they both need to have their stereographic projector.
Can’t Have Favorites
Update Hell
Software is steadily becoming more dictatorial. It gives us fake choices like one does to a child to trick them into behaving, with a so called dark pattern to make the “right” decision obvious. I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back to Linux soon.
If update prompts spoke the truth:
I don’t mean to particularly pick on Apple, that’s just the template I used.
Christ on a bike, can I do anything?
We’ll harass you until you click the button, It’s our gift to you!
“For now”, you’ll comply eventually.
Peaches?
We’ve had bad luck with peach trees dying in the past, mainly due to us not removing all the buds as they are establishing themselves. One of the dead trees went again, bellow the graft or so we thought. So I removed all the buds this time, but there were so many I missed a few. And well, they turned into small peaches :). They’re delicious, just small. We didn’t think we’d be picking peaches in October.
Protected: Poyas out the Wazoo
Stereographic Projector
I had to make one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2094215. Projection is shorter range than I was hoping for but it’s still fun and gets the kids thinking.
Bis Repetita
Second deployment of Laser Portraits at a public event. It was a lot busier this time around, and totally fun as previously. Also very stressful until a few portraits are behind me. It doesn’t matter how much I test and check, something always goes wrong but I got it all figured out just in time. I’m also refining the formula for how to present and interact with people. The PewtyBots performed all evening without missing a beat.
The Stranger
This is why people hate books. It’s not meant to tell an interesting story, it’s an exercise in the absurd by the author. I only finished it because it was short and I thought something must happen eventually. The dude doesn’t even get his head chopped off at the end. I picked it because it’s a classic and I heard a journalist I like talk about it as a life altering book. I don’t see it in the least. Nicole told me Camus is responsible for the stereotype of “ennui” as seen in Inside Out 2, makes sense. This book has zero purpose, it’s written to be boring and it’s quite effective in that regard.
Do I feel any shame being the uninstructed critique of renowned authors? Not at all, this book sucks.
Freedom & Unity
I have a penchant for Vermont seals & coats of arm, and I found some good ones in some old books. I really like turning old engravings into large plots, these look great in person.
The new recursive inset fill algorithm is incredible and making me want to revisit previously hatched plots.
Esther’s Plotter
I love it very much.
The Grapes of Wrath
I was forced to read as a kid, which made me despise books and go through school avoiding them at all cost. I can count on my hands the number of books I actually read. Half of which were when I met Nicole and took interest in the books she liked. It’s a sad fact, but literature eventually found its way via music with Brel & Brassens. I could at least enjoy some good prose but I still avoided boring paper for decades. Learning English eventually made me more interested in language. Lately I’ve felt like friends were getting something out of books that I wasn’t, and so that I should try again. I’ve also been interested in refactoring media habits, less algorithmically fed bite size outrage, and more human chosen focused & continuous.
How to pick a first book in decades, and not get burnt? Well I decided to stick to classics thinking they were well liked for a reason. The current economic context led me to pick The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck.
It took me a while to get through it, reading is really not natural and I need to establish the habit. And I loved it. I loved recognizing a uniquely American hardiness in Tom & his fambly. Nicole & I have observed well before this book that Americans have a particular way of going through hardships. Resigned, no push back, just acceptance and enduring. Sometimes, and that may be the latin in my own cultural mix, you kind of want to shake them and ask why they are just accepting things that could be pushed back on. This cultural trait is well illustrated in this book. It was rough to read at first and it took me a while to understand some of the words. The illustration of economic exploitation was also well received and helped me understand a pan of US history, and present state. Everyday economics here is objectively a lot more cutthroat than western Europe. This can be good or bad, much like unquestionably enduring hardships. More freedom to do great things, and more freedom for greedy predators to help you hang yourself.
I know it was a good book because it stays in my mind well after having read it. I hope I can keep fanning that flame going forward.