I find myself (almost) surprised that July of 2025 is nearly over. The year seems to be slipping by quickly. One’s sense of time really does change as one gets older [see Perception of Time].
More to the point, this is the last Friday in July, so if I’m to get a Friday Notes post out this month, today is the day. While my notorious pile is much reduced, I still have two ancient notebooks full of very old notes to get to.
So, let’s get to it, shall we?
At the top of the batting order today, my Minnesota Twins. It has been some years since I was able to watch Twins games regularly. Long-time readers of this blog may recall that — to escape the stresses of work and life — I got seriously into baseball in 2010. I even started a now long-defunct blog devoted to baseball — my first venture into blogging. (That abandoned blog is now ad-bloated.)
But it was the beginning of blogging for me. I quickly realized two things. Firstly, that I didn’t know enough about baseball to be blogging about it (the blog was titled “New to the Game”). Secondly, that there was no way I wanted to restrict myself to writing only about baseball. So, I started this blog in 2011.
Then I started a programming blog in 2014. Most recently, I started blogging on Substack, though after being there for over a year, I have mixed feelings about the place. I thought for a while it would become my main blog, but lately I’ve been rethinking that.
More on that later, perhaps. This is about the Twins. From 2010 to 2019, I had Comcast cable with Fox Sports North (FSN), which broadcast Twins games. Easy peesy. Early in 2019, I cut the cable and subscribed to YouTube TV. But the regional sports networks got greedy, and YouTube TV dropped both FSN and the MLB channel (which I used to watch a lot). I ultimately got really fed up with YouTube TV and unsubscribed.
And that was it for watching the Twins regularly.
This year, the MLB obtained the broadcast rights. They offer “Club TV” — access to your team’s games for only $99 for the season. And T-Mobile offered a neat thing at the beginning of the season — free access to all MLB games (because they are the official phone network for the MLB). So, I’ve been watching a fair bit of baseball this season, most especially the Twins.
Who are not doing well this year. Here’s a chart that says a lot:
I’ve long thought run differential is a good indicator of a team. For a team to be in the red after 100 games is not good. Not good at all
And, indeed, the Twins at this point are 49-53 (.480) and in fourth place in our Division (the AL-Central). We were up to second place for a while but had a truly awful June — 9-18 (.333) — after a pretty hot May, where they were 18-8 (.692).
Run differential again: In May they were +26 (accounting for the green on the chart above), but in June they were -45 (ouch).
Here in July, we’re 9-9 (.500 with a +5 run diff), but I don’t think they have much chance. The Detroit Tigers have been on top of the Division all season, and I’m sure they’ll take the pennant. Here’s another chart:
This is number of runs a game was won or lost by. Clearly more red than green. The worst of it is away games, where we’re 21-33 (a pathetic .389). For a while they were acing home games but then lost a few and are down to 28-20 (.583), which is still a winning record, but not as good as it was before June.
Yet, while it’s a bit painful, it has been fun watching baseball regularly again. And the ability to escape current politics is helpful.
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I don’t recall what triggered it, but I started thinking about writing software in terms of building various kinds of boats. Some are tiny rowboats, some are giant ocean liners or massive cargo vessels. Some are crude rafts.
I never built the really huge boats. No ocean liners (big enterprise application). Never wanted to. Those require large teams (just as ocean liners do). Biggest app I ever built was a small yacht or sailboat.
What’s funny about the programs-as-boats metaphor is that for quite a while now, I’ve imagined my hobby programming as building ships in bottles. No real value other than the fun of creating them.
If nothing else, though, I think it helps exercise my brain and fights off senility.
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I was thinking about the “language” and popularity of memes. The same images are used over and over with different text to make different points, but the use of the same image strikes me. These become well-known and reused over and over.
For instance, here’s one I made (a meta-meme about memes):
How many times have we seen this exact image used to make some point?
It’s so well-known now that we sometimes see “jazz riffs” on it that use the visual premise without using the exact image. I’ve seen it with the sexes reversed, and I’ve seen it with Greek statues in place of the people.
