Notes from April 2025#
2025-04-02#
My project with an alarm reminding me of cleaning my glasses was so successful that I am going to double it to twice a week now.
2025-04-03#
I went through the whole 808 State's discography (albums, EPs, and compilations only, though), and it was a nice ride. Time for a new journey.
2025-04-04#
In 2014, I read "The Nameless City" from H.P. Lovecraft, after which a map in "Quake" was named. In the story, the word "antediluvian" was used, which turned out to mean "predating the great flood."
Fast forward to last year, I did Latin in Duolingo to catch the taste of the language. Yesterday, I realised that it sounds like "ante di luvia." "Ante" is before in Latin and "lluvia" is rain in Spanish, so it clicked. I checked today, and "diluvia" is flood in Latin.
That's why I like to learn languages. To spot more patterns.
2025-04-05#
I used to remember everything. Now, it's just a façade. And there is something liberating in it.
2025-04-06#
Firefox finally got vertical tabs. That's how I like 'em. In my IDE, in my browser.
(I know that Visual Studio Code is not really IDE, but that doesn't change my preferences.)
But I have to revise that a little bit. I found all the covers of "In My Secret Life" on Spotify and listened to them, and it looks like not doing this song justice is the running thing for all the coverers. So, Katie, I apologise for being too harsh with your performance. It's the song that is too challenging, apparently.
Text Fragments are a step up for my ergodic website. I can now refer particular parts of any website, not only as a whole or by the id placed by its creators.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI/Reference/Fragment/Text_fragments
"Boy Swallows Universe" is a series adaptation of a book telling a story of growing up in 1980s Australia. There's a fair dose of magical realism, but in the right amounts, so the whole thing doesn't venture into gibberish. It's actually quite brutal as for a story of a child. A solid thing with an unexpected performance from Simon "The Mentalist" Baker, whom I didn't recognise at first. I am also a taste for Australia as a setting place for stories.
I was actually curious how the script for "No Country For Old Men" would fare compared to the book. The book is better. The writing is actually surprisingly bland, but maybe Coen brothers were writing for themselves and they didn't need to impress anyone with it. There aren't many deviations from the movie, apart from a couple of things that were actually in the book, but were cut out of the screenplay. They ended up in the movie anyway.
Perhaps due to the so-and-so quality of writing, but Anton Chigurh is nothing like in the movie. The whole creepy and towering presence of him looks like a sole work of Javier Bardem. Impressive.
Thanks to my daughter's newly-found interest in pirates, I will be watching (partially rewatching) all the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, which is a perfect opportunity for a thread.
Hannah Arerndt [sic!] on the technocratic planners in the Pentagon during the Vietnam War.
They were not just intelligent, but prided themselves on being “rational.” . . . They were eager to find formulas, preferably expressed in a pseudo-mathematical language, that would unify the most disparate phenomena with which reality presented them; that is, they were eager to discover laws by which to explain and predict political and historical facts as though they were as necessary, and thus as reliable, as the physicists once believed natural phenomena to be . . . [They] did not judge; they calculated. . . . an utterly irrational confidence in the calculability of reality [became] the leitmotif of the decision making.
I finally got to see "Idiocracy" (2006), a movie which has been referenced in some discussions I've seen over the years, but I never saw it mentioned anywhere else. A story of the most average man (and a woman) who gets hibernated and forgotten, and wakes up 500 years later to find that people are, well, just idiots. Hilarity ensues. Nice role from Luke Wilson. I suppose it's somewhat prophetic if you filter it out properly. Also funny, which is desired in a comedy.
2025-04-09 (Wednesday ;))#
I opened a ticket on Monday, and I confirmed now that we're past the "it works on my machine" part. So, progress.
2025-04-10#
In October 2016, we went to the aquarium in Qawra, Malta. There was a sense of the end of the world there. Not the end of times, but as if we reached the edge of the world. It was late-ish when we got there, and dark clouds were gathering and surrounding us. The buildings were sparse, with some of them under construction. I stood and looked into the sea, which was fading into darkness and clouds. So, whenever I read about a setting for the story at the world's end, I see Qawra at that moment.
