‘What It Feels Like, Right Now’

Jason Tate Apr 14, 2025

It’s hard to focus. It’s hard to focus on the things in front of me, that I need to do. It’s hard to focus on the news, because it’s not just one thing, it’s a hundred things, news like fire ants, like you stepped on their mound and here they are, swarming, and each ant feels meaningless in the context of all these angry fucking ants. Looking at my phone or computer or any connected device feels like tonguing a broken tooth–an electric jolt of pain but one that feels paradoxically satisfying, like if I poke the bad tooth, maybe I’m fixing it, maybe poking it makes it fall out and the pain will go away. Which I know is fucking stupid so then I stop doing it — stop looking at the phone, stop poking the tooth. But there’s a little rat scratching in the back of my head and it makes me wonder, what are you missing, what aren’t you seeing, remain vigilant, constant vigilance, there’s a great wave coming, a wall of fire, a meteor, a swarm of wasps, better look, better click, and then I look, and am rewarded. By some definition of that word, “rewarded.” My anxiety is rewarded because things are bad, and things are happening constantly.

Great essay. That very feeling is what I’m trying to avoid these days. Trying to fill the space with things that fulfill me and not continually stick my hand (and brain) directly into the hornet’s nest.

Text-Wrap: Pretty

Jason Tate Apr 9, 2025

Webkit.org:

Often, as a web designer or developer, you are creating a template to be filled with different versions of content. There is no “hand tweaking” typography on the web, especially when the layout is fluid, reflowing to fit different shapes and sizes of screens. So what can we do now to better express the expectations of quality from traditional typography, while still relying on the mechanization brought by today’s computers?
One solution is text-wrap:pretty. It’s intended to bring a new level of polish to type on the web by leveraging paragraph-based algorithms to solve long-standing problems.

This looks really good. I’m excited to play around with this when I can find some spare time.

Meet David Corenswet, the New Superman

Jason Tate Apr 7, 2025

Time:

As for that woman: Gunn says the chemistry between Corenswet and Lois Lane actor Rachel Brosnahan was palpable from day one. Or, more specifically, days one and two: “We shot the 12-minute interview scene with Lois and Clark. That was 10 percent of the movie in two days. And to see the energy and magic between him and Rachel was awesome, not to mention how incredibly prepared they both were. It was a huge relief.”
And Corenswet does tell me about Krypto, Superman’s fluffy, caped dog whose trailer debut marked the arrival of a warmer, fuzzier DC. A dog named Jolene stood in for the superpet. She always trotted onto set to the tune of Dolly Parton’s iconic song. The final version will be largely CGI—the trailer features Krypto dragging Superman across a frozen tundra, a feat that even Jolene couldn’t pull off. When I press for further plot details Corenswet is genuinely apologetic: he has no idea what will appear in the final cut.
Nor does he seem to feel particularly anxious about it. While Gunn told journalists who visited set that the pressure was making him “miserable,” Corenswet didn’t sweat it. “What’s the pressure? Pressure to be good? I definitely want to be good,” he says. “But I’m not directing the movie. I give James puzzle pieces, and he gets to pick which one goes in which place. I can’t take on the responsibility that James took on of delivering a Superman film to the masses. But James is the right person to do it.”

Great little profile. I am actively cheering for this movie to be awesome. I love what I’ve seen so far.

The Cybertruck is the Biggest Flop in Decades

Jason Tate Apr 7, 2025

Forbes:

After a little over a year on the market, sales of the 6,600-pound vehicle, priced from $82,000, are laughably below what Musk predicted. Its lousy reputation for quality — with eight recalls in the past 13 months, the latest for body panels that fall off — and polarizing look made it a punchline for comedians. Unlike past auto flops that just looked ridiculous or sold badly, Musk’s truck is also a focal point for global Tesla protests spurred by the billionaire’s job-slashing DOGE role and MAGA politics.

