Adrian’s Microblog

How is it that Thomas Merton could have in 1961 so accurately nailed modern society?:

The great temptation of modern Man is not physical solitude, but immersion in the mass of other men … escape into the great formless sea of irresponsibility, which is the crowd. There is actually no more dangerous solitude than that of the man who is lost in a crowd, who does not know he is alone and who does not function as a person in a community either.

Where men live huddled together without true communication, there seems to be greater sharing, and a more genuine communion. But this is not communion, only immersion in the general meaninglessness of countless slogans and clichés repeated over and over again so that in the end one listens without hearing and responds without thinking. The constant din of empty words and machine noises, the endless booming of loudspeakers end by making true communication and true communion almost impossible. Each individual in the mass is insulated by thick layers of insensibility. He doesn’t care, he doesn’t hear, he doesn’t think. He does not act, he is pushed. He does not talk, he produces conventional sounds when stimulated by the appropriate noises. He does not think, he secretes clichés.

(from New Seeds of Contemplation, in chapter titled Solitude is not Separation)

Biscotti are my kryptonite … although I’m not sure what that makes my superpower … :/

Do some main character stuff …

I’ve ordered from StickerMule in the past and always appreciated good results.

Bookmarking here also some of their free side-tools that can helpful for those edge cases where you just need something ‘simple’ done:

• Upscale images without loss in quality

• Upgrade images to vector graphics

• Run online giveaways

• Remove the background from photos

• Online graphic design software

• and a few more

With a recent snow in town, an old video came to mind from years past … turns out it was 15 years. ;)

In my mind, I had remembered it as a Field Notes quarterly edition promo vid, but after on-and-off searching over a couple days, including YouTube, I wasn’t getting anywhere. :/

Then from the faded corners of my mind I started to think it may have been done by Jim Coudal’s marketing company, Coudal Partners, before they were fully in the Field Notes project. And that was on Vimeo.

The video’s description:

After the great Chicago Blizzard of 2011, thousands of pounds of snow were removed from city’s downtown streets. Loaded by bulldozers and heavy trucks, much of the snow was piled in the empty lot between our studio and the railroad tracks.

In a collaborative effort between Coudal Partners and The Explorers of the New World Society, an expedition was immediately formed. The goal; a bold assault aiming to place the very first men upon the summit of this peak. Known for their dexterity and grit, Dawson and Matt were selected for the dangerous undertaking. This is their story.

Herewith, the daring arctic adventure titled, Above the Sun:

“Big Tech billionaires spur exodus from Calif.”

I started anecdotally seeing this 5-10 years ago at a smaller scale, and now even the big names (Sacks, Thiel, & others) are moving to Miami, Austin, and destinations outside California.

There definitely has been a change in the playing board among states since 2020.

Dew Point vs. Humidity (via weather.gov)

The dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to (at constant pressure) in order to achieve a relative humidity (RH) of 100%. At this point the air cannot hold more water in the gas form. If the air were to be cooled even more, water vapor would have to come out of the atmosphere in the liquid form, usually as fog or precipitation.

The higher the dew point rises, the greater the amount of moisture in the air. This directly affects how “comfortable” it will feel outside. Many times, relative humidity can be misleading. For example, a temperature of 30 and a dew point of 30 will give you a relative humidity of 100%, but a temperature of 80 and a dew point of 60 produces a relative humidity of 50%. It would feel much more “humid” on the 80 degree day with 50% relative humidity than on the 30 degree day with a 100% relative humidity. This is because of the higher dew point.

So if you want a real judge of just how “dry” or “humid” it will feel outside, look at the dew point instead of the RH. The higher the dew point, the muggier it will feel. General comfort levels USING DEW POINT that can be expected during the summer months:

• less than or equal to 55: dry and comfortable

• between 55 and 65: becoming “sticky” with muggy evenings

• greater than or equal to 65: lots of moisture in the air, becoming oppressive

“1929” by Andrew Ross Sorkin - my review:

I received this book as a Christmas present, purchased from my ‘letter to Santa’ after having heard the author interviewed on the radio. Like many, I knew “of” 1929 and the basics around what happened. And through the book, I was looking to get the ‘under-the-surface’ story of where and how things went wrong, leading to our nation’s worst-ever economic fallout. To me, while the book provides a decent outline of events and basic portraits of many of its central players, it felt lacking in dimension and explanation. Part, I think, is that I was expecting a little more exposition a la Michael Lewis in “The Big Short” where he breaks down the types of transactions that led to the 2008 mortgage debacle. In 1929, there was some of this, but it seemed to remain more generalized (e.g., people borrowed on margin, then margin calls came) and not devote much explanation to the specific mechanics or trace the series of dominos across interconnected systems. To me, those details are a big part of the story. Another is that the author was clearly working to put flesh-and-bones on the players, but I stepped away with fairly flat and almost homogeneous caricatures of the ‘rich Wall Street elites’, (though I did appreciate the greater dimensionality provided to the political players like Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, and Glass). But at its end, the story seemed to be about financiers, politicians, and journalists – curiously absent in any detail were the ‘common man’. References were made, but almost always in the aggregate - and to me, a big part of the story of 1929 was how far reaching and all down the economic ladder the participation was had and felt (for decade+). Bottom line: I did appreciate reading, but felt key pieces were missing and therefore had a lingering feeling of being unsatisfied. (Side note: I should mention the last 100-150 pages are end notes - the book was thoroughly researched and referenced.)

Tim Conway (a.k.a. President of Vortex Industries Lloyd Adams) demonstrates the new child-safe feature of Vortex’s medicine bottle. 😀

Sounds can really help support concentration – I’ve experimented with and actively used various background sound sources over the years, including anything from Coffitivity, YouTube concentration music, Amazon Music tracks, radio stations online, etc.

A new one I’ve recently lit upon comes from the folks at reMarkable, makers of e-ink tablets and with a heavy emphasis on distraction-free creativity. So far, I’m really liking the options they’ve put together in their “Room to Think” page – options for when you need some upbeat background, to times you need more calming sounds, techno and nature, etc.

You may want to check it out at your next opportunity, and provide yourself some Room to Think.

Bonus: They’ve also been compiling resources, scientific studies, and advisors towards their product around the ‘slow think’ theme – You can find those compiled on their website under the Better Thinking page (and good to see a company looking how to free from distraction, rather than the many nowadays deliberating creating or at least adding to the distraction).