Truman has decided that one of the desks in our Activity Room makes for a great napping spot. Earl took this photo of him a few moments ago; he has now put his head down on the desk and has settled in for his morning nap. Nap time only may only commence after I have removed his stuff from the litter box (one of my feline related daily chores) and have dispensed a couple of treats.
September 2023
Retro Future.
Being the geek I am at the age I am, I occasionally have dreams about older computers and other technology. Oddly, these dreams occasionally take place in a future setting. For example, I’ll dream about a local grocery store that is currently under construction and going inside to find technology from the 1980s in use at the checkouts. Or I’ll be starting a new job in a high tech world and find myself sitting at a text-based dumb terminal tied to a mainframe somewhere.
These dreams often leave me awaking in a very pleasant mood.
It’s not secret that technology has taken over just about every facet of our lives. Tech gave us COVID-19 vaccines quickly. You can’t go longer than two minutes on any news broadcast without hearing in some fashion, “and on ‘X’, formerly known as Twitter…”. There’s always a Facebook scandal going on in someone’s family or friends circle and there’s always an elected official saying something stupid on Twitter or one of it’s niche clones. Heck, I’m sure many folks haven’t talked to a cashier at the supermarket in months because there’s no cashiers at the supermarkets.
Does all this technology make our life better?
I’d like to think the positives weigh out the negatives and it’s probably not fair to anyone to just lump everything high tech under an umbrella of “tech”. The vaccines? Good. The lack of cashiers at the supermarket? Bad. The belches of social media? Destructive.
I still wonder if anything or anyone anywhere in tech is going to say something like, “you know, just because we can do it doesn’t mean we have to do it”. Like keeping folks employed working the front lanes at that supermarket or providing assistance at a local blood lab for the elderly that are befuddled by an iPad with a handwritten sign pasted above it, “check in here”. I know I wouldn’t complain about never having an iPad flipped in my direction asking how much I want to tip the person working the counter at a coffee place ever again.
The choice to not tech-out everything is only in my dreams. But it’s a nice dream. And we need more nice these days.
Support.
I am a fan of the podcasts from RelayFM. Since 2019 they have been raising money for St. Jude, and every September they have a fund raising drive.
Please take a moment to contribute to this important cause at https://stjude.org/relay. There’s still time to become part of this month’s drive.
Soup.
Chris made some Mexican Street Corn soup for supper the other night. It was a great appetizer for the main dish. I’m always impressed with my family’s eye on presentation as well as taste.
Last night I made Cincinnati Chili for supper. Well, actually my husband and I made it together, because I’m never trusted by anyone to go solo in the kitchen. The chili turned out very good though I neglected to take a photo for the blog.
We served the chili over spaghetti and topped it with cheese and onions. I didn’t provide oyster crackers though, I’ll need to do that on a future serving.
Checked Out.
I went flying this past weekend with an instructor to finish my checkout for the flight club in the Cessna 182. It was a great flight. I had to do a few landings under various simulated conditions and that was fun. I like expanding my aviation skills through these things.
I didn’t know there had been another fire on Mt. Lemmon so we had to get back and forth through Redington Pass before 08:00 or else we would have had to come back to Tucson Airport the long way around the mountains. Apparently the fire was extinguished quickly.
I’m all checked out in the Cessna 182 and now my husband and I can go up together and get around the skies a little bit faster and with someone in the backseat if we want.
Changing Times.
My journaling app (Day One) has an “On this day…” feature that I really enjoy. It allows me to look back to see how much progress I’ve made on my personal goals and how much I have (or haven’t) changed over the years. It presents little snippets I wrote on this date across the 15 years I’ve maintained this personal journal and most of the time sparks pleasant memories.
Today a few entries from 2019 popped up relating to interactions on Social Media, mainly some things there were bothering me about recent Facebook posts. In these old entries I vaguely mentioned some Facebook Messenger messages I had received. Not remembering the interaction, I decided to spin through my Facebook Messenger feed from 2019, which of course was quite easy to do because Facebook never deletes anything.
