Moon, Venus and Mars

17:59 Monday, 23 February 2015
Words: 100

Tried to post this at The Online Photographer in response to a query on his blog whether anyone had taken a good photo of the Moon, Venus and Mars. I don't know how to link in TypePad comments, so I'll just post it here.

Movie Notes

18:18 Monday, 23 February 2015
Words: 532

I should make a category for this sort of thing. Maybe I'll call it, "Movie Notes."

Anyway, moving on.

I saw Still Alice last week at a special showing for the Alzheimer's Association, Central and North Florida Chapter. I wrote a bit of a long post on Facebook, which I shall not repeat here, about how Alzheimer's has become more of a part of my life. (Not me, at least not that I'm aware anyway! And no one in my immediate family.) The movie is good, but I understand the book was better. Julianne Moore gave a wonderful performance, basically carried most of the movie. I'm pleased she got the Oscar. It's worth seeing, but it's very sad, and a story that is being told in too many families.

In happier news, Mitzi and I saw St. Vincent last weekend. It's the kind of role that you have to believe was written for Bill Murray. Maybe it was. Maybe everybody already knows that except me! I don't know. You've seen this movie before, but this is one is pretty damn good and will hold your interest. It's not utterly sentimental, but it'll leave you with a good feeling. Jaeden Lieberher as Oliver, the kid, is excellent.

We also saw Lucy. Utter bullshit from Luc Besson, but hey, it had Scarlett Johansson and some entertaining special effects. I kind of liked it, though I had to grit my teeth through the premise and Morgan Freeman's seemingly endless recitation of sophomoric nonsense about "the brain." It was kind of like The Fifth Element, only not as much fun.

John Wick is a fun "gun-fu" action flick. If you don't like violence, as in people getting repeatedly shot in the face, then probably best to give it a pass. But if you like comic-book style action, think Shoot 'Em Up, (which was, admittedly, a farce) then you'll probably like this. And I pretty much like Keanu Reeves in anything. Sue me.

The Equalizer was a disappointment. I liked the 80s TV show it was based on, this is nothing like it. Denzel Washington is looking a bit thick these days. He's seemingly invulnerable in this. The Russian mob guys are the worst sort of evil. The violence is over-the-top graphic. Man on Fire is a much better movie with a similar plot and a Denzel we actually care about. Unless you're really into this sort of action movie, or a big Denzel fan, I'd say give it a pass.

Fading Gigolo was something of a surprise from a couple of years ago. Written, directed and starring John Turturro, and Woody Allen, I thought it was going to be a farce. Instead, it was a quiet little comedic drama. It helped that Mitzi is Jewish and helped me understand the context. Recommended.

We also watched a few classics over the weekend. Erin Brockovich holds up well. I hadn't seen it in years and enjoyed seeing it again. True Crime was new to me. I think Clint Eastwood cast all his old friends in that movie, there were so many familiar character actors! It was okay, not great.

That's probably enough for now.

This Just In...

19:33 Monday, 23 February 2015
Words: 19

In blogging news, Dr. James Vornov is returning to more active blogging as related in this post!

Happy days!

My New Toy

18:20 Thursday, 23 February 2023

Current Wx: Temp: 85.57°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 51% Wind: 14.97mph
Words: 295

I should probably set this up and do a glamour shot with a "real" camera, but I wanted to do a quick post. This is a Panasonic RF-2200 multi-band radio, as mentioned recently.

Arrived this afternoon. I'm afraid the seller didn't package it very well. It rattled when I removed it from the box with the thin amount of bubble wrap. Three plastic stand-offs had broken off in the cabinet. They don't seem to be essential, I believe they just offer more rigidity to the cabinet. I'll glue them back into place if I have to.

The SW band switch knob is present, it just doesn't remain firmly on the shaft. I believe I can fix that as well. It has to be removable though, to service the radio.

I put four D-cells in it and tried it out in the backyard. Got reception on all bands except SW1, likely because it was nearly noon.

