Essays
Time As A Retiree
I’ve learned over the years the best way for me to change is through small habits or routines. In 2019 I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and I found the best way for me to manage my blood sugar was by taking a ten to twenty minute walk after eating a meal. My walks are so much a part of my day that it feels very abnormal when I am not doing them.
So, when considering all this time I now have for myself, I began considering what it is I want to be doing each day. There were the obvious things like reading more and learning more, but I also realized that I could be doing a better job of helping to keep the house clean. Rather than doing all the cleaning all at once I broke down these tasks down into 15 minute items, one per day during week days.
Michigan Central
The Michigan Central train station closed in 1988, one year before Ruth and I moved to the Detroit area. I can think of no better symbol for the fall and rise of Detroit than this historic building. Built by the Vanderbilts and opened in 1914, it is a sibling to Grand Central station in New York.
After its abandonment by Amtrak it became a well known eye sore, and as a ruin it became used as a set for movies like Batman vs. Superman. Unlike the locals, our memories of this once glorious building is of a haunting structure with blown out windows.
Reports of its restoration and re-use surfaced throughout the years, but never became real until Ford purchased the building in 2018. It finally re-opened in 2024 and ever since I have wanted to go see it, which we finally did yesterday. The building, like Detroit, has survived the decline of the 90s and early 2000s to be the most prominent physical manifestation of Detroit’s motto: “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.”
See the results of the labor of so many to restore this building to its original beauty in the pictures that I took. I envy those who get to work in this building, one with the personality afforded by wood, limestone, and granite. Designed when architecture emphasized materials of the earth over materials made from the earth.
Retirement First Quarter Report
At the beginning of April I passed the first three month milestone of retirement and I want to write down some thoughts about this new phase of life. Am I glad that I retired? Absolutely, but I would be lying if I did not admit feeling some fear caused by the fact that our retirement income is tied to the market that reacts to the whims of the President of the United States.
The market, and my reaction to it, is emotional and so the challenge is in managing those emotions. Uncertainty is a reality that always exists and my technique for living with uncertainty is to focus on, to the extent possible, what I know. For example, if all of our savings were to disappear, which is a very unlikely scenario, I have had these three months of life lived to my schedule whereas I could be still working, still have the savings disappear, and not have had that time.
Retirement for me is about savoring the most precious gift of time, which always passing and often only appreciated via hindsight. The best way to face uncertainty is in gratitude for the current moment. I have reasons to be grateful simply to be alive to experience this moment, but I confess that in the later years of my career I grew frustrated with having the precious time of my life controlled by a corporation that simply did not know nor care about me.
I’ve been working since I was 12 years old. When I define work in the context of my life, I broadly include in it all the requirements placed on my time by others, school and employers. Forty seven years, almost non-stop, of waking up to an alarm clock dictated by somebody else, and when I became more aware that my remaining time in life is shorter than the past life I have lived I grew more irritated with having to share that remaining time with a lifeless corporate entity.
Had you asked me what I planned to do in my retirement I would have simply answered, not work! Loveboy’s Working For The Weekend has been on loop in the soundtrack of my life these past 47 years. I retired so that there were no more stressful Sunday nights as my mind and body gave up the brief bit of relaxation it started experiencing the prior Friday evening.
Mission accomplished! I have even found on a few occasions that I forgot the day of the week, feeling as though it were a weekend.
Same Ole Cubs
Every year it seems the problems with the Chicago Cubs is the same, they struggle to hit with runners in scoring position because they have poor hitters. When the same issues keep appearing that indicates to me there is a systemic problem, which is not something fixable through signing one or two players. The evaluation of talent and construction of the roster is producing the same results we see year after year.
Getting the Cubs to the World Series after a century of losing is turning out to be easier than getting them back a decade after. It’s easy to get a talented team when you tank seasons and trade away what experienced players you have for prospects. The core of the 2016 team were those prospects lead by experienced veterans, but veterans who were in the later half of their careers.
Obviously, fans are not going to allow such a heavy rebuild. Seems to me that if you aren’t able to load up on prospects you have change your approach to obtaining MLB players. Every free agent signing the Cubs have made since 2016 are of players who are in the back end of their careers. Signing Alex Bregman this year is no different than signing Dansby Swanson, players who have won championships but who are not in their prime and therefore seem less capable of hitting consistently over a season.
