> Notes...

The level of stress this voluntary HOA (home owners association) job is putting on me is not even funny. And someone still has the audacity to write I am not fulfilling my fiduciary duties. Dude, the only reason I am here is you! The entire neighbourhood was in utter discontent and debt (we still are) because of you, and your dictatorship “rule”. Pfff, ugh! As if!

Weekends are really not long enough to do everything that has piled up during the week, even after trying to do a little bit here and there each day, during working days. So, here I lay on the couch, very, very tired, physically and mentally unable to do much more.

We have a Tychotic Secret Server running at work. We were just told not to call it as such, because it makes it a “target”. The URL to access it has secretserver on it. I recommended to call it “shhh server”. 😅

This one merited a new tag, which I am sure to use aplenty in the future.

Dr. Wong: Why didn’t you want to come here?

Pickle Rick: Because I don’t respect therapy, because I’m a scientist. Because I invent, transform, create, and destroy for a living, and when I don’t like something about the world, I change it. And I don’t think going to a rented office in a strip mall to listen to some agent of averageness explain which words mean which feelings has ever helped anyone do anything. I think it’s helped a lot of people get comfortable and stop panicking, which is a state of mind we value in the animals we eat, but not something I want for myself. I’m not a cow. I’m a pickle. When I feel like it. So… you asked.

From “Rick and Morty” episode “Pickle Rick”. There is a Dr. Wong reply, but that’s for another day 😅.

“You see, the corporations and rich people write checks to the politicians. No no, not to them directly, sorry, to their reelection campaigns. Then the politicians listen to what the people who paid them have to say and pass laws based on that.”

Certainly not corruption, right? Meanwhile, at work, we have to refuse anything a vendor—which 99.99% of us have no power to give business to—give us, unless it is less than $20.

➝ Via Hacker News.

From Jef Raskin’s book, “The Human Interface” the three laws of Interface Design (certainly modeled after Isaac’s):

1. A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.
2. A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.
3. An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties.

Kid and I have been rewatching “Rick and Morty” (★★★★★) , starting at season 1, because it has been a while, and because it will allow us to enjoy the show the longest. If you have never seeing it, I recommend. It is adult animation, so, be warned.

We continue to re-organise, and shrink, apparently at will, seemingly making things up as we go. Apparently and seemingly, I say, because I think, I want to think, there is a sentient pattern, a reason, and, thus, and end goal.

I feel like I am stuck on Groundhog Day. Just when it seems I have overcome it and escaped, and feel very hopeful about it, the cycle starts all over again. 😭

Muan wrote a note that made me, instantly, smile:

Prompting (also known as betting or gambling) is the wagering of something of value (“token cost”) on a stochastic language model with the intent of producing something else of value, where instances of strategy are barely relevant.

Yet, I cannot help but paraphrasing it:

Prompting (quasi-gambling) is the spending of tokens (money) on a stochastic model to produce something of value, where strategy substantially shifts the odds and verification, paired with iteration, converts luck into reliability.

Of course, that takes all the fun out of the original. Yeah, I am quite fun at parties. 😅

Want to get rid of that annoying “Write with Siri” button next to input/textarea fields? Do this, and thank Amiantos later:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain \
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool false

An appointment is made to service the CRV; it’s at 10:45. We get there five minutes before the appointment time (as it should be), and service allegedly starts. One and a half hours later I inquire “How much longer?”. “Hard to tell, we have many appointments today”. “How that has anything to do with my question though?”, I reply. “The reason appointments are given is precisely to know exactly what to expect, and do what’s needed during the allotted appointment time”. He agrees, but that changes nothing.

At 12:45 we get the message stating the vehicle is ready. Two whole hours for an oil change. Ugh, and Horsie paid to have routine maintenance done at this place until 2030.

Yesterday a neighbour messaged me. She wanted to know who we were using for lawn treatment and pest control. “Our lawn is a mess”, she said, “I am ready to fire the company we are using”. I gave her the information about ours, and she asked if they also did lawn service, mowing, bush trimming, that kind of thing. I told her that I didn’t know, that it wouldn’t hurt to ask, but that these days prices were too high; “that’s why I suffer and do it myself”.