For years, I had this fantasy of sorts. After leaving a company after a company, many of them were supposed to collapse without me because they failed to acknowledge how important I was and they couldn't find a proper replacement. In the end, none of the companies went under, at least not because of me.
They fixed it.
2025-04-11#
Miazma wins the contest for the most Sisters of Mercy sounding band apart from The Sisters of Mercy. Vocals are 100% Andrew Eldritch.
In the spirit of "Pirates of the Caribbean," we went to see a functional replica of a galleon because it's in Muelle Uno in Málaga. The ship was bigger than Magellan's, which I saw a couple of years ago (it's inconceivable that anyone sailed that far in something that small), but smaller than the Black Pearl. All in all, it gives me more context for watching sea movies from that epoch. It looked appealing, actually. I have some longing for the sea.
2025-04-12#
On the way to the galleon, I put on a shanty playlist in the car, and oh boy. Those 40 minutes will be enough for a while now.
2025-04-15#
Driving a new car in the dark in a new place is definitely something that sets me on the edge. But now I'm listening to the calming sounds of the ocean.
2025-04-15#
Brenda Jackson#
On the plane, I listened to "String Theories" by Brenda Jackson, who is BTW a very mysterious artist, and I was not able to locate any info about her, which gives her an aura of William Gibson's character (think of Cayce Pollard looking for a company making jeans in "Zero History"). I had downloaded the album on Spotify and listened to it on a couple of flights over the years (I rarely fly these days). It must have left me with some impression that I downloaded it. Anyway,
I found this time what it reminds me of (although, in all fairness, I might have come up with the same things before, hard to say). At first, I thought of an old computer game (late 1990s old), but then it struck me. It was very much like Xilton's soundtrack to "Electric Highways," a small indie walking simulator built with, well, enhanced Build Engine. Then I thought that it's also a bit like what the artist tried to achieve in "Reavers of New Rome." Both games pay a heavy tribute to the 1990s.
And then it struck me again and finally that it's very much like virtually the only track from "Perfect Assassin's" soundtrack from 1997. So, there goes the late 1990s. I would like to see a remake of this game at some point, but it would have to be a complete rework because as much as I like it, it didn't age well. Probably, it never was good. I still like it, though.
I like how the album starts with titular strings, but later, it goes into eurodance electronic vibes. And it all fits. The album sounds like a set of various themes for games that pretend to be done in the 1990s. Not knowing anything else than compositions themselves, I'm left with guessing. But you might give the album a shot if you like these kinds of aesthetics.
Correction [on May 18th, 2025]: It seems that I got mixed up with Eyeliner's "Buy Now" and one another album when I was listening to this while being half-asleep. The album does not slide into the eurodance, but instead, it becomes heavier with guitar riffs, which sound very much like a soundtrack to games from late 1990s' games. So that part was correct. I just confirmed it with my own ears.
2025-04-16#
It feels pretty old-fashioned to have music downloaded on a phone, but some stuff is only on YouTube, and I don't trust them it won't change. NewPipe makes it easy to save stuff for later.
Programming (which is coding and more) is a skill and skills have to be trained. If you don't train them, you lose them. That's how we're built. Thus, using an AI assistant to write code for you means that you're foregoing that skill. And it's not gonna be noticeable at first, but then it'll be too late. It's really a matter of discipline mainly.
Coming from the book culture, I find light themes in my IDEs more inspiring. It's just how I am.
2025-04-18#
I knew about the existence of "Barbarella" (1968) for long enough to say forever. It's a shamelessly erotic and silly, if not goofy, science-fiction bit. It's actually quite decent story-wise if you ignore that Barbarella changes her clothes every 10 minutes because the previous one were destroyed. It was a surprise to see the main actor from week-before "Blowup." I found the character of Pygar, a blind angel, to be the most interesting. No follow-up ever managed to emerge.
