Woke up at 0430, but that's not bad. Better than just after midnight, then lying awake all night.

MidwatchEntry was invoked by the function in Captain's Log, but when I looked this morning, there was an alert that the application couldn't be run because of some security "feature." So I opened the app in Automator, ran it as a workflow, everything checked green, saved it back as an application. Tried to run it again and got the same error.

So I opened it in Automator and chose "Duplicate" from the File menu. Verified that the copy ran as a workflow. Moved the original from Applications to the Trash, and emptied the Trash. Saved the duplicated workflow as an Application, deleted "copy" in the name and ran it from Finder.

This time I got the usual requests to control Calendar and Tinderbox, approved each and no complaints.

So, something to bear in mind I guess, if you create Automator applications on one Mac that you may wish to run on another one.

Feeling productive already.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:32 Tuesday, 23 April 2024

While I was up in New York, I had my MBP with me and Captain's Log was running. I discovered I hadn't installed the Automator application MidwatchEntry on the MBP!

So I'm in my office, in the recliner, I logged into the iMac, copied the app over to the MBP and quit Tinderbox on the iMac and launched it on the MBP. I'll check tomorrow morning to make sure everything ran according to plan.

I spoke to my sister the nurse this evening, and learned that all of Mom's OTC pain relievers were expired by three years or more. My brother is doing her grocery shopping Wednesday and he'll be getting some fresh supplies. Mom has been instructed how much to take and how often to see if we can't get her some relief. It never occurred to me to check her OTC pain meds.

Mom has an issue where her right arm is too painful to move sometimes. It seems to come and go, but it happens often enough that she's too embarrassed to eat at the bistro with her friends, because she has to try to eat with one hand, and her non-dominant one at that. It seems that other things that worried me aren't necessarily problems yet.

In other news, I enjoy watching the Project Farm YouTube channel, and one of the videos I watched early this morning was this one, where he tested a number of different manufacturers' NiMH AA batteries. To date, I've used Panasonic Eneloops exclusively, but the Amazon Basics performed identically in the tests. He makes a point of mentioning that the batteries manufactured in Japan consistently outperformed the ones made in China, and the Amazon brand performed nearly identically to the Envelops.

So I ordered 24 Amazon Basics High Capacity AA NiMH rechargeables. Well, they arrived this evening(!) and looking at the labels, I see they're made in Malaysia. I checked the Project Farm video date, and it was made about four years ago. I went looking for a more recent video that tested Amazon Basics and found one from about year ago. The date of manufacture of the batteries I received is 11/22, which is after the recording of this video ("TylerTube"), where the Amazon Basics performed better than the others. So I'm fairly confident these will perform well.

I use the Panasonic BQ-CC65 "Advanced" charger, which can condition batteries. It managed to restore a couple of Apple NiMH batteries I had from either a Magic Mouse a track pad or keyboard or something. I had two pairs of those batteries (Probably more, but they'd gone missing.) and it was unable to restore one pair, but I've been using the other pair successfully and they're years old. (How many? I'd be guessing, but probably close to a decade.) I just reviewed the instruction, and the condition function will display battery capacity as well, so maybe I'll try a comparison test.

I have some old radios that rely on D-cell batteries, so I bought a bunch of EBL D-cells year ago. Based on everything I've seen regarding EBL AAs, they probably won't perform up to their specification. I bought 8 Amazon Basic D-cells and maybe I'll do a little comparison test.

I'd like to get a charger that was powered from USB-C PD, then I could recharge from either of my Anker PD power banks, or the Bluetti batteries.

Well, here's hoping I sleep well tonight. It's not like retired guys have to be "productive" or anything, but there are some things I'd like to get accomplished before Mitzi gets back on Saturday. It's a lot easier when my ass isn't draggin'.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 19:53 Monday, 22 April 2024

Despite being pretty tired from the early morning, I didn't sleep well last night. Got up around 0400 and watched YouTube videos about battery charging and NiMH batteries.

As one does.

Went for my walk, had breakfast and took a nap.

Spent the last couple of hours looking at how to apply for VA benefits for Mom. I think I've got it mostly figured out, but naturally, it's confusing. Probably should have done this a year ago, but I wasn't aware of it. My wife's sister-in-law informed me yesterday when I was talking to Mitzi. She just went through it for her mom. Need to coordinate with my siblings, but waiting to hear from my sister the nurse.