A gent on eBay offers a re-capping service specifically for these radios. Opinions differ on the necessity for re-capping, but I'm persuaded that it would be money well spent on this radio, so I'm going to have it performed.

The good news on this particular radio is that the AM ferrite bar antenna locks into place, and rotates smoothly with a satisfying ticking sound. The whip was photographed as extremely bent in the listing, but I was able to correct most of that. The interior of the cabinet is clean with no evidence of corrosion or battery leakage. Could probably do with having some dust blown out.

I'm excited to have this radio, and look forward to listening to it.

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The Insomnia Drafts

10:12 Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 67.78°F Pressure: 1004hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 18.41mph
Words: 1085

I received a reply to the feedback I offered on the event I attended on Saturday.

In the email I sent, I was very critical of the manner in which some information was presented to those in attendance. Not to be too elliptical, NFLT received some $400M in state revenue to purchase land or conservation easements. That was an astonishing amount of money for an organization that, to my knowledge, normally operated with an annual budget that was less than 5% of that figure.

Ordinarily, this would be good news. It wasn't the news, per se, it was the anecdotal account of the reaction to receiving it.

After describing the degree to which the president is connected in Tallahassee, one of the officials that accompanied him described the gales of laughter in the car on the drive back from Tallahassee, saying that he felt like they had made out "like pirates." After this official inexplicably offered his annual report in the form of a number of very bad haikus, the president corrected him and said that they'd "made out like privateers, and therefore, legal."

I had a visceral reaction to this. The program continued, and I couldn't immediately put my finger on what was so revolting about it.

It was on the ride home when Mitzi and I discussed that part of the program, her reaction was similar, that I was able to put my finger on it.

What was clear to me was that I had witnessed an account of the culture of cronyism in Tallahassee. Paul Renner, Speaker of the Florida House, represents a district in north Florida, not far from here. It was clear to me that this was a means of securing a legislative legacy for himself that is somewhat more redeeming than a record of performative legislation supporting Ron DeSantis' presidential ambitions, promoting division through culture wars, voter suppression and attacking marginalized citizens. All of that might be overlooked one day, given the unprecedented amount of money he was able to deliver to conserve undeveloped land in the region.

This is the same legislature that has steadfastly refused to expand Medicaid for more than a decade, leaving tens of thousands of Floridians without health insurance, and leaving billions of federal dollars on the table, which would go a long way toward alleviating many of the staffing challenges Florida is facing in its healthcare industry. (Florida faces a growing litany of challenges. "Parental rights" and "stop woke" not being among them.)

In any event, by the time I got home, I was angry and almost immediately began to write an email to the organization.

But I decided to sleep on it, and see if I still felt as strongly in the morning. Anger is a feeling, and feelings pass.

As these things go, I woke in the wee hours, still angry, and began composing the email in my head even as I tried to go back to sleep. Unlike the last time this happened, I didn't get up and just go write.

Well, I'm not sure it helped. It was the first thing I wrote that day, and I did go over the draft several times, trying to temper my remarks. Basically it followed the outlines of what I've related above, and that I found it inappropriate to the point of being offensive that they would relate this story to the members in attendance. I could go on at length about what that suggests to me, but I didn't and I won't.

Yesterday evening, about 36 hours later, I received a reply from the president. It was a lengthy, densely written piece that mostly defended his background and character, offered some flattery toward me and an invitation to get together over coffee someday. He did include a scattershot explanation of the nature of the $400M appropriation. (It was so large that before I wrote the email I was doubting that I'd heard the official correctly, and I had to do some online searching to learn that indeed, that was the correct amount.)

I think I expected one of three things in the way of response, ranked in increasing order of probability: A "You're right, we blew it. We'll do better next time. Thanks." Or, silence. Or, something along the lines of what I received, which never addressed the fundamental criticism.

My sister-in-law is still with us for a couple of more weeks. She's a social worker with a lot of experience. She said he was defending himself because he felt attacked.

I guess when you're at the top of an org chart for as long as this guy has been, when you walk the halls of power with a constellation of political luminaries (as dim as those may be), when you're feeling pretty full of yourself for landing a $400M appropriation, you're probably not accustomed to being criticized, and that it likely did feel like an attack.

