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cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Curtiss Grymala (he/him/his)
@cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
34 followers 1 following 620 posts
I'm a web (mostly #WordPress) developer who tries as much as possible to focus on #a11y. I work in #HigherEd.

I'm a dad of 3 grown kids and a grandfather […]

[bridged from https://higheredweb.social/@cgrymala on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
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cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Facebook finally served me an ad that's relevant to me.

If you're interested, it looks like the shirt is $29.99

https://lunatique.net/products/a-skull-but-its-cats-t-shirt
A screenshot of an ad from Facebook with a photo of a T-shirt with a skull on it, but the skull is made as a mosaic of cat faces. The caption at the top of the ad says "A skull, but it's cats. Wait, wut?" The ad is for a site called lunatique.net.
December 17, 2025 at 3:49 AM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
The contrails in the sky in front of me right now are absolutely wild. Looks like the crack in time that featured during Matt Smith's time as Doctor Who.
A photo of the sky with a fence and some bare trees in the foreground, and some mountains in the background. The contrails from 2 jets appear to come together at a perfect angle approximately 30-40 degrees.
December 9, 2025 at 10:28 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
@jcrabapple Yeah, it's really making me reconsider where I want to stream my music from. It completely ruins my weekly "new arrivals" playlist.

For instance, look at this screenshot and tell me which of these singles is actually by Nero (the British EDM […]

[Original post on higheredweb.social]
A screenshot from the Tidal app interface showing singles associated with the group "Nero". Of the 24 covers shown in the screenshot, only 1 of them is actually by that group. The rest appear to be AI-generated singles.
December 2, 2025 at 8:18 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Put up the Christmas tree this afternoon. Nemo seems to be enthralled by it.
A photo of an artificial Christmas tree standing in a corner. The tree is green with white lights and flocking, and stands 7.5 feet tall. Next to it is an ottoman with a blanket on it. A cat lays on the ottoman staring directly at the tree.
November 29, 2025 at 9:55 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
An image of the Virginia state flag (which is a picture of a woman with one bare breast and a spear with 1 foot on top of a man lying on the ground with the words "sic semper tyrannis" ["thus always to tyrants"] around it) with a caption above it that says: "In honor of VA flipping blue with our first woman gov, all girls are encouraged to whip out a titty and step on a man, you earned it mama!"
November 6, 2025 at 5:57 AM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
It took 4 and a half hours to put it together (after waiting a week for a missing piece to arrive), but we did get our new shed put together. It looks nice; hopefully it will hold up. Thankfully, we got the platform put together a few weeks ago, so we didn't have to do that today, too.
A photo of the front of a plastic shed with a wood look. The 2 doors on the front are a dark grey/brown, with a handle on the right door. The shed is about 7 foot by 7 foot square, and is about 8 feet tall in the front. It is sitting on top of an 8 by 8 wooden platform.
October 25, 2025 at 10:57 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
In case you're curious, this is what Jiffy Lube Live (our nearest major concert venue) sells as a "souvenir" cup.

On the plus side, this cup full of soda cost half what it cost to buy a can of water.
A photo of a cheap plastic cup that's mostly frosted white with a small clear band at the top. Written vertically on the cup is the word "soda" in all caps in black.
October 5, 2025 at 4:15 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
A snapshot of my "New Arrivals" playlist on Tidal this morning.

What year is it? New music from Capital Cities, twenty one pilots, Sponge (though, after listening to this, I'm pretty sure this is another example of some random new artist grabbing an […]

[Original post on higheredweb.social]
A screenshot from the Tidal desktop app showing a table with the following entries: "So Be So Mine" by Capital Cities "Garbage" by twenty one pilots "TMS" by Sponge "Terrified" by Daughtry "One Foot in Front of the Other" by Passenger "Beautiful Colors" by OneRepublic
September 26, 2025 at 1:54 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Here are some photos of the finished product.

The wooden base is anchored into the ground with a few pieces of rebar and a few steel spikes, then the shed is anchored to the platform with lag screws. Hopefully it won't go anywhere anytime soon.
A photo of the front of a tall vinyl shed on a wooden platform A side view of a tall vinyl shed on a wooden platform
September 2, 2025 at 8:06 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
@darthbluesky.bsky.social
A screenshot from the movie Office Space showing the character Michael Bolton (no relation to the singer) looking at the camera with a facial expression indicating that he's tired of everything going on.
August 22, 2025 at 1:14 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
The other morning, I was the first one out of bed. While I was sitting around, I heard some loud squawking or quacking. I looked around and didn't see anything outside anywhere. I figured out that the sound must be coming from some kind of frog.

After […]

[Original post on higheredweb.social]
A photograph of 2 frogs. 1 is on the side of a porch light; the other is on the wall next to it.
August 13, 2025 at 2:10 AM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
The sun didn't really come out today, but it did at least stop raining long enough for us to take 2 walks on the beach.

At the moment, tomorrow morning is supposed to be sunny, so, hopefully we'll be able to actually spend some time down there.
A photograph of a beach, with a handful of folks sitting in the sand with umbrellas or canopies.
August 13, 2025 at 12:10 AM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
I realize it's not that big of a deal, but, for the first time since our solar power came online in Nov of last year, we've generated more solar power than we've used from the electric company (over the life of the system).

