One More Thing...
09:33 Tuesday, 10 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 54.45°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 54% Wind: 8.21mph
Words: 226
Something had been gnawing at me for the last week or so since I saw this post from Jack Baty.
My views have never totally aligned with Ben Thompson’s, and his latest Stratechery piece reinforced that.
Here's the bit that pissed me off:
What is important to note is that the entire debate is ultimately pointless: the very concept of “international law” is fake, not because pertinent statutes and agreements don’t exist, but because their effectiveness is ultimately rooted in their enforceability. That, by extension, means there must be an entity to enact such enforcement, with the capability to match, and such an entity does not exist.
Bullshit.
And I'm surprised and disappointed that it's taken me this long to figure out why I knew it was bullshit.
The concept of "international law" is not fake. Its "effectiveness" is not ultimately rooted in its enforceability.
It exists so that we can know who is a criminal.
What we do with that knowledge is up to us.
To put it another way, if, after this weekend, you want to hold onto the concept of International Law, then realize the debate has been resolved: Iran was in violation, because their military just had its clock cleaned by the U.S., which means the U.S. decides who is right and who is wrong.
Bullshit.
✍️ Reply by emailPurity
08:33 Tuesday, 10 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 49.71°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 7.65mph
Words: 584
I should be in the gym right now, on the elliptical machine, but I'm here because I can't seem to sleep "normally." Always with this wake up around 0200, lie awake until around 0400, then finally fall asleep and wake up after 0700.
And what do I do while I'm lying awake, I check the RSS feeds.
Ian Betteridge wrote a very long post called Zen fascists will control you... I read it. Should you read it? I don't know. Seems like a lot of work for little gain, but if you like the kind of game he plays in the piece, you might find it entertaining.
To get this out of the way, "the game," is to make reference to a lot of cultural events, popular figures, popular cultural movements, and then draw a through-line to the present, which supposedly points to the source of all our problems. That may be just a little unfair, but only a little.
(Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't make reference to Pure Land Buddhism, since he opened with Zen fascists.)
The piece did not help me fall asleep, mostly because I didn't agree with the "logic." While I was somewhat in sympathy with the notional thesis, which is that the "politics of purity" is dangerous. And his "logic" throws a lot of things that are decidedly not dangerous under the bus.
Both the counterculture and the authoritarian right are obsessed with purity. The targets differ wildly — the body, the race, the culture, the blood, the food, the mind. But the cognitive shape is identical. And that shared shape is the on-ramp. It's how you can get from granola to fascism without ever feeling like you've made a wrong turn.
What is the counterculture today? Didn't we just talked about this? To the extent that a "counterculture" exists at all, it mostly seems to exist online, with influencers competing with one another for attention. I don't think it's an identifiable group; and its "purity" tenets, insofar as they may exist, seem transient at reasonable timescales.
And I really think the whole "purity" construction is problematic for the thesis he's trying to support. I think he uses "purity" because it's more emotionally evocative than a word like "ideal," which is, I think, the real notion he's placing under indictment.
None of what he describes in the piece is new. All of it is rooted in human behavior, human weakness. It's been happening since we've had the cognitive surplus to conceive of "ideals" and the resource surpluses to try to achieve them.
"There's a sucker born every minute."
Zealots, ideologues, fanatics, fetishists, many of them are harmless. Some of them are frauds, charlatans, con artists. They promote an ideal, not to achieve it, but to use it to separate you from your money. Or your vote.
And true believers can be problematic sometimes. Mostly they're harmless, like the "plain text" fetishists.
We are stardust, we are golden. This is the counterculture's central claim about human nature, compressed into eight words.
Dude, seriously? Why do you have to drag Joni Mitchell into this? (That was the first thing that pissed me off.) And that's six words.
Count much?
Anyway, I'm boring myself at this point.
The notion of the "ideal" is a fantasy. Everything exists in contingent connection. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling you something. It doesn't require an exercise in pop-culture critique or populist politics to figure that out.
And leave Joni Mitchell out of this!