It was all about the latest scandal farting out of the Trump presidency at the time and the Facebook friends piling on relatives that supported Trump. I had decided to remove the discourse altogether, as there were aunts and cousins having fits about those I call friends and I just didn’t want to be part of that. I severed relations with some of the folks over that day and had Day One not reminded me about it, I probably wouldn’t have remembered the specific events. I have an iron clad memory and often remember things I won’t ever need or don’t think I even remember, but if I purposely forget something, it’s gone.
With the U.S. Government in general continuing to be a colossal disappointment and the media trying to whip the country up in a frenzy over an election that is over 14 months away, I’m not looking forward to our choices in November 2024. I burned way too much emotional capital over the Trump years. Quite frankly, I’m tired. I am so. friggin. tired.
To be honest, I’m tired of social media in general. I’ve been dabbling in Twitter a little bit for some aviation interaction. I’m on Mastodon but the vibe there is often how to do Mastodon correctly without triggering everyone over a photo of a plate of spaghetti or something. I don’t really know what Blue Sky is trying to be and quite frankly I’ve lost track of Threads.
I guess I just don’t care to interact with people that way at the moment. And that’s fine.
When I hear things like “you have to vote like your life depends on it, so we can save the world”, I’m at the point of thinking, “meh, if I’m lucky I have around 30 years left. I can ride out 30 years”.
Ah, “but what about the children?”, folks ask.
I ask, “why are folks having children?”. Do we really need more people on this overtaxed planet? Does the future look bright and rosy for Gen Z and whatever is suppose to come after them?
Wow, this blog entry turned dark. I don’t think that was the intent of my “On this day…” function in Day One.
Let’s see what I wrote in this blog back on this day in 2019. I wrote about the LED streetlights in Chicago.
Four years ago tomorrow I wrote a little bit about the election.
I guess the times ain’t changing that much.
Apple.
I am content with my current lineup of Apple products, including my iPhone 13 Pro. However, I’ve been toying with the idea of redecorating my home office in “Apple Store colors”, and I wanted to go to one of the stores here in Arizona to get a better idea of the color palette. We decided to drive to Scottsdale to the Apple Store at Scottsdale Fashion Square, a lively mall with renovations in progress and several upper crust brand names populating the store fronts.
The line to get into the Apple Store was over 30 minutes long if one was looking for a new iPhone. A lot of future iPhone owners were queued up in front of the beautiful space.
We were able to go right into the store to browse, where we immediately engaged in our tradition of taking a photo on one of the demo machines. We decided to use a MacBook Pro for our typical adventure,.
I was able to get a better sense of the colors needed for my office renovation project; Earl doesn’t like the idea of “toasted almond” as a color choice, but it’s the best way I can describe it and I know I’ll enjoy the change of pace.
The particular store reminds me a bit of the flagship store on Michigan Ave in Chicago in that it has two levels, lots of glass, and a super open feel.
There’s a few other Apple Stores I want visit in the Phoenix area in the near future. Our store here in Tucson is quite enjoyable but not particular noteworthy. At least everyone there is friendly, in typical Apple fashion.
Caturday.
Truman has a small rash on his back so he was off to the vet on Monday. It’s a small case of ringworm; he needs a few drops of medicine each day for two weeks. Earl did the honors of escorting him to the vet; he was well behaved but for a few moments he was planning his escape. Chris modified this photo to depict the trigonometry that was going on when he was trying to figure out how to work the vet’s door handle.
Recess.
Apparently Congress is taking a recess because they can’t agree on anything. The government is going to shut down again in a week because no one can agree on anything.
I’m really, really tired of stupid people voting for stupid people. Maybe they can just stay away and let someone competent come in and do the job they can’t do.
Our government was not designed to be run by stupid people, and that’s what we’re stuck with.