This morning's bird
Current Wx: Temp: 78.98°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 5.75mphWords: 218
I brought along the decade old E-M5 with the 14-150mm zoom mounted. I've usually carried the 75-300mm zoom because I'd often see birds and 150mm (300mm effective focal length), often isn't quite enough. One of the things I enjoy about photography, especially with a long zoom, is that it allows me to see these beautiful birds in much closer detail than I can with just my eyes. I remain amazed that I have this facility at my fingertips.
But I haven't been seeing many birds lately. So I wanted to see if I would notice anything else, kind of examine whether the kind of lens I'm carrying affects my perceptions or attention on my walk.
I think perhaps it does. If the sky is particularly interesting, it's hard to miss, and I'd often use my phone to try to capture it when I was carrying the long zoom. But the 75-300 doesn't allow for particularly close focusing, so I don't often look for anything close to the ground.
Anyway, I have another shot of this bluebird, standing still after munching on a bug. But this one felt kind of Cartier-Bresson, and I like it.
It was a productive walk. I ended up with 10 "keepers." If you're so inclined, they're up at Flickr.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Arena
21:38 Monday, 17 July 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 83.52°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 598
There's something I was thinking about this morning, which I plan to write about in a different forum, but it called to mind Theodore Roosevelt's, "the arena" quote. And perhaps it came to mind because I'd only recently read Steve Makofsky's blog post about the arena.
In case you don't click through, here's the famous passage:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt
And he also includes a quote from Brené Brown, who I adore, but who I think is wrong on this issue:
"If you're not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I'm not interested in your feedback." — Brené Brown
Makofsky is making a different point in his post about our "inner critic." It's a valid point, one that I agree with, but it's not the point of this post.
People kind of "get" Roosevelt's point, about the nobility of daring and striving and devotion. But I've seen this passage most often used as a means of deflection, as a defense mechanism to reject criticism; and indeed to cast aspersions back on the one who dares to criticize.
And here's a weakness of "the arena" as metaphor: It divides us.
It divides us into those who are "in" the arena and those who are supposedly "out" of the arena. Spectators. People dismissed by Brown as being "in the cheap seats."
And here's another weakness of the arena. By describing everyone not in the arena as mere spectators, "timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat," who aren't "also getting your ass kicked," then the people so gloriously described as "in the arena," are not creators, they're performers.
"Are you not entertained?" Maximus, Gladiator
Here's the reality: We're all in the arena. Shakespeare knew, "All the world's a stage."
If you're LGBTQI in Florida, trying to live your identity in a political culture that's trying to make you disappear, you're "in the arena also getting your ass kicked."
If you're struggling with student loans, you're in the arena.
If you're Black in an America that wants to wish away systemic racism rather than confront it and deal with it, you're in the arena.
If you're a parent, you're in the arena.
If you're someone dealing with health issues, especially in America, you are so in the arena.
We are all in this together.
Everyone gets lost sometimes, and partly that's because we don't listen to voices that come from "the cheap seats." Sure, hurt people say hurtful things. But it always pays to listen. It always pays to be interested in the feedback.
Here's a better quote of uncertain provenance:
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about.
It's a better attitude. And something to keep in mind when offering criticism, or receiving it.
✍️ Reply by emailSustainable
23:30 Monday, 17 July 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 87.89°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 486
There's a piece in Ars Technica that speculates on how long Apple will continue to support intel based Macs with OS updates and security updates.
Timely, because I just ordered 128GB of RAM for my 2019 iMac this morning. It wasn't cheap, but let's just say it was "affordable."
I bought this iMac just as we moved into Saul Hall. Until then, I'd been using a late-2012 13" MacBook Pro Retina, which I'd pretty much max'ed out when I purchased it. I don't recall if there was a 16GB option, but if there was that's the one thing I regret not ordering. I got the i7 processor and 768GB SSD along with 8GB of RAM, and it was a pretty serviceable system for most of the time I owned it. The one glaring weakness it had was the limited RAM. Toward the end, it was spinning pinwheels of infinite futility anytime I had more than a few tabs open in Safari.
I ordered this iMac with the 8-core i9 processor and the Radeon Pro Vega 48 with 8GB of VRAM, 32GB of installed RAM and 1TB SSD. I upgraded the RAM to 64GB in November of 2020.
At the moment, I have 106 tabs open in Safari and 49 apps running. It remains responsive and Activity Monitor is showing Memory Pressure as low, but I'm using 978MB of swap on the SSD. (That's by no means "normal." I've been looking stuff up. But fifty or more isn't out of the ordinary.)
The idea when I bought this machine was that I'd use it for at least as long as the 13" MacBook Pro Retina, about 7 years. I did hope to get a few years more out of it, but I never anticipated the switch to the M-series SOCs. This machine cost me $4147 with tax, which probably sounds outrageous, but the MacBook Pro was $3200 back in 2012, and I bought a 27" Thunderbolt Display to connect it to, so that was over $4K back in 2012.
I don't know exactly how long I'll be able to keep this iMac up-to-date in terms of security. Maybe another four, based on the Ars piece. I went back and forth on upgrading the RAM, given the relatively short lifetime of "safe" operation. But I decided I wanted to go ahead and do it now, to try and get the most performance out of this machine. If I'm hitting the SSD for swap, that's kind of a waste of SSD write-cycles, so I guess I need more RAM.