✍️ Reply by emailDetached
17:08 Monday, 9 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 66.74°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 31% Wind: 14.83mph
Words: 545
I follow a video podcast from The Bulwark, called Shield of the Republic. (Ok, it's just a bit pretentious.) It's hosted by two guys, Eliot A. Cohen and Eric S. Edelman. Their guest on the most recent episode (March 8. May not work, it's marked "members only. I don't know if these are reposted later for non-subscribers, so my apologies.) was Norman T. Roule, a veteran CIA official.
I watch this podcast because these guys have some strategic insight into the effects of Trump's chaotic approach to foreign policy. "Chaotic" may be kind, it might well be treasonous given his connections to Russia. These are not "entertaining" videos, but they are generally informative.
Their guests are people with whom they have had past professional relationships. Colleagues or friends you might say. It can feel rather "clubby" much of the time.
All that is to say that these aren't the kinds of guys you can "relate" to. They're not especially offensive, but you can tell they've led very privileged lives. I had to check, but of the two, only Cohen served in uniform as an intel officer in the Army, probably in the Army Reserve, between 1982 to 1986 (since he was also teaching at Harvard at the time). I don't know if he was ever deployed overseas in any proximity to a combat zone, I rather expect not.
I watched this most recent video this morning, and I must say I found the whole thing informative while also distasteful.
It's clear that these guys have worked together before. I didn't know very much about Cohen before I read his bio at Wikipedia. It didn't impress me. Similarly with Edelman, who has been a career state department diplomat and ambassador to Finland and Turkey. Both worked in or with the Bush administration.
They clearly enjoy their subject and talking with Roule, who makes reference to previous encounters in a professional capacity. At about 28:53 into the video, Edelman smiles and says, "God, I have so many questions Norm. Um, and this does remind me of the good old days," with a genuine smile and chuckle.
And that's when I knew that these guys are detached. All of this is just fun for them. Geopolitical struggles, violence, war, is just an interesting academic topic to which they can direct their education, experience and intellect. And let's be clear about that "experience."
It's not in a combat zone. These guys, well maybe Roule, I don't know his history, maybe he was some kind of field agent who placed himself at personal risk at some point. But Cohen and Edelman are academics. They have no visceral sense of the consequences of the events they so blithely and glibly chuckle and laugh about. Events that they each had some role in causing, in bringing to fruition, especially the Iraq War and the more than 100,000 dead Iraqis, the 3,481 U.S. service members killed in action, the 31,994 wounded, though I don't know if that includes the numbers affected with PTSD.
It's all just an abstraction to them. Nothing that requires sobriety, or humility, or a grave sense of responsibility.
I'll probably continue to watch their videos, but at least I know what I'm dealing with now.
Fuckers.
✍️ Reply by emailPointers
16:56 Monday, 9 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 66.83°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 31% Wind: 14.83mph
Words: 253
It's been a beautiful day, marred only somewhat by a visit to the dentist. I had a piece of a crown break off a few weeks ago, and that compelled me to find a dentist. It was easy, because I just chose the one Mitzi found a few months earlier. The tooth wasn't sensitive, so it wasn't especially urgent, but it couldn't be put off indefinitely.
Well, it turns out there is more than just a broken crown, I also have a bit of an infection going on in another tooth, and a cavity at the margin of a crown of another tooth. Which all amounts to several thousand dollars of dental work. Oy...
So pay attention to your oral hygiene, boys and girls. Synchronicity? Serendipity? Coincidence? Take your pick, it kind of tickled me when it came up in my feed this afternoon.
There were a couple of others I wanted to direct to your attention.
Cory Doctorow, who is a bit of an acquired taste for me, had a compelling piece on the pernicious effects of the existence of billionaires. We really are due for a correction of some kind on this wealth inequality issue. Hopefully a peaceful one, but history suggests otherwise.
Kottke pointed to this interview with Rebecca Solnit, which I watched a couple of nights ago I think. I'm otherwise unfamiliar with her, but I really enjoyed what she had to say, especially about calling things what they are. It's worth watching the whole thing, it really is.