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If only I knew how a—in my mind—relatively simple act would get me into so much trouble! I decided to “help” by pruning Horsie’s rose bush, because it was falling to the ground on its own weight. Such a big mistake! Now I rest in the proverbial dog house for, at least, a couple of days.

Between work (layoffs still ongoing), home (found out we have a leak in the roof), neighborhood (a board member being negative, toxic, and uncooperative), family (worried about my kid’s future and small health issues of my own), and a few other minor yet no less important events, I am bearing a decent load of stress these days.

It will end, everything ends. How well is yet to be seeing.

It is now 10 September 2026, and yesterday the boy told me he scheduled his GRE exam for 13 October 2026. I first noted about this on 28 May 2026. Better late than never, right?

After the 2024 disaster, under which we live and endure today, Garrett wrote:

There’s no other way to say it. We failed our children. We failed our climate. We failed our trans community. We failed our immigrants. We failed our middle class. We failed our increasingly desperate houseless population. We failed people of color. We failed our schools. We failed our future. We took the first steps over the threshold as a nation last night, into the dark unknown. The experiment is over, and we failed to prevent this disaster.

And he continued:

I am heartbroken, horrified, disgusted, terrified, angry, and I am gravely concerned this is an event from which we may never recover. The next four years—whatever they hold—will reshape this country permanently, irreparably, in ways we cannot even yet fully conceive.

If you live in the US today, you know he was then quite accurate. Like a Nostradamus of sorts. He ends:

I don’t know where to go from here. This is a waking nightmare, and it has only just begun. History will judge us harshly for this, and rightly so. But that’s assuming we survive long enough for that to happen.

I have now upgraded to macOS and iOS 27. After all this wait, I couldn’t wait until Monday. Just. Couldn’t. So far so good! Let’s see, comes Monday, if there is an update for me. I was told there wouldn’t!

We recently went to Seattle; our first visit to the city and state. Loved it! Went hiking to the Shahale Arm, and all was going quite well until I twisted an ankle on the way down. Then it wasn’t much fun 😩. Because I didn’t do what it is normally done in cases like these (rest, ice, compress, elevate), and continued—albeit slower—the vacation, I still have the left ankle slightly swollen, three weeks after.

Apple Event for September was announced this week. It is a “Surprise and Shine”, what will it be announced? As with each year, whether we buy the new products or not, I feel like child on Christmas!

Update: 01 Sep 2026 @ 17:16:16

Hmm, rumours are rumouring about a foldable iPhone. I don’t think I want one—at least, not yet—and have doubts on how well will stand to the test of time. Time itself will tell, right?

I have been craving ramen the whole day. Of course, it is not going to happen now—best I can do is instant at this point. My main worry, though, is what everyone else gets to eat tonight. I made tostones not long ago, but a “person doesn’t live by plantains alone”. Got to think what to cook, on an empty stomach. Not the smartest thing to do.

“Every time you mow the lawn”, Horsie tells me, “you take $50 and put it in your man purse”. “$50?!”, I reply. “Six years ago you told me to take $100, so accounting for inflation, and the cost of living increase, it should be like, $500 now!”

Then she goes “Well, each time I cook I will take $50 too”. “No, no, no, no”, I say, “I never agreed to that, never committed, nor made a deal about it. You, on the other hand, voluntarily made such business proposal to me!” 😅

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

That quote from Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius resonates. Hmm, am I to become a stoic?

Gruhn
https://gruhn.me/ →

Please don’t do this. I mean, I’ve done this. But I’ve been on the receiving end too many times now. This is not adding value. I can talk to Claude myself. It’s going to be faster and I get to control the context. I don’t need a meat proxy in between.

I left writing this note until the end of the working week. Fair is fair. So, here it goes.

After six years of fully first, and then quasi-remote, going back to office has brought a new appreciation for Fridays and weekends. They now have a new meaning, or have re-acquired their original one: finally a break from traffic, and extra expenses, dressing uncomfortably, and exposure to danger. Sadly, we will now spend half of our weekends doing laundry, something that we did every couple of weeks before.

By going back to the office full time we have taken a pay cut, and increased the chances of getting sick, and being involved in a car accident. And to what aim? What are the benefits of it? So far I see none.

