Ed Zitron on Prof G Markets podcast:

If we had smarter fascists, we’d be in real trouble.

For the past two, maybe three months I have been eating one tin of sardines (sometimes mackerel) per day in the mornings. I silently went into this kicking and screaming (it is an acquired taste unlike say, bacon and fried eggs). After sticking to this for a bit here are some conclusions I have landed on:

• They are actually delicious once you find the right brands. With what is available to me I’ve settled on King Oscar and Season brands since there is no added crap: just fish, olive oil, and salt.

• I’ve had a level of mental clarity or emotional regulation I haven’t experienced in a long time.

• Without really changing much, I have steadily lost .5 to 1 lb per week (back of the napkin math). Although I take some of that back, I really haven’t gone for the convenient gas station or other junk food as a default (see above, emotional regulation).

• I’m enjoying real meals more.

My original goal was to just bring a little more fish into my diet and find a way to really enjoy it (fish/seafood in central Nebraska is just not a regular thing). I did not anticipate I would stick to it this long nor want to continue. I especially did not anticipate the mental/emotional regulation I’ve been feeling. So more tins it is.

“I’m a reasonable man, get off my case.” - Radiohead

What I am looking forward to in September: finding out who Pearl Jam’s new drummer will be at the end of the month.

I bought this Prius when gas prices were still decent back in December 2025. The amount of driving I do during a week for work did not support an EV (330 ish mile round trip 3x per week). I don’t quite hit 60mpg, but it’s remarkable that I get even close since I’m driving highway speeds (75-ish mph).

Expenses have been minimal, I do mostly my own maintenance, going to need new tires soon, and my insurance is relatively inexpensive ($1000 per year). Gas is at around $120 per month (1000 miles per week). I did a clean trade of my previous car (a 2020 4runner, the anti-Prius) and own it out right.

I do wish it had more space, but also enjoy the constraint that brings to work with. We’ve taken a couple of family roadtrips, and it did fine. Don’t know where I’m going with this, just feeling lucky I suppose.

As of August, my work had agreed that 3x per week at such distance is excessive and I now go in once a week.

The tech industry as a whole is so…goddamned…weird. Don’t get me started on the fucked up labels…Digital Natives…AI Natives. Turns out that you need people to understand their roles? There is benefit to developing people and expertise? AI mostly wastes time and mainly satisfies dopamine hits at stupid (subsidized) expense? Labor matters? The implosion of this ridiculousness and hype is long overdue. See also AI corrodes critical thinking skills:

From [Business Insider, Sarah E. Needleman reports]:

At the AI startup Valon, a new policy requires most new hires to learn their jobs the old-fashioned way — without AI.

Andrew Wang, CEO and cofounder, said he instituted it last month after Valon gave employees broad access to AI. When he examined their usage, he said he found employees turning to the priciest models for even simple tasks, a habit he worried was both costly and preventing newer workers from developing a real grasp of their jobs.

“By doing the basic work, rather than relying on AI, you start to form an understanding,” Wang, a former Golden Sachs analyst, told Business Insider.

Lots of geniuses out there.

I was today years old when I discovered you can turn off the Apple Music service from the player.

A few thoughts that ran through my head while spending ˜4 hours mowing today:

• Add more to the emergency fund.
• It would be nice to see (I know, it is farfetched) a handful of companies announce November election day holiday. Bonus points for two or more days.
• Refrain from making any large purchases.
• Continue keeping the device away while hanging out with the boy or my wife (this has been paying dividends).
• Have a coffee with someone once a week.
• Have lunch with the boy, I learned this week that this is a thing we can do at his school.
• Christ, it’s hot.

Man, Tim Curry too. RIP Dr. Poole, one of my favorite characters he played:

www.youtube.com/watch

Listened to this What Now? with Trevor Noah episode with Lera Boroditsky, a cognitive scientist and linguist expert, discussing how language changes or affects your personality.

