Supreme* Court
05:49 Friday, 26 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 65.39°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 245
An antonym of "supreme" is "subordinate," according to the American thesaurus in MacOS.
The conservative majority on this court is "supreme" only in the sense that they warm seats on the highest court in the land. With the possible exception of Roberts, simply because he hasn't made as much news as the others, we have observed their character and they are as deeply flawed, conflicted and compromised as any American.
That isn't a virtue.
We don't want "ordinary" Americans sitting on the bench at the highest court in the land. We want extraordinary ones. These are very mediocre people, extraordinary only in the sense that the politics that put them there was so partisan and petty.
Subordinate to the process that placed them.
One of the disappointments amidst the myriad of tragedies that will accompany the collapse of this civilization is that there will be no history to record the mediocrity and mendacity of these minds. There will be no "judgement of history." Their infidelity and inferiority will be buried in the rubble they helped to create.
Perhaps in a thousand years, when humanity has regained the cognitive surplus to make a serious effort at understanding its past, some glimmer of their corruption may emerge, some record of their names and the decisions they made that hastened the collapse that buried their record for centuries may see the light of history.
“The evil that men do lives after them," until it buries all of us.
✍️ Reply by emailReflections of Privilege
Current Wx: Temp: 69.1°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 3.44mphWords: 650
I didn't walk yesterday. I did bike to the garden and look in on the plants. We have some tomatoes coming in, but the peas look like they're struggling. The pole bean plant is climbing, but no beans yet.
Slept fairly well last night. At least, I didn't wake up at 0300 and struggle to fall back asleep. So I was able to get up shortly before the alarm feeling fairly refreshed. Shot this morning's moon and put that on Flickr. Browsed some of the activity feeds there.
Went through the RSS feeds, read Heather Cox Richardson's post and got exercised, which resulted in a blog post.
Then I took a walk. It was warm, so no vest with a pocket. I put the E-P7 (not the PL7) on my wrist with a Meitu 14-42 compact electronic zoom mounted. It's essentially the Lumix 14-42PZ (power zoom), re-badged for a short-lived brand. Got it for a song, but it's white so it looks kind of odd. I got rid of all my white cameras, though Mitzi has a white E-P5. I figured since the silver mZuiko 14-42EZ had died, I might as well use the Meitu.
The image above is one of the shots. It's a nothing shot, but it made me think.
The lens did draw the eye of the folks I passed.
When I rode my bike yesterday, I recorded it as my workout. When I was in New York, I got on the treadmill at the hotel once and recorded an indoor walk. (Incredibly boring, even with a podcast.) I recall looking for an indoor walk, because I know there are two, outdoor being the other. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I recorded outdoor walks. No problems. Rode my bike yesterday, and this morning I brought my watch up and touched the workout complication and selected what I thought was an outdoor walk.
For some reason, which I can't figure out at all, about a minute after I'd taken this picture, my watch asked me if I was finished with my workout. Now, it'll do this on an outdoor walk if I stop and spend some time taking pictures, offering me the opportunity to "Pause" or to "Dismiss" the query. But I hadn't stopped very long to take the shot, and I was moving pretty quickly when it interrupted me with this question.
Then I noticed that it wasn't recording my pace. It was recording distance, but not my pace. I didn't figure it out right then, I thought something must be wrong with GPS.
Well, when I got home I learned I had somehow selected indoor walk as my workout. As I recall, but can't swear to, the most recent workout is the default choice when selecting the workout complication. So it was probably outdoor bike, but I selected the first "walk" icon I saw. Apparently that was "indoor." Why? I'd done three outdoor walks previously.
I don't know why this happened. I'm so tired of Apple. Stuff works. Then it doesn't. I'm pretty sure it's no better on Android or Windows, and I'm pretty embedded in this ecosystem, but Apple is just disappointing. Size and success have spoiled it. I didn't welcome the interruption on my walk. I didn't want to wonder why it wasn't reporting my pace. I did want to know what my pace was. In hindsight it all makes sense, except why it would offer me an indoor walk at all. I've never done an indoor walk at this location. So much for all that "machine learning" bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.
Old men bitching about newfangled stuff. A tale as old as time.