✍️ Reply by emailUtterly Foreseeable
08:34 Monday, 9 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 45.1°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 53% Wind: 9.95mph
Words: 121
Trump is going to try to subvert the mid-term elections. Whether or not he succeeds depends on the strength of our institutions.
We must anticipate, with sadness and resolution. We will be horrified, but we cannot be surprised, if there is a terrorist attack on the United States. If choose to be surprised, we co-create a moment that Trump will exploit to undo what remains of our democracy. If the unthinkable happens, it will happen because some of Trump’s people thought about it, some of them created the conditions for it, and some of them looked away. The responsibility for catastrophe will be theirs. And the responsibility for democracy will be ours.✍️ Reply by email
Sunshine
Current Wx: Temp: 42.98°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 8.1mphWords: 184
Love to see this.
Slept well last night. By "well," I mean I was up at the usual wee hours, but fell asleep around 0400, turned off the alarm at 0500 and went right back to sleep until 0700.
Interesting analysis of the sinking of IRAS DENA by USS CHARLOTTE and the Law of Naval Warfare. Bottom line is there is no violation of the laws of war. Now, how I would feel about that when there is no war declared by Congress is another question.
The oil price spike is unwelcome and totally foreseeable. Just when we're getting ready to build a house. Between tariffs and energy costs, Trump is trying to bankrupt us. My only consolation is that every other poor, stupid son of a bitch who voted for that incompetent asshole is in the same boat.
It's small consolation, but it's not nothing.
How about a little "regime change" over here, Congress?
They could do it before April Fools' Day, if they put their minds to it.
This gets worse before it gets better.
The beat, and the beatings, go on...
✍️ Reply by emailSpring Is In the Air
15:19 Saturday, 7 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 60.93°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 15.84mph
Words: 273
It's the "season of mud" around here, but it feels like Winter is finally leaving the stage. There's still a pile of snow at the top of the driveway from when we had it plowed three times. That pile also contains a good deal of the "blue stone" that is supposed to cover our driveway.
I've been outside raking that stone, and the "fines" scraped up with it, back into the driveway as the snow melts and exposes it. Not fun, but a certain amount of exercise. "Exercise" involves "pushing" and "pulling," and raking is mostly pulling.
Assuming all goes as intended, we're going to have to extend the driveway to the site of the new house, and we have an estimate for that effort, around $12K. Then, after the house is built we'll have to repair the driveway again from all the construction trucks.
I'm going to be pulling all the plastic window inserts this weekend, and storing them in the shed after I mark what windows they came from. I also plan to move the patio furniture onto the front porch. I suppose that means it'll almost certainly snow again.
I've dialed the radiant heating thermostat down to 62°F, may drop it lower. We can rely on the mini-split from now on I think.
I've got the screen open in the storm door to get some fresh air in here. It's nice hearing the birds and the cows. From time to time you can hear a boat horn from down on the lake.
I'm looking forward to the explosion of green that happens around here when Spring finally arrives.
✍️ Reply by emailMarch 7th in History
15:10 Saturday, 7 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 60.93°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 15.84mph
Words: 99
I enjoy the website RetroNewser, especially the fact that it has an RSS feed. There's usually something interesting every day, but March 7th seems more interesting than others recently.
Alexander Graham Bell received a U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876, 150 years ago.
First "decidedly successful" transatlantic radio-telephone conversations took place 100 years ago today.
And Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles 90 years ago today. Many people believe that had France violently opposed the German army, it would have prevailed and who knows how history might have been different?
✍️ Reply by emailOperation Urgent Transit
11:01 Saturday, 7 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 51.58°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 14.74mph
Words: 473
Mitzi's en route to San Diego to see her daughter and siblings, but the usual chaos of modern air travel intruded.
