Nels Lindahl — Functional Journal

A weblog created by Dr. Nels Lindahl featuring writings and thoughts…

The last 10 weblog posts

  • 20250112

    Right now the weblog has posts visible from 2021 forward. I have been slowly moving the posts from private to public a few each day to avoid the newsletter setting kicking off emails. I’m thinking that I’m going to get the posts from 2020 loaded and then take a little break from moving the posts to public from private until I can do it systemically. Sometimes WordPress is great to use and sometimes it is very frustrating. I totally get why people build plugins to accomplish specific tasks. This is an example where I could probably create a custom plugin to do this one weird edge case that I want to accomplish. My guess is very few people move all the posts to private and then want to move them back to public. I might look for a post that suppresses the notifications on posts from both the Jetpack social media and the site email newsletter notification options. 

    I have been really invested this year in making daily posts and just updating the weblog implementation. A lot of little design tweeks have happened. Things have been tested out in different operating systems and display sizes. The process of learning how to modify the WordPress Twenty Twenty-Five theme has been really interesting. I’ll be curious if they just end up folding the theme into the core deployment and stop releasing a yearly theme now that they have a pretty solid method to just release WordPress. Maybe this will be the last year named theme and they will just release product updates with a noted default theme. It’s also possible that this will be the last theme they release because the whole project is becoming chaotic and really dramatic. My news feed powered by Google insights has been delivering me all sorts of WordPress related drama over the last 3 months. It’s like a reality television show or would be a good basis for a spin off season of the television show Silicon Valley where Dinesh and Gilfoyle get really into open source contributions and create drama and hijinks. 

    Part of the early morning writing process is about getting my mind to relax into a pure stream of consciousness type of writing mode. It’s really about that moment where nothing else is under consideration and the process of writing becomes wholesale in focus. It’s moments like that where the written word could go anywhere that are the most interesting to me and my thought process. Part of that is just moving beyond any type of writing backlog or planned trajectory for creating the written word and just focusing on the things that come to the forefront of consideration in the moment. I know that some of that is about where the sparks of creativity are going to be kindled and that passion drives production. Sometimes during that very first hour of the day the sparks of creativity are still sleeping and you end up just going wherever things are going to end up going and that is the part of the process I find absolutely interesting. 

    Previously a lot of my writing at that moment of pure stream of consciousness ends up getting pretty philosophical and reflective. I end up focusing deeply on how normative processes fulfill expectations within civil society and the aggregate considerations that are placed on communities of place, circumstance, and values. A lot of my writing, if given enough time to breathe and really focus would end up opening the door from that foundation to evaluating the intersection of technology and modernity. From social norms and considerations of civility to how technology changes society in the aggregate are really at the foundation of the things that I end up thinking deeply about given enough time to really relax and write deeply about a subject. 

    That does not end up being the type of writing that gets reworked until it is the absolutely best possible version. I tend to take another approach where I just rewrite that passage until the final version is self evident. My more academic writing gets reworked in place and that is a part of the editing and refinement process of that type of work. The more stream of consciousness type evaluation of thought and prose is something where rework is not possible and you just sort of take a run at it and the outcome of that process is the outcome. My general writing corpus is full of examples of that in terms of millions of words being written. All of those words are organically generated and really just a product of my daily writing routine. 

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250111

    This is a week of football from the college football semifinal playoff games to the first round of the NFL playoffs. Today I’m going to watch some hopefully good games. I’m already dreaming about nachos of some sort with a few jalapenos. People really do seem generally checked out as we dig into 2025. I’m still a little shocked that we have entered 2025 without flying cars and hoverboards. Intellectually I know that either we need better power supplies or maybe propellant systems. We have so much opportunity to focus as a society on moving to the next stage of technology and achievement of very significant advancements. We have a wild amount of technological capability being unlocked. Our productivity could just skyrocketed in the next 10 years. All of that new unlocked capacity for change is going to shift things in ways that can be predicted. 

