Rabit Holes
Woke up a bit after five in the morning. Mind racing, thinking of unfinished tasks at work, trivial ones, but when you’re half asleep, you don’t have the sense to convince yourself of that until you’re more awake.
Installed Micro.blog for macOS again. Discovered Grammarly stopped working outside of Safari again. Reinstalled. Meanwhile, I saw my feed on Micro.blog, where @javbel said, “Two things about this”. It’s a nice cover for Mad World, so I felt like listening to Mad World. An hour later, my browser tabs look like this, by order:
- The Curious Meaning of ‘Mad World’ by Tears for Fears.
- Tears for Fears - Mad World | The Story Behind The Song.
- Wikipedia: Tears for Fears,
- Wikipedia: Mad World.
- Wikipedia: Bath, Somerset.
- Wikipedia: The Primal Scream.
- YouTube Music: Mad World (TFF version).
- YouTube Music: Mad World (Garry Jules version, AKA the Donnie Darko version).
- Reddit: Which Mad World do you prefer: Tears for Fears or Gary Jules?
Did you know Mad World was originally written by then-unemployed 19-year-old Roland Orzabal (Tears for Fears) while his girlfriend worked three jobs so he could stay home and look outside the window playing around with his guitar? He watched people going to work from above and came up with the lyrics (see link 2 above).
Such a dark powerful song, influenced by primal therapy (that link I opened just now) nevertheless, about lack of feelings on one hand and feelings about death on the other, and Orzabal had no idea. Listening to the TFF version, I believe it: it’s punchy, upbeat even.
Garry Jules, on the other hand, who did a more true-to-form (or true to lyrics?) version a couple of years later, performs the perfect version for Donnie Darko and what I believe is the song’s true meaning.
How can a 19-year-old teenager who doesn’t need to work for a living create something so different than what he is at that time? Can we experience feelings that are completely disconnected from our daily experiences (…." daily expiii-riences…." in a Mad World tune, as playing in my head right now)?
It’s possible that at the time, Orzabal had some suppressed feelings (if to go by the theme of the book), and those did come up in the song, but listening to the song he created with Curt Smith (who ended up singing it), I don’t believe it. He wrote about what he saw and read, letting his creativity take over. Then the song was out as its own entity, something separate from its creator, like a child born to parents, and they are alike but also different than the parent.
The feelings we express are entities in themselves, based on our experience, but do not reflect them completely. I find the whole thing funny but also kinda sad. Time to go to try to sleep again.
I’ve noticed several times now that certain apps I installed on the Mac “disappear” or lose the permissions I gave them before.
TechSmith’s Snaggit is one example, and Grammarly is another. I’m still on Sonoma. Is this a thing other experience?
Home gym: why non-adjustable single weight dumbbells are better for me
I cursed and paused the app mid-set. It wasn’t the first time, second, or third (I stopped counting after that) that the steel from my weights bolt splintered into my fingertips, left unprotected with my gym gloves.
It wasn’t the only thing I disliked about my traditional adjustable disk dumbbells. The other issue was changing weights between sets: when one exercise requires 20 lbs and another requires 15, you need to unscrew the bolt, take out the 2.5-lb disks at each end, replace them with 5 lbs instead, and tighten the bolt again. Imagine you have four alternating sets like this, and you have to repeat it each time. It’s a pain.
Then there’s bulkiness. The disks are pretty big and flat, and I’m a small-ish guy. The size of the disks makes it hard to do certain exercises that require me to hold the weights close together or when I need to lower them to the floor, and their size prevents me from lowering the weight fully.
At some point in June, I decided to try Amazon Basics rubber hex dumbbells to see if it improves my exercise, and that got me pissed off - because I hadn’t thought about it sooner. The difference is huge.
Above, you can see the difference in size between the disk weights next to a hex one I got more recently. To the lower right, one of the bolts I have to tighten on top of a disk. These suckers are the one that keeps splintering. I am placing them on cardboard so I don’t scratch the floor.
With the new weights, I don’t need to switch between weights quickly, so my exercise sessions are more fluid and more fun. I can do the exercises as intended, improving my form and isolating the muscles I need to work on. The hex-rubber weights mean I don’t need to worry about the floor (the apartment has a white wooden floor, a genius idea), and they don’t roll away from me when I place them down. I can even use them for support as push-up handles. And no more splinters.
After waking up several times with thoughts and brainstorming sessions during the night, I decided to work with a pocket notebook 📓 again. 📷
Unlike my phone, it doesn’t have emails and messages waiting to grab my attention, or a screen to shine into my eyes.
I can’t believe it’s already been two full weeks since I shifted into this new role at work, but here we are. I was called in by someone high up who knew me well from my previous position. He offered me a managerial role in my old department, where I cut my teeth being IT*
While the title itself will be discussed further, and while I do not manage anyone directly (I’m probably not going to be anyone’s direct boss), managing things is, pretty much, what I’m supposed to do. It requires much more understanding of day-to-day IT operations than I ever had before, and I am truly grateful I’m surrounded by people I already know who had the patience and knowledge to teach me in the past.
On a personal level, this means my daily schedule goes out the window. It already did, as I hit the ground running. Some operations can take place only early in the morning, while others take place on weekends (those of you who do patching know what I’m talking about). On the other hand, the bulk of the work usually slows down in the afternoon. My remote work options are also shifting, as much of the work I’m doing so far involves meeting people - new and old - in their different locations, and access to certain systems means I need to be on-site.
