"Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man."

Caitie Call

12:44 Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 66°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 81

My daughter is on her way over and I'm looking forward to some "hanging out" time. She'll probably give me a haircut too.

But it's always a pleasure seeing Caitie. She lives in LA now, but comes home every four to six weeks to serve clients here. Sometimes she'll be pretty booked and all we can do is maybe grab a bite to eat after I visit the salon for a haircut. She carved out an afternoon for me this time.

✍️ Reply by email

Log Rolling

08:23 Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 65.41°F Pressure: 1009hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 354

Didn't do much on Captain's Log yesterday. I'm going to try to learn about functions in Tinderbox. The idea would be to let a function do the heavy lifting on creating a new "Midwatch" container. It works fine locally as an edict, but the values of the sandbox variables remain part of the file and can begin to add to the size of the document. Probably not significant for something like this application, but it's a good excuse to learn how to use a function.

The Midwatch entry is still working, but I get a little error message from AppleScript even though everything worked. As it doesn't seem to be a problem, I'll defer investigation for another day.

Since I know I can create Calendar entries rather trivially from within the log, I did look at Reminders yesterday. The last time I used Reminders to any great extent was when we were selling my old place and moving to this one.

But I had two "lists" that had yellow "!" triangles. Searching suggested that meant there were devices logged into iCloud that wouldn't sync with those lists because of an OS difference. I can't imagine what that would be, but I found a Reddit post that said if you just renamed the lists, the triangles would go away. So that's what I did, and they did.

At some point I got Reminders to show all reminders, and imagine my surprise that there were thousands of them going back to 2008! I guess I used it more than I recall. Hundreds were some reference to "Ace" and I have no idea what that was about.

Deleted!

I can use LaunchBar to create Reminders from within the log. So far, I haven't had a genuine occasion to do so, but I may try a few just for practice today.

I have delayed my walk because of the possibility of rain, but it looks like it's just going to remain a possibility. Though if I do go out, I expect the heavens will open and at least the lawn will get watered without having to run the sprinklers.

✍️ Reply by email

Variations On a Theme

06:38 Monday, 18 March 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 67.3°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 699

Sometimes a train of thought will remain with me, even after I've supposedly "scratched that itch."

I somehow got the idea that perhaps I was being unfair to people who didn't understand the opportunity that service represents. I think Aaron Zahn wasn't yet 40 when he became CEO of JEA.

I was around 35 when I was XO of JOHN HANCOCK and did all those burials at sea. I was around 40 when I spoke for the HMC's (corpsman, chief petty officer) retirement.

Those were each "little epiphanies." It wasn't until much later, well into my 60s, when I began to understand and appreciate what those little epiphanies meant. What the value of meaning is.

The "meaning" of meaning was another little epiphany that occurred during my personal crisis, the end of my marriage and the end of my navy career. Trying to discern what that all "meant," standing amidst the wreckage, with the help of a therapist and a lot of reading made me understand that "meaning" is contingent. It doesn't exist as something apart from us. "Life" is meaningless. We must make meaning. Failure is the universe's way of trying to get your attention.

Nobody teaches you this as an adolescent or a young adult. I'm not sure a child could understand it. Maybe I'm wrong.

I had a correspondent this morning talk about their experience, in military service and in academic life.

There was little expression of appreciation for his military service, public or professional; and academic life exposes the contradiction between what we say we believe, and how we actually behave.

Of course, hypocrisy is nothing new and it's become seemingly endemic in public life. Everything is a facade. I think social media is another corrosive factor in that. (Please know that I understand there are exceptions. And while they may be many, or of wonderful merit or worth, they remain, in the main, exceptional. The overall effect is a net negative.)

And there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around, spanning the entire political or ideological spectrum.

It goes back to the "do the work" post. Posing is not working. But we want to appear attractive, to whatever tribe we wish to appeal to, so we signal and pose and manage to completely avoid "doing the work." (Who would have time?) We live in a media saturated culture, and that means appearance is reality. We are all the stars of our own little reality programs. Working on our "personal brand." Marketing ourselves to "viewers" or "only fans."

Meaning is conveyed in narrative, but meaning is forged in action in the field of value. What "matters" to us? Those are, or were, our "values." I feel like I should read Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance again. (Thanks, Mark.) Get reacquainted with Phaedrus. Lord knows the writing around this joint could use the help.

We have no institutions today whose role is convey those values. Ideally, I suppose it might be a "culture," but our culture is rotted through and through with the values of capitalism, consumerism and competition.

We have no institution to teach the meaning of "meaning," let alone the value of "values." I suppose it once was the church, but even they seem to have some difficulty keeping the thread. In this country, the "separation of church and state" has never been thinner. Even "church" leaders desire secular power; and let's not discuss "televangelists" who have the same emptiness that compels CEOs and politicians to seek ever more power and wealth and the people attracted to those who have it.

And all of this has to be considered against the backdrop of a large proportion of this society that has to spend most of its time just trying to meet the demands of day to day existence in a culture that seems to want to value compassion but can't find the wherewithal to exhibit it.

Politicians and corporate executives come from, mostly, privileged backgrounds. They have at least had the opportunity to reflect, to practice some introspection. But since competition seems to be one of our premiere "values," well, who has the time?

Anyway, I get it. But it's a pity.

✍️ Reply by email