Happenings

Been in a slump the last several months. Going to try an experiment, that I suspect will fail, of writing down daily or at least weekly blurbs here of things I've been up to, like things I've been learning or doing. Or if nothing else, maybe some food I've been eating or music I've been listening to. In short, a public journal, but without trying to be super detailed -- but maybe some entries will be TMI anyway and I suppose I'd rather go for more details than fewer if the thing is triggering some thoughts.

(Some days have been written in a sort of micro-blogging style. Not logging everything, but more than I thought I would... Need to try and keep things past-tense though, only update what I actually did, not what I'm currently doing or planning. (I've begun to slip on this, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.))

All entries in reverse-chronological order (so updates are at the top -- note that "today's" updates may not be complete when you first see them). Originally started doing this at the end of July 2024. We'll see how long I keep it up.

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Japan Trip 4 and 5

Previously.

I went to Japan again a couple more times. But nothing too exciting to report here. The 4th time was indeed primarily for the reason alluded to in the previous post, seeing my favorite idol have her birthday concert. I ended up helping with the preparations, too, which was a fun experience. I had a good time, but I was there for a while, basically from December 4th through January 16th. (Originally Jan 11th but I extended my stay for an extra weekend to see her a few more times... The plane ticket change didn't increase my fare.) So about 6 weeks. I was happy to be going home.

Of course, on the day I flew out, I heard that her group was disbanding with a final graduation event in a month. My friend is funny, he said when I got home, "So I guess you'll be going back soon right? You'll regret it if you don't!" He was right, of course. So I went back.

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Possible errors and downtime

I've migrated my blog and other things over to OVH, leaving Amazon's EC2 behind. The DNS switch has been made, though my local machine keeps trying to talk to the old server I have shut down to encourage not caching the old IP. I also had to upgrade to PHP 8.2 and recreate my database. I've fixed a few errors so far, but there might be more. Anyway, just a warning as the title says in case anyone is experiencing the issues.

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Parting is such sweet sorrow

One of the few Shakespeare lines I like.

Wrapping up a trip soon. I'm ready to head back home and resume something more resembling the hikikimori lifestyle.

It was a good trip, I'll write up a bit more about it later. Part of me wants to stay, but it's time.

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Leaving a mark

Most people in all of human history didn't leave much of a mark. The greatest, longest lasting contribution for most of them was simply having children.

So it's actually rather arrogant, but goes well if you have the ambition, to try and make it your life goal to leave a big mark somehow. This drive isn't a bad thing, without it much progress would not have been made.

But one shouldn't feel bad if one lacks the drive. We don't all need to save the world, we don't all need to fill our every waking hour trying to make some difference. It's ok if you do no better than the average human ancestor in the last few hundred thousand years -- it's ok to do rather worse, too. And if you don't plan to have kids, or don't see that happening for other reasons, you probably will do worse. Fine.

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Keep saying no to unionizing tech

There's a lot of hot takes on the OpenAI meltdown this last weekend. One I don't think I've seen elsewhere, but relevant, is that the so far 710/770 employees (with the rest seemingly on PTO) have collectively signed a letter threatening to quit if the board doesn't resign.

It's yet another reminder that collective action does not require unions. Keep them out of tech.

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Bowling

Went bowling for the first time in a few (more than a few? 2018 or 2019?) years, it's a good hand and finger workout! My best game was only 121, but I've always been happy with anything over 100. I also discovered that I can bowl left handed, possibly even better if I practiced it more.. Did two games left handed, first game I'd say the first 4 frames were just adjusting to the weird feeling, but then that was over and my aim was a lot better. Second game choked at the end but ended with a 99, a lot of well aimed throws. Got robbed a turkey by one pin that didn't go down~

I used a 10 pound ball, I think I would have gotten more strikes if I had an 11 or 12 pounder instead. But I'd need to train my muscles or grip strength more for it I think. In the past I remember using 8 or 9 pound balls though. I don't remember what I used most when I took an online bowling class -- it required something like 6 games per week for a few weeks, it was a short class I took to substitute a PE credit.

I'd like to learn to hook the ball next. I tried several times based on vague recollections from the class on how to do it, but failed. Apparently it's harder if you use the alley balls. This seems like a promising video to try and follow next time.

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