Given everything going on these days, blogging seems more pointless than ever. My disgust and ennui have reached new levels, and I can’t help but wonder if I’m witnessing the downfall of democracy and society. We seem in the last stages of a trainwreck I’ve been bystanding for 50 years.
The Dumpster fire rages so hot that it trivializes ordinary pursuits. Add a bushel of minor personal concerns, and my will to write is all but gone.
All but. And of course I have Notes…
I’ve written here before about the Libby app I use to access the local library’s ebook catalog. Over the years, I’ve read hundreds of library books without ever having to actually visit the library. (Which is a pity in some ways. I’ve always loved libraries and even was a student librarian in high school. And there is value in being able to wander and browse.)
A while back the Libby app seriously expanded access to periodicals, so I’ve been reading the British magazine, New Scientist.
Which has turned out to be yet another reason to take notes…
Happy Pi Day! Also, happy 146th birthday to Albert Einstein. (I love that his birthday is Pi Day. Seems appropriate and makes it so easy to remember.) Over the years, I’ve written quite a bit here about the weirdly omnipresent transcendental number we call pi (p) — 3.14159 (roughly speaking).
As such, I won’t go into it again here today. (Though I do plan something for my Substack blog — where there is a fresh audience for old posts.)
This is actually a Friday Notes post, although — change for the new year— I’m dropping the standardized title format I’d started using for day-based category posts.
It’s funny, sometimes, the twists and turns of life. When I first heard of The Three Body Problem (2006), a science fiction novel by Liu Cixin, it didn’t grab my attention because I’m a little weary of “alien invasion” stories. But I’d read and enjoyed Ball Lightning (2004), so I watched Three Body, the Chinese adaptation of the first novel.
I posted last year about how much I liked it. So much so that I recently watched and posted about it again. And re-read the first novel (I read the trilogy last year). I even watched the first season of the Netflix adaptation.
To my eyes, it demonstrated everything that’s gone wrong with modern writing for TV and movies. The contrast between the Chinese adaptation and the Netflix one is stark and revealing.
I turn 70 this fall, and in the meantime, I’ve decided to step up my efforts to get rid of stuff I’m hanging on to for no good reason (except memories, a non-trivial reason but a topic for another day). A Clearance Deal — All Items Must Go!
Over the last few years, I’ve donated a lot of books and DVDs to the library. I think this year I’ll try to get rid of all (or nearly all) of the DVDs and a lot more books. I have some collections I may put up for sale on craigslist or Nextdoor. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve just tossed, which breaks my heart a little.
For example, a while back, I tossed a lot of old-but-beloved tee-shirts…
Not quite a year ago I posted about watching the Chinese adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, a 2006 science fiction novel by Liu Cixin. At the time, I’d only seen the adaptation. Since then, I’ve read all three books of the trilogy, re-read the first, re-watched the Chinese adaptation, and now, holding my nose, am watching the Netflix adaptation.
Having read the book, especially having recently re-read it, I enjoyed the Chinese adaptation much more than I did the first time seeing it cold. It was a much richer experience, and that adaptation is very faithful to the book.
I thought for Sci-Fi Saturday, knowing much more now, I’d revisit the topic.
I usually publish a pair of Janus posts in early January, one looking back (with charts and stats), one looking forward (with intentions for the year). This year I’m “juuust a bit outside” the strike zone.
I got a respiratory virus just before Christmas, and it took me out for Christmas and the song-celebrated Twelve Days after. Mid-January I was dog-sitting and decided to take the whole month off from the interweb (and, to a large extent, even the computer).
Now I’m back. With charts and stats.
Until now, I haven’t posted here all month, and I’m not sure I’ll post anything before the end of the year. My attention definitely is more towards Substack these days, and I increasingly ask myself why to bother with WordPress anymore?
For one, their technology continues to depress me. This week it’s because the notifications bell icon can’t clear the little dot that means messages pending. It’s on all the time, but there are no messages pending. Basically, at this point, I’m pretty disgusted and done with WP.
But first let’s have at least one more edition of Friday Notes.
Many tables with room for all. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
While one might disparage the white colonialism that birthed the holiday along with the bowdlerization of its history, I like to think time denatures these things and leaves us with a Norman Rockwellesque secular day of family travel, over-eating, discontent, and infighting. Our American tradition.
But pointed opening aside, the season in general, along with the coming year’s end, does — if we but take it — give us a chance to pause and reflect on the past year and what it meant to us. And, if the soul is gentled and still, to find things to be thankful for.
It has been another slow month here, and I remain conflicted about trying to blog both here on WordPress and now, on Substack. Last May I committed to posting on my WP programming blog (The Hard-Core Coder) every two weeks.
I’d discovered that I didn’t like writing about programming as much as I enjoy doing it, but figured I’d give it one more try (hence the commitment). So far, I’ve been keeping it up, and plan to continue, but it’s one more thing taking time from this blog.
It’s possible (but maybe not yet likely) this is the penultimate Friday Notes.
Posts pertaining to programming!
Logos con carne 