u/mike8111

Top Picks

The Mountain Goats at The Norva

Catch this local live music concert on August 21 for an evening of melodic storytelling in Newport News.

A Free Summer Concert at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center

Join the Peninsula Concert Band on August 22 for a free, family-friendly music event that celebrates summer sounds.

Labrinth: The Undoing Tour with Virginia Symphony Orchestra

Experience a unique fusion of symphonic music and contemporary sounds on August 23 with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

Events This Week

VA250 Exhibition: Revolution Close to Home

Explore the American Revolution in Hampton Roads through immersive exhibits using AR and VR technology on August 21.

African American Cultural Experiences Trolley Tour

Take a guided trolley tour on August 22 that highlights the rich African American heritage of Newport News neighborhoods.

VA250: "Bound by Letters" Performances

Watch dramatic readings of wartime correspondence that bring historical figures to life on August 22.

Mason Welcome Fair

Connect with resources and meet new friends at this welcoming fair for students and visitors on August 24.

Student Life Neighborhood Block Party

Join a community-filled block party on August 27 designed to build connections among students near campus.

More This Week

• Grief Sucks: A One Man Show By KevOnStage on August 20 offers local theater with heart and humor.
• Jurassic Park screens at 7pm on August 20 in a classic movie night featuring dinosaur thrills.
• Emo Nite at The Norva on August 22 brings a night of emo music and nightlife energy.
• Foodies + New Friends Dinner Meetup on August 22 mixes socializing with local eats and community support.
• Heat Foundation Midnight Bingo on August 22 invites you to a late-night game night benefiting local charity.
• Matcha + Meetup: Build Community on August 23 offers tea, conversation, and connections at local coffee spots.
• Sunday Funday: Free Comedy at Chef's Market on August 23 promises laughs alongside tasty bites.
• The Wizard Of Oz screens at 7pm on August 27 to close the week with a beloved fantasy film.

Civic Watch

Retirement Board Meeting

Attend this public pension governance meeting on August 27 at 9am to stay engaged with city retirement issues.

Subscribe: https://newport-newsletter.kit.com/signup

Mods--it'd be cool if we had a boat names thread that was pinned.

Here are some boat names I've been working on. None of these are French words or boat puns.

Bump in the Night <-- my current favorite
Never Again II
Fezziwig
Karen
Pen Is Mightier
On Sail
60 Percent
Diet Coke
Ice Cream Chaser
Hammock Stand
The Mighty
Outatime
Event Horizon
Lunar Cycle
Gone Rogue
OffGrid
Seventh Heaven

Any great ideas?

1984 Catalina 34. Not a huge boat, but not a camp cruiser either.

We clean the boat thoroughly after cruising.

but during a cruise? there's clothes, there's kids swimsuits, there's towels hanging to dry.

The fridge is functional but pretty challenging to use because of the way it's like this hole that is infinity deep with layers where you have to pull out everything to get to the next layer. Lunch is an episode of minecraft hunting for the right ore.

The cockpit is cluttered with a snack, a few drinks, drying swimsuits, etc.

the cleanest part on the boat is the helm because I'm not about to dodge crap while I'm trying to steer.

We could spend more time organizing every day and keep it all tucked away. The boat has storage cubbies, but sometimes that feels like more trouble than it's worth. I try to stay up in the cockpit most of the day anyway.

I'm getting a recaptcha on every website now, i'm pretty sure it's because I'm using openclaw on my home network.

What did you do to solve this? Any free solutions?

This trip was me, my wife, and our two tween daughters. Boat was a 1984 Catalina 34.

After work and driving to Annapolis, provisioning and loading the boat, it was now 10pm. It's a 3 hour motor to Rock Hall for the Pirate Festival. I suggested maybe we just sleep in our home marina and head out early in the morning. That means we'll miss the dinghy waterfight.

The crew mutinied.

We headed out for a night trip.