Anyway, saw this from the window yesterday and thought it was interesting. As usual, I took too many photos from the window. I suspect this is a disturbance in the cloud layer left by an aircraft that descended below the cloud layer heading into Detroit.

Stuff I don't see every day.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:52 Monday, 22 April 2024

My representative, Republican John Rutherford, voted for military aid to Ukraine. This is noteworthy because John is ordinarily a moral coward, as well as a seditionist and a liar. His two nearby colleagues, freshman Aaron Bean (R) and "just the tip" seditionist Michael Waltz (R), both voted against it, which makes Rutherford's vote even more extraordinary.

I don't know if he's growing a spine or what, but it is refreshing to see him do something not bone-headed stupid for once.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:12 Sunday, 21 April 2024

Another early morning, though not as early. 0400 instead of 0300. It's also cool that the Albany airport is only 15 minutes from Mom's (and the hotel where I was staying). It was 33 frickin' Fahrenheit this morning. The Chevy Malibu I rented had a heated steering wheel and heated seats, and I was grateful for it.

An astonishing line at TSA at 0430 in the morning. Very pleased that I had pre✅. Crowded at the terminal gate as well, and every cough and sneeze make me wish I'd remembered to bring a mask. We'll know in a couple of days. Solid overcast from Albany to Detroit, and much of the way from Detroit to Jacksonville.

I've had days arriving in Jax when it felt as though you were stepping into a sauna, as if a blanket of oppressive, wet heat just surrounded you when you stepped outside. Not so today. It was a welcome relief to step into sunshine (mostly) and warmth. But the sauna will be here soon enough.

Anyway, I'm back now. Caitie's coming over later this afternoon. Did some grocery shopping on the way home. I'm unpacked, laundry is underway and I'm going to take a nap. It's nice to be home, as qualified as that may be in Florida.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:07 Sunday, 21 April 2024

Check out these swallows.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:07 Saturday, 20 April 2024

I'm glad I came up to see Mom, but it's also a bit sad. Every time I see her, she seems to have shrunken a bit more. I suppose it's the Parkinson's. It has gotten a bit worse, but she's still on her feet and living independently. I don't think that will be the case for much longer.

She's very stoic, and never complains, so when she says she "thinks" she's going to need some more help, I wonder and worry about what she's been struggling with recently. My brother does most of the day to day monitoring and assistance. He's got his own recently discovered medical issues to deal with, so I'm not inclined to discuss this with him just yet. We'll know more about his situation in a couple of weeks.

My sister is a nurse, and she checks in on Mom often, but lives farther away. I'll be calling her in a few minutes to get her take and begin considering next steps.

I love my Mom, and this is life.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:48 Saturday, 20 April 2024

Jack posted a rather visceral take on a blog post title, which had the presumably desired effect of making me click through. I read the entire post (that used to be "RTWT" or, "read the whole thing" back in the day). I also get it, but agree that the title was more click-bait than topic or non-sequitur. (Because the way I've set up the marmot, titles aren't required but they make things a little easier. Often, the title is a seeming non-sequitur because it's all I could come up with, but it often influences how the post evolves. That's kind of interesting.)

Anyway, I don't share Keenan's particular malady. I have no problem clicking "mark all as read" in NetNewsWire when I've gotten a bit behind. My greater challenge is the number of posts I've starred, intending to respond to them or otherwise do something. But it doesn't instill any particular angst. I'm old enough now to laugh at myself at all the foolish but harmless things I do.

But it's interesting, also, that in this morning's feed there's a post from from Matt Webb about how various social media prompts are interpreted by people who may not be exactly in center of the Bell curve in interpreting a prompt. It's resonant, to some degree, with Keenan's experience with RSS.

As Jack observes in another post, people are different and generalizations can make someone look foolish.

FWIW, I stopped reading Gruber some time ago. His writing feels calcified, stale. He's approaching "grumpy old man" without the charm of being, you know, old. I think that's the problem with writing mostly about one topic and being so strongly identified with it, namely Apple. I know he's done some stuff with sports and maybe movies? Anyway, I don't miss him.

But that's the beauty of the blogosphere. There are many voices. Always something new to discover. Keenan was new to me this morning.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:27 Saturday, 20 April 2024

I'm in a New York State of mind. It's 43°, cloudy and windy. It's enough to make you miss Florida. Kinda. The weather anyway. (The weather in the header is from Jacksonville. I'm in Albany, NY.)

