Web Whimsy on Nic Babarskis

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:07:56 -0400

📷 I think this fortune comes across as more foreboding than intended.

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 22:38:05 -0400

I made an extremely niche meme about The Christian Post publishing an opinion piece condemning Christian Nationalism. Worth noting this was the default position of the politics editor they cancelled half a decade ago.

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:57:20 -0400

No Man’s Sky releasing yet another feature rich FREE update. Good god, will it ever end?

YouTube Video

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:12:05 -0400

The Michigan Secretary of State’s Office has released the ‘I voted’ sticker contest winners for the November 2026 election. Delightful.

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 18:15:00 -0400

I don’t know what else to say about this other than this video is basically just thumbing through my CD carrying case circa 2008.

YouTube Video

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:08:18 -0400

Pyrotechnics have been a theme for this month’s Miniature Calendars:

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 07:42:56 -0400

📷 Summer Marigolds

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:38:18 -0400

I can’t think of another piece of media or a tech related product that I’ve one-time purchased that has received as much substantive continued support and ongoing improvement as No Man’s Sky.

YouTube Video

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 20:45:15 -0400

🇱🇹 🇺🇦They’re featuring a Ukrainian dish here, but the Lithuanian half of me is excited to see that cabbage and root-based soups are having a moment. Now they just need some deep fried dark and dense rye bread smothered in cheese.

YouTube Video

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:07:28 -0400

Star Trek: TNG Theme but the theme is coming from the Enterprise-D:

YouTube Video

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 17:30:00 -0400

For the moment, my favorite “I want to hop into a browser window and find a quick distraction” location is the ‘For You’ page of grain.social

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 06:45:00 -0400

Watch this Volkswagen get glazed like a Krispy Kreme donut.

YouTube Video

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 22:32:28 -0400

Here’s a delightful and calm video of a nonindustrial farmer walking you through the process of turning flax into linen going from seed to sewing if you will.

YouTube Video

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:59:14 -0400

They may take our cold beet soup but they can never take our freedom 🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹.

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 22:00:53 -0400

It’s time for ‘corn sweat’ as Michigan hits mid-summer. Let’s gooo! 🌞🌽💦🇺🇸

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 10:51:31 -0400

404 Media has a story out today that is a compilation of unhinged AI fliers and posters for businesses or other community events. It’s getting wild out there.

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:42:03 -0400

📷 Hello There.

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:07:14 -0400

I haven’t seen a movie in theaters yet this year, but Coyote vs. ACME might get me there.

YouTube Video

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 10:15:00 -0400

📷 Building on a post from yesterday, I’m not the only person in my household enjoying the summer bloom.

📷 The midsummer bloom is in full swing

Nic Babarskis https://nic.babarskis.blog/2026/07/06/the-midsummer-bloom-is-in.html

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 07:30:00 -0400

A new month marked through miniature-calendar.com.

Pencil Barrel Sauna:

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 14:30:18 -0400

Public Domain Review’s (@publicdomainrev@mastodon.social) Sunday Read this week features depictions of Cholera and infrastructure failure. Maybe in the face of defunding public health and deregulation we should dust off some of these prints.

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:05:06 -0400

The bsky account that made early accurate predictions about what was going to happen to the reflecting pool RE paint peeling and algae blooms is back with an updated set of predictions. It’s like old-school 538, but for material science and microbiology.

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 19:01:15 -0400

If you love music, music history, or musical artifacts you should check out–and considering contributing too–the MI Music Experience.

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Wondering about steampunk, but for carpentry and wood based technology. Nautical culture through the Napoleonic wars would be where you start. Maybe one could include Master and Commander or Moby Dick as early examples.

Some fun photos of the Turtle from the American revolution:

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 08:25:14 -0400

An Egg-cellent Bouquet for Fathers Day from Miniature Calendar:

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 07:52:37 -0400

When the U.S. commissioned a hymnal-esque collection of sea shanties to commemorate the Navy’s circumnavigation of the globe:

The physical manuscript is also remarkable in a variety of ways. The notation on each page is remarkably neat, rivaling some of the master composers and arrangers whose collections are held by the Music Division. Nearly every shanty also includes multiple handwritten verses, showing a variety of lyrical inspirations…

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:38:38 -0400

Ghost in the Shell TV shows (I’ve seen the films, haven’t spent time with the Manga) remain one of my favorite artistic expressions of a creative studio trying to articulate the sociological implications of an information economy driven society. We’re about to get a new reinterpretation.

