Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • 🔤SpellBinding — BEKNOSP Wordo: ACHES

  • Exploring Norway: Tromsø and Lofoten

    I'm someone who appreciates true relaxation while on vacation: lingering in one place, letting one's mind go blank, enjoying the warm weather, maybe doing some swimming. A stereotypical afternoon on the beach sipping an icy beverage ranks pretty high up there. Unfortunately for me, none of that is really feasible due to having small kids. I'm constantly on duty/alert for cooking meals and snacks, potty time, miscellaneous sibling spats, and managing nap time. Also, my wife is more keen on exploring new places, seeing the world, and basically traveling around, so beach vacations are not in the cards that often. I don't think I've had a really relaxing vacation in something like seven years.

    This summer was no exception as we decided to try a new sort of activity: renting a campervan and driving thousands of kilometers. A road trip to Norway is something that has been on the bucket list for a number of years — Norway has some amazing nature to explore: fjords, mountains, beaches, and idyllic coastal villages. We did get to see those things along the way, but mostly the trip felt like tens of hours of driving while stumbling on amazing views, with an inordinate amount of time spent dressing and undressing the kids when exiting and entering the van. As one might imagine, a campervan is not the most spacious of vehicles for a family of four, so these tasks were made all the more challenging by the cramped conditions. The outside temperature varied from 7°C (Kilpisjärvi in northern Finland) to 14°C in Norway while on the beach (not suitable for swimming!) and to 25°C when coming back south the Helsinki (as a heat wave was starting). Fortunately, we had packed clothing for all possible types of weather!

  • Summertime

    I teach at a University on a 9-month contract. That means I get unpaid summer vacations!

    Youngsters (of which I was once one) love to trade life for money obtained through work, the latter having much more value. But over time, the relative worth begins to balance out. And then, as life becomes more scarce, it's value increases presumably until one day when you wouldn't go to work for any amount of money.

    (And here I count "work" as "something you wouldn't be doing anyway".)

  • 5 Questions, July 2025

    Well yay - Christina has graced gopherspace with another set of "5 Questions!" [1]

    I very much welcome the return of this time-honoured tradition. Not only because I enjoy seeing the oft-times surprising and enlightening replies from other folks out here in the digital boondocks, and not just because it saves me from having to think up things to write about, but even more because it saves us all from yet another one of my curmudgeonly posts about the current state of information technology. I can be curmudgeonly about something else for a change. Everybody wins!

    1. Has a self-help book ever helped you? If yes, would you share the title and author?

    If by "self-help" is meant a book sold in the "self-help" section in bookstores, then I think the answer is no, never read one. Why is that, I wonder? Certainly there were times in my life when I needed help dealing with my personal problems. But whatever I got in that line tended to come direct from various people in my life, not mediated through the printed page. That might be surprising, I guess, given how bookish I am. I think it was a kind of suspicion (perhaps tinged with snobbishness) that led me to avoid the self-help section, a mistrust of an industry whose generous profit margins seemed rooted in exaggerated claims and encouraging false hopes. Which may well be an entirely unfair generalization, as it clearly has no basis in my personal experience.

  • Joseph Smith: Wrong from the Very First Vers

    A very helpful resource for understanding the false teachings of Joseph Smith and of Mormonism is the "King Follet Discourse", which is a sermon he gave in front of 20,000 Mormons in 1844 in connection with the recent death of Elder King Follet. This sermon is recorded in "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith", 2nd Ed (1940) by Joseph Fielding Smith, a Mormon historian. It should be emphasized — as can easily be understood by reading this book — that Joseph Fielding Smith was not an enemy of Joseph Smith but rather was fervently devoted to him and his teachings, though the two men were not contemporaries. A scan of this book can be downloaded from the Internet Archive:

  • Unconsuming fire

    A PE teacher at Estill County School was struck by lightning, my AA sponsor whispered. First daughter woke from a nightmarish fever dream, recounted every horrifying detail.

    The only relief from heat and humidity for weeks has been rain. Rain, caves, or air conditioner. Air conditioner in the house, in the car, so rare in past years. Relief from rain doesn't last long. First daughter's sleep is fitful.

    Mama, when will you die? She asked.

    I don't know everything, I said. I hope I can see you be a kid some more, grow up, be proud, make cool things, think you found love, be wrong, help people, and find love for real.

    I try to not die too easy. Mommy and Tevis and Grandma and Memaw will take care of you if I die before you grow up. We party when people we love die, you know. We finally see how cool their whole life was. Life's precious because it isn't forever.

• Technology and Free Software

  • OCC25 Wrap up

    The system for the 2025 edition of the Old Computer Challenge, an old Power Mac G4, is kind of a mini-tower system under the desk, and a display, keyboard, and mouse on the desk.

    The last time I worked on this desk was around 2022, when I was still working, until my retirement --only the university system was a lot more capable.

    I enjoy working on the Power Mac, I love the old 15 inch Graphite Apple Studio Display, and using a real keyboard.

    The downside is that my desk is on the attic, above the garage, working on the Power Mac leaves my wife alone in the living room, and therefor I didn't spend that much time at the Power Mac.