So last night's insomnia was about my reply.

This is it.

Judy mentioned that I wasn't going to change him, and I know she's right. There's little point in responding to him directly.

The North Florida Land Trust does do important work that I support. The president was, as I understand it, specifically recruited for his connections to replicate the success he had in south Florida. He is a political animal, and this is the nature of the political ecology, and reality, in Florida.

I'm an insignificant donor. If I decide not to give to NFLT this year, the money will go to a similar organization doing related work.

If I remain a member, I don't think that I'll ever attend another annual meeting. What would be the point?

In an ideal world, receiving an appropriation of that magnitude would be a humbling experience. It would suggest a degree of trust and confidence in an organization's ability and integrity that, to me, might cause me to feel some trepidation. Gratitude, certainly, but a lot of humility too. And it would sober me, knowing the scale of the opportunity cost. That there are many deserving and underserved needs in Florida that will go on being underserved because that money was given to one mission.

I think there should be some awareness, some acknowledgement of that. And that any public mention of the appropriation would be made with the degree of sobriety that that awareness should engender.

But I don't live in an ideal world.

I live in Florida.

"We made out like pirates!"

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Let's See If This Works...

14:32 Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 68.23°F Pressure: 1001hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 13mph
Words: 378

Test post from the 14" M3 MBP. I already know I have a problem with my Automator application that handles the photo export.

I decided to try something different in order to make the switch between the iMac and the MBP easier. I set applications to close windows when quitting. I'm using iCloud for my Documents folder on both the iMac and MBP. The iMac has "Optimize Storage" turned on, since it only has a 1TB SSD. The MBP has a 2TB SSD, so I'm not turning that on.

Prior to this, I'd had the Marmot TBX located outside of Documents on the iMac, along with the Nice Marmot Exports folder (which gets sync'ed to the server). These folders were automatically sync'ed to a 64GB thumb drive (far larger than necessary). The idea was I'd just pull the thumb drive and plug it into the MBP and then mirror the same setup here.

Then I thought I'd just try and used Documents in iCloud as it's kind of intended to be used.

So I got all my scripts and automation set up over here and tried to post a photo from Photos to the marmot. The Photos to TBX part works, but the actual image export to the Images folder in the 2024 archive failed, because the file path is obviously different now that I'm using iCloud instead of a dedicated folder outside of Documents.

I've been futzing with trying to get that portion of the Automator application working. It requires running a little AppleScript that moves the image from the one place that you can use Automator to export from Photos to (a new folder each time in your Pictures folder in your User directory).

Apparently there's some secret incantation to get AppleScript to talk to a Documents folder in iCloud.

Why can't anything be easy? Isn't it Apple's job to simply abstract all these details away? Shouldn't a folder just be a folder, whether it's in iCloud or on my SSD? One of the reasons why I sometimes don't enjoy trying to automate things, "program" my computer.

Anyway, I'm taking a break from scratching my head about that and this is to just see if the vanilla export and sync works.

Keep your fingers crossed. 🤞

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Success

14:51 Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 68.04°F Pressure: 1001hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 171

Okay, the basic export and sync work. Huzzah! I had to delete my "favorite" sync setup in Forklift 4, because I've moved the files into Documents. The fact that they're in iCloud didn't seem to bother it.

I may abandon the AppleScript piece of the Automator app and see if I can accomplish the same thing with Hazel.

In other Apple frustrations, I thought I set up Apple Music to store my library on the SSD in the MBP. By which I mean, I thought it would go ahead and download all my music. It hasn't, so I spent some number of frustrating and wasted minutes looking for a command somewhere to tell Music to download all my music, which doesn't seem to exist. So I've just been tapping on nearly invisible down arrows on images of Albums.

I don't know why anyone would love Apple anymore. They're just another greedy corporation that doesn't really care about the people using their products.

Now to futz about with Hazel. Wish me luck.