Stay Awake
The intended effects of social networks for the sake of wealth ought to be the lens through which we look at AI. At their beginning we were told of all the good things social networks provide, and they did do that for a while, but then the wealth generation went in to hyper drive. We have no reason to believe the motivations towards more and more AI is not the same wealth generation. And since there can only be one most wealthiest person on earth, that leads to not caring about the negative impacts on the rest of the world.
A potentially helpful question to ponder when thinking about where all this AI “stuff” is going. Think of the songs that you have heard in your life, do those songs stand out because they sound good and are entertaining or do they stand out because you connect to the lyrics and relate what they convey? Perhaps that connection has also leads to feeling like you know the song writer, or better yet that the song writer knows you.
Bob Nystrom’s blog post, The Value of Things, inspired the question. Perhaps a way to combat the nihilism of AI is consciousness. Most times we are unconscious, which is like hearing music and simply enjoying the sound, while times we are conscious enough to hear and relate to the words. The risk of AI is the decrease in the amount of time that we are conscious, so perhaps working on our own consciousness is a method to combating the affects of AI.
Seeking Purity Denies The Cross
Today, on Holy Saturday, Christians are in the between times of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and for those so inclined a time such as this can be a good time to wonder, just what is this all about and where is it that we are going.
As a life long Christian I can’t help but feel a sense of deja vu, here we are once again at Easter and then days and months will pass and the liturgical calendar will start all over again. And I wonder some times, what is the point? Is humanity evolving in any way through this repetition?
Contrasting Between What Is And What Intended
Tomorrow is the start of the Christian Holy Week. For those wondering whether Christianity is relevant to our current time, the stories about this week ought to provide the answer, but one may only see that with the help of leaders who connect the dots.
For me one of the best descriptions that sets the scene was written by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in their 2006 book The Last Week. It begins:
“Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day in the year 30. . . One a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession. From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives, cheered by his followers. On the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius Pilate, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire.”
While this is not a report on what literally happened, it’s plausible contrasts the differences between what we all consider the norm of civilization, peace through violence, and the alternative rule of God of peace through love.
Palm Sunday is about hope, yes, but that is only appreciated in contrast to what is going all around us. If you get caught up in the hoopla then you are missing the point.
Fitbit On Pixel Watch Update 1
My Reddit post about the Fitbit app on my Pixel Watch is the source of an article on 9to5Google this morning as many people have replied to the post stating they are experiencing the same issue.
As an update, since I disconnected my watch from the Fitbit app on my phone, restarted both watch and phone, deleted yesterday’s step and distance data and then re-connected the watch to the Fitbit app the step count appears to be within expectations.
The problem now is I am not confident that the step count will remain accurate, so the whole situation is requiring more attention that I would like. One needs to be able to rely on data like this or there is no point in even collecting the data.
I have noticed through observations while sitting here at my desk that steps are added slowly over time while they shouldn’t be added at all. I have the felling the sensors on the watch are not being used properly right now, for steps and distance the watch should only increase when one is moving forward and not while sitting at a desk typing.
Fitbit On Pixel Watch Broken
The March 5, 2026 Wear OS update that Google released has broken the Fitbit app. The Fitbit app of my Pixel Watch 3 is significantly over counting/doubling my steps, mileage, and calories consumed. It looks like it is doubling the counts. As an example, I have taken two walks today and the workout details appear correct, one 12 minute, 0.69 mile walk of 1,515 steps and a second 24 minute, 1.35 mile, 2,967 steps walk, but the overview shown on my phone and watch shows a total of 9,827 steps and 4.7 miles.
As an experiment, I shut off my phone and watch then started my watch. After first start up the watch shows the correct step count, but eventually it connects to the Fitbit servers and is then updated with the higher step count.
I am seeing a recommendation on Reddit of a fix involving resetting the watch, which I think means that I will have to re-install apps, but before doing that I decided to try disconnecting the watch from the Fitbit app on the phone.
After I did the disconnect I deleted the day’s step and distance data from the Fitbit app and the backend server so that it displayed 0 steps. I then restarted my watch, observed that it displayed the correct step count, and then reconnected the watch to the Fitbit app, and after a short period of time the watch and the app on the phone showed 5,462 steps.
Next, I went for another walk of 2,662 steps and afterword it showed the correct sum of about 8,124 steps. I am not ready to declare the situation is fixed with my watch but it’s looking positive.
Computer Industry Pricing
How I Use RSS
As I have observed earlier, right now there is a lot of good energy around RSS with new feed readers popping up nearly every week. Yesterday Manton Reece released is take on an RSS app called Inkwell that is a companion to his micro.blog service/app that I use to host this blog. Because Inkwell integrates with the blogging platform that I use, I find there are reasons to consider using it while I have resisted looking at other apps.
