Black and white film self-portrait in mirror

Sunday, August 03, 2025

I don’t feel much like writing full-on blog posts, so I keep spouting off little bits and bobs over on Mastodon instead. It’s not ideal. I mean, I just added the /notes feature here, so why not use that? I honestly don’t know. There’s something about it I don’t like. I made the font here a bit smaller and a bit less black. It looked chunky and amateurish to me, somehow. Anyway, it’s different now, which might be all I wanted. ...

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Photo of people standing under a flag and speaker (1950s)

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Why bother blogging when even I don’t feel like reading my posts? I guess I don’t understand why blurring my ā€œcontentā€ behind semi-transparent UI controls is any better than hiding it behind easily-distinguished UI controls. The content itself is unusable either way, so why not make the controls easier to see/use? What do we think about about the whole /notes implementation here? I don’t think I like it. I don’t feel like creating a whole thing every time I want to share whatever useless thought pops into my head. OTOH, I don’t much like putting everything into these daily posts, either. Not on this blog, in this format, anyway. On the other hand, why not just do it here? Problem is already solved, right? ...

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Black and white film self-portrait with Leica MP in mirror

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Can you imagine much easier things would be if I… Used (only one) digital camera Put my photos in one big Lightroom Classic catalog Or maybe just used my iPhone with Apple Photos I saw a post where someone complained that the timeline for some community was ā€œā€¦a sanitized version of reality.ā€ My question is, must every ā€œcommunityā€ always, no matter what, include content from every possible awful corner of the universe? If I wanted ā€œrealityā€, I’d go read about it, or visit just about every other timeline on the internet. I know shit is terrible, that’s why I’m hanging out in this nice space for a spell…as a respite. Is it not OK to want to be mildly entertained and amused for a little while? I mean, we don’t bitch about, say, The Disney Channel existing, do we? I don’t believe people have the right to demand that every space conform to every situation. ...

Partly cloudy 71.1 | Low 72.1, High 84.0 •
Black and white film photo of slim tower and sky

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Too hot for chores, today, so I’m in my air-conditioned office, futzing with AI tools, server options, and my Emacs capture templates. For some reason, I can’t get a markdown-mode-hook to fire and call olivetti-mode when I open a Markdown file in an Emacs buffer. I’m using the exact method that works with org-mode files. It’s a small annoyance, but this is why I sometimes want to quit.

Partly cloudy 90.0 | Low 74.7, High 94.6 •
Black and white film photo of boy and dog watching out screen door

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Posted: Roll 037 Ozzy died today. For a long time, I expected this to happen any minute. He didn’t exactly live a healthy lifestyle. After a certain point, though, it seemed like he might live forever. His ā€œBlizzard of Ozzā€ tour in 1981 was one of the of the first concerts I saw. I remember leaning my head into a speaker cone, because LOUDER!

Partly cloudy 81.0 | Low 55.2, High 85.3 •
Odd picture frames on wall

Sunday, July 20, 2025

With any luck, I’ll spend time today far away from the computer and very close to the lake.

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Light pole and sky with clouds

Friday, July 18, 2025

Don’t you wish I had only one blog? I do.

Clear 57.0 | Low 54.7, High 77.5 •
People in chairs, eating, at a reception. 1960s.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

I’m editing this in (Neo)Vim because I feel like living in normal Vim bindings for a minute, without the grief I cause myself trying to use evil-mode in Emacs.

Overcast 64.0 | Low 62.6, High 73.4 •
Street sign reading Road Ends in front of trees

Monday, July 14, 2025

Firing up a new daily note every morning used to be a regular thing for me. Lately, it just gives me blank page anxiety. It’s possible that an ā€œI don’t feel much like bloggingā€ phase is starting. I know this because I don’t feel much like blogging. I have a doctor’s appointment today. Just a scheduled follow-up, but there’s a lot of pre-appointment guilt happening. My blood pressure is a little higher than we’d like, so in our last meeting I suggested that instead of upping my meds, that I eat healthier and exercise more. I’ve done neither of those, so my BP will still be too high and he’ll have to tsk-tsk me and prescribe something stronger. I hate having to take medications, but it’s my own damn fault. ...

