Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Teams.

I’ve been working from home for 10 years. I love this arrangement and I really appreciate the fact that technology allows us to regularly use video conferencing instead of dialing into a conference bridge and listening to tinny voices. Being able to see folks is important to me because I never know when it’s my turn to talk.

The cheap headset shown in the photo works well for this purpose. I picked it up from Amazon for less than $30. I also purchased a USB extension cord so I can move around a bit, especially when I have my desk in a standing position.

I’ll eventually move to a wireless earbud arrangement, much like what’s shown in Microsoft’s vision of the future back in 2009. I’m particular about this sort of thing, as in ear earbuds give me weird sinus pressure and the inability to hear my own voice the way I want to hear my voice.

Microsoft woman from 2009 in the future.

I like a lot of things about that Microsoft vision of productivity in the future, even though that future is suppose to be now. We use a lot of Microsoft products at work, and they do the trick, even though they’re much clunkier than Microsoft would like to admit.

I wish AI would make things more productive instead of things like ChatGPT bringing us erroneous facts like the population of Mars being in the millions. They fixed that last point, but there’s a lot of folks relying on “AI”, which is actually not Artificial Intelligence at all and more of a Large Language Model, just pulling words from various sources and putting them together coherently. Some folks think ChatGPT is magic. It’s not. It’s not Samantha from “Her”.

As I ramble through this blog entry with no end in sight, I should probably bring this to a close by once again mentioning where I think AI and collaboration should really be going, and that’s in the direction of the vision of Mercury OS. If you’re interested in the possibilities of AI really doing something compelling, take a look through the Mercury OS website.

It’s a shame the big companies like Google, Microsoft, or Apple don’t seem inspired to try something new. Must be not enough money in it.

27 June 2023 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Nope.

I’m lucky to work for a corporation that embraces diversity. Our company has an active LGBT+ ERG, or Employee Resource Group. It’s great to have this representation and it reminds me of when I worked for Digital (DEC) back in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Back then we had a couple of similar organizations and it helped make me feel comfortable with my sexuality back in the day.

As part of Pride month, there have been some articles and videos on the company website about the topic, particularly from allies of the gay community. Like some mainstream news outlets, various literature from the LGBT+ groups across the country, and the language of the younger ones, these folks have embraced the word “queer”. I often hear the likes of “we are reclaiming this word!” and people running around calling themselves queer.

I still very much cringe when I hear that word. As a gay man in my mid 50s, I’ve heard that word from too many people and when that word was used it wasn’t used in a festive, celebratory context. Occasionally it was punctuated with a continued verbal assault and once in a great while a physical interaction.

I know the younger ones like to run around doing their own thing, expressing themselves freely and openly and I think that’s great. Good for them. Everyone has the right to be themselves as long as it’s not hurting other people. And personally, for me, the word “queer” has a lot of sting and psychologically still packs a punch. I will not embrace the word. I tried a few years ago but it just didn’t fit. I won’t use the word in a jolly context. I’m not discouraging others from doing the same, again, you be you, but don’t expect me to run around like Rip Taylor, shooting off sparkler cannons and throwing my toupee around screaming about being happily queer. Because I’m not.

I’m happy as a gay man.

Years ago my Twitter profile stated, “More guy than gay” and I caught quite a bit of cruft from the gay “community” around that statement. Today my social media profiles usually say something like “Just a guy with a husband” because that’s how I see myself. I’m just a guy with a husband. To me being gay is just a part of who I am, “part” being the keyword. Loyal, honest, loving, caring, determined, funny, patient, portly, nuts and eccentric are also all words that could probably be used to describe me, but that would make for an out-of-control alphabet soup of character traits and I don’t enjoy all those letters either.

I joke this makes me a bad gay man in the 21st century.

Perhaps I should be compared to the Chevrolet Impala that came out the same year I was born: big, available in manual or automatic, and complete with a choice of sedan, sport coupe, or fastback.

