Category: ranting

Late last year as I was rushing to get my 2023 Italy photos posted, I ran unto a problem. I was looking include a link to something I wrote a few months before, but for the life I me I could not find it using the editors built in search. The editor’s insert link tool allows you to enter a link or to search for links, usually used to find existing posts or pages on your site. But when I entered the actual name of the post it did not show up. I tried several different combinations, checked spelling, and finally gave up and opened the site in a browser to grab the link.

But the post was not there.

After much scratching of the head and reloading the list of posts that are published, in draft, and even trying the recently deleted I could not find the post and another one too.

I know I posted them as I linked to them via social media posts. But those links now 404.

I think I know what happened. The editor app —Jetpack— has an annoying habit of showing posts having “local changes” when I draft posts and edit them at some point in both the Jetpack app and in the WordPress admin interface. The thing is the app is convenient but not full featured. There are things I cannot do in the app that I do in posts. So I often start the post in the app and finish it in via the webpage. I also move between devices a lot. And the post showing up in the drafts section with “local changes” in the Jetpack app is annoying. So I deleted them. I’ve done it before but —as far as I know— I’ve never lost a post, but this time I lost two.

I have automated backups of the DB but they are 10 day rolling and this appears to have happened longer ago than 10 days. I don’t remember when I did it, other than it was a while ago…

I checked the Wayback Machine, but it did not seem to have the posts either. It has several site craws between when I published when the missing posts were uploaded and when I searched but the ones that load didn’t show the posts and several didn’t load. The Internet Archive was a bit rocky at the time due to the hack they suffered. So after a few days I checked again and the missing posts were there. So, after a temporary bout of amnesia, once again, the internet never forgot. [confusion.cc]… Though there is so much uncrawlable material on “social media” that I really should revisit that statement… the open internet never forgets, capitalism does strange things to that memory.

In any case, the missing posts were restored from the Wayback Machine’s crawl. And I doubt anyone noticed they were ever gone, such is my readership ;-).

This seems like a good time to remind everyone that the mission of the Internet Archive is valuable. Not so I can restore a few missing posts, but for long term historical preservation and promoting open access to information. So much of what is hosted on Archive.org would otherwise be lost or hidden just because it was hard to find.

Once again, for my birthday, I’m going to look back at the past year briefly. I don’t like to dwell on the past but it’s good to take stock as I celebrate another revolution around the sun.

The best of the year was both my daughters passed their big tests. Olivia passed the PLSE with results she was happy with and got accepted to the secondary school that was her first choice. And Victoria did well on her O-Levels, more than good enough to apply directly to a foundation year program she wants. Congratulations to them, they did well and made it through a stressful year (for them as well as for my wife and I!)

I also visited America for the first time since 2017. I went home for a simple ceremony to bury the ashes of my maternal grandparents. It was the first time I have been home, to Charlottesville, since my dad died in 2017. And the first time I’ve been to Pipestone, where my mom grew up, since 2014. I saw a lot of people, family, I have not seen in years —several decades in some cases. My family is very spread out with people living or working in the far corners of the US —Minnesota, Oregon, Arizona, Virginia, even Alaska. And I don’t know if any are there these days but for a while there were some in Europe, both the eastern and western parts.

On the way I also got to see two old friends in New York. I had planned to see A█████, which was great. We met up in the city and caught up on each other’s lives after a long time. It was great to reconnect with someone I haven’t really spoken with in years. Then I had the most random encounter. While I was sitting in the café of the TWA Hotel [twahotel.com] at JFK, someone came over and said “hello”. I wasn’t paying attention, reading a book so I didn’t notice until they said something. It was M███! Of course! It could only be M███ (see here [confusion.cc]). She just so happened to be in the TWA Hotel as a friend was flying through and had a long layover (the result of M███’s years as a flight attendant). M███ was waiting on the café to brew a new pot of coffee and only saw me because she was waiting around, had there been a fresh pot she would have never seen me. The last time I saw M███ was in like 2013. We spent a few hours chatting before she head to head out and I needed to get ready for my flight.

Anyway, I will put up a proper post of my trip to the US once I get a chance to clean up the photos I took. Nothing much but a good excuse for some photos and a post.

I’m not going to talk about the alarming (in my opinion) shift to the right wing on global politics. I’ve said enough what I think of right wing populism and its evils focusing on the US election (here [confusion.cc], here [confusion.cc], here [confusion.cc], here [confusion.cc] – and even in a timely book review here [confusion.cc]) and more post over the last year that are at least, tangentially, political. It is what it is. Four more years of Trump as president. I hope the world survives.

What else?

I read a lot more last year than I have been. I worked at incorporating a daily 30 minutes or so, many more than I review on Confusion. Let’s see, in 2024 I read:

• Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edger Allan Poe (it’s a long book, over 1000 pages I started it in mid/late 2023!)
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by J. R. R. Tolkien
• A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
• Gene Mapper by Taiyo Fujii
• The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
• The Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
• An Instance of the FingerPost by Iain Pears
• Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
• Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer
• The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer
• Perhaps the Stars by Ada Palmer
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen
• Absolution: A Southern Reach Novel by Jeff VanderMeer
• Colorless Tsukuru Tanzanian and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

I also too the time to play some video games. I spend several hundred hours exploring The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and I replayed Hollow Knight getting past 100% (it’s a thing, it goes to 112%).

And of course, as usual, I took an end-of-year holiday. Back to Japan this year to Kyoto and Osaka. I’ll get around to that. Sometime.

Ok this post is long enough. That’s a decent summary of my 2024, focusing on good things. The world might be a dumpster fire but I’m not doing too bad.

So, it’s Election Day, and the polls will open in a few hours. The greatest show on earth once again comes to an end. Like a lot of Americas I already voted —weeks ago— as I need to mail it in and it needs to arrive on time(I have no trust in Singpost… in the past I could fax in my ballot so I didn’t have to rely on them, but that option is no longer there for me…).

I heard someone on the BBC a while ago say something I though summed up the choice:

Trump is asking for the loyalty of the voters. Harris is promising loyalty to the voters.

Overheard on the BCC

And even if I disagree with some of the Harris policies, I think that that loyalty to the voters and to the institution of democracy is the most important thing on the ballot.

Whatever the vote count is tonight, whoever is declared the winner tonight or in the coming days, or weeks, we are fucked. If he wins then we are fucked by his “authoritarian tendencies” and the christo-fascism of the MAGA faithful and those who surround him. If he loses we are fucked by his big lie and the mess MAGA will no doubt make of their conspiracy theories for weeks… or months.

I wore my election pin today:

In last week’s post on the election [confusion.cc] I mentioned how close Trump is to winning made me feel like I am on that boat with Willy Wonka… IFKYK. So. I looked up the “lyrics” (yea apparently it’s considered a song, called Wondrous Boat Ride) to the ride, you can see them here [lyricsondemand.com], and I came up with my own parody for the election:

To the voting booth and home again
That's the democratic way
Faster faster, faster faster

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction this election's going
There's no knowing how swing states are voting
Based on what the polling is showing

Is it red, is it blue
Is a landslide a-coming

No sign of advantage is showing
So the uncertainty keeps on growing
Are the fires of fascism a-glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing

Yes, the uncertainty must be growing
For the pollsters keep on polling
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are knowing