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( 22/11/28 ) I'm using these posts to make chronological thoughts, ideas, opinions and 'today I learned(s)' for items that don't necessarily need to reference at a later point like my docs, lists, and notes. And because it's faster than writing posts for my desk page, I tend to use it more often for jotting down quick posts or drafting longer posts that'll end up on my desk.


Today I learned that Xanthopsia caused by the plant Digitalis could explain some of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings[^1].

Today I learned that Wine.com is the largest wine retailer in the US and sells over 2 million bottles per year.

Today I learned the the Geminids[^1] are one of two sets of meteor showers not originating from a comet. They were discovered to be originating from the Phaethon[^2] asteroid in 1983, which is one of the more recent discoveries.

Today I edited an old page on my site because its references had disappeared1. I also noticed that my 'now' page2 was missing a place to note that I make edits somewhat regularly which got me thinking about publishing workflows.

Today I learned that the Unix and the C programming language were a prank influenced by Bored of the Rings, a National Lampoon parody of Lord of the Rings . I noticed Epilogue B of The UNIX-HATERS Handbook was titled Creators Admit C, Unix Were Hoax1,2 and included the following citation from the creators2,3,4.

Today I learned that sour cream has a bad name because there are only very minor differences between sour cream and crème fraîche1,2.

Today I learned that the term silent majority originated as a euphemism for the dead1. Petonius wrote abiit ad plures around AD 50 which translates as "he's gone to the many"2.

Today I learned that Françoise Gilot painted almost daily until the age of 1001,2. Although Gilot was known partially for her romantic partnership with Pablo Picasso and marriage to Jonas Salk, she was also a very accomplished painter. I'm not a big fan of the majority of her artwork but I admire her effort.

Today I learned Cat Power wrote her album Moon Pix in Prosperity, South Carolina1,2, William Eggleston had the same doctor as Elvis, and Dr. Nic from The Simpsons is based on him. While digging into Chan's most recent release of live Dylan covers, I decided to do the deep dive and learned all these in one swipe.

Today I learned that the Mean Green Mother from Outer Space from Little Shop of Horrors was Levi Stubbs1,2 The follow up reading and holiday got me to thinking a bit more about horror as a genre.

Today I learned to use Adobe Firefly1. I was scanning through the annual Adobe Max2 conference presentations so I upgraded Illustrator and whipped up this graphic in about five minutes while watching one.

Today I learned about Evi Nemeth and the origin of phrase layer 8 error 1,2. Layer 8 error is just another way of saying User error along the lines PICNIC ( "problem in chair, not in computer" ) or ID 10T ("idiot error"). Evi is credited with referring to the layers on top of the 7-layer OSI model of networking as People, Money, Government, and Politics. She was known as the matriarch of system administration because she authored the the most widely used Unix SysAdmin books, and created 25h Anniversary UNIX playing card set. Evi disappeared at sea in 2013.

Today I learned how useful the Newspapers.com website can be1. I gotta email from our athletic director about championship banners for the gym related to tennis. Being as I'm not from Greenwood, I had no clue about the history so I forwarded it to a couple fellas I know who knew more. The feedback left some gaps, so I started scrubbing online when I ran into the ubiquitous Newspapers.com site.

Today I learned that Samuel Jones Lee was the first African-American Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1872 to 1874 1. The reason the discovery resonated so much with me is that the history has some modern reverberations and is closely tied to several nearby counties. His tenure is associated with the Disputed Government of South Carolina of 1876 and one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history.

Today I learned that Reagan had the largest number of criminal charges of any presidential administration. I actually learned it last night watching a George Carlin standup1, but I doubted it given the last administration and I had to double-check the reference this morning2. Sure enough, ole' George was just shooting straight.

Today I learned that some people really don't believe in climate change. While playing tennis this morning we started talking about the brutal temps and it somehow fell into a discussion on climate change. The exact quote was "it's all propaganda. it's really about money". Since I'm a big advocate for leaving bullshit, politics, religion, cell phones, and whatnot off the courts, I told em I'd reply with a text message later. So here it is:

Today I learned that Apple has an extensive library of forms for product feedback. Ever since the advent of the app store, I've had just one irritating complaint about it... and NO, it doesn't have anything to do with the fee structure, blocking of in-app charges, or the relatively tight technical guidelines because I'm OK with those. My only complaint is about the design.

Today I learned a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for the WordPress 6.3 command palette1,2,3. I actually learned quite a bit more while migrating several sites over from another website vendor. I was able to completely duplicate the previous designs with only a few custom patterns and lines of CSS using the default Twenty Twenty-Three theme blocks.

