Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling

Things return to normal . . . or kinda normal. The year is getting off to a frenzied bang, with out-of-town hearings and appointments all week that will take me to five towns in three states over the next five days. Ugh. Although I've come to appreciate that busy-ness can be a virtue if balanced with inner stillness and periods of external stillness, I still ascribe to the notion that busy-ness American-style is a bad thing: it's merely an antidote to ennui and, ultimately, a drug to kill our natural inclination to philosophize and grapple with ultimate things. It's why I both love and hate the Christmas season. It's why I'll probably both hate and find some measure of gratification/accomplishment in the coming week's activities. * * * * * * * Thanks for coming back to TDE. I didn't mention it last year, but from about August to mid-November, the TDE visitor count steadily declined. I don't know why; perhaps the stat counter was broken. Regardless, things seem back to normal now. Over 3,900 unique visitors came to the site last month, which is consistent with historical norms (about 4,000 unique visitors a month; 400 visitors daily). * * * * * * * "Do you feel like your iPhone runs out of storage, just so Apple can sell you iCloud storage? Well, there's a class action lawsuit for you." Link. Good. I've about had it with Apple. I swear, Apple was a one-man corporation and now it's a horrible operation. I bought the very first iPhone and have been an iTunes user for nearly ten years. I've already told Marie and the kids to prepare themselves for a jump to Samsung and the Android operating system when my current contract expires.