Don't Panic

Here are some of my favorite movies, in no particular order and based solely on the notion that I was able to come up with them quickly and without thinking too long/hard because they are at the forefront of my mind when I think “what movies do I like?”

• Hatari! (1962)
• Star Wars (all of them)
  • see note below
• Bill & Ted (1989 & 1991)
• Amadeus (1984)
• John Wick (all of them)
• The Boondock Saints (1999 & 2009)
• True Grit (1969)
• Goon (2011)
• The Lord of the Rings (all of them, including the Hobbit series)
• Kill Bill (2003 & 2004)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• Young Frankenstein (1974)
• The Addams Family (1991)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
• Highlander (1986)
• The Incredibles (2004 & 2018)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Rock of Ages (2012)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
• The String (1973)
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
• Princess Mononoke (1997)

A note about Star Wars

“Which is the best Star Wars movie” is a topic of much (and doubtless never-ending) debate. I'll not make any case as I believe each person should enjoy the movies for their own reasons.

I will say that for me: Empire is the best film, A New Hope is my favorite film, and Rogue One contains my favorite scene. Oh, and Solo is the one in most need of a remake, preferably staring Shia LaBeouf as Han because that'd be funny as hell.

I notice that I tend to favor lower-case. I mean, I'll use upper case where it's appropriate (or my OCD demands it), like with titles/headings, beginnings of sentences, proper nouns, etc., but the rest of the time I use lower-case as a compulsion.

For example, where SQL would traditionally exepect upper case for reserved words, like this:

SELECT
  City,
  State,
  AVG(Income) AverageIncome
FROM people
WHERE Age >= 21
GROUP BY City, State

I would tend to write it as:

select
  City
  ,State
  ,avg(Income) AverageIncome
from people
where Age >= 21
group by
  City
  ,State

because the code is interpreted the same anyway.

All of my filenames are lower-case, I usually write code in lower-case, I create tasks-lists in lower-case, etc.

It's not a big deal, just something I noticed about myself.

the problem with not voting in order to send the message that you hate all the candidates and the entire system and therefore refuse to participate is that it's completely indistinguishable, as a signal, from not bothering to vote because you think the system is great and all the candidates are great and you'd be fine with any of them. so you might want to rethink the strategy there

-asneakyfox

as seen here: https://lemm.ee/post/25116255

Three sheets to the wind.

A superstition that any orchestration or score must have exactly 3 pages dedicated to wind instruments.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

From an old Hungarian saying, literally translated as “A dog that is not awake produces more heat.”

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

If you plant bird seed with your bare hands, you will double your crop output.

Champing at the bit.

Holding the world record for your comedic routine.

Square peg, round hole.

Something that must be inserted sideways.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Horses have notoriously ugly teeth.

Loose lips sink ships.

Kissing the boat captain may distract them.

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Early draft of Heisenberg's indeterminacy principle.

Measure twice, cut once.

One must always cut the smaller of two things.

20/20 hind-sight.

A pre-colonial way of saying “Eyes in the back of your head” that has fallen out of fashion.

A watched pot never boils.

Disclosure to patients receiving Lasik that it will not give them Superman's heat-vision powers.

I rather like waiting.

I realize that it takes a certain mindset to enjoy waiting.

I suppose I have that mindset.

I'm talking about the kind of waiting where there's no emergency or urgent issue, no pivotal news upon which hinges something of consequence or anxiety. Just something you need to get to or see completed but have no current power to affect the outcome or expedite the end result.

Like waiting to be called into your appointment, or waiting outside a friend's house for them to see your text and come out to your car, or waiting for a partner to finish something they're doing in the other room so you can un-pause the movie, or even waiting for traffic to clear.

In these situations, there is usually nothing you can do to speed things up, no other task you can accomplish, and no desire to abandon the thing you're waiting for in favor of something with more immediate satisfaction.

You just wait.

And I love it. I think I love it because it provides an excuse to do nothing, an opportunity so many of us so rarely get. No matter what happens, this is the next thing I have to do, and it's not happening right now so I'll do nothing. It creates a moment of peace for me because there is no requirement on me to do anything but be patient (which I understand is not always easy or pleasant).

Of course, I often stay very busy during these moments because I have an incredibly active imagination and an ability to be amused by almost anything. And I get to do that, for free, for as long as someone else is gonna make me wait. Plus, I get the added bonus of feeling like I'm making something that is probably perceived as a punishment turn into a little vacation.

Guess how long I waited to post this?

Just for fun.

I think we have the technology to make doors and gates more quiet.

I know it's a silly complaint, but: something like 90% of the time I pass through a door or gate, it makes a lot of noise, and at least 50% of the time I do so, I'd prefer to do so noiselessly.

It's a small thing, but I just don't understand why so many gates and doors need to be so loud. I can't really think of a reason why doors and gates would generally need to be silent, I'd just prefer it to be so.

