Long video, but as good an analysis as you'll find, probably better, for early analyses. It's complicated. We're in a great deal of trouble. And we have got to figure this out and get it right.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 17:42 Wednesday, 6 November 2024

This was an open tab from a couple of days ago.

Seems pretty solid.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:20 Wednesday, 6 November 2024

It does have a kind of 9/11 feel.

So I guess I'm taking my cues from that inspirational leader, W, and stress-buying.

If I were a good person, I'd be donating more money to non-profits. Right now, I'm just trying to "be still," and mostly failing.

So I bought another Apple IIe. This is how this hobby gets out of control. Started out just wanting a //c. Then I wanted a IIe to do some more robust interfacing with other devices. But, you know, seven slots in there...

Might as well fill 'em up!

Except, they don't all fit.

Solution? Buy another IIe!

I'm going to hell.

Not to worry, I'm sure I'll be in good company.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:46 Wednesday, 6 November 2024

I'm going to try to refrain from borrowing trouble, there'll be more than we could want soon enough. But as regards the title of this post, Hannah Arendt right.

Perhaps "good" and "evil" are merely emergent properties and not intrinsic ones. We all seem to possess the capacity for both to varying degrees.

To what extent, then, are we culpable? Is it all just contingent? Does being immersed in a capitalist media culture just make people evil? Or just push those inclined that way, farther along?

How many of our fellow citizens, our "neighbors," may find themselves one day, not too far from now, saying what so many Germans were saying in 1946?

"I was a 'good German'."

And is the evil we witness today, and will witness tomorrow, simply the evil we choose to see, while indulging our own self-delusions regarding our "goodness," when it comes to our culpability for the evil we choose to ignore? I trust I don't have to point out what that is.

Yeah, we're probably all sinners.

Doesn't seem like we take it seriously though.

I don't think the answer is in the Bible; because if it was, I don't think we'd be here today.

Anyway, introspection and self-reflection is for chumps, bro!

Winning!

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:09 Wednesday, 6 November 2024

My neighbor across the street was certain Harris would win. I guess I was "hopeful." The margins in Florida seem to confirm what I suspected, that people were going to vote for Trump, but they weren't as proud of it. No flags. No parades.

They'll be proud now.

For a while anyway.

There was something chilling about the grim faces I saw walking into early voting.

Winter is coming.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:33 Wednesday, 6 November 2024

I was going to link to the Taoist parable of the Chinese farmer. I thought I'd written about it here, but I guess that was in Groundhog Day.

In any event, if you Google it, it comes up a lot, and in many places I wouldn't wish to send anyone just now. It is interesting, though, how many different kinds of people see something in that little story to validate whatever their point of view may be.

Yesterday I wrote that one of the results of the binary choice we faced would be a catastrophe, and it appears that is what we're confronting this morning.

The collapse of this civilization has accelerated.

There would be suffering, as there is always suffering, whoever won. Now it will be different people, different times. Ultimately more people, sooner. I would not want to be in Ukraine today. Or Gaza. Or a Haitian in Springfield, Ohio.

One of the elder sages of the internet, a triumphalist who prides himself on the monetization of our social interactions through the pernicious construction that "markets are conversations," is blaming Democrats and the stories they tell, while holding himself as "above the fray." I have nothing but contempt for that guy. Textbook example of the power of self-delusion.

But even feeling and writing that is a waste of time and energy.

I think it's likely that our timetable for leaving Florida has also accelerated. Both the marijuana and abortion amendments failed and we are clearly redder than I expected.

For most of us, by which I mean the folks who hoped for a different outcome, I'd say it's time to kind of take stock and consider our immediate circumstances. Much of this has been outside of our power to control. "Do your best, the rest is not up to you." If you did your best, you have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to regret.

The world is about to get more chaotic. Our capacity for collective action at the international level has been significantly diminished, if not destroyed. This has implications for public health and climate change. And the role of the federal government in mitigating adverse events in those areas has also been significantly diminished.

More than ever, we are on our own.

