Nicolas Ward

@ultranurd.net

150 Followers 146 Following

Cloud securitician and AWS principal engineer. Married to Andrle. I like Star Trek, books, games, Lego, and politics that reduces harm. Opinions are my own. Ⓥ Much more active over on Mastodon https://tacobelllabs.net/@ultranurd

A large stainless steel mixing bowl, viewed from above. There is a large lump of orange-brown cookie dough with dark brown flecks in it. A squeezable cookie scoop is also in it.
A doodle on a red shirt of a purple demon in a yellow sundress with orange belt labeled "Pretty Princess"
Pike, a very small black and tan Yorkshire terrier, strikes a pose with his front paws pointed out and towards the camera as if ready to run all over the beige carpeted living room. He is looking at you but slightly askance with his ears up. Just out of frame to the right is a green plush toy of some kind.
A split flap sign viewed from below and to the right currently reads: A trillion gratitudes In midday stillness In a dusty house
Two large green movable vehicle barricades with narrow traffic cones perched on the angled tips are parked on a brick street, their wheels locked up and out of contact. A yellow pushcart is in the foreground, chained to one of them. The curve of a curb is in the background
An extremely long shadow of a man, mostly leg, lit from behind by the rising sun, projected onto a steep public stairwell through greenbelt. The sett stone street below has a few cars parked on it. You can see his left hand is on his hip.
A dirt construction site with dozens of tiny white shelter shed-like buildings arrayed on it. In the background is a large multistory storage facility and in the distance is the residential hillside of Magnolia. The sky is clear blue.
Two tall brown and green tissue paper trees and curving aluminum foil steps on a green tempera background depict an outdoor tiered amphitheater
Close up of a large white bowl piled high with carefully group vegetables (kale, sweet potatoes, and broccoli crossed by cooked edamame) and drizzled with peanut sauce
A poster for the exhibit seen from an angle in a window next to an exterior door. It reads City Erased and depicts an aerial view of the I-5 construction site along the northern flank of Capitol Hill and cutting off the Eastlake neighborhood in the foreground.
Two concrete monorail tracks go into the distance from left to right. Over the right one is an upside down U shaped metallic frame platform or cart, with a repair tech just visible standing inside one leg of the U. A yellow extension cable drops down to street level. In the background is a vintage small window office building. The concrete pylons have space needle and whale tale street art on them. In the upper foreground is a suspended stoplight turning yellow and a straight ahead only arrow sign.
A wide white ceramic bowl full of colorful tex-mex ingredients and sitting on a magenta upholstered surface.
A small upside down U shaped mechanism with a metallic frame travels along a concrete monorail downtown. Behind it is a hotel building and in the lower foreground is a purple trolleybus with its pantographs lowered.
A small black and tan Yorkshire Terrier looks up at the camera from inside the brown poofy pet bed they're lounging in. Their body is in the sun, but their face is mostly in the shadow cast by the vertical edge of a window.
Nick, a white grey bearded man in glasses, looks skeptical sitting on a green couch holding the book Automatic Noodle. His skepticism may be because the teal, orange, and yellow elements of the cover design, with a robot hand picking up noodles with chopsticks, seems to match his teal, orange, and yellow PAX Prime 2024 t-shirt featuring a vintage Atari style motif of convention center escalators. Behind him, through the black metal railings of a townhouse staircase, are a pair of Death Cab for Cutie frames concert posters, also in orange, teal, and yellow.
A fake title screen for a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode with the Enterprise-D viewed from slightly below and to the left of the saucer section in front of a blue planet. In the upper left in Trek font is blue text "I, Blog"
A photo of a long empty office hallway, titled at about 45 degrees so the edge between the brown business grade low pile carpeting and the plain off white walls is at the bottom center of the frame. Fluorescent lights and ceiling panels make weird shadows. There is a light wooden door with a badge reader at the end of the hall. On the left wall is a fire extinguisher in a white mourning box. The right wall is completely blank with no doors.