This came in handy when I was high in mountains and lost any reception, and Spotify refused to play downloaded music. It did work when I set the phone into the air-plane mode, but that's stupid. I'm not gonna comply with hacks like that.
"Red Lights" from 2012 were a last moment choice when the other film didn't pan out. I got lured by the cast (Cilian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, and Robert De Niro), but it was a bit of a dud. The first part is strong, but then the story goes into weird, and not in a good way, areas and developments. The end made the experience somewhat better, but it's 5/10 for me.
"The Color of Pomegranates" (1969) has got to be one of the more original films I've seen because I rarely watch Armenian cinema. We just never bump into each other. It's an experimentally-done biography of Sayat-Nova, a great poet. I didn't understand much of it, but it's visually interesting. Its recreation of medieval pictures reminded me distantly of approach in "The Mill and the Cross" (2011).
Music felt very familiar and I realised that it's because I spent hours listening to duduk music for years now. So, the vibe of the melodies was truly where I felt like at home. A bit unexpected.
Curb Your Enthusiasm#
I realised that I never wrote anything about "Curb Your Enthusiasm," now that I've finished the show finale. So, let's do a general review.
After having a blast with "Seinfeld," I wanted to follow up with similar vibes. Something appealing about those nihilist tones they had there. And Larry David, whose fictionalised life is the core of the show here, was a co-writer for the first 7 seasons.
The show was shot from 2000 to 2024, which gives us 24-year span, although, there are only 12 seasons (for instance, there is a 6-year gap between seasons 8 and 9). And because it continues the every day minutiae approach from "Seinfeld," it kind of documents some if not many aspects of the world. By some sense, those are the best documents, because they don't care about that when shooting and it ends up more realistic.
The first 4 or even 5 seasons were a bit hard to go through, as the humour was actually different from Seinfeld, even if similar at the same time. But then it clicked in, and the show started even doing whole-season arcs, which often happens with these vignette-disconnected shows. At some point, it all converges.
Most of the dialogues were improvised, and it was my small pleasure to observe how actors are trying to keep the straight face while talking absurd stuff sometimes.
And speaking of actors, the show had so many famous guests and recurring roles, oftentimes playing themselves as well. For instance, we can see young Bob Odenkirk, among other which I cannot recall now. But they are there. Sometimes as extras (like Meredith from "The Office" as a policewoman in one episode). That's always fun to spot them, sometimes looking very differently.
There are of course also actors from "Seinfeld," playing themselves. At the beginning there is Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but later Jerry Seinfeld himself and Michael Richards when they try to shot, within-the-series, a reunion episode of "Seinfeld." Nice tongue-in-a-cheek to all the people waiting for season 10. Seinfeld returns for the finale as well.
So, to summarise, while the beginnings were tough, we turn around and at the end I had a lot of fun. My favourite thing that happened to Larry is gotta be when he didn't get enough napkins when buying a hot-dog, so he took some more when the owner turned around, and moments later was stopped by police. This is kind of a thing that we're afraid to happen, but never happen. Well, to Larry, they do. And that's how the show rolls. But it's probably not for everyone.
The screenplay for "Lost in Translation" is probably scene-to-scene with the movie (it's been a while), but Sophia Coppola knew what she wanted to shoot, so it's not surprising. The language is terse and it reads very well. I didn't see Bill Murray or Scarlett Johansson during the reading. Or at least, not that much. It impressed me that all the songs are part of the script, not a realisation-time or later addition. Sophia Coppola really knew what she wanted.
"Pustina" ("Wasteland" in English) is a Czech show about a small town being devoured by a mining company. Then a disappearance of a young girl happens, and avalanche of events starts. Classic "Twin Peaks," we could say, but without supernatural. The show is very dense and heavy, and also ugly: all the places are just depressingly ugly, although in a natural way.
