> Notes...

“Solo Leveling” has taken us by storm. We are now on season 2, episode 17, and tonight we stopped because kid has to do homework, and study a bit. I, of course, work tomorrow. I’ve got to tell you, though, I am going to miss these anime series…

Now more than ever I want to play a necromancer class that’s truly minion centric, and powerful. A gamer can dream.

Looks like our honeymoon phase with AT&T is reaching an end. Within the last two weeks I had had to power cycle the gateway (model BGW320-500) three times. Twice, just today. In the six years we have been with AT&T, this is the first time I have been forced to power cycle the equipment. Certainly something’s up.

With—and I will use the locally used Fahrenheit scale—96°F, with “feels like” 109°F, and a Sun so strong it can crack stones (theoretically), you will agree that walking outside an air conditioned building is almost suicide. I just clocked 2.24 miles during my 30 minutes lunch. Outside. Yes.

Update: 09 Jun 2026 @ 17:26:21

I am, mentally and physically, finding it very hard to keep this promise. I am here, about to return to work, having doubts on whether or not I will go outside again this afternoon. “Listen to your body”, Martin told me. Ugh, my body speaks so convincinly!

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If someone asks “what’s the meaning of life?”, they will find cliché answers, well reasoned ones answers, etc. But nothing explains it better than what this guy did.

“I discovered that no one had ever gone to every country in the world completely without flying [in one unbroken trip].”

Now, if doing what you want, and makes you happy (without harming others) isn’t what life it all about, I don’t know what is.

Grand Master Carlsen, the world’s top ranked chess player, was forced into a draw by “the world”.

“Overall, ’the world’ has played very, very sound chess from the start. Maybe not going for most enterprising options, but kind of keeping it more in vein with normal chess — which isn’t always the best strategy, but it worked out well this time…”

Imagine that! One against 143,000, and it ends in a draw. I would take that as a win!

I look forward to coming to office—I can’t believe I am writing this!—to have a “lunch walk” with Errol. It is not just the walk; that I can do on my own, and I do. It is the wide range of topics we touch while walking. I am going to miss that.

And just like that our treasured weekend is gone. Other than some grocery shopping, and visiting mum for an early birthday phở, we didn’t do much. Well, there was Eurovision, and a few “Solo Levelling” episodes, yes. But other than that, not much else.

I have done badly to a promise I made to myself to walk 10,000 steps daily, no matter what. I could point out that the heat is extreme around here, but I can’t use that as an excuse. “None may atone for my actions but me, and only in me shall their stain live on”, so, “all I can be is sorry, and that is all that I am.”

Having not watched it for a few years, I had forgotten how awesome Eurovision is. So refreshing, so many talented people! If you can, and haven’t, I strongly recommend you watch it. This year’s is on Peacock, at least in the US.

Statistics on “Notes…” since I started them, including this one:

002 2022
400 2023
153 2024
052 2025

That 2023 sure was a prolific year, wasn’t it?

I just declared I didn’t have this problem anymore, and yet, I go and do it once more. Just minutes ago. What’s wrong with me?!

A small conversation between Horsie and me which, as you can see, quickly developed into something unexpected, and undesired (by me!).

Ah, the memories… 😅

“In the States, looking different and/or having an accent will get you asked “Where are you from?” It doesn’t fail, it happens all the time.”

“What business is it of yours where I’m from, friendo?”

Had luch at the Korean House restaurant with George. The food was really good, and I had a good time catching up with him. The waitress was very nice, and now I feel bad for having left that 15% tip. She sure deserved a 20%. Wife and I go there often, so I shall look for her in the future, and pay back what I believe I owe.

Thanks to the diligence of a former manager, I receive the same emails twice each day, every day. He subscribed me to technical bulletins—and some alerts—with my formal email, and an alias. It is easier to delete than trying to figure out which is using the alias, and trying to unsubscribe.

I can’t stand WordPress. Its clunkiness. The horrible mess that hides behind the “Show page source”. Dare I say, PHP? The way the guy who is at its helm has behaved. That’s it; that’s my thought.

Our neighbour Vijai called me tonight. He said he needed my help, and explained what it was, but I couldn’t understand him well. I don’t refuse helping someone, specially a neighbour, so it didn’t matter, I went over to see what he needed.

His wife and son are out of the country, and Vijay is a heavy old man, with arthritis on his hands. His air conditioning drainage line was overflowed, thus not working, and he needed help pumping it out. No air conditioning in this state almost means certain death, poor guy! I have drained our AC a few times before, so it was easy for me to help him. He was very apologetic, but I told him not to worry. “If you need me, Vijai, just call. No biggies.”

Each day I become increasingly convinced that a website’s overall design matters less than the right choice of typography (fonts) and the quality of its content; these two elements are intrinsically linked.

Following a strong recommendation from George, I started to watch “Solo Leveling” (★★★★★) last night with the kid. We finished the first four episodes. It is quite entertaining, and relatable—we have played plenty of RPGs in the past.

