lee.ourand.me

Time and time again, history shows us that caveat-laden arguments about what is or isn’t a concentration camp only occur in countries with sound political systems. When people are splitting hairs over the specific methodology and intent behind mass detention and human rights abuses, that’s when you know you’re looking at a vibrant, civilized society. It’s as true today as it was a hundred years ago. Civilizations are healthier when citizens are raising trivial objections to the use of the term ‘concentration camp’ on the grounds that their neighbor’s rendition to an oversight-free mass prison still technically exists within a legal framework, at least on paper.

• Did the White Lotus binge watch catchup this week. It was my least favorite season thus far. The “big twist” was very predictable. The Chekov’s gun situation with the poisonous fruit felt overly goofy. It was all just fine.
• Watched Eddie Burback’s I hate my phone so I got rid of it. It’s a tale you’ve probably heard a thousand times: person stops using their cellphone so much, and is happier. But, the video’s well done, and inspired at least a temporary reduction in my phone staring behavior this week.
• Stumbled upon Manet music app—a really well done iOS (and Mac) app for streaming music from a Jellyfin server. I’ve been increasingly trying to self-host as much SaaS type junk as I can. Spotify / Apple Music had been kind of hard to replace, at least on iOS. Manet seems to do the trick—it even has CarPlay support! Only thing missing now is an Apple Watch app, so I can listen to music without my phone again.
• Been helping out on some spring cleaning at the little community farm down the street from me. Met some other dilettante gardeners, young and old. Nice way to get in a little exercise, learn some things, meet some folks, and if I’m lucky, do a little good for somebody.
• More plant transplantations: all our lettuce is out livin’ full time in the raised beds.

• Happy April
• My daily double squirt of Flonase is completely outgunned by the rolling hills of pollen outside. This—among other current events—sucks, man.
• Taxes: filed! I’d been putting this task off because of all the what have you. But turns out, I apparently way overpaid federal taxes last year. Who’da guessed overpaying income taxes would be the best investment returns goin’ right now?
• Trying to get back into some semblance of running shape. Ran a few 5K’s this week at an easy party pace. It’s always surprising to rediscover how much easier runs feel when it’s 60 degrees than when it’s over 80.
• I caved and paid our ridiculously over-appraised property taxes.
• Biru decided to give anorexia a brief try. After a couple days of her basically eating nothing, we took her to the vet to get checked out. Got blood tests, poop tests, urine tests done. Surprise surprise, the very next day she’s back to normal, and all the tests come back fine.
• Stumbled upon this excellent essay by A.R. Moxon: One About The Atmosphere. After recently ending conversations with a few “Stove Minivans” from my life, this really hit home. I wish I’d read it earlier.

  Because Stove Minivan, it turns out, wasn’t some weird outlier. He was part of a growing new normal, a group of people who had been offered a chance to immigrate from observable reality and enter a dark world of constant hostility, misinformation, and self-loving grievance; a group of people who leapt at that invitation, and cling to it to this day, no matter what happens, immune to proof; a constituency who blame others for the foulness of the shallow puddle of reasoning in which they demand to sit, even though we can all see them fouling it themselves, every day.

  And, crucially, when you discover that somebody isn’t open to persuasion, leave them. Leave it. Engaging with that elevates them into the sphere of people who deserve to be taken seriously, and their ideas into the sphere of things that merit debate. Even worse, it sharpens their dull knives for them. Worst of all, it wastes your precious time.

• The city is apparently replacing the sewer lines on our street. It’s been a noisy week. Looks like work continues into, at least, next week as well.
• I got landsharked for the first time in a long time. I joined a couple neighbors to help clean up our 90-year-old neighbor’s yard. While slingin’ grass seed, a suited gentleman approached, and started talking about how Jesus’s death day is his favorite holiday, and that 60% of the information on the internet is false, actually! Fascinating stuff. I stood there like an idiot and let him do his thing for entirely too long. Hardly the first time I’ve had such an interaction, but they happen infrequently enough that I can’t help but be dumbfounded that it’s actually happening.
• Speaking of lawncare and sewer line construction: one of the construction workers—while on his lunch break—randomly walked over, picked up a rake, and started helping us clean up our neighbor’s yard. There’s some good eggs out there!
• Finished binge watching Severance Season 2. Really excellent overall. It got a little Lost-like there in the middle, which worried me a bit about how it’d progress from there. But they did a solid job focusing things back up for the last few episodes. Hoping we don’t have to wait another 3 years for the next installment.
• On the topic of potatoing, we also watched the classic: Being John Malkovich. What an incredibly funny premise for a movie. And John Malkovich might just be the best sport of all time for going along with a movie that just relentlessly mocks him. 10/10
• Hosted my biggest pizza party to date. Cranked out 10 pizzas on my little 12” Ooni Koda. That’s probably about the limit for me. The last couple pizzas I made were entering overproof territory, and were a little cumbersome to work with.
• Mandarin learning complaint: I actually learned this one a couple weeks ago, but what the hell: I’ll complain about it now. 賣(Mài) means “to sell”. 買(Mǎi) means “to buy”. So like… not only do these words sound almost exactly the same, their hanzi characters look very similar, and they mean the opposite things, and they’re used in the same contexts. Brutal!
• Stumbled upon the MASH stack this week. Checks a lot of boxes for me. Will have to come up with a dumb project to build to gently kick the tires.