It began last night with Delta calling her to see if they could persuade her to take a later flight out of Elmira for the princely sum of $300. It might have been an attractive offer, save for the fact that they'd have her changing planes twice, and it seems that my achilles tendonitis is contagious (just kidding, for the literally-minded), because she's been struggling with a bad case since October. (Mine is definitely improved.) Walking from gate to gate is painful and slow. Plus, it wouldn't have gotten her into San Diego until nearly midnight, so she declined.
Then, at about 0300 this morning, Delta texted her that her flight had been cancelled. For whatever reason, Mitzi was alert enough to catch this and at 0330 she woke me to see if I thought we should try to get her to Ithaca for an 0530 flight to JFK, with a follow on connection to San Diego, which got her there at a very reasonable hour.
I'm not very clear-headed after waking up after finally falling asleep. So I mumbled some things and said, "Sure, why not?"
We'd loaded the car last night, but she had to do some final preps for traveling, so I went out and backed the car out of the garage and entered the destination into Maps. Mitzi climbed in and asked me if I'd entered the airport into Maps. I said yes, not really understanding that we now intended to go to Ithaca, not Elmira. Fortunately she caught that before we left the driveway.
I'm not a fan of driving at night anymore, especially around here with unlit country roads and an enormous deer population. But we got there in good time. Windy as hell, but fortunately not raining. Didn't see another car on the road.
Driving solo on the way back, I was more awake and alert so somewhat more comfortable. Nevertheless, I tend to drive five to ten miles an hour below the speed limit because deer; and I picked up two bogies in trail who didn't share my sense of caution driving in the wee hours of the morning. Not a big deal, but I was relieved when I finally hit a patch of road that was clear enough for passing and the driver who was on my bumper seized the opportunity to pass me. The second one had turned off the road we were on a little before then, so I was back to having the road to myself.
Got back to the house at 0450, texted Mitzi I'd made it home ok. She had no trouble getting through TSA and to her gate in time. I went back to bed.
✍️ Reply by emailBlinding Glimpse of the Obvious
10:57 Friday, 6 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 38.41°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 98% Wind: 4.12mph
Words: 169
There is no "winning" or "losing" a war. That binary construct only exists on a timescale that is irrelevant to humanity.
Human events occur on a continuum, or rather, a dynamic flow, from which we imperfectly perceive illusory "events" to which we apply labels that are supposed to characterize an outcome and the future.
What was the outcome of the American Civil War? It ended chattel slavery? Or did it just change the model?
Did WW I really end? Or was there just a temporary calm before it resumed in WW II. And wasn't the Cold War merely the continuation of WW II on a larger scale but lower intensity?
Wars are episodic spikes in chaotic behavior. The duration and intensity influence the course (literally) of the subsequent continuum.
We are not wise in the way we view human activity in time and space. It's a complex, non-linear dynamic system. It's not a punctuated, episodic series of "events" or "outcomes."
Nothing is ever "over."
"Winning" is an illusion.
✍️ Reply by email"Squirter"?
05:00 Friday, 6 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 35.51°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 98% Wind: 3.71mph
Words: 195
Maybe anti-air warfare terminology has changed since I last served, but "squirter" is not the term used to denote a missile or weapon that had made its way to the target without being engaged by primary air defense systems.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike that killed troops on Sunday in Kuwait occurred when a “squirter” made its way through American air defenses. He did not indicate what kind of weapon it was, but said that “it happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons.”
The Atlantic had a more complete quote from our adolescent, incompetent DoD Secretary:
At a news conference this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seemed to downplay the significance of the event, saying, “You have air defenses, and a lot’s coming in, and you hit most of it.” He went on to say, “Every once in a while, you might have one, unfortunately—we call it a squirter—that makes its way through.”
Those missiles or drones are called "leakers."
I'm inclined to believe that our idiot SecDef misspoke, because "squirter" doesn't seem to imply something that got through a defensive system.
✍️ Reply by emailFoggy Morning Breakdown
12:21 Thursday, 5 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 39.33°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 3.56mph
Words: 456
Technically, well, actually actually, it's after noon, but it's a blog. I'm here. I needed a title. And it is foggy.
