I have been watching the Artemis II mission off and on. I saw these pictures on the NASA website, and here are a few that I really like. They definitely got me thinking. I have always been fascinated by space and the Heavens. I would like to go to space, …
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I turn 57 this month, and with everything going on in the world, it almost feels like an afterthought. This year feels worse, more doom and gloom than others. I am not entirely sure why, but it is not just politics. The economy has been rough too, with gas prices staying high, in my case over $4.25 a gallon, along with rising costs across the board and ongoing tech hardware shortages. It all adds to the sense that things are off.
I have never seen as much upheaval as I have this past year. I have also never witnessed in my adult life companies and wealthy individuals fawn over a President to this extent, while much of the media seems complicit. Then they wonder why their trustworthiness is at an all-time low. I believe in a neutral, fact-based media, but in reality we have never truly had one in this country except when it suited particular interests.
Continue Reading →⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS In "Civil War" (2024), the iconic torch of liberty becomes a battleground as soldiers clash atop its flame, symbolizing the fierce struggle for freedom amid chaos. My Rating: ½ (0.5/5 stars) The movie stunk, and it stun…
Continue Reading →History was made today. The kind of history that will be written about and studied for years to come, and I was able to capture it from my backyard. Artemis II successfully launched with a crew of four and is heading to the Moon. Not as great, magnificent…
Continue Reading →⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS My Rating: ⭐⭐½ (2.5/5 stars) The cast has done good work in other films, but not here. They were probably paid, but the story was terrible. Calling it a 2.5 felt generous. In my view, there was nothing redeeming about …
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I have been trying out a new app from Stardock called Clairvoyance. It is a nice AI interface that is very powerful and lets you use API keys to interact with large language models and do all kinds of things. It also takes a privacy-first approach and is a bit more user friendly than some other tools I have tried. I will say this has been very compelling and interesting to use. I honestly cannot believe it is free, and I hope it stays free. That said, there are still some bugs and rough edges. For example, it does not always make it clear whether it is actively working or if something has hung. When subagents get stuck there does not seem to be an obvious way to stop or cancel the task, at least that I have found so far. I have also seen cases where the interface says it is finished but still reports that it is working. On occasion I have asked it what it is doing or what is going on, and the response mentions something running in the background but does not really answer the question directly. It almost feels like it is ignoring the question and returning a vague or nonsense response instead of explaining what is happening. So there are definitely some areas that still need to be fleshed out. To be fair, the software is clearly marked as being in alpha. When it is on target and working, especially when it is helping with coding, it actually works quite well.
Continue Reading →https://elgan.com/why-you-should-love-blogs-now-more-than-ever Why you should love blogs now more than ever , Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan@mastodon.social) on sharkey (source) I saw Mike's post in my timeline, and it's referenced above. While I know some peop…
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Okay, it has been one year since I joined Micro.blog and Scribbles.page, and just over a year since I joined Write.as. I thought I would review all three services with a clear winner, a hard "can't wait for my subscription to end and won't be renewing," and a dark horse.
I joined all three within months of each other looking to get rid of my InMotionHosting web host and get away from WordPress. I didn't like the direction that Matt Mullenweg was heading and didn't want to get burned like I did with Elon Musk and Twitter. Twitter was a special place for me as I refused to use any Zuckerberg product, especially since he ruined Instagram.
Now with the history out of the way, here we go.
Continue Reading →⚠️ Warning: Political Rant
Okay, this is one of the few politically related posts I make each year because politics are so divisive. So here’s your warning: if you’d rather not read political commentary, feel free to stop here.
The recent armed action against Iran has me conflicted. I believe it's more of a distraction and a pretext than a genuine strategic necessity. While the issues we face in America come from the neglect of both parties, Trump seems to be using these problems to his advantage. This situation should have been addressed years ago when Iran first began developing its nuclear program. The United States is skilled at acting as a global police force and solving immediate problems but not at handling long-term challenges such as nation building. We have never successfully created a functioning foreign democracy.
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I haven't blogged lately for several reasons. I have been feeling much better from my Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (I have blogged extensively about it in several past posts). I will just say my Camzyos and Metoprolol 200 mg ER twice daily seems to be working. I am sleeping at night and I hardly feel my heart symptoms anymore. The only lingering negative is a high heart rate most of the time, even when sleeping. But I have more energy, and that is actually why I haven't been blogging as much.
I know what you are thinking: if you are feeling better, why aren't you blogging? Well, it is because I am catching up on backlogged personal projects I have wanted to get done, and spending too much money in the process. Ever since AI came on the scene, I have been getting up to speed and, with its help, doing things I have wanted to do but didn't have the knowledge or know where to look. For instance, I have over 2,000 discs (DVDs, CDs, and Blu-rays) from over 30 years of accumulation that I am finally archiving and getting into my Plex server for my home. I had no one to ask and couldn't find resources, so I just had the discs sitting around, many never opened, as I relied on streaming services. But I have been on a purge of subscription services since early last year. I am also finding approximately 100 DVDs that have either disc rot or are scratched. That last one really hurts, as most of the disc-rotted and scratched discs have never been opened. So there has been a renewed sense of urgency on my part to get these things archivally backed up.
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