> Notes...

There is misery in the world; there is suffering, there is hunger, there is abuse. We do unimaginable things to ourselves and to others. As individuals, we can’t help everyone, but picking a cause to support—just one!—will go a long way. Truly, every little bit counts.

We deliver life-saving aid and protection in emergencies, advocate for improved asylum laws and systems so displaced people can access their rights, and help find long-term solutions so they can return home once safe to do so or build a future in a new country. We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality so they can access basic rights, such as education and health care.

I have noted about this before for causes I have contributed. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, is one I would recommend wholeheartedly.

I used to keep bookmarks for the boy, keeping resources I thought might be useful for him to be used on school assignments, etc. Reviewing them today I found this gem from 2016. So much has changed since! Prices, for sure, and some of the things we eat, maybe? Notice how much healthier the food from some poorer countries is, in comparison to, say, the US.

Check out also “Rise and Shine”, to see what kids around the world eat for breakfast (from 2014).

I am having an “existential” dilemma here. First, I have some titles been mentioned in notes (movies, or books, or similar) between double quotes, while some others do not have it. I don’t like that inconsistency. Second, I don’t know which style to pick, and adhere to from now on—which will be the same style I will use to change others retroactively as well. Should I always use double quotes? Should I italise them instead, no double quotes?

See the silly things I drown myself with?

I downloaded, installed, and gave a try yesternight to “Final Fantasy XIV” (the free trial) and, after a brief 5-10 minutes playtime, I don’t think it’s the game for me. I don’t like the way controls work with it on PS5. It comes across as a game developed for desktop computers, and later ported to console. It is confussing and rather clunky. So, still waiting for a special on “No Man’s Sky” to return. Meanwhile, there is “Diablo IV”.

Why would Microsoft offer releases of their Edit CLI editor for Linux, and compress them using zstd? What’s wrong with tar.gz? Why the added complication? What is there to gain?

“President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the U.S. military has conducted targeted airstrikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran, calling the operation ‘very successful.’”

Oh dear! So it begins. A day or two ago he said he would decide in two weeks. Of course, this man knows no truth. One step closer.

Update: 24 Jun 2025 @ 17:14:13

I do remember 2024. The now Liar-in-Chief then said, lying as always, to the American people in Michigan:

“If Kamala wins, only death and destruction await because she is the candidate of endless wars. I am the candidate of peace,” Trump continued. “I am peace.”

Getting lost on the interweb is my newly found hobby, and the reason I have gotten so fond of blogrolls, and webrings. It is amazing what you can find while aimlessly following links that happen to catch your attention—or simply clicking/tapping, daring to see what’s on the other side. For each rubbish site out there that we should avoid, there are 10 others wholesomely worth it. I am specially fond of minimalist, text only websites, and those who use exquisite typography.

Thomas Dambo’s trolls—and his other creations—come across as other-worldly. His entire works collection is simply too amazing not to note. Makes me wish there were more trolls in our world, don’t you agree? Kind of “have trolls, no war”.

Today, which is coming to an end in roughly three hours, is the Summer Solstice for the Northern hemisphere—where I happen, for better or for worse, to be situated. That means today was the longest day of the year for us. Oh, but still runs at 24 hours, take it or leave it, so, yeah, not really that much meaningful anyway. 🎶 “It comes and goes, it comes and goooooes!” 🎶

This bash code is what I use to count the amount of notes per year, ever since I started babbling in here. I first move to the content/posts/ directory, then run it. It works great under macOS.

for file in *.md; do \
    head -n 5 "$file" | \
    grep 'date:' | \
    sed 's/date.*\([[:digit:]]\{4\}\).*/\1/' >> count; \
done && \
cat count | sort | uniq -c && \
rm count

Like millions of people—if not billions—I don’t want this conflict to go nuclear. I am sure you know what I am referring to. Hiroshima and Nagasaki never again. Are we that stupid as not to learn from past mistakes? Are we going to let scumbags drag humankind down a nuclear holocaust?

Well, this is something you don’t see everyday day, from left to right: Mark Russinovich, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, and David Cutler. Bill and Linus meeting in person, and making it to the same photo. Yeah, a first?