Fascinating to me how we latch onto common things — our shared cultural gestalt (such as it is).
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I might catch some flak for this next one (but one advantage to having a blog that almost no one reads is that I rarely get “those” kinds of comments).
When I was younger, I had great respect for philosophy. In my “Three Words” game (find three words that describe you best), I once listed “philosopher” among them. As I learned more about what philosophy is all about, I realized I wasn’t one and dropped the label.
[My Three Words change over time. Currently, I think they are Teacher/Preacher, Artist, and Clown. I want to add Dog-lover, but that would be four words. And as true as it is, I’m not sure it’s truly a core aspect of my identity. (If it were, I’d surely have a dog.)]
Anyway, lately I’ve come to be a bit askance at philosophy. I’ve come to think that Sturgeon’s Law is especially true when it comes to philosophy. To wit, 90% of it is crap. Nothing more than a form of mental masturbation that no doubt feels good but amounts to — pardon my bluntness — fuck all.
The other 10% has value, no doubt, but in the final analysis what has philosophy ever actually done for the world?
Other than confuse the hell out of it, and that’s a key point for me. If philosophy is about seeing things clearly, why are philosophers so opaque and convoluted? Why are they typically so impenetrable?
Supposedly, philosophy trains the mind to think more clearly, but I’ve met too many people who are schooled in it yet have mush for brains. I’ve come to think the only real value in it is training to be a philosophy professor.
Life is messy but not actually that complicated (we just make it so). After all, we’ve been doing this life thing for tens of thousands of years. That bit about everything you need to learn in life you should have learned in kindergarten is, I think, true. Everything after is adult FBS.
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Speaking of memes, here another one I made (about the internet “tubes”):
Not entirely my creation but based on one I saw long ago (which had poor image quality and a small size — I found this much better image).
And now you know what a server looks like.
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A lot of people have horror stories from high school, and many more look back on it as a trying and stressful time. I mostly loved it. I got involved in theatre, which opened a new chapter in my life. And I never struggled scholastically. (If anything, my problem often was that I found it too easy and boring.)
In particular, I never seemed to suffer the depredations of being bullied. And I’m not entirely sure why. I was certainly both nerdy and geeky then. (Still geeky, but I like to think I’ve lost the nerdiness.) Nor was I in any sense athletic or tall or strong. I am a bit stocky but never saw myself as threatening.
On top of that, Inglewood, California (one of Los Angeles’s 87 suburbs), was transitioning then from mostly white to interracial, so there was an element of racial tension. Yet it never seemed to affect me. Perhaps because I was born in a mixed neighborhood in New York city and wasn’t new to Black people and didn’t see them threatening or unusual.
I experienced bullying in school twice (that I recall). In grade school (in Minneapolis), while waiting for the bus to take me home, a gang of girls attacked me, knocked me down, took my glasses, and threatened to stomp on them. It was so long ago, I don’t recall how it ended. Bullies just didn’t go that far back then, and they probably got bored and moved on to their next victim.
In junior high school, there was Brad. At the least a harasser and a pain in the ass. Your basic high school bully. He called me Fred Flintstone (which I didn’t particularly take as an insult — the resemblance can be argued). He and his henchman caught me alone one time out on the football field. He punched me in the stomach — the one and only time I’ve ever been hit.
I started crying…
And Brad became all contrite and apologetic. 😂
I can’t recall him ever messing with me again.
Much softer and gentler times.
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Pardon a bit of politics for a couple other memes I made. During the election, I made this one:
You may recall the whole Taylor Swift thing. (For the record, I’m neither fan nor a detractor. I’d be hard-pressed to name a single song of hers, though. Just not my thing. Generally speaking, I don’t do pop. In any category. I’m allergic to trendy.)
As I recall, my meme went over like the proverbial lead balloon.
This one got a bit more traction:
But not much. I apparently don’t have a future as a meme creator. And while the meme image and text are mine, the idea was based on something that was going around at the time.