Today I learned that the fictional Princess Zelda is named after Zelda Fitzgerald and that Robin Williams named his daughter after the princess because he was playing the game. I did the deep dive after reading a comment1 in The Paris Review about The Legend of Zelda2 likely because it came through my feed reader and we've been playing the game. The comment centered around "Can video games be considered art?" to which I would reply that the creator, Shigeru Miyamoto3 graduated from Kanazawa College of Art4.

Today I learned the origins of the word sardonic1. I got a text comment recently saying "they both suck" where I was jokingly debating and comparing the personalities of Alan Jackson and Travis Tritt. It started because I published a video that had a cover of a Travis Tritt song It's a Great Day to Be Alive2, to which my wife and I started debating the artist. Regardless, I'll skip the trivial details of the debate and focus on the heart of the matter.

Today I learned to use Figma Dev Mode in VS Code. I got a notification in my feed reader yesterday about the Figma Dev Mode1 announcement so I dove in to give it a test run last night. I’m in because of how it’ll allow me to speed up the design iteration process without having to leave my text editor. Figma for VS Code gives me the same features of browser developer tools that I can share with anyone in real time instead of sharing my screen on video calls. It’ll give my less technical collaborators an easy way to make adjustments and comments without all of the screenshots in emails.

Today I learned that there are a little over ten species of Oaks in South Carolina1,2 while having a tree removed from our yard. Some oaks in the Carolinas are over 1,500 years old while the Angel Oak3 is only 4-500 years old. The one in our yard was a 70 year old white oak or Quercus Alba4.

Today I learned why the iPhone 12 HDR setting has blown/washed out video color in Adobe Premier Pro. I mostly prefer to leave the High Dynamic Range enabled on video for my phone so I leave the setting on. It was especially noticeable while uploading some footage of Iris in the pond 1,2.

Today I learned that Oxalic acid causes spinach teeth and is used in 1. Oxalic acid sticks to the calcium in your saliva and form little crystals that don't dissolve. When attached to your teeth, they produces the uncomfortable "spinach teeth" feeling.

Today I learned more about my great grandfather from a first person account1. I got a comment and email from a fella who was discussing him with his 93 year old mother.

Today I learned that Dave Cobb went to a school for students with disabilities1. I did the deep dive on him this morning because I listened to a Broken Record podcast2 at the request of a friend in a group thread and because I like his work. I wrote a response to my buddy who suggested it and I'm sharing it here because I think it's interesting.

Today I learned about the I.D. Buzz and Electric Mini release dates1,2. In an effort to lobby the better half on our future automobile lineup, I created the graphic below and added the dogs for better effect.

Today I learned that Gardeners' World is on it's 54th season. It first aired in 1968 on BBC Television 1. We just started watching the series likely because of working on our garden and yard.

Today I learned why Nick Cave went to the king's coronation1. Nick wrote a very compelling letter in his Red Hand Files about he we went2 so I went trolling through some press and images from the event and thought these two juxtaposed one another somewhat appropriately.

Today I learned how the integrate LangChain into the OpenAI API. Since it was quite a bit to wrap my head around, I also had to do the deep dive on some of the fundamentals of machine learning and vector databases. I published a simple demo and started making notes about the process.

Today I learned how the South Carolina Department of Education publishes their Standards. Someone recently asked me if I was interested in substitute teaching at the high school or middle school levels, so I figured I'd go investigate what the standards are in the subject areas I'd be ok teaching.

Today I learned how to use OpenAI ChatGPT1 to index my personal Today I learned documents. After I got ChatGPT v4 API access, I applied it to my markdown documents to gave me semantic search capabilities and the ability to interact with the model within my own documentation. I've had a bunch of discussions recently about using it for various purposes and I've been exploring those.

Today I learned that there actually was an effort to continue the Iran hostage crisis until Ronald Reagan was elected1. A couple fellas from Texas, one of who was in the shot alongside of JFK and then switched parties for Nixon, went on a middle east PR tour to broker a deal with Iran to ship weapons for retaining hostages until Reagan was elected.

Today I learned that Dennis Ritchies Ph.D. thesis was never accepted and that his son created a game company called Binary Arts 1,2. The reason this was important to me is because I use Unix daily and had a collection of puzzles which included Spin-Out from Bill Ritchie's company.

Today I learned the Brooke Shields grandfather won Wimbledon in 19311 and that it was Polly Platt, the writer of Pretty Baby who introduced Matt Groening to James Brooks2. I learned these because we watched the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood3 last night.

Today I learned the that Harold Tucker Webster1 made a pretty accurate prediction exactly one hundred years ago.

Today I learned that a dog can use inference and learn 1000 words. Dr. John W. Pilley was a professor of Psychology in South Carolina who taught his dog Chaser and wrote a book on it.