My brain has been firing on all cylinders and then some. I woke up at 3 or 4 AM for several days right into brainstorms, which ended only after I wrote down notes or sipped cold seltzer while looking out the window at lit windows around me in the city.
Sleeping was so bad, in fact, that I decided to try some “Not Pot” CBD gummies again. It helped to a point. This is a rough transition. Not only am I dealing with a role I haven’t done before, and there are many more responsibilities, but I am also still in my old role. While people around me understand if I need extra time, we don’t always have that option. Things need to get done.
I’m no stranger to changes such as this one, and I have faith in myself that I will not only manage to deal with everything eventually but also do so well. This is not out of boasting or showing off, but because I know myself. I care to know, and I know to care (sometimes too much). There is a cost in time and energy, and I need to remain aware.
Writing here helps somewhat; thank you for reading. If the blog slows down, I believe it will only be temporary as I adjust.
While this wasn’t my first position in IT, it was the first serious one where I learned and grew in this career.
An opportunity showed itself at work and I grabbed it. It’s been a lot of work, since I still have all the responsibility of my current role while I’m stepping into the new one. Writing here slowed down a bit as a result, hope to write more tomorrow.
Good night all, hope your week was exciting!
So I made the salad from fresh farmer’s market vegetables. Cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, garlic, dill. All fine cut with a manual shredder I got as a gift years ago. Very juicy with lemon, salt and pepper, this qualifies as an Israeli salad.
I’m not an art expert, but this looks like a piece of junk they pulled out of the water. It’s an eyesore in this otherwise green park. 📷
I’m not a big cook, but I used to make some things at home. Salads, homemade hummus, guacamole, pastas… I’m getting tired of sandwiches, and cheese is not something I do as well anymore, so I think it’s time to get back to some of those. 🥗🍝🥑
What is or why Emacs?
My “Emacs day” is July 11, 2018. Or in org-mode, it looks like this: . As I noted last year at that time, it is the day I wrote my first official journal post in Emacs org-mode, and the rest is history. I’ve been a daily Emacs user since that day.
Both my partners joke about Emacs. NK calls it “Immaculate.” When I asked them this morning to guess what I was going to write about, they rolled their eyes and nailed it on the first try. At the same time, Nat and I have “venting sessions” where we sit down and talk about work and life. If there’s something that’s too complex and I need their patience as I unfold a story, I lead with “Well, this is kind of an Emacs vent, but…” and Nat knows to brace himself.
But what the hell is Emacs, anyway?
I’m not sure I explained it in a way that makes sense. The problem is not explaining what tool Emacs is or what kind of software; that’s pretty easy: It’s a text editor, like NotePad, TextEdit, or that horrible, well-known Microsoft Office one I dare not associate with Emacs in one sentence. Asking what is Emacs sells it short and doesn’t explain why so many people swear by Emacs every day. Perhaps a better question is why. So, as the blog’s title suggests, don’t ask why; I’ll explain anyway.
Some people compare Emacs to an operating system of its own, which makes sense: it comes with so many built-in tools you could fire it up and probably do all of your computing work without ever exiting it. Well, in a command-line computer-geek kind of way.
Some of the things I use Emacs for all the time, besides writing, of course (it’s a text editor, remember?), are to navigate and operate my Mac’s files, read other blogs I subscribe to, check my calendar for events, and manage my projects and todos. I do all of those inside Emacs. But even so, why not just use my Mac’s tools or Windows if I were to use a Windows computer for my productivity?
The answer, which may not make sense to you if you’re not an Emacs user, is that Emacs is quicker and simpler and thus better for me to use. The key thing is that if it’s not better to use for something, I can manipulate and customize it until it is. My Emacs is made for me, and if there’s something I need to change so it fits better, I can do just that. Emacs is completely customizable, which means you get to tinker and manipulate whatever you need until you get those tools to work exactly the way you want them to.
Imagine you get up and make drip coffee. You grind your beans, fill in water, carefully place the filter with the grinds, and turn it on. Now, imagine that turning on the coffee maker doesn’t only start brewing your coffee but also turns on the toaster with two slices of fresh bread and also displays a crossword puzzle automatically on your phone. Not only do these things happen automatically, but also the bread is always toasted the way you like it, the coffee is automatically dispatched from your favorite roaster, and the crossword puzzle is tailored specifically to a level of your liking. On top of that, to continue with the metaphor, you can always make changes (change the coffee type, for example, so you make yourself a cappuccino instead of drip) quickly and easily, and the knowledge and ability to do so is completely yours to do whatever you want with it, for free, forever.
If you could do all of that, would you still go to Starbucks to get your coffee?
Sounds almost like magic, but for a computer, that’s what Emacs is. You could use it to read and write emails, look at maps, browse the web, listen to music, and over other 5000 additional things that exist just in its main library (it’s not even the biggest one). All of those are available for free, code and all. When you’re an Emacs user, all of these functions are available to you with the same ease - and keybinding - that your fingers are already used to.
Perhaps now it’s a bit easier to understand why Emacs is difficult to explain. It’s not just another application. it’s a lifestyle. To me, it has been the ultimate productivity hack - and it keeps getting better.