Beau Lebens

Building the web, enjoying the wild.

  • DJI Mavic Air Review

    After drooling over it for months at Costco, I picked up a bundle package with a DJI Mavic Air back in November. I’ve now flown it a fair bit, and wanted to write up some observations on it. First of all — this thing is amazing. It’s so much fun to fly, and honestly feels a bit like magic, especially when compared with cheaper, fully-manual quadcopters. Probably the coolest feature of this thing (for me, a n00b) is that if you let go of the control sticks, it’ll automatically just hover in place. Brilliant. The bundle that I got came…

  • Thoughts to Ponder

    Loved these thoughts from the outgoing Chief Data Scientist of the White House: h/t ma.tt

  • New Year, New Theme

    To ring in 2019, I’m changing this blog’s theme to Twenty Nineteen, the new default WordPress theme, designed and primarily created by my excellent colleague, Allan Cole (check out his music, published as The Stuyvesants, they’re groovy). Apart from being pretty similar to, but a nice upgrade from the previous theme here, Twenty Nineteen also harnesses the full power of Gutenberg, the new WordPress Block Editor. I’m going to convert some posts to blocks so that I can use some of the better gallery options and whatnot, and will be using Gutenberg for everything going forward. It also reminds me…

  • Honeymoon in Japan

    After our wedding, and cleaning everything up, we had just another day or two at home before heading off on our honeymoon. We decided to go to Japan, since neither of us had ever been there, and we both really wanted to go. It was a really amazing trip, even though it was brutally hot and humid at the time of year we went. We managed to do most of it on award points/miles as well, so that made it all even sweeter 🙂

  • Married

    Erika and I finally made it official and got married this year. We were legally married on July 5th (at the courthouse), and then we celebrated with friends and family properly on July 7th. Here are some pics from the week.

  • Loosely Joined

    I had to chuckle recently when I realized just how complex some of the systems in my life are, even if I rarely think about the details. Most nights, I weigh myself on a Withings wifi scale (an older version). That data syncs over Google Wifi, via a Comcast Xfinity connection, to the Nokia/Withings Health Mate service. Then MyFitnessPal automatically syncs the data from Health Mate, and keeps a copy, before Garmin Connect also syncs a copy to integrate back with other data (like heart rate and activities) . If I’ve been doing specific activities, then some of the data from…

  • Fjällräven Classic USA, 2018

    This year, for the third year in a row, I participated in the Fjällräven Classic USA here in Colorado. Read about the 2016 USA Fjällräven Classic and the 2017 USA Fjällräven Classic. As with previous years, this was a 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip in the Colorado backcountry, hosted by Fjällräven and their sister brands. This year felt like they are really hitting their groove with organization, distance, and difficulty, and I think it was overall the “best” one yet. Erika came along this year as well, and we did a lot fewer training hikes because we knew the course…

  • Specialized Enduro 29″

    I bought a bike! Back in Australia, back in the day, I had a Specialized P3 which I used for some downhill riding. I sold that eventually in San Francisco, after years of not really using it (it’s not a practical city-bike, and I didn’t have easy access to get out and mountain bike with it). When I moved to New York I bought a Cannondale Bad Boy 9, which was a much better choice for in the city. Fast forward a few years, and living in Denver means I’m close to mountains and a bunch of world-class downhill riding.…

  • Backpack Review: Arc’teryx Brize 25L vs Patagonia Nine Trails 28L

    Looking for a simple daypack for quick adventures? Me too. I’ve been using a Geigerrig Rig 1210 (looks something like this one) for a while, but found it to be a little too small, awkwardly configured, and generally just not really what I wanted. After weighing some options, I ended up with a decision between 2 packs: the Arc’teryx Brize 25, and the Patagonia Nine Trails 28L.

  • YouTube Service for Keyring

    In 7072886 I added a first swing at a YouTube Service definition to Keyring. It’s based heavily on the Google Analytics one that was recently submitted via PR. It’s not part of an official release yet. I’m curious about enabling people to import the videos they publish on YouTube into a WordPress install though, as that feels like something that folks who use it heavily would want as part of their web presence. Next step will be adding an importer for YouTube, which I'll probably aim to do over the coming weeks.