photos of the month july 2023

2023.07.02

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I'm not fully endorsing this view but I think it's thought-provoking...
Here's what I suspect: mentally healthy people, if they still exist, aren't healthy because of the constant presence of positive feelings of self. They are healthy because of the habitual absence of any feelings of self at all. (I guarantee you this is already a thing in psychology or some 19th century German philosophy but it's proving stubbornly resistant to my Googling.) Where we've gone wrong as a civilization in terms of understanding confidence is in thinking of it as a presence, as an emotion. But I think what we perceive as confidence is simply not constantly thinking about yourself and your value. That's more real and sustainable to me than thinking about yourself all the time and consistently feeling good about what you find. Unfortunately it seems like not thinking about yourself is what many modern people find hardest of all.
acidbathcat
Personally my guess is that the problem is people getting driven by too much raw emotion connected to how they want the world to be different (sometimes themselves included). I'm not sure I fully avoid "thinking about yourself and your value" - but when I do consider myself in an evaluative way, it's with a weird dose of "fixed mindset" that assures me I'm an ok mix of smart, funny, and capable, and that's not going to change (but! In return I shouldn't look too hard for where my limits actually are - that's my deal with my "positive fixed mindset devil").
UPDATE: On FB Nick (who has a set of challenges based on his albinism) sent me this HealthyGamer_gg video, and I wrote back:

Yeah, that's a pretty good video. Like when I think of what knocked me down a few levels - not getting into a high school NASA internship, swinging and missing with getting into the top of the Ivy league (only swung because of their invitations probably based on SAT scores), chasing an intermittently requited big romance in college (another mindful big swing but then I couldn't let go of the bat or whatever the metaphor is), a few chewing outs at work for slacking off (mostly slacking because of anxiety about the task showing the limits of my competence)... those are all specific events that were those nuggets of trauma it talks about.

But here's the thing - the video focuses on where the lost confidence doesn't have its roots in reality (like the "wet butt" water bottle mocking example) but, sometimes the traumatic event really has its basis in reality. And so I think the problem is acceptance of what those limits are, along with some confidence that you can muddle through whatever happens, and through mindfulness still find parts to enjoy and savor. Not getting too emotionally attached to outcomes you would hope for, I think that's the most important part of the non-attachment a Buddhist might encourage.

And it's a balance, because a dose of somewhat naive optimism - sometimes (but not always) less grounded in reality than the depressive "why bother" - is a good motive force. But like I get you - like for me "it's better to try and fail" seems like bunk, because "not trying and not succeeding" gets about the same results (except for not providing practice) but is much easier on the ego.

July 2, 2022

2022.07.02
Click to play feedthebunbun🐰 - latest joint with Cora

(yes the eyes are clipped from Snowball of "The Secret Life of Pets" at her insistence...)
Witches probably have black cats because they don't want to deal with white fur on their clothes
r/Showerthoughts

If SCOTUS accepts The Independent State Legislature doctrine, state legislatures can award their electoral college votes to whichever candidate they want. Republicans are making up bullshit about a "stolen election" in 2020 because they are exploring plans to absolutely highjack elections -- completely dropping any idea of any vote mattering (except for whatever votes, gerrymandered or otherwise, produced the majority of state legislators.)
Donkey Kong when it was going to be a popeye game!

via suppermariobroth


July 2, 2021

2021.07.02
For 300,000 years, Hunter-Gather tribes worked 15 hours a week. In the middle of the Great Depression Keynes looked ahead 100 years, wildly underestimated the productivity gains we'd get, and assumed we'd be back to 15-hour weeks. Good podcast/transcript on why we work so damn much - fascinating to hear how modern day hunter-gatherers are socially structured, this kind of "demand" economy.

Sometimes it feels like we're on the last spins of a crazy whirling washing machine before it tips over. But, even if that pessimistic view is true, that "human intelligence" was just another of mother nature's experiments that didn't quite work out, the process is long and slow compared to a human lifespan.

Like, humanity might survive civilization crashing. Go back to some of the roots, with old folks talking about a golden age when metal tubes full of people could fly in the sky and many people could have a cart that could magically go faster than a deer could run. Sometimes that end result doesn't sound so awful! But then we've lost our only chance to get through the asteroid strikes that took out the dinosaurs.
best info fast. Judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] @ same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden].
Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.
Notes from one of Donald Rumsfeld aides right after 9/11 and the WTC.
Via How Rumsfeld Deserves to Be Remembered:
America’s worst secretary of defense never expressed a quiver of regret.