At 1am we arrived to Rock Hall. The forecast was calm, I just dropped anchor right on the edge of the bay and tried to go to sleep immediately. Too hot to sleep below, I just lay right down in the cockpit. Around 2:30 the wind shifted and kicked up a chop. Nothing serious, but 1 foot waves are enough to keep me awake. I lay there about an hour trying to decide if I needed to move the boat. Finally got up and pulled in the anchor, and drove up the Swan Creek to anchor in a calmer spot.

Trying to preserve my sleep, I quickly picked a decent spot and dropped anchor again.

After about an hour, the crabbers came out. At 4:30 in the morning, it was a waterman's loud music and cursing convention. Then one comes alongside and says "hey excuse me. I think you dropped your anchor on my trotline."

So I hauled in the anchor again, trotline came with it, and moved over to find a mooring ball. I picked his trotline off the front of the boat. I was anchoring to avoid paying for a mooring ball. Did not work. Lay back down and tried to sleep.

Half hour later he came over and said "I think your anchor pulled up my trot line. I got to have that line back." I said "I'm sorry about that. Did I damage it?" he said "no it's fine." and went on his way. I lay back down. Slept about a half hour, then the sun came up like GOOOOOOD MORNING! and I was no longer able to sleep.

From now on, mooring ball is plan A.

Discuss.

obviously I'm not the first person to think of this, and I'm mostly curious about how you've tried it and what your results are.

Basically the play is this--use the cloudflare API to daily search for a cheap URL that contains the keywords you want.
- Buy it (ideally for $2 or so) then use AI to build out a static HTML site.
- Use github to push to cloudflare to update the site.
- add content to the site over time to keep it fresh
- link from this site back to your main site
- avoid linking from these sites to other sites in your network so you don't raise google's flags
- this is not really for humans to read, but you still need to write something that google thinks is worth reading, so you need to not just have the LLM write stuff, you'll need to have your harness research too

Cost for the site is the $2 plus free github plus whatever LLM costs (using local models can be a lot cheaper). I'm estimating about $10 a year, and you can link to lots of different properties from each site

This is not a new play, people used to do this by hand, but i'm thinking about running this whole game from my mac mini on my desktop

thoughts? Experiences? Angry rants about this is why AI is ruining the internet?

i’m trying to make this as automated as possible. I try not to write anything, the goal is to not review them, but we’re not ready for that yet. I love the idea of running ads for subs, but I’m not ready to commit the ad spend.

So I sat down and thought what kind of SCO will rank for this. And I built out a content calendar with 300 topics that AI can write that will have depth and that can be SEO optimized.

i’m using Gemini to do most of the writing, so far it’s been great and very cheap. I’m pretty pleased with the content calendar. We’ve got an article a day for a year or so that gives us plenty of time to figure out something in the meantime.

SEO is a long game but the best time to buy real estate is 20 years ago.

Top Picks

Exhibition Tour | Paul Reed: A Retrospective

On July 25, dive into the vibrant work of 1960s Washington Color School artist Paul Reed on a guided tour at CNU.

Foodies + New Friends: Newport News Dinner Meetup | Giving Back Edition

Join a July 25 dinner meetup that combines local flavors, new friends, and support for charity.

Sip & Sing: Pop-up Pop Choir

Also on July 25, belt out Michael Jackson hits in this impromptu pop choir event — no auditions, just fun.

Events This Week

Hearth Gathering in Recognition of Dr. Jajuan Johnson's Service to The Lemon Project

Wednesday, July 24, join a community gathering honoring Dr. Johnson’s work at the Memorial to the Enslaved.

Captain Cabaret

On July 25, enjoy a free new musical performance as part of the Ferguson Center’s 2026 New Musicals Lab.

2026 - Benchmarking Seminar

Learn business benchmarking basics and boost your company’s game at this seminar on July 28.

