Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1395
Digging trenches for fiber I am so manly. Cool ditch-digging tools. Gary He's McAtlas. Saint Etienne's new album. Peter Jackson headed back to Middle Earth? The fate of the USDS as a cypher for how full of it Elon is these days. Visiting friends.
Good morning! Hello hello hello. How you doing? Frazzled day over here. Overslept, my daughter had to wake me up, for the first time since she started this whole school thing. Very mortifying. But we made it on time, we made it early, in fact. Team effort, felt great. Then I went to the grocery store and got angry and the stupid self-checkout machines and even though I didn’t snap at the weird old man who gives me the heebie jeebies that works there, he kind of acted like I did. Felt bad about that, did not like that, nope.
Does anyone else think the United Healthcare CEO assassin (needs a shorter, zippier name, this guy) looks kinda like Timothy Chalomet?
There is supposedly new Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings coming. 2026. Do we believe this? I don’t know. I am skeptical. But if there is, I hope it’s in the first age. Except all the stories have completely depressing endings so I guess that would be depressing and I have gotten old and do not have the temperment for depressing movies like I did when I was young. Hrm. TBD.
And maybe it’s just me and where I am in the “read the entirety of the Tolkien legendarium,” book 4 of the History of Middle Earth, thus still firmly in the first age, but I really do not care about the Rohirrim they are kinda boring. I mean they are cool, the average Rider of the Mark on his awesome horse and whatnot. But the politics of their kings and their fights with the easterlings and them giving up Orthanc to Sauron? Nah. I mean, I will obviously watch this new animated movie at some point, but you’d think I am prime material to go see it in the theater and I am not feeling it.
We are listening to the new Saint Etienne, this morning. It is called The Night. It is very slow and noctournal and I like it a lot, but it is 8:30 in the morning and I am trying to wake up here. Maybe I’ll listen to it again tonight on headphones while reading Christopher Tolkien’s analysis of JRR’s Silmarillion outline he provided to his publisher. I was really hoping for an upbeat, banger of a Saint Etienne album — the nights I used to have, not the nights I have now, maaan. Night clubs and concert venues and dive bars and whatnot. But hey. These guys are older than me. I wonder when was the last time any member of Saint Etienne set foot in a bar when they were not playing. Eh, I bet Pete Wiggs is still hitting the nightlife circuit. Checkin’ out the young turk London pop bands. Is there still a pop scene in London? Probably, probably.
This weekend I did a bunch more networking stuff, which sounds boring, but I want you to know that I personally, by hand, buried 300 feet of fiber optic and Cat6 cable. I dug ditches for an entire day and my god it was so fun. Hard labor tourism, I guess you could call it. But I will tell you I sure felt a lot better than I do after most days of work. I mean, I felt in massive pain, every joint aching, but I felt emotionally great. I guess I am a fool for the nobility of hard labor. I used to think that was a sucker’s game but I am into it now. Normalize trade school, as they say.
Anyway it was great and… Oh wait I was gonna test the latency to the 10 gig switch over at chore house stand by. Look at that. Less than 1 Ms latency from here, through the fiber to the other house, through the switch, through the cable to the wifi router, through the wifi to the greenhouse. Can’t complain about that.
I was really paranoid I’d break the fiber optics, but then, later that night, I was watching this absolutely amazing Laura Kampf video where she used her kid’s fiber optic toy to make some indicator extensions and she showed the beat up old fiber optic toy and… oh right. All the fibers still work even when a kid wrinkles the thing. That stuff is more resiliant than you think.
I also got the wifi outdoors working — two Wifi7 base stations on opposite ends of the house, in addition to the wifi6 AP over at Chore House. I had hope that would cover the whole property, because no walls. But this is the Piedmont, and I did not really factor in the fact that hills are even thicker than walls and this property is pretty hilly. I need to, like, run ‘em up flagpoles or something. But it’s petty good! It’s in all of the actual areas where we hang out, indoors and outdoors.
And I got the rack organized! Always a late-stage task in any network re-do, liable to be ignored completely. But I did it and, reader, it looks lovely.
