Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1005
Carrborro's cesspool is a covid cesspool. NYTCU, forgiving Billy Corgan, battles against a Genie SLA 15 Superlift Advantage, continuing parental school anxiety
Good morning! Hello, friend. How are you? Thursday. Exciting. The day NC updates its (skimpy) COVID stats. Let’s see how bad things are, shall we? Wastewater COVID levels still rising in Raleigh, but not too high: 30-40 MM gene copies per person. Carrboro, though, what a hoot. 150MM gene copies per person this week. Highest single reading for the entirety of the pandemic. This rise in wastewater is worse than any point in the entire pandemic. But things are fiiiiine. This is fine.
Fantastic time to start school.
Still working my way through Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness which, if I am being honest, I don’t think I ever actually listened to in its entirety. “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” was a pretty awesome song. But man. This album is too long. Cmon man. I’m on day… three of this now? This is too much time to be spent with Billy Corgan in the year 2023, plus I already listened to all three volumes of his 2023 album Atum earlier this year. It is, I must confess, pretty good. I read a single interview with Billy around its release and it sounds like he is far less of a sociopath and jerk and seems to, finally, be growing up. Also I recently learned his childhood home was full-on broken and I am far more sympathetic suddenly. Everyone’s just damaged goods why we gotta go villify them. Except Trump. and Joe Manchin. And and and.
Related to my new dream of a New York Tech Cinematic Universe, there seems to be a new documentary on HQ Trivia on Max. This is hilarious to me. I did not play HQ Trivia. I was obviously aware of the hype and man. People were obsessed. I (unfortunately) worked in an office at the time and watching all of work stop in the middle of the day so people could play HQ Trivia was something else. I kinda knew it would fail, though. I don’t know why. Or maybe I didn’t know it would fail, but felt no need to get into it until the hype had passed and it proved its staying power? Or something. Also I resent things that force me to do things at a certain time.
If you know of any other documentaries about post web-1-bust New York tech companies, hook a brother up. I am feeling deeply nostalgic. And cmon where is that Tumblr documentary. Wouldn’t that be a good time.
There have been some big trends in tech that I knew in my bones were hype, or were going to pass, or go the way of tulips (quick refresher of Rick’s tulip theory of hype trends: Tulip mania was real and stupid and now tulips still exist and are pretty awesome, but also did not especially change the world they just became another boring part of it). I like to think I have been universally right here: Clubhouse, Secret, crypto. I have thought it about podcasts both times around — the first time in the late 90’s early oughts, and the second time five or so years ago when Spotify desperately tried to make it “a thing.” It could be argued I was right, but I kinda think the first time round, at least, I was wrong. It pains me, pains me to say this, but podcasts did kinda change the world. Gawd. I was definitely wrong the second time round, though. Spotify should not have bothered. Whole thing was a bungle.
I think it about AI right now and I am 100% confident AI will go the way of the tulip — hype, crash, level into a cool but boring thing. Or at least this wave of AI, this fake wave of AI that is not intelligent, that is a bunch of parlor tricks. I reserve the right to change my opinion when we’re beyond the absorption and mimicry phase of AI which is so, so boring. Gawd. Maybe someday there will be a new phase with some real actually hardcore innovations. Hopefully not.
Yesterday I had a million calls and it was exhausting but because my child is now a school attendee I had a couple free hours in the morning after my GMHHAY and 750 words and so I took a walk and then I spent a significant amount of time working on my Genie SLA 15 Superlift Advantage materials lifter to get the thing so the forks would lower all the way to the ground so it could lift a pallet. The old owner (a mead brewery. distiller?) clearly only used the thing in one position, so all of the restraining pins and various sliding parts were seized up and I had to attack them with massive amounts of WD-40 and hammers and whatnot but eventually I got the whole thing sliding smoothly, readjusted the support feet and the forks and got a pallet onto it so I could unload my new table saw from my truck and I am telling you I probably lost a gallon of sweat. I was literally nauseus by the end. It was only about 90 that early in the morning but my god. The humidity. I had to drink three Gatorades just to feel like a human again, then plunged into six hours of phone call meetings. Woop. What a day.
Today was the first morning I took Jane by myself to school. Emma’s still getting up and helping upstairs with Jane while I prepare lunch and breakfast — she’s keeping the schedule since she’s gonna have to do all this without me next week — but I drove her solo today. It all went fine. She did not say I love you to Emma as she left and in the car I tried to explain to her that its a good habit to always say “I love you” to the people you love when you are leaving them because something might happen and you might not see them for a while. She said she did not want to do that. And I said I know but it’s useful and one time I did not say “I love you” to my daddy when I left and then I did not see him for a long time and it made me sad. And she said “no.” And then she said that is just the “repetititve talk.” That’s her new name for her way of talking. I said it seemed to me that sometimes she saids she won’t do something when she is really saying that she doesn’t like part of the story, and she said that’s right. And I said: “you’re not saying I shouldn’t say I love you to my daddy, you’re saying that story made you sad and you didn’t like that right?” And she said yes.
Slowly making a bit of progress on Jane’s weird way of communicating. Emotions and facts can be intermingled. When she hears she should close the fridge door so food doesn’t spoil, she will say no, she won’t close the fridge door, because she just does not think it should happen — food should not spoil. I kinda think she maybe thinks its too much pressure, I am not sure. It comes off as stubborn and contrary, but I don’t think that’s it. If you argue it, she will double down, but if you just say okay she will adjust.
When we ask her how her school day went, it is mostly silence, but when we do get something, it is hallucinatory, surreal. She speaks like a childhood version of an Anaïs Nin poem. Poem Rocket, Artaud and Breton. Its so weird. I kinda love it, but it makes it impossible to figure out what the hell happened in the day. It is so weird after spending nearly five continuous years with this kid, for her to have whole segments of her day about which we know nothing. Disconcerting. Don’t like it one bit nope nope nope.
Sending a kid to school feels so much harder than watching them all day for five years. You guys all told us how amazing we were that we watched her all day ourselves and didn’t send her to school but I swear it was a picnic compared to these emotions. And from what everyone tells me, it doesn’t get better.
Freakin awesome.
Club mix for you today. Is it good? Ehhhh. It’s got some moments. That David Bowie remix is okay. I weirdly like the First Aid Kit and Goose one. I am… torn. But it’s piled up so time to clear it out. Don’t ask too much of it and it will not disappoint. If you own a teen clothing retail outlet like Jay Jacobs (RIP), this might be just the thing this weekend.
Until tomorrow, amigos.