I have no interest in whatever it is Apple plans to announce on May 7th. I'm reading rumors that MacOS is up for a major UI overhaul soon. I'm like, "Please, no. Just don't."
✍️ Reply by emailWisdom
07:11 Saturday, 26 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 65.43°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 0mph
Words: 511
At certain times in my life, it has seemed as though I was "in the groove." That I inhabited a responsive universe that brought to my attention or awareness something that may have been illuminating, or a clue that I was on the right path. Now, I suppose one could chalk this up to unconscious confirmation bias, but I would disagree. (Of course.)
Where that path was leading, is leading, apart from ultimately to the grave, has never been certain. Only that it seemed right. In the past, it led to my happiness, or at least, a kind of inner peace. Yeah, I'm still a grumpy old man, but the lying inner voice hasn't been repeating, "I hate my life," over and over and over again.
And the things I learned along that part of the journey have been useful to me all along the way ever since.
Anyway, all of that is preamble to something that sparked a bit of joy, that moved me, this morning. I spend too much time on YouTube, but not all of it is wasted. And Google thinks it knows something about me, so "the algorithm" is always throwing things in my face that it thinks I'll click on. It's often right, but it's more often wrong or I'd never leave the site, right? But I guess it's right enough.
I seldom watch videos that are longer than 15 minutes, and I generally watch them at 1.25x or 1.5x. Sometimes a video will appear in the constellation that I want to watch, but I'll click on something else that I want to watch more in that moment, and when I go back to find that other video, it's gone. Sometimes I'll search for it, sometimes it'll reappear, but often I just never see it. (It also leads to me opening them in new tabs, and Safari just becomes a sea of open tabs that threatens to drown this 24GB M3 MBP.)
Anyway, this surfaced few times recently, and it didn't resonate. It was long. I didn't think it would be interesting. I didn't click. And it surfaced again this morning.
The algorithm? Or something about a responsive universe, perhaps? Who knows. Why can't it be both?
The origin of our problems doesn't lie in a lack of knowledge. It's the lack of wisdom. We seem to place a higher value on "knowledge," and almost no value on wisdom. Perhaps because "knowledge" is easier to acquire, or lends itself more readily to exploitation and advantage. To adorn ourselves.
Wisdom is trickier. Harder to get. Doesn't earn the clicks. What does wisdom get you?
Maybe it'd keep your neck out of the hangman's noose.
Anyway, this was worth my time. I think it may be worth yours. You'll know right away if it's not.
✍️ Reply by emailWatching the Clouds Blow By
Current Wx: Temp: 39.04°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 1.45mphWords: 382
I was sitting outside the other day, absorbing some sun and reading my book, when I noticed some sunbeams (crepuscular rays) from the cloud that temporarily blocked my remote, off-site fusion heat-lamp. iPhone shot.
Anyway, I've been making more use of Captain's Log to keep track of all the email and phone calls I've been making regarding the house. It's still early days, but I think this is going to be really handy when things start to get busy.
I've begun using Stage Manager as the basic UI for the MacBook Pro. Keeps things tidy and is usable on this 27" external monitor. I want to change the AppleScripts that support Captain's Log to bring Captain's log to the front after I make an entry from a script. I may or may not get around to that today. That way I can tag the entry and set any reminders right then.
It's possible I could do all that from within the AppleScript itself, but I think this will be easier in the short term. I may revisit the issue later.
I've also created a Tinderbox file for the new house, which is basically structured by all the elements of a house, including the site, the design, foundation, roof, walls, rooms, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, notes for the contractor. I'm going to try to make some use of Hookmark to link Captain's Log entries to relevant notes in New House. I keep all my Tinderbox files open in tabs, so it's easy to switch from one document to another, and there are several different view tabs within each document, so I can get to relevant topics quickly.
Still working on that "workflow," (a word I still detest).
Haven't done much more with local LLMs, though it remains an item of interest.
Leaning away from radiant floor heating and cooling, given the price. I've asked Energy Vanguard to design an HVAC system, which would include the dehumidifier and ERV, around a cold weather mini-split system, and I'll get that quoted locally. Probably won't see that for a month or more. Still need to get all the specs on the windows to them.
So many details. Perfect for Tinderbox.
The beat that can be counted is not the beat, but it goes on...
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