We've had plenty of days when […]

[Original post on higheredweb.social]
A screenshot from the Enphase app showing that we've imported 10.7 mWh of power since our system went online, exported 10.7 mWh, produced 15.1 mWh, and "net exported" 33.6 kWh.
July 12, 2025 at 4:28 AM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
There is a family of foxes living on our neighbor's property. They wander all over the area, playing in various people's yards.

While they're super cute and it's adorable to watch them play, I'm not super excited about them being so close by when our cat likes to roam around outside.
A photo of a baby fox sitting in the middle of a gravel road resting.
May 26, 2025 at 9:20 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Are you absolutely kidding me? #pinter (a homebrew beer system, kind of like SodaStream for beer) now has an exclusive #ironmaiden package with a Trooper-branded machine and an Iron Maiden "British Beer".

I am so tempted, but I honestly think it would end […]

[Original post on higheredweb.social]
A screenshot of a website showing a Pinter machine with "Trooper" printed on the handle and the Iron Maiden Trooper mascot on the barrel. A pint glass with the Trooper is sitting next to it.
May 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
We did it again! Somehow, we were able to pull off a last minute trivia victory last night at 50/50 to win our 4th game in a row. We did end up facing off against another team in a double-tiebreaker to get there, though.
A caption of 4 people standing under a banner that says "50/50 Taphouse". The woman in the front is holding a wooden trophy. All 4 people are holding up 4 fingers in the photo.
May 16, 2025 at 1:01 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Tonight, I'll be guest-hosting trivia at Winchester Brew Works. It's "Game of Thrones" themed, so come out, test your knowledge, and laugh at how badly I mess up some of the pronunciations of people, places and things related to the show.

Trivia starts at 6:30.

#winchesterva #trivia
A gif from Game of Thrones with 2 characters standing next to horses. One character says "You sure about this?" The other character responds "No." There is a "Game of Thrones" logo at the bottom of the image.
April 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Well, this is exciting, and, sadly, not unexpected. #taxes2024
A screenshot from the IRS refund status tool showing that my return was accepted, but that's all the progress that has been made. Below that status indicator is the following text: "We apologize, but your return processing has been delayed beyond the normal timeframe. You can continue to check back here for the most up to date information regarding your refund. We understand your tax refund is very important and we are working to process your return as quickly as possible."
April 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
After we finished trivia tonight and sat down at the bar, I looked across and saw this piece of artwork. Apparently the guy who created it didn't actually even realize he'd created art out of his used paper towel, but he definitely did.
A photograph of a paper towel crumpled up into the shape of a lying, horned animal. I thought it looked like a resting deer, but another person decided it looked like a dragon, which is also totally reasonable.
April 10, 2025 at 5:45 AM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
We (and by, "we", I actually mean our 2 friends, we were just there to watch them get all the answers) won Star Wars Trivia last night at Winchester Brew Works.
A photo of a couple standing by themselves on the left, 2 guys holding the "staff of knowledge" up in the air in the center, and 3 people bowing down to them on the right.
April 1, 2025 at 12:25 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
It's a beautiful evening tonight (actually could be a little cooler, but still nice), so we are roasting hot dogs outside over the fire with the grandkids for dinner tonight.
A woman and a young girl stand by a fire ring roasting hot dogs
March 29, 2025 at 10:33 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
We finally have our first billing cycle where we generated more power from #solar than we consumed from the grid. Our electric bill this month is $6. I could get used to this.
A screenshot showing that we imported 1.3mWh of power, produced 2.3mWh of power, exported 1.8mWh of power, consumed 1.8mWh of power, and ended up with a net export of 542.8kWh of power during the billing cycle from Feb 20 to March 20, 2025.
March 28, 2025 at 3:19 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
For all this talk about AI replacing people, it is still incredibly stupid at times.

I posted on Facebook about trivia happening tonight at 7 pm, and facebook's AI suggested I create an event for tomorrow at 5 pm.
A screenshot from Facebook of a post that reads, in part: "Come join us at The Pub in Bunker Hill tonight for trivia, starting at 7 p.m." Underneath the post, there is a suggestion from Facebook that I create an event: "Tomorrow at 5 pm: Curtiss' event"
March 12, 2025 at 9:04 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
According to what I've heard, this place closed permanently late last week (they were apparently bought out by someone else, and will open under a new name and new ownership in a few months), but they sent out an email blast this morning advertising their […]

[Original post on higheredweb.social]
A screenshot of an email from "Slices Pizza Bar" in Winchester, Virginia encouraging me to try their best sellers today.
March 4, 2025 at 4:19 PM
cgrymala.higheredweb.social.ap.brid.gy
Not a terrible billing cycle for our electricity this time. It can and will get better as the days get longer and sunnier, but this isn't too shabby for January/February.

Our power bill for this period ended up being $102.19
A screenshot showing that we imported 1.8 mWh of electricity from the grid, exported 1.0 mWh to the grid, produced a total of 1.5 mWh, consumed a total of 2.2 mWh and ended up importing a net total of 744.2 kWh between Jan 24 and Feb 19.
February 20, 2025 at 1:44 PM