Success
05:19 Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 60.67°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 83% Wind: 1.01mph
Words: 703
This morning, no AppleScript error complaining it couldn't find $Text. Everything "just worked." Tuesday was created, Midwatch was created and the Calendar event summary was already in the text of the note.
Pretty cool.
To summarize: Formerly, a Month container would check the date, and if today's date was still the same month as the container it would create a note for today's date. That was in an $Edict, which runs once an hour or so, and if today's note already existed, it did nothing.
A note for a Day container would be based on the p_Day prototype, which contained an $Edict that ran ran a Function called fMakeMidwatch, which would create a new note for the first entry of each new day, the Midwatch entry. (Typically ran about 1:00 a.m., so, close enough.)
The Midwatch note was based on the p_Midwatch prototype, which contained in its Edict a runCommand action, that ran an Automator application that used Automator to query Calendar in MacOS for the next three days' events, and an AppleScript that then added those events to the $Text of the Midwatch note.
So each Day container had an $Edict that was enabled to create Midwatch for that day, and each Midwatch entry contained an $Edict that ran the Automator application (a workflow saved as an application) called MidwatchEntry (Which is saved in Applications, not on my Desktop, so let's document that Rogers!). So an $Edict had to be checked for each month, each day and each Midwatch entry, and those Midwatch $Edicts were reaching out to talk to other applications by Unix (runCommand) and Apple Events (Not to be confused with new product press reveals.). The last of these adding significant processing overhead to the file.
The result was that, from time to time, I'd be working in the marmot, Tinderbox would beep and my cursor would disappear for about a second. Just long enough to be intrusive and perhaps interrupt a train of thought. Or what passes for "thought" here.
Not optimal.
My first thought was to disable all $Edicts after they'd run. In may Tinderbox uses, an $Edict performs a regular function of some kind, probably related to housekeeping. It probably works internally with Action Code, which is pretty lightweight, and so dozens or hundreds of $Edicts don't really cause Tinderbox to break a sweat. But reaching out to the OS via Unix and Apple Events introduces latencies that become noticeable as their number increases.
Easy peasy, disable the $Edicts after they did their thing. And that's one of the things Mark Bernstein helped me with on Sunday. Just add a conditional to the start of the Action Code in the $Edict, and don't run it if it's already done its thing and disable the $Edict, so even the conditional doesn't have to be checked a second time.
But that eventually becomes a lot of inert code in a file, adding size if nothing else. Mark suggested using an $OnAdd action, which by design will run only once. I'd considered that, but not thoroughly enough. The relevant container for the $OnAdd function wasn't a Day container, but a Month container.
So when a Month created a new day, its $OnAdd code would run the function fMakeMidwatch, eliminating that $Edict from each new Day.
Mark had the additional insight to add the runCommand code to the function, which meant that immediately after a day's Midwatch entry was created, the Automator Application MidwatchEntry would run and populate the $Text of the note with the event summary.
No $Edict required. No condition checking. No disabling an $Edict. No code in the $Edict attribute of every day and every Midwatch entry.
We talked about it and I added considering it in comments to the function. Comments in Action Code are preceded by "//", in AppleScript they're "--", don't get confused.
So yesterday, I took those suggestions and tried to implement them, but wouldn't be certain of the results until today, after they'd had a chance to run in the normal course of events.
And I'm going to copy and paste this note into Captain's Log as a "Change:" note, to document it.
It's 0557, and I'm going for a walk.
✍️ Reply by emailCrush the Shadows
Current Wx: Temp: 61.66°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 0mphWords: 88
Light was off in the library at the clubhouse. Wouldn't have been as nice a shot. Plus, I'd meant to bring the E-P7 and try it with one of its built-in B&W profiles.
Anyway, grabbed a couple of snapshots while I was focused on keeping my heart rate up. I liked this. Probably a nothing shot, but I liked it.
Next a shower and then a maintenance check with my physician.
✍️ Reply by emailCheck Sat
09:54 Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 73.11°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 90
Doc said, "I wish all my patients were like you."
At this rate, I'm going to live long enough to die in the apocalypse.
So I got that goin' for me.
Yeah, all the numbers were solid, even weight was down, though I'm still obese. BP 100/67, which I think is a glitch in the machine. It's not that low.
Anyhow, to reward my superior performance, I bought a celebratory pint of Ben & Jerry's Americone Dream and ate it for breakfast. It's a retired guy thing.
Take that, apocalypse!
✍️ Reply by emailLearn Something New Every Day
10:05 Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 73.29°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 80
I've had this Makita LED work light for many years. It comes in super-handy when you're working under a sink or a desk. You can set it on the floor and angle the light up to wherever you need it.
What I never knew was that the damn thing rotates as well! I've just been angling it up or down to whatever degree I needed, but rotating it adds another dimension.
Ordered another one.
Probably should start reading manuals.
✍️ Reply by emailDo They Breed?
14:40 Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 82.83°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 51% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 411
Well, I can actually see much of the top of the workbench. Less than half, but much more than before.
