Main Bedroom TV Hole Project
We are now nine years into this house as of last month. In our main bedroom, there is a vaulted ceiling, but one of the delightfully odd features of the ceiling was a cut out for a television. It was angled perfectly for a standard box tube television like you would find in the last century. For the modern flat television, this was entirely impractical, not unlike the telephone line jack right next to the toilet I had removed long ago.
Office Lighting Project
I had recently switched rooms in the basement for my office. It is important to have a place where I can spend an inhumane amount of time on Zoom calls as I work from home. Since the basement has no natural light, it means I must get the lighting just right to light up my face, not cast too many shadows, not reflect in my glasses, and not make me look any worse than I already do.
Record Player Update
Last week I turned on my record player, phono pre-amp, and speaker amp when I ran into problems. The speaker amp turned on, made a popping noise, and then stopped working. I did a quick look online and found that though not common, this was a death sentence for my particular model.
I started some research on replacement amps. I’m not opposed to spending a little bit more to get a good quality amp.
Relax into the Run
Rebounding from my injury, I am learning to trust my own feet again. This combined with re-integrating minimal shoes has been figuring out how to walk and run again. What I mean by “minimal shoes” is a shoe with zero support, zero drop in soles, and little padding between you and the ground. My running shoes have been minimal for eight months and have been broken in and working out great.
Technological Determinism
Our humanity seems driven by endless technological innovation. We seem to think that the solution to all of our problems will be born of future technology and do not consider that the source of our problems is also technology. We seem predisposed to a full-throttle consumption and expansion of every technological innovation. Much of our economy is predicated on large bets to create billionaires out of an idea without a market.
The Loss of History
The Night 17 Million Precious Military Records Went Up in Smoke by Megan Greenwell
Interesting article on what happened to an incomprehensible number of records going up in flames fifty years ago. Some 17,517,490 Soldiers’ service records were lost forever, including my own grandfather’s. I had heard stories of what he did, but will never be able to verify them.
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry
This collection of essays from Wendell Berry is thick and luxurious as it has taken me over a month to get through it. It is also deeply serious and passionate in a way that can be draining on one’s soul. I would almost call the tone scolding. I would say read it but give it some room to breathe in your brain.
Eaters, that is, must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.
AI Created Art
AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable by Winston Cho
There is no magic in how AI creates new works as it is based on prior art in the learned model. This is arguably not different from how humans derive new art, but I am pleased that we are not rushing to give the output of these algorithms human status with copyright protections.
A federal judge on Friday upheld a finding from the U.
Can Anyone be a CEO?
Anyone can be a CEO… given enough drive, a growth mindset, and massive luck.
Drive - You must have some motivation to achieve what you want. Your drive can be intrinsic or extrinsic which is for you to sort out. Lazy people without drive will likely not achieve these big roles.
Growth Mindset - You must be able to adapt as your responsibility and situation change. You must always be optimistic as nobody likes following a pessimist.
Kanban Board for Household Communication
A big breakthrough for my marriage and how I have a healthier relationship with home improvement projects has been the use of a Kanban board to organize what we wish to do and turn it into action. It’s cheap and easy to have a wish, but it’s quite another matter to turn that into a completed project. The agreement is, that anything can go on the Kanban board, but it’s a joint decision of what gets prioritized.