Ponderings and Musings

I wrote a rant earlier today that I have decided to store away for my own private archive. The rant was non productive and did not make me feel better. Rants are rarely productive, except for the blood pressure medicine manufacturers.

Lucky and Jinx enjoy their Uncle J.P. The human with the cat is kind to the dogs as well, as he runs around the house with them, dispenses treats once in a while, and takes them outside so they can do their business.

I love this impromptu photo of the brother and sister, as it captures their vibe quite well. Jinx (on the left) looks like she told a little joke and Lucky has his usual deadpan expression.

I couldn’t watch the debate. I can’t stand the sight, sound, or any other aspect of the Orange Idiot. I can barely tolerate folks that think a convicted felon is smart businessman or some sort of 21st century Jesus.

He’s not.

I’ve seen a couple of clips. Kamala Harris wiped the floor with him. She set out the bait and he took it hook, line, and sinker. He has no plan for healthcare. He has a concept of a plan. Project 2025 still awaits in the wings for his presidency, because he has absolutely no thought of his own.

Kamala was presidential. I am looking forward to her presidency.

Make it happen, America. We need to keep moving forward.

I miss the sense of wonder I had when sitting in the back seat of the Heavy Chevy at age six, wondering where that road went, and where that airplane was coming from.

I miss the smiles both my grandmothers had when I walked into the room. They were completely different but either smile made me feel so loved.

I wish people kept their nationalism to themselves.

I wish it was still considered rude to be prideful about your religious beliefs.

I feel like society reached peak technology around 2007. A lot of tech beyond that is iterative and rather unnecessary.

I’m bummed that while chasing storms I discovered that capitalism has turned charming small towns into carbon copies of one another, all with the same big box stores.

I miss dot matrix printers that were too slow to print yards of marketing messages and gimmicky coupons.

I’m tired of Arizona heat this summer.

I want to spend a day just watching airplanes and trains.

I really miss hanging with better pilots than me at the airport.

I want the old Twitter back.

I miss blogs.

A video from 1983: “Meet the Computer Addicts”. It’s funny to think this was reported over 40 years ago.

It is this type of “addiction” back then that resulted in my first piece of shareware being sold in 1984 and subsequently a quite successful career in tech.

We stopped into Slow Body Brewing this evening. The vibe is awesome here. Said vibe includes video on a small TV on the bar, courtesy of a genuine VCR.

My evening is complete.

I’ve figured out why social media is really starting to burn me out. It’s not the political discourse, because I’m doing my best to stay away from that stuff. Though admittedly, I’m contributing to it too often and so now I’m really trying hard to stay away.

No, the reason I’m getting burned out on social media is because of the “firehose” onslaught of information. There’s no coherency or consistency through the subjects, emotion, tempo, or timbre of the doomscrolling opportunities. My attention is being yanked from Linux tech talk to Trumpian idiocy, to why bees are important in less than three entries in the same round of scrolling and my brain is getting really tired jumping from subject to subject like that.

In reality I can jump from subject to subject, and I’m usually doing that at any given moment, but there’s usually a common thread in these jumps, no matter how obscure that thread is. And furthermore, I can’t find any rhyme, reason, or general pattern in these wildly oscillating topics flying by on the doomscrolling machine and it just makes my brain tired. Very tired.

Shockingly, forums like we had back in the days of GEnie, CompuServe, and AOL at least were based around a loose subject and I enjoyed that cohesion.

All I need is a 56K baud modem and I’d be good to go.

I have to keep reminding myself that it’s Tuesday. Work very much felt like a Monday but then before I knew it, it was the end of the day and tomorrow is Wednesday.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to use for my next camera on the videography adventure. I’ve been oscillating back and forth between getting a mirrorless camera that’s made to be a camera and investing in the latest iPhone when it’s announced next week. Don’t tell my husband about these plans as I haven’t sprung the financial discussion on him yet.

He likes surprises.

We are sitting in the local Starbucks. I am using my iPad Pro out in public for the first time in a long while. Even though it’s an original Magic Keyboard, it’s still quite nice to type on. It probably has my favorite touch as far as low profile keyboards go.

So tomorrow is Wednesday and then we’ll be half way through the work week. I don’t like feeling like I’m wishing my life away, because I’m not, and work is basically good.

But I am looking forward to the weekend.

We went for a drive along US Route 191 sound of Willcox, Arizona. The map showed a couple of towns along the way: Sunsites, Elfrida, and a couple of others. We drove these towns and admittedly there wasn’t much to see. I hope the folks in these small towns have a happy life.

The landscape between Willcox and Douglas (along the Mexican border) reminds me more of driving through West Texas instead of Arizona. There’s much more in the way of greenery in these parts. Cattle were doing there thing out in their pastures.

We drove through the historic district of Douglas and literally touched “the wall” before heading back to the northwest. We stopped in the old mining town turned artsy town of Bisbee. There’s a restaurant in the center of town called “Table” or “Bisbee’s Table” (I didn’t figure it out). Serenity was the bartender and we sat and had a nice meal before driving the 100 miles or so back to Tucson.

It was a pleasant afternoon.

Yesterday was my most physically challenging hike yet. I hiked up to the peak of Guthrie Mountain near Mount Lemmon here in Tucson. I had a lot of fun.