A lot of "self-sorting" has taken place with people moving to regions more sympathetic to their political perspective, though most of that seems to have been people on the right moving to red states. It's probably time for people on the left to consider moving to regions where they're more likely to encounter people whose views align more closely with their own.

We will have to work together at the very local level to establish resilient networks. I think that effort looks different depending on where you are on the political spectrum, and it will be easier and more effective if you're among like-minded people. If you feel like joining a local militia and carrying a weapon, then a red state will welcome you.

If you feel like working in a community garden, maybe you should think about moving to a blue state.

That's not to say that both of those things won't happen in either state, just that the emphasis and effort into each will differ by temperament.

You're less likely to encounter friction, and the chances for unfortunate and regrettable misunderstandings are less.

I am profoundly disappointed with my country this morning. But there is nothing to be gained by indulging those feelings. We need to figure out how to come together and work with one another, because things are going to get worse, faster now. It'll be easier and more effective, if we share something of a common perspective with our neighbors. So a change of venue may be appropriate for many of us.

Rural New York is pretty red, but it's not the deep scarlet that exists in Florida. I think we can do ok in New York, even with winter.

I worry about my kids, but they're all adults and must make their own choices for their families.

I wanted to get out of here by 2026, 2027 at the latest. I think we'll make it by 2026. We need to take advantage of the opportunities we have here to get fit. The 2025 hurricane season is a risk, but I don't see us being ready to launch in six months. But we'll see. If we had to, I think we could.

Though we don't all see eye-to-eye, we are all in this together.

It's a shame that fear won.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 04:37 Wednesday, 6 November 2024

There's an early scene in Battlestar Galactica where Gaius Baltar and Number Six are having a moment, and Number Six says something to the effect, "Your capacity for self-delusion is really exceptional. We should make a scan of your brain." (I could probably find the actual quote, but I want to get these thoughts down right now.)

We are not rational beings. That's perhaps the foundational delusion. We reason backward from our feelings. As embodied beings, our experience of "the world" generates "feelings." A kind of analog, biological heuristic network that our brain uses to orient its conscious experience.

Your "gut."

These feelings are accessible to the rational, cognitive part of our brain, but we seldom practice that sort of introspection or self-reflection.

Thinking is hard. It's energy-intensive, and most of the stuff going on in our heads is habituated anyway. It takes effort, and who really has the time?

My neighbor sent me a lengthy message he received from his pastor. Two excerpts:

This may be the reality described by political candidates and depicted by cable news, but it is not the reality we experience on a daily basis as we go about our lives. The people that live down our street, or that we stand in line with at the grocery store, or that we strike up a conversation with in a waiting room, or that we share a pew with in church are a far cry from the enemies that are demonized in our political discourse. Actually, Christians have a word for what these people are: neighbors.

This election is not a battle between good and evil; it is a contest among neighbors—neighbors who differ in their convictions but who are nevertheless united in their love for this country and their desire to see it thrive.

It's a marvelous sentiment, but it's wrong. It's self-flattery to believe that we have "convictions." We have reactions. Emotional ones.

"Neighbors" elected Nazis to the Reichstag. Hitler lost the only election he ran in, for president against Hindenburg in 1932. Yet German voters made his Nazi Party the largest party in the Reichstag, which ultimately led to Hindenburg appointing him Chancellor in 1933.

Self-delusion, rationalization, wishful thinking, whatever you want to call it, it's the mechanism we call on to resolve the tension between how we "feel" and what others seem to "think."

Trump voters, the "nice ones," most often say things like, "I don't like the things he says sometimes, but I like his policies."

"I like his policies."

Trump evokes an emotional response in them that is congruent with their own default interior state. One that seems to be aggrieved, fearful, or angry.

The pastor says the election "is not a battle between good and evil." Well, isn't it?

What does he think that looks like? WW II maybe? Concentration camps and carpet bombing? That's a battle between "good and evil"?

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.

I don't know what I should do. Love my neighbor? I can't talk to him. He has his feelings, he doesn't want to believe they're "wrong." He's not going to "do nothing," he's going to vote for evil. Why? Because of his "convictions"?

