I grabbed this photo by mistake while getting an authorization code from a different app on my phone. I thought it looked pretty cool so I’m sharing it with the class.
J.P.
Look.
Look for the little things in the world that bring a smile to your face or simply amuse you. I enjoyed spotting this pigeon using the water fountain while we walked in a park this weekend. The pigeon didn’t figure out how to turn the water on, but they certainly knew how to grab some water left in the bottom of the spigot.
Caturday.
Truman continued with his new nap location in my office. He hops in this shelf box for 30-45 minutes every day and he seems quite content.
Thumbing.
Last weekend my husband and I visited a local resort for brunch. While we were waiting for our table to be ready, we took a walk through an adjacent building, admiring the grounds and such. Off the resort library was a magnificent library, completely worthy of its own blog entry. That’s coming soon.
In the corner was a book stand displaying a very large book. I was instantly reminded of a book I found fascinating at Grandma and Grandpa Country’s house when I was young lad. The indexing thumb tabs on built into the pages was always fascinating to me. Unfortunately, I did not get the title of this book on display, but it is an encyclopedia.
This find further reminded me of how much I love books versus reading off the screens of a tablet or e-reader.
I need to spend some time in a library soon.
Celebration.
Today is my husband’s birthday. I won’t mention any details about which century we’re talking about here, but he’s having a wonderful day of retired life and the family is making a cake and dinner for the festivities.
The celebration began this week and shall continue through the weekend. I’m looking forward to a little adventure with him.
News.
Two articles from blogs I follow up popped up today with pretty much the same advice: stop reading the news all the time.
If you’re of a certain age, you were probably taught in school to keep a log of current events or some sort of similar activity. This made you an informed person. But if you’re of that certain age, that’s when the likes of Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor shared the news for 30 minutes every evening. There was no battle for clicks or emotional responses to keep that advertising money flowing to the network.
Take a look at these two blog entries. They may just make things a little more bearable.
- This Habit Is Making You Miserable by Ryan Holiday
- How To Stop Living Your Life In The News by Jim Eager
It’s The Little Things.
Every year I make a contribution to the historical society in my home town. The society is situated in the elementary school my dad and his siblings attended; the school was closed in the very early 1970s, right before I started elementary school.
The historical society has an amazing collection of, well, historical things, for the surrounding area. The country side of the family has roots there. Grandma Country never lived anywhere but in that small hamlet. I like keeping the family spirit alive by contributing to the organization.
I mailed my yearly check in January and yesterday I received a nice note from the treasurer. Not only did it thank me for my donation, but the handwritten note mentioned the “old fashioned winter” they’re having in those parts and it just had an air of warmth that I associate with my memories of my hometown. I know the treasurer casually at best, but the fact that she took the time to write me a note just made my day.
It’s the little things that make the world a better place.
Relaxation.
This afternoon I felt like I had to step away from life for a few moments. We have a small sitting area up near the entrance to our guest room, otherwise known as The Solarium. This is a small, cozy area with a desk and a “guest computer” for folks that are visiting. It also includes a comfortable chair.
It was enjoyable to sit and just relax, avoiding my phone and all the chaos that’s routine fed by the Internet. I read a book for a little while. Lucky came up and situated himself on the mezzanine to make sure all was OK.
It was.
Happiness.
I am becoming a big fan of the Big Think channel on YouTube. This particular episode struck several chords for me.
Simplicity.
I enjoy writing on my Lenovo ThinkPad T460s. The ThinkPad series, even in its IBM days, had some of the best keyboards I’ve ever used and this particular laptop continues the tradition.
I bought this laptop a couple of years ago on a whim; it was on sale at a refurbished computer place online, had decent specs, and I thought it would make a great second computer to have in the lab. It runs Debian Linux and has done so for quite a while. To avoid distractions in my home office during work hours, this laptop sits on the other desk in my office, away from my way work area, and is the only computer allowed in the room (other than my work laptop). I find if I have my Mac or iPad at hand I tend to be a little distracted, especially when the news is blowing up.
The news has been blowing up a lot the last month or so.
I decided to look up the age of this computer and was delighted to learn it’s eight years old. When the computer arrived a few years ago it was running Windows 10, which of course is no longer supported by Microsoft. The processor is decent; it has an i7-6600u CPU with 16GB RAM. For web browsing, writing with Obsidian, and doing stuff on the terminal, it does its job very well and I don’t see this machine being retired anytime soon.
As society moves further and further away from sustainability by following the lead of corporations and their planned obsolescence (I’m looking at you Microsoft and Apple), it’s good to breathe new life into these older computers. There’s no reason to fill landfills prematurely.
I know a few folks with Chromebooks lying around that have probably been dumped in the support department by Google. Again, here’s another opportunity to put a lightweight Linux on these machines and keep these older computers out of the landfill.
When Apple stops supporting the M2 chip in my MacBook Air, I’ll probably either convert it to a Linux box or donate it to someone. Aside from my multimedia production work, I don’t have a reliance on the Apple ecosystem anymore, and that’s a great feeling.
I know I’ve been rather “anti-Apple” for the past month, which has been in concert with the explosion of ridiculous news. I’ve come to the realisation that Apple is doing what they have to do in this new economical mindset. It’s the economical mindset that the most unfortunate, but it’s also unfortunate that the FAANG1 bros are perpetuating a legitimacy of this mindset by playing along.
I just want to keep things out of our landfills for as long as possible.
1 Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google
