Windstorm aftermath, December 26, 2024:
There is a little bit of debris farther up the trail, around the bed, but just a few twigs and things.
Windstorm aftermath, August 29, 2015:
The primary difference, of course, is that in August the trees have all their leaves on them, which makes branches heavy and…dangerous. On this day, I actually noped out of trying to navigate the trail, though the storm had passed at this point.
I had enough energy to stroll to the lake and back and present this exclusive portrait gallery of various things and nature.
I found this in my media library, but no related post to go with it, which is weird. But here at last is a post to go along with my heartwarming combination of those comic classics, Marmaduke and Andy Capp.
Remember:
It feels like more, but the total amount of culling this year has been relatively small, though a few major sites/services are included:
Dumping Substack and The Verge have saved me the most time, purging LinkedIn also provided some relief for my inbox.
What will get culled in 2025? We’ll know soon!
To everyone who celebrates Boxing Day, enjoys boxes or is box-shaped, today is your day.
And good news: I’ve only received four Boxing Day/Week flyers in my inbox so far today. Progress!
Happy holiday to all who celebrate.
Christmas is a low-key event these days around here. In 2024, it caps off a generally lousy year, and I’m (still) fighting an infection as I type this. But it is what it is and hey, no snow!
Last night the antibiotics I have been taking for two weeks just plain stopped working and the infection they’d been holding at bay came roaring back, with attendant fever, body aches and other fun stuff.
I also began taking new (and better-targeted) antibiotics late yesterday, but when I went to bed, I was blazing hot and had yet another terrible night of sleep, as I have had for most of December. I do not recommend this.
On my Garmin Forerunner 255 I have a 212-day streak for walking at least 10,000 steps per day. That’s about seven months, which is pretty good.
This morning, I got up, had breakfast, then went back to bed. I stayed in bed until about 2 p.m. and slept fitfully, as I still had a residual headache. Fortunately, the new antibiotics had begun working by morning and the fever, chills, etc. had passed. I was still very tired and with only 3,000 steps as of 9 p.m. faced a question: Did I want to walk on the treadmill long enough to get 7,000 more steps? It would probably take close to an hour.
I decided it was better to just accept the streak was over, and my immediate health and well-being was more important. It still kind of bugs me that the streak is ending, but sometimes you just have to accept that the best choice is not always the one you want to make.
Although I wasn’t exactly keen on getting on the treadmill for an hour, either. I believe I mentioned I am very tired.
And this concludes Christmas Eve 2024. Enjoy this pixelated snow scene. It’s the best kind of snow–make-believe!
We’ve gone through one box and are working on the second. They’re small, sweet and juicy. No seeds, no weirdness, what’s not to like?
Probably the best thing about December.
I haven’t tried any eggnog yet. I’m not sure how it will hold up. It’s kind of the anti-Mandarin orange, in a way.
First, what isn’t the best:
So what is the best thing about December 2024 (so far)?
No snow!
While it has been often quite soggy, this is normal. But the 10-day forecast has mostly above-normal temperatures (as high as 11C), with lows way too high for any chance of snow. This delights me, because when it comes to snow, I am a Grinch. The best snow is no snow. The second-best snow is snow somewhere else that is not here.
So enjoy your snow, other people elsewhere! I will be here, patiently biding my time until snow is no longer possible because it will be spring and warm and lovely.
Yep, it happened.
Yesterday I went to the Verge homepage, but never clicked on anything. I appear to have not looked at any articles in the last few days, judging from my browser history. This makes sense, because I’ve de-prioritized the site since it added an “optional” subscription.
Today I clicked on the lead article and got this:
Yes, a paywall on the feature article, which was–hold onto your hats–about rearranging your home screen app icons. I did not get a Verge subscription, nor did I try any trickery to allow me to read the article. Instead, I closed the tab, removed the Verge from my new tab page list of bookmarks and will rarely check the site in the future.
I don’t begrudge the Verge wanting to extract money from its readers–you gotta cover expenses! But the way they are doing it sucks, and I’m not going to reward them (apart from the volume of clickbait junk opinion pieces is still too high, as well) with my money.
A partial/ambiguous paywall is bad design. It just is. I’ve barely looked at the site in the past week, so I don’t know if I’m getting hit by the paywall at random, if I reached my limit of “free” articles, or the feature article is paywalled by design. The pop-up doesn’t say, and I’m not going to dig around on my own to find out.
Asking people to fork over money and still serving them ads is also bad design. And tacky.
I don’t care about the newsletters. It’s not an enticement.
In a time when subscription fatigue is a real thing, the Verge has taken probably the second-worst approach to adding one (the worst would just be a complete paywall. I wonder if they’d still have ads then? Maybe!)
I don’t know how their two markets compare, but the way Ars Technica does subscriptions feels right to me:
Notice the last one? You get an ad-free experience and, knowing it is ad-free, subscribers get a layout that flows nicely without having to accommodate ads.
No content is locked behind a paywall. The sub is reasonable–as low as $25 per year. I like supporting the site this way and I get a nicer experience (to be clear, I do subscribe to Ars Technica).
Anyway, I suspect the Verge will do fine, since subs or not, they are still running ads. I’ll miss some of their content (but not their awful comments system). Having culled the site, I now have a tiny bit more time to devote to cat pics, so in a way, it’s win-win for me.
Like the title says, shot on my iPhone 12.
Weather:
Still better than snow! Also, that high temperature is 5C above normal, so it is mild up in the hizzy, which is even better (except for all the rain).
It’s also the shortest day of the year, but given current conditions, it may be a bit tricky to notice.
Here, again, is a cat in the snow we will not be seeing today:
