January 26, 2025

Retro.

I’m looking at old blog posts, because that’s something I do once in a while. This has prompted me to revisit one of my favorite songs of all time. From 1996, here’s BT with “Remember”. The video version doesn’t do the entire track justice, look it up from the album “ESCM” as well.

As I peruse through my old blog entries, this selfie that I had completely forgotten about popped up. This is me 10 years ago, and honestly, it’s when I probably felt the best about myself.

It’s interesting to be able to read my own musings from a decade or two ago and then realize that it’s all right here, in the blog, and other people can read it as well. My thoughts are so much the same in most ways but different in other ways.

It’s a shame that most of the musings from the vast majority of people on the Internet will be lost to corporate greediness faster than you can say “but her emails”. And all in less than 280 characters, no less.

26 January 2025 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Starbucks.

Picture of a smiling middle aged man sitting behind his laptop. He's looking at the camera. The laptop takes up most of the photo. It has a black cover with a Linux Tux sticker over the Microsoft logo. There's a Starbucks cup to the side.

I’m sitting in the local Starbucks enjoying a pour over coffee while doing some writing. There are several people working on their computers here in Starbucks. This location is fairly new and is our favorite Starbucks in the area.

I always find it interesting that folks come to Starbucks to sit and work on their computer while wearing headphones or earbuds. Unsurprisingly, I’m exactly the opposite in this regard and I find that Starbucks (or something similar) is one of the few places I can write or work without either being in complete silence or wearing my earbuds playing lyric-free music and/or binaural beats.

I’m here to enjoy people watching just as much as writing in an environment outside the home.

I could be sitting outside, as there’s a covered patio area adjacent to the parking lot and drive thru lane. It was added after this Starbucks was built and it really feels like an afterthought, but they’ve made it work. There’s a bike rack and everything.

Not a lot of people walk around this part of Tucson. After all, for much of Tucson, if it’s not in a strip mall or similarly fashioned shopping center, it’s not in Tucson.

Earl frequents this Starbucks much more than I do, what with him being retired and all. He tells me they have completed rotated the staff at this location from another location and the folks here don’t have the same vibe as the original gang when the store opened. I get that. They seem a bit more harried than the folks that opened this spot.

Still, I’m enjoying the experience.

26 January 2025 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Analog.

I’m trying to read more books. I’ve always enjoyed reading book; it’s been a long while since I’ve read anything close to fiction or something of that nature. I’m leaning toward books on philosophy and such.

At the end of 2024 I was trying to read books using Apple Books or Kindle on my aging iPad Mini. The experience was less than enjoyable for me. It’s probably the Gen-Xer in me but I prefer holding an actual book in my hand. I am thankful for the used bookstore chain Bookmans here in Tucson. I’ve mentioned my delight for Bookmans before.

One of the latest additions to my library is “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith (further information here on Goodreads). Remaining steadfast in my beliefs, calming down irrational emotional responses, and not keeping an even keel around things I can not control are all areas I wish to improve upon in 2025. Reading this book is a positive step in this direction. I’ve read good reviews about this book; I was excited to see it at the local Booksmans, as it was not available at Barnes and Noble.

Buying used books is better for the environment, anyway.

Last year we bought a chair for my office so I could have a place away from my computer desks to get comfortable to read a book. While Truman has adopted this chair a portion of his daily catnap needs, I’m looking forward to settling in and doing some reading.

It helps keep the incoming chaos and ensuing rise in my blood pressure under control.

26 January 2025 by Random 0

Yep.

Moby from the good ol’ blogging days stated how I feel these days:

I try not to get upset over things I can’t control, but it is a struggle. The next 4 years are going to be hard for a lot of us. Know that contrary to some of the public commentary, your value is not diminished due to ignorance, hatred, and bias. We certainly will not be silent, and we are not going away.

Happy birthday to Moby, by the way.

One of my biggest struggles with contemporary American society in general is composed of two parts. These two parts strike my two biggest pet peeves: 1. People being willfully ignorant and 2. People that can’t get their shit together.

It seems that too many U.S. citizens revel in both of these things. Watching politicians on all sides of the aisle kowtow to the lowest common denominator makes my head want to explode.

This approach is found in everything. We have warnings not to drink the ink out of the printer cartridge. We now have flashing yellow arrows to tell us not to run over a pedestrian or slam into an oncoming car when waiting to turn left. We have media that tells folks what they want to hear instead of presenting the actual facts.

If it doesn’t have entertainment value, it’s not worth the ad clicks. Americans don’t want to be informed, they want to be entertained.

It’s very hard for me not to get depressed while trying to be informed. I honestly like I’m going to end up navigating the remaining 99.6% of the idiot’s time in the White House in a constant “low power mode”.

My battery is about shot.

 

 

26 January 2025 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

About Me.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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