Winter (again), and in a pretty big way. As in shovel, shovel, shovel, brrrr…
It seems pretty clear at this point we’ll have snow for Christmas.
Banks: The Algebraist
My reaction to Scottish writer Iain (M.) Banks (1954-2013) is decidedly mixed. On multiple points. His middle initial (for Menzies) being one of the lesser ones. The 14 novels by Iain M. Banks are science fiction — most taking place in the Culture, his far-future backdrop. The 14 novels by Iain Banks, however, are mainstream, not science fiction.
Banks became notable after his first novel, The Wasp Factory (1984; mainstream). His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, came out in 1987. That was also the first book in his Culture series.
I recently read The Algebraist (2004), one of his few non-Culture science fiction novels. It reminded me of both what attracts and annoys me about his writing.
Modular Curve Stitching
One of the Substack blogs I follow, A Piece of the Pi by Richard Green, is almost ideal from my point of view because it features articles that interest me but only — at most — a few a month (so I needn’t strain to keep up).
Which matters because keeping up with dozens of science and math blogs, video channels, and occasional papers takes considerable time away from various hobby projects. But sometimes (and this is the third time Mr. Green has done this) something captures my imagination and sends me off on a tangent.
The results often seem worth sharing, and this is no exception. The delight here is that such a simple idea results in a variety of interesting patterns.
TV Tuesday 12/9/25
I’m starting to feel a bit repetitious with the several TV Tuesday posts lately, not to mention the monthly Friday Notes. It’s starting to feel a little obligatory. They both serve a useful purpose for me, which is why I write them, but sometimes I chaff under the regularity.
Perhaps what feels especially repetitious is ranting about so many modern TV shows and films. That gets as old for me as I’m sure it does for readers. But venting also serves a purpose according to some studies.
Consider that a forewarning, for this one too has a bit of ranting…
November Coding Binge
A few posts ago I wrote that for “two weeks I’ve indulged in intense 12+ hour days on a self-education project in Python and its Tk module.” The end result of the binge is seven new apps (so far; more to come) and a good starting grasp of how to make some fairly decent windowing apps in Microsoft Windows using out-of-the-box Python.
More concretely, my “tk” project folder has 14 Python files with over 9,000 lines of code (367,000+ characters). That’s what remains. I didn’t save the many false starts, tests, and trials. Suffice to say I probably wrote close to twice as much code.
This post is “Dear Diary” entry for documenting the progress, the fun, and the frustration. It may not be terribly interesting for anyone else, but I learned a lot and (ultimately) really enjoyed the experience. And it’s nice to find out that this ancient dog can still learn new tricks.
And so, it begins…
Winter, that is.
Last evening, we had rain that turned to snow after midnight. The result, of course, it a bit of an icy mess.
Friday Notes (Nov 21, 2025)
This post begins with a bit of what I see as good news. We’re exactly one month away from Winter Solstice — December 21st at 15:03 UTC. That’s 9:03 AM USA Central Time, and I set posts to publish at 9:14 AM, so by the time you read this, it’s just under a month away.
Cue regular Solstice-Equinox reminder that the day-length changes very slowly at the Solstices and very rapidly at the Equinoxes [cue regular link: Solar Derivative].
Until then, here’s another edition of Friday Notes.
Mandelbrot Monday (again)
For two weeks I’ve indulged in intense 12+ hour days on a self-education project in Python and its Tk module. I plan to write more about that later this week (that’s the plan, anyway).
Intense coding and learning take me deep into a Zen-like mindset that’s hard to emerge from. I have a minor self-commitment to publish at least five posts a month but have yet to publish anything this month.
As I struggle to regain the English language, I thought sharing another set of Mandelbrot images offered an easy reentry. The previous post had images from 2019 and 2020. Here are the last of those (and some from 2025).
Mandelbrot Monday
In the Friday Notes from last August, I wrote about needing to buy a new laptop. In the September edition of same, I wrote about installing Ultra Fractal 6 on that laptop and shared a few Mandelbrot images I’d made.
I’ve been sharing two or three in Substack Notes every week for “Fractal Friday”, but Notes is a fast-running river in which things vanish downstream almost instantly.
So, I thought I’d start sharing some here on Mandelbrot Mondays, though I don’t plan to make it a regular thing. I am thinking about a series of posts exploring the Mandelbrot, though.
Friday Notes (Oct 24, 2025)
Fall — my favorite season ‘cept for the fading of the light — has fallen here in Minnesota, and our thoughts are turning towards the question of what kind of winter it will be: easy or miserable.
My winter is coming triple mile markers loom, the first dead ahead: Will it snow by Halloween? Will it snow by Thanksgiving? Will it snow by Christmas? Answers to all three vary depending on the whims of Mother Nature and her unexpected offspring, Climate Change.
In the meantime, here we are again for another edition of Friday Notes.
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