< Notes...

Coming across a few MacPaint arts from the mid-1980s brought me a lot of memories, even though I saw them in the early 1990s. I remember vividly when I got my very first Mac around that time (Performa 575) at Sears. Over $2,000.

➝ Via Decryption.

The amount of plastic in a lot of everyday things that we eat is staggering. I am freaking out, even though the site one-time banner disclaimer made me click a “Got it, I promise not to freak out” button.

➝ Via Hacker News.

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.

Eileen, George Orwell’s wife, wrote in a letter to her best friend Norah, after her marriage to Orwell. Marriage saved by an aunt! LOL.

“I lost my habit of punctual correspondence during the first few weeks of marriage because we quarrelled so continuously & really bitterly that I thought I’d save time & just write one letter to everyone when the murder or separation had been accomplished. Then Eric’s [Orwell] aunt came to stay & was so dreadful (she stayed two months) that we stopped quarrelling & just repined. Then she went away & now all our troubles are over.”

➝ Via Jessica Lord.

Came across this thought, which ended up being a partial quote by Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, which I liked quite a bit once I found it whole.

“If I am I, because you are you, and you are you, because I am I, then I am not I, and you are not you. But if I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you, and we can talk.”

➝ Via Loon thoughts.

I have never had to do a presentation—yes, I am that lucky. Yet, if I ever needed to do one, I would opt for the Takahashi Method.

“Unlike a typical presentation, no pictures and no charts are used. Only a few words are printed on each slide—often only one or two short words, using very large characters. To make up for this, a presenter will use many more slides than in a traditional presentation, each slide being shown for a much shorter duration.”

➝ Via 47nil.

A firefly taking flight. I played with these by the hundreds when I was a kid. My child has never seeing one in real life.

➝ Via Marcio Aleksandravicius.

The air we breathe is composed, amongst many other things of course, “of the previous breaths of everyone who ever lived”.

“How many molecules from Caesar’s last breath do we inhale with each breath we take? Shockingly, the answer is about one molecule—we actually do share breaths with Caesar! And, by extension, every breath we take is composed of the previous breaths of everyone who ever lived—Socrates, Lincoln, Einstein, etc. Isn’t that crazy?”

➝ Via Hacker News.

I remember listening to Tracy Chapman’s singing back in 1989. I so loved it so much, and still do. Her voice remains so beautiful!

➝ Via Anti-Anticheese.

What this company is doing is truly inspiring. Not only are they helping with the polluting waste problem we increasingly have, but they create beautiful looking things, useful things, out of discarded plastic.

➝ Via @claudrod.

The six (the foundation, at least, as there could be more) components of an apology. The bottom line? Very few people know how to genuinely apologise.

1. An expression of regret — this, usually, is the actual “I’m sorry.”
2. An explanation (but, importantly, not a justification).
3. An acknowledgement of responsibility.
4. A declaration of repentance.
5. An offer of repair.
6. A request for forgiveness.

The original article is well worth reading. I found it to be excellent.

➝ Via Kottke.

I found Webgbcam while browsing Javier’s posts, and I am in love with it! The good thing about pixels is they stretch nicely, and they conceal. A lot! LOL.

As Javier says it (translating it from Spanish), “a website to take selfies in the traditional way: with a Game Boy Camera”.

➝ Via Javier.computer.

The first one who told me about the 10,000 steps per day was my friend Martin. He has, almost religiously, walked that amount per day ever since I met him, sometime around 1986. It seems he was right all along:

“The first company that produced pedometers came up with the 10,000-step benchmark without any data, as that was considered an auspicious number,” says Lieberman. “Since then, plenty of studies have shown that steps a day is a reasonable way of measuring physical activity. As you increase your step count, you reap increased benefits, but it tails off between about 8,000 and 10,000.”

Hutchinson agrees: “There’s nothing magic about 10,000 steps a day, but it is pretty good advice. In general, the best target is probably ‘a little more’ than what you’re currently doing.”

➝ Via Kottke.

As someone with a few Indian friends, I have always been puzzled by the concept of caste that exists in India. My Indian friends, however, are not prone to talk about it. Yet, all of them are of a high caste, and none are Dalit or OBC. This prompted this note.

➝ Via Hacker News.

After coming across “Vocal Fry: what it is, who does it, and why people hate it!” at Claud’s I cannot not notice it on just about any female newscaster.

➝ Via @claudrod.

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.

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.

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.

Wow, just wow! Truly no words to describe how well done, how perfect, how entertaining was to watch this stop-motion animation. This one defines mastery. The behind the scenes video is a must watch.

➝ Via Kottke.

Fascinated by this, as I have always being about keeping track of time—though, like everyone else, I tend to “waste” it. I like the simplicity and usability. I also love the optimism of the maker: “[…] assuming I live to 85 years old.”

➝ Via Hacker News.

Eloquently, yet, succinctly writen. I totally agree.

“I’ve realized that avoiding bad habits is just as important as cultivating good habits. To address these kinds of issues, we must become aware of our patterns of incremental neglect and then take deliberate steps to counteract them and foster healthier habits.”

➝ Via Hacker News.

Wow, this is very disturbing. The thing is, it is bound to get worse, and we are doing little to nothing about it.

“Monday was the world’s hottest day on record, exceeding an average of 17 degrees Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time, according to initial measurements taken on Tuesday by US meteorologists.”

➝ Via Hacker News.

Because I found it, and liked it enough to mention here:

“The night gardener once asked me if I knew how citrus trees died: when they reach old age, if they are not cut down and they manage to survive drought, disease and innumerable attacks of pests, fungi and plagues, they succumb from overabundance. When they come to the end of their life cycle, they put out a final, massive crop of lemons. In their last spring their flowers bud and blossom in enormous bunches and fill the air with a smell so sweet that it stings your nostrils from two blocks away; then their fruits ripen all at once, whole limbs break off due to their excessive weight, and after a few weeks the ground is covered with rotting lemons. It is a strange sight, he said, to see such exuberance before death.”

➝ Via Stress Free Zone.

This is the first time I hear/read about “kokuhaku”, the Japanese way of confessing your love, and asking to go out in a serious way. I remember that in my teenager years that had to be done in person. Love declarations were a truly elaborated performance that often took guts to carry out. So many broken hearts (mine included)!

➝ Via Tofugo.

The New York Times “88 Temples, 750 Miles, Untold Gifts: Japan’s Shikoku Pilgrimage” is such a good read! It makes me want to do the pilgrimage myself.

➝ Via Hacker News.