Blogging to work out my thinking about issues in technology, programming, religion, and politics.
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”
It’s a quote from the HBO miniseries about the Chernobyl disaster. You can see the truth of it at first glance, but the REAL problem here — in the disaster, and in personal life — is that the narcissistic, sociopathic, and avaricious (extremely greedy) people who tell the most, biggest, and longest-term lies are often NOT the ones who pay the debt.
I’ve gotten emails about being in 3 class-action settlements against Verizon, Anthem, and Walgreens. I usually click through them and just see what happens. The Verizon one started distributions today. My take? $12.15. On a prepaid, digital-only card that the plan administrators probably are getting kickbacks for using. This stuff is all such a joke. There ought to be a law that says if the settlement won’t yield, like, at least THREE figures of money for people, the lawyers don’t get to file and make all their filthy lucre.
How it feels being the only one who understands the assignment.
“YES! EVERYONE CAN SEE YOUR SCREEN. THAT’S LITERALLY THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS STUPID SOFTWARE.”
If you can ask if your screen can be seen, and you reasonably expect to be able to hear someone respond to that query, you should know without a shadow of a doubt that everyone can see your screen, which inevitably is showing some stupid PowerPoint slide that we call could have done without anyway.
So it turns out that there are, in fact, stupid questions.
When I’m president, I will make it illegal to ask, “Can everyone see my screen?” in online meetings.
I expect to be swept into office on a “purple wave” with no other policy positions.
As my second cerebral processor was doing whatever it does while my primary one is busy doing work, I was reflecting on The Watchmen. Why? I don’t know. I haven’t been watching or reading anything related to comics or superheroes lately. I read the graphic novel in college, on the advice of a friend. He also told me that it was so complicated, there was a second book that explained all the references. I eventually found a copy of that book at a book store, and thumbed through it, but never bought it. I was astonished at how much lied under the surface, which I hadn’t noticed, and I always felt I was a pretty attentive reader.
I just looked and see now that you can get an “annotated” version of the book with those notes in the margins. I wouldn’t mind getting a full-color hardback version of this, but the point of this post is just the amazement of making a piece of art that is so complex, nuanced, and multi-layered that there’s actual utility in making a book like this. I mean, there are some movies that invite this level of introspection, notably Primer, but I can’t think of a lot of others. (I mean, sure, Tenet, but that’s because it needs to be explained, and then you’re forced to conclude that, no, it really did suck.) I can’t think of any other piece of art that deserves this kind of treatment.
There were a handful of websites I found way back in the 2000’s that I liked, and kept on a short list to check every few days. This one stuck in my head because of the domain name, which I thought was terribly clever. I dug it up in the Internet Archive. It’s been taken over by some film company? Or something? I’m not clear if it’s run by the same people or not.
Another one was called “The Bassment” (sic), made by a guy who worked at SGI. It was named that way because he played bass, too. I can’t find it in the archive. It was run out of an Indy he had at his house, which inspired me to run my own web and email servers out of my house for 15 years.
There were others, like “Ze Frank,” who has moved to TikTok and YouTube (and probably others).
Anyway, I just wanted to capture the kind of free design that used to be prevalent on the internet before everyone started using “engines” and “templates” and “front ends.” And, no, the irony is not lost on me, sitting here using WordPress with a stock theme. And, sure, I started to rewrite another custom web site for my personal use, but I was using Bootstrap anyway. I readily admit that I’m not creative, but I used to at least try.
The web used to be a wild frontier of programmers and artists and writers who were exploring the new medium. Now, it’s just YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, et. al., etc. There are very few personal sites left. It all got so boring. And for all the “AI” that’s supposed to be in “the algorithms,” TikTok and YouTube offer me 20 pieces of crap for every 1 thing I might have been interested in.
Our HOA president has repeatedly harassed us about parking on the street in front of our own house. I need to summarize how we got here, because there’s a definite pattern.
First, she told me that I couldn’t park on the street because we lived in an HOA, as though that, in and of itself, precluded it. I told her my copy of the covenants said nothing about parking passenger cars on the street.
Second, she implied that I didn’t have the latest copy of the bylaws, but wouldn’t supply me with a copy that she deemed current. So I went to the recorders office and confirmed that my copy is, in fact, the latest legal instrument that applies to my lot.
Third, she told me that the city didn’t allow it. I called the police department, and they said, if there were no signs, there were no restrictions.
Fourth, she told me that the garbage collectors don’t like it. I called the city garage, and they said they didn’t care.
Fifth, she said that emergency vehicles can’t get through if there are cars parked on the street, and says the fire department “reviewed” her rule. I called the fire marshal, and he confirmed that fire trucks were no bigger than school busses, which go through the neighborhood with cars parked on the street, every school day. He also said that if the streets were too narrow for emergency vehicles, the city would ban parking on one side or the other.
Now she claims that, as the president of the association, she has the authority to unilaterally make up rules, under a general safety clause in the by-laws, and that the association’s attorney said this was legal. She hasn’t faithfully represented the positions of any other cited sources, so she’ll have to forgive me if I cannot trust what she says any more. Given the history on this topic thus far, I believe she is either misconstruing what he said, or distorting what he said for effect in the process of relaying it to me.
So I called my attorney. He feels — and I wholeheartedly agree — that any change to the covenants would need to follow the change procedure outlined in the covenants themselves, especially changes to rules that are already covered.
I was ready to dive into all of this when I finally realized…
Arguing with a narcissist is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. You just get tired, and the pig loves it.
I’m just going to say it: I miss getting a slice of Garcia’s pizza after a night of drinking in West Lafayette when I was going to Purdue. If they were still there, I’d drive up to taste it again. There was no pizza like it.
By Duran Duran, 1981
So soon just after you’ve gone
My senses sharpen
But it always takes so damn long
Before I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smoke
Drifting in our room
So easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisper
With a careless memory, with a careless memoryOn the table, signs of love lies scattered
And the walls break, with a crashing within
It’s not as though, as though you really mattered
But being close, how could I let you go
Without some feeling, some precious sympathy followingFear hangs in a plane of gun smoke
Drifting in our room
So easy to disturb with a thought, with a whisper
With a careless memory, with a careless memory
With a careless memory, with a careless memoryOh, I walk out into the sun, I try to find a new day
But the whole place just screams in my eyes
Where are you now ’cause I don’t want to meet you
I think I’d die, I think I’d laugh at you
I know I’d cry, what am I supposed to do, follow you?Outside the thoughts coming flooding back now
I just try to forget youSo easy to disturb with a thought with a whisper
With a careless memory, with a careless memory
With a careless memory, look out
With a careless memory
With a careless memory
Look out, look out, look out, look out