About Wyrd Smythe
The canonical fool on the hill watching the sunset and the rotation of the planet and thinking what he imagines are large thoughts.
I have written many times here about the wonderful Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol (1843). I wrote the first post back in December of 2012 when this blog was less than two years old. The most recent was ten years later, in December of 2022.
December, of course, because Christmas. Every year I watch as many adaptations as I can find (and I read the Dickens novella). It’s one of my favorite stories: it’s small and personal; it centers on a redemption arc; it has a classic happy ending; and it has ghosts.
This year I was struck by how it’s a powerful example of our cultural normative social values — something expressed throughout human literature.
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13 Comments | tags: A Christmas Carol, moral philosophy, morality, morals and ethics | posted in Society, Sunday Sermons
My most important annual event, the Winter Solstice, has passed (at 15:03 UTC; 9:03 AM CST) and the light shall return!
It’ll take a while to notice but get ready to party!
Stay warm, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.
∇
2 Comments | tags: Winter Solstice | posted in Life
I meant to put out a rare early-in-the-month Friday Notes post this time but with one thing and another didn’t start on this until last week (on the very day I meant to post it). It’s true what they say about time passing faster when you’re older. In part because so much becomes known.
Novelty makes life richer — it’s one reason I love and pursue science and math. Endless new vistas to explore; always a new hill to climb.
And always new notes on the pile…
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15 Comments | tags: atoms, Bentley, Substack, time passing, Watching the Detectives, weather | posted in Friday Notes
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.
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10 Comments | tags: shoveling snow, snow, winter | posted in Life, Wednesday Wow
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.
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4 Comments | tags: Iain M. Banks, science fiction books | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
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.
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5 Comments | tags: computer generated images, Mary Everest Boole, Python | posted in Computers, Math
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…
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6 Comments | tags: adaptations, Antimatter Blues, Claudia Black, Cowboys & Aliens, Deus (2022), Edward Ashton, Keanu Reeves, Mikey7, Replicas (2018), Rick and Morty, Sisu (2002), Solar Opposites, Star Trek, Upload (TV series) | posted in Movies, TV Tuesday
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.
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15 Comments | tags: grep, hex dump, POV-Ray, Python, Thanksgiving, tkinter | posted in Computers, Life, Writing
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.
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2 Comments | tags: shoveling snow, snow, winter, winter storm | posted in Life
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.
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5 Comments | tags: AI, Bentley, eagle, equinox, Python, snow, Solstice, squirrel, weather | posted in Computers, Friday Notes, Math
Logos con carne 