    The Colorado Avalanche game was actually broadcast over the air today which is awesome. Anybody with the old school antenna is able to watch the game. That is the best way for local sports to be broadcast. Oddly enough the big Steelers vs. Ravens game is over on Prime instead of being broadcast. People should totally watch the Colorado Avalanche game in Denver tonight. It’s already in the second period and outside of that early first goal things have been pretty even between two high quality hockey teams. This really has been a weekend of live sports.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250110

    It turns out that all the shirts which were previously put in the oh my goodness you shrunk section of the closet now fit again and were apparently falsely accused of shrinkage. 90 days of walking an hour on the treadmill was enough to make this minor miracle happen. I have been serious about getting my treadmill time in after dinner every day. That hour of walking really does seem to make a difference. I have had to apply the silicone lubricant to the treadmill, but I have not had to replace the treadmill belt. That is probably going to happen at some point. A couple of dangerous Google searches seem to suggest that the belt might last 300-500 hours. If that is actually a true estimate, then replacing the treadmill belt is going to end up being a problem in the future. 

    My big plan to sit down and spend some time writing tonight seems to have failed. The words are not flowing tonight. I did manage to write a couple words about my treadmill. That is something at least. It is not particularly good or really all that interesting, but it did happen and that is something.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250109

    The Colorado Avalanche are playing on back to back nights and will be facing the Minnesota Wild tonight. I’m hoping it will be a much better game tonight. Last night was a very disappointing game to watch. The game does not start for a little over an hour which should allow me enough time to sit down and write some words for the weblog. I’m utilizing my MacBook Air and sitting on the sofa. It’s a windy day in Denver and that works well enough for writing. This new daily blogging streak is well over 20 days in a row now which is interesting. I’m working to unlock more and more of the backlog. You can find the older content by searching the archive. That page is set up to show counts and provides links to categories, monthly recaps, and yearly summaries. Right now I’m still unlocking old posts one at a time to prevent the bulk emails from going out. 

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250108

    Right now I’m watching the Colorado Avalanche play some hockey and winding down for the night. The first two periods of the game have been pretty frustrating so far. It’s one of those types of games. It has given me an opportunity to think about some things. Well two different things that both got some consideration. 

    Teaching a class is a rewarding activity. It’s something that is fun and can demonstrate your mastery of a subject. Pulling the materials to teach that class is probably my favorite part of the whole process. I spent some time today thinking about what class I would teach if I could teach just one class and it was my choice what that class would be about. Having a refined well reasoned answer to what your dream class to teach would be is an informative thing to consider. It’s a very interesting question. To me it is a more interesting question than what classes you could teach. That is one way of looking at things. You might even list off what classes you have taught. Some combination of the answers to those questions might yield the one class you would want to teach. That to me is the central question to define what subject stands out for you above all others. 

    The other thing I spent some time thinking about was what video game I would make if I was going to spend some time building a video game studio. I would for sure build the game where level packs were sold separately to allow hardcore players to keep going and completing epic levels. The game would probably load up with an initial graphical load of a simple large X on the screen. When you moved that X you would have to rotate it 180 degrees and flip it over before the game intro and levels unlock. 

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado 

  • 20250107

    The shipping delay was resolved. Shipment was just delayed a couple days. My new Audioengine HD6-US-WHT HD6 home music system speakers showed up and they are pretty darn epic so far. I also purchased the DS2M desktop stands to help get some separation between the speakers and the desk. My big plan for the evening has been to listen to more music this year and this new set of speakers will help facilitate more listening. I actually set up the Bluetooth pairing with my MacBook Air and things are working out pretty well after hitting the pairing button on the back of the speaker. I would have preferred if the speakers were able to handle multiple source pairings and just play the active audio stream from the paired devices. That would make having the speakers paired to a smartphone and computer at the same time possible. That would be the most likely setup for somebody who was listening to these speakers every day. Those are my initial thoughts on the speakers after a day of listening. I’m very particular about picking out new speakers for my office. The search took a long time. All sorts of options were considered. Audio equipment has been something I have become very passionate about over the last few years. 