And, I discovered yet another rat's nest of USB cables! Save your twist ties, boys and girls. They come in handy. I already have a shoebox full of them, separated by type into ziplock baggies. For now, I'm satisfied that this new batch is untangled and wrapped. I'll get them into their respective bags later.
But, seriously, I thought I went through the garage a year ago and pulled all the USB cables out of the various storage containers we were consolidating and reorganizing. Where did these come from?
In another sign of advancing age, I spent part of the afternoon using my Dymo LabelManager 160 labeling my various power banks by capacity and power delivery. It's all printed on the devices already, in tiny low-contrast text that's impossible to read! I generally know which ones can do power delivery, but how much? Now I don't have to guess.
Same thing with the USB C power supplies. Which revealed that I can't seem to find the one that came with the 14" M3 MBP. It's either around here somewhere, or it's in San Diego with Mitzi. Not really an issue for now. I recharged it last night using the USB C port on the Bluetti EB3A, which didn't spin up its fan to do it either, even though it's rated at 100W PD, same as the AC70. I've also got a 60W and 65W Anker power supply, in addition to the 60W one that came with the 13" M1 MBP. So I'm fine for the trip up to Mom's on Thursday.
I've been watching Fallout. I'm halfway through and I'd say it's... Meh. I'd like to know what advanced energy technology this post-apocalyptic world is using to keep all those Pip-boys and powered armor suits running. I know, "Willing suspension of disbelief," and all that. But it's mostly just a cartoon with excessive gore. I don't really care for, or about, any of the characters. But somebody spent a lot of money to make it, so "serious people" have to write "seriously" about it.
It's a cartoon. Not even a comic book, let alone a "graphic novel." A post-apocalypse Tom and Jerry, or Coyote and Road Runner. Chop her finger off? Oh, horrible! Oh, just stick another one on. Sorry. Spoilers.
Anyway, something to pass the time.
✍️ Reply by emailJust a Reminder
19:04 Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.51°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 4mph
Words: 36
Don't plan to move to Florida. For the moment, much of the risk of living here is subsidized by the federal government. But that's starting to change, as it should.
And folks aren't happy about it.
✍️ Reply by emailJust Killing Time
19:08 Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.51°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 4mph
Words: 445
The sun's shining in the front door, so I'm going to wait a little while before I try to watch TV. Figure I'll watch a couple more episodes of Fallout and then read a bit.
I periodically re-read my posts in NetNewsWire, because I'll pick up errors that I missed in Tinderbox or the web page. I don't know why. But re-reading the post about multiplying USB cables, I realize I may have left the impression that I don't know what Fallout is based on. I do know. In fact, one of the original versions, maybe the first one, was available on the Mac and I had it. I never got out of the cave. So, yeah, I know it's a game adaptation, like The Last of Us.
Unlike Fallout, that adaptation came from a game with a genuine storyline and characters you could care about. Fallout just feels like a cash grab. High production values, but otherwise empty. Like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Speaking of re-reading posts in NetNewsWire, a correspondent reported that the RSS link was broken. At first, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, since it was working just fine in NetNewsWire. I just stumbled on it, after recalling his report as I was writing this.
When I deleted my Mastodon account, I tried to delete it from the sidebar on the marmot.
Somehow, that got fouled up and the rss link pointed to the Mastodon account.
All fixed now, for this month. I may use BBEdit and search & replace (delete) that link in all the pages it appears in. But I'm lazy and, well, I may not.
But the rss link should be fine going forward. Thanks, Richard!
I'm still reading Takeover, about the six months before Hitler took power. (It's really more than six months, but it focuses on that period as the narrative structure.) I'm reading it in my little Kindle device, and I decided to read that manual today, to see what I wasn't taking advantage of. I emailed myself some highlights. Seems useful.
The book is very good, but the author likes to leap back years or months to provide context for events occurring in the main timeline, and it can get confusing. It's another book, especially as an ebook, that would benefit from a timeline.
While Germany was a parliamentary system, with many parties, there are still so many profound parallels to the circumstances we find ourselves in today.
And in other news, I found the 14" M3 MBP charger, plugged into the power strip behind the recliner where I left it. It's a 70W device, now labeled as such.
✍️ Reply by emailThis Morning's Moon 4-16-25
06:06 Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.39°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 64% Wind: 5.75mphWords: 121
I've only found one local protest for Saturday and it's at a local outdoor shopping mall. Limited space, so everyone will be spread out along the grassy areas between the sidewalk and the street. The group that's organizing it is unfamiliar to me, so I'm not sure if I'm going to participate.
Leaving shortly to get blood drawn for my checkup next week, so I'm just killing time. They open at 7.
Checked the cameras at Winterfell yesterday afternoon. The one looking out the window recorded two deer in the front yard, and later two sprinting across the lawn while a third one stood near the road. Also recorded a pretty intense thunderstorm the night before.
Anyway, the beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailYesterday Morning's Guests
07:56 Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.88°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 3mph
Words: 73
Let's see if this works.
✍️ Reply by emailNot Long After
07:59 Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.88°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 3mph
Words: 77
Does raise some interesting questions about maintaining a vegetable garden.
