What’s on your mind?

[Scepticalscribe]

After reading the aforementioned book, Digital Minimalism this past week, I've decided to take a bit of a sabbatical from the forums and the Internet overall, or more accurately, fasting from the routine activities I've been engaged in online in a daily fashion.

I am endeavoring, nay committing, to refraining from spending copious amounts of my time browsing websites and forums too much. Instead, I'll be working on using that time for other pursuits, such as reading more and getting back to writing more. I wish to further enhance my own personal and professional growth through those activities and provide myself with more value in the time spent on them.

I want to fast from the Internet, the leisurely parts of the Internet, such as MacRumors and whatnot each week. I want to only check-in and catch up perhaps once per week on the weekends, maybe only Saturday or only Sunday for a short period of time.

That isn't to say that I don't value the awesome people here and the friends I've made online because I most certainly do. But I have realized for myself that I spend entirely too much time online and not enough time pursuing other activities and goals of mine.

With that said, I'm logging out of this browsers MacRumors session for now and I'll catch up with everyone over the weekend.

A fascinating approach, and very interesting post. And I love the use of the verb "fasting" in this context.

Actually, you have a point; the internet - and various forms of online communication - the convenience, the ease, - can become a substitute, or replacement, for lived life.

I also recently had a period - of around a week - where I was offline, and myst say that the experience of reading real papers, and real books was very satisfying.

However, it left me with the firm conviction that while the online world offers amazing resources, it - perhaps - should be rationed, or reduced, rather than allowed the degree of control over one's life that it has incrementally acquired.

 

[Huntn]

A fascinating approach, and very interesting post. And I love the use of the verb "fasting" in this context.

Actually, you have a point; the internet - and various forms of online communication - the convenience, the ease, - can become a substitute, or replacement, for lived life.

I also recently had a period - of around a week - where I was offline, and myst say that the experience of reading real papers, and real books was very satisfying.

However, it left me with the firm conviction that while the online world offers amazing resources, it - perhaps - should be rationed, or reduced, rather than allowed the degree of control over one's life that it has incrementally acquired.

When I look at the number of people I interact with on a regular basis, most of those people with the exception of my wife, I don’t have the same opportunities to engage in the kind of exchange an online forum offers. Anyway who wants to debate with friends or family on a regular basis?

I find that online forums are a tremendous resource for interaction, communication and an outlet for civil and sometimes disagreeable discourse. I can spend a lot of time with such interactions, but I can also get up and walk out the door as I am about to do. It really becomes a matter of how do you want to spend your free time.

 

[LizKat]

When I look at the number of people I interact with on a regular basis, most of those people with the exception of my wife, I don’t have the same opportunities to engage in the kind of exchange an online forum offers. Anyway who wants to debate with friends or family on a regular basis?

I find that online forums are a tremendous resource for interaction, communication and an outlet for civil and sometimes disagreeable discourse. I can spend a lot of time with such interactions, but I can also get up and walk out the door as I am about to do. It really becomes a matter of how do you want to spend your free time.ing"

Well and for me even in this busy season in the studio, there's the occasional coffee break online with critters who don't even brook "debating".

https://twitter.com/x/status/1226910728688304129

 

[JayMysterio]

Hmmmm....

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/13/21135200/fast-radio-bursts-astronomy-aliens

Fast radio bursts are one of astronomy’s tantalizing unsolved mysteries. These sudden pulses of radio waves come from far outside our galaxy. They last about a millisecond. And sometimes, the signals repeat.

Until recently, that’s about all scientists could tell you about fast radio bursts, or FRBs. Our radio telescopes, which pick up noise rather than light, first detected them in 2007; since then, we’ve recorded a few dozen more, but not enough to be able to put together a compelling theory of what causes them.

With the origin of these signals still unknown, some scientists — notably the chair of the Harvard astronomy department, Avi Loeb — speculate aliens could be sending them.

Now, researchers based in Canada, where a radio telescope exceptionally well equipped to detect FRBs began operating in 2018, have added a new piece to the puzzle. A few previously detected FRBs had been shown to repeat sporadically, without any regular pattern. But by observing the sky from September 2018 through October 2019, the researchers in Canada found 28 bursts — including one that repeats with a very regular pattern indeed: It appears every 16.35 days, to be exact.

This is the first time scientists have detected such a pattern in an FRB source. The peculiar signal is coming from a massive spiral galaxy 500 million light-years away. The source sends out one or two bursts of radio waves every hour, over four days. Then it goes quiet for 12 days. Then the whole process repeats.

So why is a radio signal repeating every 16 days like clockwork, and what can that teach us about its origins?

...

 

[LizKat]

If you want to scare the bejesus out of draw the attention of intelligent life somewhere else, it's probably much more effective to blast out hourly radio waves for four days and then go radio silent for twelve days... rinse, repeat... rather than just use a simpler repeating pattern like always sending hourly waves or waves of some other periodicity.

The combination of asymmetry and regularity would be more likely to pique the curiosity of other highly intelligent beings.

 

[kazmac]

@Scepticalscribe glad all is well with you.

