Post on Elpha – first tin=me posting something personal to my professional network
Elpha.com
Post on Elpha – first tin=me posting something personal to my professional network
Category: everyday life
***
Boris arrived Sunday evening. I was thinking about how, during my February trip, we didn’t spend enough time talking and being together overall because I couldn’t detach myself from work, relax, or just be happy. Even the time which was technically a vacation time, didn’t work like this. I decided that this time would be different. I think that although work is still insane, I managed to put my life back on track during the last several days. Escorting after a long time not doing it and then spending a lot of time together with N. felt like finally doing the right thing. Our plan for Monday was for Boris to come to the Lopp and attend another screening of the CEUFF, but the weather was summer-like again, and I knew it was not for long, so I decided to change the plan. I left work earlier, came home, and we went for a long walk, and then sat and talked for several hours straight. And that was the best thing I did for a very long time!
One friend of mine will tell that she always knows who took a picture judging by how I look 🙂
Friendship
When we met with my friend N. on Sunday, she asked me whether I could promise her to wear the gift she was going to give me all the time. I said yes, and this bracelet is on my wrist now – all the time!
Summer Days
At the beginning of March, we had several summer-like days, and although the weather had already returned to normal, these couple of days were amazing! I biked before dawn and in the afternoon, and I swear I saw people at the beach!!!
Biking In February
Apple Vision – Keeping Exploring
Last weekend, I tried several more things with Apple Vision, with intermittent success.
- I shot a couple of immersive videos with my granddaughters while they visited. I learned that I should resist my instincts and do not move my head around – Apple Vision will take care of the panoramic view by itself. When I move my head around, the video becomes so jumpy, that you can’t watch it. But when I sat still, the results were great, I indeed felt in the middle of action.
- While reading the manual, I found out that you can take immersive videos using iPhone 15. The instructions stated that you could switch to the immersive video mode, and although your video won’t be immersive on the iPhone, it will be immersive when you watch it on Apple Vision. I tried it, and it was definitely not as great as the videos I made using Apple Vision itself. I will give it another try before pronouncing it an experience, but so far, I am not impressed. I was hoping that Boris would be able to send me the blooming lilacs from Helsinki :), but no!
- Device sharing didn’t work at all how I expected. I figured out how to start a guest session, and I thought it would be as easy as I would take off the device, give it to another person, and they continue from there. But it turned out that each “guest” had to go through the whole setup session, setting their eyes’ movements, their hands’ recognition, their sight focus, and so on. They say that Apple Vision can’t be used by anybody younger than 13, and honestly, it is hardly possible! The setup would be challenging even for some adults. So, my hopes of sharing the experience with my granddaughters will have to wait!
Theft, Building Access, And What To Do About It
We had several cases of stolen packages in our building back in December, and you may remember that some of my outgoing mail (four packages with holiday cookies) was stolen as well. At that point, our association raised a question of rekeying the building, but many residents doubted that the theft had happened due to somebody having the building key. They thought that, most likely, the residents were buzzing visitors in without looking. I doubt that (everyone has windows facing the gate, and it takes a second to check). Also, I knew that my packages were stolen during the night hours. In December, everybody agreed to wait till we got new management in January.
A week ago, there was another case of theft, and the same as with me, it happened during the night hours. Once again, there was a conversation about the building re-keying, but this time, our board member related that this project is expensive, and she does not think it will help since the locks are not difficult to break. She even shared the link where you can buy a “lock gun” online.
At first, I was distraught with the decision not to rekey the building, and I was about to write an angry letter to the board, especially when they suggested I could have my packages delivered to a nearby Walgreens (it’s not “nearby,” and time is the most precious resource for me). But then I thought about it and reread the email one more time. This time, I realized that she was right and that locks do not stop thieves, and I am very well aware of that. If somebody is determined to steal, no lock will stop them. The theft does not exist when there is no reason for it. I thought about how I was always against “gating” oneself from the rest of the world and how now I was about to suggest just that, so something was wrong with my moral compass. And then I thought I already knew the answer: the only way to reduce crime, including theft, in my community is to improve the community itself. And my participation in the beat meetings and my new idea to get involved with Howard Community Board were all about that.