More This Week

• Summer in the City Picnic — Family-friendly picnic fun on July 26.
• LinkedIn with Lindsay: Constructing an Impactful LinkedIn Profile — July 28 workshop for career polish.
• FREE Monthly Coworking & Plan IRL Event — Women entrepreneurs gather July 28 to connect and plan.
• AUVSI Hampton Roads Quarterly Luncheon — Network around advanced aviation and autonomous tech on July 29.
• VASBA Speaker Luncheon - July 29, 2026 — Aerospace talks with local flavor.
• 80's-90's Cartoons Trivia Night at 1700 Brewing — Test your knowledge July 30 over craft beers.
• Family Takeover — Games and entertainment for the whole family on August 1.

Subscribe: https://newport-newsletter.kit.com/signup

Or is it just me

Do you watch church Videos at 2x speed?

Today in Sunday school the instructor played a video at 1.5 speed because he said the pacing is too slow. I listen to most audiobooks and podcasts, including the follow him podcast, at 2x or higher. I'm not opposed to faster listening.

Watching a video at speed, during class, felt a little like missing the point to me. Video is usually much slower paced so you can feel the emotional buildup. 2x is great for your head, but our hearts don't seem to feel emotions at 2x the same way. I felt like it was hard to listen for the spirit as well. After a couple minutes of straining I just tuned it out and read the lesson manual quietly.

Newport News This Week (07/09): Dewey Decibel Concert: Peninsula Concert Band

Top Picks

Dewey Decibel Concert: Peninsula Concert Band

July 9 – Enjoy live music with marches and show tunes performed by the Peninsula Concert Band, a great way to spend an evening outdoors. Details here.

Downsizing Made Simple Series

July 9 – This workshop offers practical advice on decluttering, handling family heirlooms, estate sales, and donations, perfect for anyone looking to simplify their space. Learn more.

Audible Asylum Sunday: Open Mic Experience

July 19 – Bring your voice to an open mic showcase for spoken word and live music—an evening to enjoy local talent or share your own. Sign up or listen in.

Events This Week

The Improvised Broadway Musical

July 10 – Catch a lively and unscripted musical theater show at the Ferguson Center where anything can happen in song and story. Full info.

The Shipyard Experience: A Trolley and Walking Tour

July 11 – Discover the history and legacy of Newport News Shipyard on this engaging trolley and walking tour. Reserve your spot.

Jenny's Damned Ex

July 18 – Watch a free workshop performance of this new musical being developed, right here in Newport News. Details.

2026 PBL - "The Power of the Purse"

July 9 – Women in business can gather for networking and education at this event hosted locally. More info.

Yoga at the Muscarelle

July 11 – Stretch out with a yoga session surrounded by art at the Muscarelle Museum, a calming break from the summer heat. Register here.

More This Week

• Throwback Thursday: "Miracle" (2004) – Classic movie night for adults at Williamsburg Library Theatre on July 9.
• Big Volunteer Week – Community-wide volunteer activities beginning July 14.
• Glowforge - Make a Suncatcher – Hands-on craft event for ages 13+ on July 9, registration required.
• A Salon Social – Mixer to meet new people on July 10.
• ELL Book Group – Discussion group for English learners ages 16+ on July 10.
• Natural Readers – Outdoor book discussion walks in Freedom Park on July 10.
• 30th Annual Hampton Roads All-Star Football Camp – Football skills camp on July 11.
• Homegirl Hike (757) – Women-focused outdoor hike open to kids and pets on July 11.

Civic Watch

Virginia Peninsula Mayors and Chairs Commission on Homelessness

July 10 – Local leaders discuss strategies and solutions addressing homelessness in the Peninsula area. Open to the public for observation. Meeting details.

Subscribe: https://newport-newsletter.kit.com/signup

I am planning a chesapeake bay trip, we're talking about sailing into the Baltimore Harbor and staying at the city dock and walking to the aquarium. Is it realistic to anchor outside the main harbor and motor in during the morning and back out in the evening to anchor again?

On the map the aquarium is directly adjacent to the dock so it seems like a short walk.

