Hotel California

Posted 5:30 AM by Gerald So

Photo by Ritesh Singh from Pexels

My brother and I flew to Los Angeles last Thursday for our cousin's wedding Friday and back to New York yesterday.

I would've liked more time to see the city, not just the bit by our hotel in Buena Park. Thanks to another cousin, dinners for forty-two at two Vietnamese restaurants did come together in a flash.

Our travel on JetBlue was smooth. Packing light, I didn't bring a change of shoes; however, my decades-old nobuck Rockport World Tour Classics held up to sitting in a plane for five, six hours, walking Downtown Disney, and the wedding's unique dress code.

It also helped that I adapted my exercise routine to five rounds of five pushups against the hotel room sink, five air squats, and fifteen swings as if my hands were holding a kettlebell. I don't think my brother heard or saw at all.

The Knicks of Time

Posted 12:00 M by Gerald So

Following up Wednesday night's 29-point comeback win, the New York Knicks closed out the 2026 NBA Finals tonight 94-90. It's been so long, I didn't want to post until all was said and done.

Banner by Gerald So

This playoff run reminded me of the dominant 1998 Yankees and the breakthrough 1996 Yankees, even-keel Mike Brown taking over for Tom Thibodeaux as Joe Torre succeeded Buck Showalter, OG Anunoby giving us an improbable win as Jim Leyritz homered off Mark Wohlers to turn the World Series.

I also thought of how the 2025-26 Knicks avoided some past contending Knicks teams' downfalls: Ewing's missed finger roll, Charles Smith's missed tip-ins, John Starks going cold from three in Game 7, all ghosts put to rest.

On the Nose

Posted 3:30 PM by Gerald So

Shortly after I joined Bluesky last year, I wanted to make my own cartoon avatar, not pay someone else to make it nor upload a photo to a cartoon generator.

First, I tried to apply my offline image editing program's cartoon filter and Inkscape's multi-scan Trace Bitmap:

Photo and image by Gerald So

Not only did it make a high-memory, complicated vector, a friend said it aged me.

From there, I studied line drawing on YouTube, adapting the techniques as Inkscape works more easily with closed shapes:

Image by Gerald So

Progressing from front-facing avatars to 3/4 view, I've found noses most challenging.

Image by Gerald So

Twice now, another friend has told me my 3/4 cartoons remind him of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" music video, blockier than I'm going for:




Over Memorial Day weekend, I changed my blog header cartoon's nose to a squiggle, a drawing flourish. Its width and color suggest depth, its curve one-of-a-kind shape.

Image by Gerald So