Catsby was hospitalized at the emergency vet overnight. We've gotten not great news. Still waiting on further tests, but we probably don't have much longer with him.

I probably shouldn't even post about this, no one needs more bad news. But he looked cute in the carrier at least.

Gotta say, this Year of Our Lord 2025? Not a fan.

That thing where you have to keep performing a Searle-style Chinese Room simulation of a productive worker - because if you think things are bad now, just wait until you don't have a paycheck 🙃

I know my blog is getting noticed, because I just got 6 inquiries into guest posts overnight, each proposing topics I've never really posted about before? Online media empire, here I come

Like, "your tech blog is impressive and covers a range of issues with great writing, would you consider accepting a guest post on industrial-scale organic farming from my client?"

Oh hey, remember how I was grousing about #IoT stuff and our dead solar inverter? This week, it's that support finally ran out for the 2nd gen Nest thermostat that came with our house.

I guess there's an offer to get a discount on a new-gen Nest? But fuck that. It'll be a dumb thermostat until/unless I find one that works with Home Assistant without any cloud integrations

(Also, the "OFFLINE about 24 days ago" message is funny, because I was controlling this with the app on my phone yesterday)

Like, yes, I know: Google announced this awhile ago. But also, I forgot what generation this Nest thermostat was - and why should I care? It was working, and now it's lost most of it's functionality.

And not because a part in the device failed, but because the vendor decided to turn off some servers. And they want me to step on that rake again by buying an upgraded device? Eat a whale

I would almost feel better if they labelled these things up front with a limited lifespan - like, say, fire alarms after 10 years. They'd have to acknowledge that they're disposable, but that would affect the gadget price I guess.

But fire alarms at least have an excuse: the sensors in them physically degrade over time. In the case of my Nest thermostat, it's that the vendor chose to apply bitrot to their services.

I guess one last toot here for now: The funny thing is that I, personally, have never bought and installed a Nest thermostat. I've just bought & lived a few houses over the years where the previous owner did that.

So, I guess I've never really been a Nest customer, per se. But, like, that's how houses work. Maybe in the future we'll make a stink about old IoT installations during inspection like a roof or a water heater that's at end-of-life?

Someone just pulled up outside my office window - maybe a UPS driver? They're blaring a podcast or something on their phone speakers. This is what I heard:

"I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT MY BALLS ANYMORE BRO"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"HAD EM TAKEN CLEAN OFF, THEY'RE GONE"

"YOUR BALLS ARE GONE?"

"MY BALLS ARE GONE BRO!"

"WOW"

...and then the driver was gone and I didn't hear anything further

I have no context. Like, is this a bro-y bit? (probably) Have the bros discovered bottom surgery? (accidentally?) Are the layers of irony too deep for me to comprehend? (likely)

@undead

Like, don't get me wrong: You wanna yeet your balls, godspeed. But this had me wondering if the bros are on a journey of spontaneous discovery of testicular yeetage from first principles

Dang, do I like Stereolab a bunch. Like, they're a band where, whenever they come up on shuffle or a streaming station, I'm like oh I like this - oh of course, it's Stereolab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgGkUMCixH0

And then there's Killing Joke :blobheart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV-cYH8udSk

Man, Big Sonic Heaven radio is making me happy right now

https://www.bigsonicheaven.com/

Man, Trump is such a shady little shit. He mouths off about folks until they're right in front of him. Then, when he realizes they're serious people, he folds and tucks his tail. Then he starts all over once they're out of earshot. Over and over again this has happened.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-zohran-mamdani-meet-oval-office-rcna244964?utm_source=FuckOff

@trevorflowers As somebody who setup a gotosocial server and yet still toots from a shared server - I think that's a totally sensible way to go about things :)