The Art Of Not Asking Why

Is there some sort of a way to get into Bluesky that I’m missing? There seems to be a waiting list, but that’s it, yet I see a few folks here who seem to have access…?

It’s nothing major for me, I’m curious and after Threads I’m thinking, nothing can be that bad xD

Today is my Emacs day - the day I created my first “for real now” journal entry in Emacs org-mode in 2018. Wow, 5 years I’ve been using this tool. It did - no exaggeration - change my life. I need to talk about it more. Talk about it… I can do podcasts now… hmmm 🤔

Apple came out with a Classical music solution not too long ago, and most reviews amounted to “meh.”

I wanted to throw in my solution: IDAGIO. For one dollar less than Apple Music, you get a dedicated lossless (FLAC) Classical music solution.

I’m enjoying Vivaldi’s Flute this morning. ♬ ♪

Those of you who have cats 😺: have you found a way to get rid of the litter box smell?

I’d consider one, but this is the main issue. This is a small NYC apartment and the litter box will be in the kitchen / living room / dining room area (it’s all the same room basically).

I decided to give Micro.blog premium a go. I’ve been on the regular tier for a while, enjoying what the platform and community has to offer. After playing around with a FOSS read-it-later app for Android and not getting what I wanted out of it, I figured (with the help of my partner, who saves me from my own complications on a daily basis) that it just makes sense.

Not only the premium version comes with a place to store and read articles, I can also integrate them into the post I’m going to write about these articles anyway. Meanwhile, I get the option to create newsletters and have a place for podcasts if I ever go that route (why not, I already tried my hand at recording videos). With the premium version, I can even upload short video clips, which will be perfect with the pictures I already take.

But the best indication that I’m doing the right thing is the positive feeling I get when I blog on MB. It always feels good to write here; it’s always nice to interact with the people in the community, and the “leadership” is making decisions I stand behind and support myself. A good product from good people.

Heading back home. This wasn’t the magical vacation it was last time, but you can’t make magic, it happens on its own when you don’t have the expectations. Thoughts and (more) pics coming soon.

As a result of a conversation with Pete yesterday, I did some of my own digging into accessibility and contrast.

The first interesting thing I learned: folks with myopia (which is the medical term for shortsightedness), especially those with Astigmatism, are likely to also have halation, which is a “glow” or a “halo” of bright lights. As a person with Myopia and Astigmatism for most of my life, I didn’t know that the third phenomenon has a name. White text on black background increases this halation to the point of making it hard for me to read the text. For years, I thought it was just my own poor eyesight that does that; turns out it’s much more common.

I’ve never liked harsh contrast for this reason. As a matter of fact, a more “gentle” contrasting theme is one of the reasons I like working in Emacs. My website and my wiki are a result of these preferences. The black text on the beige background is comfortable on my eyes. Enough contrast to read, but not enough to burn text into my vision, as many dark modes out there do.

The second interesting thing I learned: Google has a team looking into accessibility, and Chrome has a built-in tool to can check accessibility issues on websites. Here’s an example from my website (my letters-to-background ratio is good enough, as turns out). I’m not sure if Safari and/or Fhaveirefox have these tools.

One of my favorite “bald guy” hacks is the noggin water splash. If it’s hot, go wash your hands, face, and noggin with cold water in that order. Immediate relief. I promise it won’t damage your haircut.

This photo doesn’t do it justice, but I had to capture it as I was walking, with only the phone on me. I hope to get better photos later today or tomorrow.