My iMac got over it's Keyboard Identify bug. 🤪Apparently that has been a thing since Mavericks.

Mom is finally improving in her Physical Therapy.🙂

I started my Physical Therapy on my favorite arm and the chin looks like it took a cue from Frankestein, but that's fine. So glad I am okay (and three weeks out from that fall).

BTW, for those of you who have the option of Aflac insurance at work, they live up to the commercials. Submitted my claim and a week later, money in my bank account. So easy to deal with them. Sadly, no 🦆 handling my case though.

Anyway, wish you all a good night.

Friday is almost upon us.

 

[Apple fanboy]

@Scepticalscribe glad all is well with you.

My iMac got over it's Keyboard Identify bug. 🤪Apparently that has been a thing since Mavericks.

Mom is finally improving in her Physical Therapy.🙂

I started my Physical Therapy on my favorite arm and the chin looks like it took a cue from Frankestein, but that's fine. So glad I am okay (and three weeks out from that fall).

BTW, for those of you who have the option of Aflac insurance at work, they live up to the commercials. Submitted my claim and a week later, money in my bank account. So easy to deal with them. Sadly, no 🦆 handling my case though.

Anyway, wish you all a good night.

Friday is almost upon us.

The duck reference went totally over my head! Glad it’s working out.
Is your mum back home yet?

 

[kazmac]

The duck reference went totally over my head! Glad it’s working out.
Is your mum back home yet?

Mom is not home yet. She still cannot put weight on her leg.

Aflac supplemental insurance uses a duck in their ads (Aflac sounds like quack).

Example of an Aflac ad

Hope your house renovations are coming along well.

Happy Friday 🙂

 

[Apple fanboy]

Mom is not home yet. She still cannot put weight on her leg.

Aflac supplemental insurance uses a duck in their ads (Aflac sounds like quack).

Example of an Aflac ad

Hope your house renovations are coming along well.

Happy Friday 🙂

Getting there. Bathroom nearly finished. Kitchen half done.
Underfloor heating installed.
New boiler fired up today.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Getting there. Bathroom nearly finished. Kitchen half done.
Underfloor heating installed.
New boiler fired up today.

Steady and welcome progress; great to hear.

 

[JayMysterio]

On Valentine's and this is your reaction...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1228056943664812032

 

[Scepticalscribe]

@Scepticalscribe glad all is well with you.

My iMac got over it's Keyboard Identify bug. 🤪Apparently that has been a thing since Mavericks.

Mom is finally improving in her Physical Therapy.🙂

I started my Physical Therapy on my favorite arm and the chin looks like it took a cue from Frankestein, but that's fine. So glad I am okay (and three weeks out from that fall).

BTW, for those of you who have the option of Aflac insurance at work, they live up to the commercials. Submitted my claim and a week later, money in my bank account. So easy to deal with them. Sadly, no 🦆 handling my case though.

Anyway, wish you all a good night.

Friday is almost upon us.

Delighted to learn that your mom's physical therapy is going well, and that yours is, also.

On Valentine's and this is your reaction...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1228056943664812032

Once upon a time, that might have been my reaction, too; now, I simply sigh at the fact of the day, - it is something of a cliché - but wish them well.

 

[compwiz1202]

Fixing a late breakfast, and just happened to notice the writing on my decades old tongs, and started reminiscing about the good ole days before everything was made in China. Capitalists!

View attachment 893758​

Yea and it lasts forever, so you pay way less per unit time than the 300 you would buy today because they keep breaking.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yea and it lasts forever, so you pay way less per unit time than the 300 you would buy today because they keep breaking.

I remember my shock - years and years ago - when my professor of political philosophy, a wonderful and erudite Scotsman with a wry sense of humour, explained the concept of "inbuilt obsolescence" to us in class (a concept my mother - who had studied economics, philosophy, and politics, confirmed grimly when I raised it with her subsequently), adding dryly that, when he was young, "if you kicked a car, you broke your toe" while lamenting the deplorable and dismal quality of cars manufactured by the time he was teaching us.

 

[LizKat]

Yea and it lasts forever, so you pay way less per unit time than the 300 you would buy today because they keep breaking.

Yep... for awhile there I was buying inexpensive veggie peelers two at a time every year for that reason. One day I woke up and paid twice the price for a Swedish-made one. That was three years ago.

That approach doesn't always work though if one is very short of money except for the likes of food and rent. So there will always be a market for a veggie peeler that gets the job done for now. Shelling out for what we know won't last very long is exasperating, but a fact of life when one's just starting out after college and everything needed in that first "very own kitchen!!" is a hand-me-down from older kinfolk or else an unanticipated and often unaffordable expense.

 

[JamesMike]

Yep... for awhile there I was buying inexpensive veggie peelers two at a time every year for that reason. One day I woke up and paid twice the price for a Swedish-made one. That was three years ago.

That approach doesn't always work though if one is very short of money except for the likes of food and rent. So there will always be a market for a veggie peeler that gets the job done for now. Shelling out for what we know won't last very long is exasperating, but a fact of life when one's just starting out after college and everything needed in that first "very own kitchen!!" is a hand-me-down from older kinfolk or else an unanticipated and often unaffordable expense.