Anytime I’ve seen one drive down the street you can see other drivers visibly laughing as it passes by. Hideous. Stupid.

I Dunno Man

Jason Tate Apr 3, 2025

There’s no solace in I told you so. There’s no glee in being right.

This is just the work of an unhinged moron with apparently nothing better to do than ruin everything.

The Ordinary Sacred

Jason Tate Apr 3, 2025

Joan Westenberg, with a great essay:

In the months, years since the pandemic’s peak, I’ve been unable to reconcile the cognitive dissonance. Seeing the inauthenticity and performance of modern happiness has made it impossible to achieve happiness through the same means. There’s a falseness to it all, a sense of how fragile the facade actually is.
After the collapse, after the burnout, after the creeping dread that none of the things I’d been told to care about were making me feel human, I started noticing what actually felt good. Not “aspirational” good. Not “productive” good. Just good. A grilled cheese sandwich eaten in the sun. A day without notifications. Saying no and not explaining. I didn’t see it as a philosophy. I just knew I felt less fake. Less hollow. Less like I was performing a version of myself I couldn’t stand anymore. Over time, I started tracing a pattern. What if I stopped managing my life like a brand? What if I let it be messy, private, low-stakes? What if that was enough?

The Magic We Once Had With Browsing the Web Is Dwindling

Jason Tate Apr 1, 2025

Paul Stamatiou:

Before we had AI answer engines, and before we had search engines we just had lists of links with web directories like aliweb, Yahoo! Directory and dmoz. You’d tediously wade through these directories to find and absorb content you were interested in, or just to explore and tinker. Everything online was created by people and you were getting a glimpse into their world with each site.
The web grew. We gained search engines, blogs, feed readers, social media and more. While there were new ways of creating content and new ways of consuming, when you really needed something you’d still turn to a search engine and click around until you found what you needed.
This led to inevitable moments of delightful and serendipitous discovery. There was real joy in discovering another unique voice online, someone whose articles and interests were right up your alley. Their style of writing lended itself to being devoured in one sitting, while you scan their site to see how you can bookmark or subscribe to keep tabs on their latest works.
It wasn’t just about stumbling upon a random personal blog that was a fun occasion. It was finding communities you didn’t know existed.

This entire piece nails so many things I’ve been feeling over the past couple of years.

Two Neat Computer Things

Jason Tate Mar 29, 2025

Today was a computer spring cleaning day. This is where I go through the computers and clean out cruft, update apps, do all the additional software updates needed, and check for basic maintenance stuff. I finally updated the OS on the headless Mac Mini server from Sierra to Monterey (which is the last version that little dude from 2014 can support). It’s still running strong, no issues at all. To go with the updates I wanted to change the wallpaper, I recently saw these Ultramarine Haze wallpapers from Basic Apple Guy and am a big fan. No banding in the gradient; great colors.

I also saw this app, Supercharge, pop up on my radar this week. Some cool things here. The shortcut for “close visible notifications” being the one thing I see that I really wish Apple build into the operating system. I already use Keyboard Maestro to do this. I assign keyboard shortcuts to click the right spots on the screen to close notifications and click the “reply” option on messages. It’s super helpful when one comes in and I’m in the middle of typing to just hit Control-ESC to close it, or Command-ESC to quick reply to a message. Why these don’t have system wide shortcuts is beyond me. Of course that would mean needing to traverse the jungle of pain that is the Settings app. But, I digress.

ChatGPT: Images! Text! Copyright Infringement!

Jason Tate Mar 28, 2025

Maxwell Zeff, writing for TechCrunch:

It’s only been a day since ChatGPT’s new AI image generator went live, and social media feeds are already flooded with AI-generated memes in the style of Studio Ghibli, the cult-favorite Japanese animation studio behind blockbuster films such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away.”

