D&F 6/08/24

It sure feels like January was last week. We’re dipping into summer and the year is moving fast in the way that I assume only a year following a pandemic can. At this rate, I fully expect to wake up tomorrow and have it be my birthday. Despite the salt-related fog today, I managed to ride around for two hours and test my new sweat measurement gadget in an effort to not get dangerously dehydrated on long bike rides this year. It’s fascinating to know, more or less, how much liquid and salt I’m losing from my body every hour.

This week is WWDC, which means it’ll be heavy news and Apple software update fun for me, despite a kinda stressful time ahead at work. Every year I look forward to foolishly installing betas of the OS for my devices and dealing with the weird bugs until fall. I know, I’m a weirdo.

Links

I don’t really like the ocean. I blame it on Jaws, the dirty Texas beaches of my youth, and the knowledge that life was in the ocean for millions of years before land, so who knows what’s down there. One thing we do know is there is the giant squid which up until recently we’ve only seen dead. I assume there are bigger and weirder things in the deep too, even if we don’t have a bizarre hollow earth situation. I think this is why Seaquest was so compelling to me too—the sea is way more full of wild shit than space, at least the space we can get to anytime soon.
This article by Hamilton Nolan makes a compelling case for the affluent to experience the same level of discomfort with everyday systems that everyone else does. Instead of opting out through money, if the powerful had to experience the low quality of public services, schools, and healthcare, we hight be able to change them for the better. I’m not hopeful this will happen, as it’s about as unrealistic as a move to socialism in the US, but I do dearly wish we could find a way to care as a society about the experience of the everyperson.
If we did think about other people as a society, perhaps we could actually pass a congestion tax that NY folks want and worked for twenty years on. It’s devastating to know that a shitty governor, more concerned with tri-state commuters than the millions of pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders, and train commuters in the city, could so throughly fuck things up. I hope this decision haunts her forever and NYC gets leadership that cares about making the city safe and modern.
Finally, here’s a really cool skateboard show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl6ogMR0y_k&t=1s

Closing

Happy summer! If you get a chance I recommend watching Hit Man on Netflix—it’s a hoot. I’ve started watching Star Trek: Next Generation, Frasier, and Felicity, and can only really recommend Felicity so far. I never watched the other two back in the day, and while they’re kind of fun, they’re not hitting the same as the JJ Abrams masterpiece (and Keri Russell). I hope you’re enjoying this season, whether it’s in the pool, the horrifying depths of the ocean, or on your couch. Stay away from kraken, space cowgirls~