This week in my family history project: pinworms, Pinocchio, and puppet shows. Also, explanation of a drawing by me, discussion of what I was reading and Jay’s latest interests, some gardening thoughts, and a detailed discussion of Peter’s drama-filled salary negotiations. March 25, 1973 Peter sends a postcard to let George and Helen know that […]
Kam and I almost went to see Everything Everywhere All at Once last night. We’ve been hearing great things about the movie—in fact, such extremely great things that I’m having to discount them to set my expectations lower, because if I go into a movie with too-high expectations, I generally enjoy it less than I […]
Kam and I played the boardgame Maglev Metro today. We both liked it, and want to play it again. But there are two things that I find really disappointing about it: 1. The game description starts out: “Welcome to the future of train games! With the use of cutting edge magnetic levitation technology, transport passengers […]
Today’s small victory: I closed something like 150 tabs on my iOS devices. I did it because of an annoying longstanding iPadOS Safari bug: if you have a few dozen tabs open, and you force-quit the app, then when you restart the app, it often throws away all of your tabs. I forgot and did […]
This week in my family history project: A Marine World visit; a letter from Peter explaining how much debt we were in; a response from Grandpa George advising us on how to deal with the debt; a letter from Peter and Marcy explaining that the debt wasn’t such a big deal after all. November-ish, 1972 […]
This week in my family history project: two brief postcards, and one longish letter. Also, moving to a new city. (All from fall of 1972.) September 15, 1972 Marcy explains why she was “running around the house yelling Money Money while [Peter] was on the phone.” September 27, 1972 A thank-you note for some napkins, […]
I’m reading a book called Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler. I picked it up a while ago because I’d like to learn at least a little bit more than I know […]
I recently skimmed Asimov’s 1969 story “Feminine Intuition,” the second-to-last-written of the Susan Calvin robot stories. (Written about 12 years after the previous one.) The first three-quarters of the story is full of eye-roll-inducing stuff like this: “[…] call it ‘intuitive.’” “An intuitive robot,” someone muttered. “A girl robot?” A smile made its way about […]
This week in my family history project: some items that aren’t exactly letters, plus one letter. All from mid- to late-1972 (I think). June 23, 1972 A postcard that just has my name written on it. (Written by me, age 4+.) Fall-ish, 1972 Peter’s list of his suggestions for names for “the house where i […]
I’ve finally finished reading Andrew Brown’s A Brief History of Encyclopaedias. I continued to find it both interesting and annoying all the way through. (It’s less than 120 pages long, but it took me a few days to read it because I kept falling asleep. That’s not the book’s fault; I was inexplicably sleepy all […]
This week in my family history project: a letter from me and two from Marcy, all from mid-1972 (I think). May-ish, 1972 In which balloon stationery makes me think of The Red Balloon. June 2, 1972 In which everyone is very busy in the run-up to Peter’s graduation from Berkeley. “ARGH. So much is happening.” […]
Me: I want my code to make this text on the screen invisible. So, right here at the beginning of the function, I have code that hides that text. Everything I can do to test the code says that it’s working. When I run a check right after hiding the text, it tells me that […]