Frankly, the whole thing is kind of absurd. There is no real justification for why I need this much compute power. It's just a function of my privilege and (relative) wealth that I can feel as though this is something reasonable to do.
I'll have to revisit this internal debate when Vision Pro debuts.
✍️ Reply by emailWeather
06:37 Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.38°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 218
Those thunderstorms on Monday did a number on power lines south of here. Trees and limbs took down power lines. We stopped at a winery that was open, most of the places we'd stopped at were closed, even though they were advertised to be open. This one had a generator.
That prompted us to check the news, and we learned about the outages. It hadn't affected us up here near Geneva.
Had some more rain yesterday, and some really high winds late in the afternoon, but it calmed and cleared around sunset, which didn't turn out to be anything spectacular. Supposed to be cloudy today with a chance of rain this afternoon, sunny tomorrow. But the temps have all been mild. People get kind of cranky at 85°F here, with a breeze. I'm enjoying it!
We're going to tour an old theater/opera house in Geneva this morning, then head over to Seneca Falls and check out some history.
Mitzi watched part of the RNC convention yesterday. I shut the door to the bedroom and read a book. For all the talk about "listening to one another," I can't stand to listen to Republican politicians.
Kottke linked to a nice sentiment yesterday. I don't have a clock to wind, but I did post something to the marmot.
✍️ Reply by emailThings I Didn't Know
07:50 Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 77°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 250
Mitzi and I switch using our iPhones on CarPlay in the RAV4. For much of this trip, Siri has been silent when it comes to navigation directions on Mitzi's phone. Somehow, magically I guess, it started working again at some point. But it was incredibly loud.
While silence was puzzling and annoying to me, the loud volume was intolerable enough to prompt me to do a search. It turns out that Siri's volume for navigation is in the Map app settings, and there are three choices, "Softer," "Normal," and "Louder." Oddly, there's no choice for "Silence."
So why we couldn't get spoken directions for so long remains a mystery. Why they returned at "Louder," is likewise inscrutable.
And, is it just me? Why in the world does spoken directions have a separate volume control? What kind of sense does that make? I'm sure there's some "reason," but it isn't obvious to me. Possibly because I'm not a "user experience" expert. I'm just a user with a shitty experience.
At one point, I used Siri to ask her to lower the volume. She told me to use the car's volume controls! Which we'd tried so many times already, to no avail.
Stuff like this just drives me nuts. It makes me feel foolish and stupid. It never occurred to me to check the Map app's Settings, because volume control has two dedicated buttons on the device and another control on the steering wheel!
"Minds greater than our own," and all that.
✍️ Reply by emailOblivion
17:21 Friday, 17 July 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 57.7°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 2.55mph
Words: 255
Last night was another episode in the ongoing public humiliation of the United States of America.
I think I'm past the point of being dumbfounded. I guess it's just his commitment to the bit, or maybe it is dementia. I know the people around him blow smoke up his ass as they're kissing it every minute of every day; but I have to wonder just how much he believes his own bullshit about America being respected ("as never before").
I know he lies as reflexively as breathing, but does he think anyone else is believing his bullshit?
I also know there is roughly about a third of the electorate who will believe him no matter what he says, and every Republican in office, but these people are fools. Which seems to be just about enough to destroy democracy. It's supposed to be "majority rule," but not so much, as it turns out.
It's embarrassing.
He sounded like an incoherent, two-bit huckster. He's become a caricature of a caricature. He's a prop used by the cynical opportunists who are really running the government. Forget "the deep state," it's criminals and fraudsters who are calling the shots.
It's certain that he and his lickspittle sycophants will do everything they can to try and thwart the will of the people in November. We'll see what happens.
If the courts can stop the worst of his efforts, perhaps we can stop the bleeding. If they roll over and enable outright autocracy, then I'm afraid of what comes next.
✍️ Reply by emailMorning Sky
Current Wx: Temp: 58.28°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 1.9mphWords: 284
It seems like there's less smoke in the air this morning. I can't smell it, but I still can't see the west side of Seneca Lake.
We're hoping to pour concrete on Tuesday, weather permitting. Backup is Thursday. Meetings on Tuesday about lighting and the deck and porch.
Making some progress on the HVAC design. Hope to have something soon to shop around to some plumbing and heating contractors in the area.
I received the demo kit for the CleanLife LED low-voltage DC lighting the other day. I put it together yesterday morning and played with it. I was wondering about the range of the kinetic wireless switches, so I took it out into the garage and I was able to switch the lights on and off from out there, so I'm pretty confident they'll work in the house.
The switch doesn't have the same tactile feeling of a regular light switch. It's a rocker, so when you release pressure, it returns to its neutral position. It does have a stiff action and a pronounced click, but it's definitely a different experience than a regular light switch.
You can control the temperature and brightness of the lights with the switch, though again, it's a different experience than using a push-button dimmer, or a slider. After turning the lights on, pressing and holding the top of the switch will change the brightness, pressing and holding the bottom of the switch controls the color temperature. That can also be controlled from an app as well.
I may get a 110vac puck LED from the hardware store and wire it up and compare the power draw.
I may not, as well.
The beat goes on...
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