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.
I’ve been dog-sitting Ms. Bentley Beans since last Saturday. She’ll be hanging out with me until at least the first of October. We’ve been enjoying the fall weather, though it has actually been slightly muggy for late September. Not like the swamp of late summer, but enough to soak my tee-shirt and make Bentley pant a little during our walks.
As usual, I take Bentley’s visits as my own vacation and spend most of the time hanging out with her and catching up on reading and TV.
Sadly, Friday Notes won’t write themselves, so while Bentley snoozes, I blog.
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?
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.
It’s been a slow month here, this is only my second post, and it could be the last. (This month, I mean, not forever.) One thing that has become clear to me is that Substack Notes is too much of a time sink. I’ve been learning to tear myself away from it.
I’m sure I’ll keep posting there, though. I’ve been updating some of my older posts and republishing them for a new audience. I wrapped things up here on computationalism some time ago, but now I have an excuse to revisit and distill those thoughts.
As for this blog, at least for now, there’s always Friday Notes.
Once again we pivot into the dark half of the year. Here in the northern hemisphere, anyway. Folks below the equator are enjoying the opposite pivot, the good one into light.
The Autumnal Equinox is my least favorite Solar Occasion (today: 12:44 GMT, 7:44 AM CDT). It means winter is coming. I can deal with the cold, but the short days and long dark nights, that’s tougher.
Often, the hardest part of Friday Notes (and, in fact, most) posts is writing the lede. Very soon after I began back in 2011, I settled on a three-part opening structure consisting of (as my template puts it): Intro… More… Punchline… followed by the page break that divides the lede from the body of the post.
That page break comes into play when WordPress lists a bunch of posts as well as in the notification emails (except in the double-damned WordPress Reader, which corrupts everything in the name of sameness). And while I’m on the topic of WordPress, I’m getting really fed up with it.
But that’s a post for another day. For now, I’ve got Notes…
I’m in a post again?
Most online sources define resurfacing firstly as having to do with floors, roads, ice rinks, kitchen counters, and even skin. Only secondarily do they define resurfacing as returning to the surface. But Wiktionary puts that latter one first, and it’s in that sense that I mean it (bravo Wiki!).
It feels as if it’s been a long time since my last post, but in fact it’s been less than a week. It just seems long because it has also been a productive week filled with new things as well as a week of some long hours on a project. Enough hours to have burned me out a bit. Now I have some catching up to do.
But it’s nice to know I can still pull off a coding all-nighter at my age.
Moar Treats? Moar Walks??
I had the unmitigated pleasure of spending last Thursday through last Sunday with my opinionated little canine “niece” Bentley. Fortunately, her opinions all involve walks and treats rather than politics (which she thinks is what happens when your parrot swallows a watch).
On the other hand, her opinions on walks and treats tend to be rather definite (and rather on the greedy side). She knows what she wants (all) and when she wants it (now). My giving in to her opinions on walks led to some unexpected yet interesting results Saturday morning.
Sadly, I didn’t have my camera with me to document those results but did take it along on two other walks to document the beauty of some local parks.
Last month I put out two editions of Friday Notes, and this month I almost missed posting any (today being my last chance). To some extent, that’s just normal ebb and flow, but it’s also that I’ve been distracted by Real Life™ (such as it is).
I’ve been doing a lot of (in many cases rather interesting) reading lately — words going in rather than out — and I think any writer will tell you that’s the easier direction. Sometimes the much easier direction.
But I do have some notes (and pictures)…
Posts pertaining to programming!
Logos con carne 