Stormy Weather

For the second night in a row I lost power at my house Thursday evening due to heavy thunderstorms in the area. As it happened, I lost Internet access and ended up a little late with my Trvth. The image shows the local weather radar at the time we lost power (for about 6 hours).

Cheers.

No Path

We know of no path that will take us from where we are now, in terms of computing and AI technology, to the singularity.

-- Michael John Wooldridge (1966 -), professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence (2021)

Just One

There may be a hundred stances and sword positions, but you win with just one.

-- Yagyū Munenori (1571 - 1646), Japanese swordsman, founder of the Edo branch of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū school of swordsmanship, A Hereditary Book on the Art of War (1632)

Maturation

In Taekwondo, higher belt ranks require more time before testing because students need a period of maturation.  As techniques mature, so does the student's thinking.  The deeper understanding gained through training and reflection allows philosophy to become a meaningful part of personal growth.  Therefore, advancement is measured not only by technical skill but also by the development of character, judgement, and wisdom.

-- Taekwondo Grandmaster Namsoo Hyong (1955-) of HMD Academy, explaining the need to achieve more than technical skill to level up in martial arts, June 2026

Point Blank

Life is fired at us point blank.

-- José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955), Spanish philosopher, Man and People [El hombre y la gente] (1957), p. 42, translated by Willard R. Trask

Grandkid Grad Plus One

In an echo of Monday's post, a hearty congratulations to my eldest granddaughter, Saiya Schwartz, on her graduation from high school in the class of 2026.  This afternoon she and her classmates were awarded diplomas in Urbana, Illinois.  She has grown into a fine young lady, and I look forward to watching her make her impact on the world.

That's all the graduates for this year.

Grandkid Grad

A hearty congratulations to my eldest grandson, Joseph Schum, Jr, on his graduation from high school in the class of 2026.  Sunday afternoon he and 14 classmates were part of the 145th commencement ceremony at Bement High School.

He has made a pretty good young man of himself so far, and I look forward to watching him make his impact on the world.

587,328 Hours

587,328 hours of life (67 years) so far.  On Sunday the family gathered for a birthday dinner. I've got business plans and martial arts plans, and maybe I'll make time for other plans as well.

I'm looking forward to another busy year full of adventures. 

The Great Dance

When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something that lasts longer than we do.

-- Hermann Karl Hesse (1877 - 1962), German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, 1946 Nobel laureate in Literature, Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) Chapter 10

An Exception

Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.

-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830), English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823) No. 305

Family Vacation

The family is always the family but during vacations it is an extended family and that is exhausting.

-- Gertrude Stein (1874 - 1946), American expatriate writer, poet, feminist, and playwright, Paris France (1970), p. 107

Lifeguard Redux

Yesterday, for perhaps the last time, I got recertified as a lifeguard with the Red Cross.  Since it was a recertification, there was very little new training.  It was a brief review, followed by testing out in Water Rescue, First Aid, CPR, and AED.  

We started at 8:00 AM and finished just before 4:00 PM, including 3 1/2 hours in the water or on the pool deck demonstrating individual skills and team rescues.  

The training was hosted by the University of Illinois at their Activities & Recreation Center.  The other three trainees are lifeguards for the university, and we all managed to work pretty well together.  I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be grandfather to any of them.

I'll be 67 in May and certification is good for 2 years, so I have time to decide whether to go through it one more time (when I'll be 69) and stay certified into my early 70s.

Truly Respectable

No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.

-- Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757 - 1804), Founding Father of the United States, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, Federalist No. 62 (26 February 1788)

NovaNET Gathering

This Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting up with many members of the old NovaNET gang.  I'll drop a few names to spark your memories, as Kevin Maxson was in town with his family, and a group gathered at Papa Del's for a couple of hours over lunch.  I joined Kevin & family along with Carl Evans, James Quisenberry & family, Phil Parker, Ray Thomsen, Steve Peltz, Eric Bina, and Peter Enstrom.  Many more names were dropped in conversation, and 25-year-old memories were the talk of the moment.

