> Notes...

Started using Zen web browser at work, because Google, in their infinite wisdom, decided to deprecate a ton of widely used extensions from Chrome. So far Zen is doing its thing, and doing it well.

Co-workers were talking about that huge storm the other night. They were saying it felt worse than our last hurricane. I was stumped! There was no storm near my house, and I even went out to water partner’s plants, because “they were thirsty”—her own words. Then partner called me to tell me about the storm. We did had a storm, and it was something out of this world, she said. Constant lightning, and thundering, and lots of rain (late night). And… I slept through it all! 😅

456 didn’t deserve to die. Many others didn’t deserve to die, but 456 especially didn’t. I need a Wellness Center. I need Ms. Casey.

We are watching “Squid Game” season 3, which has been good, so far—I will wait until we’ve watched all episodes to rate. My favourite is 222 (careful, that link has spoilers!). My second favourite is 149.

Update: 27 Feb 2026 @ 16:16:05

I am ready to rate “Squid Game” season 3 (★★★★☆) now. It was entertaining, albeit sometimes too slow. I found season 1, and 2, to be better.

As I paid almost three times more for a tiny grocery shopping this evening, I felt grateful that at least they were harvested, and made by real, patriotic, heterosexual, white, christian, American workers, and not illegal immigrants. 🇺🇸

First there was Jekyll, then there was Hugo (which I use), with many others in between. Now it seems Astro is the latest kid in the block. Beautiful stuff can be done with it, if you don’t mind, and/or know, JavaScript. I might be too old for it.

Musk has confirmed that its Grok AI (version 4) is coming to Teslas “next week at the latest”. I don’t want it. I wouldn’t want Musk in my car, neither.

If a company follows what other company is doing, and uses that other company as a template almost to the dot, they are no “leaders”. They can’t flaunt innovation. They are followers, who imitate, and copy.

“Man Afraid to Ride Subway Named Head of NASA”, reads the Rolling Stone headline, when referring to the man (Sean Duffy) which our president has picked to lead NASA as its interim administrator. It concludes, and I kid you not:

“Meanwhile, let’s hope Duffy (who’s afraid to hop on the 6 train) is ready to take on a government agency that has launched humans to the moon and probes to interstellar space.”

Showed a nephew some of what’s possible to do within Diablo IV, and he said, “I don’t think I will ever be able to learn this game”. He has never played a season, and is at paragon 152 while still having rare (yellow) items, and no paragons assigned, and no customisation of any kind. He has, pretty much, been playing blindy all along. 😂

Because I work using Ubuntu, and do personal stuff using macOS, I am always confused and going nuts with keyboard shortcuts. From copying and pasting, to closing windows, to locking the machines. So. Very. Hard! I need to find a solution that will make Ubuntu (Gnome, actually) mimic macOS keyboard shortcuts.

I noted this because, as someone who has to constantly spell his surname, it makes it harder when the listener is expecting a bastardisation of something that has been accepted and adopted as a standard. Anyway, enough of it, I just had to take it off my chest. LOL.

The Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, or NATO phonetic alphabet, was created to clearly communicate the spelling of words. So many people these days are inventing their own! It doesn’t help, at all.

• Alfa
• Bravo
• Charlie
• Delta
• Echo
• Foxtrot
• Golf
• Hotel
• India
• Juliett
• Kilo
• Lima
• Mike
• November
• Oscar
• Papa
• Quebec
• Romeo
• Sierra
• Tango
• Uniform
• Victor
• Whiskey
• Xray
• Yankee
• Zulu

It looks like Grok (Musk’s own LLM and chatbot) is doing “great”. It seems that Musk, just like the Biblical god, is molding it to his own image. That will end up well, I am sure.

“Do you want to see it?” – asks the Horse about “Building The Band”. “I am going to take a bath.” “Turn it off, turn it off, I want us to see it together.” – I reply while gesturing by closing my left hand, uniting all fingers tips, Italian style. “We will see it together” – replies the Horse, “… or not”. We both laugh.

Partner just announced, to my delight, that tonight we will have thinly sliced pork for dinner. It comes with rice, because, duh, rice is godly, and a mixed salad which I plan to dress with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Salivating already.

Re: #1752083523

It believe it means they are not leaning left, nor right or, in other words, neutral. Kind of “factual, impartial, and fair”. Makes sense, right? Anyway, unless told otherwise, “that’s my story, and I sticking to it.”

grep -i passwd *.log | awk {'print $7'}
...
/etc/passwd
/..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5cetc%5cpasswd
/....//....//....//etc/passwd
/..%2f..%2f..%2fetc%2fpasswd
/.htpasswd
/config/.htpasswd
/.env.passwd
/backup/.htpasswd
...

With almost 2,000 different tries—of which the above is a small sample—it seems someone is hell-bent on finding a passwd of some sorts. I don’t have one, OK?!

The above depicts some famous wave, which is big—see the size of the boat in comparison. It is a woodblock print from a now superfamous person. Do you know the name (「富嶽三十六景　神奈川沖浪裏」) of the print without searching for it? How about the name of the artisan who made it?

Does anyone knows what the meaning of this symbol is? I have seem it on websites without explanations, nor links to anywhere. Just the SVG by itself. All my searches have been futile.

My back hurts, it is hot, and it might rain. You would ask, how are those three related? Well, the lawn is a “grown adult”, and it is not going to mow itself!