Four horizontal panels on a comic book page featuring a young Kal-El as a student on Krypton in a futuristic school building/classroom with many screens. KRYPTON. THE REDLANDS. SIX YEARS AGO. VAL-NODD, WELL DONE. EXCELLENT SUMMATION OF THE XENO DELTA FARMING PATTERNS. ROZZ-LO, PERFECT WORK ON YOUR HISTORY OF THE GOLDEN VOLCANOES OF LURVAN. KAL-EL... KALI I'M CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT YOU TURNED IN HERE. YOUR STORY ABOUT THE DANGERS FACED BY LOGGERS IN THE GLASS FOREST OF URRIKA IS QUITE DESCRIPTIVE, BUT IT DOESN'T APPEAR TO EMPLOY ANY GENERATIVE TEXT AT ALL... YOU DID SOURCE THIS DIRECTLY FROM THE KLERICS' LUMINARIUM, DIDN'T YOU? I WROTE IT KAL, I CAN'T SEE YOU. AND PLEASE SPEAK UP. I WROTE IT. YOU WROTE THIS YOURSELF? THAT'S... KAL, THE LUMINARIUM CONTAINS ALL KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCIENCE LEAGUE FROM THROUGHOUT KRYPTONIAN HISTORY AND CAN ANSWER ANY QUESTION WE MIGHT EVER POSSIBLY ASK. WHY WOULD YOU... KAL.. I'D LIKE TO TALK WITH YOU AND YOUR PARENTS AFTER CLASS.
Close up of a bunch of Baby Blue Eyes, blue five-petals flowers with a white center coming off clover-like stems
A small white puppy dessert plate with a square brownie and another chunk of brownie on it. A glass of light brown iced coffee sits next to it on a brown placemat.
A white plate with a pile of seasoned cheezy macaroni on the left and some ground vegan "meat" on the right, ready to be mixed. The photographer's distorted reflection is just visible in the surface of a spoon in the upper right.
A completed game of Ticket to Ride laid out on a brown covered table, cards scattered about. The board is upside down in this view, with Finland, Sweden, and Norway on the map and trains mostly avoiding the coastal ferry routes.
A dozen chocolate chip cookies cooling on parchment paper on a cookie sheet on a cooktop, viewed from a low angle with patterned white tile backsplash visible in the background. Another tray is out of frame to the left.
A shallow focus of a pink-red flowering tree branch extending into the distance towards a partly cloudy sky. Another branch crosses at the bottom of the frame, out of focus in the foreground and covered in bursts of moss.
A tween in a pink shirt and blue shorts stands in the shallows facing out to the water, his arms extended backwards in an almost Naruto running pose
A tween in a black hoodie, viewed from behind, rides up a narrow escalator with day glo yellow side panels and glass windows that open up onto dense shelving of library stacks.
A glass table arrayed for high tea. There is a glass teapot on the right, three place settings each with a glass teacup on a purple crocheted coaster, a blue green glass tumbler of ice water, a small white desert plate with a smiling dog face on it, and a tiny spoon. There is a white marble serving tray with savory tea sandwiches and crackers, and a two tier marble serving tray with brass handle with sweet bars on top and scones on bottom. Tiny white ramekins near the scones have red jam and yellow curd. A metal milk steamer on the left has non-dairy milk in it. A small vase of three pink-purple roses and baby's breath sits behind the serving trays.
A toasted breakfast sandwich viewed from the side on a white plate. Crumbled yellow tofu scramble is spilling out of the sandwich between layers of breakfast potato and vegan sausage
A black cutout image of a cat is embedded in a glass station divider; behind it is a sound transit light rail train. It looks like the cat is announcing "2 line" on its digital sign.
A slightly blurry photo of a long paper printout hung on yellow house siding that reads "Happy Birthday Nick". The 7th is obscured by a child's hands (not Nick's) blocking part of the banner. On the left is a line art graphic of Kermit strumming a banjo.
A moss covered outdoor stairwell goes up towards a grey cloudy sky along a concrete wall with brick inlay diamond patterns. On the right railing are a series of old green metal lanterns with yellowed glass globes atop. A leafing green tree and a house are on a street at the lower level background to the right.
A black and white photo of a smiling white woman in a strapless wedding gown and small veil. She is looking toward the camera to her left.