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Twilight on the Intracoastal Waterway

15:18 Friday, 23 February 2024

Current Wx: Temp: 68.2°F Pressure: 1001hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 98

Sorta kinda works.

The problem right now is that the folder the image is moved to is hard-coded in the Automator action. I started futzing with Hazel and then went back to Automator. The AppleScript it ran was just to set the file path for the Images folder by constructing it with the current year from the computer's clock.

If I just select the folder as I'm building the Automator action, there's no problem with it being in iCloud.

I'll figure it out later. For now, it works well enough to demo if I need to tomorrow.

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Coincidence

15:32 Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 74.71°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 64% Wind: 18.41mph
Words: 451

Coincidences are either just happy accidents, or maybe a clue that you're on the right path. Toward what? Who knows? Your next life maybe.

Anyway, because I have a short attention span, I got attracted to an idea that I had while building the Tinderbox Blog Test Platform, and that was a daily log. Now, "daily notes" have been a topic of conversation in the PKM/Blogging/Outliner/Text files fetishist community for a long time. For the most part, I didn't see their relevance for me. I'm retired, I don't do much (by choice), and I just didn't experience the attraction.

But I do enjoy looking back in the marmot and recalling some events. There are some chores I perform that I have some hazy recollection of the last time I did them. There are things I think about that I don't post in the marmot that might deserve the "see what I think" treatment in a kind of journal.

So, my "Captain's Log" idea was born. In my hyperphantasic internal experience, when I read the words "Captain's Log," I "hear" them in William Shatner's voice. Not a volitional thing, just some phrases are encoded with actors' voices. "Little buddy," is always the Skipper. "Work!" is always Maynerd G. Krebs. I still hear my therapist ask, "David, what's going on inside you." It's exciting in my head, when it's not a nightmare. ("Who knows? Your next life maybe," sounds like the Oracle.)

I digress.

So the idea is to have a Tinderbox that exists to keep a chronological record of ideas, thoughts, events, interactions and so on that may have some utility in later recall. Something quick and easy to do, though longer-form text entries, a la "blog posts," are contemplated as well.

I put together the basic outline and then thought I could re-purpose some AppleScript from the marmot to make it possible to make an entry in any app I happened to be in, without switching to Tinderbox. That sorta-almost worked, and last night I asked for some help at the Tinderbox Forum at Eastgate Systems.

Help was quickly delivered, and I'm happy to report that I have a nice little Quick Action that I can summon from Mail or Safari to record a quick log entry. I don't know how much text you can enter in an AppleScript dialog box, but I don't need much I think.

Anyway, to the title of this post. Shortly after getting the QA up and running, thanking everyone involved and asking another question, I started going through my RSS feed where I happened upon this post.

And laughed out loud. Are we on the same frequency or something?

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Further to the Foregoing

16:18 Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.76°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 125

I wondered how much text I could paste into that little one-line dialog box you get from AppleScript. Turns out, more than will fit in that little slot.

I copied a fair amount of text from a web page, invoked the QA, pasted the text into the Entry field and didn't get an error. I also couldn't see the text. I hit return and got the notification from Automator, "Logged it!"

Switched to Tinderbox, and there it was in the $Text field. All the text I'd selected. I turned on the WordCount attribute and made it a KeyAttribute of the p_Entry prototype. 58 words were pasted into $Text. That's a pretty fair amount, I think.

Having too much fun. I should rest. 😜

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Spring is in the air

10:51 Sunday, 23 February 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 63.75°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 193

Just a brief update I'm meeting my son and grandson at a local place that is something of a science fiction/toy museum. They have a Gort, B9 and Robby the Robot there, and I need to check them out. Photos to follow.

Took the OM-1 out with me with the 12-200 mounted. Not my lightest rig. Did not experience any pain or discomfort between my shoulder blades. I attribute this to better fitness since starting strength training. Could be wrong.

