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I was listening to NPR Planet Money, when I remembered I have a PBS account. I donated to NJ PBS earlier this year because it was shutting down (because Trump destroyed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting). I felt bad about never donating before. After logging in, I saw that Cyberchase was currently broadcasting. I’d watched it as a child in kindergarten. My parents had a tv in their bedroom…
I karen my way into an earlier refund from my dentist.
I was cancelling my renters' insurance, since I’m moving. Them: Do you have an auto insurance policy with us? We can give you a deal Me: No…. The bus and train is pretty good where I’m at Them: Ain’t nothing wrong with that
I recently got my covid and flu vaccines. Pharmacist: Your insurance covers everything, so we can get started Me: Are you sure? My insurance changed recently Pharmacist: Literally waves my concern away The system always knows.
At Thanksgiving potluck dinner with me friends Me: I made Paneer Rolls! Except that the tortillas are small so now their more like tacos. And I got the ratio of paneer to veg wrong so now they’re closer to veggie tacos Friend: Waiter Waiter! My lobster is too juicy and my steak too buttery!
I wrote a nice wrapper for some glue code a colleague wrote. They liked my API, and gave me merge perms on the glue code’s repo. Nice … street cred. Later my colleague asked me to look into a race condition. I looked into it briefly, but wasn’t convinced it was a race. I pointed out that the error handling was broken. Still later, a third party contributor saw my comments and offered to fix the…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGzwoPJ3sE0 A short film about a young woman with ADHD
I made paneer yesterday with Trackim. I tried to use a smoothie blender for the gravy, it was bad. The blender was solely battery operated (couldn’t be used while charging), had a weak motor, and was made of shoddy plastic (that couldn’t handle hot liquids). I ended up borrowing a blender from my neighbours across the hall. I’ve heard their children playing through the wall, so I…
Just unsubscribed (via rss) from the youtube channel Kurzgesagt. In my opinion, they’ve become click-baity, and far too speculative. Have they changed? Or did I just get bored of them? I still find their old videos good.
Russel is one of my best friends. I Love him a lot. I’ve written about him a lot, we’ve been friends for 4 years at this point. Since graduating, our conversations have taken on a very negative tone due to job prospects and the economy. I became a software engineer, him a PhD student in Computer Engineering. The sacrifices he made to pursue a degree struck me (opportunity cost of lost income,…
Just figured out how to use a hair brush after watching a tiktok video (on reddit of course) about sisterhood. A young woman is crying in the bathroom and various women help her fix her appearance and provide emotional support. Anyways, in the video an older women is brushing the subject’s hair (which was stick straight and down to her butt) I noticed the brusher did not drag the brush…
Hears a familiar voice on the metro Me: Oh hey Coworker Coworker: Oh Hey Varun. These are > my college friends. Coworker (to friends): Varun’s gay too. We met through a queer group at work. Me: Lol I didn’t want to assume. Friends: But you could have.
An Indian American Union activist Bhairavi Desai
I found the first DVD my family over purchased on youtube: The Letter Factory , an educational film from LeapFrog. I used to watch this on loop around ¿3-6?. Twenty years later its still familiar and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq65P1-veIk
Last year, I watched Robert Reich’s lecture series / college class, Wealth and Poverty . Mr. Reich was the former Secretary of Labor under US president Bill Clinton, and recently retired from a professorship at UC Berkeley (where he taught the above course). As Secretary, he was responsible for the last increase in Federal minimum wage, a huge achievement. Reich remains active online on…
A couple years ago, there was surge in interest in building 'proxies' for the most popular online services. They were all inspired by each other. Youtube ⇒ Invidious Reddit ⇒ Teddit and Libreddit Twitter ⇒ Nitter Bibliogram ⇒ Instagram All of these services were popular, with dozens of public instances. Public instances were often slow, but I enjoyed browsing with user-friendly ui’s with no bloat…
I have a mini-breakdown at the thought of never seeing my friends again
My friends and I watched the Geminids meteor shower out of Acadia National park in the dead of winter
It seems across android 10-12, the ability to avoid setting a default browser was removed. Previously, if the default was unset, a dialog would pop up for links requesting a decision of browser. That dialog is gone (although the one suggesting you change your default, used by browser to assert themselves, remains). In lieu of being unset, it now defaults to the first/only browser app. I tried…