I am using this ditch-digging tool, sorta shaped like a pizza oven spatula thingy. It is heavy and steel and has a giant semicircle on the end and you drive it into the ground like a spade then just sort of separate the earth out. The thing is, I got this thing three years ago and I have never used it. Because I bought it for this specific project. I have been planning this project for three years! That is crazy. As I was slipping the cable into the ground between the concrete patio and the lawn, I was thinking to myself “this is crazy! It is all working! Nothing is going wrong!” and I realized it is because of that three years of planning. It wasn’t procrastination! I did need this weird-ass gadget! I was just planning, people.
Jussi is visiting — we are going to see Ride tonight, Jussi loves Ride boy we both love Ride. Picked her up from the airport, mmm… gonna say Saturday. It is always nice to have her around. We were roommates for, gosh, five years? Known that girl more than 30 years now. She is just great. It is nice to have her around. And Jane loves Auntie Jussi, so, you know. Bonus. Siri calls her “yoooseee” which is kinda funny, but there seems to be no way to tell Siri how to actually pronounce her name, which, yeah, Apple Intelligence. AI, man. Great stuff.
Few of you have expressed interest in joining our new Anti-AI religion. Great. Join us. Nick is working on a proper name for the thing. Needs to be human-focused, but somewhat distinct from the baggage of the past humanist movements. But I am semi-serious about this, someone needs to do it. I’m kinda shocked no one has started working on it already, but, then, despite my semi-seriousness, I have done zero research. Too busy digging ditches.
I keep saying I’m gonna get to a gift guide, and I am, but, boy, it is a lot of work! Also I had to postpone because I needed to brag about my manly ditch-digging. I mean, I have the list but just getting things wrangled is a pain. And you guys aren’t going to buy any of it anyway because it’s not really a holiday list in the traditional sense. Anyway, I THINK I can do it on… Wednesday? Hopefully?
Got a copy of Gary He’s McAtlas in the mail — his comprehensive compendium of McDonald’s international footprint and my god, the thing is amazing. The graphic design is just immaculate. The photography — all shot by Gary — is phenomenal, both of the food and the amazing, insane, international McDonald’s branches. If you are looking for a holiday gift for someone, you could do a lot worse. Seriously, this might be the most luxuriously packaged book I have ever seen. Well, at least since the deluxe edition of Martin Aston’s magisterial 4AD history.
Anyway, buy a copy of McAtlas for a loved one today.
I was gonna put it on my gift guide but, as you’ll see eventually, some day, it’s not that kind of gift guide.
Met a guy at the playground over the last few months. He works for US Digital Services, which is pretty cool. Used to have a lot of friends that work there, but I don’t think I know anyone still there. I think he’s gonna keep working there through the Tump administration. I was thinking about that yesterday. How I was wondering what Elon was going to do with this efficiency-inducing, non-wasteful digital agency within the US government. How it was, on paper, exactly what he wishes he was doing, exactly how he thinks the government should be running. But of course, he did not make it, and, worse, gasp, a democrat launched it, so it will actually be a great litmus test for how fucking horrible the dude is. Because in theory they ought to be put on a pedastal as he and his fascist-brother-in-arms Vivek go on their little-boy field trip. I mean, I doubt anything will come of their time, but if anything does, I am curious about the fate of the USDS.
Don’t think I have a kids-do-the-darndest-things Jane anecdote for you, but on a more serious note, I have to say that she has been being lovely lately. Just a real joy to be around. She still has her tantrums but they are so fast. She is learning some quality self-control. Her linguistic skills are bonkers. She is learning binary for some reason, though mostly that involves writing long strings of ones and zeros, giving one of her parents a “binary quiz” and then making the other parent grade it, but she does get the concept and she just loves it. Also… Duolingo Music is kind of a miracle? I walk into a room and Jane is tapping out, like “Ode to Joy” or “Joy to the World” (so much joy in starter piano songs) and I haven’t done a thing to get her to do this. It is amazing.
Got a world-music, international, sort of playlist for you today. Been very into this Sheherezaad band this month. And wow yeah this one goes back a ways. To last year! Been a while. Will try and pick up the pace on the golbalist music perspective here.
All right gotta go. Busy day. As that dude in Allston used to say whenever you ran into him: “Lotta shit going down. lotta people involved.”
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Thanks for reading.
And hey! Maybe buy one of my books!
Good Morning, Hello, How Are You vol 1.