I often hear people complaining about the increasing number of homeless people on the streets of Chicago, and I hear their cries, “What do police think?!” I understand that seeing a lot of this misery is disturbing and unpleasant. And I hear some well-off people articulating that they want to be able to pay for never seeing “all that.”
Recently, I thought about how it felt on the streets of Chicago 150 years ago, when there were a lot of very poor people and very few rich people, and how these rich people felt walking the streets and seeing other people’s misery, and how they probably didn’t want to see it, and the policemen were here ready to remove the beggars from the public places. And how these rich people could isolate themselves from the reality behind the closed gates. And I do not want to be one of them.
And I do not want to be that
Conference Prep
We have the conference schedule published. Our Talk Selection Committee did a really fantastic job. I don’t remember when (or whether it was!) the authors’ notifications, final acceptance, and scheduling – everything was on time!
But even with the best CfP committee ever, the conference takes all the time I have, plus more. Just saying 🙂
Apple Vision
It is the most challenging Apple product I own so far. I scheduled a consultation with Apple support to start it, and it took an hour, and I needed more. In fact, I had to terminate the session because my mom started to call me :). I had a chance to play with it more on the same day, and then more on Sunday. I am still learning how to operate it. It is as wild as you saw it in commercials. Pressing the key by focusing your gaze on them is a total Sci-Fi, and it’s not always convenient. Fortunately, you can also press them on an imaginary keyboard.
I chose an environment that places me on the shore of a tiny lake high in the mountains, and I can even hear the water splashing. I also watched a short episode on Nature, which showed rhinos in Africa, and they literally come by you and touch you with their noses. Surreal. There is a warning at the start of each movie: beware of your environment (aka remember that you are in the virtual reality, not just the reality), and now I know why they show it.
I already have a long list of questions that I need to look up :), including how I create a guest account and share with others.
Compressed Book(s) Review
No time to write the actual reviews, but I still wanted to leave a couple of notes about the books I recently read.
- Last year, I read Henry at Work. I started reading it because it was recommended as a book about “the meaning of work,” especially “during the era of mass resignation,” and it sounded interesting. When I started to read it, I realized that first, I needed to read at least some works of Thoreau, so I started Walden. It was an incredibly difficult reading for me, in part because early nineteenth-century English is very different from the modern language and in part because the pace of the story is a hundred times slower than I am used to. I took it upon myself to beat this challenge and exercise patience, especially because it was sort of a point of Thoreau’s philosophy. I made it :), even though it was possibly the slowest reading in my adult life. I am still thinking to which extent I agree with Thoreau. Is my work meaningful? I hope it is because I am definitely not working “just so I can earn money to live.” But is it really meaningful? I am not sure. I am in the race for a big paycheck? Am I one of the people who wants things because others want them, and I might not need them? Judging by me being among the first to get Apple Vision, it seems like it, but that was probably the only purchase of that kind in many years. Are my desires to have more cultural experiences and travel more unworthy ones? Henry James Thoreau condemned trains, saying that there is no reason for people to get from one place to another “as fast as possible.” I find it hard to agree :).
- Eat to beat your diet. I started reading it because I thought that it was going to be an anti-dieting book. The author claimed that “you do not need to eat less; you just need to eat the right foods, and you will be able to fight bad fats, and everything will be great.” In fact, when he talks about the studies, he mentions that people in them were not eating less, but they were given some special foods in addition. However, when it comes to meal plans, the first things he emphasizes are “eat in moderation,” intermittent fasting,” and similar calorie-restricting techniques.
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold. I read it for the book club and loved it! I can’t even tell why I loved it so much and what’s the significance of this work, but I was completely taken! Loved it to the last drop! Possibly will read the next one in the series.
- Red Alert - The Novel that Inspired Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I started reading it after I watched the movie. That’s shocking reading for anybody born in the Soviet Union. It’s hard to say “I loved it” about such kind of a book, so let’s say it left a long-lasting impression on me. I will try to write more about it next week.
- Three more books “currently reading”.
Hettie's Reflections 