Parker Ortolani:

OpenAI dropped an all-new image generation system for ChatGPT today and man is it good. One of the biggest problems with artificially generated images has been the inability to generate accurate text within them. There have historically been problems with inaccurate characters, spelling, or even complete graphical errors. Today’s update to image generation with GPT-4o fixes these. You can now generate charts, signs, logos, word marks, text graphics, pretty much anything you can think of with ease. It nails spelling, seems to set type well, and generally abides by your instructions.

The latest update from OpenAI does a speed run through all the company’s greatest hits. It’s impressive. And it’s morally and legally, at best, in a gray area. The Ghibli stylized images all over social media lack art, lack soul, but are a technically impressive achievement. The kind of thing you’d use as a forum avatar but never hang on your wall. A novelty.

A few years back Hannah commissioned a hand drawn piece of art of her, me, and the cats for a present. It’s framed and in my office on a shelf I can see from my desk. It brings me joy every time I look over and see our old condo and the time, attention, and care that went into the creation of it. Not just from the artist, but from Hannah in working with the artist to craft something very much us.

I tossed some images to GPT and it generated a Ghibli version of us. It wasn’t bad. It butchered the Funkos that were in the background pretty badly. But it lacked character. And I didn’t like how it rendered my body. I then asked it to create something in the style of Bill Watterson. That it balked at. Told me it couldn’t do it. Why it would take instructions to copy/steal from Ghibli but not the famed Calvin and Hobbes artist, is … odd? But at the end of the day it’s an LLM, and if you can describe it without using the magic words it’ll still give you want you want:

Again, not bad. Kinda fun? A passing resemblance to the style. But it feels more like a paint by numbers template used by a caricaturist with less style. And it lacks any of the punch, the actual artistic flourish and genius of Bill Watterson’s art.

And the Funkos are still hilariously rendered.

Notes on Notes

Jason Tate Mar 27, 2025

I saw Simon Willison (one of my favorite blogs writing about AI) recently added a new “notes” feature to his website. He credits Molly White’s micro notes feed as inspiration. As someone who also recently added a similar feature to my blog, I gotta say, I really would love to see this trend continue to spread. It’s been fun and freeing to have a place to post little random one-offs again without the baggage of social media.

WordPress Words Written Python Script

Jason Tate Mar 24, 2025

Here’s the Python script I wrote that calculates how many words and articles I’ve written on this website. I run this at the end of the year, change the dates, and use it for my yearly stats posts. No idea if it’s of any interest to anyone, but if you run a WordPress blog it should be pretty plug-in-play by changing the URL, author ID, and dates.

Jason Tate Mar 23, 2025

I think I started naming my computers sometime in high school. If memory serves it was probably something I picked up from my computer networking friends.1 I think it started with Linux servers but has carried over to my desktops and laptops.

Even today my servers have names (Chorus is Melody, the Forum is Overture, the headless Mac Mini in the closet is Harmony).

And my personal computers are named as well. However, it was only in the last, I dunno, ten years or so, that I also started giving them custom icons to go with their names. I heard John Siracusa talk about this on a podcast at some point and I realized I had not actually changed my hard drive icon in years. I remember doing it on Classic Mac OS and one of my earliest computer memories was making my 3.5 floppy disc have a custom Bart Simpson icon. And I change quite a few of my dock icons 2 to be, to me, more aesthetically pleasing and similar.

Now I not only change the name of the computer, I also change the hard drive icon.

My desktop, the big beefy boy that he is, is named Optimus:

And the sleek black laptop is named The Batmobile:

The IconFactory has a lot of awesome icons.3 And so does Louie Mantia.

It’s fun. I recommend it.

