@eugeneparnell@mstdn.social cover
@eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

eugeneparnell

@[email protected]

Sculptor. Garden designer and educator. Tech industry veteran. Bigfoot stan.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@LibrarianRA@worldkey.io avatar LibrarianRA , to random
eugeneparnell ,
@eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

@LibrarianRA Wow. Haven't heard that since I was a little kid! I remember it appeared after Sesame Street and before The Electric Company.

@eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar eugeneparnell , to random

Welcome to my first hiking thread of 2026. Despite the warm and sunny weather, the mountains are still snowed in so a couple days ago I hiked up the Big Quilcene River valley on the Olympic Peninsula. A short thread.
1/8

A small, fast flowing river seen from its bank. It flows through a rocky bed with mossy logs crisscrossing it. Conifers are visible in both sides. Mossy rocks in foreground. A bit of sunlight peeps through the overhead tree canopy.
ALT
eugeneparnell OP ,
@eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

The Big Quilcene River flows out of the Olympic mountain range Eastward into Puget Sound, near the town of Quilcene. It's on the drier side of the Olympic Peninsula, but it's still basically temperate rain forest (note the moss and lichen in the tree branches). Photo 2: it's a fairly popular location and there's a few group campsites on the river. If this one had an actual bark shanty it's long gone. But there's a few huge cedars anyway.
2/8

An open area of ground with a massive cedar tree in the foreground. Its drooping branches he's are draped in moss. A large rustic wood sign attached to its trunk says "Bark Shanty". Woods behind and another massive fallen log.

eugeneparnell OP ,
@eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

Hiking Big Quilcene part 3. This is the perfect habitat for rhododendrons and this trail has a lot of big ones. This is our native Rhododendron macrophyllum (one of two species in Washington) and it happens to be our state flower. It won't bloom till May or June. And yes, that's a carpet of moss beneath it. In the winter, moss really comes into its own as other plants go dormant.

A rhododendron shrub, or small tree, with long bare woody stems each of which is topped with a radially arranged group of 5-6 leaves. They are oblong, entire, and slightly glossy with distinctive veins. The tree is surrounded by a carpet of moss with some sword ferns visible on the edges of the frame.
ALT
  • Reply
    • eugeneparnell OP ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    Hiking Big Quilcene part 4. Salal (Gaultheria shallon) is looking very happy in January. The damp fog overnight has left a glossy wet sheen on the leaves and you can see why it's prized by florists for foliage in flower arrangements.
    4/8

    Closer view of Salal foliage. The stems are reddish and zigzag between the alternating leaves which are very shiny

    eugeneparnell OP ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    Hiking Big Quilcene part 5. The river here doesn't seem to have been badly affected by the December "atmospheric river" (massive rainstorm), which devastated a lot of river lowlands in the Cascades. One can see evidence of torrents of water coming down the slopes of the valley but the riverbanks are only eroded in a few spots and the shore vegetation is mostly intact. Moss and lichen are on every tree branch here.
    5/8

    Closeup of miss clinging to a drooping branch. The sunlight from the side shines through it making it seem a brilliant yellow green color.
    Another closeup of a branch with hair like moss all over it lining as if it's glowing because of the sun shining beyond and the white foamy river flowing beneath.

    @darkuncle@infosec.exchange avatar darkuncle , to random

    time sensitive: the Pacific Crest Trail (and indeed, all our national parks and wild lands) needs your help. There's proposed rulemaking (in < 24 hours) at the US Forest Service that could introduce roads and development into currently roadless areas, making wild lands less wild and irrevocably changing the character of some of the most pristine wilderness in our nation. And the driver behind this? Increased access on public lands for logging, mining, and petroleum extraction.

    Please post your public comments at regulations.gov and help us keep pristine forests pristine. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/29/2025-16581/special-areas-roadless-area-conservation-national-forest-system-lands#open-comment

    /cc @ai6yr @W6KME @andrewbriscoe @killyourfm @jds and my other hiking/outdoors friends

    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @darkuncle @ai6yr @W6KME @killyourfm @jds I have submitted a comment and boosted. Let's hope they will listen.