The trade off of walking inside my neighbourhood is that it’s small, constrained, and gets boring walking the circle over and over. I feel like a Guinea pig on a wheel—though they often look as if they are having a blast; not me. The good thing is that I know the sidewalks now like the back of my hand, and I can walk while reading Hacker News, or Reddit, etc. on the phone. That entertaints me so much, that next I know I have all my daily steps completed.

Tally today so far, 6,100 steps. I will be done early this afternoon, and will then mow the lawn. That’s the plan, unless rain decides otherwise.

Robot chefs, LOL. They are as much chefs as our pressure cooker, microwave, or oven. I am sure they will get better.

“When a customer orders a bowl of dumpling ramen at a kiosk, a robot activates. A steel nozzle swirls boiling water and spicy broth paste into a pot. Dried noodles drop from a dispenser. Cradling heat and spice, the pot glides onto a burner. An overhead chute sprinkles dried vegetable flakes. The ramen simmers.”

I am finding out that I repeat myself quite a bit. Is that good, or bad?

If you use Phanpy as your Fediverse client, I am sure you will agree with me that Catch-up is one of its best features. I love everything about that client, though.

Now that that’s done, I can resume watching this. So much to do, so little time! 😅

Finished watching “Severance” last night. Had to renew for another month to watch the last episode, but $10 for all the available episodes was worth it. Can’t wait for season 3, for sure!

“Forgive me for the harm I have caused this world. None may atone for my actions but me and only in me shall their stain live on. I am thankful to have been caught, my fall cut short by those with wizened hands. All I can be is sorry, and that is all I am.”

I want Apple to do something like this on the iPhone. That is, connect the iPhone to a display, and make it emulate a desktop UI. I don’t think it will happen, though, as it would dent their other computers sales.

When I go to the loo at work, I can tell the gender of the person who “visit” it before me without even seeing them. Such lack of consideration.

I don’t have a “buying domains on impulse” problem anymore. That issue is resolved, behind me now, and for that I am glad. Yet, a (new?) problem remains: which domain, of the few I have, to let go?

When I walk with my co-worker I do it at a slower pace. Usually when the walk is over, we have around 4,000 steps in our pedometres. He is out this week, so it was me along. I walked longer, and faster, and, still, my tally is 3,400. What’s going on here?

Really tired of being included in class action lawsuits I don’t want to be part of, and having being forced to go through hoops I don’t want to, to exclude myself from them.

Came across Alephic’s Writing page on Hacker News. I almost agree with everything, but this:

“A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences—just as a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”

Yes to the sentence, and paragraph and, perhaps, machine. But a drawing? There are no unnecessary lines in a drawing. Slightly off tangent, first time I heard of Alephic. There is a first time for everything, though.

George’s blog Terms of Service always makes me smile. The latest revision has a subtle, but ever-present, touch of AI to it.

It rains so gently this morning, that I could almost distinguish music within the sound of it hitting my car roof while driving to work. I had to turn off the radio to enjoy it. It felt so nice, I even stayed at extra 10 minutes inside the car at the parking lot, hearing it a bit longer. I need more days that start like this.

The “thinking”, “reasoning” AI models make me anxious, and test my patience to the highest degree. Every “thinking” model should come with something similar to Qwen’s 3 /no_think prompt toggle.

This isn’t a complain. It has been overcast the entire day. Not a drop of rain, but just close enough to tease. This week I will have to mow the lawn. Yes, it is that time of the year again.

I can’t believe it is almost 19:00, in our marvelous Sunday. Accomplished just about everything I wanted to this weekend, but buying my vitamins. Maybe this week. Off I go!

Mum’s Day today. Kim gets to do whatever she wants today. Pretty much as she does each day. Yay! LOL.

Watching “Severance” (★★★★★) for the first time with the kid. We are using a week’s free AppleTV+ subscription from Amazon Prime, so it truly is an against-the-time binge. The series are awesome, and I wonder how come I didn’t see it before. All works out, though, as I enjoy watching series with the boy.

Today was a busy day. Busy days are productive, to certain degree. That’s good. They also go by relatively quick, at least in our minds. That’s bad. So, today was a busy, good/bad day.

Lunch hour is quickly approaching, which translates to my first walk of the day. With a Sun that can crack rocks, the feels like 30°C, and the humidity at 69%, it is going to be anything but fun. Yet, must clock the first 5,000 steps, or walking the 10,000 after work will feel like they did yesterday: an absolute torture.

Saw “Past Lives” (★★★★☆) this weekend, which got me with a knot in the throat a few times. Just what I needed after a relatively full-of-game-playing weekend.

“There is a word in Korean: In-Yun. It means “providence” or “fate”. But it’s specifically about relationships between people. I think it comes from Buddhism and reincarnation. It’s an In-Yun if two strangers even walk by each other in the street and their clothes accidentally brush. Because it means there must have been something between them in their past lives. If two people get married, they say it’s because there have been 8,000 layers of In-Yun over 8,000 lifetimes.”

Found the FIDO News article, which is missing on the Microsoft blog I mentioned on the previous note. Now, “15 billion online accounts” is more likely!