Tag: TODO: Blog Idea

1. Criticism is not censorship. 2. The 1st amendment protects individuals & companies from interference from the government, not the other way around. 3. If Twitter is liable for users’ words, that gives them more incentive to actually censor the content they’re just labeling.

1. Criticism is not censorship.
2. The 1st amendment protects individuals & companies from interference from the government, not the other way around.
3. If Twitter is liable for users’ words, that gives them more incentive to actually censor the content they’re just labeling.

covid-adjacent/groceries

Did a mid-day trip to the grocery store. Managed to find almost everything I needed, or a reasonable substitute. Most food (except flour) seems to be either back in stock at a normal level or at the point where stock is low, rather than completely out.

The things I couldn’t find at all, or could only find a handful of one brand/variety, were mainly cleaning supplies — and flour, despite the bread aisle being full again.

On Wandering.shop

This is sorta near Los Angeles. No idea what grocery stock is anywhere else. Or even in different parts of town.

I was really expecting it to be worse based on my last two grocery runs (2 weeks ago and 4 weeks ago) and the inventory I’ve found online.

They even had toilet paper. Yeah, it was only 2 sizes taking up about 1/4 of the usual shelf space and a limit of 1 per customer, but it didn’t look like they were going to run out by the time I got to checkout.

A month ago the same store offered, I kid you not, 1 roll per customer for 99 cents while supplies lasted.

covid-adjacent/passports

Still sorta kicking myself for not mailing my passport renewal as soon as I got over the flu (it’s been on my desk since literally the day the flu hit me), but it’s not like I’m going to be traveling internationally for a while anyway.

At least I got my driver’s license renewed before all this hit.

US stops processing passports except for emergencies

On Wandering.shop

They’ve postponed the RealId deadline to October 2021, so that’s something at least.

Funny thing is I would’ve sent my passport renewal in sooner if I hadn’t been waiting for my driver’s license to show up first.

So tired of text-based communication systems that use email purely as a notification and not …

So tired of text-based communication systems that use email purely as a notification and not as an actual communication system.

I have a message from the kid’s teacher that I can’t read because the app isn’t working, but if the system had just included it in the “you have a message!” email, I would know what it was.

On Wandering.shop

Email is a tried and true communication system. It should be used as a backup channel, not just an advertisement.

On Wandering.shop

Switching from a wireless keyboard to a wired one for my WFH setup has made …

Switching from a wireless keyboard to a wired one for my WFH setup has made a huge difference.

I can get used to the windows/mac key labels being wrong. But the fact that it kept dropping/duplicating letters & cutting out entirely from time to time was seriously annoying.

I mean, yeah, I get it, it was a whole foot from the transmitter, who would expect it to be stable at that distance, right? 🙄

On Wandering.shop

I’m always torn between trying to contribute to making my corner of Twitter better and just staying away from the dumpster fire. And between trying to ignore the train wreck and making sure I stay informed about it. This is part of why I’m not as active here as I could be.

I’m always torn between trying to contribute to making my corner of Twitter better and just staying away from the dumpster fire.

And between trying to ignore the train wreck and making sure I stay informed about it.

This is part of why I’m not as active here as I could be.

I always find it interesting when a language reveals or clarifies connections between two others….

I always find it interesting when a language reveals or clarifies connections between two others.

Like, it’s not obvious at first glance that cheese and queso are related, but if you also know Käse, they’re clearly all the same word.

Similarly, I could never see the connection between John & Ivan, until I realized that if you write Juan in all-caps ancient Roman chiseled stone style, it comes out as IVAN. (I know that’s not how it happened, but it makes the connection clearer.)

#linguistics

On Wandering.shop

I’ve never understood the mindset that thinks taxes are more invasive than, say, eavesdropping on your communications, deporting you for a years-old traffic violation, shooting you for jaywalking, or locking up your kids because you fled a war-torn country to seek asylum.

I’ve never understood the mindset that thinks taxes are more invasive than, say, eavesdropping on your communications, deporting you for a years-old traffic violation, shooting you for jaywalking, or locking up your kids because you fled a war-torn country to seek asylum.

You know that game UI thing where a glow or ring will highlight something…

You know that game UI thing where a glow or ring will highlight something you can (or should) interact with?

I just read a chapter of a book where a character’s visual migraine aura does that. It doesn’t seem to have happened before, but he just sort of takes it in stride.

(It would be nice if mine worked that way.)

On Wandering.shop

By “takes it in stride,” of course, I mean he figures wow, that’s really useful, now I need to lie down until the flashing lights move out of view and I can actually see clearly again, instead of “WTF HOW IS MY VISUAL MIGRAINE TALKING TO ME?????”

On Wandering.shop

In response to someone asking which book:

The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman. It’s the middle book in the sequel trilogy he’s writing to His Dark Materials. The character is one who was introduced in the previous book. He makes a comparison between the lights of the migraine aura and the lights of the Aurora borealis, which I expect is going to turn out to be important eventually.

At the time I read an article where Pullman mentions getting them himself, and decided to use the idea with one of his characters.

At the time the first book was out, I mean.

Creepy etymology

Somehow – probably because I learned the word sarcophagus long before I learned much in the way of Latin/Greek suffixes or prefixes – it never occurred to me that it literally means “flesh eater”

Apparently Pliny the Elder thought limestone dissolved bodies and was well-suited for stone coffins:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sarcophagus

On Wandering.shop

Two squirrels spotted on a hike last weekend: The good photos, and the two-seconds-later photos….

Two #squirrels spotted on a hike last weekend: The good photos, and the two-seconds-later photos.

The first one took a while for me to spot inside the bush (though I could hear it), and then it started chowing down on the berries.

The second one looked like it was checking both ways before crossing the street, and then it took off in a blur. So maybe it was.

#nature #animals

On Photog.Social

Yeah, I’ve experienced this myself. When driving in areas I know, I can ignore the …

Yeah, I’ve experienced this myself. When driving in areas I know, I can ignore the directions sending me and a zillion other cars onto the tiny residential streets with the blind corner, but there have been times when I was going somewhere unfamiliar with a deadline and I trusted the directions, only to find myself in a massive traffic jam on a street that just wasn’t made for the volume.

Your Navigation App Is Making Traffic Unmanageable – IEEE Spectrum
https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/your-navigation-app-is-making-traffic-unmanageable

On Wandering.shop