When doing threat modeling from here on out, it is now unfortunately important to consider the question “Am I a moron?”

• We rewatched Season 1 of Severance in preparation of binging Season 2. I’d forgotten a bunch over that 3 year span.
• Finished reading Shop Class as Soulcraft. It started out promising, and a lot of the talk about physical work being more satisfying than “thought work” resonated with me. Crawford’s description of office politics and white collar office work processes and bureaucracy was as hilarious as it was apt. But the book just went on way too long, and he gave himself a bit too much rope to hang himself with, really devolving into that gross grey tribe politics. Lots of misogyny, “both sides bad”, and self-indulgent rationalizations for why his life choices were good, actually. If you’re going to read it, just do yourself a favor, and drop it at the halfway point.
• I’ve been spending far too much time emailing some cog-in-the-machine of Virginia’s property tax department, trying to understand how they’re valuing my car $5,000 more than what I paid for it. They claim to use J.D. Power estimates, and I’ve shown the J.D. Power estimate for the car is almost exactly what I paid for the car. Still they insist, without evidence, it’s actually worth $5,000 more. The fight will go on, but I suspect I will somehow lose. This is double annoying because in Virginia, you’re also taxed extra for having a fuel-efficient or EV vehicle. You try to do the right thing, and…
• Played a bunch more pickleball this week. Tried out the courts at Forest Hill park, which are a heck of a lot closer, but also significatly more crowded (and maybe less friendly?).
• I walk by this park all the time, but somehow had missed the gigantic Michael Jordan portrait on the basketball court until this week. Check out this bad-boy from space
• Went to Stone Brewing for a little afternoon warm day boozin’. They have a PB&J Berliner Weisse that tastes like you’re drinking a PB&J. It’s as weird as it sounds, and ‘round about delicious as it is weird. Will get again.
• The U.S. MotoGP race is next week (in Austin), so folks will start tricklin’ into the states over the next couple days. Wonder if they’ll even hold a U.S. race next year, given the risky travel it now requires.

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.

Felt germane to some current events. And also some other current events.

• Finished reading The Courage To Be Disliked per a Justin Searls recommendation. It’s a very odd format, where the whole book is basically the dialogue between a student and a adlerian philosopher. This was my first exposure to Adler. Much of it feels dismissive of people’s problems—unempathetic, maybe?! But it’s an interesting angle, nonetheless. It caused me to do a little reflection on my own thought-patterns. Too early to tell if any lasting good will come from it.
• Once again obliterated my feet attempting to not get killed—and failing–in pickleball. I’ve acquired new shoes, so hopefully we can put this painful saga behind us.
• Made a new bud at the pickle ball courts. He’s from China originally, so I utilized a few of my recently learned Chinese words to tell him: 我會説中文一點點 (“I can speak a little Chinese!”). He (very generously) said I pronounced it perfectly. I left the Chinese speaking there, so as to not embarrass myself any further.
• Neat week for the stock market, eh? It looks like I’ve pretty much nailed the worst possible timing for quitting work. This retirement thing may be rather short lived.
• Hosted a little pizza party for Pi Day. Cooked up 6 pizzas on the Ooni. Used my 50/50 bread flour/00 flour @ 70% hydration recipe, and it came out just perfectly. Won’t change a thing next time.
• Celebrated St. Patrick—famed pincher and drinker of green beer—at Jess’s. He cooked up a meddley of Irish-themed fare, plus a couple Irish Coffees (or, as they call them in Ireland: coffees).
• MotoGP round 2 is in the books. Another Marquez brothers demolition job. I know it’s probably going to get old quick if it’s anything like many of Marc’s pre-2020 seasons. But for now, I’m happily cheering it on.