Lots of robins and cedar waxwings flocking about. While the 12-200 does give me greater reach than the 14-150, it's not so great as to be a good "birding" lens. While I'm certain of the 14-150's sharpness, I'm somewhat uncertain about the 12-200's at 200mm. It's certainly "good enough," for the kind of shooting I do, but I'd like to see how much detail in can resolve. This isn't a great shot for that, I have a better one but it didn't lend itself to a "Spring" title.

Time to check in with Mom, then head down to the beach to meet the boys.

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Very Cool

17:19 Sunday, 23 February 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 60.91°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 280

So this is where I spent part of this afternoon. Very cool collection of toys, with a concentration of early post-war Japanese metal toys. I put an album up on Flickr.

We all enjoyed it. It's in kind of a small building off of A1A in Ponte Vedra Beach, it's called the Bilotta Collection. We had a semi-private tour from the owner, there was only one other guest. Fascinating discussion about the toys themselves, collecting, auction bids and so on. I didn't photograph everything, but most of it.

It's foolish, perhaps, to think of the post-war years as a "more innocent" time, especially in Japan. But these do seem to harken back to a more optimistic moment, after years of suffering and violence. Anyway, it was a fun way to spend an hour or so this afternoon, followed by a couple slices of pizza at Al's just down A1A.

My grandson was very well behaved. He loved the toys, wasn't so much interested in the large robots. They have a small gift shop, I bought him a Robby the Robot toy, which seems like it may have been made by the same company that made a Lost In Space B9 that I bought over 30 years ago and gave to my son just over a year ago when I was trying to get rid of stuff. Same scale, similar action features.

This place has been here a couple of years, but I'd never heard of it until Mitzi went to it as part of an adult life-long learning group that visited it last week. She said I'd love it, and she was right.

She usually is.

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Cool? Fool?

12:30 Monday, 23 February 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 26.98°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 17.56mph
Words: 502

Just read Cory Doctorow's post for today.

From time to time, I read something that makes me happy to be (getting) old.

For young people, "the only things that have the level of scarcity and danger required to be seen as cool" are "whatever is unacceptable on those platforms." In other words, anything (and maybe only things) that're blocked or banned are a candidate to be cool. Cool people walk away from the places where you'd expect to find them and hang out in places that are culturally viewed as less important.

Not being culturally "literate," I don't think I ever had to seriously think about what "cool" meant. I didn't have to exhibit "ironic distance." Or, I don't think I did. I mean, I was a white, lower-middle class kid who went on to a career in the military. Doesn't really register on the "cool" meter. Unless you're a SEAL or an F-18 pilot, maybe.

But things were "cool." Computers, cameras, stereos, my Fiat X1/9. And that was often a function of design, more than "danger."

But I guess Doctorow believes that "cool" emerges only from the "counter-culture."

(A lot of hard-"c" alliteration forthcoming.)

Capitalistic consumerism captured counter-culture to commodify it for consumption.

It was inevitable.

And it's never going to change unless and until we "deplatform" capitalism. It's all about the money.

That problem is likely to take care of itself in the next decade or so. At least temporarily.

I don't see things as "cool" anymore. Some experiences, maybe. But consumer products have gradually lost their appeal for me. We have to look backward for "cool" design these days. Strip-mining the past to gild everything in "retro" design.

I'm watching a lot of new home construction videos, and I wonder who these content creators think their audience is? Well, I guess they may instinctively "know." It's the folks on the upper stroke of the k-shaped economy.

I'd say there's an audience for people like us, who have a modest budget, to learn about clever design features. New products that are useful and reliable. Instead we get guided tours of people with $50K of networking equipment and devices wired into their home so that when you close the door to the baby's room, the lights dim, the sound machine (probably a track played from a remote device over wireless speakers) begins the soothing white noise, while the automatic window shades slowly lower.

How did anyone ever put their kid down for a nap before?!

It's genuinely awful. Especially the way the presenter giddily describes it, and says he needs it for his own room.

To take naps.

So there's a couple of advantages to getting old. One is "cool" being something genuinely irrelevant to my life, Cory's post likewise. And there's also the cheery thought that I won't be around too much longer to have to watch and read about this ongoing reality shit-show.

So I got that goin' for me.

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