General

The Post-Truth world

I saw a phrase used the other day that neatly explains so much of the recent election of Donald Trump as US president (typing that out still feels like indulging in the worst sort of fan fiction).

It’s just two words: post truth. You could hyphenate it or capitalize it or both to make it look more official:

Post-Truth

It is a simple concept. Trump ran on a campaign built on fear, hate and unworkable, impractical promises. He would bring back manufacturing. He would revive the coal industry. He would force Apple to make their computers in America. He’d build a wall along the border and make Mexico pay for it. Muslims would be essentially banned from entering the country until he could “figure out what was going on.”And nearly 50 million believed enough of these promises/threats to see him elected.

The reality will be much different, of course. But it doesn’t matter because we are now living in the era of Post-Truth. Objective facts, reality itself–these things no longer matter to a large swath (or swatch, if you prefer) of the population. And this is not just a US-specific phenomena, it has just manifested most spectacularly there, with chilling results for the world at large.

Simply put, a lot of people do not care about reality anymore. They don’t care about facts or science. Reason and logic are meaningless. These people have retreated into the safety of the world as they perceive it, as they want it to be. These people are essentially unreachable through conventional means, whether you are seeking their vote or simply asking them to listen objectively to what you have to say.

They will not listen unless they hear what they want to hear.

The danger is a demagogue–like Trump–can manipulate these people and acquire power by telling them what they want to hear, then use that power to do terrible things. And when re-election comes, the people like Trump will deflect and again tell people what they want to hear. “It’s not my fault, I want these great things for you, but the system is against me.” And he will retain their support.

I don’t see an easy way to get past Post-Truth. Maybe everything must collapse before it can be rebuilt.

Climate change may very well provide the key to that.

So as people elect demagogues who placate them by telling them foolish lies they want to believe, the Earth undergoes dramatic transformation as the climate goes through significant warming. Millions, maybe even billions, will die as we collectively do too little and do it too late to help ameliorate the worst of the effects. It sounds like indulging in the worst sort of fan fiction again, but it could happen. All evidence points to it already having begun.

Well, that was depressing. At least we’ll have funny cats on the internet until it all comes crashing down. Promise us you won’t take away the kittens, Mr. Trump.

WTF America

I would never discuss politics on Facebook.

I shouldn’t say never, actually. Probably never is more accurate. I might do it by accident or during a momentary lapse in judgment.

Why would I never discuss politics on Facebook? Because it’s like rolling over a big rock and discovering all the yucky bugs underneath, except the bugs are your FB pals and you never before realized they had political views you find daffy, baffling or downright infuriating. You wished you’d have just left that big rock alone.

But here on my blog I have my own peaceful little echo chamber. I almost never disagree with myself. Every big rock I roll over has  nothing more than rich, nutrient-filled earth under it, the stuff life happily springs from.

When I post on my blog I don’t have to face disappointment from yucky bugs or be tempted into fruitless arguments with people who I had previously found to be nice or sane.

Today’s topic is the U.S. election held on November 8, 2016. That was four days ago. American voters did a silly thing–they elected Donald Trump to be their next president. Just when I was ready to forgive them re-electing George W. Bush after they re-elected Obama, they go and do this.

Trump is a narcissistic bully, thin-skinned, sexist, racist, xenophobic and ignorant on basic facts about the world and his own country. He ran on a campaign of fear and hate, filled with ideas that were vague or terrible or unworkable or all of these things. He acted like a vulgar clown. He demonstrated over the course of a typically drawn-out campaign that he was singularly unfit for the office of the president. And yet he beat out 16 other Republicans to win their nomination. He beat Hillary Clinton (though not in the popular vote) and won it all.

The silver lining is that the vagaries of the loopy Electoral College meant that his victory was extremely narrow and tapped into a unique and fortuitous (for him) set of circumstances. He benefited from low voter turnout: only 50% of eligible voters cast ballots and of those, about 25% voted for Trump.

But these things are inconsequential to the fact that he did win.

Americans have made a venal manchild their next president and already we are seeing emboldened white men attacking minorities. The Ku Klux Klan is celebrating. This is happening because Trump’s hateful, racist rally cries have been legitimized by his victory.

Americans should be ashamed at what they have done to themselves–and to the world. The American people are better than this–or so we had imagined and hoped. The apathy of the tens of millions who didn’t vote must also be held up as shameful in a country that has always prided itself on the strength of its democratic institutions. They have, through their inaction, helped elect a person who doesn’t even know how many amendments the U.S. Constitution has. What sane person would find it to be a good thing to have such ignorance in a president?

I would like to hold out hope here but the best I can manage is that maybe Trump won’t be as terrible as feared. But even in that I see a downside, in that it would help normalize his awfulness and make it that much easier for him to win re-election.

In conclusion: WTF America.

