Take 5, D.

Weekly Update 2026-03-01: A Harvest of Updates Edition

What happened during the week(s) of February 18th - March 1st, 2026:

šŸŒ¾ A bumper crop of a weekly update, in which a week somehow became 12 days long. My post-San Diego hangover lasted all through the remainder of February, so my overall mood since returning has been a bit low.

šŸ’„ Both L. & I had a lot of work waiting for us upon our return on Wednesday 02-18. The rest of February was more or less overtaken by our jobsā€™ demands, as L.ā€™s schedule has been all over the place due to staffing and other managerial duties. My schedule didnā€™t change much in hours, but itā€™s been an intense few days of meetings, numerous demands on my time, and a project that already appears to be a disaster in the making. Iā€™m currently an observer on the aforementioned project as is still in the planning stages, even though it will be implemented in late March. Many fundamental questions regarding the projectā€™s scope have yet to be answered, so thereā€™s a chance the projectā€™s start date may be pushed back. Even without this project, I felt like I fought through molasses when navigating my work days.

šŸ“Ŗ One last work item: I guessed my email count upon return would be over 1000. When I saw that the count was actually 650, I was thrilled to be wrong as well as happy that my new Outlook rules are helping to delete unnecessary messages I never need to read.

ā˜¦ļø Itā€™s now officially Lent in the Orthodox Church. While Iā€™m not as observant as L., I am still in the shadows cast by this season in the church. Parts of my diet may change, which could include not just what I eat and drink, but what media I consume. I havenā€™t decided upon a path yet, though.

šŸ’‰ On Friday 02-27, I participated in a vaccine study for Novavax. The process lasted 3 hours, with a fair amount of time eaten up by paperwork and seeing a battery of medical officials. Finally, the Novavax injection happened in the latter half of the second hour, and it brought out fewer side effects than either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccinations. While the injection site was briefly inflamed and tender, its swelling faded within an hourā€™s time. Similarly, my headache and light-headedness went away in the same period of time, though I also suspect I was somewhat dehydrated from my time in the office. Iā€™m now on the hook for daily updates of my health via the myMedidata app for the next six months, and I will have to test myself for COVID if I end up showing positive symptoms in a two-day span. If all goes well, Iā€™ll end up with around $400 for my troubles and stronger immunity against any future COVID waves.

šŸŒ‰ I finally gave myself some time to work on my photos, and not just those ones from the San Diego vacation. Thanks to some other scheduling situations and weather forecasts, Sunday 03-01 was the day for housework and photo editing. A fellow member of TGP started up a Glass photo swap, in which we select three or four of someone elseā€™s photos on Glass, then theyā€™ll print them and send them to us. You return the favor once they select your photos on Glass. Given that my return to work has felt like a slog, itā€™s nice to enjoy some creative use of my time and mind.

Items Of Note From Last Week(s):

Outbound Actions

Internal Obligations

Media

More Info About The Media Selections From These Weeks:

Upon my return to a more regular routine, I more than made up for my lack of media consumption during my vacation. Iā€™ll still keep the selections per category to three items, which should help with making my reviews somewhat brief.

Both travelgeek and CAPSULE JAPAN have crossed paths with their times riding on the DMV in rural Tokushima Prefecture (to be fair, travelgeek got there first a month ago). The significant depopulation in this prefecture on the island of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main Japanese islands, has led to corresponding cutbacks in train service or outright cancellation of various train lines. The DMV offers a third option, as it allows public transit in areas that lost their railways, but still following a predictable schedule like a train. When roads are available, the DMV drives upon them like any other Toyota Coaster bus. When it reaches a rail transition zone, steel wheels hidden within the body drop down to reach the train tracks to guide the DMV, while its rear bus wheels provide propulsion. Residents in Tokushima and neighboring Kochi Prefecture now have a more flexible option for getting around! What interests me about these videos is how life continues in spite of the real loss of people, homes, and businesses. A community spirit still exists in spite of there being less people present, and the overall attitude comes across as pressing onward while acknowledging the situation, without falling into a showy display of resignation or defiance. Perhaps these videos are, in their own way, an examination of mono no aware in rural Japan?

On a similar vein, you could also say the train conductors in the andybyrne50 video are doing the same thing when confronting the storm surges along the Devonian coast. The serious waves crashing over the tracks at or near the Dawlish station are dangerous, but the train continues onward and passengers embark or disembark. This particular train station is built on a sea wall, and it has suffered substantial damage in the past from powerful storms that have washed out tracks and older versions of the sea wall. As a wise Tenth Doctor said once, ā€œWater always wins."

