David Baer @david@arktos.social

For years I've been annoyed b/c when I import .docx files into LibreOffice, all the bullet points (•) in unordered lists change to movie clapperboards (🎬). Not a huge deal—you can fix it manually. But if you want to batch-convert a bunch of documents with unoconv, you're out of luck. I finally figured out that I had an out-of-date version of Microsoft's symbol.ttf, and when I updated it the problem went away.

Looking forward to getting paid to fill up my car. https://nyti.ms/2VnnrXQ

How stupid is YouTube’s AI? Very stupid...

Nature's first green is gold,
her hardest hue to hold.

- Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay"

I'm going to try a non-standard port, and we'll see what happens.

Argh... Secretary's phone is behind a NAT but using STUN, and the standard SIP port. Going crazy with incoming SIP INVITEs. This is why we can't have nice things.

Running ethernet across the church facility to get better wifi in the sanctuary.

Today I learned: don't ziptie the ethernet cable to the big trunk of electrical cables running across the basement.

What other dumb things have I probably done?

A replica of El Greco's "View of Toledo" hung in my grandparents' guest bedroom, and it terrified me when I was a kid. Even now it's a powerful image to look at.

The Washington Post: Top Stories | Compassion. Claustrophobia. Originality. Why El Greco inspired so many great modern artists.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/compassion-claustrophobia-originality-why-el-greco-inspired-so-many-great-modern-artists/2020/03/25/97a469ae-6d39-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html

Heh. Fail2ban seems to be a necessity when you open up the standard SIP port to the world.

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought this was sort of the point. In the middle of a pandemic, the real moral hazard is incentivizing people to keep working, not paying them to stay home!

Through the miracle of Asterisk, the church secretary is now able to answer the church phone from her home.

Yeah, "live each day as if it were your last" does seem to have some significant flaws as a working philosophy of life.

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 04, 2020 https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2020/03/04

Draining the swamp by pardoning a guy who tried to auction off a US Senate seat.

Trump Commutes Corruption Sentence of Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/us/politics/trump-pardon-blagojevich-debartolo.html#click=https://t.co/2yH9jDsElC

Fascinating piece about wild rice--lots of stuff I did not know. Apparently it's not actually rice, for one. But also its importance in indigenous North American cultures.

The Cross-Border Indigenous Battle for Wild Rice https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-wild-rice

Paul Krugman puts his finger on the reason for Republicans' refusal to hear evidence in the impeachment trial: it's become a habit of mind.

"Think about what is now required for a Republican politician to be considered a party member in good standing. He or she must pledge allegiance to policy doctrines that are demonstrably false; he or she must, in effect, reject the very idea of paying attention to evidence."

How Zombies Ate the G.O.P.’s Soul https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/opinion/republican-party-trump.html

Wow. Didn’t get this until I saw the picture.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2020/02/02/sunday-favorites-279/

Duck, North Carolina, 2015

“The money necessary to implement a Green New Deal or provide health care and jobs is there — it’s simply being given away to the Wall Street casino.”

—Nicole M. Aschoff, “No Rational System Would Value Tesla at $100 Billion”

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/tesla-stock-price-elon-musk-financialization-capital/

Sunday favorites https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2020/01/26/sunday-favorites-278/

“Give counsel, grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive; let the outcasts of Moab settle among you; be a refuge to them from the destroyer. ...

"Then a throne shall be established in steadfast love in the tent of David, and on it shall sit in faithfulness a ruler who seeks justice and is swift to do what is right."