It still astonishes me that so many Americans thought this was a good idea. From what I gather, many still do. We’ve lost our country, I think.
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The reality is that a society that reveres integrity and trust is fragile to those willing to violate those norms. It’s another version of the Tragedy of the Commons. Those who follow the rules — stay within the social lines — are vulnerable to those who don’t. Criminals of all stripes depend on this.
Hence a growing cynicism in everyone, especially when there is no perceived Ultimate Reward or Punishment (a consequence of an increasingly secular world).
Someone on Substack recently posed the question: “If you come to a stop sign late at night in the middle of nowhere with no one to see, why do you stop?”
Even asking the question shows the growing decadence of our culture.
My main answer was keeping good driving habits. If you start second-guessing when to follow the rules, they stop being habits that might save your life in some other circumstance. Suppose you get used to blowing through stop signs (or even lights) when you think you can. And suppose you do that and don’t see an oncoming car with the right of way?
Another answer is that it’s a question of being — of who you chose to be. Do you stay within the boundaries of the social contract or are you a lawbreaker?
Interestingly, some studies have shown that people are generally inclined to follow the rules. I think having a peaceful and productive society rather depends on everyone operating from the same playbook.
Our current social and political circumstances come in large part from the breakdown of that cooperative behavior.
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That’s probably enough for this time. I’ll leave you with this:
The last time I dog-sat Bentley, I bought her that new toy. I love the picture and the intensity of her focus. (And just look at those long toes!)
Usually, she destroys new toys so quickly I wonder why I bothered. There was an old one I had from Samantha that Bentley really loved. It was two tennis balls stitched into the ends of a strip of sheepskin fleece. We played with that one a lot until she managed to chew the balls out of both ends, and I had to toss it.
For years after, Bentley looked for it every time she was over. I tried every outlet I could to find a replacement, but no one makes anything like it. The last two times Bentley was over, she didn’t look for that toy, so I think she’s finally forgotten it. Or given up.
Anyway, she liked this one okay, but at this point in her stay she was so tuckered out that it didn’t hold her interest that long. I’ll see what she thinks about it next time she stays with me.
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Stay memetic, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.
∇
Logos con carne 
July 25th, 2025 at 10:15 am
Yay, Bentley! Always nice to see her pop up!😀
And some quick “replies” to some of your “notes”:
I love the ship-in-a-bottle metaphor for your programming projects. Perfect! I can really see that.
IMO, You should follow the Milwaukee Brewers, and not just because they’re my hometown team. They’re scrappy and they’re winning and they’re fun to keep up with. Just saying, especially if it’s easier to get their games (no local broadcast blackout).
I’d love to hear more about your Substack experience. I finally started up an account myself for publishing (republishing) posts from my new weekly series of articles on AI and creative practice. I figured some people, especially if they came to my blog via Google in a search for AI-related topics, might like to read only those posts and not all of my other things. I thought having a separate sub stack newsletter that they could subscribe to would be a good solution. But I am finding the Substack interface to be somewhat un-user-friendly, and with zero post views so far (admittedly just a few days since publishing). Is this venture more trouble than it’s worth? I could have set up another WordPress blog and just linked over there for people who’d rather not see my photos and read about political analysis or whatever other things are on my mind. WordPress lets you include a “subscribe” button now. But I was impressed what I thought the Substack ecosystem was supposed to be. So I guess I’ll keep going a while longer. If nothing happens, I’ll cut my losses and switch my AI-and-writing/creating series back over to WordPress. Anyway, if you are looking for a topic to write about, your Substack experience is a post that would be greatly appreciated! (by me😀)
July 25th, 2025 at 12:07 pm
Ha, yeah, B-dog is kind of the star of the blog. 😄
I like the ship-in-a-bottle metaphor, too. It really fits. Exacting, detailed, fine work that’s really just an accomplishment for yourself and not particularly useful otherwise.