Update: 02 Oct 2025 @ 13:43:19

This “deed” is done. Lawn mowed, and just in time, as we are under the menace of rain. Let it fall!

In love with the work of Max. Specifically minimator, graxel, breaklock, commitbeat, and vivus. Go browse his repositories, you will not be disappointed!

More often than not I am so torn between serif, and sans-serif. Not even funny.

Is it a sign of age using commas? Is it a sign of age using proper capitalisation, and periods ending a sentence? Each time I interact using a text-based medium with anyone younger—with very rare exceptions—I am reminded of having grown older. 😅

Learning how to fly, just like birds do, it’s quite easy. But don’t take my words for it, read it all by yourself—the illustrated version is awesome! I am talking—if you haven’t followed the previous links—about “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

There is an art, it says, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it. The first part is easy.

All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt. That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.

Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.

Our manager just told us that he will be leaving the team 1 August 2025. We knew he was leaving, just didn’t know when. Now we know, and we wished him well. Onto the search for our fifth and—final?—manager we go!

Apparently using em dashes is proof that a tool (AI, for example), was used to write things instead. As someone who likes to use en dashes, em dashes, and dashes, who uses macOS/iOS, I find that simply amusing. Pff, as if!

To create these notes I use Hugo, and Markdown, so generating them is as easy as using -, --, and ---.

At the risk of being labeled a boomer—something kids already do, anyway—I have to say that the music from the 80s and 90s beats the one from the 2000s, and the 2010s, so far. It reminds me what my mum and dad used to say about the music of their time. Every generation, pretty much the same.

So far a lazy day today. No work (happy 4th!), so woke up at a luxurious 06:30 hours. Had coffee with mum, got coffee for Horsie, played a bit of Diablo IV (manning a Spiritborn this season), went to return some clothes, bought bánh mì, took some to mum, some to aunties, and now back home. All that, and is barely 14:30. Rain’s coming, which will make today even a better day. Couch bound!

It has been almost 14 years since Mark Pilgrim disappeared akin to what has been described as an “infosuicide”. I still miss his writings, and hold the hope that he may, one day, come back. I hope and wish all is well with him, and family.

At the end of every episode of “The Big Bang Theory” (★★★★☆) they used to show a Chuck Lorre Productions “card”. This one was my all-time favourite:

The Prophet
A young woman stepped forward from the throng and asked, “O’ great prophet, tell us how we might find love that is unconditional, unwavering and unending.” The prophet did not answer right away. He looked off into the distance, gathering his thoughts. Silence descended upon the crowd. Then he turned his gaze upon the young woman and said, “Get a dog.”

I wish everyone was like mum, when it comes to be on guard, and suspicious, about everything Internet. I have given her the cookie-cutter talk about Internet security, in simple terms, but I have always told her, “If you have any doubts, you can always call me, and I will come to help you.” And she sure does! At least once every couple of weeks I get such call, or message. Today was one of those days.

As a bonus I get fed as well. I am not sure if ever mentioned it, but mum’s cooking is second only to partner’s. Of course, I tell each the same. They really are both wonderful.

I don’t think I have noted about this before, it doesn’t come up on the few searches I have run. I have been procrastinating a move to a newer VPS. This one has been running since Ubuntu 16.04, and it is now at 22.04. It is running out of space, and I truly need to replace it. Hmm…

I figure the only way to get me moving is by renting the new server, and then having to worry about paying double expenses. Then my partner will make sure I do something about it! 😂

I am starting to wonder if 17 pixels is a tad too small of a font size for these notes. Under macOS the font size looks fairly legible, but under Ubuntu it seems a tad too small. I will need to check, and make sure screen resolution is the same for both, before doing any further fiddling.

Update: 03 Oct 2025 @ 21:08:04

My main mistake is to use pixels for font sizes. This evening I will be changing them all to use rem/em instead. Still, everything will look smaller at higher resolutions.

Found SecretDrop.io, and its corresponding GitHub repository, which I find useful enough to be considering to selfhost. I would like the interface to be less flashy, and minimal (the FAQ, for example, is way too verbose for my liking). Maybe I can change that a little.

According to kid, “Squid Game” season 3 is pretty much the same as it was on season 2, which was pretty much the same as it was on season 1. Whether that’s accurate or not, he isn’t interested on watching it. That could mean I will not watch it either, as he usually is my binging buddy.

“Zen begins with an understanding that human beings suffer, and it offers a solution to this suffering through recognizing the interconnectedness of all beings and learning to live in a way that aligns with this truth.”

I am feeling a very strong urge to practice Zen Buddhism.

Today is one of those few—but they exist, as evidenced—days I feel disappointed, and despaired. Not a good feeling.

The US attack on Iran was not only reckless, but it accomplished next to nothing, and it cost quite a bit. “Mission Accomplished”. 🙄

It just occurred to me—because “Mission Accomplished” came to mind—that similarly we accomplished on Iraq: nothing. Iraqis, on the other hand, are arguably worse.

Update: 19 Feb 2026 @ 09:34:44

Fixed broken link. News sources URLs should never change, ever. Yet, here we are.

Can’t wait to enjoy that extremely delightful—and nutritious—pumpkin soup that Horsie is cooking. I minced the garlic, and chopped the onions, and peeled the pumpkin, so we can say it’s a team effort, right? I will also eat it with pleasure! After all, what’s good food without a consumer? 🤭