Finished Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power yesterday. In an Afterword the author, Timothy W. Ryback, mentions Dr. Richard M. Hunt, a "teacher, mentor, and friend," and Harvard professor. Specifically:

When I visited Rick in a retirement community outside Boston in autumn 2019, he was asking similar questions about political fragmentation and polarization in America. He wondered whether Weimar Germany might serve as a cautionary tale even as he warned against drawing false parallels or tenuous conclusions. He invoked an old adage: History never repeats itself, but the events of past and present can rhyme. With this caveat in mind, I have let the historic facts speak for themselves.

Indeed, the facts do speak for themselves, and they are chilling. Because of the differences of the respective political systems, it's impossible to align personalities and dynamics with 100% correspondence. But what is congruent is deeply troubling. The short lesson is that it is quite possible to destroy democracy through democratic means. Perhaps this comes as no surprise to anyone paying attention for the past eight years.

I suppose it also supports the idea the that democracy isn't necessarily an ideal that everyone in a democracy shares. That there's a strong trait present in human nature that craves a "powerful" leader.

Given the reliance on abstractions that democracy and democratic political institutions require, that seems unsurprising. Civilization itself is an abstraction. It exists only in our minds. When enough minds abandon those abstractions, or subordinate them to other ideas, or are wholly incapable of establishing and maintaining them in the first place, you get WW II, a large scale, multi-regional collapse of civilization.

Today, as profit and competition push aside the value of a functioning civilization, we have a global catastrophe unfolding.

What happened in Germany was plainly visible to anyone who cared to look at the facts. Many tried to wish it away, but others saw what was coming, were powerless to stop it, and what followed was as inevitable as the sunrise.

Similarly today, what is happening is plainly visible to anyone who cares to see. While many of us may wish to believe that the outcome isn't inevitable, it very likely is.

Our cognitive capacity isn't sufficiently evolved to maintain a near-universal hierarchy of fundamental abstractions. We have emotionally anchored primitives instead, and we're highly evolved to "reason backward from our feelings." We value simple concepts like "competition," or "the market." Our notions of "freedom" are similarly crude. They may have functioned reasonably well in the 18th Century, but they're wholly outmoded in the 21st. But we're emotionally wedded to them, and that can be exploited.

I've read a lot of books about the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany, because it does seem like it ought to have been inconceivable. That itself should demand that it be studied and understood. But we have "Godwin's law," to relieve us of any burden of investigation and understanding.

The "banality of evil" is the extent to which we will, as a matter of routine, empower others, even the worst of us, to perform evil. It's written throughout our history. The "bad guys" never see themselves that way. Hierarchy of abstractions. "We did what we had to do." Razor wire in the river. "Destroy Hamas."

Anyway, maybe it's the weather. There are hints of spring on the branches of the trees, but the sky is gray, the air is cold and the wind howls.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:12 Friday, 19 April 2024

Well, let's see if this works.

Got up a little before 0300, out of the house a 0315. No traffic at that hour. No line at TSA pre✅. Somehow my phone fell out of the x-ray bin, but fortunately I realized I didn't have it before I left security and found it on the floor next to the conveyor. I guess it came out when I pulled my backpack out.

Two plus hour layover before heading on to Albany. Figured I'd play with the marmot. Brought the OM-5 along and shot this with it.

Dozed a bit on the flight out of Jax. Wouldn't mind a nap right now, but that's kind of difficult. Made the mistake of getting breakfast at TGI Friday's. Horrible. It was supposed to be an omelet, but it was just a mess.

Connected up to wifi through my phone's personal hotspot, seems pretty speedy.

Tried doing an online check-in with Hertz, but since I reserved the car under the name "Dave Rogers," I can't confirm check-in because that doesn't match the name on my driver's license. It's 2024 and we're worried about AI taking people's jobs and we can't have a computer figure out that "Dave Rogers" and "David Rogers," each with the same address and phone number, aren't the same person.

I guess in an era of ubiquitous surveillance and corporate, government and malefactor intrusions the fact that computers and the software they run are so limited ought to be encouraging.

Can't say I enjoy traveling at this hour, but it does have the advantage of avoiding crowds. It also gets me out of Atlanta before the weather starts getting weird. Summertime is worst, but I'm not sure you can rely on past patterns anymore. Flying at this hour is more affordable too, to the extent that I was able to book first class without breaking the bank. It really is hard getting up that early though.