I have been using RSS since I first learned about it in the early 2000s. Like many, I used Google Reader mostly because it was a web app that I could use on any device. Over the years I tried desktop and phone apps like NetNewsWire, but in the end found myself back to the simple web apps that Dave Winer wrote over the years.
More Experimentation With Android Desktop
I have paired the Nillkin folding Bluetooth keyboard to my Pixel 10, connected the phone to the BenQ monitor and enabled Android Desktop mode, thus providing me a desktop computing device. The keyboard has a built in trackpad to enable me to move the mouse on the desktop and I have figured out how to run multiple (virtual) desktops at the same time. I have ordered a portable, 15-inch monitor that I have been meaning to buy for some time as a backup display and to experiment further with this idea of really portable computing. For blogging, I am writing this in Obsidian running on the phone and I will post this item to the blog later from my MacBook.
What Is Low Cost?
My Thoughts About Android Desktop
I watched XDA’s presentation of the Android desktop mode available in the Android 17 beta. Desktop mode is available with Android 16 too and I’ve tried it out and it’s not bad. I’ve long been intrigued by the idea of using a smartphone as my only computing device, and I honestly think this is best applied to foldables.
As I see it, the main impediment to such an all-in-one device is the lack of wireless connectivity to monitors, keyboards and mice. Imagine being able to use the desktop mode of your phone while the phone is still in your pocket.
It does appear that while desktop mode is available with all Android devices, it’s primary purpose is as a replacement to Chrome OS. For Google, Android desktop mode is a consolidation of operating systems. Google seems convinced that it’s worth it for them to offer a desktop computing user interface for their operating system, even though Chrome OS only has a small percentage of the desktop market, per Wikipedia.
I am not convinced that Android Desktop offers anything for the desktop market, and rumors are Apple may be soon announcing a low cost Macbook built on their A-series processors that will be hard to compete against.
The one scenario I can think of that might be interesting is Google pitching the idea of the Pixel Fold being the computing device that is all one will need, and therefore try to justify the greater than $1,000 price tag for the Fold. The math works when compared to the sum cost of a phone, tablet and desktop if the device fits all these use cases. However, I think for this to work there must be wireless connectivity to keyboard, video, and mouse or at the very least an easy to use drop-in docking station.
The State Of The Union
The President’s State Of the Union speech historically began as the means for the executive to report to the legislature on the current state of affairs for the country and the government. It’s an administrative act that city managers and corporate executives make on a more frequent basis, but because it is broadcasted for the world today it is now entirely a political event.
I think the recent words of the President, the reaction by the U.S. Men’s hockey team, and the reactions to both over the last several days presents the current state of the union. One third of the nation does not want to face the fact that everything is abnormal, think that no U.S. Olympian ought say anything disparaging about and respect the President. One third of the nation is opposed to everything being done by the President and the U.S. government, and the remaining one third is entirely in agreement with and supports the President and the U.S. government.
Decouple Meaning From Employment
In his blog post, The End of the Office, Andrew Yang paints a very dire picture but one that I think must be seriously considered. I think Yang’s fifth point is most important:
Pessimism and anger will rise up. I saw a note on social media that said, “Do you really think politicians will let millions lose their jobs? They’ll ban AI first.” Has this person been paying attention? Go talk to the manufacturing workers or the journalists and see how it worked out. Hundreds of billions of dollars have not been spent on this technology for corporate juggernauts to stop now, and most officials have been cheerleading what they see as progress. The genie is out of the bottle.
The social contract of ‘study hard, go to school, get a good job, live a decent life’ is about to be vaporized to smithereens. Upward mobility for most will be a thing of the past. People are not going to take it well. Particularly educated people who think that they deserve better. That’s an ingredient for revolt.
What Yang describes has been happening for the last several decades and the wealthy class embrace of AI will accelerate the process. I fear the consequences significant. A society built on consumption is really built on employment because one must be employed to earn the money to spend on the products to be consumed. Worse is that how we define people has good or bad, successful or unsuccessful is defined by employment. Think of Ronald Reagan and the “welfare queen." Think of the ongoing war between the wealthy class and wealth redistribution put in place under FDR that contributed to forming the middle class in the United States.
We will need to redefine employment in the United States, such as less than a 40 hour work week, decouple fundamental necessity of healthcare from employment, and change how we define and measure success.