After more than two weeks without a drop, we are finally getting a very well deserved rain, and the plants, lawn, birds, me… we are all happier because of it. To those about to drive, or on the roads, my deepest, sincere, condolences.

Twenty seven years is a long time, don’t you think? Yet I look back and wonder, where did the time go? Really! With ups and downs, but no regrets, I love you, Horsie! —Signed, “Conniving” Monkey.

One hundred percent, Claud! In my head, and in my actions, I am more often than not the same kid I remember myself to be. “Youthfulness” is a construct of our minds. Yes, we age mechanically, but that shouldn’t change anything else. Specially because society expects us to behave in a “certain way”, due to age. Pfff!

A satire filled article on how the author will do “anything to end homelessness except build more homes”. I mean, will it ever end?! The repercussions would be disastrous! 😂

“Look, if you give people homes, the next thing you know, they’re going to start to get their lives together and then get jobs and start organizing. Then they’ll expand Medicare to everyone and build a fucking light rail line instead of a goddamn border wall, and no one will drive anymore, and cars will die out, and the air will get clean, and can you imagine the problems we’ll have then?”

➝ Via Hacker News.

Today is Juneteenth, and this is the first time I mention it on my notes, I think. It is meant to be the day to commemorate the end of slavery in the US. No wonder the Racist-Ignoramous-in-Chief made no mention of it.

Update: 24 Jun 2025 @ 17:14:13

Well, he actually wrote something, without directly mentioning Juneteenth, on his own social media—which exists solely and almost exclusively for him, pretty much.

“Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

It never ends.

Around 2002, and for a brief period, I kept a small weblog all handcrafted. Each page was created manually; I copied and pasted quite a bit, and I would make each page have its own uniqueness. I don’t know why I felt nostalgic thinking about it.

I write these notes not expecting interaction. I do it for fun, more often than not to amuse myself. Yet, even as I admit that what I jot here is for my own, it is similar to writing a message in a bottle. The hope (aim?) is that someone will eventually find it, and do with it as they please. 😅😂

“Oh, a horse with a horn is called a unicorn/A horse with stripes is called a zebra/A horse with wings is called Pegasus/And a horse with a broken leg is called glue.”

Poor broken leg horse. I shall not show this to Horsie, because it will make her sad, and even cry. She will know is a joke, but who jokes like that with “family”?

The Baroque period produced some of the greatest artists humankind has ever seen. I recently came across “The Abduction of Proserpina” on Kottke. Although I saw it with my own eyes, I couldn’t help but feeling, again, amazed and awestruck by the artist incredible skills that make this cold marble so lifelike.

All of these “appeasers” promissing changes to make the current regime look good. Make promises publicly, but never deliver them. A marketing scam. That’s what companies are doing today when they say they are bringing their manufacturing to the US, or investing $X to do it.

The people and the regime will forget, but should anyone remember they will make even more sweeter, unbelievable promises, and repeat the cycle.

What in the blankity blanket is this?! As sad as it is to say it, I hope no international students come while this regime is in power. The growing list of aggravations isn’t worth it.

“Foreign students will be required to unlock their social media profiles to allow US diplomats to review their online activity before receiving educational and exchange visas, the state department has announced. Those who fail to do so will be suspected of hiding that activity from US officials.”

I sent an email to the senators representing our state, to urge them to vote no on a rescissions package that would eliminate $1.1 billion in already-approved funding for public media. Next I know, Rick Scott’s office is already spamming me about “delivering a better, big, beautiful bill for Trump” (my emphasis).

I am forever thankful for “Hide my Email”, I can simply delete the alias, and emails bounce 🎉. And, for Trump, really? Isn’t that supposed to be for the citizens of the US? What an arse licker!

I have not mentioned Headscale before, even though I use it every day. I have my iPhone (on demand), my Mac, my Linux laptop (on demand), and my two VPS connected to it. Headscale is an open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server. You can use the Tailscale client—which is available for all platforms—to connect to it. It is amazing, and worthy—at the very minimum—of a star on its GitHub repository.

Oh no! I just got the notification I set as a reminder to cancel our Crunchyroll subscription. That means we only have tonight to enjoy an advert-free “Jujutsu Kaisen” season 2 watching. After tonight, we will be back to the regular “free” plan. 😩

We need more than Obama. We need those who represent us at all levels in government to unite, understanding the risks at hand, and fight back.

