Category Archives: Friday Notes
I’m off to a late start (it’s nearly noon) starting this early-in-the-month Friday Notes post. The delay is because I spent several hours this morning updating my Movies page (which lists my favorite movies as well as my rating system).
I’m not done updating it; I want to add some lists of films by favorite directors (Wes Anderson, Christopher Guest, Quentin Tarantino). Wikipedia has those lists, of course, but I like having a reference page with links I most care about.
But enough about movies. On to the Notes!
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13 Comments | tags: AI, Bentley, fantasy BS, FBS, grammar, Lee Smolin, markdown text, Microsoft Windows | posted in Friday Notes
For a bit over a year now, I’ve included various monthly weather charts and observations in the Friday Notes posts. In some cases, those sections were lengthy enough to call for their own posts. (Which would also keep those not caring about my local weather out of said weather.)
Therefore, as of today, a new Weather Notes subdivision of Friday Notes (similar to the Science Notes subdivision established two years ago). Easy now to ignore if so inclined.
And now, the weather…
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5 Comments | tags: xkcd, weather, rain, Minnesota, temperature, Weather Notes, dew point | posted in Friday Notes
After putting the blog largely on hold this spring and summer, I’m trying to get back into it by doing a bit of catch-up. (Or at least discover if and how I really want to get back into it.)
Five posts so far this month (not counting this one) compared to five posts during the three summer months (June, July, August), so I’m off to a good start.
Didn’t manage even to post a Friday Notes in August, so there’s more than enough for (at least) a second edition this month.
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6 Comments | tags: skydiving, 9-11, parachute, blog, dogs, Field of Dreams, human consciousness, Bentley, Science Notes | posted in Friday Notes
“I have of late — but wherefore I know not — lost all my …” interest in blogging. (In fact, I have a pretty good idea wherefore, but I really like the speech the quote comes from. It’s the same one with the memorable lines: “What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason. …”).
Only six posts May–July and none in August — not even an edition of Friday Notes. I am seriously off my blogging game!
Which means I have a bit of a backlog on these Notes posts, so it’s beyond time to crank out another edition.
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9 Comments | tags: block universe, blog blah, Life Science Library, MWI, odometer, quantum computing, the past | posted in Friday Notes
After taking May and most of June off from blogging (in fact, from anything involving sitting at my computer), I tried to jump-start myself by putting out five posts at the end of June. The more eagle-eyed readers may have noticed I put out only three.
I intended a Monday post about movies I’ve seen lately followed by a TV Tuesday post about TV shows. But both days passed without posts because reasons — mostly ennui, to be honest.
But I am motivated to put out this early-in-the-month Friday Notes post because it’s the last post of my 14th year blogging here; tomorrow is the 15-year anniversary!
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13 Comments | tags: AI, artificial intelligence, Fermi Paradox, Kylo Ren, the past, weather | posted in Friday Notes
Apparently, I’ve been on my own form of spring break. It has been over a month since my last post here (or anywhere). And there was a three-week stretch between previous posts and the single gap-filling Friday Notes post on May 15th.
Getting from the last paragraph to this one took over an hour due to a number of self-induced distractions. For a variety of reasons, I’m just not feeling it lately. Some of it is blog blahs, but most of it is… I just don’t want to.
Yet there is much to write about…
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23 Comments | tags: Bentley, blogging, cricket, Peter Gabriel, spring, squirrels, Summer Solstice, weather | posted in Friday Notes
It has been a while — three weeks exactly — since the last post here. I haven’t been idle, though; quite the opposite. I reached three-score-and-ten last fall and have taken it as a mile-marker indicating it’s time to get some stuff done.
I hibernated through the winter, but now that spring has arrived, I’m out of my sleepy cave and roaming around organizing things, getting rid of other things, keeping appointments, and (gulp) spending money.
But this Friday Notes edition has a tiny significance that demands my attention.
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24 Comments | tags: email spam, encryption, Eric Clapton, omnivore, quantum computing, squirrels, weather | posted in Friday Notes, Movies, Music
I started the Friday Notes series in March of 2021. (I would have mentioned the five-year anniversary in last month’s edition had I noticed it.) Since then (61 posts), I have managed to whittle down long-standing, and in some cases ancient, piles of notes.
The piles aren’t all vanquished; likely they never will be. New notes spring up like mushrooms, so it seems there will always be fodder for future posts.
Or at least endless editions of Friday Notes.
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2 Comments | tags: gravity, Neal Asher, Project Hail Mary, weather | posted in Friday Notes
It has been a minute or two since the last Science Notes — this subset of Friday Notes where I share bits and pieces of science news that have caught my eye.
In fact, the last of these was back in October, and the reason I didn’t post sooner was that not many articles have caught my eye since. In part because I’ve found myself skipping more and more articles due to lack of interest.
I fear it’s also in part because science has become so broken these days, so lost in fantastical speculation that I’ve begun skipping articles in which the word “might” or “could” plays a prominent role.
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Leave a comment | tags: beer, conservative, education, liberal, Science Notes, sleep | posted in Friday Notes, Science
Pardon me for going momentarily meta, but these three-paragraph opens (hopefully with a pithy cliffhanger punchline for the third) are sometimes a real challenge. The intent is a recognizable style that acts like a watermark.
Some opens are more challenging than others, though. The right half-dozen or so sentences comprising three thoughts (with a hoped-for haiku-like third) can take forever to whip into shape.
Friday Notes are among the hardest because there isn’t much to say other than “here we go again…”
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12 Comments | tags: adaptations, AI, Bentley, Dogma (movie), opinions, seconds are long, Substack, weather | posted in Friday Notes
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