 

Halloween for ducks

Today is Halloween, the second favorite holiday for candy purveyors. It is that special time of year when holidays collide. This means you will see Halloween and Christmas candy sharing space on store shelves. There is probably a decent chance that we’ll see some companies try to make their candy packaging work for both holidays. A witch wearing a Santa hat, perhaps.

As is often the case the weather is looking rather soggy and many of the little ghosts and ghouls out tonight will be carrying umbrellas, somewhat diminishing their terrifying aspect.

I will, as always, be at home, hiding away from everything and everyone, and will curse the late night fireworks because I hate fun in all its forms.

Apple’s MacBook Pro $trategy

Apple had its “Hello again” event today and much like Microsoft at their event yesterday, Apple used theirs to announce really expensive products.

In all, they revealed new MacBook Pros and new (Canadian) pricing for the MacBook–$100 higher.

The MacBook Pro line-up previously started at $1549 for the 13 inch model. Today Apple showed off two new 13 inch models, a non-fancy one positioned as a sort-of successor to the MacBook Air and a fancy one with better specs and the somewhat controversial OLED touch bar that replaces the row of function keys.

The prices are $1899 and $2299 respectively, or as I like to put it: LOL WUT

These prices make Microsoft’s Surface pricing seem almost reasonable by comparison.

Almost.

It also seems a little weird that Microsoft is arguably being more innovative with its Surface Studio than Apple is with its MacBook Pro. At the very least it feels like Microsoft has done more to earn its premium pricing.

And while the newest Surface Book is too expensive for me, the other models, now with newly-reduced pricing, is something I’m actually considering again. The bang-for-the-buck on the MacBook Pros is way too far out of whack for me to seriously consider them. It’s disappointing but not surprising. Apple seems determined to prop up declining revenue with significantly inflated pricing.

Oh well. At least my iPhone is nearly paid for.

Micro$oft’s $urface $trategy

See what I did there? Ho ho. I actually hate when people write out things like “Micro$oft” but in this case it almost seems appropriate.

At today’s event Microsoft announced some Surface keyboards and mice but the main hardware on display was a Core i7 version of their Surface Book laptop and a new all-in one device known as the Surface Studio that sports an adjustable 28″ super-thin touchscreen monitor with better than 4K resolution.

The starting prices on these are $2399 and $2999 respectively. Those prices are in US dollars. Converting to Canadian at today’s exchange rate makes them $3194.50 and $3993.46 which is firmly in “lol no” territory for the average, slightly above average and slightly more than above average person.

Both are sexy designs with great specs. But the prices are madness. These are clearly aimed at professionals with money to burn. I am sad that they are priced so far beyond my budget that just thinking about them feels expensive, like I’ll get a $50 invoice from Microsoft for lusting after them.

I’m expecting more sticker shock tomorrow when Apple reveals its updated MacBook Pro. The base 13″ model is currently $1549 and I expect its replacement to be higher-priced. In Apple’s favor, though, I’m not expecting it to be boosted to $2399. How odd that Apple’s pricing may seem reasonable by comparison.

May being the key word here. We’ll find out tomorrow.

Meanwhile, my New Laptop Quest will not include the new Surface Book as a potential choice unless I win some sort of lottery in the next week.

Posting from Ulysses: Like regular posting but slightly more inconvenient

This blog post was created on a Mac using Ulysses. Ulysses is one of those zen writing programs, sort of halfway between Scrivener and a text editor. It’s Mac-only, which is a bit of a bummer.

It’s also expensive in Canadian dollars, but this trial version is enabled until December 7th, to allow people to use it for NaNoWriMo, which I may or may not do.

Anyway, I posted, hooray.

Haiku to the common cold

As I type these words I am finally feeling a smidgen better after this horrible cold has spent the last week making my daily existence unpleasant. I am on the verge of breaking my 242 day Move streak as tracked by my Apple Watch due to my lack of energy and it makes me a little sad. It does not motivate me to go out tromping in the raging storm outside to try to salvage the streak, however. I’ll just start anew tomorrow.

In the meantime, here is a haiku to the common cold, may science eradicate it once and for all (preferably before the next one comes a-calling for me).

Hark, the common cold
The coughing and the sneezing
Go away now, please

My throat hurts

October is my official “complain about all the stuff I haven’t complained about previously this year” month.

Tonight I’m complaining because my throat is sore and we are heading into a three-day weekend. The timing is unsurprising, my body has a knack for this sort of thing.

On the other hand, we are also heading into what will be the first big storm of the season, so it’s going to rain and blow and I’ll be happy to just curl up inside all weekend with a nice cup of hot chocolate, anyway. So lose-win(ish).

Also, I should correct the above, as it is already raining and blowing. And I had a cup of hot chocolate.

That is all.

So tired

I briefly fell asleep on the couch tonight. The last time this happened is a time I cannot recall, so probably about a hundred years ago.

