At odds

Throughout my life I've heard the phrase "My desire to stay sane is at odds with my desire to stay informed". When I was younger it didn't make sense, but when things started going crazy, I *had* to stay on top of things. I needed to be ahead of the curve. 

Not for myself, I have kids. If the world is going crazy, I need to make sure I'm ready for it. When people started panicking as the Covid shutdowns began, I wasn't worried because I already had extra food in my house. But things kept getting worse. The story kept shifting. (I could go on at length about that, but... not now)

I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to realize what that phrase really meant. I realized I had to shut out nearly all of the hype, stop doomscrolling, and simply be prepared for literally anything. I realized I can be slightly insane and a lot happier at the same time.

New old movie

So the wife and I went out to watch the newly remastered directors cut of the terribly named Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Let me skip my usual blabbering commentary. The new CGI was amazing. Where they cleaned up was good. The script was still slow with lots of filler. The costume designer needed to be shot.

Out of a cannon. Into the ocean.

LOOK AT THAT GUY. Why is he wearing a LEATHER HELMET WITH A CHINSTRAP in a SPACESHIP. I mean, the uniforms were anything but (casual Friday, on a Monday? Bring on the polo shirts), and pale blue was everywhere, but... there's no excuse for this guy. Like at all.

↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑

That's him officer, that man right there.

Music dearth

Back in college, I was always hearing other people's music. I could easily dismiss most of it (mass produced pop garbage), but found many, many gems. It was my golden for music.

I graduated nine years ago, and it's been pretty quiet ever since. The first two years after, I worked with the public and kept up with many of my university colleagues, but once I moved out of Buffalo it dried up. Turns out I just suck at finding music. Even the YouTube algorithm has changed, steering me away from indie artists and toward... whatever garbage they're pushing.

No, I'm not going back to college to solve this.

The District

Guess what the wife wanted for Mothers day?

A weekend in Washington DC.

Since her kids couldn't afford it, and lacked basic planning skills, I took the lead while they took the credit. It was a shorter visit, leaving on Friday and returning on Sunday.

Of course, it started to rain just as we were outside Syracuse. The rain followed us all the way down. That combined with the spaghetti mess of a highway system that surrounds the nations capitol and a six hour drive took us eight. Fortunately, we only planned to arrive on Friday, not do anything. 

Saturday, the main (and first thing in the morning) event was the open house of the Washington DC Temple. I was taken there when I was four and remember very little. The wife was there as a baby and remembers exactly what you'd expect her to.

It was amazing.

Afterward, we went to the air and space museum. The one with the space shuttle. Ok, I knew it had a space shuttle, so I wasn't surprised by it. What got me was... everything else. Once we arrived, I had a clear shot of Discovery pointing right at me. A quick glance at a map showed silhouettes of the other aircraft. I didn't recognize most of them, but the one in the center was unmistakable. The SR-71 Blackbird. 

My wife wasn't impressed. "It's a black airplane" Ok, she may have been a little impressed, but clearly lacked my enthusiasm. 

The National Archives was where my son Z wanted to go. He wanted to see the Constitution (he also wanted to read it). You can imagine his disappointment when he couldn't read it. I had to explain that it was written in an old writing style called 'cursive'. He was happy enough when we got him a printed copy. 

It rained the entire day. 

Sunday morning it finally stopped raining, and we walked the National Mall. My normally rambunctious kids felt the solemnity of the Lincoln Memorial, choosing to frolic slowly and silently. They kept thinking the Washington Monument was much closer, not realizing just how tall it was. We walked much and saw much.

Then I drove much, much faster getting home than we did heading down.

Cardiac silver lining

Quick followup:

I removed the joy from my diet and replaced it with vegetables. Sometimes I'm just hungry and whenever I reach for something I know I like, the label tells me why I was having trouble before. So instead of eating anything, I'll just be hungry for awhile.

Anyway, in two weeks I dropped 15 pounds. It's visible in my face and I'm down a pants size. I thought it would be harder.

smrt watch

I got a smartwatch for my birthday in 2014. It was a Samsung Gear 2 Neo, and getting notifications on my watch was novel and convenient.

Right after Thanksgiving in 2019, the wifes phone MELTED when it was charging, and its replacement came with a Samsung Gear S3. She didn't want it, and my Gear 2 couldn't charge any more  (rust on the exposed contact points - there's your big design flaw)

Since then, this watch doesn't know what it wants to do. For a year it was fine, no problems. Then a forced software update pushes its way through, and the battery life drops so precipitously I needed to bring the charger to work. It was only after I started to look for a replacement that the battery problem went away on its own.

It managed for another year and a half after that. Then it just stopped responding. Sure it would vibrate when a call came in, but it wouldn't light up. I still needed to grab the phone to see who was actually calling. But the fact that it didn't want to wake up was growing. I could tap it, spin the bezel, and nothing would happen. I had just assumed it died.

I took it off for a week, considering if I even wanted a smartwatch any more. Once I decided I was done with them, I noticed it was lighting up every time a notification came on my phone. It decided it wanted to live.

My watch is a teenager.

Seven

My daughter turned seven today. She skipped school while her mother took her shopping for new clothes. Then she hung out with me and played video games. She's not normally the video game type, but I suppose she likes Animal Crossing.

She spent herself so hard she fell asleep early.