26 June 2023 by J.P. Gayish. 0

Scenic.

Yesterday my husband and I went on a wonderful flight from Tucson to Casa Grande and back. I had flown this route several times last year during my instrument training out of Ryan Airfield; this was one of the first times I got to actually see the scenery along the route. During instrument training we use “foggles”, or view limiting devices, so we can only see the instruments in the cockpit. We don’t get to see outside.

Earl took a bunch of photos that he’s shared on various social media outlets.

It’s getting hotter in the Sonoran Desert and the best time to fly at this time of year is in the early morning. After 10:00 a.m. or so thermals start rippling about and makes the ride a bit bumpy. We were back home and on the ground by 9:45 a.m. after the 150 mile (or so) round trip. We did a touch ‘n go at Casa Grande Municipal Airport before landing on runway 11R back at our home base of KTUS Tucson International.

I really like being based at KTUS. The procedures are a bit more inline with “big pilot” ways and it’s neat holding short for our turn to take off with a Southwest 737 right behind us.

We’re going up again in a couple weeks. I’m going to find us another fun destination.

25 June 2023 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Caturday.

Truman seems to ask “what?” with his look while relaxing in the kitchen. As he gets older he gets a little more set in his ways.

24 June 2023 by J.P. He's A Feline. 0

OceanGate.

So yesterday I wrote a brief blog entry around the discovery of the OceanGate submersible “debris field”. The shorter version of my blog entry is this, “Stupid decisions sometimes lead to stupid results”. The whole thing is so unfortunate.

I’ve been watching the coverage of this tragedy all week and there’s a part of me that finds it a little coincidental that they found a debris field just as the figurative “countdown clock” of remaining in the air in the craft came to zero. I feel like the news media was stringing this along for ratings and I know that sounds very cynical of me. I own the cynicism.

I will say that no one “deserves to die”. I’ve read comments online around the drama; “well it’s just a bunch of billionaires” or “they knew better” or “they got what they deserve”. That’s harsh. People with money in those digit ranges can do what they want, just like someone that makes minimum wage can blow their hand off with fireworks in a couple of weeks. It’s all about personal responsibility.

Since the sub imploded I really hope they never knew what happened and they just quickly passed onto the next thing. I wouldn’t want anyone to suffer.

But I do hope OceanGate is as a company is a thing of the past.

23 June 2023 by J.P. This Ain't No CNN. 0

Titan.

I’m going to keep this brief: do stupid things, sometimes end up with stupid, unfortunate results.

The dark depths of the ocean, much like the dark depths of space, are not forgiving.

22 June 2023 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings This Ain't No CNN. 0

Lunch.

The key to a successful workday lunch experience is supporting your husband’s desire to retire young. When Earl made this proclamation years ago, I knew one of the drawbacks would be my weight gain.

Because the man knows how to put together a meal.

We have been trying to eat healthy in June. This was my lunch yesterday and it was wonderful.

21 June 2023 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Omm.

Many years ago I had an iPad app called “Ommwriter”. It was nifty. The software provided a calming background, with fonts encouraging focus. The really cool thing I enjoyed about the software was that you could listen to music that encouraged focus. The music was punctuated by sound effects alluding to the keystrokes on an old IBM Selectric typewriter. It gave the whole experience a hipster twist without hauling a typewriter to Starbucks.

I liked it.

Ommwriter went by the way of the dodo back in the days of iOS 11 and the application is no longer around on the App Store. I checked to see if there’s a Mac version, and there is, but the website makes it seem like it hasn’t been updated in a long while, so I decided to figure out my own thing instead.

For years I’ve been using an app called “Pzizz”. While I don’t listen to the app every night before sleep, I do use it from time to time when I’m having a hard time sleeping. The application also has a “nap” function that I used to use when I’d sleep in the Jeep during my lunch hour in the shopping center parking lot when we lived in Upstate New York. [[]]

So I’ve cobbled together a workflow that resembles my Ommwriter experience, especially when I’m using my iPad Pro to write blog entries. I’m a plain text kind of guy, so I’m using an application called “iA Writer” to capture my text and using the “focus” mode session on Pzizz to generate music that encourages, well, focus in a way much like Ommwriter did back in the day.

