Nullx3
nullx3 “Professional whimisical skedadler”

Last weekend was an adventurous one.

Saturday was an enduring bicycle ride through the city fueled by trail mix, water, pad thai, and coconut water. I felt like pushing myself physically, and apparently picked the hottest day of the month to do it.

Sunday I met a friend to hike a state park. We learned some unexpected lore, debated the purpose of those metal beam things we found in the barn, crossed a road with some perplexing skid marks, observed the different stages of decomposition, finally reached the waterfall, found some very old engravings in the sandstone, decided not to go in the other cave because maybe a critter was at the entrance (zooming into the picture, it’s just a log after all), and then we parted ways and I intentionally took a wrong turn and got out to take a picture of the tree lined road in my bare feet.

Somewhere in the mix we stopped and met a man named Larry who owned several acres of land that the trail went through, and was very excited to have hikers curious enough to stop and ask, and went on to talk about the prairies and habitats he and his wife builds and maintains, there and elsewhere.

All this fueled by a liter snd a half of water, some beef jerky, a bunch of handfuls of trail mix, and a big ass breakfast of eggs and potatoes.

Epsom salt soaks and heat pads for the next few days, but it was totally worth it.

epithet Pedantic asf..

I’m starting to have moments where I feel like how the typical “boomer” is portrayed when it comes to dealing with people and technology. Granted, my resistance towards scheduling and completing paperwork that I can do in person over the internet or an app, is a showing itself to be more of a of a hindrance I’m creating for myself than anything. Still, I feel like things shouldn’t be this complicated.

I had a conversation with a medical provider and told them over the phone that I would like to schedule for a specific day and time, and don’t want to bother submitting paperwork if they are not available. They told me this time was available, and so I said “great” and proceeded to fill out the normal patient intake forms.

Now after submitting these forms I’m told that the only availability is on days that do not work for me because someone else booked for that time slot.

Similarly, I opened a claim with one of my insurance providers and gave them with a day that I’d be available. With certainty, they told me someone will be available on that day, and even provided a timeframe that worked great for me. Two days after said availability, I get a missed voice mail saying they are ready in the next 15-30 minutes, which needless to say I was not available for. This unfortunately occurred twice in a two week span.

It’s really easy to get frustrated at the person who’s on the other side of the phone. But I’m starting to feel like there is a bigger issue than carelessness or forgetfulness. It’s no surprise that the person who schedules online or on the app will get the more immediate response.

But there is something else here.

The impersonal is prioritized.

Regardless of the time spent to find a provider who I can talk with directly, or the conversation explaining that I’m not comfortable filling out personal information into yet another black box system until I have some confidence that a) you are the right provider for me, and b) you are even available around my schedule.

Regardless of the conversation I had with the insurance company about my work (et al.) schedule and my availability for a meeting.

None of that matters anymore when the status quo is offsetting cognitive load to a machine.

I’m by no means a techno-luddite, but whatever (waves hands around) this is,
is just absurd.

There’s gotta be another way.

nullx3 “Professional whimisical skedadler”

Sorry in advance to the technical folks who might read this #rant.

You don’t need https to view this web page. I need it to make sure when I log in, that my credentials don’t get intercepted. But you are not logging in, entering your bank details, or any other sensitive information, just to read the content here. You're just reading some entries on a website, mostly text with some images and videos sprinkled in.

I’m not telling you not to use https. I feel comfortable that my neighbors won’t break into my house at night, but I still lock my doors.

If you’re sensitive about someone knowing you’re reading this site, or any other site, https won’t help you. That’s what a vpn, dns, maybe even tor/i2p if you’re really concerned, can help you with.

Don’t get me wrong, https is enabled by default, and I intend to keep it that way. But it’s not really doing a lot for you in this situation as a public viewer.

That is all. Carry on.

#rant
nullx3 “Professional whimisical skedadler”

Hot take : If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re living life completely wrong.

#hottake

Also…

PSA: if google sucks these days, don’t forget that the rival nation states don’t follow the same Capitalist/Orwellian arc. Similar, sure, but slightly different arcs.

Anyways.. Yandex (russias google equivalent) still returns search results like Google pre-2024.

My guess is the content was designed to game google’s SEO and keyword/adword/adsense algorithms, rather than the other search engines (read: ad networks).

I don't expect this advice to be relevant for very long, so get it while it’s ~~hot~~ luke warm.

(Note: at the time of writing this my text rendering is bonked. Anything with ~~ is intended to have a line crossing it out.)

#rant

#hottake#rant
nullx3 “Professional whimisical skedadler”

Cool Links No. 5

#cool_links

#cool_links
epithet Pedantic asf..

I dropped my car off at the mechanic last week and decided I would bike home. I seldom ride my bike for non-leisure purposes, though I took a very leisure pace.

The route was a little dicey here and there, and on some of the roads I found myself praying that the cars coming from behind weren’t going to bash into me. Thinking about the bicyclists who go on very long bike rides over country roads and highways, I have an immense amount of respect for those folks. Maybe it’s bravery or desensitization, or a slurry of both.

Either way, I’m glad that my ~5 mile route consisted of only a few turns and about a quarter mile of knuckle clenching, hoping I don’t go splat, kind of riding.

The rest of was very smooth. The city has invested in more “bike friendly” designs, which they have always done a decent job of, but there has been some significant expansion over the last several years.

I rode through some neighborhoods in was told are no good, and was greeted with friendly people and faces, and this left me with the inclination my initial tour guide of the area (when I moved here) was maybe a little prejudice. None of us are without our own biases and prejudices, often unknowingly inherited, so I hold no resentment for this.

On the contrary, visiting and exploring and interacting with the inhabitants in neighborhoods of my city that I previously have not, has become a bit of a pass time for me.

Who knows, maybe I will go on another bike ride to pick my car up when the mechanic is done with it. If I do, I think I’ll introduce my bike to you all, as he has quite a bit of character.

administrat0r Larping as a mad scientist.

We emptied another room in the nth wing, and caused a ruckus. Things have been running swimmingly since, sans the lingering effects of ☐̷͈̥̫͚͇͈̌̓̇́̇̕ ̷͙͕͋͊͑☐̷̧͖̃͗̃͑͑ ̵̣̼́͑☐̸̡̢̖̞̺̊̉ ̶̩̬̻̲̹̙̀͌̄☐̷͈̙͕͕̩̀̉͛̈́ ̷̡̧̙͎̗͂☐̵̦͉̰͔̟̈́̑̑̑ ̸̨̧̱̠̫̙̓̃͐̋̈.

Previous issues have been mitigated through some shenanigans around the lab which resulted in a stain on my lab coat.

As always.. Research continues!

nullx3 “Professional whimisical skedadler”

Cool Links No. 4

#cool_links

#cool_links