Larkfarm Returns

Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner than previously thought

Another reason to avoid auto-renewing subscriptions.

Finished: Preface to the Past, by James Branch Cabell 📚. The title is quite literal; this book collects the prefaces to all of the books in the Storisende edition of the Biography. As such, you need to be pretty deep in the Cabellian rabbit-hole to appreciate it. If you are (as I am), it offers quite a bit of insight into the writing of the Biography, and indeed, to Cabell’s writing technique in general.

Chatted with my college freshman child about AI, after reading Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College. They don’t use AI for writing outlines or papers or finishing assignments. But they say ChatGPT is useful for “here are a bunch of things I need to learn, please put together a set of practice test questions and scenarios for me.” Interesting. Also nice to know I at least contributed to creating an honest & creative person in the world.

“Diamond in the Sky”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 42mm, f/9.5, 1/350s, ISO 200. View of Diamond Peak from the Hardesty Way Trail.

Trump administration poised to accept ‘palace in the sky’ as a gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources

Remember when bribery used to be illegal? Yeah, neither do Donald Trump or Pam Bondi. I hope they end up in adjoining cells.

Finished: The Pale Horseman, by Bernard Cornwell 📚. Second book in Cornwell’s series about the making of England in the ninth century. In this one, the young nobleman-raised-by-Danes Uhtred takes part in a rather improbable number of important incidents, revolving roughly around the exploits of King Alfred. Much better than the first book, I think, if only because it moves faster through more action.

“Growth”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 31mm, f/9, 1/30s, ISO 640. Along the Lawler Trail.

There are a few reasons why I post so many photos here:

1. My aphantasia means that if I don’t take and save pictures, I have very little memory of where I’ve been. By turning photos of my hikes into wallpaper and having it on rotate on a spare monitor, I’m more anchored to my past, and this feels like a good thing. Typically I take a few hundred photos on a day’s hike, and turn a dozen or two into wallpaper.

2. I flatter myself into thinking some of these wallpaper photos turn out pretty well, so I share them. There’s probably no one downloading any, but that’s OK.

3. I figure the nature photos provide a nice break from the political ranting.

“Misty Woods”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/4.0, 1/125s, ISO 200. Along the Lawler Trail.

“Stone Wave Breaking”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42 kit lens @ 15mm, f/7.1, 1/30s, ISO 400. Along the Lawler Trail.