The Art Of Not Asking Why

A few weeks back, I read a post griping about LEDs being everywhere. And honestly? It hit home—literally. My NYC apartment is the size of a respectable closet, so my bedroom doubles as my home office. That means my UPS hulks on the floor next to my desk, the modem lurks under it, and the Synology hums quietly in the corner—each one stubbornly blinking like tiny lighthouses in my personal sea of tech clutter.

The UPS pulses steadily, as if counting down to its inevitable retirement. The Synology flickers whenever it’s writing data—which, given it stores my Mac’s Time Machine backups, org-mode files, and certain encrypted personal archives, feels oddly intrusive for a machine that knows my digital secrets. And the router? It’s got more LEDs than a ’90s calculator, blinking in chaotic patterns that make me wonder: Who the hell is my network communicating with at 2 in the morning?

Now, before you ask: “Why not move this tech out of your bedroom?” - trust me, I’ve tried. But in a city where “closet-sized” is a luxury, my “office” is whatever space isn’t currently occupied by my existential dread. So let’s set aside my spatial tragedy for a moment. Do we really need LEDs on everything?

Take my wireless charger. It’s got a little blue light that glows like the Eye of Sauron, bright enough to navigate by. I have to angle it away from my pillow every night, lest it sear my retinas during my 03:00 insomnia. Couldn’t they just… add an off switch? Or maybe a dimmer? I’d settle for a polite chime instead of this relentless visual announcement that my phone is, indeed, charging. And the power adapters! Bless their tiny circuits, but why does my phone charger need to scream “I’M PLUGGED IN!” with a neon beacon? It’s in the wall. That’s the point.

Somewhere along the line, LEDs stopped being useful indicators and became tech’s participation trophies. Who decided this? Was it a well-meaning engineer in the ’90s who thought, “What if we lit up everything?” And why blue? It took a Nobel Prize to perfect blue LEDs—so if they’re that complicated to make, maybe we could’ve just… not? Red means “danger,” but a soft amber glow to say “all’s well, go back to sleep”? Too much to ask.

I’ve even pondered ripping these LEDs out myself. How hard could it be? Hmmm…?

Anyway, this has been your weekly installment of Old Man Yells at Cloud™. You’re welcome. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some duct tape to apply to my router’s most offensive LED.

Footnotes:

• Some of the humor here used AI. No, not the whole thing, the draft is written by a grumpy man in his 40s, as well end product, and many things in between. I just wanted some help with the humor, OK?

• I tried, but I can’t find this post. I assume it was somewhere in my RSS feeds but I can’t find it now. If you know of anything like that, please let me know.

Is This Anything? 22

Thanking items around your home? Maybe not such a bad idea. At the very least, and interesting post, no?

I am trying to stay away from things like this usually, but it’s getting weird to use a yellow thumbs up at work.

I’m white, and I’m used to using the yellow ones. More and more folks I chat with at work use different skin tones, usually black or brown. I understand why, and it makes sence. But then, when it comes to me… if I use a yellow one, it might show that I’m just ignorant or don’t care, and I don’t want to offend someone this way… on the other hand, using a white emoji is… not much better, is it.

I’m backing up saved games before wiping my PopOS desktop and switching to Kubuntu. Forgot the Bottles directory includes symbolic links. Realized my mistake after a 2-minute job took over 20 minutes. In my infinite wisdom, I stopped it DELETED everything. symbolic links included… 🤦‍♂️

As a person who has some sort of Imposter Syndrome going on (never checked, good idea?), I constantly doubt myself, especially when asked for advice or guidance.

One of the things I’m learning to internalize: everyone asks questions and searches the internet. Asking “dumb” questions is critical.

I was looking up videos of Kubuntu Vs. Linux Mint last night (as one does), and ended up watching Hank Green’s video about Wikipedia.

The guy doesn’t need any introduction to his passionate videos, and neither does Wikipedia. But, he made me rejoin Wikipedia and add my first edit in a long time.

It’s good to remind myself that even though I live in one of the biggest cities in the world, I can still take a walk in the woods.

It is a nice day and I will go on a walk. I will see some trees and get some sun. I will grump about tech later. Day’s short.

I don’t understand what goes in Kim’s head in Better Call Saul S5E6, Wexler v. Goodman 📺 at the end of the episode. I don’t usually care for shows that portray romantic relationships, but the dynamic between Jimmy and Kim has kept me on my toes for a while, it feels way more organic to me.

Sometimes I power up Hedwig, my Pop OS linux, and I have the itch to wipe it and start fresh with Linux Mint. I always loved Linux Mint. Pop OS is OK, but it’s a bit behind, and I miss the Cinammon desktop - maybe I even want to try Plasma again.

I figured out the attachment linking issues in Plain Org - it’s not the path (it was the same) but the way the app renders images inside a logbook in emacs (or I guess maybe a “drawer”) - it just doesn’t. Once the image link is out of the drawer, it works fine.

OK, it’s time to start writing something a bit less cryptic and more detailed about my recent Emacs changes…

Plain Org works well with Synctrain, as does Journelly. Once I figure out the attachment linking issue (probably a path problem) I’ll have something solid - and a post, naturally.

Somehow, Better Call Saul S5E4, Namaste 📺 almost relaxed me. I think it’s more in the sense of “at least I don’t have these problems…