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:35:09 -0400

One day…

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 20:40:55 -0400

📚 My daughter (first child, almost five and a half) has expressed to mom that she wants to start reading Chronicles of Narnia at bedtime, and both of us are basically treating this whole situation like encountering a flighty horse on a cliff side that we desperately don’t want to spook.

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 22:14:49 -0400

New Animagraffs video just dropped.

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:21:16 -0400

I see Santa Monica Studios has not been idle.

Sun, 31 May 2026 07:33:22 -0400

Spring Progress 📷 2026.05.28

Final photo to label spring. Summer ascendant.

Here’s the whole progression:

Thu, 21 May 2026 18:54:17 -0400

Spring Progress 📷 2026.05.19

We might be able to say summer has arrived.

Mon, 11 May 2026 22:21:21 -0400

Look’s like Ghost in the Shell is getting another reboot, but frankly I still haven’t gotten over this sequence from 2nd GiG.

Mon, 04 May 2026 15:00:00 -0400

These photos are remarkable:

TEXAS! (by Erin Newman-Mitchell)

Alan Jacobs https://social.ayjay.org/2026/05/04/texas-by-erin-newmanmitchell.html

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:06:23 -0400

Tea Anemone by Tatsuya Tanaka at Miniature Calendar:

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 18:34:44 -0400

The eldest shares her mom and grandmothers’ interest.

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 11:01:36 -0400

To the extent I pay attention to Home and Garden trends I always got the impression the platonic ideal for lawn maintenance was a golf course fairway.

Meanwhile I’m out here weedmaxxing

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:35:07 -0400

Spring Progress 📸 2026.04.08 The maple awakens #SP26.3

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:34:38 -0400

Public Domain Review highlighting works that feature Notre Dame today:

Highlights from the many centuries of artworks to feature the Notre-Dame de Paris — which caught fire 5 years ago #onthisday — from its illuminated punctuation of medieval skylines to grainy detailed studies at the birth of photography: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-notre-dame-cathedral-in-art-1460-1921

The Public Domain Review https://mastodon.social/@publicdomainrev/116408559908239505

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:52:44 -0400

‘How to Eat French Fries’ by Tatsuya Tanaka at Miniature Calendar:

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 23:11:18 -0400

Per my last post, the Castlevania 2 ‘Bloody Tears’ theme goes harder than it has a right too.

Somehow was able to get classic video game soundtracks into the 5-year-olds music rotation (its a delicate inception, but worth the respite from the usual playlists) and every time Dire Dire Docks comes on I think of the Northernlion commentary.

Nic Babarskis https://nic.babarskis.blog/2026/04/12/somehow-was-able-to-get.html

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 23:07:12 -0400

Somehow was able to get classic video game soundtracks into the 5-year-olds music rotation (its a delicate inception, but worth the respite from the usual playlists) and every time Dire Dire Docks comes on I think of the Northernlion commentary.

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 06:45:13 -0400

The toddler is experiencing some sort of sleep regression.

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 08:03:23 -0400

Ongoing Artemis 2 mission updates on this blog.

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:39:11 -0400

The Artemis launch has me thinking about Mass Effect space exploration so here’s the links to each game’s galaxy map music:

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:30:10 -0400

Perhaps you’ve been warned to watch for “woke” Michigan companies but have you been informed about:

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:28:17 -0400

When you’ve been forced (for better or worse) to live through “interesting times:”

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:56:24 -0400

🎵 Feist’s Let It Die is an undefeated album.

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 20:01:51 -0400

Come here quick!! Falling Frontier just dropped another gameplay trailer!

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 08:54:00 -0400

When your franchise has to reach up to touch rock bottom you accept any crack of light that manifests.

