Life On A B-I7

“The Paris Library” by Janet Skeslien Charles

Odile’s sister Lily. p. 40

I tried to say I would, but fear stole my voice. After a long moment, she pushed my body from hers and looked at me. Trapped in Mom’s mournful stare, I remembered things she’d said: Babies sleep through the love. A gaggle of geese, a murder of crows. People are awkward, they don’t know what to do or say. Don’t hold it against them; we never know what’s in their hearts.

Odile. p. 71

I had learned that love was not patient, love was not kind. Love was conditional. The people closest to you could turn their backs on you, saying goodbye for something that seemed like nothing. You could only depend on yourself.

Odile reflecting on Lawrence and Margaret. p. 80

There was a peculiar current in the air. He’d gone from charming to condescending; she’d become wooden. I remembered Maman’s advice to cousin Clotilde: Make the courtship last as long as you can. Once you marry everything changes. Was this what Maman had meant?

Odile decides to stay in Paris after the Nazis occupy the city. p. 144

Remaining had bee the right choice. If her parents had taught her one thing, it was to stand her ground, whether dealing with a malicious schoolmate or the domineering cataloger act the Library of Congress. You’re nothing without principles. Nowhere without ideals. No one without courage.

Odile talking to Lily. p. 205.

Well, ma grande, that was the first lesson I learned as a young wife. Sometimes, when you win, you lose. I got rid of the stuffed head—the garbage man picked it up when Buck was at work. But he was angry for a good long while.

Professor Cohen to Odile. Odile is upset with her father. p. 232

Your father’s old, he won’t change. And dogs don’t have kittens, so you’re as stubborn as he. The only thing you can change is the way you see him.

A passage for its sheer beauty, Boris is the reference librarian at The Paris Library. He is shot in his home by Gestapo. I read it three times. p. 256

He didn’t remember falling, didn’t feel his head hit the floor. He sensed Anna beside him, saw the red run down his shirt over her ashen hands. He heard the Nazis shout. It was all too much. Boris longed to slip up the spiral staircase, to walk along secluded rows of books, to lose himself in the sweet quiet of the Afterlife.

The novel has a beautiful ending. The story movingly describes the true nature of friendship, how easily it can be lost, how important it is to cherish it and how important it is to hold on to it. p. 339.

Don’t listen when someone tells you not to bother a person—reach out to make a friend. People don’t always know what to do or say. Try not to hold that against them; you never know what’s in their heart. Don’t be afraid to be different. Stand your ground. During bad times, remember that nothing lasts forever. Accept people for who they are, not for who you want them to be.

Owned

Every morning between 4am and 5am the website author interrupts my sleep. I’ve come to accept this as routine. When you think about it, to be awakened every morning at that time, especially when you are in need of rest, can be a bit tiring.

He is polite, I’ll give him that. In fact, I really can’t blame him. Over the years I have probably sent him a strong message that he is free to behave that way. You have probably guessed where I am going with this. The web site author (my cat) owns me.

I have taught him one thing, before he claws me to get my attention he will always bump me with his forehead first. It’s very charming. I have to take credit for this behavior because I started bumping him with my forehead some time ago. It took him awhile to figure it out, but he now knows this is a sign of affection, or at least a way to get my attention. He now freely returns the loving gesture… but only when he wants to be fed.

Democracy

There is so much I don’t know that I would like to know, I often find it overwhelming. Right now, I find myself wishing I were smart enough to step into our political fray and make people see that the direction we are taking our Democracy is not a positive one. Where we are going now will only set us back. I believe the human experience evolves toward greater and greater good. Having said that, I have to add that it does so in fits and starts.

I didn’t think I would see a step backwards in my lifetime, but I find myself looking at just that. In my defense (more to the point in my generations’s defense) the characters foisting this regression on us are mostly members of a younger generation. What has predisposed them to treat precious freedoms so lightly is beyond my comprehension. I acknowledge that it could be my fault. My generation’s fault. Perhaps we lived too easily and did not do a good enough job teaching respect for our democratic freedoms to those younger than ourselves. I like to think that Democracy could never die in America, but that is probably a naive way of looking at the world. We may be seeing the death of Democracy in America before our eyes.