I've been eyeing "Pustina" for a while, but thumbnail discouraged me. Don't make the same mistake. :D
I have to admit that I haven't seen "Casablanca" (1943) until last week. Yes, 82 years later. I was expecting a lot of cringe, but no, the movie holds very well, plot and pacing wise. I guess Rick's demeanour is perceived differently now than it was back then. Was he more rude? Or less? No clue. I liked his banters with the French commissioner. Black-and-white make the fake Morocco more believable. However, Ingrid Bergman as unearthly beauty is more of an informed characteristic.
"Zift" is a Bulgarian film from 2008, an adaptation of a book. Story of Moth, a criminal who finally goes out of the prison with a plan for himself, but gets snatched by former associates. Black and white film gives a bit look to the action set sometime in 1960s. Neo-noir and black comedy should be especially interesting for retro-Soviet aesthetics. Surreal at times.
With the growing number of stories about Chinese or North Korean hackers trying to get hired remotely in Western companies, I begin to wonder if personal recommendations of candidates are going to become more valuable.
2025-04-19#
I spent almost 24 hours up yesterday. I woke up at 3:00, drove a car for 40 minutes, then quickly hopped on a plane, flew for 2 hours (but landed after 1 hour due to crossing timezones), again drove home for 40 minutes, saw an episode of "Barry," worked, saw another episode of "Barry," took dogs for a 1-hour walk, played "Sky: The Children of the Sky," and finally saw the last 3 episodes of "The White Lotus," season 3. Then I slept for over 9 hours.
I realised recently that I don't play Doom that much anymore, my once staple game. I moved mostly to TPS-es. I started a couple of megawads in the meantime, only to abandon them around 10 levels in (which is a shame in the case of Doom 2 in Spain Only because it's an amazing mapset). I don't remember if I expected it to happen, but it did, so there's no use of denying nor fighting it. It was unplanned yet nice to close this long chapter with John Romero's autobiography. Emag eht now aveh i!
This trip was different from the others. I would usually plan to move to the place I was just visiting, from actually making a solemn promise to myself to buy a place there (Fuerteventura) to actually rejecting the notion (Batumi). But not this time. I had fun, but in the end, I was always planning to return home. Be it investment in home (arrangement-wise) or growing a pack of animals to take care of and daily rituals straight out of "Perfect Days," but I am hereby acknowledging this change.
These downloaded files made me think, and I googled (with DuckDuckGo) that there are physical mp3 players which do that exact one thing: they play music. I decided to buy one to listen to music while I read in the hammock. I have a lot of Doom music in various arrangements and stuff bought on Bandcamp, which I can have in FLAC quality. And then some others. So, an experiment!
(I said an mp3 player, but it handles FLAC as well. And some other formats.)
2025-04-21#
ME (on forum): Why this JS-related thing doesn't work? I've done all according to docs.
GODS OF JAVASCRIPT: He made a fool of himself publicly. Now we shall grant him working functionality.
ME (on forum): Never mind. It works now.
2025-04-22#
My largestest monorepo project at work forced me to abandon Visual Studio Code, and I learned that WebStorm is now free for private use. So I guess I'll be ditching VSCode on my home computer as well. It was always a necessity, not an editor of choice, although it works fine for smaller projects.
Is Al Yankovic weird at all these days? Surely we had to catch up with him. Or even surpass him in some regards.
It's written in the scripture (and it's not some idle claim) that thou shalt know them by their fruits. And it gives me hope about humanity that dogs naturally like the animals they grow up with. Be it a cat or a horse or a goat or maybe even a turtle. You have to train a dog to be aggressive. And that's our fruit. I don't believe that someone evil would be able to produce such a loving animal. Not in the long run. So, on the balance, we're okay.
I couldn't help myself. So I didn't.
2025-04-25#
My dream project for writing at the moment, apart from a bleak fantasy story about a character who knows he's the narrator, is a series of texts about my CDs, but filtered through me: how I found the album, what role it played, then some trivia and info overlapping with other CDs. It would be a semi-autobiographical journey which would also capture something about its time. But it's a tall order, given how I barely find time for short notes here. At least, there's a trace of the idea here now.