A “class” where a select group of us learned how to, and then ran, the school’s network and website.↩
This is my Mac Studio — desktop/work computer.↩
That 1989 Batman Batmobile is so perfect I think I saw the icon before I even came up with the idea of naming a laptop this.↩

The Best Version of ‘Never Take Friendship Personal’

Jason Tate Mar 21, 2025

This morning, I tried listening to the re-record of one of Anberlin’s classic albums, Never Take Friendship Personal, and I do not have positive thoughts:

This sounds like the YouTube covers of songs that I find pretty obnoxious. Like the cover of this album should just be a dude with a beard making a weird face with a yellow font saying “what if Matty Mullins sang for Anberlin?!!”
All the life has been stripped out of these and replaced with vocals that have had every inch of personality mechanically pulled from them. Anberlin’s a top 20 most played band for me and I’m glad they can continue making money I guess, but I really kinda just hate everything about this one? Like … stand on your new music? Between this and the deleting or replying to fans with rude comments on Instagram has really soured me on this era of the band.

However, this whole re-record thing did lead to something positive. I’ve been complaining for years about the online master of the original album on all streaming services. It’s extremely low volume and washed out. Today I saw a comment that the weird three-album-compilation thing Tooth and Nail put on streaming services actually has the better, proper, master. I went to Apple Music to check it out, and holy hell, they’re right! And because Apple Music still lets you change metadata on the Mac app (please never take this away Apple), this means it was very easy to swap this version out in my library. Finally.

Highly recommend. This is the definitive version of this album to me.

Updated Recommended Blogs + RSS Still Rules

Jason Tate Mar 20, 2025

I realized that I hadn’t updated my “recommended blogs” page in a while and as I (try to) move away from social media that means I’ve been adding even more to my RSS reader on a regular basis. Since these days more and more people are writing newsletters instead of blogs (bring back the blogs!), Jason Snell has a good reminder on the various ways you can pipe these newsletters directly into your RSS reader. I use NewsBlur as the backend for RSS (which also has an email address you can signup for newsletters with) and then for most of these I need to use ReadKit’s “reader” mode and the result is a newsletter perfectly rendered in the app.

Note: No need to be fancy, you can subscribe to my newsletter directly with RSS. (And this blog too.)

Ronnie O’Sullivan: Snooker Genius

Jason Tate Mar 20, 2025

I found this article by Sally Rooney at the New York Review (archive) fascinating:

The last remaining red ball is stranded up by the cushion on the right-hand side, and the cue ball rolls to a halt just left of the middle right-hand pocket. The angle is tight, awkward, both white and red lined up inches away from the cushion. O’Sullivan surveys the position, nonchalantly switches hands, and pots the red ball left-handed. The cue ball hits the top cushion, rolls back down over the table, and comes to a stop, as if on command, to line up the next shot on the black. O’Sullivan could scarcely have chosen a better spot if he had picked the cue ball up in his hand and put it there. The crowd erupts: elation mingled with disbelief. At the end of the frame, when only the black remains on the table, he switches hands again, seemingly just for fun, and makes the final shot with his left. The black drops down into the pocket, completing what is known in snooker as a maximum break: the feat of potting every ball on the table in perfect order to attain the highest possible total of 147 points.
Watch a little of this sort of thing and it’s hugely entertaining. Watch a lot and you might start to ask yourself strange questions. For instance: In that particular frame, after potting that last red, how did O’Sullivan know that the cue ball would come back down the table that way and land precisely where he wanted it? Of course it was only obeying the laws of physics. But if you wanted to calculate the trajectory of a cue ball coming off an object ball and then a cushion using Newtonian physics, you’d need an accurate measurement of every variable, some pretty complex differential equations, and a lot of calculating time. O’Sullivan lines up that shot and plays it in the space of about six seconds. A lucky guess? It would be lucky to make a guess like that once in a lifetime. He’s been doing this sort of thing for thirty years.
What then? If he’s not calculating, and he’s not guessing, what is Ronnie O’Sullivan doing? Why does the question seem so strange? And why doesn’t anybody know the answer?

And, after reading the article, watch the match described. I’ve been playing pool since I was a teenager; I’m decent at best. This makes me never want to pick up a pool cue again.