Miraz Jordan

We heard a really loud sneeze just outside the door. When I looked though, there was no-one there. Sometimes the cows in the paddock next door cough, but nope, no cows.

But wait! What’s that? A grey bull hiding in the lupins.

And sure enough, he coughed again.

The first stick insect of the season has set itself up inside the open window but on the outside of the insect screen.

We’re on the move — about 4 cm so far this year thanks to a slow-slip earthquake. Not all earthquakes are short sharp shocks. GeoNet:

~3–4 centimetres of motion has occurred on the subduction plate boundary … ~30–40 km beneath the Manawatu region.

98 second video shows a bit of what our recently resigned Prime Minister endured: Glimpse into the kind of daily abuse Jacinda Ardern had to weather. Shocking viewing and definitely NSFW.

Maybe this is why Apple Pay never works on my M1 MacBook Pro:

With an M1 Mac, the most likely reason is you enabled its Reduced Security mode to install a kernel extension required by some software that taps into low-level drivers, like some of Rogue Amoeba’s audio software.

Apple Pay not working on a Touch ID Mac? Here are the security settings to check | Macworld

Today we visited the Ōtaki Pottery Show, which had a lot of craft goods for sale and a great many visitors. My photo shows only a small part of the show. I really liked these blue dishes from Jailhouse Pottery and bought one of the small ones.

I use a Global Macro Palette in Keyboard Maestro to give me quick click access to some of my macros. The palette is usually collapsed but expands on mouseover. I wanted to customise it to be light green.

Convert HEX to HSL helped with values.

Today in Keyboard Maestro actions I discovered “Switch” instead of nested “If…Then” actions. There are 3 Facebook pages I occasionally need to view. I call up a window where I can select which I want. Then Case lets me open the correct page.

I was thinking we need a plainer and more powerful word than the clinical and remote misogyny. It’s all academic and posh with its Greek roots.

I think we’re past the feeble woman hating of yore too.

How about something like woman crushing or woman destroying?

Re the resignation of PM Jacinda Ardern:

it is becoming more challenging for women to be taken seriously…

"Particularly if they are younger and particularly if they don't cleave to a masculine style, which Ardern does not."

…misogynistic sentiment is also on the rise globally.

Nice: neighbours over the mountains.

South Wairarapa and Carterton’s night skies will know be known under the collective name, ‘Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve’, covering an area of 3,665 square kilometers.

— Wairarapa districts become dark sky reserves

In her term as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern:

encountered a major biosecurity incursion, a domestic terror event, a major natural disaster, a global pandemic and an economic crisis.

Oh, and she had a baby. Jacinda Ardern’s resignation

Hand mixed because we don’t have a kitchen mixer (yet), but I’m trying to make Crusty French Bread Rolls. Not optimistic at the moment while the dough rises.

Sasha’s long overdue a haircut. 🐶

I’m not sure what happened on the mountains this evening — I suspect it was a gap between clouds that threw sun onto one level of the hills between dark layers. I’ve also discovered my editing skills aren’t up to making the most of these two images.

A particularly interesting segment of Quirks & Quarks podcast talks about how eyes work — fascinating stuff! Dec 31: Our annual holiday question show:

Are human eyes interchangeable, or are they distinctly left or right like hands and feet?

A photo achievement I’m pleased with: getting a clear shot of this dragonfly on the wing. This one was in focus; the other 20 or so weren’t… 😆

Deb and I brunched at Bush Street Cafe. Deb’s coffee was great, my green tea was good. The food was delicious. I had the Caprese Toastie. And something you almost never find in Aotearoa’s cafes and restaurants: the knife was sharp enough to cut rather than tear the food. 🙌🏼

In a few weeks I turn 68. These days I’m only too aware of how this 68 year old body doesn’t always meet my expectations. Of course, it’s my expectations that are at fault, not my body which has actually served me very well these last many decades.

Yesterday while I was walking along Sledge Track I found it harder going than the claimed “easy route”. I needed to watch my footing on the narrow trail by the river where every downhill had an equal but opposite uphill. There were many steps up and down on this route and I needed to take frequent rests.

That’s when my brain started on its “Other 68 year olds can do this easily” lies.

My brain was quite persistent about how inadequate I was, as if it was some kind of a race or endurance test rather than a simple walk for pleasure in the bush.

One thing this 68 year old brain is though is smarter than it used to be. While that critical sub-brain continued its jibes my more logical brain countered: “What 68 year olds exactly? I know a bunch of people my age who couldn’t do this walk at all.”

J1, for example, has had both knees replaced in the last couple of years and a poor sense of balance. This trail is not for her.

Or J2 who had a bad motorcycle accident a few years ago, crushing one leg. She tripped on a flat boardwalk when she visited a couple of years back. This steep in parts, narrow, rough-surfaced trail wouldn’t be for her.

And other friends about my age who have various ailments, who wouldn’t have made it up the first set of steps.

So, who are these other older folks who would walk this trail so much “better”, according to my critical sub-brain, than I was doing?

Well, there’s my friend L, a decade older than me. But then L has regularly gone tramping throughout her life. She’s spent thousands of hours walking trails.

I’ve spent thousands of hours sitting down honing my computer skills.

What is it that encourages this critical sub-brain to speak up, unashamedly, with its commentary on what we’re doing?

I thought about those many many thousands of hours I’ve spent learning about computer stuff.

I get a great sense of pleasure when I do something “clever” on the computer. I think “I love that I can do this.” What I don’t think is “Hey, other 68 year olds can’t do this”, even though that would be at least partly true, in exactly the same way that some folks my age would have an easier time walking a trail in the bush.

I’ve recently been reading writings by Stoics. Funnily enough, just the day before my walk I’d been pondering on these words by Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations (I’ve modernised the translation):

Practise the things you despair of accomplishing. Even the left hand, in effectual for all other things for lack of practice, holds the bridle more vigorously than the right hand; for it has had more practise.

And more:

Think less about what you don’t have and more about what you do have.

One of the things I’ve learned from listening to episodes of The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos is that our brains routinely lie to us.

Thanks to knowing that my brain can lie to me, I understood that the “Other 68 year olds” criticism just needed to be put aside. It wasn’t true. When it came to walking on the Sledge Track, I was just an average person. Some may walk the trail “better”, others “worse”. And anyway, it wasn’t a competition. There was no better or worse. It was just a way for my critical sub-brain to try to wound me.

“Hah! Your barbs are harmless! Be off with you!”

I enjoyed my walk, and the frequent rests were wonderful opportunities to breathe the fresh air, listen to the birds, look at the greenery.

Abandon your old foolishness like you abandon tattered clothes. You don’t have to think what you thought last year. — The Stoic Emperor