How can 2019 already be five years ago?

Time is weird. With a cat.

I mean, really. Time is weird, and it just gets weirder.

I still remember when I was really young, and my family was at an event (I want to say a car race or something involving vehicles) and I asked my mom how much longer it would be (because I was apparently not being sufficiently entertained) and she said about ten minutes. And I had no idea how long ten minutes was. I inferred from her tone that it wasn’t very long, so that’s how I started to learn how to tell time–tone of voice.

The time for this post to come to an end is now.

A green Christmas

shallow focus photography of green grasses during daytime
Photo by FOX on Pexels.com

Yes, I’m a few days early, but unless there is a radical shift in the weather in the next few days, we will not only not see snow for Christmas, it will continue to be unusually mild, with most days averaging 10-11C, where the norm is 5-6C.

As I look out my office window, I can see green grass and, well, weeds, but everything is pleasantly green. I don’t need to wear five layers to go outside. I might get wet, depending on the particular time and day. It’s nice.

And yes, could this be climate change? Is this mild weather secretly bad and a dark omen of a crazy weather future? Maybe, but I think this time it’s more due to the effects from El Niño, which came in this year and didn’t really affect summer much (last year’s summer was a lot hotter and humid), but does seem to be taking the chill off winter. And I’m not going to object to that.

Tomorrow it is officially the first day of winter. If it is snowing, I will update this post to add a nelsonlaughing.gif aimed at myself.

Random facts about U.S. presidents #1

Did you know Jimmy Carter has won three Grammy Awards? It’s true. All for his gangsta rap trilogy.

Kidding, it’s for spoken word recordings.

I discovered this factoid while falling down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. I can’t say there will necessarily be a Random facts about U.S. presidents #2.

Water!

clean clear cold drink
Mmm, water. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

When you’re hot and thirsty (after, say, just completing a long run), there is nothing more refreshing than cool, crisp water. This is not a revelation, but it struck me when I supped from the water fountain at Hume Park post-run today.

(This is also a blatant attempt to convince myself to drink more water.)

What I want AI to do

Two things:

  1. Not start SkyNET and destroy humanity
  2. Use its smarts to come up with YouTube thumbnails better than these:

If anyone in the future ever wonders when the fall of civilization began, I’m pretty sure it will be answered with, “When everyone on YouTube thought goofy faces on thumbnails would make people watch.”

I am a Sr. Gemfinder

I made a terrible mistake. Actually, I made two terrible mistakes:

  1. I got into a creative funk. Technically, this isn’t a mistake, but it still feels like one.
  2. I re-installed Bejeweled 3. This was definitely a mistake.

On the other hand, I’m now a Sr. Gemfinder1This is kind of a dumb rank. I mean, the screen is literally filled with gems. Or maybe it means I’m a senior, age-wise, and because of my old and ailing eyes, I should get an award for just seeing the gems at all., see:

I mean, I don’t need to be solving the climate crisis or brokering world peace here, but I feel like I should be doing something more substantial.

I have a solution! I’ll switch to the Mac. There’s no Bejeweled there!

Right after just one more game…

Random questions and thoughts, June 4, 2023

  • If someone had a time machine, travelled back 66 million years and managed to nudge the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs so that it never hit Earth, would I be awkwardly typing this now with the tiny arms of an Acheroraptor?
  • Shirts with vertical stripes look weird. I can’t even explain why, they just do.
  • Why do some people litter?
  • Would interviews be better or worse if everyone in the interview was compelled by magic/technology to answer all questions with complete honesty?
  • What do billionaires think about on their deathbeds?
  • There’s a cereal you can get only in the U.S. called Quisp and when you think about it, it’s a pretty odd name. Maybe it’s a portmanteau of Quaker and crisp? Still odd.
  • If I could uninvent autotune, I probably would.
  • Male names I like (these will show up as character names for protagonists in stories of mine): Ethan, Christian, Jacob
  • Something I would never wear: Plaid shorts
  • What’s better, warm soda or a stale cookie?
  • I am still kind of amazed every time I see a jet take off and fly. I know the science, it still amazes me.
  • Why are some people mean? Do mean people litter?

What “one more thing” means to me…

It means coming back from the grocery store and realizing I forgot to get the main item I went there to buy. I get everything else, just that one more thing…

This is why it’s important to put everything on your shopping list and not assume your giant brain will remember anything not on it.

I knew I should have added dishwasher soap to the list. Do I really want to go back just to get it?

Kobo: Time travellers

I got an email from Kobo this morning, titled thus:

Except I have not finished reading Fairy Tale (for those wondering, it’s the generically-named latest novel from Stephen King). I’m reading the book on a Kobo device, so Kobo knows I’m reading it…yet apparently is just guessing that I am done, maybe based on how much I’ve been reading per day? (I didn’t read last night because my nose was being super mean to me.) Or maybe the email is from the future where I have, in fact, already finished the book. Or maybe this is the fault of AI because it’s everywhere now, and who knows what it’s getting up to.

Anyway, this is my 63rd post of the month, and I have given myself a made-up award for posting so much, even if most of it is nonsense. Maybe especially because of that1Actually, the real answer is I gave myself permission to basically post anything I wanted, no matter how trivial, weird or silly. I’m enjoying it so far..

Not trusting your users, Macrumors edition

An article on the alleged new Pride Apple Watch band and face has comments disabled (see screenshot below).

The only plausible reason I can think of (as they allow political discussions on the Macrumors forums) is the editors don’t trust their readers to not be bigoted trash.

But I’m open to other explanations, too!