The three richest men in America own more wealth than the bottom half of Americans, 170 million people, and when those three are overly engaged in the non-elected running of the country, it’s difficult to say we are living in a true Democracy.

Sleep Walking

A recent New York Times article stated “we are sleeping into autocracy.” It’s tough to come up with an argument against that observation. It seems that Trump is following the Orbán playbook, made more likely by Orbán’s three visits to Mar-a-Lago prior to the last election. I can imagine Orbán schooling him. It’s clear now to all but the most unaware, that Trump admires tyrants. Trump is working hard to own the courts, if he is successful in that, it could be his winning lottery ticket.

I typically don’t put a lot of stock in predictions, but I’m going to go ahead and lay this one out there. Clearly Trump sees himself as president for life. If every other strategy to remain in office fails, before the end of his term he is going to find an excuse to declare Marshall Law and he will have the legal mechanism (owning the courts) in place to support him.

A more likely strategy would be to circumvent the “only elected twice” clause in the Constitution. He’ll run again as Vice-President under Vance and then after the election Vance would resign allowing Trump to hold a third term. This option is already being put out there and we aren’t even out of the first 100 days of his second term.

Screen Time

I’ve been averaging 3-1/2 hours a week screen time on my iPhone. That sounds bad to me but I bet it is a relatively small number compared to a lot of people younger than I am. (I’m a Boomer.)

It is actually a very interesting statistic. I looked in Settings at my usage data and it is revealing. It tells me which applications I use and how much time is spent in them. This shows a pretty clear picture of what I’m doing with my phone. You could use this to help shape your interactions with your phone. I noticed, to my surprise, that today I have spent more minutes in the ChatGPT app than I have in Messages or Mail (it’s still early). I’m not sure how the “minutes usage” is being calculated. I would really like to better understand what is going on under the covers there. The best takeaway from today’s data is that I have spent twice as much time in the “Productivity & Finance” apps category, than I have in the “Social” apps category. Take that Gen Z and Gen Alpha!

Air Force One

In a recent interview on Air Force One, a reporter asked Trump:

“Why do you think young men are so overwhelmingly coming in your direction?”

This may be April 1st, but that quote is not a joke…

Material stolen from Jon Stewart. It was too good to pass up.

Website Author

Son of JWA

JWA

The New Order

J. D. Vance to President Volodymyr Zelensky:

“Have you said thank you once?”

Donald Trump to President Volodymyr Zelensky:

“You don’t have the cards right now.”

The United States of America has officially, and for the first time in its’ history, become a gangster state.

My Bitch

I’ve got this guy pretty well wrapped around my finger. I’ve developed some killer strategies to get what I want.

If I stand by my bowl with a pleading look, the simpleton get’s a packet of food and puts it in the bowl. If I sit by the back door with my head cocked, he opens it for me. (Why there is such a thing in the first place that I can’t open is beyond my comprehension…)

Often when he’s putting things away I’ll just lie down on them to see if he will go off and do something else, most of the time he does. Occasionally he will put his head right up to mine and bump me. I have no idea what he is doing. I was very concerned at first because I thought he was going to take a bite out of me. I’ve learned that this behavior is harmless, but inexplicable. In an odd sort of way, I enjoy it.

When everything is said and done, I’m lucky. I pretty much have the run of this place and I have to admit, even when I think he has no clue, he ends up doing just what I had in mind for him. I’m a lucky cat. It’s truly a pleasure to have such a dumb being at my disposal.

MAHA

Do fat Republicans get a pass?

D I S K A N / A D K I N S

You Know Who You Are

“Chicks dig the long ball.”

“I’m just hard working 81 I.Q.”