Ok, rambled on enough. Let's see if this will upload.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:30 Thursday, 18 April 2024

Brought along the E-P7 this morning, with the Lumix 20mm/f1.7 on it. Did the bench and the arches again, probably upload those to Flickr after I get finished here. I played with in-camera RAW processing, choosing different built-in profiles.

After shooting the arches, it dawned on me I hadn't been notified by Delta to check-in for my flight tomorrow. So I opened the Delta app on my phone and saw the flight to Albany, but not the return leg. Spent some time fooling around trying to figure out what was up with that, and decided it would have to wait until I got home.

After some confusion on someone's part, I don't think Delta's system was running properly, I finally got the whole itinerary listed and checked in for tomorrow's oh-dark-thirty flight to Atlanta. I'm getting up at 0300 tomorrow to get to Jax for an 0520 flight. Oy. I'll park in the parking garage ($$) because it's just for the weekend, and I'm only bringing a carry-on and maybe a camera bag.

I printed my boarding passes, just in case, and then noticed they omitted TSA pre✅ (let's see how that renders). So I went to the app on my phone, which couldn't find my whole itinerary previously, and had to wait while something happened in the background. Now all is well, and everything is up to date. The electronic boarding pass has the TSA pre✅ logo, and now they're in the Wallet app.

I tried to do Hertz's "touchless" check-in, which is pretty creepy because they want to enroll you by having you take a picture of yourself and your driver's license. I initially declined, then thought about it and figured we're all screwed anyway as far as privacy is concerned, might as well make it convenient.

So you start on the computer in the browser, it then sends a "secure link" to your phone, where some web app is supposed to step you through taking photos of yourself and your driver's license. For better or worse, it wouldn't work, so I guess I'm standing in line to get the car. No big deal.

Planning on bringing the OM-5 with me tomorrow. Maybe the 14-42EZ pancake zoom, the 20mm/f1.7 and the 45mm/f1.8. Mostly going to be indoors with Mom, no sense going crazy.

One question will be exercise. I've been pretty consistent for the past few months, getting my walk in. Maybe I'll use the treadmill and listen to a podcast. It'll be a lot cooler up there, high for the weekend is supposed to be 61°F. I'll bring a pair of shorts in case I use the treadmill, but looks like jeans weather to me.

Watched two more episodes of Fallout. Moderately more interesting than the first four, but it's basically just ripping off Silo now. Am I entertained? Meh. I'm mostly just watching out of curiosity, I'm not emotionally invested in any of the characters and the plot just seems lazy and weak. The energy question was answered... "Fusion cores!" Of course! The "I oversee..." and the "overseers" threads were tied together with a 2x4 over your head. Vault 4 was "scientists" experimenting on "the effects of radiation on human DNA," so of course you shouldn't go down to Level 12.

It's not "art." It's just a cash grab.

I won't finish it tonight. Last night's effort left me with "unpleasant" dreams. I'll watch the rest after I get home. If you don't have Prime, you're not missing anything.

Anyway, guess I'll work on the bench a bit. Then there's a photography club meeting this afternoon, so I can get my "socialize" check in the block.

The beat goes on.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:39 Wednesday, 17 April 2024

The sun's shining in the front door, so I'm going to wait a little while before I try to watch TV. Figure I'll watch a couple more episodes of Fallout and then read a bit.

I periodically re-read my posts in NetNewsWire, because I'll pick up errors that I missed in Tinderbox or the web page. I don't know why. But re-reading the post about multiplying USB cables, I realize I may have left the impression that I don't know what Fallout is based on. I do know. In fact, one of the original versions, maybe the first one, was available on the Mac and I had it. I never got out of the cave. So, yeah, I know it's a game adaptation, like The Last of Us.

Unlike Fallout, that adaptation came from a game with a genuine storyline and characters you could care about. Fallout just feels like a cash grab. High production values, but otherwise empty. Like a Saturday morning cartoon.

Speaking of re-reading posts in NetNewsWire, a correspondent reported that the RSS link was broken. At first, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, since it was working just fine in NetNewsWire. I just stumbled on it, after recalling his report as I was writing this.

When I deleted my Mastodon account, I tried to delete it from the sidebar on the marmot.

Somehow, that got fouled up and the rss link pointed to the Mastodon account.

All fixed now, for this month. I may use BBEdit and search & replace (delete) that link in all the pages it appears in. But I'm lazy and, well, I may not.

