Having some lovely leftover chicken wings for lunch today. My favorite. I wish I had some good blue cheese to go with it.
She loves it, but it's kinda cold out here.
Typically we'd see some wildlife but I think they are all hunkered down today!
Is there a correlation between the strength and extreme tone of a political post and whether it's set to friends only or public?
it's so strange to me that so many thoughtful, timely, and powerful political arguments, positions, and ideas are hidden behind the freinds only status on social media.
This is a waste. Wouldn't you want your strong political arguments to be seen by people unlike you, who see things differently than you? This seems to be where the most impact could take place.
Thinking of my own friends list on social media sites, it's pretty wide and there are a lot of people on there I don't know too well. I suppose others could have a list like this but I imagine it is people who already share your political and social views. They can just hype you up with their already extant agreement in a comment, but there's little development of their point of view or, maybe more importantly, yours.
I suggest that one of the best reasons to make an argument is to improve your own position through the feedback you get. If the audience is curtailed to a group of like-minded people you might not get a lot of push or any pressure on your position.
Plus you aren't making much of an impact there. It does feel like you are doing something powerful and good, and that's important in times of political instability and uncertainty, however there should be a balance.
I'm all for adapting your message to the audience - that is the study of rhetoric after all - but why are we speaking on social media to the "world" but behind the walls of a compound of our own design, with our friends and allies?
This slippage is dangerous as it might, in the terms of Freud, be a form of repressive desublimation where we enjoy the release of the frustration before it's ready to boil over and push us to create a new or aberrant or artistic expression for the world to see. Perhaps the relief we experience isn't the positive good we get from political engagement, but pleasure only. Maybe there's a way to use social media posts to keep a positive vibe, do something meaningful, and release some of the frustration that moves us to the keyboard in the first place.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/02/03/microplastics-human-brain-increase/
It seems like perhaps microplastics are the lead pipes of our Roman civilization!
Not knowing any better, the Romans used a lot of lead to create pipes to bring in water to their cities. Lead was also in a number of other daily objects. This has been cited as one of the reasons for civilization's collapse at the end of the Roman Empire.
Perhaps microplastics will be our demise in a similar way. It's hard to imagine a world without plastic, but it might have to come to that to preserve our minds and avoid some of these horrible brain disorders/diseases that seem to be on the rise.
I’m off to Cornell for the day! This bus goes directly there from midtown.
Sometimes leaving early is bad and obviously you don’t want to be late for something, however hitting the sweet spot during massive delays is pretty good. This should be cleared out by the time I leave.
I missed the train I planned for because, well, uber, traffic and all that comes with living so far out. I was a little sad but now it seems that it is going to work out much better.
I am frustrated that I cannot buy a cup of coffee at the Costco Food Court when I'm shopping there. Why not?
I wrote a letter to my local store's management about this terrible issue. They haven't responded, so I thought I might share it here and see if someone reads it who might have some power to do something about it.
I did find this picture on Reddit, which makes me wonder why this machine isn't everywhere.
I do hope I get a response soon! I sent this maybe a day after the date posted in the letter.
Had a great time meeting up with some former students of mine for dinner in Manhattan. This is my newest hobby, going to Manhattan and staying over in an inexpensive hotel room.
We had a great time at dinner, one of my favorite places to go called Da Umberto. Check it out if you are ever close enough to go!
Here we are, probably on bottle 2 of a very nice wine:
Here are some of the random shots I took. I don't like my iPhone camera; it looks pretty bad compared to my pixel phone I used to have. So I carry around my old point and click Nikon camera and take pictures of whatever I think is interesting. Mostly it's lightposts and other places people put stickers. I also take a lot of building pictures.
https://www.last.fm/user/Professor_Steve/listening-report/year/2025/month/1
I think we are off to a great start with listening to music this year!
I am a huge fan of hotel breakfast buffet. Today I had one in manhattan after a great night catching up with some former students over dinner. Maybe drank a little too much because I’m dehydrated this morning.
Book shopping is next before heading back out east. Meanwhile, just look at those eggs.