I think I will write more about Substack fairly soon. Like many things, it has pros and cons. After over a year there, I’m more aware of the cons. One thing that’s a con from my point of view is that Substack is strong on the paid subscriber model. Unlike WordPress, they don’t have ads you have to pay extra to make go away, so their income comes from taking a percentage of paid subscriptions. But I’ve realized that those (like me) who shun the paid subscriber model may be treated a bit like second-class citizens by The Algorithm. I’ve been there over a year and have subscribers and followers but nothing I do there gets much attention (admittedly in part because I tend to write about very geeky stuff).
It does seem the case that relentless promotion is necessary on Substack because it’s a very active and somewhat crowded place (and loaded with various celebrities, if you’re into that — there are a couple of well-known SF authors I subscribe to there). If you just publish a post without promoting it, it’s likely to get lost in the crowd.
While we’re on the topic, I’ll just mention that I no interest in Ai or Ai-related topics, and I certainly have no intention of ever exploring or using it. Keep that shit as far away as possible from me! So, I tend to ignore any posts people I subscribe to publish. It’s all your other stuff that I like — your photos and other life experiences and thoughts!
July 25th, 2025 at 1:22 pm
Don’t worry, I’ll keep publishing all the other stuff, too! And I respect your feelings about AI, so free to ignore those posts, for sure. They’ll be clearly marked as such. Maybe you’ll like some of my short stories or poems? But they will always be attached to posts reflecting on my own personal experimentation with AI, so no pressure to ever look at those, either!
Thanks so much for your take on Substack. Your sense of the space was starting (already!) to be my sense, as well. That’s okay. I’ll be prepared for zero interest and zero subscribers on Substack except for people who might find one of my WordPress AI posts via Google and then decide to click the “subscribe” button to get those posts and ONLY those posts (via Substack) in their inboxes. I guess I’ll view Substack more as a distribution channel than as the “social” platform I wrongly thought it was. If I don’t really expect any action from the platform itself, then at least my hopes won’t be dashed😂
July 25th, 2025 at 3:11 pm
Yikes! I was just over on Substack and was going to subscribe to a friend’s newsletter (because she subscribed to mine, so I thought I’d reciprocate)—and the first thing that happened was that Substack tried to strong arm me (guilt me) into showing her my “support” by “pledging” a future donation if she ever began to charge for her newsletter. I don’t want that happening to someone I send over from my blog! Which I would only be doing for their convenience. I don’t intend to charge anyone, ever! So, looks like WordPress it is!
July 25th, 2025 at 5:18 pm
That’s weird. Was it the page with multiple choices for subscription tiers? Do you know if your friend has enabled paid subscriptions? I was under the impression that, for someone like me, who has not (and will never), there was none of that rigamarole to go through.
But, yeah, if even blogs like mine subject people to that, it’s exactly what I was saying before about the bias for paid subscriptions. Subscribing to paid subscriptions is a bit of a trial. First the page offering subscription tiers (including but never defaulting to Free), then usually several more pages (Skip, Skip, Skip) asking if you want to recommend the site, and I forget what all else.
I don’t think you’re subscribed to my blog there? If you want, you could give it a try and see if you get the same businesses, since I definitely haven’t enabled paid subs.
But WordPress might just be easier for what you intend. Especially if you just plan on referrals from your site rather than people discovering the blog and joining. Keep it all in the family, so to speak.
July 26th, 2025 at 1:03 pm
I just subscribed to your Substack! And I didn’t get all that subscription stuff, although maybe because I was on my phone? It did try to make me subscribe to newsletters you recommended, which, did you? Maybe Substack decided that anything you subscribed to meant you “recommended” it? And then they pushed me to get the Substack app, which I did not do. All of which was far preferable to having that “tip screen” equivalent pop up, which people seem to be getting so tired of. I knew my friend wasn’t charging, so it was just so startling and off-putting that Substack would push that transaction into the moment where I was about to enter into her “conversation” with readers.
July 28th, 2025 at 10:20 am
From what I’ve heard, there are differences between the Substack website and the app. I don’t use the app very much, and when I do only to read a post or a comment. I’ve used the app to write a comment maybe four or five times (and never to write a post; unthinkable).
