Message Chain

⚙️ Red Deer is about halfway between Calgary and Edmonton.

🤖 Red Deer, Alberta, is a vibrant city in central Alberta, situated along the Red Deer River, midway between Calgary and Edmonton. Known for its scenic natural beauty, the city features rolling hills, green spaces, and an extensive trail system, including the popular Waskasoo Park. As a regional hub, Red Deer has a diverse economy rooted in agriculture, oil and gas, manufacturing, and healthcare. It boasts a strong community spirit, a rich cultural scene with festivals and arts venues, and excellent recreational facilities like the Canyon Ski Resort and the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre. With a population of over 100,000, the city balances modern urban amenities with a small-town feel and a deep appreciation for its Indigenous and settler history.

This week is less structured than last, at least ahead of time.

tasks for the week:

• re-install an old laptop to run Linux. Modern Windows is too slow to run from an HDD.
• look at the BOIR ⚙️( Beneficial Ownership Information Report) submission system, and submit information for companies I am responsible for
• respond to responses to job applications

💡 why do I want a job? i'm getting tired of "having to find work". i'm getting tired of "having to write CSS and update database schemas". i'm getting tired of having a budget that doesn't start with a "W-2 income" line.

https://longreads.com/2018/12/04/the-case-for-letting-malibu-burn/

There are no solutions to the problems of California fires that don't involve uncomfortable truths.

A lot of these houses shouldn't have been built and shouldn't be insurable.

https://wishyouwerehere.app/writing/this-application-should-not-exist

One part postcards, one part rules-lawyering. Apparently you can use in-app purchases to sell post-cards iff they are also gift-cards.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42675025

LINKS TO

https://www.righto.com/2025/01/its-time-to-abandon-cargo-cult-metaphor.html

It's time to abandon the cargo cult metaphor

Amazingly, the top HN comment says "Nope, we’re not doing this in 2025. Cargo cult succinctly expresses an important concept. We’re not catering to imaginary offenses somebody hallucinates on behalf of some supposedly marginalized people anymore."

And the dismissal is correct. The article makes two main arguments, both wrong.

• Some cargo cults were different than others, so we can't compare it to anything.
• Cargo cults were done by "oppressed" "primitive" people, so we can't compare it to anything.

🔥 Also, apparently 2025 is the year where a certain over-the-top form of "liberal sensitivity" can be publicly rejected.

and, finally, WordPress continues to implode on itself. Non-benevolent dictator Matt Mullenweg continues with more erratic and tyrannical behavior. 🔥( does this create an opening in the market for a new blogging platform?)

on the one hand, today was a largely unproductive day.

on the other hand, both "install Linux" and "file BOIR report" are done. 💡( and, on job applications, I find myself asking questions like "could I work for a Chinese company?")

plans for tomorrow:

• additional channels. probably separate "tech" and "llm" channels. probably a new channel just for "cities". 💡( which will have to be called something new)
• probably job-pursuit tasks, details not yet determined
• thoughts about emoji 💡( roughly that they are not printer-friendly. maybe i can hot-swap them for PNGs in CSS when printing?)

the two new channels were added. 🔥( that took an entirety of two minutes)

job thoughts continue to not be in this medium.

phi4 is not good enough to worry about.

also: furniture shopping! new end-tables.

today.

• discover that my email routing for pow3.com wasn't working
• unknown? my "planning" patterns still aren't working

yesterday was 🔥( apart from the aforementioned "fix email server I broke last week") almost completely unproductive.

today's plans:

• user-based channel filtering for Atacama
• consider the "LLM based editor" approach to LLM. 💡( I had been considering a one-step system; the LLM is involved on earlyversion. This would be a two-step system; there is a completely different workflow where the machine takes posts here, fancifies them, and puts them on a new domain) 🔥( the new domain will also be earlyversion )
• get the emphasis tag working on Atacama. 💡( the asterisk tag can be both "affectation" and "emphasis". for today, it will always be emphasis.)
• one private correspondence to manage
• personal: order new eyeglasses online