On my blog and social media I often observe deaths of famous figures with an RIP, whether I like them or not. But not Rumsfeld. Fuck this guy. Rarely has someone with so much power been wrong about so much and cost so many lives. We spit on his grave.
Oh and while we're at it: apparently we're not done with racist dumbass puritan shitbaggery about weed.

june 2020 new music playlist

2020.07.02
Definite slow down in finding new songs last month. Not a bad selection despite that though.



Rule the World
Easy McCoy
I like the big percussion and general sound of this.
From an Old Navy Ad...
When I Meet My Maker
Toots Earl & Etienne Lecomte
Crazily authentically old sounding for a new song.
via "What We Do in the Shadows" -- great series!
You'll Never Walk Alone
Marcus Mumford
A little shmaltzy, and hasn't moved me yet, but it might.
Mentioned in the Anthropocene Reviewed Podcast.
Knight Rider for 8 cellos
Samara Ginsberg
Awesome instrumental cover.
Somewhere on Twitter...



Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin
The Magnetic Fields
Sodden song.
The "Watch Out for Fireballs" Podcast quoted "Love is like a bottle of gin / But a bottle of gin is not like love"
Shit Kickin'
Indigo Girls
Awesome the Indigo Girls have been making music together for so long.
The "Baby Geniuses" Podcast mentioned the new album, though they liked "Country Radio" better.



Let Me Live / Let Me Die
Des Rocs
Suicide Girls energy.
Youtube recommendation off of the Easy McCoy piece above.



Too Young to Remember
Florrie
Love shouty girl choruses like this, that little pop of "Hey!"
via Arun's gift of songs.



Dumb Ways to Die
Tangerine Kitty
Was this from a funny public service message?
via Arun's gift of songs.
You Must Be Out of Your Mind
The Magnetic Fields
Nice old torch song.
My friend Leigh mentioned this as her favorite Magnetic Fields song after I posted "Love is Like a Bottle of Gin"



Unbelieveable
Tom Jones & EMF
Loved this song in high school... surprised the collaboration with Tom Jones didn't make it onto one of his albums of duets...
Forget how I found out about this but been meaning to rip it from Youtube for a long time.

new music playlist june 2019

2019.07.02
Pretty good month for new music! Felt really packed. A lot of hiphop. List below is newest first, 4 star stuff in red.

Diane said her primary interest is where I discover new music, so I tried to keep closer track. Not sure if there are real surprises- soundtracks (esp commercials/trailers and HBO shows), random tweets, tumblr entries, personal recommendations, youtube recommendations, or random impulses.

june 2018 new music playlist

2018.07.02
Am I getting to be an old softy with the stars? Lots of 5s and 4s this month.

5 Star

4 Star 3 Star
"Rules are made to be broken!"
"Ees exact OPPOSITE of what they are for!"
Deadpool and Colossus in Deadpool 2

june 2017 new music playlist

2017.07.02
Not the strongest month, but a few interesting bits.
Just watched "Get Out", great stuff.

Completely inconsequential lesson learned: women with bangs are like Clark Kent and his glasses for me. Would have taken me a long time to realize the actress was Marnie from "Girls".

July 2, 2016

2016.07.02
FWIW, which I hope is "Not Much", Newt Gingrich would be a scary pick for Trump's VP. The guy is a masterful propagandist; "Contract with America" was a very evocative piece of wrapping. (About its only fault is you could spin it as "Contract ON America".) And apparently Newt is willing to change any opinion to get the nod. ("Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." --Groucho Marx)
This is the last Prairie Home Companion???

July 2, 2015

2015.07.02
Heh, a photo I took in Kanazawa, Japan made it into this set of Leandro Erlich's Swimming Pool (It's the second one in the set, with a person looking like they're reading the paper.) Must've been taken from this flickr page -- at one point the artist's studio contacted me about using it in a book but I'm not sure if anything came of it.

Still funny and cool to see a photo I took show up on my tumblr feed! I remember that happening with a photo I posted of Maureen​ 's cat Murphy, that got turned into a MOAR! MOAR! MOAR! meme

So, assume you're two parents. One kid: You can double team. Two kids, play it man-to-man. Three or more, all you can do is run a zone defense...
My paraphrase of Sayf Sharif​ citing his friend on the relative difficulties of various number of kids...

Oh, Apple. If I "Arrange by Size" I'd really like to sort by size, not in a chunk of "From 1 MB to 100 MB"

Plus, please straighten out that thing where newly added files sometimes get shown as "No Date" in finder. That's serious amateur hour crap.

