> Notes...

When the girl tells me she is stressed, and had a mental breakdown, it truly hurts my heart—that feeling one gets, as if someone was squeezing it. It upsets, worries me so much! Why will there be things for which we feel so impotent to do anything?

“🎶 Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies…”

I don’t need, nor want, thinner bezels on an iPhone. I want to be able to comfortable hold it. What I want is an edge-to-edge screen which, sadly, will not come anytime soon. I am sure many are with me on this.

Oh, and keeping its pricing sensible. If it comes at $1,500, I would rather buy a laptop.

Watched a handful of football matches this weekend, as the FIFA Women World Cup is ongoing. Noticed that players didn’t get as upset as men do, nor did they get violent to each other, nor one ever yelled at the referee within millimetres of her face. Certainly refresing!

“I’ll leave tomorrow’s problems to tomorrow’s me.”

Re-watched season 1 of “One-Punch Man” (★★★★★) with the kid this past weekend. Need to look for season 2—not available on Netflix, unlike season 1—to quench the thirst left by watching those few episodes.

Update: 27 Feb 2026 @ 16:16:05

My kid found season 2 online, watched first episode last night. So good!

Within my family (partner and I, both sides) there are only 4 people using a phone running god-knows-what version of Android. Everyone else is on iOS. Of all my friends there is only 1 on Android. So yeah, I believe this (that the iPhone market has increased, while Android based phone shipments have dwindled) to be true.

As of 9 June 2023 there were 37 charges against Trump; there have been some more since. How someone so criminally tarnished—to say the least—can even run for President of the United States? Then again, he “served” one term as one already.

I wrote this note with this today’s news in mind, which adds more charges to the born disgraced ignoramus.

Broccoli cheddar soup is my favourite soup. I like many soups, but no other brings more joy than the broccoli cheddar one. Having always had someone else’s, I am now ready to cook it on my own. I bet you can guess what’s on the menu this weekend.

I was skeptical, but thanks to George—and after watching the hearing—I am more willing to believe, and agree that there needs to be more transparency on the findings on UAP (formerly UFO) phenomena. Let’s hope something substancial comes out of this.

If you decide to watch the hearing video, be aware it is 2 hours 18 minutes long. I found that seeing/listening it at 1.5x, or 2x worked best for me.

Feeling a little bit nostalgic. I am sure it is part of things that happen “before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern”. That kind of thing.

The feeling I get when I visit my favourites GitHub repositories, and find new updates… That git pull sure is such an adrenaline rush!

Browsed to this website for the fun, stayed for the typography. Look at the legibility and beauty of that Garamond Premier Pro!

Pet peeve #19657: using relatives when referring to conclusives. “It looks like it is happening” rather than “It is happening”. “It looks like the firewall is allowing connections” rather than “The firewall allows connections”. It is not alledged when just is. Duck!

Well, now I know what I will be doing more often. I mean, it doesn’t take too long, and it comes with benefits I can sure use. I also mow the lawn once a week; believe me, that’s plenty of exercise.

It seems like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” are a total success, and a must see, as the worse have riled up against them.

Saw this on the Fediverse, from an automated account (bot) suitably named Picard Tips: “Don’t assume anything is possible or impossible until you’ve asked the people who will be doing the work.” Oh man… so true!

If only I had the state of mind that Hokusai had! For me these words come as the perfect example of optimism, and hope. Reading them makes me feel at ease.

“…until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 73 years I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects and fish. Thus when I reach 80 years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at 90 to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at 100 years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive. Those of you who live long enough, bear witness that these words of mine are not false.” — One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.

➝ Via The British Museum.

“It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgements.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.

“What a horse wants, what a horse needs, is always having a patch of grass that’s ever green…” — Read/sing it with the music of “What a Girl Wants”, by Christina Aguilera. I sang it this morning to my partner. She is a Horse 😂.

This was not only a racist comment, but a stupid, uneducated one. The fact that he is still defending it makes it even worse.

“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he added. “We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted at that or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential of impact for that.”

While on video gaming topic, specifically Diablo IV, I have decided to play a druid on Season 1. Unlike previously anticipated, I am picking Radagast for his name. I think it is quite fitting, right? 🙈

About Diablo IV’s patch notes there has been much controversy. Blizzard has truly made the game less fun with it, but it is a game, and I don’t give it much thought. Now for those who think the patch is the worse ever, think again!

On The Past Is Not True written by Derek, I liked this a lot, because if you give it a thought you will know it is oh-so-true.

