Brooks Groves
Long Reads πŸ”’ Private
Memoir & Essays πŸ”’ memoir.brooksgroves.com
Sierra Foothills Β· Sonora Β· Mid-1980s Β· πŸ”’

Windowpane

Sonora in the mid-1980s. Benjamin Figs. The creek tunnels under downtown. A first encounter with clear gel tabs from a Dead show, and the late bus home through fields that had never looked like that before.

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Sierra Foothills Β· Fall 1987 Β· Tuolumne County Β· πŸ”’

Purple Octopus / Rainbow Pools

A shortwave radio that seemed to be talking back. Old Priest Grade at night. Coulterville frozen in amber. And the Tuolumne River at Rainbow Pools β€” thirty feet of air, cold water, and something luminous moving in the dark underneath.

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Lower Haight Β· Early 1990s Β· ~1,200 words Β· πŸ”’

The Midtown

A dark bar in the Lower Haight, a best friend from Groveland, cheap beer, the guy from Lucasfilm who drew the cantina aliens, and the most unresolvable argument in the galaxy.

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Concert Memoir Β· New Year's Eve 1991 Β· ~12 min read Β· πŸ”’

The Night the Cow Palace Changed Everything

New Year's Eve, 1991. Four guys drove over Donner Pass in a snowstorm to see the Chili Peppers. Pearl Jam and Nirvana were opening. Nobody knew it yet, but the world was about to change.

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Reno Β· UNR Β· 1990–1997 Β· ~10 min read Β· πŸ”’

Nevada Neil

UNR in the '90s. The Sundowners. The Ominous Pinniped expeditions. A Slayer show at the Westin Seattle. The kind of person who made a place and a time worth remembering.

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Camp Reno Β· Early 1990s Β· ~5 min read Β· πŸ”’

Camp Reno: Power Walkers to the Casino

My mom's house as weekend hub, a power walk to the craps table, and the night Jim rolled three 11s in ten minutes β€” then walked away. We did not.

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Book Review Β· Cartographic Perspectives No. 105 Β· ~8 min read

A Draught of the South Land

Paul Moon's meticulous account of how cartography shaped New Zealand's encounter with European powers β€” from the VOC's strategic maps to Cook's empirical surveys and the enduring legacy of both on modern land rights.

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Westin Stories πŸ”’ westin.brooksgroves.com
Memoir Β· Hotel Life Β· 1997–2018 Β· πŸ”’ westin.brooksgroves.com

🏨 Stories from the Westin Seattle

Nine hundred rooms breathing. Elevators humming like they've got secrets. 21 years as bell captain β€” Saudi royals, live animals in freight elevators, wrestling in the cantina, and the sound the building made at 2:17 AM when the lobby went quiet and the Modest Mouse started.

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Y2K Archive πŸ”’ y2k.brooksgroves.com
Personal Journal Β· 1999–2001 Β· Recovered from the Wayback Machine Β· πŸ”’

πŸ“Ό The Y2K Journal

A personal journal written at the turn of the millennium β€” geocaching, triathlon, the scanner, the ferrets, the Westin, the Pacific Northwest. Recovered from the Wayback Machine and archived. A time capsule of life at the edge of Y2K.

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Recipes brooksgroves.com/recipes
Recipe Collection Β· Searchable Β· AI-extracted Β· brooksgroves.com/recipes

🍳 Recipes

A working recipe box β€” searchable by ingredient, cuisine, cook time, and dietary preference. Recipes extracted from URLs or text using Claude, stored in a Cloudflare Worker backend. Everything from weeknight staples to things worth making on a Saturday.

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Field Notes & Journal journal.brooksgroves.com
Field Notes Β· Oregon Coast Β· March 2026 Β· ~10 min read

Cannon Beach β€” Tide Pools, Dogs, and the Goonies Coast

Haystack Rock at low tide. Mussels older than comprehension. A disco dog with a green light. Fort George beers in Astoria. Sitting somewhere between the tide and a new website.

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Technical Blog brooksgroves.com/blog
Blog Β· Data Engineering Β· GIS Β· Python Β· 12 posts

All Technical Posts β†’

Terrain rendering with forge3d, Python environments with pixi, Sierra streamflow dashboards, COBOL in 2026, live KΔ«lauea eruption tracking, archaeoastronomy at Chaco Canyon, and more.

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