Phillip Winn @pwinn@qoto.org

I realized today that neither of my cars have the ability to play CDs.

The EV era and the CD era apparently do not overlap.

#personal #blog

Sure, “generative AI” image models are all the rage, but don’t sleep on slightly-older-fashioned FaceApp de-aging, aging, and re-gendering.

This is what I looked like, will look like, and would have looked like, apparently.

#personal #blog

Every night, I pick up a medium soda from a local chain convenience store*. I do this at night because, well, that’s when I have time to leave the house. But I don’t want to drink soda at night, caffeinated as it is. So each night I pick up the next day’s soda.

Since I’m not planning to drink it until the next day, I don’t bother inserting a straw, which is how I’ve come to notice something odd.

The manufacturing tolerance on plastic lids is pretty tight. So tight, in fact, that if I just slap a lid down on a cup full of soda and carry it to my car, the jostling and release of bubbles often pushes up on the lid so much that soda leaks out of the side of the cup.

But wait, what about the hole in the lid? Shouldn’t the gas escape through the hole in the lid, rather than pushing up and creating a dome? It turns out that when I don’t insert a straw, there is no hole in the lid. There are two cuts in the lid, making an X or + into which a straw may be inserted, but if I don’t insert a straw, those cuts are basically sealed tight, tighter than the edges of the cup, for example.

I’ve started to use a fingernail to bend up one of the corners of the straw cut-out, just to let a very small amount of gas escape, so I still have bubbly soda the next day.

Some other time I’ll talk about why I have had as many as four (4) medium sodas in the fridge overnight.

• I said “pick up,” not “buy.” Despite owning only electric cars, I visit a gas station every day. The incentive program at RaceTrac is incredibly effective. Over time I built up enough points that I get a free medium soda or slushee (or a small coffee) every single day. Of course, I go every day, because why not? And since I’m there every day, sometimes I also buy roller grill items (America’s equivalent of Asia’s street food), and sometimes candy. So RaceTrac is giving away a lot of soda–which costs them very little–and managing to keep me as a customer, despite the fact that I will never again need to buy their main product. Pretty impressive!

#personal #blog

On mastodon, I have felt strangely free to post when I think I have something to say, and remain a silent observer when I don’t. This might come as a surprise to some, who wonder why I think I had to say that, or this other thing, but that’s life.

For whatever record anybody is keeping, I support people. I believe in people. LGBTQIA+ people, straight people, people of different ethnic backgrounds, people who believe in different things or nothing, people. I support people living their own lives, making their own choices, loving or not loving whom they wish.

I support anybody willing to to support the same people I do, while allowing people to opt out. Some people opt out by pursuing trans-exclusionary views, or anti-immigrant views, or views that involve the superiority of one ethnic groups and inferiority of others. Believing any of that nonsense is opting out of the amazing wonder of a pluralistic modern society. It’s siding with the bad guys, and nobody should want to be like a nazi, or a confederate, or any other historical losers who also thought they should treat others badly.

Be a winner! Don’t just tolerate people, support people! Love people!

#blog #personal #LoveOneAnother #BeExcellentToEachOther