July 2, 2014

2014.07.02
They may call me a 'rube' and a 'hick,' but I'd a lot rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.
Will Rogers

Discontent comes in proportion to knowledge. The more you know the more you realize you don't know.
Will Rogers

Why the hell would they move the firework to Thursday instead of Saturday? Isn't that just obvious?

playlist june 2013

(2 comments)
2013.07.02
June was a relatively sedate month for new music... maybe I'm spending more time out doors, or maybe just getting old and curmudgeonly.

Three sound clips I had used a decade ago as intros to party mix CDs: No 4- or 5-stars. Exclamation points mark out the more visually interesting videos.
Ugh. The pilgrimage to Mecca could be a killer.
fuck this fake nostalgia bullshit, props to the 80s for drawing inspiration from the future, a time that DIDN'T EVEN EXIST YET

the closer-up the thumbnail, the farther from reality #aphorismsOfTomorrow

Amtrak, Assault, Axel, BC, Class, E-Z Rock, Flack, Fresh, Jay-R, Jazzy Jeff, John, M.I.F., Mc Fear, Moule, Mystic, Shadow, Steve Porter, Topcat #postyourDJs
Neologism from Wendy M: "Jackass of All Trades". I need to find opportunities to use that.

morning at the beach

(1 comment)
2012.07.02

I think premature abstraction might be more evil than premature optimization.

marmageddon out of here

2011.07.02
from Cracked's Tumblr:

They have a few more in the series, about the lovable giant dog and his clumsy, Waiting-for-Godot-like attempts to tell the world about its upcoming extinction... (I think I like this better than the the owner is actually Hitler in hiding interpretation of Marmaduke...)
Extenuating circumstance to be mentioned on Judgment Day: We never asked to be born in the first place.

I need to find out where to talk about Earth Defense Force 2017: Insect Armageddon. This is a good game.

the wonder woman that never was

2010.07.02

--By Maris Wicks, from Cool Wonder Woman Costume Redesigns That You Won't See At DC -- mostly more traditional imaginings, but some awesome ideas.

So making the rounds is word of a new costume for Wonder Woman (SPOILER: she gets a very-90s jacket.) I like the design, but after reading this awesome roundtable on Wonder Woman's costume changes through the ages I gotta think it ain't no how permanent... (probably a lot less a deal than her "depowering" in the 1970s when she basically became Emma Peel...)

I Ride The Red Line

--
http://www.slate.com/id/2259350/ - "Toxo" - how a cat-based parasite predicts the winner of the World Cup. Maybe best not to think about it too much, especially cat owners.
Sneaking in games of "Strategery" during bathroom breaks. May be getting addicted to confidence-boosting microdoses of victory.
Damn it, I've just gone through I don't know how many months w/o thinking about eye floaters and now I can't stop noticing them.

portrait of a layoff

(1 comment)
2009.07.02
--2009.01.29; I kind of angstily doodled this in the iPhone app "sketches" during the meeting they were announcing layoffs. (Though I didn't know what my fate was at that point.)


Commuting with a work laptop has caused me to stop carrying around my tablet PC, but lately I've been longing for an electronic doodlepad I'd have on me all the time (preferably with some super-easy way of adding doodles to my "of the Moment" blog). An iPhone being poked at with a finger lacks the finesse even my clumsy style needs, but I have hopes for the Pogo stylus that has gotten some good reviews. (If that doesn't pan out, I might look at Colors! for the homebrew DS.)


We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thunderboomers! (That word is so cute, almost to the point of cutesy. Is it a New England thing or more widespread?)
http://www.retrocomedy.com/2009/07/15-creepiest-vintage-ads-of-all-time.html - hyper creepy ads from back in the day
http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2009/06/200-characters-from-dick-tracy-1931.html - awesome 200 Dick Tracy b+w characters!
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/06/22/obama-signstobacco-bill/ - banning clove cigarettes? Fuck the government! "won't somebody think of the children??" my soon to be libertarian ass. Seriously, this is nanny state crap at its worse, not to mention arguably discriminatory against Indonesia. God DAMN this ticks me off, and I barely ever smoke anything.
3 George Washington Tidbits from Mt. Vernon and some reading after:
* "A hundd. thousand men coming one after another cannot move a Ton weight; but the united strength of 50 would transport it with ease." --letter to William Gordon, 1783. Interesting he picked on the number 50, the current # of states...
* "A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready, and such as will be content to partake of them are always welcome. Those who expect more will be disappointed."
* Washington was a slaveholder, albeit somewhat more enlightened than some of his peers. One of the men had the name "'Slamming' Joe", which by 1799 standards is a hella cool name.

krakBOOOOOOOOOM

2008.07.02
Man, I've been loving these daily thunderstorms!


Quote of the Moment
You learn something every day... ...and then forget it every night

Brilliant Hack of the Moment

--SpindlyQ, founder of Glorious Trainwrecks (who run that game jam I join every month) has made a way of playing the old Mike Tyson boxing game with the GameCube Bongo Controllers... "Mike Tyson's Jungle Beat"! It brings back a buch needed element of physicality to the game.