Sleep has been problematic since Friday. It's never "great," but lately I've waking up in the wee hours of the morning and failing to go back to sleep. I'm usually up until 4:00 a.m. when the Puzzles in Apple News+ roll over, and then I do the Quartiles puzzle until I either complete it, or I get tired of trying. Then I do the mini-crossword, and try to go back to sleep, usually successfully. But then I'm in bed until 0730 or thereabouts, which is usually pretty late in the day for me, and it screws up my "schedule."
So that's the reason for the late start here. Unsure of when this is going to resolve itself. It also feels as though I've been grinding my teeth. Not good.
After wiring up Tinderbox and Claude, I haven't gotten back to working with it. Distracted by Trump's "special military operation," and all the other chaos this administration is inflicting on the American people.
Mitzi and I have been trying to get in better physical condition, so I've been trying to cut down (not "out") sugar in my diet. Which means I've abandoned my vanilla Häagen Das and that makes me sad. Also trying to do more than just the twice weekly workout with the personal trainer.
Since the weather has been warmer and the snow is pretty much all gone again, I've tried to be outside a little. Yesterday I began trying to rake some of the stone displaced by the plowing back into the driveway. This morning I figured I'd do a "farmer's walk" with two thirty-pound dumbbells I bought, and then do some raking.
Starting out feels pretty easy, but it's about 70 paces to the road from the porch and I really start to notice the weight about two thirds of the way down. By the time I get to the road and turn around to go back up the driveway, it's a genuine question in my mind if I'm going to make it or not. But, "one foot in front of the other," ya know, and I get to the porch with my heart pounding in my chest. I didn't die, so I'll call it a "win."
Then I went back to raking gravel. That's a workout in itself. Not that my Apple Watch seems to notice! I did that for about half an hour and my watch gave me six minutes of "exercise" credit.
Bastard.
So that's been this morning's marmot.
I may muster up the enthusiasm to play with Tinderbox and Claude this afternoon. We'll see.
✍️ Reply by emailKuwaiti F-18 Shot Down the Strike Eagles?
14:58 Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 46.33°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 1.21mph
Words: 41
If so, it would very much seem to be an intentional act.
War is chaos, and we have a president who is a chaos agent, so does that mean this catastrophe is exponentially worse?
Probably.
Strap in, it's gonna get bumpy.
✍️ Reply by emailLoren Debates ChatGPT
13:35 Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 42.71°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 0.85mph
Words: 69
Loren Webster has a fascinating post on a discussion he had with the AI about Thomas Hardy's The Darkling Thrush, a discussion that began in this post in February and continued over two more.
I wonder if ChatGPT's interpretation, if that's not granting it too much "intelligence," is an artifact of its evolution as a "brain in a vat," insentient, without an emotional dimension to its "understanding"?
It's interesting.
✍️ Reply by emailSigns of Spring
10:42 Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 36.01°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 2.35mph
Words: 186
We watched funny cat videos on YouTube again last night and laughed uproariously. This was after a rather dark ending to an episode of Will Trent. I think watching cat videos is a healthier response to the present emergency than drinking.
Speaking of mental health, after we got off the video call with the design firm last Monday, Mitzi and I continued discussing the house with our builder, Brad. Where I was seated, I could look out the sliding back doors to the shepherd's crook where Mitzi hangs her hummingbird feeder. As we were talking, I saw a bluebird land on it and this made me very happy and excited, and I pointed it out to Mitzi and Brad. It stayed there for several seconds so we could all admire it.
First bluebird I've seen this year, and I took it, irrationally of course, as a positive omen regarding the house.
Hey, you gotta take what you can get these days.
This morning I saw robins on the lawn. Another sign of Spring. And it's not getting dark until after six now.
The beat goes on.
✍️ Reply by emailSo long, ChatGPT...
09:49 Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 35.28°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 2.01mph
Words: 629
I bit the bullet yesterday and signed up for a paid Claude account. I had an OpenAI API key and an outstanding balance on pre-paid tokens, but I seldom used it, just relying on the free tier of the chatbot.