And they'll look the other way, and keep looking the other way, as people are "rounded up" and deported. Look the other way as political enemies are persecuted and jailed. Look the other way as the institutions that provide the foundation and structure of this civilization are systematically dismantled to give free reign to the wealthy and the hateful.

The Germans thought Hitler's rhetoric about the Jews was just that, rhetoric. Or, that's what they told themselves anyway.

It never ends well.

One of two results obtains today, though which result may not be clear for several days.

One will be imperfect, but better than the other.

The other will be a catastrophe.

Because my neighbors "liked his policies."

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:44 Tuesday, 5 November 2024

But it is a bird. Red-shouldered hawk we spotted back on the 1st when we were out for a walk. I'm walking more slowly for now, so I'm bringing a camera along. The OMDS OM-5 with the mZuiko 14-150mm mounted. Edited and cropped in Photos. The little light spot to the left of the hawk's eye is the sunlight focusing from over the bird's (red) shoulder.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:36 Monday, 4 November 2024

Not a bird, and not this morning's.

Shot this back on the 30th. There are two blooming from this plant now. Other folks seem to have better luck with theirs than we do. These are dwarf or miniature, apparently. Mitzi's the gardener, so I don't know.

Anyway, a photo.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:30 Monday, 4 November 2024

Working around a cluster of aura that just popped up. Significant enough to cause me to consult Dr. Google. This, from the University of Washington, kind of reassured me.

“Just one night of poor sleep can increase a patient’s likelihood of having a migraine attack,” Murinova says.

And I haven't exactly been sleeping well. Did okay last night, but I think I'm still in something of an overall deficit.

For those just tuning in, I've had aural migraines for many years, not knowing at all that's what they were. They come and go, usually after a few minutes. I've mentioned them to my doctor, who sent me to the eye doctor and my retinae are fine. This episode got my attention because there were three of them and they came on rather suddenly, as these things go. (They're fading now, one still active.)

Anyway...

To do something productive tomorrow (I've already voted for Harris and the straight Democratic ticket here in deep-scarlet St Johns County.), I'm giving blood. I figure it might relieve some of the pressure and reduce the likelihood of having a stroke. But maybe that's not how that works.

Tornado outbreaks in Oklahoma over the weekend seemed to get lost in the media coverage of the election. Hard for me to say, exactly, since we don't get network television anymore. Maybe it didn't. But another clue that we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

My brother lives in a tornado-prone area of Alabama, and he's had a shelter installed in his garage. Keeps all his important papers in there.

New York, historically, hasn't experienced a high incidence of tornados, though that may be changing. Nevertheless, I think that, given a choice, I'd rather prepare for the risk of a tornado than the risk of a hurricane. While a tornado may be more destructive in the immediate term, the scale of the damage is more limited and permits more rapid recovery in the affected area, I think. Just as bad individually, but collectively more resilient.

Pick your poison, I guess.

Getting out of Florida came up a few times while we were up in Georgia. Mitzi pushed back pretty hard, but I didn't debate her. I know the seed is planted. The house across the street sold a week or so ago, and the one two doors down is on the market. Mitzi was talking about the kinds of people that would buy those two, different, floor plans. Then she added, "Some couple is going to buy this house, and love it."

So I know the idea is still germinating.

It's all a matter of timing. Ideally, we will get out before we experience a hurricane loss. That's the whole idea. Doing so avoids the trauma of loss and "recovery." It also eliminates the requirement of disclosing whether the house has ever been flooded, and permits the continuing self-delusion that this region is somehow immune from hurricanes. So the sooner we sell and get out of here, the better. Ideally, before next hurricane season; but I suspect I may have white-knuckle it through 2025. Moving is an unwelcome challenge.

I've told her we wouldn't necessarily have to move to New York, but I would insist that we relocate to someplace with a low climate risk.