✍️ Reply by emailPassing the Time
13:18 Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 74.32°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 33% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 864
Blood was successfully drawn, after an administrative interrogation I hadn't anticipated. Not the check-in clerk's fault, and I suppose it exists to reduce Baptist Health's error rate; but it's irritating to be asked question after question, and present three documents just to receive service for a program you're already enrolled in.
How much do they expect things to change for retirees on Medicare? Don't answer that. After DOGE gets through, we may not have Medicare anymore.
Stopped by Publix on the way home, bought bananas and since Ithaca Black Bean Hummus was still on sale, I bought another tub of that. (So good.) Then came home and tried to re-orient myself to the rest of my day.
I decided it was time to start really clearing out the office. So I removed a funky galvanized pipe shelf unit the realtor suggested we take down, and the wall mounted 32" TCL TV, which hasn't seen any use since I removed the Nintendo consoles.
I found a box that was big enough to take the TV mounting bracket, and also the pipes for the shelf. The shelves themselves I put in front of the TV Screen (two were enough to cover the whole screen, so the third was just in the middle) and wrapped the whole thing in that polyester cling-wrap stuff. I'll probably add some additional packing protection, but it's good for now.
Pro-tip: Pipe insulation is a fantastic material for protecting things you're packing. Not especially cheap, but it's not expensive and it's reusable for a variety of purpose.
Now I've got a bunch of holes to spackle and some paint to apply. I haven't looked out in the garage to see what kind of condition the standby container of spackle is in. We don't use it very often. Then there's a can nearly six-year old paint I need to stir and hope for the best.
Tomorrow I'll either mow the lawn or tackle the spackle, and try and get the rest of my stuff out of the office, sorted into "north" and "south" piles.
I've got some stuff in the bedroom. Clothes, mostly. A nightstand that is mostly a junk drawer. The closet also has all my camera bags, an assortment of backpacks, waist packs, slings and suitcases. One backpack is configured as a kind of go-bag. Same drill - north and south.
The big challenge is the garage. Fortunately, it's air conditioned, although dim. If the weather is nice I can leave the door open and welcome the additional light. I've got one of those giant Husky rolling tool cabinet/workbenches, and I'm pretty ambivalent about it.
As a workbench it's fairly useless, but you can raise it and there's some storage beneath the top. If you're careful, you could mount a vise on it. I have a chunk of birch plywood that I insert beneath the bench top and crank it down to hold it. That allows me to sit and be closer to the work.
The drawers are nice, and it can hold a lot of stuff. ("Stuff abhors a vacuum, so it accumulates to fill the available space.") I think I paid over $1K for the thing. I want to sell it, Mitzi thinks we should keep it. If we keep it, it's going into storage and then we'll have to move it. The thing weighs several hundred pounds, but it's on wheels. If I sold it, I'd worry about how the buyer would get it out of here without hurting themselves. It came bolted onto a pallet and it was a pain in the ass to get it off the pallet and the wheels bolted to it.
Anyway, tools, north and south too. Probably mentioned that already. But I figure if I can get all the north stuff boxed up and stashed in the garage, I'll have a pretty good idea if I can make it in one trip. I'm pretty sure the answer is no.
The bikes are probably staying here. We don't have a bike rack, and they occupy a great deal of volume for so little weight. We live in the hills, so I don't think we're going to be missing biking, though the Swytch motor on mine might make it feasible.
It just occurred to me this morning that Mitzi has said we're taking the fridge with us, it's not conveying like everything else. And she's said that in the context that it'll fit in the little house, as if it's going to make the trip north with us. I think we need to kind of resolve that.
Anyway, getting pretty close now. I will not miss Florida. I may feel differently about it in the winter, but this is an awful place in most other respects. I think folks who would otherwise object make certain accommodations in return for no state income tax and warm winters. Florida has been two states for quite some time now, one for the privileged and the other ignored. Except Florida's government is now targeting the marginalized among the ignored. Performative cruelty is accepted here. Expected, even.
No. I will not miss it.
✍️ Reply by emailRock 'n Robin
Current Wx: Temp: 67.5°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 8.77mphWords: 248
Lightning struck a tree near our next-door neighbor's house. It blew a lot of bark and small limbs off and traveled along a limb and struck a smaller tree or bush, setting it on fire. No open flame was visible, but it was smoking pretty well. Fire department came along and dealt with it somehow. Put a few pics up on Flickr.
This robin remained perched while I cracked the back door open and stuck the 100-400mm lens out. It's not a great shot, but I liked the composition. Light could have been better, but it's a bit cloudy today.
Did a little searching and found I'd bought this 14" M3 MBP back in February of 2024. I was mistaken about what I'd paid for it, conflating it with my, now sold, 2019 27" iMac. The M5 is coming in at about the same price (refurbished), although it has an additional performance and efficiency core, 8GB more RAM and (something I failed to notice at first) an additional USB-C port on the side with the SD card slot. So I'd say it's a pretty solid upgrade and value for the money. Whether or not I genuinely needed it is another question I'd rather not think about too much.
The M5 is supposed to arrive in the next few hours by UPS. The last time UPS delivered something to me, they delivered it to my neighbor's house. Let's see how many ways this can go wrong.
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