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 01:10:00 -0400

‘Abbey Toast’ by Tatsuya Tanaka posted to Miniature-Calendar:

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:31:00 -0400

Onion Pond by Miniature-Calendar:

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:40:00 -0400

Dust-to-Digital now has a 24/7 streaming radio station.

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 12:30:00 -0400

Apropos for today, an excerpt from ‘The Darkling Thrush’ which I was introduced too through yesterday’s Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols:

So little cause for carolings

Of such ecstatic sound

Was written on terrestrial things

Afar or nigh around,

That I could think there trembled through

His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

And I was unaware.

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 23:09:00 -0400

What a delight to discover that Robert Glasper made a Christmas album.

YouTube Playlist

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 19:38:00 -0400

Yo! You can watch pretty much the entire Reading Rainbow archive through the Internet Archive.

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 10:08:00 -0400

Treasure of Life from Miniature Calendar:

Chicago Transit Authority’s slow TV ‘Ride the Rails’ videos remind me why I love the Brown Line

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 22:33:00 -0400

My family has maintained a relationship to Chicago’s Brown Line.

For the years that we lived in central Illinois my parents would periodically take my sister and I to the city for a day or weekend excursion. Ostensibly we were there to visit my grandmother in Bridgeport (a Red Line stop) or my cousins in the suburbs, but we would also find an excuse to take the bikes down to the lakefront for a ride from the Adler Planetarium to the Lincoln Park zoo, or a jaunt up and down lake shore drive. We’d also ride the El. We’d take the Brown Line to Sedgwick and eat at the Old Jerusalem Restaurant.

When I lived in Wheaton I’d keep up the pattern and find excuses to take the Brown Line to Old Town or Lincoln Park. My future spouse lived not far from the Diversey stop for a time.

The CTA maintains a playlist of ‘Ride the Rails’ videos. The production values have improved incrementally over time. I find it comforting to pull one up and ride along for a couple stops. The familiar “doors closing” cadence and the click-clack of the tracks acts a bit like a breathe prayer. The Brown Line remains my favorite.

Could we make CosmodromePunk a thing?

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 12:38:00 -0400

The artistic director of this film would go on to lead artistic direction for the first Ghost in the Shell film. I wouldn’t call it’s aesthetic vision cyberpunk though. I’d propose something else, like cassettepunk, or maybe CosmodromePunk. I think a lot of the videos this YT channel makes could fall into that aesthetic.

YouTube Video

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 19:52:43 -0400

Parents leave all sorts of small indelible marks on their children that last a lifetime, and from my mom I’ve held onto an affection for Bruce Hornsby & The Range.

YouTube Video

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 12:47:10 -0400

This morning I saw a senior citizen with a cane, on the curb, in an inflatable animal costume, with signage promoting the No Kings rally happening downtown later today. Punching all the squares on my U.S.-in-2025 bingo card.

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 10:28:14 -0400

This site is so delightful. https://miniature-calendar.com/251014

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 11:25:38 -0400

Hanahaki Blank continuing to evoke the golden age of hand drawn anime:

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Wed, 28 May 2025 22:19:33 -0400

Taking a Python Intro course this summer and turns out if you need to code late into the evening Olde Pine is a great companion:

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Wed, 14 May 2025 11:30:00 -0400

I took Amazon immolating $700 million dollars to distill a pure moment that evokes Tolkein at his best–as I remember him when read to me in my childhood–so good job I guess?

It really is best viewed on a big screen with a good sound system:

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Sun, 30 Mar 2025 21:46:09 -0400

There’s very specific vibes video that features 80s and 90s anime that exudes what I’d call a #vhspunk aesthetic–before the iPhone with its black mirror imposed a glass sheen on tech products. The video style is typified by Hanahaki Blank’s youtube channel. Its the perfect delta of the beauty of hand drawn animation, late 20th century nostaligia, and technophilia.

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Wed, 19 Mar 2025 08:09:51 -0400

Pssst, you can buy BSKY CEO’s SXSW “A World Without Caesars” t-shirt here.

Hat tip to @manton for the link.