David Dykstal

Lattés from 9th Bar coffee in Palm Harbor. Pretty dang good and a much shorter line than the Starbucks down the block.

Still on the road. Central Illinois is flatter than North Dakota.

On the road again … 🎵

I was thinking of using Chat GPT as a way to break writer’s block – kind of like morning pages but on a particular topic. Something to grease the skids. But $20/month for Chat GPT Plus is a bit steep for that.

📚I’m about 2/3 of the way through the audiobook “Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field” by Nancy Forbes, narrated by Patrick Lawlor. I thought it was going to be a bit of a slog, but it has turned out to be quite entertaining.

I’ve moved from mstdn.plus to universeodon.com. It not only matches my interests a bit more, but mstdn.plus has been a bit unreliable. I could see how this could be a problem with a set of independent federated instances. Hopefully my new one will be a tad better.

After eluding traps for two days the pantry-raiding rodent has been finally been dispatched.

Experimenting again with Linux on my little System76 box. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve tried this and always end up asking myself “Why?”. I crave its simplicity, but I curse it for the same reason.

One of the perils of living in the country - mice - pantry raiding mice. Grrrr.

Posting here should crosspost to my mastodon instance. Right?

I’m happy that Jason Kottke is back publishing at kottke.org.

Today’s workout: Shoveling snow/slush/ice off the drive. 200+ shovelfulls @ 10-20lbs each. I expect to be sore tomorrow.

Starting to record books with Epilogue. Catching up with 2022. Queuing 2023.

The best part of Thanksgiving is the grazing on leftovers that happens on Friday.

I tried to make clear ice cubes using the double boil method. They might be just a tad more clear than usual. It wasn’t worth the effort.

Cold pizza for breakfast is the best but should not repeat this tomorrow!

I wish I could think of a novel idea for this post but, alas, none occurs. C’est la vie.

I’m not sure I’d ever tire of the upcoming season. I love the old carols, but you can have “Santa Baby”. Sorry Eartha. 😎

📚Just finished the audiobook “Troy” written and narrated by Stephen Fry. Loved the narration in this one.

Does every DJ/band at every wedding in Wisconsin play the “Beer Barrel Polka”? Seems that way.

I just discovered the short story Franchise by Isaac Asimov. Written in the mid 1950’s about the process of a predictive digital election, or as the story calls it “electronic democracy” in which no one actually votes. Good thing it’s fiction. :)

Downsizing? I’m giving up on the hobbies that I haven’t pursued in some time, and replacing old heavy equipment with lighter versions for my active ones. For example, I’ve ordered a new aluminum travel tripod from peakdesign that will replace my older, heavier one.

We need to leave for Thanksgiving in St. Paul on Wednesday next. All of my sibs and their adult kids will be there. It will be a full gathering of the clan for the first time in ages. Maybe we’re a bit unusual, but we all have a great time. It’s going to be fabulous!

The terrific turkey tortas version 2.0 was better than 1.0. Still working on improvements. Will I be ready in time?

I’ve now written a python program to examine my dad’s junk mail folder and immediately delete the obvious bad stuff. I need to adjust it every so often since the spammers are always changing their tactics.