The bright sun just peeks through past a magnolia blossom at the center of the image, causing lens flares. The flowers on the tree are not yet fully open, but are white with pink purple edges. Behind any hill road can just be seen. The sky is blue and a few utility wires angle from the right near the top of the image.
A white plate on a brown placemat on a glass table, full of food. It has a roll, some potatoes, some carrots, some pesto pasta, and a baked tofu.
An Apple Magic Keyboard, a small aluminum Bluetooth keyboard, sits in the mud alongside a sidewalk. Its left arrow key is missing. Many of the keys are dirty.
A round white plate with a sliced whole baked potato, a pile of reddish seasoned tofu, and a pile of steamed broccoli.
A Lego minfig wearing a huge dark grey armored helm and adventuring gear carrying a pickaxe and hammer stands on top of the upper left corner of a printed out character sheet for Macomb. You can see that he is a 6th level artificer with 15 strength but 9 dexterity.
A magnolia tree bursting with large white blossoms against a blue sky, lit from the left by an orange tinged evening sun.
A large white bowl sits on a glass table. It is full of a pile of brownish grain, some greens, and four strips of brown marinated fake meat. The picture is slightly blurry.
A wide compostable plastic straw sticks out of a Next Level Burger patterned cup with a shake in it. The top is covered with marshmallows and green and yellow sprinkles.
The top of a standard 3rd Edition character sheet printed out and sitting on a brown carpet. The D&D logo of that era is in the upper right. It is filled out in pencil for a lawful neutral half-elf Monk named Kurono (which is also spelled out in Elvish Tengwar characters). His level is currently 9, but eraser marks show that has changed over time. The various stats, including 80 HP and 16 DEX are filled out below but no equipment or abilities are visible.
A chunky beany red brown soup sits in a large white bowl
A slice of pie on a small dessert plate viewed from the side, showing Oreo crust and peanut butter fluff layers.
The budding branches of a Japanese maple just obscure a snow coated rooftop. Homes and apartments on the hillside in the background also have some snow against a grey sky.
The façade of an early white and grey stone skyscraper viewed from below against a cloudy grey sky, with the sky in the top third of the image. The stone above the door is carved "Smith Tower".
A black night sky with a slightly blurry full moon just left of center. The mare are visible.
A variety of colorful stickers, many of them AWS related, arranged on the lid of a space grey MacBook Pro. The Apple logo in the middle is still visible. The full description key is in the next image.
A round white plate sits on a white countertop. It is filled with a yellowish saucy mix garnished with fresh basil. To one side is a slice of bread that looks kinda like a bunny.
Five raw cinnamon roll spirals sit on a baking sheet. A child's hands are forming one into a heart
Macro shot of three budding leaves on a close up twig. The background is a blurry network of naked tree branches with some homes and partly cloudy blue sky just visible behind them.
Child Nick throws his head back cackling while holding up the box of a Zip Drive that he just unwrapped for Christmas. He has a bowl cut and braces and is wearing a baggy blue shirt. A six pack of extra disks is on the floor next to the package.
Cross crossing metal geometric shapes in an art deco style cover a large vertical window between two light sandstone columns. There is dark soot or moisture seepage on the stone above the window.
A small Yorkshire Terrier wearing a tiny blue conical party hat with gold trim and Pom Pom. He sits in a tan floofy pet bed on a green couch. He is looking at the camera like "what have you done", his trimmed ears sticking out to either side of the hat
A white plate full of spaghetti covered in vegan red sauce and cheez shreds sits on a brown placemat on a glass tabletop with a large steel fork next to it
An almost spherical brown rabbit with short ears crouches on the bark between two houses. A covered gas grill is visible to the right. The scene is dimly lit by a streetlight from the left.
A screenshot of the steps view of the health app for recent dates. Most of them are normal, between 6000 and 16000, but on the 7th and 8th almost 4.3 billion!
A city hillside and tall fir tree on the right with a mostly cloudy sky reflecting back a painterly pink-orange glow from the sunset to the west (out of frame to the right)
Close up of an Apple Watch on a hairy wrist with the legs of a small dog blurry in the background. The screen reads "Storage Full Try removing music or photos using the Apple Watch app on iPhone." with an OK button. The upper right shows the Personal focus icon and that it is 4:38 PM.