Two Way RSS
Yesterday I wrote a draft post about RSS Feeds and I wrote this:
A lot of pixels are being dedicated to writing about Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, which I think of as a “broadcast medium” for text and files.
Oceans Rise, Empires Fall
Title inspiration: You’ll Be Back
Joan Westernberg uses the failure of empires as a metaphor for why current predictions about AI are likely not to be completely realized. She equates empires with corporations and says this:
We haven’t seen the first great AI collapse. We haven’t seen a foundation model company make the BlackBerry mistake or the Nokia mistake, or the Roman mistake, or the Ottoman mistake or reach their Bunker-in-Berlin mistake. But we will, and we’ll see it multiple times, because these mistakes = features of power concentration. The hubris that makes a company or an empire dominant in one era is frequently the quality that blinds it to the next one. If you could ask Lazaridis in 2006, or a British colonial administrator in 1900, whether their model of the world was permanent, each would’ve given you a very convincing explanation for why it in fact was.
The interesting thing is that while she is applying the fall of empires to AI, she could actually be describing what is happening right now in the United States. We are living in a period of time in which the fall of the U.S. empire is accelerating. I think AI is a contributor to the fall of the U.S. empire because employment is a pillar of the empire that has been built using economic might.
Those of us who have been raised on the privileges of the U.S. empire are being told that the source of our pain is the “other,” however that is defined (race, nationality, gender) by each one of us. The purpose is self preservation for the people in power who created and maintained the U.S. empire for their personal benefit, but as Joan points out history shows they too will ultimately fail.
That anxiety you are feeling is being caused by the stones of the U.S. empire starting to fall around you. All you have known is the life the empire has provided to you and you know your life is going to change. We know this in our bones because change is a cosmic truth.
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Down The Drummer Rabbit Hole
Earlier today I noted that Dave had posted about the issue I encountered on January 30 preventing me from publishing my Daynotes using the “default” blogging tool in Drummer referred to as “Old School,” which is descriptive of a day based blogging format.
I started the process of making and testing the changes that Dave suggested, finding them to be more involved, but the net result is that the Daynotes site is now served by HTTPS rather than only being accessible via HTTP.
When the ability to build the blog from within Drummer broke I did my own work around by creating a new OPML file that is served by my instance of PagePark, which is Dave’s web server app that knows how to render OPML files for web browsers. For now I am going to continue using my “new” Daynotes outline file while using the Drummer blog for longer articles. My simple forwarding url for daynotes (daynotes.frankm.info) will go to single outline page while I have created a new forwarder for the Old School site (oldschool.frankm.info).
Analyze Oil Consumption Using NotebookLM
Of all the AI tools currently available I use Google’s NotebookLM the most. My best way to describe NotebookLM is that one can use it to apply Google’s Large Language Models toward a topic based on sources for information that one provides. For example, when we were researching health insurance plans last fall I created a notebook in NotebookLM and uploaded to it as sources PDFs provided by the insurance providers. I then used the chat in the notebook to ask questions about the different plans, which I then saved for future reference.
I have a 2013 GMC Terrain and a few years past I learned that this make and model SUV has a history of burning oil, so I have been diligently checking the oil level once a week and after long drives during trips. I log the date, odometer reading, and oil level in a note in Google Keep using my phone and I wish Gemini were integrated in Keep so that I could directly ask questions like how many miles have been driven and when is the last time I added oil.
Google has not added Keep as a source for NotebookLM, which I think would be logical, but what I can do is send (export) a note in Keep to a Google Doc which I can then add as source for NotebookLM. Today I exported each of my three log notes to a Google Doc, created a notebook in NotebookLM and add these docs as sources. NotebookLM correctly identified the sources as a maintenance log for a vehicle but it didn’t know which type of vehicle nor did it know the year the entries started because I only recorded the month and date. I created a README note that I added as a source in which I specified that the first date was in 2024 and that the logs are for a 2013 GMC Terrain. I also added some information about the dipstick markings.
With the oil logs in NotebookLM I am able to ask simple questions like, how many miles were driven between the last oil check and the prior check? I asked NotebookLM how many miles were driven in 2025, and it then offered to make an infographic that broke down the 2025 mileage by month. NotebookLM also created a detailed vehicle usage and oil consumption analysis report.
NotebookLM provides me with a simple and powerful way to analyze this data, but the fact that Google Keep cannot be a source means that as I update the current log note I will have to re-export it to the Google Doc and refresh that doc source in NotebookLM. I hope that in the future Google will add Keep as a source to either Gemini on my phone or to NotebookLM.