I spoke to another neighbor who I see frequently walking her dog. She said her husband has been looking for property in Connecticut. She's not enamored with moving because of northeast winters. Winter and no state income tax are Florida's two biggest draws. And maybe fascism for those so inclined. I know I wouldn't exactly welcome either (or any) of those, but I can deal with winter and taxes better than dragging all my shit to the curb and "starting over." Especially the sense of defeat I'd feel, because I know I could have avoided it if I'd gotten out of here in time.

Not exactly how I'd have envisioned my "golden years."

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:41 Monday, 4 November 2024

"People can turn on you because of a label."

Watch the whole thing.

"Permission is very important."

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:11 Monday, 4 November 2024

Slept "better" last night, but still dragging today. I had a sudden infusion of energy watching last night's SNL cold open, followed by the news out of Iowa.

Dare we hope?

I don't know.

Something I supposedly know, isn't much comfort these days. But then, maybe being comfortable isn't what's important.

I'm supposed to have faith. "The way of the warrior is to say, 'Yes!' to it all." That whatever happens, everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be.

But fear seems to be close to getting the upper hand, and maybe that's an underestimate.

For me, that is. Can't speak for anyone else.

I don't often remember my dreams. Years ago, almost never. In recent years, more often. I remember having dreams last night. Navy dreams. Old shipmates. Trying to get gear fixed. Missing parts.

I'm tired though. I'm sick of Trump. I'm sick of what he's done to us. What we've allowed him to do.

Whatever happens Tuesday, it's not a punctuation mark. Well, it's not a period. It'll just clarify what we have to do next. Because nothing is ever over. Different, perhaps. Not over. Hell, the Civil War isn't "over."

Maybe Tim Walz is right.

"We'll sleep when we're dead."

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:55 Sunday, 3 November 2024

I spoke to Mom this morning, and we talked about voting. She voted last week. Her Parkinson's made it hard for her to insert her ballot in the scanner.

A poll worker, a woman, came over and helped her.

Because of the way the scanner and the ballot are arranged, she could see how Mom voted.

She smiled at Mom and said, "Thank you for voting."

It was a warm smile, Mom said.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:13 Sunday, 3 November 2024

Been up since 0300. Read this whole thread at AppleFritters, because I just received the card and now I have to figure out how to play with it. Here's a video if you don't want to read several hundred posts. If you want to see an Apple II running Mac System 6, running an Apple II emulator, worth a watch. (Technically, it's an ESP32 running a Mac emulator, running II In a Mac. But the ESP32 relies on the Apple II for all of the user interaction.)

I'm creating something of a challenge for myself. The IIe is becoming more interesting than the IIc, because it is more expandable. I can work on it in the garage, but it's a little uncomfortable and the garage isn't the best environment for that machine. After we get back from our trip up north, I'll have to really put some serious effort into reconfiguring this office.

I've got another modern card coming for the IIe, an FPGA card that will output VGA video and emulate a Mockingboard sound card and a SuperSprite video board. I had a Mockingboard back in the day, and a fair number of games used it for music and sound effects. Will Harvey's Music Construction Set was a program that allowed you to create your own tunes for the card. The SuperSprite board used the same video processor from Texas Instruments that was in the TI-99. Very little commercial software was ever released for it, chicken and egg problem. But probably fun to play with.

Here's a video of how that project came to be, back in the early days of the pandemic. It's pretty amazing what smart people can come up with to pass the time. I'm intrigued by their implementation of the SuperSprite board, which supposedly originally contained an Echo II speech synthesizer and a General Instruments AY3-8912PSG sound chip. (The Mockingboard used two AY3-8910s.)

Mitzi and I binge-watched The Diplomat and enjoyed it very much. Now I guess we'll have to wait an eternity for another "season." Can probably do a season 1 and 2 re-watch, and see if we missed anything the first time. We watched the last two episodes of season 1 before we started the second one, because who remembers what the heck was going on that long ago? Worth your time. Suggest you do it soon to avoid the spoilers.

And we rented Twisters last night. Not sure why that movie seemed so popular or well reviewed. It was fairly entertaining, but probably not worth the effort as a re-make.