“We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that. And we need people both outside government and inside government saying, ‘Let’s not go over that cliff because it’s hard to recover.’”

He went on to say:

Democracy, Mr. Obama said, requires government workers, judges and lawyers at the Justice Department to uphold the Constitution and follow the law.

“It requires them to take that oath seriously, and when that isn’t happening we start drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy […]” he said.

“Less Wrong” sure is an interesting place. For the untrained—like me—it is hard to grasp, as its navigation, and method of engagement, are fairly unique.

“LessWrong is an online forum and community dedicated to improving human reasoning and decision-making. We seek to hold true beliefs and to be effective at accomplishing our goals. Each day, we aim to be less wrong about the world than the day before.”

A simple test, using verses—in modified format—from Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s poem, “¿Qué es poesía?” I may delete this note, as it is only a test. Yes, like many, many others, I “test in production”. 😅

• Tú:
• ¿Qué es poesía?, dices mientras clavas en mi pupila tu pupila azul.
• Yo:
• ¿Qué es poesía? ¿Y tú me lo preguntas? Poesía… eres tú.

I see we are wagging the dog once again. It is clear we have gotten pretty good at it too. In case it is not evident, I don’t like it.

“New Year Resolutions” are a figment our imagination. Dreamers do them; the rest of us, the awake ones, cover our mouth, and giggle at them. 🤭

There shouldn’t be “do-not-reply” email “addresses” (between quotes, because if they can’t be replied to, they aren’t email addresses). If an email goes out, and it’s delivered to someone, or something, it should—must—be replyable. Unattended mailbox my foot. Don’t do that!

I am trying to implement a workflow, so that I can use a graphical editor for creating new notes while in front of the computer, that is, not over an SSH connection. Let’s see how it goes.

Update: 24 Jun 2025 @ 17:14:13

Yup, it works quite well. I really don’t know why it took me this long to implement something as simple as this (I am using Obsidian now to create and edit notes if not over SSH). I guess I usually create notes on Terminal, on Bash, and didn’t have the need for anything else. Until now!

If I die tomorrow, or if I am dead today, know that I loved you very, very, very much. Know that my last sentient thought will be for you. Know that sadness doesn’t compare to what I feel in my last moments, not because I care about myself, but about you.

“All heat and no rain makes Jack a dull boy”. It has now been almost a week since we last saw rain, and, well, I regret complaining when it was raining a lot each day, because the lawn was growing too fast. Now, on the other hand, it’s dying for the lack of it. 😩

This has been one of my pet peeves for many, many years. “Hi”, they say. “Hi there!”, I reply politely. “Can I ask you a question?” “Sure”, big silent sigh. “What’s my username?”. Grrrr. Correct way? “Hi, could you tell me what’s my username?” ❤️

Desperately looking for advise to stop chewing the inside of my cheeks. I don’t feel anxious, nor stressed, and I have made—more than once—the conscious effort to stop biting, but I continue to do it semiconsciously. It’s bothering me quite a bit. Ugh!

Update: 24 Jun 2025 @ 18:38:49

I have successfully managed not to do this anymore, so far. During the first few days I had to put an extra effort remembering not to do it. Now my subconscious seems to have either learned, or given up. Either way is good! Phew!

Totally hypnotised by this person’s creations. It is so easy to fall in love with their generative art, don’t you think?!

More of Yann Le Gall generative art is available at their Instagram. In Yoda’s speaking style, a fan I have become!

It is Horsie’s birthday today. This is the first time I mention about Horsie’s birthday here, which I find odd, somehow. Anyway, celebrations start now, as she has left the bed 😂.

Awesome Father’s Day this year (it isn’t never bad but this year felt a bit more… “special”). And to top it off, I am off tomorrow. Yay! And while having “off” around, off I go to watch “Jujutsu Kaisen”, season 2!

Update: 24 Jun 2025 @ 17:14:13

Now I have watched enough “Jujutsu Kaisen” season 2 (★★★★) episodes to be able to rate it. The rating is based on my difficulty to understand what’s going on. Honestly, if it weren’t for the kid, who patiently—but mockingly—explains things to me, I would be lost.