I have drawers in my dresser that shut themselves if you motivate them enough, and they do so with a silent glide and a quiet snap shut, no muss, no fuss. It doesn't even require any electricity.

Is it so much to ask that I'd like my doors to do the same thing; as they reach the pinnacle of being “no longer ajar” they should feel their own weight, slow their descent, and quietly close themselves.

This concludes the rant.

There's this tactic some people use where they set their clocks a few minutes ahead of the actual time so they can trick themselves into running a little ahead of schedule.

I understand this as it's an effective way to help yourself be on time, especially if you're habitually lack-luster, punctually speaking.

But it really irks me.

I'd rather know what time it actually is and hold myself accountable to the truth than trick myself into performance. Plus, since I don't have the punctuality problem (not bragging, just saying), it makes me far earlier for things than I need to be and forces me to do math in order to discern the correct time.

It irks me, but not enough to do anything about it: All of the clocks around me (house, car, etc.) are set like this because others deem it so and I don't care enough to argue for changing it back. However, it would be nice if they were all set ahead the same amount.

I found a really tool called StegCloak which hides text in text. It uses encryption to hide your data inside zero-length characters that aren't visible to normal readers and the naked eye.

As an example, this ⁢‍⁢⁢‍⁢⁤⁡‌⁤⁢⁣‌⁡‍‌‍⁢‌‍⁤‌‌⁣‌⁢⁡‌⁡⁣‌⁡⁣⁡⁣‌⁢‌⁢⁢⁢⁢⁢‌⁢‌⁢⁤‌‍‌‌‍‌‍⁢‌⁣‍⁢‌⁡‍⁢‍‌⁣⁡⁢⁢⁡‌‌‍⁢‌⁡⁢‍⁢⁡‌⁣⁡‌‌‌⁡‌‌⁡⁣‍⁢⁢‌‍⁡‌⁢‍⁢⁣⁤⁢⁢⁢⁢⁡⁢‌‍⁤‌‌‍⁢‍⁤⁡‌⁢‌⁡⁢⁡‌⁡⁢⁤⁤⁤⁢‌post contains a secret somewhere. If you can find it, you can use the link (or the instructions on their GitHub) to decrypt the message. (The password is the name of the tool.)

There's no prize other than the discovery of a pretty cool technology that has a ton of applications!

It's not a foreign concept to any observer or participant in capitalism that, as wealth/capital/resources increases, the size of your peer group decreases, as in a pyramid diagram. While this stratification is certainly problematic, it isn't the core issue.

The actual flaw is that Capitalism tends to encourage, support, and cultivate to the higher echelons of wealth the kind of members who are less likely to be altruistic with their success. As is often seen in the workforce, leadership positions tend to be populated by personality types that are inclined towards competitiveness, ego-centrism, and/or an almost “cut-throat” disposition. It has been argued that it is the nature of Capitalism that it takes this kind of attitude to “climb the ladder” and be successful.

The personality types of people in the top tiers of wealth under Capitalism are usually less disposed to leverage their great resources to benefit others, preferring to hoard their wealth and stand upon it as a pillar distancing them from the hoi poloi.

If the wealthy top tier were occupied by the kinds of people who were predisposed to reinvest and redistribute that wealth to the benefit of others, the community, and the economy, things could really get moving. All that wealth, all those resources just sitting at the top of the pyramid could be used to improve the state of the economy, community, and society. That capital could be allocated to grow and develop the country and the sovereignty, and cultivate/foster an era of growth, stability, and development.

But the problem with Capitalism is that the kinds of people predisposed to this level of altruism tend to lack the stereotypical “competitive edge” that would allow them to climb the ranks of the system needed to attain the necessary amount of capital. Conversely, the system emboldens those who are willing to sacrifice others for their personal gain, which they will then covet, protect, and hoard.

I know this sounds like a cliche, but it's become all too familiar.

So what we need is a system which supports the promotion to wealthy status of individuals who are going to leverage their resources to nurture the system that granted it, cultivate development of the society that contains it, and benefit the members that contributed to its possibility.

It's a well-known business principal (though not a practice, lately) to reinvest profits back into the business to foster growth. We need to adopt this strategy with our society. And to do that, we need to adjust to a system that allows the righteous to prosper and flourish.

1. There are no rules.
2. Ignore rule #1.
3. See rule #5.
4. Do not taunt happy fun ball.
5. Refer to rule #3.
6. Nothing is true, everything is permitted.
7. One does not simply make a list of rules.
8. You gotta put down the ducky if you wanna play the saxophone.
9. Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.
10. Once more unto the breach.
11. If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
12. Pain don't hurt.
13. 42.
14. Remember; the Force is with you.
15. Smart people utilize their skills. Happy people accept their flaws.
16. It's dangerous to go alone, take this.
17. If you're going to be weird, at least be confident about it.