Stopped by my parents’ today to say hi across the driveway. First time I’d seen them in person in months. We stood something like 10 feet apart on the driveway wearing masks, but we were in the same place for the first time since…February? Not sure exactly. Talked for about an hour.
dammit
dammit
hurricane season
Enough tropical storms have formed in the Atlantic this year that NOAA has run out of names. For the second time ever. Any further storms will be named using Greek letters.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/18/21444296/tropical-storm-wilfred-2020-hurricane-season-greek-names
The last time this happened was 2005. The year of Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
9YO is in a small-group breakout school video session with 2 classmates who have the …
9YO is in a small-group breakout school video session with 2 classmates who have the same first name, and all 3 of them have the same first initial. It’s a little confusing
OMG, I just realized that the other two kids with the same first name have the same *last* initial as each other.
We are now at the point where the 9YO who never wants to go anywhere …
We are now at the point where the 9YO who never wants to go anywhere is asking to walk into a coffee place for pickup instead of sitting in the back of the car watching YouTube in the drive-through lane, just for the novelty of being somewhere other than home.
Wow. That’s a way to make a point.
Wow. That’s a way to make a point.
Why did I have a branch called “broken” anyway?
Why did I have a branch called “broken” anyway?
A pair of mourning doves…
A pair of mourning doves that have been hanging out in the front yard lately. Remarkably unconcerned by anyone walking by.
For a kid who’s spent all day complaining about how tired he is, he’s certainly …
For a kid who’s spent all day complaining about how tired he is, he’s certainly dragging his feet on actually going to bed. 🙄
Funny, it turns out that it’s possible to make *contextual* advertising work as well or even better than microtargeting. In other words, tracking everyone all over the net *isn’t* actually required for the ad industry, or the sites that depend on it.
Funny, it turns out that it’s possible to make *contextual* advertising work as well or even better than microtargeting.
In other words, tracking everyone all over the net *isn’t* actually required for the ad industry, or the sites that depend on it.
Wired: Can Killing Cookies Save Journalism?
A Dutch public broadcaster got rid of targeted digital ads—and its revenues went way up.
It’s nice how the daily struggle to get the kid out the door for school …
It’s nice how the daily struggle to get the kid out the door for school has been resolved…
…in favor of repeated struggles to get him to log onto school in the morning and after every break. 😬
“It’s Tuesday, right?””I think so.”So weird to have this be a real conversation.
Cooper’s Hawk (with lunch)
I saw this hawk(?) from a distance, standing above the dead bird behind it on the suburban sidewalk up ahead. Unfortunately all I had was my phone, so I just zoomed as much as I could and started walking slowly, hoping I wouldn’t scare it off. I was a couple of carlengths away when it flew off and stopped in a tree across the street. I took another photo (which didn’t come out) and walked away.
My guess: 1. it killed the crow. 2. When it went to the tree, it was waiting nearby for me to leave so it could go back.
Let the biker beware.
Let the biker beware.
It may look innocuous now, but when it produces zillions of seed pods with sharp spikes on them, it’ll *earn* the name puncture vine.
I *hate* these things, and they grow all along the nearest bike path. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve patched bicycle tires because of them.
germs, covid-adjacent
As it’s become clear that surfaces are so much less of an issue for covid-19 than droplets, I’ve been trying to go back to being less paranoid about touching crosswalk buttons when I’m out walking.
But today I saw someone reach out her leg as she approached the corner and press the button with the *bottom of her shoe*.
I mean, yay flexibility, but now the paranoia is justified for *non*-covid reasons
Denethor watches way too much cable news.
Denethor watches way too much cable news.
“Blade Runner: San Francisco”
“Blade Runner: San Francisco”
Neighbor is practicing harmony for the “I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me” section …
Neighbor is practicing harmony for the “I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me” section of Bohemian Rhapsody on the piano and it almost sounds… cheerful.
The way they’re playing it reminds me a bit of Tori Amos’ “Sleeps With Butterflies”
Which is more wistful than cheerful, but still…
This is not my terminal window. My terminal window was at a command prompt, not …
This is not my terminal window. My terminal window was at a command prompt, not running tail -f.
This is not my terminal window. My terminal window was local to my machine, not a remote SSH session.
This is not my terminal window. My terminal window was five levels deep in the project I’m working on, not in my home directory.
My desktop is covered with terminal windows, and none of them is mine!
IFTTT Pro
I don’t mind that IFTTT is introducing a Pro subscription for additional capabilities, and if there was something I wanted to do with those features, I’d go for it. But what I use it for isn’t worth $10/month.
…
I don’t mind paying for stuff… But price points matter, and IFTTT is following the typical (and annoying) pattern for formerly-free services where they squash the free tier down hard and aim the lowest paid tier at people who are going to use a lot more of it than I am.