    @jensorensen@mastodon.social avatar jensorensen , to random

    Latest comic on the uptick in NEPHs

    NONSENSE ENCOUNTERS PER HOUR RISE DRAMATICALLY THE AVERAGE AMERICAN'S EXPOSURE TO UNSETTLING NONSENSE GOES UP EVERY YEAR. Scientist in front of chart: N.E.P.H. going up from 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 THE UPTICK IN N.E.P.H.S INCLUDES "PARODY" BUMPER STICKERS WITH LETTERS MADE OUT OF GUNS… Giant pickup truck with COEXIST sticker with letters made out of various weapons Woman: ALMOST MAKES ME MISS CALVIN PEEING. ..DISTURBING SNIPPETS FROM OTHERS' PODCASTS... UP NEXT: AVOID CHEMTRAILS LIKE A PRO! ...WEIRD MESSAGES ON POLES… BILL GATES MICRO-CHIPPED YOU ....BIZARRE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS FROM PUBLIC FIGURES… I'm quitting my career in entertainment to help ICE! .. WITH NO END IN SIGHT. Woman: OH DEAR. Looking at covid dot gov website with bird saying CUCKOO! ©2025 Jen Sorensen 
    ALT
    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @jensorensen Next thing they'll be telling us birds aren't real

    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar eugeneparnell , to random

    Over the weekend I hiked to Thornton Lakes and Trappers Peak, located in Washington's North Cascades National Park, about 2-1/2 hours' drive Notheast of Seattle--the last 4 miles up a one-lane logging road with sheer drop offs on one side. As always. I looked a lot at plants. A short thread.
    1/7

    Picture of a National Forest Service bulletin board for Thornton Lakes Trail. A wooden sign with the name is at the top and a topographical map beneath shows the route with some facts about the lakes alongside. Warnings no campfires and no pets.
    ALT
    eugeneparnell OP ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    Plant hiking Trappers Peak part 2. Oftentimes the flora up through the mid-elevation slopes is not terribly diverse and that's true here. Lots and lots of Western hemlock trees. I was surprised to find these huge Western skunk cabbage plants (Lysichiton americanus). I associate them with more lowland wetlands. But there was a seep in the mountain here and plenty of water for them.
    2/7

    A plant in a forest glade in front of f boulder. Its leaves are absolutely huge, nearly a meter long, and shaped like leaf lettuce.
    Closer view of a similar plant. The glossy rubbery texture of the leaves is apparent.
    Side view of another similar plant showing the seed pod which looks like a spiky pickle.

    eugeneparnell OP ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    Plant hiking Trappers Peak part 3. Photo 1:Creeping dogwood (Cornus canadensis).You see lots of photos of it in bloom but less often with its bunch of berries intact. Photo 2: Pearly everlasting (the white one), is native right across North America and a host plant for butterflies. The purple plant is an aster, which I thought was Douglas aster but my app is telling me is Great Northern aster (Canadanthus modestus) which is new, to me anyway.
    3/7

    Closeup of some flowering plants. One has yellow powederduff type blooms, quite small, and narrow pointed leaves on an upright stem. The other has purple daisy shaped flowers with yellow centers that are fading.

    eugeneparnell OP ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    Plant hiking Trappers Peak part 4. Sword ferns are everywhere in the Cascades, but less often you'll see a big specimen of lady fern like this (Athyrium felix-femina). Also here's this saxifrage--which I think is Micrantha nelsoniana-- I always see it in rocks in streams and it's one of my favorites.
    4/7

    A small plant with roundish leaves which are serrated on the edges in an almost cartoonish way. It is growing on a moss covered rock on T he edge of a stream.

    eugeneparnell OP ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    Plant hiking Trappers Peak part 5. I'm at the tree line now, looking down at the biggest of the Thornton lakes. That deep blue color is kind of unusual for alpine lakes hereabouts (they're usually more greenish or turquoise), and I wonder if this lake is unusually deep, and that would account for it. Reminds me of Crater Lake a bit.
    5/7

    Wide view looking down a little bit at a round mountain lake, about a km across, with small, high altitude trees in the foreground leading down to it and scrubbier, alpine vegetation on the far shore. Beyond it is a set of jagged peaks; a bit of snow still clings to their northern faces. The water if the lake reflects a deep blue, much deeper than the sky above.
    ALT
  • Reply
    • eugeneparnell OP ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    Plant hiking Trappers Peak part 6. Here you can see all three of the Thornton Lakes at once. They're all at different elevations. During spring snow melt there must be tremendous gushing runoff between them.
    6/7

