Also, happy new year and stuff.

Also #11

Greetings from the first full day of 2024 where things are off to a shaky start¹. Literally. As I write this, tsunami warnings are still in effect for the west coast of Japan after a massive earthquake struck during late afternoon on January 1st.

Neither the earthquake nor the tsunami(s) are affecting my house much. We're well away from the epicenter and too far from the coast to have to worry about the water. That said, when my wife's phone, my phone, and my kid's phone all start screaming "Earthquake! Earthquake!" my anxiety spikes through the roof and I start looking for things to hold on to. It's been over a decade but the 2011 earthquake lingers loud in my memory.

Christmas Day in my neck of the woods. Not quite a white Christmas, but those are getting rare everywhere from what I understand.

And so, what was meant to be a nice, happy, "let's all celebrate the new year" post has become something else entirely as I watch the news cycle through what little footage they have and explain again and again just how tsunamis are measured.

(A little more context: when they say that there's a 50 cm tsunami wave, people sometimes think, "oh, it's not that big." What you have to realize is that that 50 cm is not measuring the peak of a wave but is instead measuring the rise of the entire sea. A 50 cm tsunami wave is enough to knock down and pin down adults; a 50 cm tsunami wave can be lethal.)

The good news is that, unlike 2011 and 2004 before it, we have much, much better detection systems and a much better awareness that when the newscaster says "go to high ground now" they're not being hyperbolic².

And that's where the news stands as I write this: there's been an earthquake, tsunami waves are coming. More as the story develops.

So. In the meantime, I've been wrapping up my 2023 and trying to get a handle on what I want 2024 to be. Here are some thoughts from the past few days:

• I got an Apple Watch for Christmas and so far, I’m tracking all the things.  First impressions, the hand washing timer is overkill but nice; the heart rate monitoring functions and other, more serious monitoring systems are great, as is the built in crash, fall, and emergency services features.  But the thing that made me laugh this morning was, while taking my dog for a walk, the wind kicked up pretty fierce.  My watch immediately chimed in with an “area is too noisy” alert.  There was nothing else happening, just the wind.  So.  The wind is dangerously loud and might affect my hearing.  Just what I needed, one more excuse to stay inside.

• More seriously, I’m tracking a lot of data this year.  Partially because I do have some health concerns and these new tools can gather quite a bit of data that doctors and qualified practitioners can use to help their assessments and diagnoses.  But partly is just that I like doing it.  I didn’t track anything in 2023.  I was just too tired.  But I missed it.  As we got into December and I started looking back on the year, I realized I couldn’t remember anything and even looking back at journals and photos didn’t help because they tracked entirely different things (feelings, ew.)  So, I’m tracking a lot.  We’ll see what becomes of it and for how long I manage to stay consistent.

• Somewhat relatedly: Chat GPT is destined to become the Netscape of A.I. tools, isn’t it?  For those who don’t know or don’t remember, back when, you’d get a new Windows machine and the first thing you would do would be to download and install Netscape Navigator.  It kicked the pants off of Microsoft Explorer and Safari wasn’t really a thing yet.  Over time, however, the big companies got their acts together and then Google made even the big boys obsolete.  Much like the browsers, however, I think Chat GPT (and Open A.I.) will hang in there.  The eventual default A.I. tool is going to be determined by how companies deal with copyright and privacy.  So far, I’m not optimistic.

• And speaking of things becoming entrenched: Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, the year divides much more neatly into 13 4-week months than it does our current 12 months with a variable number of days.  So why don’t we change it?  Can you imagine the outroar³ that would cause?  Business would be disrupted!  School would be disrupted!  People’s lives would be disrupted!  Oh no.  What a pity.

• But back to my shiny new watch, this is the promise of A.I.s, right?  It’s not a bot that can do my homework for me, it’s an assistant that lets me offload some of the effort of keeping track of everything.  It lightens the cognitive load which means I can spend more time engaging in the real work of life:  spending time with other people and engaging in creative pursuits.

How’s this for a portent: if the train’s are running then all is right with the world.

Finally some one-off comments that have nowhere to go because I don’t use Twitter anymore⁴:

• I’m not making a resolution unless it’s an anti one.  I resolve to get fatter, lazier, and more out-of-touch with the youth.  I think I can actually hold to that one.

• I have realized I have the body of a Greek god if that god is Dionysius after a three-week bender.

• Gremlins is still the best non-Christmas Christmas movie.  I have a special affection for late-80s, early-90s bad movies like Gremlins 2.  See also, Toys, which was notable more for having both Thomas Dolby and Tori Amos on the soundtrack than for the quality of the movie, and the Tom Hanks’ vehicle, Joe vs. the Volcano. 

I hope your 2024 is off to an auspicious start and that the year to come proves enjoyable and successful. Good luck. We’re all going to need it.

1. It's a terrible joke, but one that I feel news desk editors would approve of. If news desk editors were still a real job held by real people.

2. While we were watching the news, both my wife and I were shocked at the Japanese being used by the newscaster. Instead of the formal, polite sentences they usually use, the woman telling people to evacuate was mincing no words and speaking incredibly directly. Imagine your favorite newscaster saying something like, "There's a tsunami coming. Escape right fucking now." In a very real way, that was scarier than any footage they could show.

3. Yeah, I meant to use “outrage,” but I’m keeping it. First new word of 2024: outroar. Make up your own definition.

4. That said, I did spend most of last night drunk-tooting on Mastadon while watching the annual singing contest on NHK. Some interesting performances; X Japan’s tribute to their bass player who died this year was unexpectedly touching. Also, I’m kind of fascinated by this new J-Pop group: Atarashi Gako no Leaders (I’m romanizing the hell out of that name, by the way.) Anyway, if you really need to be social via media, here’s me.