I get lost in groups! [1] It happens to me all the time. Its been happening to me since childhood. I get distracted by something, and boom I’m left behind. Grocery Store: nice beans Nature hike: cool flower Renn faire: artisinal goods The last time it happened, my friends had my phone lmfao. Just wandered brownian motion until we found each other. Still panic every time, gotta get over that.…
Back in the dark (actually, light) ages, websites did not have dark mode. So we installed browser extensions that did so for us. Thus: website_dark = extension_enabled Where the above input could be set based on time of day or site domain. extension_enabled = not_disabled && nighttime Then browsers added their own (initially shoddy) dark modes. Thus: website_dark = browser_dark_enabled ||…
When I was younger, learning about technology sparked feelings of wonder, awe, and curiosity in me. I was so excited about the new iPhone/iOS/Android/Chrome/etc. Now I feel only drudgery. I know this is because the novelty of youth is gone, much of the software I use is mature, and reduced competition and innovation in tech (and many industries). The Nexus 6p (my first phone) had a unique feature:…
So I’m moving! I don’t like my current town, and I don’t like my current roommate (nothing serious, we just don’t jell well). Housing is unaffordable pretty much everywhere, and its resulted in some interesting characters coming by trying to replace me as a roommate. Today’s prospective tenant came by motorcycle. He strode into our apartment with a very stylish motorcycling outfit (it was black,…
ℹ️ Note: I procrastinated getting glasses for a year until I found them for 'cheap', and my ID required it. At some point around the time I started, my new job (Summer 2023), I broke my glasses. I left them in my backpack for several months. They jostled around and broke. Oops. I hadn’t regularly worn my glasses for several years at that point. I lost my last few pairs. [1] I was on a backup of a…
I received multiple compliments about my hair this week, including over a blurry video call. My hair is often poofy after washing it, and I’ve tried using coconut oil and leave-in conditioner to limited effect. I was resigned to this fate until I borrowed a (regular, not leave in)conditioner from my mom. She got it from a hotel (seems the William Roam brand targets hotels). My curls came out…
Trendy From what I can tell, it is the current fashion for young upper middle class people to wear bulky running shoes. Even for everyday wear. Sighs At least Hokas/Asics/New Balance/that cloud one look a little better than the even bulkier and clashing colors basketball shoes. I really like some of the Hokas. In-person Visit I went to Road Runner, since I need new sneakers. They barely kept stock…
I’ve made a handful of major trips in the past 6 weeks on my bike, all from my current residence of northern Virginia (DC suburb/satellite go brr). College Park (from foggy bottom) Visiting friends on campus on Juneteenth. My company had the day off Alexandria Wanted to finish the southern segment of the Arlington loop, and see some of the Potomac. Felt a little isolating, being the…
In supposedly affluent Western nations, the dire state or absence of public toilets has become a universal nightmare , impacting the health and quality of life of all of us, but particularly for marginalised groups. — via Kottke NYC Trip I drove through NYC for the first time, dropping my father off at the airport. My family and I were proud of this milestone. I had to pee on the way back and held…
I recently started watching Sorry For Your Loss . I’ve liked it a lot. It is cathartic seeing grief portrayed, even if you don’t think its a good portrayal. I hope to post a review soon. ℹ️ Note: Isn’t it crazy how companies can just rewrite the rules? Facebook made this amazing show, and then just as easily threw it away . Anyways, since the show is on facebook it exists in this nether realm.…
I saw a YouTube thumbnail about the D.C. metro’s 'brutalist architecture'. It prompted me to share my opinion. The first few times I rode the metro, I found the style jarring and soul crushing. But I think that it was just shock. Now as a regular rider, it feels comforting, bookending much of my travel (I do not own a car). I wouldn’t say I feel safe (alone), but I definitely wouldn’t change the…
Amtrak’s customer service is amazing. Rebooking Several times, I have had to rebook tickets. The ticket counter always rebooked me free of charge, finding the best combination or closest station and delay time. Trains have been delayed, I’ve missed my train, I even needed to make an emergency pit stop once. While the issues were annoying, the ticket counters made the best of bad…
The quality of macOS spotlight search has declined. I keep receiving suggestions for websites, or menus within Settings. My muscle memory is interfering. I search up 'Cal' (for calendar), but instead get calculator as the top result. Because its 'predictive', it now thinks I want calculator now every time I search 'Cal'. This is despite my usage history. Is no way to modify search results?
I was looking up therapists. I found one and left a message using their listed phone number. Then I created a contact card in case I was called back. Google autofilled a second address from a google maps listing that appears to be a residential address. I’m worried it might be where they live.
My heart skipped a beat.
