We are at that point in the year where I’m just tired of air conditioning. The days are cooling down just enough that I can sit outside during my lunch break and enjoy some moments of fresh air.
It is glorious.
Ponderings and Musings
Football.
My husband occasionally struggles with the interface on our AppleTV. But when it comes to football season and his NFL Sunday Ticket, he effortlessly watches four games at once, navigating between all of the action with ease.
I enjoy that he is able to do this. There are plenty of situations where technology seems to impede our lives; in this instance, it’s doing wonderfully at providing entertainment.
Centering.
I felt really off center at the end of the work week, especially Thursday night and all of Friday. I had been paying closer attention to politics than usual during this election season, especially around the response to the debate on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, I also got sucked back into my Twitter account and I was really being pulled down by much of the rhetoric on there. After re-activating my Twitter account to defend Gus Walz after the convention, I went and re-deleted it yesterday morning. Any views of my YouTube channel that I garner from Twitter would probably be from bots, so I decided I don’t need that exposure.
All of this consumed turmoil was bubbling around in my head and quite frankly made me feel very burned out by Friday night. For many, it’d be just a matter of “just ignoring it”, but my brain doesn’t quite work that way. The chaos had fallen into the over processing department.
So, I decided that my hike on Saturday would focus on seeing and enjoying the beauty of Mother Nature in these parts. I brought along my camera without any real script or plan. I wasn’t going to spin the video into tips for a great hike or talk about what equipment works best for me out there. If I shot some video, it’d be just what I was seeing. I wanted to share what I hoped would be a positive experience with anyone that wanted to see it.
The hike was amazing. I feel much, much better as I write this on Sunday morning. It was a good workout, both mentally and physically. I’m feeling good.
I hope you enjoy seeing what I’m sharing here in this video.
Redux.
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.
Sibling Love.
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.
Debate.
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.
Random.
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.
The Computer Addicts.
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.
Slow Body.
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.
Firehoses.
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.