A Conversation

Recently Donald Trump railed against Atlantic magazine Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg after his reporting of a serious security breach by some of Trump’s high level staff. The reporting itself is not in question, but in the course of responding to the situation, Trump felt compelled to call Goldberg a “sleazebag.” Trump also made derogatory statements about the Atlantic magazine. What follows is a conversation I had with ChatGPT on this subject:

Me:

Is calling someone a sleazebag a nice thing to do?

ChatGPT:

No, calling someone a sleazebag is not a nice thing to do. It’s a derogatory term used to insult someone’s character, often implying that they are dishonest, immoral, or untrustworthy. While people use strong language in heated debates or criticisms, resorting to insults usually escalates conflicts rather than resolving them.

Me:

Do you think Donald Trump should have called Jeffrey Goldberg a sleazbag?

ChatGPT:

Insults like that don’t really add much to the conversation, especially in politics, where discussions should ideally be based on facts and reasoning rather than personal attacks.

Me:

Do you think this kind of rhetoric affects how people engage in political discourse?

ChatGPT:

When political leaders use insults and name-calling, it often shifts the focus away from meaningful discussions and fuels more division. Instead of debating policies or ideas, it becomes about personal attacks, which can make it harder for people to engage in productive conversations.

Conclusion (Me):

ChatGPT seems to have a better grip on civility, if not reality, than, oh, say, FOX news hosts and the current Administration.

I apologize if that ”shifts the focus away from meaningful discussion”.

Be Nice to Strangers

Learning how to be nice to strangers will pay off later in life when you are living in a memory care facility. It never hurts to cover your bases.

Touching Paper

I briefly flirted with the idea of building an eLibrary using Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) rather than continuing to buy the print version of books. After a brief trial run, I concluded that eLibraries are not for me.

As an experiment, I downloaded ADE and bought a book. The first observation I made was I had to increase the font size in ADE to maximum just to make the book readable. The next observation that jumped out at me was there is no turning pages. One of the pleasures of reading a book is physically turning the page as you progress through the author’s work. There is something uniquely satisfying about that.

There is no substitute for holding a book in your hands and turning the pages one at a time, underlining, tagging, and just plain being present with words that you can see and touch. The book is always there for you. You don’t have to carry a device with you. A device, especially one like a MacBook, is a pain to haul around. Yes, there are eReaders out there that are designed for that purpose but I’m adverse to owning another electronic device, in particular a single purpose one. I feel like one device should be enough. (Not counting the ubiquitous cell phone.) I realize this makes me sound like a Luddite. I’m not. This website is built using a MacBook Pro and sophisticated editing software.

At last month’s book club meeting I sat next to a fellow that had a large format eReader on his lap. A dozen books were displayed on the library shelf in addition to the one we were discussing. He never opened the book we were discussing, he just sat with the eReader on his lap, very proud of the titles staring me in the face, or so it seemed to me. I had the print version on my lap, tagged, ready for discussion. When the chance arose, I opened my print book to one of the tags that marked a favorite passage and shared the words with the group. I guess I’m old school.

As a final deterrent to building an electronic library, the digital editions cost almost as much as their print cousins. Unless you are going to stick to what your library offers electronically, which of course does not include everything in the print world, there is little difference in cost between an electronic library and a print library.

I’m going to continue touching paper.

Am I Human?

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to create an X account. My idea was to post content that would provide a different picture of Elon Musk than the one normally projected on that platform. When I got to the Turing Test, I couldn’t pass it. Honestly, I didn’t try all that hard.

I may try again. On the other hand, I don’t really want to try again. I’m truly not anxious to bring the cesspool that is X into my life.

MAGABOTS

Elon Musk is using bots to turn negative survey results into positive stories.

FYI: Bots generate votes that originate from a single IP address, or a very few number of IP addresses. For a vote to be a valid indicator of public sentiment, there must be a one-to-one correlation between votes and unique IP addresses.