I know you can rent a slip there, the times are from 1pm to 10am, that is a sort of awkward schedule trying to see the aquarium during their normal hours. If we get there at exactly 1pm, and then tie up and everything, we're getting to the aquarium at like 2:30pm, which gives you some time to see it for sure.

The alternative I was thinking was sail in during the morning and get a daytime tie up and then leave and anchor somewhere for the night.

I'm seeing some anchorages on my chart, but they look like they're in private neighborhoods and stuff. I know that's public water, but I'm trying to understand the situation before I end up in someone's backyard.

Okay so the basic approaches that I know about:

1- Post in groups (either facebook or reddit or some other forum) that is relevant to your audience. Share something valuable, get subs

2- Run ads for subs (ad to a lead magnet to a signup form to get the whole article)

3- SEO landing pages for subs (super optimized article for relevant keyword, with a lead magnet attached)

4- Direct invitations--ask you friends and family to ask their friends. And they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on....

I'm not aware of any other techniques that work. Would love to hear what your'e doing, and what your successes are

Hope you find this idea useful.

I saw a tweet about a newsletter that reached $5k a month but is entirely automated. That planted a seed in me for how I could do that, so I've started a couple.

With my $20 ChatGPT Codex subscription, i wrote an events scraper that fans out every morning and brings back all of the published events for the coming week. It compiles them all into a google sheet.

Next step is parsing them--is this a useful and real event? This requires an AI to read the events and exercise some judgement.

Next step is blocking by week, then I have the AI write the newsletter with the chosen events.

It's very simple, and most of the steps are just a python code. I was going to send in Beehiiv because everyone loves it, but their API is not free. I'm using Kit because they have a free API and are free if you have fewer than 10k subscribers.

Because it's already automated and written by the AI, I asked it to make a version to share on Reddit in the local channels. One channel loved it so much they offered to sticky it every week. I'm going to set that weekly post up to be automated as well.

The next part is dropping it on my website. I put the site on Cloudflare using their free plan, and the code now adds each new version to the website when I run the compile job.

So what are my event sources? every area is different, but you'll find a bunch on Ticketmaster, Eventbrite and Fever. Then I hit all the libraries in the area, every single bar that has an events page (for live musc), any local tourism sites. For some markets i've got as many as 35 sources, others are down in the teens.

For a small market, people are jazzed about local development, (what's going up on the corner there? is it a Trader Joes?")

Then there are a bunch of events that are recurring and would clutter a weekly newsletter. Things like open-mic night at a local bar, or storytime at the library. I add those events to a different sheet and use them to add to the newsletter whenever we have fewer than X number of events. I went in that sheet and added a few by hand, like these are the days the indoor ice skating rink is open, here is a list of public pools in the area, etc.

this was not particularly challenging for the AI to write the code and the engine. If you're not technical at all, the AI can walk you through it. I'm happy to talk more about it, but from what I've written here you can already drop this into your claude code window and get it built in a weekend.

I get bored in the silence. I get bored with music. I find I completely ignore a background movie.

Whats your technique? Because I'm highly social and I really struggle with hours of grinding alone.

Been using GPT-mini with oauth as my main driver for a long time.

Codex comes along with it's own layer of connection to Slack. My cron jobs stopped working because codex was saying that the slack connector was broken. I worked with openclaw to fix the connector, and it was all like "you need to refresh the app token" and it went round and round and I did fix it, but then my posts in slack started saying "posted by Codex" right in front of them.

wait, what? Why is codex posting on slack on behalf of openclaw?

come to find out, Codex was making me fix the codex connection to Slack, and completely ignoring the openclaw connection to slack. Figured that out, and backed out of what we'd done, removed the codex connector, etc. things were fine for a few weeks.

Now today openclaw says it can't post to slack because the connection is broken. Well come to find out, it was the codex connection broken again, not the openclaw one. Codex was interpreting the prompt from Openclaw as instructions to use its own connector for slack.

I came here to say that AI is very smart, and very very dumb.