There are some other newsletters in my Recommends list. I assume that’s what it was pushing. If you have a blog, I think there’s a page where it asks if you want to recommend the blog you’re subscribing to on your blog (which seems wishful thinking — learn about; read some posts; decide to subscribe; … then recommend (maybe)).
I wonder where that “tip screen” business comes from. I don’t think I’ve seen that one. (Though, my mental filters are so well trained to ignore that stuff, I might have blown through it without it registering.) I do know some Substackers (Subtackians?) have a “buy me a cup of coffee” thing going. Sounds like that could be related. A one-time small payment.
I agree that having to go through several pages of rigamarole just to subscribe seems bad design. I haven’t figured out quite the right trick, but sometimes you can subscribe without being subjected to that. I think it might be when you click the subscribe link on a Note that it just silently subscribes you? Not sure, but sometimes I’m able to subscribe with a click and no fuss.
July 25th, 2025 at 5:09 pm
Substack is actually pretty social (more than WordPress), especially if you get into the Notes feed (which is essentially what Twitter used to be, from what I gather — I’ve never had a Twitter account). But as with any social media, you have to spend time there and become visible before it starts feeding back. That’s one reason my posts there get so little traction: I don’t really care for the Notes feed.
Sadly, I have multiple long TOREAD lists, so mostly as a self-defense measure, I’ve never been much into internet fiction or poetry. (People mentioning books is bad enough because I often end up adding them to one of the lists. Just added The Prestige (1995), by Christopher Priest, because someone mentioned it in a blog post, and I liked the movie but didn’t even realize it was a novelization. Apparently popular: 22-week wait!)
July 26th, 2025 at 12:51 pm
Yeah, my “to read” and “to view” lists are also longer than I can probably ever get through in my time here on Earth. I get it! Students have written about “The Prestige” in my film studies class many times. It sounds good, and those who have written the papers really liked it. I should take some time to watch now that it’s free on Prime or Hulu or one of the free-with-ads channels. I saw it flash across my screen this past week and recognized the title.
July 28th, 2025 at 10:11 am
I know, I know! So many books and movies (and TV shows and albums). Not to mention all the other stuff life offers. And one some level, it’s all interesting to me. Seems like anything one chooses to explore always unfolds endlessly. I’ve never craved immortality, but it would be nice to sit at the feast longer. I suppose the brevity is part of what makes life so precious.
I generally have liked Nolan’s work, especially his smaller films. (His blockbusters, not as much.) I’ve seen The Prestige a few times and enjoyed it each time. I’m looking forward to reading the book.
July 28th, 2025 at 10:38 am
I forgot to reply vis-a-vis the Brewers. I like the Brewers, though my allegiance in baseball is Twins, AL-Central, American League, MLB, USA, Earth (assuming Mars ever has a baseball team). Supposedly there’s an “across the river” rivalry between the Twins and Brewers (to mimic the Vikings-Packers rivalry), but I’ve never had any sense it was other than media-generated.
The MLB “Club TV” deal gives me full access to the Twins’ games, so no issues with blackouts — only on rare occasions when some other entity (like ESPN or Apple TV) has exclusive rights to a particular broadcast.
As I mentioned in the post, I haven’t watched baseball regularly in a few years until this season, and when we were in Milwaukee, I saw that “Front Row Amy” is still attending Brewers games. (Turns out there’s even a Front Row Amy bobblehead from a few years ago. Collectors’ items now. Very expensive on eBay!) With all the recent changes in baseball, it’s nice that some traditions endure.
BTW, my dad was born in Marinette (and my mom in Escanaba, MI), so Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, are all “home” states to me, though I’ve only ever lived in Minnesota (48 years, with 5 years in New York and 17 in California).
August 21st, 2025 at 2:04 pm
[…] they made the lead story in that month’s Friday Notes, but the story had an entirely different tone to it. Two bad months had wiped away their gains from […]