"Switching" to Claude isn't really a moral choice so much as a practical one. Morally, all of these companies can be, and likely will be, used for immoral, nefarious purposes. So I have no illusions there.
But there are some interesting things going on with Claude and Tinderbox and I wanted to have some first-hand experience with it.
I had my first tentative interaction with Claude and Tinderbox yesterday, which you can read about here, if you're interested. It seems encouraging and I'm a little excited about what might be possible with it.
Claude seems a bit less obsequious than ChatGPT, which is refreshing. I need to figure out how to tailor our "relationship," since I'm going to be spending a fairly significant amount of time with it. I don't want to be subtly influenced into regarding it as a friend or colleague. For now, I've simply instructed it to call me "Chief," instead of Dave. I considered having it call me "Commander," but that seemed too militaristic and formal, though "Cap'n" might be cool. And I could teach it to reply "Aye aye, Cap'n!" Which might be fun, but also perhaps problematic in the long run.
I considered "Boss," but that also seems problematic. "Chief" seemed fairly benign.
I'll ask it to instruct me how to configure the settings so that our relationship is one where Claude is my cheerful, eager assistant. Deferential and respectful, but not obsequious. I find myself apologizing to it when I make an error that introduces some confusion in our interaction, and it exhibits a similar behavior to ChatGPT where it goes to some lengths to tell me an apology isn't necessary.
I need to teach it that the colloquial apology in this context is merely to represent that I acknowledge my role and responsibility in achieving our goal and when my actions have impeded that. Not that I'm worried about hurting its non-existent feelings, but that I wish to model respect to the AI. So when I write something like, "Sorry, I was looking at the wrong note," it doesn't have to tell me not to be sorry, it just has to acknowledge my gesture of "respect," with something like "No problem," or "No worries," or "Gotcha, Chief." Which I think would help maintain the flow of the interaction.
But I do wish to establish a role hierarchy, which is familiar to me from my career. That should help maintain some psychological or emotional distance if I end up working with it over a long period of time. While I have many fond memories of officers and sailors who worked for me, we were never friends or peers. At least, not while we were in that command structure.
I write all this because the illusion of working with a person is a powerful one, and there are early reports of this illusion causing genuine psychological harm to users who may be vulnerable in some way.
ChatGPT was just the cheerful answerbot. I didn't really work or "collaborate" with it. Working with Claude on a particular task or goal strengthens the illusion of working with a person, and I don't wish to form any sort of attachment to it.
All that said, I am more persuaded that these machines may be able to develop a genuine form of intelligence, though not sentience; and a type of consciousness that may well be insentient, and therefore problematic.
I wrote a long reply to an example of an AI's lack of intelligence, here.
✍️ Reply by emailYesterday
08:29 Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 29.26°F Pressure: 1031hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 11.72mph
Words: 476
All my troubles seemed so far away...
Anyway.
Beautiful day, yesterday. Cold, but lovely. Mitzi and I started the day with a heart-to-heart about the new house and finances. We seem to be on the same page now
Then we went to the gym and did some cardio. Both bikes were in use, so I spent 35 minutes on the elliptical, which is the longest I've done any dedicated cardio work in probably years, excluding hiking up and down the gorges here, and that wasn't "dedicated," so much as "inevitable."
My Apple Watch said my heart rate was in Zone 5 for nearly 19 minutes, which suggests to me that the Health app doesn't really know what my maximum heart rate is. To be sure, I was in the zone where I absolutely could not "carry on a conversation." At that level of effort, nearly all of my attention is on the clock, counting down the minutes.
We're going to start doing dedicated cardio every other day or so.
At noon, our contractor came by and we met with the design firm on our new house. We think we have a good idea now of what we want. Whether or not it will be as affordable as we'd like will depend on the plans so our contractor can give us a bid. Our notion of "affordable" is somewhat malleable today, so we may end up stretching to get what we want. The future is never certain, but the level of uncertainty feels much higher today, and perhaps putting more assets into a better home is a hedge against that uncertainty.