It’s Mother’s Day! Lets do the default thing and go out for lunch! The Outing I researched restaurants prior, but couldn’t find a high-end place that had veg options. Google Maps was slacking here, we eventually saw many places while driving. We went to my mom’s choice of restaurant. They only took walk-ins and had a moderate wait (30 mins). This was too long for my mom. I respectfully disagree.…
I dipped my toes into Github Copilot (henceforth, 'the llm') these past couple days and it’s been interesting. I’ve first used it at work because I’ve heard llm’s are good was the minutiae of syntax. I was working in a templating language. llmwas great at generating the correct syntax, and switching back and forth between the template and the code was a breeze. It was also aware of what functions…
I went my local general store. It used to have a redbox: a vending machine for movie cd’s I miss Redbox. This is partly childhood nostalgia. But also, there was no (for the most part) algorithm. The latest hits were on a poster on the side, so a handful of people could browser at once. There was no endless scrolling. There was a shitty screen that made scrolling and searching unpleasant. You got…
I’ve been to a handful of parties now at UMD, a few since I’ve graduated. [1] Many (don’t have the XP to say most) parties are racially segregated, this isn’t surprising. Social groups are often along racial / gendered lines. Asians What surprised me was that at integrated parties, there are very few asians. I found this interesting because UMD is racially diverse, and also I don’t see the same…
The semester I took crypto, Spring '23, Justin also taught it. So for fun I would sit in his section every so often (my friend Oliver got in and I as jealous). Towards the end of semester, attendance dropped off so one day I came and there were about a dozen students out of ~80. This might’ve also been after an exam, and people often skip the next day to recover. Justin jokingly said those in…
A New Friend I’ve been hanging out with a friend for several years now. We have many similar interests, and I like their energy. Initially, we kept running into each other at campus events sophomore year. We jelled well and would often talk alone before/after/during these events. We joked that we were the only two outspoken CS majors. I treasured these conversations. We traded lots of advice,…
Despite having a perfectly functional website, substack is not useable without javascript. Instead of displaying content, and then using javascript to display a banner, they do the opposite: they display a banner and use javascript to load the content underneath. Its infuriating!
I went out to an escape room, dinner, and club yesterday night. I slept over at a friends. Then I bought breakfast from a chic local business, and metro’d home. I felt so cosmopolitan today
I’m getting off the metro. The janitor and I get on the elevator together. He blasts a recap of the Caps game. Him: You follow hockey? Me: … Him: Soccer? Me: I’m not really into sports Him: Damn, I always wondered what my life would’ve turned out. I feel like sports is my everything. Me: Smiles sheepishly
Dark Mode I was nerd-sniped twice in the past week. I love packaging software. All of my apps coodinate their dark mode with the OS. Its a common feature these days, especially since support for dark mode detection has been added to the browser (and can even be used without javascript using media queries!). My terminal, alacritty , does not. It does have theme support, however. I found a couple…
I looked up the various shapes of bird wings, to refresh my memory. The vast majority of top results are all the same, and I’m having trouble identifying the original source.
I was munching on some boondi when I realized that the spicy/salty version is basically the same of cheetos / doritos. I’ve hated the O’s since forever, and maybe looked down on people who like them ('he licked cheeto dust of his fingers before typing'). The realization came as I was lcking boondi dust off my fingers. Perhaps an American rebranding to Boondos :tm: is needed.
It begins. The fragile grasp for the freedom of youth. The new has program at my company has launched clubs, largely focused on hobbies / activities. So exciting right? Nothing wrong with that. But we are tired after a day’s work. Many of us commute. The logisitics of it all are hitting us. Tuesday I organized my club meeting. It went well. Many attended. We had a vibrant discussion. But people…
This is a weird blog post. An (fairly onsided) argument occurred in my company’s slack about the housing market, about whether it was ethical to rent out a home (especially in today’s market). It got me thinking. The employees having this argument were some of the highest income earners in the country. Surely I would be able to own a home right? Right? I started from the generous assumption that…
Events on meetup and eventbrite are often crosslisted. The two websites have such similar UI’s (and their logo’s are of similar color) that I didn’t even realize I was on eventbrite instead of meetup. I was looking for a meetup feature and couldn’t find it. I ended up googling what I wanted (on meetup), and only then realized I was previously on eventbrite. Kottke also redesigned his site so have…
I just read the unix haters handbook , so this 'systems-thinking' is on my mind. My RSS reader has a bug where links can only be opened in the browser that ships with the OS, or the system default browser. This is despite having a setting to control which browser is used (setting it to something other than those two will fail). My default browser is an app that forwards to other applications based…