I’ll be 64 in two weeks. There are days when I feel like I’m done. That this is the end. There are other days when I think about starting something new. That I could make a fresh start. Then there’s the reality or at least the pervasive inertia of waking up in the morning. I find myself able to do some things at an acceptable pace. I find other things harder to do. I also find that positioning myself matters more than it used to. Reading off the screen has made it harder to read books. I can’t get into a comfortable position. I want to jump ahead. I want to expand a word to lookup its meaning. I want to reference related materials. I find myself dozing off even when I am not really tired. Part of it is that I am out of practice in reading books. I have gotten so used to the screen life that a paper book is a struggle. I am going to work on changing that starting today. There’s another issue though that will require more effort. I am entirely out of shape, verging on either becoming a blob or turning to stone. Can both happen at the same time? I starting walking a lot more at the beginning of June and have been averaging about 12,000 steps a day. It’s making a difference. Though I have actually gained weight since I started walking more as my appetite is increasing. Each step forward is challenged by a desire to stop everything. I could just walk out the door and never come back or I could lay down and melt into the bed. like cement as it cures.

I went to the St Petersburg protest. I even got a sign from a nice lady who had an entire catalog of signs. She said she goes to all the protests. It was peaceful and friendly and for the most part people seemed energetic. I am not sure how lining up at intersections accomplishes very much but I am happy to go along with any people who want to publicly express their concerns. We spent most of the time chanting various phrases while passing cars honked. I am glad this is happening. Here in St Pete the crowd is older and whiter than most of the images I see from other cities. It's not a critique but I think it's important to point out that opposition to Trump spans a wide coalition. Younger people did eventually show up and some had worked hard to produce message and outfits to meet the moment. I then too the bus to Gulfport for lunch and was please to see there was a protest happening in Gulfport too.  I hope this begins a movement that culminates in a wipe out of Republicans in local Florida elections and ultimately flips the house and senate in 2026. Florida could benefit from a change in leadership. Republicans have been in charge here for a long time despite barely winning many elections. Our Senators are useless and perhaps even worse than Trump as they seem to be immune to any criticism and immediately blame someone (usually previous Democratic administrations) else for every issue. I made a NO ICE t-shirt. No idea what anyone thinks of it. I'll be out and about for St Pete Artwork tonight so maybe I'll get some feedback.

I am old enough to remember what the analog world was like. The time before digital media, before mobile communications, before the global telecommunications and payments systems were available to the public. It was a time when things were more or less reliable as long as your expectations were low. Cars broke down more frequently and required a lot more maintenance, but were also much easier to service. The telephone was mounted to the wall in the kitchen and if you were lucky the cord was long enough that you could duck around the corner into another room to talk without everyone in the kitchen hearing you. It was also a time when you might get vaccinated at school. My fondest memories growing up in the suburbs were riding a bicycle and swimming at the local public pool. I don't want the world to go back to that time period because it was also a time of uncertainty and malaise. It was a time when your gay classmate had a girlfriend to avoid harassment. It was a time when any awkward social situation could end in racial slurs. It was a time when you neighbor could get arrested for marijuana possession and go to jail for ten years or more while at the same time you could go to a concert at MSG and people were smoking pot everywhere. These past almost 50 years have clarified a lot but also we have been backsliding because extremely wealthy people have been using cultural issues to keep us divided. The recent social movements haven't gone too far. They have finally touched the powerful and the powerful don't like. Don't be fooled by the legions of pundits, podcasters, cultural critics who carry water for the rich and powerful. We need to push forward bringing along everyone.

I installed the developer beta of MacOS 26 on my M4 MacBook Air.  Install went smoothly as is the usual with most Apple software installs. I am not convinced by the liquid glass look. It seems half baked and may well be because this is a beta. On the other hand many elements seem unchanged or only with minor tweaks. Apple is at its best when their updates appear seamless. When you don't have to learn a new way to do something but rather the thing you do is now easier and smoother.  The translucent elements are somewhat gimmicky and also a step backward for usability if your eyesight is not perfect. I don't expect Apple to design for old people but lots of young people have less than perfect eyesight too. The other thing that is bothering me at the moment are the floating controls and buttons.  They seem to have decided that buttons need to ever so slightly hover above the app window and be distinguished by a tiny difference in tint from the surrounding area. Also more stuff seems to be responsive/dynamic so the errant mouse cursor can change the look and feel of the window.  Are those rounded corners again on all the windows?  Even more icons in the menus? I am going to turn on Apple Intelligence and see what happens…

I got up early today and had a long walk. According to my iPhone it was more than 6 miles or almost 16,000 steps. I think I got a little sun stroke. I got home and was dehydrated so I drank two Gatorade G-Zero 24OZ. I ate leftover pepper beef. I had few calls, looked at some slack messages. I decided to lay down for 15 minutes and instead was in a daze for almost an hour. I snapped out of it when the phone rang. I had a splitting headache for the rest of the day and was in and out of it. I couldn't focus. I read some more slack messages, paced around the apartment for a bit and tried to look at some work stuff. I made a short outline of  various  SAAS business models. I loaded iPadOS26 on my iPad and activate Apple Intelligence. I tried the writing tools and composed a SAAS document that was not as good as my own docs and notes but easier to read. The new OSes from apple fix some obvious problems and introduce the translucent liquid glass interface. Not sure how that helps. It's good to see Preview and Journal have made their way to iPAD though Preview does not have all the features of the desktop version. Specifically it doesn't allow STL file viewing. I hope they fix that by release time. The dropdown menu for apps is an interesting though redundant addition to the user interface. It makes the iPad a lot more Mac like. Not sure where they are going with the updates. I don't think I will load the developer betas on my Macs. The iPad isn't really critical to my work so I can afford to deal with the glitches.  Image is the building at the end of the St Pete pier. showing a building suffering from angleitis.

I have lived and worked in various parts of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties on three different occasions. LA is an amazing city.  It's a vibrant sprawling collection of the most interesting and challenging cultures. Unlike the compression of NY that presses you into situations, LA spreads out and stretches you into situations. There's endless variety and people constructing lives from dreams. The landscape lends itself to imagining the most pleasantly absurd life. The sheer volume of life makes every moment an opportunity to create something new. People from everywhere or sometimes nowhere are in LA. The people of LA deserve better than the small minded mutants of the Trump administration. They deserve our support, our prayers, our lives. LA has become the vanguard of the resistance to the foul demonic presence that surrounds the President and his delusional sycophants.  (image is the cover of City of Quartz by Mike Davis)