The relentless pace of work is definitely having an effect. I am jealous of those who have good-paying jobs and yet still somehow have a bunch of time to surf the web while at work. I can’t even get through lunch without people coming up to me, let alone casually peruse the endless treasures that the internet presents. And by endless treasures I mean amusing cat images.

This reminds me, I need to find a good hiding place once NaNoWriMo starts. Distraction is the #1 killer of potential stories, at least where I’m concerned. It’s one of the reasons I actually prefer the smaller screen of a laptop to a comfy 24 or 27″ display. Those large displays make web-surfing pleasurable and enticing. A laptop display merely makes it serviceable. I’m also more inclined to make my writing program run full screen and pretend the internet doesn’t exist on a laptop. It’s win-win, except for actually having to buy the laptop.

All of this assumes I’ll have the energy to write come November, of course. We’ll find out in a mere 27 days!

Delicious Halloween eggnog

I know, you’re thinking, “Isn’t eggnog that thick, indulgently sweet stuff you drink over Christmas? Why are you talking about it in reference to Halloween? You must have the holidays mixed up, lol!”

And yet here it is, October 1st, and not only do the stores already have their Halloween candy (appearing when summer had barely officially concluded) but today I noticed whilst in the neighborhood grocery store that there was eggnog in the dairy section, next to the milk. I was there in the morning so there’s a good chance it was actually shelved the night before, when it was still September.

It’s popular to mock and jeer the commercialization of every holiday, official or otherwise. And for good reason. This is silly. They are going to be selling eggnog for the next three months.Their initial shipment will expire before Halloween. Before summer has been over for even a month. Before some people finally stop wearing open-toed sandals for the rest of the year.

I was tempted to get some.

I remained strong, though. I don’t want to encourage further acceleration of the great merging of all holidays, even though that seems inevitable. I figure we’ll be more than 50% of the way there if Valentine’s candy shows up before Christmas. This is a real possibility.

Post #34

The last time I had 34 or more posts in a month was way back in October 2009 when I wrote 38 posts. I’m still not sure how I managed that. Temporary insanity, perhaps. Maybe this current spate of activity is a sign that I’ll be firing on all cylinders for National Novel Writing Month, coming some 31 days from now. Looking over my posts since the start of the month, my novel will be less a story and more a series of image macros about someone who runs regularly. I’ll call it The Jogger. No, too plain. That Jogging Guy. Hmm. That probably wouldn’t work, either. To really cash in it should be something like The Girl Who Jogged or The Girl Who Wore Running Shoes or The Girl [something something to go with the other billion novels that have appeared recently that have titles starting with “The Girl.” Thanks, Stieg Larsson who isn’t even alive].

Anyway, one of the things I’ve noticed is I can no longer stay up late on the weekend like in olden times because my body is so used to getting up early that all of my fun/party genes turn out the lights by 11 p.m. This is to say that while I am typing this I am also starting to nod off, so I’ll probably go to bed soon. But at least on the weekend I can sleep in. Except I feel guilty now when I do that, then regret it after I wake up because I have less time to do other things, both productive and otherwise, and also I won’t get the 12 hours of standing activity on my Apple Watch and somehow that has become important to me. On the plus side, it has reduced the chances of varicose veins or gout or something. Whatever it is that happens when you don’t stand enough, like our hunter/gatherer ancestors used to (I mean that they stood a lot, not the opposite. I’m pretty sure they spent almost every day hunting bears or maybe just one especially wily bear who always eluded their spears and traps. They’d call him Ol’ Scoot because he’d always scoot off before they could catch him. You couldn’t just sit around when Ol’ Scoot taunted you like that. Plus maybe you haven’t developed enough brain power yet to stop gathering poison berries to nosh on, so you really need some of that good bear meat or the stories around the cave fire are going to be all, “Remember when we had more than three of us to tell stories about that stupid Ol’ Scoot to? No, I’m good on the berries, thanks.”)

 

The September list (2016)

Some miscellaneous thoughts on the past month:

  • I didn’t trip when running. Yay. I posted some of my best times of the year when running (and not tripping). Also yay.
  • I had to change my run route once due to bears. Boo.
  • It didn’t snow. Yay.
  • After a few drizzly days around Labor Day the weather was pretty nice overall. The month ended with the chill of fall in the air. Because, you know, it was fall. Morning temperatures have dipped into the single digits. I already want summer back.
  • Low cal hot chocolate mostly tastes like thin chocolate water. I’ve had this a few times recently as it’s gotten colder in ye olde computer nook.
  • Work has been insanely busy. I don’t foresee it being not busy until the heat death of the universe. Possibly longer.
  • Halloween candy showed up store shelves almost as soon as Labor Day was over. Boo. The Christmas decorations are probably being brought out even as I type this.
  • The stat holiday is at the beginning of the month so it’s kind of all downhill after that.
  • My birthday was pleasant and unspectacular, just the way I like it.