It won’t be long before Elon shows Donald how to use bots to make it appear that his MAGA base is larger than it actually is…

We are beginning to live in a dystopian world. 1984 is coming.

Who Will Save Us?

Either Republicans in Congress will save the nation or they won’t. It’s as simple as that. There are other solutions, much less desirable…

Turing Test

Can today’s AI engines pass Turing Tests that websites use to identify human users? The answer to that is most likely yes. This creates a serious problem for humans when it comes to identifying fact from fiction. If an AI can pass today’s Turing Tests, then an AI is capable of having a super abundance of influence over public opinion. Perhaps every social media post should be accompanied by a clickable IP address which allows the reader to view the number of posts coming from that address and the user type owning that address. That too is capable of being spoofed. Are there any reliable answers?

Zermat

Zermat is a magical place. There wasn’t a lot of new snow so we had to stay on piste. Off piste would have required a guide anyway. We skied both the Swiss and the Italian side of the Matterhorn. It takes an entire day to circumnavigate the mountain.

Mr. Tux

I remember two, maybe three winters ago, I was driving from Salt Lake City to Phoenix, I had my traveling companion Mr. Tux the cat with me. We were somewhere south of Page Arizona. I decided to spend the night in a teepee on the Navajo Reservation. All was well until about 2 A.M. I woke up and realized that my furry companion was no longer by my side. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and put on my down coat. Did I forget to mention it was December in the high desert and the temperature outside was in the mid-teens? I found my flashlight and went hunting for my cat. I was distraught. My mind was filled with any number of bad outcomes that might have befallen my buddy. What in the world would make him want to leave a warm teepee in the middle of nowhere and wander about in an unknown wilderness? I kept asking myself that, as I navigated larger and larger circles around the teepee, shining my flashlight and calling his name.

I walked around the teepee in ever larger circles for about twenty minutes before I stumbled upon my boy. Of course there is no way of knowing… but I think he was glad I found him. I picked him up and carried him back to the teepee with me. I’m going to assume he was happy I found him because he made no more attempts that night to exit the confines of our (somewhat) comfortable encampment.

That is the night I realized that I loved my cat more than I had imagined. I still do. I have no plan to spend the night in a teepee any time soon, but if I do, and if Mr. Tux is with me, I will be keeping a very close eye on him.

“Joy Ride” by Kristen Jokinen

“A Bike Odyssey from Alaska to Argentina”

Having done a couple of tours myself, I was interested in reading this book to see if our experiences were similar. To put it simply, the answer is yes.

The book has its faults when compared to other Travelogues, It can’t hold a candle to “Shantaram.” That’s not a problem. Kristen is not a writer by trade but still did a marvelous job telling her story.

My favorite lines from the book were these. They really resonated with me.

“Life on a bicycle, free from the constraints of our former lives, made the world feel both bigger and smaller. When we had been riding the Dalton Highway, a single mile had sometimes felt insurmountable, and now after two months we had completed almost 3,000 of them. At the start of the ride, a day in the seat felt like an eternity. I don’t remember the moment I stopped counting the miles, but I know I noticed them less. My internal voice had been silenced. I was able to still my mind. Thoughts would come and go as I passed through ever-changing landscapes. I felt more peaceful, quiet, and calm. The chaos that had existed in my life before the ride felt far away.”

The question that everyone faces after completing an epic journey is how to hang on to the experience once you’ve returned to everyday life. How do you retain the hard earned state of mind won during the long days and nights of the journey. Holding on to some of that serenity is the point of the journey. If you can do that, you will have made yourself a better person.

Hunter S. Thompson

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a ride!”

I’ve crossed the country twice on a bicycle and I plan to do it again. I’m skiing better now at age 71 than I have ever skied in my life. That’s living. Of course I won’t be able to ride 3,000 miles on a bike or rip a black diamond forever. But I will continue doing both to the best of my ability until I fall down and can’t get up.