We also watched a "direct-to-streaming" movie, Canary Black, on Prime, Friday night. Derivative. Sloppy writing. "Pull up" is the only verbal directive for displaying a computer file, and they do it a lot. They cast a Scarlett Johansen-type as the lead (Kate Beckinsale), and found someone who resembles Alec Baldwin to play her boss. We made it through the whole thing, in part, because part of the attraction was identifying all the elements "borrowed" from other action movies, and there were so many that we didn't have to endure long stretches of boring "action" between them.

It wasn't as bad as another movie we started watching on Prime, Killer Heat. We stopped watching that one less than halfway through, it was that bad. Insufferable.

Guess I'll go take a walk.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:31 Saturday, 2 November 2024

Irony is the fifth fundamental force of the universe, so I bought a new iPhone 16.

Not a "pro" version. There's only so much oblivious over-consumption I can handle. (Did I need a new phone? No. Do I need one at all? Well, not a "smart" phone.)

Anyway...

I had some time to kill in Alpharetta last Friday, and there was some big Avalon Mall (They're big on names beginning with "A" in Georgia.) with an Apple Store (at the Avalon Mall in Alpharetta, Georgia). Mitzi had the good sense to tell me to order it online for pickup at the mall and avoid the crowd. Worked like a charm.

"Dynamic Island" is a big yawn. The new camera button makes it harder to figure out by feel which way the phone is oriented in my hand. I suppose I'll get over that eventually. Feels like a gimmick.

One thing I forgot about is the switch to USB-C from Lightning means I can't use my IR camera on my phone. I still have an iPod, so I can use it on that. Likewise with an external mic I have but seldom use. (Never use? See "over-consumption," above.) And we have to have two different cords in the car, depending on who's using their phone for CarPlay. And the charging stand next to the bed is now irrelevant.

I bought the 256GB model. I checked my iPhone 13 and I had 5GB "free" on my 128GB model. I'll probably keep this phone until the iPhone 20 comes out. (If we're all still here and Apple is still making iPhones.)

It's almost head-spinning, the cognitive dissonance. We're hurtling headlong toward disaster, but still gotta put new tires on the RAV4. (Going with the Michelin CrossClimate II, because of course. If we ever do get out of Florida to New York, they're pretty good on snow.)

Why do they call it the "poly-crisis"? Why not "multi-crisis"? I think that's much more hip.

For whatever it's worth, I have no clue who Joe Rogen is. Clearly, I'm old and irrelevant. I read about him a lot, but never listened to his podcast and don't wish to do so.

Grocery stores are greedy. I've been buying Publix store-brand raisin bran for months. (Gotta feed your microbiome.) It was $2.46 when the name brands were like $6.00+! Well, yesterday I bought a box and it was $3.15! That's a 28% price increase, about 10x the rate of inflation.

I double-checked (maybe triple) with the Supervisor of Elections office, and my ballot is still showing as having been counted.

Can't be too careful these days.

We can't even look forward to having this thing resolved this Tuesday, unless Trump wins. If he loses, which we may not even know for some days, then it'll be a shit-storm of election denialism. If he wins, it'll just be a shit-storm.

Patti Griffin has a song called "Please Don't Let Me Die In Florida." Seems relevant.

Where's the "spaghetti model" for the oncoming shit-storm? What category is it? What surge can we expect?

God help us all.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:14 Thursday, 31 October 2024

Just a friendly reminder that we're not paying attention, and, as a result, we're all doomed.

Seriously.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:12 Thursday, 31 October 2024

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Certainly clearer than my description.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:45 Wednesday, 30 October 2024

I added Kevin Drum's blog to my feed-reader some time ago, and enjoy reading his take on things. He blogs often, usually several times a day. I think he's a centrist politically, probably leans right, but he's data-driven more than ideologically.

Here's an example of what I would say was a pretty clear-eyed take on current events.

I know how we got here. It's less clear, or certain, to me how we'll find our way back.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:35 Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Today flew by!