Six years ago we were sent home to work due to COVID-19. A year ago we were told to carry out work as hybrid (week A two days at office, week B three days at the office). Tomorrow a new stage unfolds with full time back to work, with a tiny caveat: all teams will be in the same building that only hosted a few pre-COVID. This is going to be interesting, to say the least.

What a game! It only took them 16 years, but today Spain claimed the FIFA “Champions of the World” title once more. ¡Viva España, joder!

I kid you not, listen to this. My FICO Score decreased this month by 5 points, from 825 to 820, because of two factors: my total debt increased by $2, and my available credit decreased by $2. Two dollars change caused a -5 points. I am still stumped, but laughing.

Our management at work has been encouraging the use of AI. When it first started they soon discovered that there weren’t enough licenses for everyone. Then, when some licenses were made available, they started taking them away from people that were “not using it enough”. That brought us to where we are today: everyone with AI access is pretty much spending all their tokens in much less than a week, then having to wait until the month ends for resets.

“First world” problems, indeed.

Cabin Overheat Protection activated due to high cabin temperature.

The amount of notifications I am getting this summer for cabin overheating is completely out of range. Those notifications trigger at 38°C. The most worrisome thing is, they are happening when the vehicle is parked in the shade. And it is only July! 😩

FedEx delivered three packages to mum’s house yesterday. Her address, not her name, nor her packages. Called FedEx and they wanted me to contact the sender. What in the world?! They are not our packages, we didn’t order them, you come and pick them up. Had to escalate to a manager to get this simple message across.

On iOS go to: Settings → Accessibility → Assistive Access, and set it up as simple, or complicated, as you wanted it to be. Welcome to the perfect iPhone for airports, or elderly, or children.

➝ Via Hacker News.

I have not made a note about lawn mowing for a while. Mostly because it kind of gets old. It grows, fast, then it has to get mowed. The last two weeks, though, have been brutal. The heat, of the heat! Last week I had to lay down on the garage floor, because I was about to pass out. Today was less, because I hydrated before hand, but it was, still, a painful thing to do. And just on time, it is now thunder storming, with hurricane winds and all. As expected—because around here it doesn’t fail, with storms there come blackouts—I am now typing this without power, leeching from UPS.

Lovely, just lovely.

Two things have been keeping me away from here as of late: dabbling with an IRCd, and work. Having a blast with the first, falling in love again with a network I was very involved with in the early 1990s. The second? No comments.

We are off to a 4th of July weekend, celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country. Wish I would had had more foresight, and taken today, and Monday off. Oh well, three days is better than two, right?

Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.

Simply because it is worth noting. The Supreme Court of the United States of America rules and upholds the birthright citizenship.

Visited bố at the nursing home, bringing food for him and some of our adopted residents. Got mum some beer, and eggs (she always either needs, or wants them), and a small gift for ông.

The rest of Sunday has been dedicated to tinker around with Eris, an IRC server that I can’t link, because it lives behind James infrastructure and he has things locked down so strongly, that I can’t even link the repository. I think I will bring this up to him, to see if he allows opening a little hole.

Soon I will go watch some “Zatoichi” (★★★★★) series, and that will pretty much end this amazing, Father’s Day, Sunday.

Kid wanted us to watch a movie tonight. You can’t imagine how surprised I was with his pick, “The Devil wears Prada” (★★★☆☆) . Because, you know, horror and drama (not comedy) are more his kind of movies, and this one, well, completely breaks away from the norm.

Gulp! This happened again. Twenty something something years. What to do that’s memorable, enjoyable, and worry free? I am already feeling that third! 😅 Well, to start with, I am going to “disconnect”. Just for the day, of course.

Horses birthday’s today. Happy birthday, Horsie! 🎂🥳❤️ She already got her favourite morning drink (coffee) prepared by yours truly. Her gifts are on the kitchen table, let’s see when she sees them 🤭. Later today we have a date at The H, and tomorrow… back to work! 😅

Picked up Horsie at the airport today. She spent a weekend with friends on the West Coast. They went to Vegas, and had a good fun, but she couldn’t wait to be back home, to her own bed (where she now sleeps), to her Monkey. She told me that, and make me feel very special! 🙈