A Malignant Indifference to the Suffering of Others
09:23 Sunday, 11 August 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 83.26°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 152
Florida, governed exclusively by the Republican Party for more than a generation, has become two states. One caters exclusively to the privileged, while the other is ignored.
With its embrace of MAGA Trumpism, Florida's malignant indifference to the suffering of others has turned into an intentional effort to inflict suffering. An ideology of cruelty has taken hold, targeting "others" for reasons only the Republican political class understands.
Here is yet another example of how Florida's Republican government intentionally acts to make the lives of its less fortunate citizens more difficult, more uncertain and more painful.
It's infuriating and I'm ashamed and embarrassed to live in this state. I'm tied here because of family, or I'd leave. I have worked to try to change this state, and I continue to support the people who are better able to do that work than I am.
But, let's not talk about politics.
It upsets people.
✍️ Reply by emailLast Night's Sky 8-10-25
Current Wx: Temp: 68.95°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 7.07mphWords: 573
It got warm over the weekend, and we ended up turning on the AC in the evening. Nice sunset last night.
It was a lazy weekend for me, but Mitzi worked on cutting back some vines. I'm going to spend some time in the garage I think, trying to get a few things organized.
Interesting Tinderbox Meetup on Sunday. Mark Bernstein talked about using Git for version control with Tinderbox, a new spatial view for Tinderbox using a building metaphor, and a version in development that allows an AI app like Claude to interact with Tinderbox.
Git seems interesting, but there's a learning curve, and it's kind of an intrusive process. What it does point out is the failure of MacOS's Time Machine and the "versioning" feature of the application API. Now, I recognize the differences between Time Machine snapshots, "versions," and "version control" in Git, but if "versions" (as in "Revert to..." from the File menu) worked as intended, then at least half of the utility of Git would be covered.
I've tried using "Revert to..." many times, and it seldom worked as expected and almost always involved a Tinderbox crash immediately after. The problem probably has something to do with having the Documents folder in iCloud and working on the same file (not at the same time) in two different Macs. I don't know how Git would behave with having the repository stored in iCloud, but the architecture seems a little more robust anyway, from my decidedly uninformed point of view.
I didn't know that Git was built into MacOS, and perhaps there are some automations I could work out using Run Command with a stamp that would make the process less intrusive. I understand that Git is intended to be "intrusive," as in "deliberate," and that one would wish to record certain "meta-data" with a commit to aid in recall as to why you made a certain change, but that only makes sense in the context of your platform architecture, which isn't something you do every day (Unless you're Jack Baty.). But the only reason I've ever had for wanting to restore to a previous version of the marmot, was because I'd added posts on a different machine, opened the marmot on another machine where the local snapshot of the file was opened, which for reasons only Apple knows, hadn't updated to the most recent version stored in iCloud.
I'm only using one machine these days, so I don't think it even matters anymore. Maybe if I was into tinkering with how the marmot works or the CSS or something, it might be more valuable. But I have little talent for tinkering, which is why this blog has changed so little in format and presentation over so many years.
The new view was interesting. But I don't do that much thinking anymore. If thinking made more of a difference, I suppose I'd be inclined to do more of it. (I jest. But jest barely. Heh.)
What's most intriguing is the MCP facility to allow an AI to interact with Tinderbox. I'll be watching that closely because I think it may give me a way to leverage the content of my old blog, Groundhog Day into some new posts. Not to "recycle" that material, but to kind of gather it, distill it and polish it into something coherent.
More to follow, I suppose.
Until then, you know how it goes...
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14:54 Monday, 11 August 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 88.29°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 36% Wind: 7.31mph
Words: 37
The photograph in the preceding post was not from last night. Shame on me for not deleting old photos from the SD card!
We strive for editorial accuracy here at the marmot. We'll try to do better.
✍️ Reply by emailBasement
Current Wx: Temp: 74.59°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 7.7mphWords: 200
It's interesting, the distortions of perception. Dividing up the basement with framing and putting the trusses up, and the sub-flooring above them somehow makes the whole thing feel bigger. I suspect it has something to do with how we orient our bodies in space and infer dimension from the experience of space and the visual cues of walls and surfaces, and how far or near they appear.
Beats me.
But it's not just space, it's time as well. Some things feel as though they're happening fast, while other things feel as though they're happening ever so slowly.
But we're getting there.
I keep thinking that once we get the HVAC solution nailed down, which may involve moving plumbing fixtures, I'll be able to relax. But there'll probably be something else to keep me up at night.
And as we make visible progress, I find myself feeling more anxious to get it finished and moving into a space where I can spread out, have all my books near to hand, my old computers and the space to set them up and play with them.
I'm sure it'll be finished before we know it, and this will all just be memory.
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