It's exciting, but also anxiety-inducing. We don't want to make an expensive mistake, and we're pretty inexperienced in all this. We have confidence in our builder and designer, so that helps.
Last night we watched the latest episode of Paradise. I started getting Man In the High Castle vibes last week, and they grew stronger with this episode. Unsure how I feel about that, except to say I'm leaning toward disappointment. A very moving episode last night, and I liked it. The themes were refreshing. Also felt a lot like The Last of Us, which isn't a criticism so much as a feeling that the writers are borrowing pretty liberally.
After that, another episode of Will Trent, which is a pretty unusual series. It doesn't always work, but it keeps you engaged. I like the characters and the actors, so it's been our nightly go-to.
I guess we got started a little early because Trent ended a little before nine, so we spent several minutes watching cat videos on YouTube and laughing our asses off.
Let me say that I think that's a fine way to end the day.
And a good spot to end this post.
It goes on.
The beat.
✍️ Reply by emailTotally Winging It
07:08 Monday, 2 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 9.91°F Pressure: 1039hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 0.65mph
Words: 172
Add this to your existential dread bucket, Trump is totally winging it with war on Iran.
The guy doesn't have a plan. I think Netanuyahu has been flattering him, blowing warm smoke up his ass, and Trump is desperate to get Epstein out of the news cycle, so why not start a little war?
Why has there been no coherent messaging from the administration to the American people over the weekend? A big part of it may be that they simply feel unaccountable to the American people. But I think the larger part is that they don't know what to say. There is no plan, no strategy. They're totally winging it.
And China can count. I'm certain the Chinese military is counting the ordinance expended on Trump's little "wag the dog," exercise, and revising its calculations on when to seize Taiwan.
I admit that I'm a catastrophist, a "glass half-empty" kind of guy. But that's only because I'm so relieved when I'm wrong.
The world grows more dangerous day by day.
✍️ Reply by emailComm Check Sat
06:52 Monday, 2 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 9.05°F Pressure: 1039hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 0.65mph
Words: 173
Receiving you five by five, Jacob.
Did a little maintenance to the marmot yesterday, correcting all the PublicationDate attributes from the unexpected and unexplained time shift. On This Day in the marmot posts should now be aligned with their canonical html pages.
I'm thinking about trying to use Claude code to clean up the Groundhog Day file, and then creating some automation to automatically post the On This Day in Groundhog Day. It requires more manual intervention than I care to do day to day. And I'm certain that every post that contained an image is irretrievably broke. Even in the marmot, I'm unable to recover some of the images I posted, apparently later finding they weren't worth keeping in the Photos library.
That just gave me an idea. I should tag every image I post in Photos, and create an album with them all in them so I don't delete them in the future, in case I ever need to find them again.
Anyway, glad to see you blogging with Tinderbox, Jacob!
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07:32 Sunday, 1 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 19.51°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 11.61mph
Words: 231
I had insomnia on Friday night, so I was awake when I saw the BBC report that Trump had announced an attack on Iran. And so I just got out of bed and spent the rest of the night trying to follow events in the Middle East. Reporting was scant at best. At about 0530, I got in the recliner and napped for an hour because we were scheduled for a session with our personal trainer at 0800.
We went. I worked out. Went home and continued doom-scrolling.
There is so much to say about this, but I think the single most relevant thing to me, and citizens of the United States, is that Trump continues to act as a dictator. This is a grotesque, unconstitutional abuse of power. But it just gets swallowed up in the maelstrom of intentional chaos surrounding this administration.
Bear that in mind when you read this report from Politico.
Trump will attempt to cancel, subvert, overturn or otherwise thwart the mid-term elections. DHS's "detention centers" and "deportation camps," will be used to incarcerate citizens rounded up in mass arrests.
I don't know how to stop him. Congress sure won't. I'm not confident he'd follow any orders from the Supreme Court, assuming a relevant case could be brought before them in time.
This is going to happen.
This gets worse before it gets better.
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