Personal and Professional Geekery of the Moment
Here mostly for reference: On kind of a lark, but useful for my team at work, a kind of dumb and slow 3D grapher of test results.

But also, a VERY excellent introduction for experienced programmers, Dive Into Python. It's free, you can download the whole thing as a single HTML page... and it doesn't pretend it has to teach you the fundamentals of programming, it just walks you through the structures and pointing out similarities and differences with other languages such as Java and Perl and even VBScript and PowerBuilder.

At work people are pointing out I should be using Python and not Perl. Which is tough... I realize I've been doing Perl for 14 years! But with this introduction, I'm digging Python. It's like a middle ground between Perl and Java. The "white space matters" thing is a bit overplayed (just like "unreadable Perl code" is overdone...) you can put in as much white space as you want, you just need to get the indenting right.


That whole Coors "tells you when its cold" can makes me weep for civilization.
Got my group to call itself "Team Angry Manatee" for at least a month... YES!

segway or the highway

2007.07.02
So, I've got pictures and what not from my trip to Chicago, but for now I'll just post some videos from a Segway tour I took. Of course, I didn't really need another tour of Chicago, per se; I just wanted to try out a Segway. And it was pretty fun!

Sarah was our capable and befreckled tour guide:


This is me noodling around. Segways are pretty responsive (I was surprised that turning is done with a rotating thing on the handgrips, for some reason I thought it was all body language driven) and I don't need to be throwing my weight into it quite as much as I am here:


And then I had to harass the local wildlife.


So, I can scratch that of the list of things to do...


Article of the Moment
Infants quickly learnt that using tactics such as fake crying and pretend laughing could win them attention. By eight months, more difficult deceptions became apparent, such as concealing forbidden activities or trying to distract parents' attention.
--from this article on how people become fibbers much earlier than previously thought.



pain in the glass

(1 comment)
2006.07.02
You know, if there's one thing I hate, it's dropping a glass that then shatters. The moment of shock, the chance of injury, the difficulty in adequately cleaning up after.. The other day I had one of these funky margarita glasses take a dive off the top of fridge as I was closing it, I have no idea how things were arranged to allow that to happen. It hit the counter and shards flew everywhere, including on top of a dessert Ksenia had made a few days prior. It actually looked kind of artistic, a tasty if plain looking pastry cake with a single big curved swirled/colored glass hunk on it, and several smaller pieces around it, and then of course even smaller glass sprinkles. I'm not sure why I didn't take the picture, I think my usual photomojo had been given a loop by the shock of having glass fly all around me.


Literary Bit of the Moment
The narrator Ethan is helping his mom load the body of a dead biker into her car
"With one big huff, I lifted Tim into the back, but he fell out with an unnerving thump. "Ethan, get him in the car."
I did that, and we backed out of the carport and driveway.
"Okay," Mom said, "let's find a nice big hole."
"Just for the record, Mom, this whole thing is creeping me out."
"Men should never discuss their feelings, Ethan."
"I thought women are supposed to like guys discussing their feelings."
"Good God, no."
JPod, Douglas Coupland

chicago photos - portraits

(1 comment)
2005.07.02
Flash Toy of the Moment
Yesterday boingboing posted a link to what might be the freakiest flash animation ever...a ragdoll woman manuequin falling through and sliding over an infinite amount of spheres. (You can grab the figure with the mouse and help her if she gets caught in a dead end.) EERIE.


Photos of the Moment
A few portraits of sorts taken during a recent trip to Chicago:

At the Häagen-Dazs at Navy Pier:




Afterwards, tired while walking around downtown searching for the Blue Line:(yet another "reflection")


in the land of cleves (backlog flush #46)

2004.07.02
Heading to Cleveland, see some friends, drink to Mo's health with a high school English teacher of mine, maybe see some fireworks...but of course after over a thousand kisrael.com entried without a miss I'm not going to start now, so here's some of my backlog...