As Kevin said, "Nothing compares to working with our team on real meaningful and effective CBE stuff.  I loved it."  Me, too.

Scion FR-S 10 Year Anniversary

10 years ago today (16 March 2016) I bought a new, 2015 Scion FR-S from the dealership in Urbana.  Today that car has 249,320 miles on it.  It continues to serve me well as a daily driver.

Early on I used it for autocross and commuting to work at the University of Illinois.  Commuting put 30,000 miles a year on it up until the pandemic.  Annual mileage is around half that now.

In all that time it's been pretty well behaved, needing only regular maintenance plus a new clutch at around 180,000 miles.

My previous car, a 1998 Saturn SC2, made it to 421,000 miles before giving up the ghost.  I don't expect to get that far in the Scion, but here's hoping.

Qualms

To be capable of embarrassment is the beginning of moral consciousness.  Honor grows from qualms.

-- John Leonard (1939 - 2008), American literary, TV, film and cultural critic, Private Lives in the Imperial City (1979) "On Being Embarrassed" (p. 140)

A Child's Understanding

We're marching through the world, we're cleaning out the bad guys, we're gonna have relationships with new people that will make us prosperous and safe.  I've never seen anything, anybody like it, this is Ronald Reagan plus.  Donald Trump is resetting the world in a way nobody could've dreamed of a year ago, he is the greatest commander in chief of all time, our military is the best of all time, Iran is going down, and Cuba is next.

-- Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), gleefully celebrating chaos on Fox News (9 March 2026), showing a child's understanding of foreign affairs

Craving For Black Magic

In short, I suggest that the programmer should continue to understand what he is doing, that his growing product remains firmly within his intellectual grip.  It is my sad experience that this suggestion is repulsive to the average experienced programmer, who clearly derives a major part of his professional excitement from not quite understanding what he is doing.  In this streamlined age, one of our most undernourished psychological needs is the craving for Black Magic and apparently the automatic computer can satisfy this need for the professional software engineer, who is secretly enthralled by the gigantic risks he takes in his daring irresponsibility.  For his frustrations I have no remedy.

-- Edsger Dijkstra (1930 - 2002), Dutch computer scientist, mathematician, software engineer, and essayist, "On the reliability of programs" (EWD 303)

[This reflects how I feel about software developed with the use of AI tools.  I'd like all of my software to flow directly through my fingers.  I don't want to debug code written by AI; I much prefer to debug code written by myself.  One often quickly recognizes the potential locus of a bug when one has one's product firmly in one's intellectual grip.]

Meta 45

Meta.  Today it's been 45 years since the 24 February 1981 birth of Trvth.  I reflected on this a bit at the 40-year mark here.

I noted then that on 22 July 2019 I had counted 5450ish published Trvth entries.  Since that 2019 date another 1697 have been published, for a grand(?) total today, 24 February 2026, of 7147ish.

The most recent 4753 are all available at trvth.org beginning 3 March 2005 (more than 20 years on the Interwebs)

And, for your amusement, I present from the archives the original Trvth:

***** appearances ~appleman / chanute ~2/24/1981 ~13:50

While nothing may seem to be as it first appears, there
are in fact some things which appear to be as they are,
amidst the other things which only appear to be as they
aren't.

Move Against Vaccines

US regulators will not review Moderna's request to license a new, potentially more effective flu shot -- even though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously gave the green light to the project -- in a decision that could have implications for all new and updated vaccines in the US.

It's the latest move by the Trump administration against vaccines.  Officials in January decided to stop fully recommending one-third of routine childhood vaccines, including flu vaccines.

"This is likely to discourage industry from investing in future influenza vaccines, and makes working with the US FDA uncertain and problematic," said Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.  "They are refusing to review a new vaccine with a more flexible technology, while creating a real risk we will not have traditional vaccines for next year."

-- Melody Schreiber, "FDA declines to review Moderna application for new flu vaccine" in The Guardian (10 February 2026)