“We think of the past like it’s a physical fact - like it’s real. But the past is what we call our memory and stories about it. Imperfect memories, and stories built on one interpretation of incomplete information. That’s “the past”.”

➝ Via Hacker News.

“We are lost in space, just as the planets, stars, suns, universes. We are all lost, on a collision course to the unknown; our end inevitable.” — That was my first (and only) entry on Anytype. I am liking the app so far!

I have a general antipathy for the indented paragraphs writing style (that is, first line of each paragraph is indented). I truly dislike it, and very much prefer—and exclusively use—a block format.

It is not just that I don’t like it visually, it goes beyond that. I find the style hard to read. Maybe it is just the way my brain is wired.

For my fellow christians, what ever happened to Mark 12:17? Why do you insist on shoving your fanatic doctrines down everyone’s throats?

Please, understand that “you” in the context above doesn’t really mean you you. I am using the “royal” you.

I surprised everyone today at the gathering by having one slice of pizza only. The four years ago me would have eaten four, plus pops, plus cookies… the whole shebang! Not today. What can I say? I have been institutionalised 😂.

It is “Pizza Day” at work’s old offices. We finished a migration (moved half of our VMs to Azure), and management is treating us to it. It will be an opportunity to say hello, face-to-face, to old, and new co-workers. Looking forward to it, just let’s see how traffic behaves.

This one I had read before, yet still brought a few chuckles as I read deeper into it. Having a friend that owns (or used to, I am not sure now) a handful of old Porsche’s, I couldn’t resist sharing it with him. It made him laugh too! 😂

“Welcome to my Porsche 914. I imagine that at this point (having found the door unlocked) your intention is to steal my car. Don’t be encouraged by this; the tumblers sheared off in 1978. I would have locked it up if I could, so don’t think you’re too clever or that I’m too lazy. However, now that you’re in the car, there are a few things you’re going to need to know.”

➝ Via Hacker News.

Truly loving Jessica’s approach of creating weekly notes. The weeks, I noticed, are not quite accurate (for example, 27 June 2023 is the 26th week of the year, not the 25th), but nevertheless, I love the use of the additive bullets for the week’s notes.

Update: 20 Feb 2026 @ 18:22:26

I just realised this approach reminds me of Logseq a lot. No wonder I like it so much!

➝ Via Muan’s Blogroll.

The newly announced cybersecurity certification and labeling program is a step in the right direction. It is meant to “help Americans more easily choose smart devices that are safer and less vulnerable to cyberattacks”. My only worry is, wouldn’t these type of programs be easily dismantled by a future administration? That’s always my fear; many things change in our country based on the political party currently at the helm.

In case anyone doubted the influencing economic power of Taylor Swift.

“Despite the slowing recovery in tourism in the region overall, one contact highlighted that May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”

Regarding this, I don’t have the option on my phone for it. I have searched The Tubes, and others are in the same boat. I figure it requires carrier activation, or Apple is throttling the rollout of the feature, or something else. Oh well, it is a beta after all.

“Tips are a wage subsidy to the employer,” she says. “It’s not a tip. It goes to your wage. It is just the amount that the employer doesn’t have to pay you. And people don’t understand that.” — NPR

Oh, I understand. I just don’t agree with it. Ask the employer to include that “subsidy” on the price of the goods, and then it will be up to the customer to decide whether spending the money at the establishment is worth it, or not.

Picking nuts out a bag without looking is better than placing then in a bowl. When you pick them from the bag, you get a random assortment. On the other hand, having them in a bowl tempts you to discriminate, and hand-pick what you like—which will, irremediably, result in waste.

Some words about happiness that resonated for me this morning:

“You’re saddled up; there’s no recourse. It’s, “Hi-yo, silver!” — Signed: Bad Horse

Child tried a root beer float—with vanilla ice cream—for the first time on his life last night. “It smells funny. Medicinal, even”, was his reaction to root beer. Yup, that’s root beer, for sure!

“See you in my 19th life” continues to be exciting, engaging, and overall lovely. Saw the most recent episodes last night, and I can’t wait for the next weekend 🙈. Imagine if re-incarnation was possible, and on top of it you remembered your previous lives? Anyway, no spoilers! A sweet plot twist on these series.

Upcoming iOS 17 Live Voicemail is as good as advertised. Some might call it magical, even. I do.

“Live Voicemail gives users the ability to see real-time transcription as someone leaves a voicemail, and the opportunity to pick up while the caller is leaving their message. Calls identified as spam by carriers won’t appear as Live Voicemail, and will instead be instantly declined. With the power of the Neural Engine, Live Voicemail transcription is handled on-device and remains entirely private.”