Mitzi and I walked to the clubhouse this morning. We've signed up for a personal trainer, with the "buddy" discount. We each have to do an individual assessment ($50). Could've gotten that as part of the "buddy" discount, but didn't notice until after we'd already paid, and didn't want to go through the hassle of refunding the transaction and buying it again.

We each paid for 8 sessions, so at twice a week that should give us two months worth of individualized attention and hopefully enough motivation and insight to get on with it by ourselves afterward.

I asked my doctor if I was a candidate for Ozempic and she said no. Guess I gotta do it the old-fashioned way. But I'm going to try Noom.

Anyway, we plan to start after Thanksgiving. We're going up to New York to spend a couple of weeks in the Finger Lakes and spend Thanksgiving with my mom.

I need to strengthen my core so I can drag all my shit to the curb someday.

The trip was nice. If I could, I'd leave at 0200 every time. No traffic! Only thing you have to worry about are drunks and wild animals. The highway out of Blue Ridge was mostly empty, I think three cars passed us. Speed limit was 65 most of the time, but I had the RAV4 in cruise control at 60, figuring I could use a few extra milliseconds if a deer jumped in front of the car. If it weren't for the absence of what would otherwise have been some nice scenery, it was as pleasant as a drive can be these days!

Atlanta at night is pretty stunning too, though I had to keep my attention on the road. There was a pretty substantial amount of traffic on the road.

The RAV4 performed well. At night, it seems to notice the lane lines better and it pretty much steered itself. It does get confused at construction zones. We didn't encounter much construction, but areas where there would be construction once the sun came up, with all the orange barrels with reflectors, seemed to confuse the system a bit.

And in the two places where we did encounter construction, the lighting is confusing and distracting. You've got the barrels reflecting your headlights, police vehicles with blue lights flashing, the construction equipment with flashing lights, and the work lights illuminating the work area.

I felt as though it was almost blinding. I'm developing cataracts, so there are more internal reflections within the lenses of my eyes, so the lights tend to "bloom." I mostly tried to focus on the line at the left side of the lane to limit the amount of light I was admitting in my field of view. And forget about lane-keeping by the car. It would notice if I was drifting left (the car tends to go where your eyes go), and vibrate the wheel, so that was helpful.

But very few tractor-trailers, or any commercial traffic, so visibility was otherwise very good. I-75 is a better road than I-95. I was able to stay in cruise most of the time, with radar-assisted station-keeping. We weren't in a hurry, traffic was relatively light and moving at a fairly consistent pace. By the time we got to I-10 we were almost home and the worst nuisance was the rising sun! I'd left my sunglasses somewhere in the back seat where Mitzi couldn't find them from the front passenger's seat.

The wedding was lovely. The venue was remarkable, I think it's pretty much the thing they do the most. The bride and groom departed in a helicopter. I thought that was a bit over the top, but I guess the theme of their marriage is going to be "adventure." The helipad was a floating device that is kept submerged in a pond at the venue. At the appointed moment, it is raised by flotation using pneumatic pumps and the helicopter lands on it. It is then winched to the "dock" where there's a covered feature to send off the happy couple. It even has a little "spray" feature around the perimeter of the helipad that adds a little visual flair and additional "mist" when it lifts off.

The helicopter is a Robinson R44 helicopter. I didn't mention "mast bumping," or the safety record of that particular aircraft to the groom's parents. Apparently, the venue has been doing this for eight years and hasn't lost a couple yet!

The day after the wedding we headed up to Blue Ridge for some family stuff with Mitzi's siblings. Her mom passed away in January and there were some personal items to sort out and so on. We all went on a boat ride on the lake for a couple of hours, and you couldn't have asked for nicer weather.

Mitzi's brothers-in-law are both conservative Republicans, one is full-on MAGA, the other a little less so. We made an effort to avoid politics, although the less "extreme" of the two felt as though he had to share that he couldn't bring himself to vote for either presidential candidate.

I don't know if that's true, or if it's in any way indicative of some number of other Republicans. It's just an anecdote.

