Everything in moderation, Styx

Too little reality can be just as harsh. People tend to step off tall structures, walk in front of fast-moving objects and say things that make them pine for a rewind button on life.

We’re here anyway, and no matter whose theology^* you believe it’s a one-way trip. You have two basic choices: enjoy it or hate it. I fail to see the point in spending a lifetime in despair or rage when I could be spending it discovering and enjoying stuff.

That philosophy doesn’t expect or require every moment of even the most wonderful life to be a paean of exquisite joy, but it does make the “ground state” a lot more bearable. (-:

I find that an important question to ask is “what is this for?” You won’t always get answers — let alone meaningful ones — but it can interrupt an emotional crash-and-burn by engaging the reasoning part of your brain, it can bring useful caution in moments of euphoria, and it does lead to you discovering stuff. Occasionally, it will be very interesting stuff.

* yes, of course this includes atheology

Comments

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b...

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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