(Transcription courtesy of Overcast’s excellent transcription capability on my ages old iPhone 13 mini):

334 00:18:17,340 –> 00:18:24,540 My favorite quote on communication is the the biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. 335 00:18:24,540 –> 00:18:37,980 We often think we have communicated, and all of us have had this experience of, oh, but I said clearly, and then you realize, oh, communication is actually about the receiving end, not about the sending end.

The origins of the quote is somewhere in this unravelling, attributed to an article in “Fortune” magazine titled, “Is Anybody Listening?”, by William H. Whyte in 1950:

LET US RECAPITULATE A BIT: The great enemy of communication, we find, is the illusion of it. We have talked enough; but we have not listened. And by not listening we have failed to concede the immense complexity of our society–and thus the great gaps between ourselves and those with whom we seek understanding.

I’ve been going through an internal process of letting go of what I think I know, to allow for a more natural/organic/whatever process of understanding of those around me (at work, at home, even with my son). I told myself something to the effect of “let go”, with whatever weight that carries.

I think I need to reframe that deeper into “allow for more understanding”.

BTW, this episode treats everything with such great humor, well worth a listen alone to hear 4 people speak with constant interruptions, laughter, dry or witty humor, but most of all, great comfort, grace, knowledge, and curiosity.

what a light show last night.

RIP Frank Beard

This is the way.

Straight-line wind or tornado, I guess regardless of what you call it, it was friggin strong.

John Gruber: Gurman on OpenAI’s Upcoming Hardware Product: ‘Movable, Screenless Speaker Built as AI Companion’

No one wants a companion they need to lug around.

Listening to Aurora en Pekin by Marc Ribot & Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos from Y los Cubanos Postizos.

Really lovely album from 1998 🎵

I’m not sure what Costco’s online-only landing page is trying to tell me…but I’m here for it:

Busted out the smoker. I’m not a fan of smart devices but had to at least give it a name 😁

14 years, still going strong.

People don’t realise that “Just get a Brother laser; it’s fine” is the highest possible compliment for printers. If you want a printer to (1) sit near-dormant in deep sleep for weeks or months on end, and then (2) immediately print what you send to it, properly, every single time and then go to sleep again, then… just get a Brother laser printer. Somehow, in this world of madness, it does the thing you buy it for with no bullshit. If you can even remember what that’s like.

Post by @carnage4life@mas.to

The billionaire co-founder of AirBnB wants you to blame the babies of undocumented immigrants for starter homes being unaffordable.

The boy asked us to not wait for him to fall asleep before leaving his room tonight 🧐

Monty Python’s World Cup Team of Philosophers - video

Hegel is arguing that reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically, it exists only in the imagination and Marx is claiming it was offside.

6 years ago, my son was born on Father’s Day of all days. Today we celebrated both his birthday and Father’s Day. Next one will be in 2037 (I think).

I was very late to the Markdown side of things, however text files were always my jam, certainly professionally (there is not a callcenter agent in the world that didn’t have a thin Notepad window taking up a small slice on the left or right hand side of their screens jotting notes and copying and pasting things in their tools.)

In a tech news cycle dominated by trillions of dollars of personal wealth to a single person, and technologies that are probably making us more stupid, it is easy to forget that what has made the internet work are fundamentally standards, and compatible formats.

Anyways, you should read the entire thing, then listen to John Gruber talk to the crew at The Vergecast about his creation.

• From Anil Dash “How Markdown Took Over the World - Jan, 2026:

That attitude of being not-quite-_anti_commercial, but perhaps just not even really concerned with whether something was commercial or not seems downright quaint in an era when the tech tycoons are not just the wealthiest people in the world, but also some of the weirdest and most obnoxious as well.

And:

The people who make the real Internet and the real innovations also don’t look for ways to hurt the world around them, or the people around them.

I have an old 2012 Mac mini gathering dust at the moment. I may give Haiku OS a try soon. Looks like wifi isn’t supported, audio drivers may be iffy.

Mike Patton is one of my favorite artists and at the end of 2025, he and The Avett Brothers collaborated on an album together. I just bought it and adore what I’m hearing so far: AVTT/PTTN 🎵