I'm not the happiest about the mp3 player I bought, but maybe a review will follow soon/at some time, as I am planning to give it more chance.
So, what you're saying is that if we somehow made access to water for AI companies harder, they would fold?
As a kid, I wanted to live off my writing. And I do. Writing Slack messages and JavaScript code. See, kids, you need to be more precise.
2025-04-26#
My favourite anecdote about Sergio Leone's movies is probably the one where he and Clint Eastwood didn't speak the same language, so they were communicating through a translator, which produced long times when none of them spoke anything, and this inspired the very little speaking nameless cowboy. Because Eastwood waiting for the response struck an idea.
This is a poem
It is short
Because it has to fight for a short attention span
For years, I've been posting pictures to Instagram, but when I switched to a new phone, I decided to ditch it. In exchange, I decided to give a shot to Pixelfed. By then, I was already well aware of the Fediverse rules about alt texts, so I tried to provide descriptions for my photos. And a strange thing happened: the photos were always meant to be its own thing, with no words to spoil them, and when I "had" to write descriptions, I lost my interest in taking pictures at all.
Recently, I thought to just forego that rule for the Pixelfed account, but it doesn't help. I still have no motivation to even post the pictures I took in the meantime.
Photographies are a medium for seeing and while it makes all the sense in the world to describe pictures which serve as illustrations to something, it's a game killer for me when it comes to pictures as its own thing. I don't think of pictures in terms of words.
Perhaps, I'll force myself to abandon that rule for Pixelfed.
2025-04-29#
My coworkers now know about my page (so by extension, about what I'm publishing here). That's why I was boring all this time, so when that happens, I'm safe.
There was a power cut in Spain yesterday, and we ended up with a lazy afternoon. Our renovated patio came in handy. I read books in my hammock and slept. When the electricity returned, there was still no Internet, and I managed to start writing a short story (the one about the narrator who's aware of being the narrator). Kind of in the spirit of "Perfect Days."
A post from theHigherGeometer#
People are saying we should write jumble words to mess up the training of AIs; I say we should just write sentences like those of the length Jane Austen would write, that have such non-local structure and nested clauses that, what with the drift of attention and the window of tokens, the LLMs might start to emulate said sentences and then start to drift; one should also throw in even more semicolons (and, why not, nested parentheticals (and even em-dash-separated asides—who doesn't love author commentary—to pad out the length) for the additional context they give)—but of course, also trying to keep in mind the general readability of the flow of ideas: know your audience, after all; for me, I'm happy to just be typing into the void as a release-valve for my thoughts, even if none of you are still reading by this point; I would much rather write—and read!—read something like this than have to and and/or subtract all the additional nonsense words; even better would be Proustian nested clauses and inverted grammar, but that, unlike run-on sentences, does not come so easily, unlike (apparently) to 19th century German journalists (but of course in German one can split the verbs as far apart as one likes).
Or not.
/source [links by me]
2025-04-30#
It has been many years, but Winamp's layout is still a design pattern for an mp3 player to me. As much as I like Foobar2000 or Rhythmbox, they don't feel like a proper player. There's something too barebone about them. They're like file managers that happen to play music. It doesn't matter how it feels in the end, but it's funny how things like that imprint in one's brains.
And speaking of mp3 players, when there was no electricity but still cellular data available, it was advised to switch to a radio for information. But who has a radio in 2025? Sure, smartphones have an app for that, but it requires wired headphones, and wireless is the king. Not for me, but my battery was depleted. Hence, the mp3 player I bought last week rides in on a white horse offering FM and a 70-hour battery. So, despite so-and-so sound quality, it was a useful tool. I feel a bit vindicated.
And so it rains again. But I have to say that I prefer it to happen now than during the Winter because then, it's colder. Also, the sun is stronger now and all the plants around explode and blossom, and that is such a fine sight during our evening walks with our dogs.
A post from Andy Wingo#
finalise is short for "filer à l'anglaise" and is for when you notice that an object is gone without saying goodbye