But the rss link should be fine going forward. Thanks, Richard!

I'm still reading Takeover, about the six months before Hitler took power. (It's really more than six months, but it focuses on that period as the narrative structure.) I'm reading it in my little Kindle device, and I decided to read that manual today, to see what I wasn't taking advantage of. I emailed myself some highlights. Seems useful.

The book is very good, but the author likes to leap back years or months to provide context for events occurring in the main timeline, and it can get confusing. It's another book, especially as an ebook, that would benefit from a timeline.

While Germany was a parliamentary system, with many parties, there are still so many profound parallels to the circumstances we find ourselves in today.

And in other news, I found the 14" M3 MBP charger, plugged into the power strip behind the recliner where I left it. It's a 70W device, now labeled as such.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 19:08 Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Don't plan to move to Florida. For the moment, much of the risk of living here is subsidized by the federal government. But that's starting to change, as it should.

And folks aren't happy about it.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 19:04 Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Well, I can actually see much of the top of the workbench. Less than half, but much more than before.

And, I discovered yet another rat's nest of USB cables! Save your twist ties, boys and girls. They come in handy. I already have a shoebox full of them, separated by type into ziplock baggies. For now, I'm satisfied that this new batch is untangled and wrapped. I'll get them into their respective bags later.

But, seriously, I thought I went through the garage a year ago and pulled all the USB cables out of the various storage containers we were consolidating and reorganizing. Where did these come from?

In another sign of advancing age, I spent part of the afternoon using my Dymo LabelManager 160 labeling my various power banks by capacity and power delivery. It's all printed on the devices already, in tiny low-contrast text that's impossible to read! I generally know which ones can do power delivery, but how much? Now I don't have to guess.

Same thing with the USB C power supplies. Which revealed that I can't seem to find the one that came with the 14" M3 MBP. It's either around here somewhere, or it's in San Diego with Mitzi. Not really an issue for now. I recharged it last night using the USB C port on the Bluetti EB3A, which didn't spin up its fan to do it either, even though it's rated at 100W PD, same as the AC70. I've also got a 60W and 65W Anker power supply, in addition to the 60W one that came with the 13" M1 MBP. So I'm fine for the trip up to Mom's on Thursday.

I've been watching Fallout. I'm halfway through and I'd say it's... Meh. I'd like to know what advanced energy technology this post-apocalyptic world is using to keep all those Pip-boys and powered armor suits running. I know, "Willing suspension of disbelief," and all that. But it's mostly just a cartoon with excessive gore. I don't really care for, or about, any of the characters. But somebody spent a lot of money to make it, so "serious people" have to write "seriously" about it.

It's a cartoon. Not even a comic book, let alone a "graphic novel." A post-apocalypse Tom and Jerry, or Coyote and Road Runner. Chop her finger off? Oh, horrible! Oh, just stick another one on. Sorry. Spoilers.

Anyway, something to pass the time.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:40 Tuesday, 16 April 2024

I've had this Makita LED work light for many years. It comes in super-handy when you're working under a sink or a desk. You can set it on the floor and angle the light up to wherever you need it.

What I never knew was that the damn thing rotates as well! I've just been angling it up or down to whatever degree I needed, but rotating it adds another dimension.

Ordered another one.

Probably should start reading manuals.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:05 Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Doc said, "I wish all my patients were like you."

At this rate, I'm going to live long enough to die in the apocalypse.

So I got that goin' for me.

Yeah, all the numbers were solid, even weight was down, though I'm still obese. BP 100/67, which I think is a glitch in the machine. It's not that low.

Anyhow, to reward my superior performance, I bought a celebratory pint of Ben & Jerry's Americone Dream and ate it for breakfast. It's a retired guy thing.

Take that, apocalypse!

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:54 Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Light was off in the library at the clubhouse. Wouldn't have been as nice a shot. Plus, I'd meant to bring the E-P7 and try it with one of its built-in B&W profiles.

Anyway, grabbed a couple of snapshots while I was focused on keeping my heart rate up. I liked this. Probably a nothing shot, but I liked it.

Next a shower and then a maintenance check with my physician.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:45 Tuesday, 16 April 2024

This morning, no AppleScript error complaining it couldn't find $Text. Everything "just worked." Tuesday was created, Midwatch was created and the Calendar event summary was already in the text of the note.

Pretty cool.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:19 Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Mostly, "Whatever we want."

