Conceptual modeling
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I’m mostly done with the outlining, so this week I’ll write the updated essay and hopefully post it by the end of the week, which is the end of this project month.
Life maintenance
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I took my car to the insurance’s auto body shop, which decided it was a total loss. The car still drives fine though, so I kept it for a lower payment from the insurance, and now I’m officially car shopping. It’s been 14 years since I’ve bought a car, and last time I did a lot of research, but this time I’m mostly relying on Consumer Reports. Their most useful info is behind a paywall, which usually I don’t like, but for buying a car it feels like a good investment.
Spirituality
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I listened to Hit Hard by Pat and Tammy McLeod, read by the authors, a memoir of coping with ambiguous loss in the form of their son’s brain damage from a football injury. Their story had considerably less poise and more conflict than Colors of Goodbye, so in that way it felt more relatable, and I found myself identifying with Tammy’s perspective and way of coping. But it’s still a hopeful and encouraging story, and it makes me feel a little more like maybe I too could adapt to a hard change like theirs.
Social issues
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My next audiobook is While the World Watched by Carolyn Maull McKinstry, a memoir of growing up in Birmingham during the civil rights movement of the ’60s. I’m hoping it’ll give me a window on that movement that will help me understand our society’s current struggles.
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After many years, the alarmism of the Internet has finally eroded my apathy about the environment. I’m not sure how panicked I should be, so I’m just wading into the material and letting the debates clarify things for me. Interesting people I’ve found so far are David Wallace-Wells with his book The Uninhabitable Earth, Jem Bendell with deep adaptation, Michael Shellenberger, and the people at the Climate Feedback website. With this on my mind, it’s odd seeing the mundane ways we spend our lives when this epic emergency is unfolding around us.
With the general life stress I was already feeling this summer, I question my reading choices over the past month or so, but oh well. I’ve been staying emotionally afloat.
Video
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Continuing my AI movie project, I watched Bicentennial Man. I think it’s extremely unlikely that an AI would spontaneously develop recognizable emotions and want to be human, so I don’t think it was great as an AI story. As an exploration of what it means to be human, I found it to be decently thoughtful, in a ’90s sort of way, and I liked the robot costumes, technology props, and set design. I have a new appreciation for Sam Neill, and it was nice to see Lynne Thigpen.
Bicentennial Man?? Haven’t seen that in ages!
I’d never seen it, and it still felt like a blast from the past. XD It definitely came from the TNG/DS9/VOY era.
Glad you have made a decision about your car situation. Have fun shopping! If you like
While the World Watched, you might think about getting it for you dad for Christmas. It sounds like a book he would read. About the erosion of our environment, don’t forget Who created it and how He is in control and knows what will happen. He has a plan and will carry it through. But He also gave this world to us to take care of and I must say we have probably done a really bad job of that. Love you!
Good point about doing a bad job taking care of the world. If I were framing the climate crisis theologically and I didn’t think it was actually the apocalypse, I might say God’s plan for maintaining the world would include humanity seeing the crisis and successfully averting it or at least managing it.
Your library probably has access to Consumer Reports behind the paywall. I think that’s how I’ve gotten around it in the past.
Oh, good point. I’ve already subscribed for a month, but I’ll keep it in mind for the future.