    Another view of the same lake as previous post, this time from a higher perspective and from farther around. The original lake is visible at the bottom of the image, but from this spot two other lakes are visible, much smaller, each visibly higher than the last. The upper lakes have no vegetation around them at all, only scree and bare rock. They have a similar blue color.
    ALT
  • Reply
    • + DeborahLeagueFineArt
    @internetarchive@mastodon.archive.org avatar internetarchive , to random

    Once the lifeblood of online creativity—from silly games to iconic animations—Flash has all but disappeared from the live web.

    In our latest Vanishing Culture essay, free-range archivist Jason Scott explores why Flash deserves to be preserved, and how the Internet Archive is keeping it alive.

    🔗 https://blog.archive.org/2025/08/06/vanishing-culture-why-preserve-flash/

    🕳️

    “Recent events have strengthened the need to keep Flash preserved—for example, shutdowns of the Cartoon Network’s website wiped out hundreds of Flash games and animations that only existed on the site, and will never show up on a DVD or streaming service.” Jason Scott Free-range archivist
    ALT
    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @internetarchive in the late 90s and early 2000's I was making a lot of online interactive art, all developed with Flash. For me it was the gateway drug to a whole career as a UX designer. It was a fantastic integrated design/development environment that allowed for really artisanal experiences to be created by a single individual. I've never seen its like since. Between the deprecation of the plugin and OS changes making local exe's obsolete, all my early work is unfortunately lost now.

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    The content of the internet is television. The content of television was radio. The content of radio was print. We're always driving forward looking backward.

    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @Daojoan The content of AI is The Internet. In this case, literally.

    @csilverman@mastodon.social avatar csilverman , to random

    - № 061

    A detailed, light cream-colored hexagonal design with swirling linework on a dark navy background. The pattern radiates from a six-petaled center, with each section filled with symmetrical arrangements of curved filigree, tendrils, and spiral motifs. The composition is balanced along its radial symmetry. The painting is signed "Chris Silverman."
    ALT
    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @csilverman These compositions are really beautiful. Are they digitally generated in some manner? At first I thought maybe you were just drawing one "slice" and then reproducing and spinning it make the whole thing but it seems more complex than that?

    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar aral , to random

    “Microsoft to install facial-recognition technology in stores, which could be used to identify individual customers: When a shopper approaches the shelf, she would see a price calibrated specifically for her. The next shopper might pay a different amount based on their profile. Retailers could use shopper data to charge higher prices to those who can afford to pay more.”

    https://www.thenation.com/article/society/retail-grocery-automation-esl-kroger/

    It’s OK, if you don’t like it, you can just simply not buy food.

    Via @ErickaSimone & @broadwaybabyto

    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @aral @ErickaSimone @broadwaybabyto This is exactly where retail has been headed for a while now. McDonald's too and other fast foods with their "contingent pricing". Wearing a mask probably won't help-- they'll charge "unknowns" the highest price and give "discounts" to "loyal" customers all the while tracking your every move. It's just dystopia everywhere now.

    @dansup@mastodon.social avatar dansup , to random

    guys, the pixelfed server upgrade arrived

    picture of a n64 expansion pak with a sign that says Loops and Pixelfed in the background
    ALT
    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @dansup that's an awesome photo 😆

    @Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

    If you work at a tech company and you’ve ever written copy featuring the phrase “Uh oh!” or the word “Oops!” please go fuck yourself.

    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @Daojoan I actually do work at a tech company and I do occasionally oversee the wording of error messages and I have special hatred for when people try to be cute or flippant in that situation. The time when that kind of informality seemed edgy or hip or "disruptive" ended sometime between the Iraq invasion and the first season of "Lost".

    @Rachelburch@mastodon.social avatar Rachelburch , to random

    Leat and oak near Burrator yesterday

    Green oak and a man made watercourse.

    eugeneparnell ,
    @eugeneparnell@mstdn.social avatar

    @Rachelburch It's like a Constable painting come to life. So beautiful!