midendian
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midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
midendian
@midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
15 followers 4 following 260 posts
Nerd, bear 🏳️‍🌈, hacker, cyclist, traveler, avgeek, geographer, San Franciscan. He/him. KJ6DYS. Landscape photographer and space-borne image sensor […]

[bridged from https://mastodon.social/@midendian on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
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midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
First time going for a run in snow this morning. Realized this probably wasn’t very Germanly when a door man shouted at me to note how cold it was. All melted by evening though.
A Berlin commercial district with the sidewalks covered in a bit of snow except where the sweepers had been through. An u-bahn station and old church in the background. A vividly blue mobile construction machine with various attachments sits on a snowy street. Two people in hiviz stand admiring it. A building labeled “satellite office” where I suspect many fewer satellites are operated than in the building a few blocks away. Same old church but now at night with a brightly lit Christmas market
November 24, 2025 at 9:05 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #czechia #railtravel
A stone dam with utility buildings guards a river below a dramatic rock holding a castle. Sun sets on frosty trees on the mountains in the background.
November 23, 2025 at 6:49 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Prague is beautiful but cold.
Numerous stone bridges follow a river to the horizon in winter morning light, lined by countless old buildings. Also some birds. Numerous old buildings, some with steeples, to the horizon where there’s a bunch of goofy modern hi rises. Many copper domed buildings in a city skyline except one enormous radio tower on a distant hill. Distant castle lit in blue with some yellow lit buildings in the foreground.
November 22, 2025 at 10:44 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Up to Prague for the weekend. Always sad to see yet another airline Okidata retired.
Photo from an airliner window above the wing. A tilted horizon with an Italian coastline and storm clouds in the distance. Photo of a plane in front of a cold sunset. People disembarking on airstairs from each end. An okidata microline dot matrix printer sits next to the bin behind an airline gate desk.
November 21, 2025 at 3:50 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
lovely run around some of Rome’s greatest hits this morning.
A medieval skyline ending in a basilica, interrupted by 5G towers and large construction cranes. Statues of naked men with abs befitting the beef industry. Except there’s also horses in water I dunno I’m bad at tourism. Fountain statue with guys on rocks and palm trees trying to avoid noticing the lion kneeling down to drink from the pond. Very old stone arch bridge crossing a calm river. Autumnal leaves line the far banks. More old buildings in the background before a sizable mountain under clouds at the horizon.
November 17, 2025 at 9:36 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
beautiful hill climb run as the fog settled in this morning. #sanfrancisco
A city street pays little attention to the steep hills under it. Big leafy trees and a blanket of utility cables obscure a pinkish morning sky. Mid century fever dream of a boulevard with sidewalk and railing curve down a hillside. A city in fog and dawn light in the distance. Leafy neighborhoods lead to a central business district at the horizon with a thick fog settling into the middle at sunrise. A distant large pointy mountain in the distance is centered above a churning blanket of fog. A hilly unaffordable neighborhood in the foreground.
November 8, 2025 at 3:05 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
And that’s the 1st, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 3rd highest points in SF on peakbagger. (I skipped 2, 3, and 5 because I’m up at twin peaks all the damn time already.) Sorry for the photo dump. 5/. (https://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=-949824)
Close in view of the enormous red radio tower through some trees on Mount Sutro. View of downtown San Francisco behind a rocky promontory that I did not visit today. Screenshot of peakbagger high points in SF linked to from that guy with a nice website who is famous for hiking stairs. Screenshot of a map showing a loop around the middle of San Francisco.
November 3, 2025 at 1:57 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Crossing over the Laguna Honda valley is pleasant but the route up the west side of Mount Sutro is a stairway signed as Oakhurst Lane that is relentless and steep, plenty of spiders, and birds to eat them. Eventually reaches UCSF property and another short steep slog up the trail to Mount Sutro. 4/
Looking from Grandview over to Mount Sutro, the path not at all clear. A hill covered in tall trees and an enormous red radio tower. A tremendously steep and relentless stairway signed as Oakhurst Lane, poorly maintained steps dating from probably the 1960s cut through what I can only describe as a forest of vines. Looking back at Grandview from Oakhurst while resting. A steep residential street ending at a hilltop green space with two large trees at the top. Dense vine and fern ground cover with a few tall trees delineating a trail.
November 3, 2025 at 1:52 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Grandview Park always surprises me with a new perspective; today I realized you can get the Golden Gate Bridge towers to line up from the stairs (or an unnervingly astigmatic view pictured) 3/
Wide concrete stairway leading up a rocky hillside. Two people ahead of me take a brief rest with their big dog. Two red bridge towers pop out of the green forest and fog, almost but not quite lining up with the viewer. Two tower cranes work on a new medical building beside a hill covered in green trees. Central business district and mountains at the horizon. A mid century residential neighborhood designed for cars that can traverse steep inclines better than me, full of trees and a view to distant mountains in haze.
November 3, 2025 at 1:33 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Crossing the Portola Drive chasm then up to the high point in Sunset Heights, which is not really accessible (there’s two water tanks and a skinny grey micro-Sutro) but the houses next to it seem to be having a competition for the most ostentatious house […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Looking up to a rocky hill with two large green tanks behind a fence with a small radio tower. Three houses with large numbers. The first in an old timey serif, another in a single line type presumably from the 1970s, and the last in a classy narrow thing. Large trees in green grass covered by shadows. San Bruno mountain in the distance. Steep stairs lined with bushes down to a ridiculously wide road with a gentle descent to the ocean.
November 3, 2025 at 1:24 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Lovely 13 km walk around some of the literal high points of #sanfrancisco today. One of those days where October Summer is struggling to stick around—low angle sunlight but somehow still warm. First up is of course Mount Davidson. Still some fog to make it […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Trees covered with vines and dense ground cover backlit by a low sun scattering into fog. Same but with an enormous log cut to allow a trail. Concrete cross rising between trees A small dog with big ears standing on a boulder above a steep cliff, demanding a human to photograph them.
November 3, 2025 at 1:14 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
some big middle fingers to changing times.
A carpet of city rides up a hill on one side and out to an estuary on the other. Clouds whip at the horizon in predawn light. A central business district lit pink at dawn. One large tower peeks above a drifting fog separating it from the others. A wealthy neighborhood with large trees still in shadow in the foreground.
November 2, 2025 at 2:32 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
love a good mildewed barley plot.
Plot showing the impact of image distortion on the radiometry of hypothetical 225 foot fields (modeled as square wave). High levels are labeled as sand, low levels as barley, and middle levels as mildewed barley. From a delightful 1974 paper on balancing SNR and resolution by Ms Virginia Norwood.
November 1, 2025 at 6:30 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
distant lands

