was probably due for a new water filter. Flipped the cover down and there was a cap over where the water filter goes. The “spare” filter in the kitchen drawer was the original filter we never installed.
I was sitting in this chair and Pocus came up and started crying and pawing at me, so I said, “Ok, I’ll come down and pet you”, and she dodged me, hopped up on the seat and promptly fell asleep purring.
August 18, 2026 at 9:52 PM
I was sitting in this chair and Pocus came up and started crying and pawing at me, so I said, “Ok, I’ll come down and pet you”, and she dodged me, hopped up on the seat and promptly fell asleep purring.
Today in structural parallels that probably don’t work: I just said, “She drained her water and I think I did too”.
August 18, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Today in structural parallels that probably don’t work: I just said, “She drained her water and I think I did too”.
Reposted by Andrew Watts
"I was driving and a cyclist slowed me down because they were on the road."
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
"I was walking and a cyclist hit someone because they were on the sidewalk."
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
"I was walking and a cyclist hit someone because they were on the sidewalk."
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
August 17, 2026 at 11:34 AM
"I was driving and a cyclist slowed me down because they were on the road."
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
"I was walking and a cyclist hit someone because they were on the sidewalk."
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
"I was walking and a cyclist hit someone because they were on the sidewalk."
Sounds like you'd be happier if there was a bike lane preventing that.
I picked up a bass and played it for the first time in months after mostly focusing on drums and a bit of guitar for the last year or so, and somehow I’m appreciably better. Weird musical instrument cross training.
August 17, 2026 at 12:31 AM
I picked up a bass and played it for the first time in months after mostly focusing on drums and a bit of guitar for the last year or so, and somehow I’m appreciably better. Weird musical instrument cross training.
Reposted by Andrew Watts
I'm sure it is bad when cyclists intentionally do things that make themselves or others less safe but that is a completely unrelated conversation unless you're pointing out that good bike infrastructure makes it significantly less likely that cyclist behavior will impact other people in any way!
August 16, 2026 at 8:24 PM
I'm sure it is bad when cyclists intentionally do things that make themselves or others less safe but that is a completely unrelated conversation unless you're pointing out that good bike infrastructure makes it significantly less likely that cyclist behavior will impact other people in any way!
Reposted by Andrew Watts
"Bluesky is dying" bro you're talking about a website full of 38 year olds who have fringe political beliefs and listen to black metal bands with >1000 listeners on spotify, nobody here cares about popularity
August 12, 2026 at 6:40 PM
"Bluesky is dying" bro you're talking about a website full of 38 year olds who have fringe political beliefs and listen to black metal bands with >1000 listeners on spotify, nobody here cares about popularity
Dilemma: I have a meeting in one minute but three minutes left on the album I’m listening to.
August 10, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Dilemma: I have a meeting in one minute but three minutes left on the album I’m listening to.
I feel weirdly sad canceling my daughter's Ranger Rick and Highlights subscriptions. She stopped reading them 6 months ago (after begging me not to cancel last fall despite turning 14) and has clearly aged out. But those are such great kids magazines that I loved when I was a kid too.
August 8, 2026 at 3:22 PM
I feel weirdly sad canceling my daughter's Ranger Rick and Highlights subscriptions. She stopped reading them 6 months ago (after begging me not to cancel last fall despite turning 14) and has clearly aged out. But those are such great kids magazines that I loved when I was a kid too.
Hocus does this all the time, and then yanks the perforated cardboard off and throws it in the air.
If I had fangs like that, I’d be doing it too 🐈⬛
IG: @gordygrayson
IG: @gordygrayson
August 7, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Hocus does this all the time, and then yanks the perforated cardboard off and throws it in the air.
Nasty blister on my left index finger because I somehow decided I could go from not having played bass for months (very drum hyper focused) and play lots of songs with slidey bits for 45 minutes.
August 3, 2026 at 12:28 AM
Nasty blister on my left index finger because I somehow decided I could go from not having played bass for months (very drum hyper focused) and play lots of songs with slidey bits for 45 minutes.
To ensure we are fully prepared for the week’s meals, I always make a thorough grocery list that I follow in the store. But crucially, I always forget to add one key ingredient for a meal anyway even after triple checking the list.
August 2, 2026 at 4:27 PM
To ensure we are fully prepared for the week’s meals, I always make a thorough grocery list that I follow in the store. But crucially, I always forget to add one key ingredient for a meal anyway even after triple checking the list.