Subject to funds available, of course.

I've been spending some time in the garage doing something of the equivalent of "rearranging my sock drawer." I have a large Husky tool chest/workbench, and it's in the center of an entropy vortex. Every time I go out there, it's more disorganized and finding things takes longer and longer.

So yesterday and today I've been doing some localized entropy reduction. Another thing retired guys do is watch YouTube videos, and now I know how to change the sounds my Makita battery chargers make. I put the dual charger on the larger shelf I added to accommodate Mitzi's Skil string trimmer charger, and now they each play a different little tune instead of just beeping.

Achievement unlocked!

I'm only about a third of the way through, but I've been through most of the drawers and relocated things to their correct drawers, or identified things that need to "go away." One of which was the dryer vent brush because, ventless dryer! I've also gathered all the manuals for the various tools and placed them all in one drawer.

The workbench itself is still clobbered, but that's next on the agenda. I have three Husky cabinets above the workbench, and I think I know how to rearrange things to make better use of the volume in the cabinets and the square inches on the workbench. I may get to that later this afternoon, but I'm bored with it at the moment.

I've got to rig up another MC4 cable for the other Nebo panel, so I can put them in series or parallel. I didn't mention last time that I'm using my Dymo label-maker to label each of the connectors so I know what is supposed to connect to what. And presumably so will anyone else if I'm unavailable.

I think I'm going also use the label-maker to label each of the drawers.

During yesterday's Tinderbox meetup, I was going to demo using PopClip to facilitate making web links in a note. To my embarrassment, I learned that I haven't completely configured the 14" M3 MBP to be identical to the iMac, at least insofar as PopClip wasn't installed. And I need to figure out why the Desktops aren't identical, since I'm using iCloud on both.

I can work on the MBP in the recliner, so maybe that's the next chore.

After my nap, naturally.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:29 Monday, 15 April 2024

Read a story like this and I get kinda gooey.

Eight years gone now. My how the years have flown.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:39 Monday, 15 April 2024

I didn't shoot anything this morning until I got to this bench. I've shot this before, not long after we moved here, in color and I liked it. I brought the E-PL7 out of my pocket and turned it on and saw that it was still set up for black and white. This is the second of two shots. This isn't a "filter" it's just the grain of an ISO 3200 16MP PEN CMOS sensor with the noise filter turned off.

Anyway, it's something.

Shot the arches too.

During yesterday's Tinderbox Meetup, I got some help with Captain's Log. I'd been wanting to figure out how to turn off an edict once it's run.

Specifically, it's the edict embedded in the Midwatch entry, which runs an Automator application using the runCommand action code. Every edict in a file will run about once an hour, and for the most part it's lightweight code that isn't going to take much processor time and you should never notice it, unless you're interacting with another app. In my case, it was interacting with Automator/Calendar/AppleScript, and all the edicts were turned on. As time went on, and more Midwatch entries were added, the amount of time consumed began to grow, such that I'd be writing something here in the marmot and Tinderbox would beep and seem to go away for a second, and then return.

I'd added some code to test for the presence of text in the Midwatch entry, and if present, do nothing. But I wasn't sure it was working, because, well, "do nothing." So Mark Bernstein showed me how to add a little diagnostic action code using the "speak" command, and this allowed me to see that the code indeed worked as desired.

We then looked at how to disable the edict once it had run, and there are two ways to do that. Essentially, using the "else" clause, assign the $EdictDisabled attribute a value of true, $EdictDisabled=true, (Never quote your booleans.), or just assign the $Edict attribute an empty string, $Edict="", (a pair of double (straight) quotes).

We did all this on my 14" M3 MBP, because I can share my screen in Zoom on that machine, and something is fouled up on the iMac that remains unresolved and I can't share my screen.

So this morning, I had to remember to open the MBP and quit Tinderbox so I didn't have the files open on two different machines. Looked at the work we did yesterday and refreshed my memory of what we'd done and why. Then I spent a few minutes at aTbRef to learn about Quickstamps. A Quickstamp is an easy way to set the value of only one attribute for a number of selected notes. I selected all the previous days and disabled all their edicts, as all these edicts are intended to run only once.

Normally, for an action that you want to run only once, you'd include it in the OnAdd action, so that when that note is added to a container the OnAdd action is triggered and the code is executed. I can't include an OnAdd action in a Day prototype to perform the runCommand and populate the $Text of the Midwatch entry, because it'd run every time I created any entry in a given day.