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Children's blocks on carpet

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Reverting my blogging changes

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Sunday, June 29, 2025

Just seeing if this thing still works.

Cloudy 72.0 | Low 60.6, High 91.9 •
Black and white photo of sleeping dog

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Daily notes. What are they for? I guess it’s like having a legal pad open on my desk, where I can write whatever I’m thinking about at any time. The problem for you, dear reader, is that you’re subjected to all of it. I feel a little guilty about that. Not guilty enough to stop doing it, of course. I am a different person every day. Too different.

Mist 54.1 | Low 56.7, High 85.1 •
Black and white film photo of Rolleiflex and Hasselblad on desk

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

If there are ā€œNotesā€ listed under this post, it means the thing I’ve been working on here is…working, I guess. (Update, they’re missing from the RSS feed. I’ll work on that later.) Trusting your own judgement on ā€˜AI’ is a huge risk: Something seemingly working is not evidence of it working. (Long, but worth reading). I dunno, seems to me that if it’s working, it’s working, but I suppose that’s his point. One can argue that AI is bad for the environment, or bad for artists, or stealing, and you’d have a point. But when you argue that ā€œWell, it doesn’t actually work. It can’t think!ā€ then that’s where we part company. Even though I agree with a lot of the article, it’s the kind of thing someone writes when they really really don’t wan’t something to be true. I swear I’m going to stop commenting on all this nonsense and go back to the super-cool homeopathic software I co-wrote (aka ā€œvibe-codedā€) today. You know, the one that’s working. I don’t need to prove anything to you. ...

Partly cloudy 66.9 | Low 50.0, High 73.9 •
Rear of Nikon film camera

Thursday, June 05, 2025

Maybe I’d blog better if I was a more gooder writer.

Mist 55.9 | Low 56.8, High 80.6 •
Close-up black and white film photo of an old brush in the snow

Monday, June 02, 2025

While visiting my grandson this morning, I finished a roll of expired Portra 400 in the Rolleiflex. When I got home, I didn’t feel like developing the roll. C-41 processing is a whole thing. It’s not hard, but I don’t love it. Still, I’m usually excited to at least see what’s on the roll. Today, I wasn’t. Not a great sign.

Partly cloudy 72.0 | Low 39.9, High 82.0 •
Black and white photo of old car

Sunday, June 01, 2025

I try to avoid writing about LLMs but sometimes fail.

Partly cloudy 64.9 | Low 38.5, High 71.6 •
Train yard (2010). Leica M4.

Friday, May 30, 2025

I’ve been going through my Lightroom library and noticed a couple things. First, I used to just walk around with a camera and take pictures of things. Some of them are pretty good. Second, my Lightroom catalog has everything and I’m wondering if abandoning it was a good idea. My mates at lunch today are all in with AI. One works at a startup, the other for a large manufacturer. Both manage development and product teams. Both claim to be ā€œ10 times more productive since using AI.ā€ One said, ā€œI get things done now that I’d never even attempted before AI.ā€ ...

Mist 48.0 | Low 49.3, High 71.4 •
Alice in color. (Rolleiflex 2.8D. Kodak Gold.)

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Now that I’ve added a /notes section to the blog, where does that leave these daily notes? I think I’ll keep them. It gives me a place to record some notes throughout the day, but without spewing everything out to social media seventeen times. Just the once :). Then again, isn’t that what the wiki is for? Greg Storey: We’ve turned each consumer interaction into a moral audit. An app download requires community consensus. Every platform choice needs ethical clearance. ...

Mist 54.0 | Low 49.1, High 66.7 •
Black and white photo of boy standing by trees

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Today will involve more yard work. Mulch delivery Most of the day was spent outdoors, working on stuff. I rarely choose that option, but am always glad when I have.

Partly cloudy 48.0 | Low 41.7, High 77.5 •
Black and white photo of child playing piano

Friday, May 09, 2025

I wrote recently that I’m tempted to ā€œmove the entire enterprise onto paperā€ and I’m more than half serious. Playing with text on the computer has become a way to never actually do anything useful. It’s fun and easy and gets me nowhere. I fired up my Micro.blog subscription again yesterday. This was probably not the right move, but I’m experimenting with my social media ā€œidentityā€ and Micro.blog is one option. ...

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