I’m writing this blog entry in my office waiting for a software update activity to start at work. The music is calming, the words are flowing fairly well. I’m feeling that “in the zone” feeling that I don’t find enough these days in our frenetic world. I think I may have found what I need to bring some calm to the chaos I’ve been experiencing lately.

As I get older I find my ability to focus waning just a little bit. I blame this on age but I also attribute this to the changing world around us; everything demands our attention all the time. Social media, collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, a never ending litany of Zoom-like calls, news alerts, flashes of lightning, and the constant barrage of email all demand our attention. Being able to a few moments and look at an application that does one thing while listening to calming music is a godsend.

Sometimes we need to carve out a few moments in our own little paradise.

20 June 2023 by J.P. Geek Ponderings and Musings Quirky. 0

Discovision.

Back in my music school days we had one recording studio. There was a smattering of synthesizers and one computer in the old orchestral practice hall. The room was often in disarray. I recorded back up vocals for a fellow student in that room and it was a fun experience. I never got to play around with the synths or the computer. A few years later, when invited by a CompuServe friend to tour his studio outside of Cleveland (and record a couple more backing vocals for a track), there was more technology and it was awesome, but I never got to play around with the synths or the computer.

A few years ago I discovered the music of Anders Enger Jensen, a Norwegian producer who uses (now) retro synths and computers to create some brilliant electronic music with an 80s vibe. In this video, he takes the video “user’s manual” of the MCA Discovision system and turns it into a brilliant music track.

I much prefer this over anything coming out of commercial studios these days. This is the type of music artistry I’ve come to admire over the years. I’d probably be doing something similar (though not nearly as well) if I had stuck to my music studies back in the mid ’80s.

20 June 2023 by J.P. DJ 0

Unfulfilled.

It’s been a month since my 2023 storm chasing trip on the Great Plains. I’ve been thinking about this trip since returning home nearly a month ago. I don’t like to use the word “disappointed” because I believe there’s always something we can find to avert the feeling of “disappointment”, but overall I was hoping to see more in the way of storms this year.

Spending a week on the Great Plains, where I know absolutely no one, is something I enjoy. I really like being anonymous and watching people, especially from a far. Grandpa City was known to enjoy people watching as well, and he could sit on a bench and watch the world go by and be quite content. This type of activityI gives me much time to think and to clear my head and to get the world around me back into perspective. As I drove a couple of thousand miles around the (mostly) flat terrain, I realized that I’m having a little bit of a mid-life crisis (again?). I keep asking myself, “Is this it?”. Maybe I’m looking for magic. Maybe I hyped up the trip a little bit too much in my head as I was making plans and watching weather patterns, and thinking of small towns being quaint.

I feel like I may have done a little too much driving on this trip, and that was mainly because the weather was a mess. The high pressure ridge that moved in right before I left pushed any chance of storms (which were nominal at best) to parts scattered all over the region. One day I’m in Northeast Texas, the next day I need to hustle to Northeast Oklahoma, and then the next day I had to get myself to Southwest Kansas.

I’ll be approaching the next trip a bit differently: I’m going to narrow the confines of my “chase area” a little bit and maybe enjoy the downtime a bit more. I think I’m also going to ask my husband to meet me, maybe for the ride home or something.

I did find this video I took in the middle of the night, when the storms finally arrived, way behind forecast, in Liberal, Kansas.

The bonks of the ice balls didn’t hurt the rental car at all. I found this storm enjoyable.

19 June 2023 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Teams.

Nope.

Scenic.

Caturday.

OceanGate.

Titan.

Lunch.

Omm.

Discovision.

Unfulfilled.

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