What Mark pointed out yesterday was that I could add the runCommand action to the fMakeMidwatch function, which is called as an edict in a Day prototype.

As it is now, fMakeMidwatch just creates the Midwatch note in a new Day. The Day prototype contains the edict to run the function and nothing else. The Midwatch prototype contains the edict with the runCommand to create the $Text of the Midwatch entry. All that could be wrapped up in the function, thus eliminating the need for an edict in the Midwatch note.

Thinking about this some more, I could move the execution of the function from a Day edict, to an OnAdd action in the Month container, since each Day will create a Midwatch entry and when a new Day is created by the Month container, the OnAdd action would run the fMakeMidwatch entry for that day, and the function would execute the runCommand to populate the $Text, thereby eliminating two edicts and the necessity for disabling them.

So, that's what I'm going to do in a minute and we'll see how that works out tomorrow.

It's a pretty nice feeling when you think you're beginning to understand how something works. But I've been wrong about that before too. So no high-fives until tomorrow.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:49 Monday, 15 April 2024

Just because Jack reminded me about movies...

We watched Batman Returns the other night, after watching Tim Burton's Batman not long ago. I don't think I ever saw Batman Returns before. I had no recollection of it, other than knowing that Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito starred in it. It was great! I think it was better than Burton's first Batman. Of course, then the wheels fell off.

I wasn't in the mood for television the other night, but Mitzi landed on Inside Man, which I hadn't seen in a long time. So I sat down and watched it with her. I'd forgotten how much I liked it. I'm a little confused about the final scene, but I'm getting used to being confused.

Argyle is up on Apple TV+, so I watched that last night. Enjoyed it very much. Kind of a mash-up of Barbie, The Bourne Identity, Kingsman and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Very camp. Loved the soundtrack.

✍️ Reply by email

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:42 Sunday, 14 April 2024

I don't care if it's Mastodon or one of the BigCos. It's like, "People are great, drivers are assholes." Frankly, I can even say the same thing about bicyclists.

You put someone behind some technology where they're isolated or insulated from the other people they are supposedly sharing this plane with, and they become their own worst selves. They become entitled, arrogant and selfish.

I don't miss it.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:36 Sunday, 14 April 2024

Yesterday was a beautiful day. After screwing around with solar panels and taking a nap, I rode my bike to the garden and looked in on the tomatoes, peas and beans. Did some watering and wandered around with the Oly Stylus 1s.

This was over by the herb garden. I don't recall exactly what it is, but it's supposedly edible.

Took the long way home, so 10K on the bike yesterday, 5K on the walk.

Yesterday was a big exercise day for me, closed my Move ring for the first time in a long time. Felt good.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:58 Sunday, 14 April 2024

Let's be precious.

I got up early, which is to say, "late," so I figured I'd just go ahead and walk instead of screwing around on the computer. Still nice and cool, with fairly dry air, so I wore a sweatshirt with the vest and stuffed the E-PL7 in the vest pocket.

It wasn't a "brisk" walk, I wasn't trying to get my heart rate up, I did that yesterday. But it was faster than I normally walk carrying a camera on my wrist or a sling, so some exercise.

I love walking at this time in the morning because I encounter so few people and cars and no landscapers. I got to the clubhouse before sunrise and stopped and tried to take my time framing this composition. It's still not "perfect." I wanted less of a reveal on the right side of the middle arch so the top right of the curve would have blended into inner right vertical of the arch closest to the camera. I'd shift left and right, forward and back, changed focal lengths and got tired before I found it.

This is the last of six attempts, and the one where I noticed the newspapers in the frame and cleared them out. Got home and had breakfast and read the news and decided to screw around on the computer. But first I figured I'd try some in-camera black and white conversions. I don't have any particular aesthetic feel for black and white. I get that it's about tonality and texture, but I don't have any sort of feel for it.

I did a bunch of conversions editing the RAW in the E-PL7. One was a straight monotone conversion with the "neutral" filter. I added some contrast and filters as well. A couple more conversions and the color jpeg are up at Flickr, all straight out of camera. I liked this one the best. I'm pretty sure this is the one with +2 contrast and the red filter, gradation was normal so no lifting the shadows in camera. 34mm effective focal length, ISO 3200.

This is a "Silent Sunday" shot for Shelley.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:34 Sunday, 14 April 2024