Author: harold

2014, ten years ago, was one of the most challenging year of my life. Freshly divorced, broke, new area, new place, new people, new jobs. During that Thanksgiving I picked up my current bed in Gardena for $100 thanks to a neighbor who let me borrow his truck. I was happy I could finally sleep in a real bed after months of air mattress.

2024 was one of the easiest year of my life. Everything rollin’ smooth, except for that election but I was not alone otherwise Kamala would be crip-walking in front of the mirror or something.

2004 had been nice! There was a legendary canoe trip with friends, and an invitation (from the band’s leader) to see Cameo in Germany. The road trip from France was great and that band is so bad, I’ll never forget it. I wish there was a precise book of how that they came up in NYC and what they lived through. They’re so unique.

2034: I’m envisioning being in HHH. Hopefully already in the habit of getting my parents a couple months in the Cali sun during winter instead of having them rot in rainy France. I’m seeing myself going to the store, driving in a 80s pickup truck with dad and a dog through the smooth hills of some calm east LA city.

Palm Springs is a small city that has been able to discuss things through city council meetings and move forward with race issues that plagued its history.

It came up first to me with this documentary. It’s very interesting to see progressive folks not just talk, but actually do the things. It’s nice.

And I think that’s how it should be done. Kind of quietly. History has receipts, let’s review them and let’s fix the holes. That’s it. That’s all we need.

I hope it happens more and more.

HHH in Unreal recently:

View toward the living room after entering from the north side of the house. The roof is detached as you can see. I enjoy the soaring effect so much.

Moving inside, FPV style with real time lighting feels so crazy. Up and down the stairs. Looking around. Getting blinded by this beautiful, absolutely not-existing sun, is well yeah, unreal.

View from outside toward the kitchen in my latest 3D model (size:1/100) if it was sunset (sun low, full West and basically orange). The “trees” underneath are support for where there’s void when printing, they are not demonic hands or something. Chill.

Support for the cantilevered dining table left some debris under it, but it’s not easy to cut without messing the table. ‘might increase its thickness just for models to help with this.

Anyway, lighting! Lighting makes something so much more alive. I have my house under every single angle in my head. The volume, size, in 2D in 3D, no problem. But light is very, very hard to visualize well because it’s too much information! It moves and changes everything all the time, it has to be experienced.

And so the more I iterate and get closer to a final design, the more I want to see it with lighting. At night. With the sun full south to see if my ideas are valid for the passive heating side of it. Morning. Interior lighting, even.

Playing with the light on my models gave me a final idea that is I think quite good. It’s pure aesthetics for once, and not about efficiency this or that.

Lots of modeling, texturing, printing left but then, some VR. I have two very highly qualified builders that I need to contact and start talking to.

I am so stoked.

This was on the front page yesterday:

Y’all are so damn fried.

Not long after you’ve started to eat it:

Spit on it.

And then dig back in while making eye contact with her, sniffing a bit deeper. Growling lower.

I think that’s good.

The software is on a computer, the printer is next to it.

To print, I need the software to be “paired” with the printer.

To do that, I need a mobile app to scan a QR code on the printer’s little screen, to get a six-digit code.

To do that, I needed to log into the mobile app with an account.

(breathe Harold, breathe)

I did all that, and the mobile app couldn’t scan the QR code due to crazy glare on the little screen.

After some back and forth, it did work, but at the same time I updated the printer’s firmware, which displays the six-digit code on the little screen without the need for the mobile app and that stupid QR dance.

Sigh.

The printer is now paired and I’m thinking that I can now print. Hell I can!

Both computer and printer are on the internet, but they can’t seem to talk to each other.

I look at some help online and it’s a bit of a nightmare, there’s a lot of people having issues.

If you’re at home on a home router, no problem. If you’re using professional grade routers and stuff, it doesn’t work due to network port restrictions, security and so forth.

In the end I used a laptop as a hotspot, connected both desktop computer and printer to it and now they can talk to each other, and I can print.

I still giggle at my imagination being printed out irl

This is completely fucking insane. A simple USB-A cable to my computer would have made everything a breeze and save me hours of troubleshooting. The printer is fabulous though. I can understand the will to offer a choice for people to print from anywhere but jfc, this is a professional tool getting hot (220°C/428°F). I’m not printing from miles away and I’m pretty sure most people don’t either.

Why would I need a mobile app with badges and followers and “favorites” to print? Young folks might also just want to print. Stop the abusive gamification and stupid engagement tricks, respect customers!

Computers (and 3D printers and digital devices) are wonderful tools. They are not lifestyle.

Anyway, it’s working now and I won’t update shit. Printing!

I was reading this book about Pier Luigi Nervi. After finishing it, I emailed the author to let him know that his book was amazing, thanking him very much for writing it.

He, —an architecture professor with a long career— replied within a few hours to say thank you very much as well. That’s it.

The beauty of email. Our quick conversation was private, genuine, asynchronous, without any company extracting any data (or the least possible, hopefully). The conversation could become public with a screenshot or printed out, but there’s nothing here: hey, thank you for your work! Hey thank you for your thank you! Humans sharing positivity in the most concise digital way possible.

It’s pure. It’s simple. It works. There’s no need for vultures in the middle of communication, y’all.

I also just realized: I’ve had the best conversations with family, friends or internet friends via email. By and large.

For people outside of the US, here’s an example of how we’re not doing well locally.

We voted over Prop 6 here in California. We get a little guide that is very well done and in which we learn what the prop is about:

PROPOSITION 6 RESTORES HUMAN DIGNITY BY ENDING FORCED LABOR, WHICH CONSTITUTES SLAVERY AND VIOLATES HUMAN RIGHTS.

Pretty clear, pretty obvious what to vote for. Even better:

68-0 in the Assembly, 33-3 in the Senate. Both major political parties are saying “yes, let’s stop slavery in prisons” together, which is rare these days. The voting guide allows for counter arguments, and there was none:

Results? Well, Californians voted in majority to keep slavery in prisons.

In a democratic state, with a democrat governor, with people talking about community and God’s work or whatever all the time. Something that should have been like 90% Yes ended up being 53% No. Get the fuck outta my face.

I live surrounded by psychopaths sure, but more important, if we can’t even pass obvious things like that, it’s hard to have hope for issues where we disagree.

Couple this with a new government filled with people who have the smallest range you can possibly imagine, we’re about to waste four years while a bunch of ghouls are going to profit as much as possible. And of course, this gives ammunition to dictatorships around the globe. “oh you want democracy? Look at the citizens of California who just voted against basic human rights in 2024 lmaooo”

Y’all need to get your shit together quick.

wtf

It might be nostalgia, or the oversaturation of displays in my face all the time or both, but I miss the experience of going to the movies.

That feeling when you didn’t know much what you were going to see, besides a bit of the plot and a movie poster that you would see on bus stops and a few billboards.

Finally sitting down in the dark, excited. The sound being huge, but not loud.

The experience of being able to hear a pin drop in the room after some great dialog on screen.

Being at the movies without food, drinks, phones, conversations. Just pure watching and absorbing. I’ve experienced that.

It’s fucking magical.

My hope for the future is to have some movie theaters holding votes for people to go see 80s and 90s movies -so much slower and tasty- with rules allowing this full experience.

Getting in the Waymo, smiling at the screen and getting back home without doing a thing, will be glorious.