Author: Josh

Woke up at the crack of dawn, went downtown, answered some health questions, handed over a bunch of forms, and now for more waiting. Governmental bureaucracy is a certain sort of task-focused pleasure, which dispenses little drabs of dopamine for following byzantine rules and regulations. I don’t mind it so much as comment on it, observe it, see where the cracks are, and where another organization would lean into repairs to processes. At least, if their goals were increasing their customer base or lowering their friction. This is all friction. Potentially purposeful, but friction nonetheless.

Anyhow, steps 1-4 of (maybe) 7 are in the can.

Inputs

1: Caught The Creator on Hulu this afternoon. Beautifully constructed and with its own unique visual palate and styling, it was a lovely movie to watch, though a bit on the nose in its beats. John David Washington has really come into his own as an actor, but he has line readings in here that, with your eyes closed, you would swear were his father. Worth a watch, even if it isn’t striding over wholly new turf.

2: Also watched They Cloned Tyrone, which was much more original in voice, vision, and effect. Great efforts out of John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris, who really stole the movie with a complex performance of a character that easily could have been one or two notes deep. From the blaxploitation touches and the satirical visual critique that refused to cross into caricature, to a dialogue that insisted on originality in choice and diction, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

3: Gabe of Penny Arcade in commentary on today’s comic, on the lie at the heart of AI art: https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2024/01/03/terminarter. He, much better than I could, for his wisdom and his position as a member of one of the most prominent artistic duos on the internet, elucidates his thoughts on the empty argument of AI evangelists, who are willing to ignore propriety, the true meaning of a commons, the agency of artists, and common damned sense, all because they’ve decided they want their thing to be Good when it is, at its very best, Complicated.

Projects In Progress

Things ascend and flow ever forward. Slow movement is movement. Forward is progress. May it ever be so.

Another of those days where I couldn’t sleep the night before. Couldn’t get to sleep, woke up insanely early, couldn’t get back to sleep, and after a while, just got up and stumbled into a day. Which feels like an unkindness upon myself, given that it’s tomorrow that I really have to get up early to go throw some forms into the bureaucratic machine.

Inputs

1: Watched a PBS special, Breakthrough: The Ideas That Changed The World, on the invention of the airplane. Some of it was familiar to anyone who caught the American version of the invention of powered flight, with the achievements of Orville and Wilbur Wright highlighted. However, I was totally unaware that a form of powered flight was developed decades earlier, by Alphonse Pénaud, who went on to sketch out a rather advanced version of a powered airplane with folding landing gear. After not finding backing for his plans, he ended up taking his own life at the age of 30. Yet another reminder of the thin edge that genius and mental difficulty ride along, and the thought beholden to “What if?”

2: Watched the conclusion of the semifinal games in college football last night. After prior years of blowouts and what felt like inevitable coronations, it was thrilling to watch two games come down to a final play, where either side could have triumphed. College football has its problems inherent with the exploitation of the labors of young men, and yet it still allows them the stage and the capacity to perform incredible acts to the largest audiences. It’s a thoroughly American tradition and one I continue to love, and will miss after next week’s championship concludes.

3: The Dan LeBatard Show returned from Winter break, and so I caught the first segments of the week. It made for a solid accompaniment as I thumped my head against my desk trying to learn new things. A continual source of joy and amusement is an important thing, especially as Winter has finally arrived here in the North.

Projects In Progress

Webapp: Still investigating things, mostly to try and figure out how to correctly host the whole kit and kaboodle. The thing I thought worked one way doesn’t seem to, so now it’s learning more about the implications and setups of various cloud providers. A simpler man would outsource these bits, or buy into something more turnkey. I am not that man. Progress continues, if not apace, then by paces.

I have a tradition I started some years back of posting at Midnight on the 1st of the year. It was on Twitter for ages, but Twitter having turned into what it is, I went with Bluesky this year. Since those can’t quite be embedded yet, here’s a screenshot and a link to it:

I’m not one for massive public resolutions. I honestly believe the best resolutions are ones you make to yourself and keep to yourself. When I quit smoking almost 12 years ago now, I did so cold turkey, at my choosing, and kept it to myself until I made nearly a year.

On the other hand, I firmly believe in taking the end of the year as a time to take stock and reset. To take the long, wide, and deeper view of one’s life and see if what is should continue to be or needs to evolve. Dates, times, all these are arbitrary. That we conclude a year or begin a year weeks after the solstice and in the middle of Winter is a fluke of following in the footsteps of those that came before, not some universal constant we’re hewing to. And yet, that agreed upon resetting of the calendar, that renumbering from one, is a good excuse to reset in the other bits of a life. To continue forward aware of the forward flow of things, and, though willing to look backwards, not binding one’s self to the consequences of what came before.

Happy New Year. Let’s see what another spin around the Sun has in store for us all.

Inputs

1: It’s January 1st, which means it’s all college football, all day. Wisconsin lost a heartbreaker to LSU, but looked closer to the promise of Luke Fickell than at any time before, in a game that was, at most, a very early Spring game. Here’s hoping more exciting things are in store for the local kids.

Meanwhile, at the time I write, the Rose Bowl is a good game, with Michigan’s defense stepping up to the challenge against Alabama. Should be a good, if oddly long, game. And then Washington and Texas, I expect, will be the polar opposite of a brawl, with every indication they’ll score with abandon.

2: Yesterday was filled with NFL games and an unfortunate loss for the fantasy team against what turned out to be a buzz saw of an opponent. Still, a solid year for Team Calvinball, and I’m excited to watch football with nothing at stake but entertainment (and a rooting interest in the Buccaneers).

3: Watched various YouTube videos to fill in the day, including the farewell from Tom Scott. Tom had presaged this ahead of his stepping away from regular efforts on his personal channel, but it still feels like the end of an era. Tom’s (like the guys who run Practical Engineering, Smarter Every Day, and the Brothers Green) was one of the voices you could count on to make the complex and intricate seem approachable, and who was willing to take all the time in the world to bring aspects of the world to his audience. Thanks, Tom, and best of luck in the next endeavors.

Projects In Progress

I don’t talk about my resolutions, but I do expect one outcome from keeping to them to be better progress here. So, we’ll see what happens. For now though, should be back to it mañana.