Author: wwlawyer
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Turning off accounts
I tried to set this up so that my friends could easily create accounts to comment. But as always happens with spam protection efforts, it turns out that while the hackers have no problem getting around the spam protection measures to create accounts for unknown malice, my actual friends report that nobody can figure it…
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Rarity of efforts
As a whitewater kayaker, I am estimated to be one of around 50,000 Americans with that hobby/skill set. Apparently, that’s quite close to the number of published authors. So arguably, this next project is no harder to get into, statistically, than one of the other things I’ve already done.
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Apple’s connector consolidation
Apple, 2015: “We’re introducing USB-C charging for our laptops. Soon all of your Apple devices will just use one connector to charge. It’ll be great. Apple, 2017: Oh, hey, we’re introducing wireless charging. You can now use three different connectors to charge your Apple devices, none of which interoperate across multiple device categories. You’re welcome.…
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Writing is going smoothly so far.
I’m back at Jackson Acres getting into I guess fast four now. Got back on Thursday evening, and now it is Sunday. I haven’t left the property at all since, despite being overdue to appear at the river and get some groceries. Anyway, the plan was and is to spend my time here doing the…
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Day one of writing intentionally
I suppose arguably today was day one of the “sit down and commit to writing” part. I got down more than the Stephen King guideline of 2000 words. Close to 3000, when all was said and done, and it started quite literally with me saying to myself, around 9 pm, I need to write something…
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Diverted from Reddit: AITA for regifting a dead relative’s graduation present?
AITA for re-gifting a sentimental graduation present from a deceased relative? I graduated Law School over 10 years ago and my father gave me an interesting but kind of strange gift. At an antique store, he found an old brass balance scale that happened to have an eagle on top of it, and I guess…
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Sometimes a photograph just can’t do the trick.
I can’t believe the phone captured this so well. It’s the sort of sight that hovers easily in my imagination, yet that I as a photographer always struggle to capture. Yet the sort of thing I feel a lot of authors can capture better than a photograph. How would that go? On this cloudy moonless…
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March 1, 2022 essay on rent seeking and the cloud
Editorial note: I found this in my archives and have not proofread it in depth yet as of 9/11/23. It will be posted on schedule without further editing if this hasn’t been edited out. Wrote another essay… probably too long for where I meant to put it. Haven’t edited much yet either. Thoughts? (On rent…
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Why does iCloud Photo Library upload so slowly relative to available bandwidth?
Note: This is actually a cross-post from my post to Apple’s user support forum on the topic, a place I expect to now start contributing in lieu of /r/applehelp. —- This is kind of bordering more on an article than a question at this point. I’ve tried everything including long discussions with AppleCare. As far…
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A very brief post on the conundrum of moral complicity and social media.
I have come to the conclusion that essentially all social media is inherently toxic. I feel a moral problem myself with posting to social media at all, because even if I do everything in my power to keep my content healthy, to the other side it simply serves as bait to assist social media companies…
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Writing prompt: you are an immortal on death row.
I have run out of room on the wall to continue marking the days that pass as I dwell in this room. I don’t know how long it has been since I last held pen and paper, but I do know that my beard has grown by the length of my hand since then. I…
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Spam issues. Facebook, or WordPress?
I’m getting reports, on Facebook, that people are getting a spam page when they try to click to this site. I think it’s a Facebook issue, but my sysadmin is also helping me look at the WordPress side. The issue with WordPress is that, it turns out, keeping it safe from hackers and spam is…
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Quick meta thought on talking about human nature
It’s surprisingly tough to talk about human nature in a venue with a comments section. Why? Simple. Because the comments will almost always be dominated by “this doesn’t apply to me” comments. But the beauty is that almost always, the “this doesn’t apply to me” commenters will usually include a hilariously non-self-aware explanation for why…
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What about Disney’s olfactory manipulation?
I saw this article today on Apple News: https://apple.news/AT-wxdA5FSeSSdjzJcJUfpA This is a good story and worth reading, but the summary is that it may be controversial that Disney fairly openly uses scent stimuli to manipulate guests. The article also says, though, that the side effects of this manipulation are mostly positive, with effects of stress…
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Writing prompt: Christ has returned to Earth. He reveals that modern social liberalism has given Him the confidence to finally return and announce that he identifies as female.Writing prompt:
“Dad, are you sure it’s time? It’s… 1996. They’ve had a solid decade to deal with HIV and they still haven’t gotten over dehumanizing people who contract a virus. Don’t you remember last time? I barely got past the “forgiveness” and self-righteousness parts before they killed me. I don’t want to go down again if…
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One liner
It’s funny how when we ship things, they usually go on every kind of vehicle except a ship. Starts in a car, goes to a truck, then a plane, then another truck, maybe a train here and there between if only across the airport. Everything but an actual ship.
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How do I deal with the state of technology and culture now that I understand the neuroscience behind it?
I am still really struggling with this information, what to do with it and how to not just be a crazy crackpot retreating from society. If you’ve been following my posts lately, you’ve seen me talk a bit about themes of manipulation and the neuroscience of arousal and anxiety. The neuroscience knowledge underpinning these ideas…
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Writing prompt about seeking wisdom from “George”
It’s been a long week, like they all seem to be. Work, family… I suppose I could talk at length about all of those things. But the more I think about it, as I slowly coast my bike along the riverside path toward the community playground at mile 6, all of that stuff, my daily…
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Amydgala activation, and why there’s no healthy way to consume social media.
Executive summary: Social media platforms like Facebook etc ultimately have one purpose as a business, which is to sell your attention span to advertisers. They are not concerned with your health, and there is no regulation that compels them to restrain their behavior. They know from data that people are better consumers, specifically in that…
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Update on the plan
For once I’m taking a few drafts before publishing a blog post. I wrote this in kind of a fury last night and realized it is simultaneously too long and lacking context. Today, I am writing from the edge of Denali National Park, at the raft guide camp I’ve been at for a few days.…
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Initial thoughts on Denali
A song that has been resonating in my head this whole trip, and solidly ignored, has been 3 x 5 by John Mayer. It says, today I finally overcame, trying to put the world inside a picture frame; maybe I will tell you all about it in my own way when I’m in the mood…
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Mystery solved!
My camper has been smelling really nice the past few days, but it’s gotten overwhelming. And I just figured out why. As I was driving the Klondike Highway the other day, I saw this empty box on the road. I picked it up, both to remove litter and because, well, it’s kind of a good…
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Travel update, September 1 car 10,000 miles on the road
Last night someone told me that they were grateful for the conversation, one of the most interesting people they’d met, but also said that at first I seemed a little crazy until after I had spoken for five or six minutes. I guess that’s just my reality, and really, I’m theme with this idea I’ve…
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Update on my Facebook presence
I thought that I had already posted this, but just to TikTok I guess. Here’s the video link: I’m gonna summarize this as briefly as I can, though off the cuff because I didn’t think to prepare a post before cell service. For years, one of the core struggles in my mental health has been…
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50 state photos?
I wrote a post purporting to go through photographic proof of my 50 state journey. It was terrible I guess, so I’m not that upset that when I tried to post it here, it didn’t work at all. I’m going to have to put it in Word or something. Maybe I can export it from…