#sanfrancisco #corvids
A city skyline rises above the bare dirt, separated by a raven Islands and a fishing boat on the ocean near sunset, houses and tree covered hills in the foreground A saturated yellow ball on one side and some red purple arcs on the other; in between: Air France. A raven in floof mode stands on some red rocks with the moon behind
October 29, 2025 at 1:07 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I hope this email finds you well, and me, never again.
Screenshot of a 1981 document: “Destroy this report when no longer needed. Do not return it to the originator.”
October 27, 2025 at 12:29 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
dark and stormy day on Montara Mountain but still a lovely hike as always. #pacifica
Dirt trail between coastal scrub leading toward a cliff revealing distant shorelines and headlands Large yellow slug looking towed the camera and fondling about and definitely not eager to sell me Slurm. Image from an AlertCalifornia camera looking toward cloudy skies and distant mountains and shorelines. A small figure waves from the service road. Tall trees open to reveal silhouettes of distant mountains in rainy skies.
October 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Mt Whitney from just east of Lone Pine near the old rail station in 865nm near-infrared.

#infrared #MountainMonday
Some lumpy hills sit above a flat basin of scrub. Beyond, a bunch of old granite boulders frame a steep road switchbacking up an enormous mountain range, coming to a triangular sort of ridge near the center. Taken 1 Oct 2025.
October 22, 2025 at 1:16 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
I guess it was only a matter of time before stores gave up keeping the red buttons charged and make you hit the API endpoint yourself.

(“Want a Locked Item?” also sound like the title for a millennial’s autobiography.)
Crap photo of a sign that says: Want a Locked Item? Scan to Notify an Associate
October 13, 2025 at 8:12 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
big @weirdsatellite energy up there. https://www.sfgate.com/northcoast/article/california-fake-farm-world-war-ii-redwoods-21092530.php (via @subtopes)
Screenshot of Google maps aerial imagery with labels: Klamath, Radar station B-17, False Klamath, Trees of Mystery.
October 12, 2025 at 4:20 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
bird morning. #sanfrancisco #birds
Raven on a parking sign looking floofy. Enormous radio tower behind. Raven making a cute curious face to the camera. Famous bridge at sunrise in the background. Raven with its head in the air in front of a city skyline at sunrise Northern flicker in a bush at sunrise
October 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
@jef less fun to run in, I missed the sun by a half hour.
Photo of an enormous radio tower obscured by fog surrounded by trees on a hill. The Pacific Ocean is somewhere out there between the fog and the sun.
October 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
four days of Half Dome. #MountainMonday #yosemite
Steep mountain slopes covered in pine but occasionally bare rock. Everything quite wet from the fog and rain, still lingering. Half Dome partially visible in the back. Dramatic view from on high looking up Tenaya canyon with half dome to the right side and the tree filled Yosemite valley below the grey granite cliffs. Half Dome from the North Dome trail, clouds lingering. Some scattered trees on the nearer granite. Half dome in a clearing afternoon storm, lit near sunset up the valley and encircled by a rainbow
October 7, 2025 at 1:47 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
@jef morning gradient
San Francisco skyline before dawn
October 6, 2025 at 1:46 PM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
mountain roadtrip wrapped up. back in the bay.
Tree at the base of a mountain covered in fog. Some tall grass in the foreground. Road leading to the horizon in the fog. An old rail bridge crosses the road between grassy hills. Grassy hills leading to a large mountain. A cow trail leads around a hill to a lone oak tree. Grassy hump with a large tree on one side and two small trees on the other. Very blue skies.
October 5, 2025 at 12:17 AM
midendian.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
oh no, old wounds are healing and I’m ready to fall in love. #startrek
Green aspen frame a view of a lake reflecting a steep multicolor mountain ridge in the distance
October 2, 2025 at 4:39 PM