All-in-all, it was a very pleasant weekend, a nice change of scenery and good to spend some time with Mitzi's daughters and her siblings.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:43 Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Ten hours ago, at 0200, we were in Blue Ridge, Georgia. We couldn't sleep, and we were faced with the prospect of driving through Atlanta traffic in morning rush hour.

We got packed and got on the road at 0217.

Rolled through Atlanta at 0345, and I was still quite surprised by the amount of traffic.

Got to Tifton, Georgia at 0630, which is the home of Adcock Pecans. Since Mitzi had given away all the pecans she bought on the way up to her daughters and siblings, she wanted to stop on the way home. I didn't think they'd be open, didn't want to hang around until they did.

As luck would have it, they open at 0730. We stopped at the Waffle House across the street from Adcock and had breakfast. Went over to the store at 0720, and they were already open. Back on the road by 0730.

We made great time, though there were a few times when each of us got rather cross with the other. We've been home since 1030, unpacking and getting cleaned up. I'm in the recliner with the MBP, cleaning up the mess I made starting up the iMac before I'd closed this Tinderbox file on the MBP. TBX on the iMac opened the file to the version that closed when I shut down the iMac on the 24th.

I forced quit Tinderbox, which didn't help. I watched as this file, on the MBP, changed right before my eyes! I didn't expect that to happen. I expected to get some kind of conflict notification, but nope. It just made the open version turn into the one from the 24th of October, "losing" 8 posts.

Live.

Did the "Revert to" thing, which never goes smoothly, but after having to force quit Tinderbox again, after choosing the correct version, I was able to open Tinderbox and then get this version back.

Ugh.

Anyway, back up and running.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:06 Tuesday, 29 October 2024

Brought along the OM-5 with the 14-150mm/f4-5.6 mounted. Most of my shots were of Juro spiders. They were nearly everywhere. Very active in their webs too.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:44 Saturday, 26 October 2024

The view from the hotel window this morning. Weather has been wonderful. Took a little walk along some greenway. Juro spiders everywhere!

Wedding in a couple of hours. Tomorrow dropping Mitzi's kids at the MARTA to get them to the airport, then we're off to her sister's place in Blue Ridge for another family event on Monday. Back on the road Tuesday.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:39 Saturday, 26 October 2024

As I think I've mentioned before, one of the things that kind of keeps me from being swallowed by the abyss is Heather Cox Richardson's blog. It's not that she's telling me everything is going to be ok, but she is showing me historical precedents that may offer some hope.

Today's post isn't especially comforting, but it does point out the reckoning that is coming to the Republican Party.

I think.

And there is probably little that I would agree with Mitch McConnell about, but he's got Rick Scott's number. Rick Scott is a hollow man. A husk, desperately seeking to fill an aching void within by acquiring wealth and power. He was my big worry for 2024, a "Trump 2.0." Someone who could exploit all the racism and nationalism, but could do it in polite company. He's a cold, calculating son-of-a-bitch with as little empathy as Trump, but more intelligence.

It's unlikely Debbie Mucarsel-Powell will unseat him, though the race is closer than many seemingly expected. If the abortion and marijuauna amendments turn out enough voters not enamored with Scott, she may have a shot. I would welcome it as one welcomes the sunshine after a cold, dark winter.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:55 Friday, 25 October 2024

Spotted this in my feed from Jason.

This is the kind of transcendent writing that I would aspire to, were I of a more generous heart.

Luminous.

You get these sort of "life lesson" posts from time to time, even from here.

Seldom as rich and beautiful as this one.

I'm not down on myself, I'm just humbled by the some of the company we keep around here.

Doin' the best I can.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:27 Friday, 25 October 2024

Dr. James Vornov has resumed an irregular schedule of posts at On Deciding... Better 3.0. He's in the midst of birthing a book, which likely commands a great deal of his attention.

For those just tuning in Dr. Vornov is a neurologist and biker who's been blogging since way back in the day. He was among the cohort introduced to the medium by Dave Winer's editthispage.com, including your's truly, and I've been reading him for, well, a very long time.

Recommended.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:18 Friday, 25 October 2024