What strikes me as odd about this backlog is that it dates back to just when Mo was starting to bring up "The Conversations" last October...man that seems like a long time ago.

meow meow meow meow

2003.07.02
Article of the Moment
There's research that suggest cats vocalize mostly to humans, that it's really an adaption to living within a human world. (And lo and behold, here comes Murphy now. Actually, one of my first entries here was all about that cat and his vocalizations...)


Article of the Other Moment
Huh, Slate.com talks about how Strom Thurmond may have had a daughter with a black woman. Interesting, puts a different light on some of the events of his life.


Image of the Moment

--Ranjit took this awesome picture of a bee, you can see a slightly larger version at moonmilk.


Hobby of the Moment
I really think that dB drag racing is the dumbest hobby I have ever heard. People put tons and tons of amplifiers and stereos in their cars - often rendering them usesless as a means of transportation - in order to make as much noise as possible. Not play music, but noise, a 74hz tone. That's, like, enough to melt your brain, literally. I mean, I guess it's a little interesting from a street engineering standpoint, but yeesh, what's the point? (And I guess my feeling ties into the most people's dislike of car stereos that rattle windows from blocks away.)

what is the sound of one lawsuit clapping?

2002.07.02
Wow...I came this close to totally forgetting to do an entry this morning. Weird. Maybe I'm getting too wrapped up in my programming project for the Atari 2600...I currently have a big square you can move on screen with the joystick. It's as much fun to play as it sounds...but I E-bayed up one of these cartridges that should let me load the programs I make into an actual Atari!


Link of the Moment
Making the rounds, John Cage's estate is going after people who are trying to muscle in on his silence.


Movie Quote of the Moment
"Ack Ack, let me tell you a little story. A story about a little fat kid who everybody made fun of, and nobody liked and he had a twin brother, and everybody said he never looked like his twin brother, but he wanted to..."
"Egg, where you that little boy?"
"No! No! But I used to beat the shit out him! 'Why are you so fat? Why are so ugly?' Aaagghh!"
"Great story, thanks."
One Crazy Summer, early John Cusack, with some othe big names like Demi Moore and Bobcat Goldthwait.

honeymoon filler day 1

2001.07.02
Autumn

Here on an autumn night in the sweet orchard smell,
Sitting in a pile of leaves under the starry sky,
Oh what stories we could tell
With this starlight to tell them by.

October night, and you, and paradise,
So lovely and so full of grace,
Above your head, the universe has hung its lights,
And I reach out my hand to touch your face.

I believe in impulse, in all that is green,
Believe in the foolish vision that comes true,
Believe that all that is essential is unseen,
And for this lifetime I believe in you.

All of the lovers and the love they made:
Nothing that was between them was a mistake.
All that we did for love's sake,
Is not wasted and will never fade.

All who have loved shall be forever young
And walk in grandeur on a cool fall night
Along the avenue,
They live in every song that is ever sung,
In every painting of pure light,
In every pas de deux.

Oh love that shines in every star
And love reflected in the silver moon.
It is not here, but it's not far.
Not yet, but it will be here soon.
Garrison Keillor


"My grandfather was a painter ... was looking at me and he said "Harry, there are two kinds of tired, there's good-tired, and there's bad-tired. Ironically enough, bad-tired can be a day that you won.  But you won other people's battles, you lived other people's days, other peoples agendas, other people's dreams - and when it was all over there was very little "you" in there, and when you hit the hay at night, somehow you toss and turn, you don't settle easy.  Good-tired, ironically enough, can be a day that you lost.  But you don't have to tell yourself, because you knew you fought your battles, you chased your dreams, you lived your days, and when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy - you sleep the sleep of the just, and you can say "take me away".  Now, Harry, all my life I've painted... God I would've loved to be more successful, but I have painted and I have painted, and I am good-tired, and they can take me away."
--from Harry Chapin's Gold Medal collection
---
Looking over the mundane diary, I realize that some recent events seem distant, and vice versa.  In terms of my memory, life isn't as linear as I would have thought.  Still, being able to review is a wonderful thing- a month is plenty of time-- a fraction of my life,  but if I pay attention it's not time lost.  At the end of the day I can look back, and relish all that I was; all that I am.  (Later I think of it as "allowing each day to leave a footprint that I can later review"-- like that terrible footprints in the sand thing, but without jesus.)

I made the Mortality Guide this month's Ramble...
00-7-2
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If I were Han Solo, I wouldn't have named my ship the Millennium Falcon, I'd have named it "You have clearance to leave," cause I bet that would get me out of a lot of jams.
--Larry Hollister
---

The intimacy of applying soothing balm on a sunburn (potential lovebite?)
97-7-2
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"Life's too short to worry about it“
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