I can identify with your comments. As a young soldier many years ago, who cleared $99.00 a month, cheap was the hallmark of buying, I learned to value quality items found in second-hand shops. As my economic status has changed through the years and able to purchase high-quality items without concern for price, I still value the 'old quality items' more than the newer ones.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yep... for awhile there I was buying inexpensive veggie peelers two at a time every year for that reason. One day I woke up and paid twice the price for a Swedish-made one. That was three years ago.

That approach doesn't always work though if one is very short of money except for the likes of food and rent. So there will always be a market for a veggie peeler that gets the job done for now. Shelling out for what we know won't last very long is exasperating, but a fact of life when one's just starting out after college and everything needed in that first "very own kitchen!!" is a hand-me-down from older kinfolk or else an unanticipated and often unaffordable expense.

Second hand stores can rock for quality products, but you must know what you are looking for and wish to buy.

Over thirty years ago, my parents returned from a holiday to northern Italy with two gifts for me; one was a hand carved wooden chess set - which I had requested; the other, a thoughtful gift from my mother, - and one that was useful, as, even then, I did quite a bit of the household cooking - was a stunning white coloured metal garlic press which I still have and use regularly.

I can identify with your comments. As a young soldier many years ago, who cleared $99.00 a month, cheap was the hallmark of buying, I learned to value quality items found in second-hand shops. As my economic status has changed through the years and able to purchase high-quality items without concern for price, I still value the 'old quality items' more than the newer ones.

My mother - quoting her mother in turn - used to always say that "buying dear was buying cheap in the long run," and recommended that approach whenever possible.

 

[kazmac]

Nice to experience one of these new trains for my commute home.

 

[AppleFanatic10]

My aunt is in the hospital. She has COPD, arthritis, hypertension and a lot of other things. She usually pulls through and is out in less than a week. This time she’s been in since Sunday night. I’m just hoping she pulls through but she’s having difficulty breathing and is having massive anxiety attacks when she comes off her sedative medicine. I hope everything is gonna be alright.

 

[LizKat]

My aunt is in the hospital. She has COPD, arthritis, hypertension and a lot of other things. She usually pulls through and is out in less than a week. This time she’s been in since Sunday night. I’m just hoping she pulls through but she’s having difficulty breathing and is having massive anxiety attacks when she comes off her sedative medicine. I hope everything is gonna be alright.

How scary for her -- and also for all who love and care for her. I hope she can be helped to be made comfortable in her breathing, so at least that part of her anxiety is somewhat lessened. It's great if she's allowed to have family visit her in hospital. It can otherwise be such an intimidating place, even if one is aware the staff are trying to help.

 

[Huntn]

My aunt is in the hospital. She has COPD, arthritis, hypertension and a lot of other things. She usually pulls through and is out in less than a week. This time she’s been in since Sunday night. I’m just hoping she pulls through but she’s having difficulty breathing and is having massive anxiety attacks when she comes off her sedative medicine. I hope everything is gonna be alright.

I’m hoping for her and you.

 

[Apple fanboy]

My aunt is in the hospital. She has COPD, arthritis, hypertension and a lot of other things. She usually pulls through and is out in less than a week. This time she’s been in since Sunday night. I’m just hoping she pulls through but she’s having difficulty breathing and is having massive anxiety attacks when she comes off her sedative medicine. I hope everything is gonna be alright.

Hope there is some improvement for her.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

My aunt is in the hospital. She has COPD, arthritis, hypertension and a lot of other things. She usually pulls through and is out in less than a week. This time she’s been in since Sunday night. I’m just hoping she pulls through but she’s having difficulty breathing and is having massive anxiety attacks when she comes off her sedative medicine. I hope everything is gonna be alright.

It can be upsetting and distressing - both for the person admitted to hospital and for their relatives (and friends) - when stuff like this happens.

One of the most upsetting things for adults in such settings is the (hopefully temporary) loss of their autonomy and independence; they can be talked over buy medical professionals, or can be too upset or stressed - and distressed - to be able to deal wth what is happen and what they are experiencing.

Try to be your aunt's advocate while she is there; ask the questions and raise the issues that you know (or think) need to be asked, and raised and discussed, as it is easier for someone else to do this than for the patient who may be too upset, or stressed, to be able to do this for themselves.

And try to be there for her, as well. Small kindnesses can go a long way.

The best of luck to you both.

 

[kazmac]

@AppleFanatic10 Hope your Aunt pulls through.

Saw a big crow in the tree out front earlier and another bird I did not recognize. Great to see them.

Appetite is Hobbit sized today, there will be a second breakfast. 😛

 

[Septembersrain]

The cyst is still on my left ovary. It hasn't gotten bigger but for no good reason at all, it hurts more when I eat. They are trying hormones as a oophorectomy would make my third gynecological surgery.

It's too costly both financially and physically at this point.

To say my husband and I are a tad overwhelmed with my health, his job, would be an understatement.