Binoculars reflection movie trope

I can’t find any mention of this movie trope:

In movies and TV, often westerns, the hero looks up and sees a clear glint on a mountain or a roof top: somebody is watching them with binoculars.

I don’t buy it. A glass surface (unlike a mirror which has a silver covering) reflects only 4% of the light.
And more, a binocular front lens is curved. This means that the reflection of the sun is very small and weak, and falls off with the square of the distance. It is nothing like a reflection in a hand mirror. (And if it was, it would have to be extremely carefully aimed to be visible to anybody, because the light beam is only as wide as the mirror.)

Dirk Gently

There are two Dirk Gently books, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul. They are both humorous, intelligent, complex, and highly imaginative. And very original, I’ve not seen anything quite like them.

Douglas Adams of course wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. The Dirk Gently books are also humor, but not at all as far out as HHGG. They are more ‘realistic’ as far as that can be said of books which involve time travel, ghosts, and gods.

I really appreciate them, it’s extremely rare to see such a combination of intelligence and imagination and humor. I think only Terry Pratchett is in the same league.

Adams was working on a third one when he died at 49 around the millennium. It was published with other diverse scraps, but was clearly only rough ideas.

Are ebooks failing?

There are many stories in the press about how ebooks are apparently failing. It is BS.

iClever keyboard testing

I am typing on a new iClever travel keyboard*. It’s very nice indeed, fits in a jacket pocket and is only about 150 grams. 
 And yet it feels quite solid. It is covered in a nice, solid rubber-slash-cloth-like covering (they say it is faux leather) which makes it feel like it won’t break, unlike many other small keyboards. And I really like how it feels in the hand. Much classier than the price would suggest. (I’ve paid almost as much for a set of crappy earbuds which came apart after a few weeks.) 

It is “tilted” on each side, v-shaped, like some of the full-sized Ergonomic keyboards. I’m not sure how much that helps, but it does not seem to hurt. 

The keys are pretty nice despite the necessary short key travel, apparently they have an actual mechanical switch under each, not the common rubber membrane which I don’t care much for. 

It’s wireless of course, and so far Bluetooth works very well with it, connecting right away after I open the keyboard (kept in place with the nice modern way of a simple magnet rather than a fiddly mechanism). 

The one thing to get used to is that (I think this was done to solve the problem of folding the keyboard without the fragile mechanics that often results in) is clearly that there is a big gap in the middle of the design. For me that means that my thumb tends to hit outside the space bar. But there are signs that I’m already getting used to bending the thumb a bit more than I’m used to, so that shouldn’t be a biggie. (Although I think the design could easily have accommodated a longer space bar on both sides.) 

It is very economical, I think all the other keyboards I’ve bought (big or compact) have been more expensive, many significantly so. 

If this keeps working for me, it may be really good. It can fit even in my cargo pants (which I tend to use in the era of pocket phones etc). And I like to write in cafés and such (I’m in one right now, waiting for my panini), but I also like to take walks without bringing a bag. But this keyboard and a phone is a quite good little pocketable modern typewriter.

Or indeed a pocketable studio. I wrote on my phone, took the photo with my phone, and posted it with my phone. Such compact power.

*Oddly I don't see a specific name or number for it, search on Amazon for  iClever Bluetooth Keyboard Ultra Compact Foldable Universal Ergonomic Keyboard.

Electronics addiction?

There is anecdotal evidence that people (like the amish) who make do without electronics are happier.

I’m extremely attracted to gadgets, and I can’t imagine giving them up. But I can also see that gadgets, not the least those with screens, are *extremely stimulating*, and that is clearly the reason they are so addictive. And pretty much it is guaranteed that anything addictive does not do you any favors in the long run.
So I’m conflicted.

Foggy Night

Foggy night in Ol' Blimey.

The need for grips on tablets

For realsies: tablets need to have a grip.

Snow tracks

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iPhone X, automatic, hand-held.

What is ‘value’?

Here’s another definition thing I don’t care for: that the word “value” is understood by a lot of people to mean “financial rewards”.

 Value is a very important word which means so many things beyond mere money. It can mean convenience, beauty, help, understanding, communication, anything which is a positive quality in life. If you understand it to only mean “money”, that’s just spiritual poverty.

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Why do I care about the changing meaning of this word, like I do with the word “literally”? Sure, languages change, but these words have something in common: 1, they are very important words and concepts. 2, we don’t have anything to replace them with. And we are much poorer without the concepts of ‘value’ and ‘literal’.

About my phone...

Being on my way out and in a rush, I irritatedly asked of the Universe: “Where is my flippin’ phone?!”

 A voice from the void answered: “You haven’t owned a flipping phone since the iPhone came out, remember?”

New relativity

All things are relative. But some are more relative than others.

Inner/outer circumstances and happiness

I just saw a post with great emphasis on the importance of ‘getting wealthy’.

I did not like being poor. I wouldn’t want to be again, for sure.
But the funny thing is: getting rich (or what many would consider rich) did *not* actually make the worry about money or anything else go away. You think it will, but it doesn’t.
And at the same time you have people who have nothing, who are happy and don’t worry.

All your feelings, happiness or fear, all comes from inside you. You can change your outer circumstance from here til doomsday, it doesn’t change anything important. Only your thinking and inner conditions (inner conflicts etc) really influence your life.

To some this may sound hippy-dippy, but it’s a very clear experience, and fits with what countless wise people have said over the ages.