Miraz Jordan

You know how 'they' say you should write out the stuff in your head, making sure to use pen and paper because that's the only 'real' way. Then throw the paper away.

Well, I've discovered a better way.

I record my voice to a file, then transcribe it with Aiko, then read and erase it. Much easier, quicker and more effective. Full voice effects! I can say what I really want to say without the whole written word thing getting in the way. 🌋

I'm feeling very empowered.

Since 07 November 2023 we've had roughly 480mm rain, which has added about 31,000 litres to the water tank.

Nevertheless, the tank that was almost full on that date was approaching empty yesterday, some 37 weeks later, so today the tanker delivered 12,000 litres. 💦💦

A free Mac app idea for some clever coder — I type (or paste) in a bunch of text. Now delete it all with a splendid animation of it going up in flames. 🔥

Later versions could delete it with a huge explosion, fireworks, punchy monster or some other satisfying method. (I'm privately ranty today.)

In good news today, Deb and I both went to the gym where I did mainly stretches, along with some lat pulldowns and rowing on the machine.

This afternoon was gorgeous: sunny, still and warm so we both went for a bike ride round the village. 🚴🏼‍♀️🚴🏼‍♀️

A skill I have is to make a rule to archive unread emails that I don't want. [update 21-Jul-2025: I've deleted the rest of the original post as seeing it reminds me of unpleasant times]

Sigh. I will need to write approximately 1 million pages whose sole destiny will be to feed a bonfire before I'm able to craft an acceptable reply to an email I received before dawn today. 🔥

Seems to me the problem is more one of using a single platform. As with farming, monoculture: risky; diversity: resilient. CrowdStrike glitch: What caused the global cyber outage?:

governments and businesses alike have become increasingly dependent on a handful of interconnected technology companies over the past two decades.

Experts say the cyber outage revealed the risks of an increasingly online world.

Hooray for Time Machine. In an idiot move I deleted an Audio Hijack 'Session' instead of a recording.

I found the sessions file at '/Users/miraz/Library/Application\ Support/Audio\ Hijack\ 4/Sessions.plist' and restored an older copy.

Sorted!

Turns out the session was simple …

It was probably someone on Micro.Blog who put me on to the Reasons to be Cheerful news website. It does cheer me every morning, with articles like this — A Vibrant Local Food System Grows in Colorado:

GoFarm is working to make affordable healthy food more accessible while training the next generation of farmers.

Give the site a try.

I must say that Radio NZ specialise in "dicey" headlines:

I'd love to see a whale having a cuppa. 😆

Today I had brunch with my friend J at Ōtaki then we drove around 12 Km southeast to where the road to Ōtaki Forks is closed on account of a slip about 4 years ago.

I've never been to that area before, and it's gorgeous. We walked a couple of kilometres then turned round.

It's been just the weather for the basket fungus, Ileodictyon cibarium, to appear — warmer the last couple of days, and damp with a few millimetres of rain.

Aaand, the power came back 2 minutes after my previous post. A total outage of about 1.25 hours.

Hmmm, the power went off just before 6 pm and may come back on in a couple of hours, if we're lucky. Fortunately I'd already eaten dinner.

The new Portable Power Station is getting its first workout: charging a phone, watch and laptop. I hadn't expected it to be noisy — there's a fan running (or something).

At first I wondered why the street we were walking down in Palmerston North the other day had stencils like this on all the parking spaces.

Then I realised they were all "Georges": Gershwin, Prince George, etc.

Aha: George Street!

Whimsical and clever.