The 404 Media article came out the same day as the Garbage Day newsletter, which had to be a coincidence as the latter reads like an answer to the former. I donā€™t believe it was planned that way, but any sort of despair one may have from reading about looksmaxxing and its scene--how various news outlets play a too-cute-by-half game that amplifies the scene it belittles through patrician coverage--can be dispelled by knowing that larger exposure dulls the edge of the edge lords, thereby diminishing their transgressive power. In an attention-seeking culture, you can be ignored, you can be known to a select crowd, or you can be too well-known even to the ā€œnormies.ā€ The larger exposure given to the looksmaxxing crowd can translate into them becoming less ā€œcoolā€ to their core audience. Having folks in their 50s or 60s talking earnestly about Clavicular in Sioux Falls, for example, will drain some of the appeal from the teens and 20s crowd who would otherwise follow him. What would be ā€œcool,ā€ then? Stuff that canā€™t go viral online, or even online at all. Garbage Day proposes that the next level of cool comes from ā€œpre-deplatforming,ā€ by creating content that can't be spread on various social media or video platforms. Thereā€™s more than a kernel of truth to the Garbage Day approach, but I think it can go beyond creating content that violates copyright. This opportunity could be used to create communities that are offline and donā€™t depend as much upon social media. The ideas being shared donā€™t necessarily have to be edgy or taboo, as the bigger benefit can simply come from having "human beings in a room that left their house to experience something.ā€ Maybe the nostalgia for the pre-Internet era can go beyond aesthetics and become something, you know, substantial.

I try to talk as little about our president on my blog, as a) heā€™s both colossal and a bore, and b) there are many other people and news sources who are better at it than me. A good example of both is Liberal Currents, specifically articles written by Katherine Alejandra Cross. Her recent piece reads like additional reflections upon the attention-seeking looksmaxxing crowd mentioned earlier, as she attempts to find out the essential appeal of Trump. Her answer is that Trump sells impunity, primarily for himself, but also with the promise that if you follow him, you can possibly share in this same glory. You will never have to have responsibilities for anyone else besides yourself, unless you choose to do so and even then, your choices are conditional. You can revoke that choice as easily as you give it. "Do it for social media, for your self-satisfaction, with no sense of obligation to anything or anyone else. If it feels good, do it.ā€ From what I can see, and to be honest I donā€™t want to dive much further into this crowdā€™s so-called philosophies, the looksmaxxing crowd emulates the selfish impunity that Trump embodies as a goal. The dream will be to always win, while everyone else that isnā€™t you will always lose, and while Trump may not embody most of the looksmaxxing aesthetic, he certainly embodies an ideal behavior.

My selected podcasts donā€™t have a running theme, but they do run the gamut from sadness to celebration. ABV Chicago reflects upon the recent closure of two breweries in the Chicagoland area, Miskatonic and Alarmist, both of whom meant a lot to Ryan and Craig. Miskatonic was very close to my parentsā€™ house, so it was a somewhat frequent host of visits by myself and L. Iā€™ve had a couple beers from Alarmist, though nowhere near the amount that the podcasts hosts have, so I donā€™t have too many memories of them. Itā€™s still a sad state of affairs with these breweries closing up (along with another favorite in Chicago, Illuminated Brew Works), and also indicative of what the craft beer scene has become in 2026.

Nestled between sadness and celebration is the Upgrade podcast, which features the 11th annual Six Colors report card on Apple. This is a survey of 14 different categories ranked by 56 Apple ā€œwatchers:ā€ longtime reporters, insiders, former industry employees, and so on. The rankings for 2025 in comparison to 2024 are down nearly across the board, with the main reasons for the decline stemming from the Liquid Glass update and Apple leadershipā€™s groveling in Washington. Given my recent issues with the 26.4 beta wiping out a backup photo drive, I am very much in agreement with these lower grades.

To end this recap on a note of celebration, please check out the Resident Advisor podcast that was record last May during Movement Detroit, AKA Detroit Electronic Music Festival. I keep telling myself I need more Moodymann music in my life, and this 2-hour set deliversā€¦well, in its own way. Instead of it being two hours of Kenny Dixon, Jr.ā€™s best, itā€™s a snapshot of him hanging out with a couple other legends of the Detroit techno scene: Carl Craig on the turntables, and Mike Banks on the keyboards, chilling and enjoying each otherā€™s company. I donā€™t think of techno as a music scene that favors jam sessions, but this recording may be the closest thing to it.

Picture time!

Let's try a new feature to reward folks who've made it this far in the blog entry.

Hereā€™s a flashback from last autumn, as the Sweetgum tree near my apartment was in its full colorful glory. Taken on November 25, 2025 with my Canon rangefinder, set to f/8 at 1/60 seconds; film stock was Kodak Kodacolor 200.

My car is somewhere in the background, but thanks to the depth of field, the license is too blurry to read.

#Documentation #Jobs #Life #Photography #WeeklyNotes