    I should probably have rewritten that last paragraph into two or maybe three different blocks of content. Unfortunately, I think it is just going to remain the way it was written and that is going to be the way of things. The sentiment I was going for was captured, but the prose was just not the quality I was expecting. It’s possible that later on at some point that story of the speakers arriving might be revisited. That is probably wishful thinking. My attention will move on to the next block of content to be written. Taking the time to tell the same stories over and over again is just not in the cards. Ironically based on everything I just wrote you might argue that I have the time to sit and write about writing over and over again. That may be a fair point. It might very well be the best point of logical consistency produced within this chautauqua about pure audio joy. 

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250106

    It’s time for that state of the weblog post. Don’t worry I’m not writing that post today. It has however been a day of big feelings. I’m closing out the day watching the Colorado Avalanche play some hockey tonight. The start time is early enough that I’ll be able to watch the entire game. That is probably the best part of the day. Outside of my hockey related joy it has been hard to forget that today is a day steeped with historical significance. A lot of things should be written about today and the deeper meaning it has and will continue to have going forward, but those words won’t find a forum within the attention of the public mind at large. People seem a little checked out and it’s concerning. It’s one of those disconnects that echoes from the cracks that broke our shared civility. 

    Those of you who read my writing on a regular basis know that I’m keenly interested in how the perfect possible future will end up unfolding. Our science and technology have been pushing toward the intersection of technology and modernity at a fairly rapid pace. We may very well see the singularity within our lifetimes and that will be an interesting moment of intersection. Being able to generally solve most problems with the application of technology is where our understanding of science will have brought us to a significant milestone. 

    I could spend time writing hyperbolic commentary. You might argue that the object of being hyperbolic was already accomplished. Spending a couple hours working on that just  does not feel right. It does not feel like where my time should be spent. We have to invest our time and energy in moving things forward toward that perfect possible future. We have to strive to move things forward. It’s our willingness to work just beyond the edge of what is possible that will allow us to accomplish something meaningful. Each opportunity stands out and requires finding and maintaining movement toward that edge breaking away from what limits the possible. We have to continue to strive and that ultimately is what unlocks a perfect possible future. 

    A lot of people want to believe in science, facts, and objective truth. Considering expert opinions cannot end up being a bridge too far. Being absolutely dispositional has been normalized. Our normative game is a lot less predictable than it used to be with decision making processes that are not rational or pragmatic. It’s all based on post truth frameworks and not much else. A firm belief that whatever you want to do is just what will be done takes a certain type of hubris. Enough people have accepted this framework that the very fabric that binds our civil society together has potentially been irrevocably torn. I still have hope that pathing toward a perfect possible future beyond the intersection of technology and modernity will unlock enough potential to revitalize the best possible path. 

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250105

    It’s time for some WordPress site development updates this morning. The categories page now has both monthly and category archives that will just continue to update with counts going forward. I don’t have a search box on any of the standard content pages. The 404 page has a search box, top content, and the monthly and category archive drop downs. I figured that having a search box on that page was rather harmless and mostly useful for somebody who was looking for a page that no longer exists. I have unlocked the previously private content posts from December 2021 to current. That means 281 posts are currently unlocked and 2,189 need to be released at some point. 

    Generally speaking that previously available and now private content is available within internet archives so making it available here is not novel or all that interesting. I am trying to be careful when converting content over so that it does not cause the fresh content email and notifications to go out to everybody. That would be an annoying number of notification pings and weblog related emails. 

    That was a lot of weblog related updates to share for a Sunday morning. I’m pretty sure my tinkering with the new weblog deployment is going to slow down shortly. Even a brand new theme deployment only requires so much tinkering to get it into a serviceable condition for go forward weblog delivery. I had some time to engage in tinkering yesterday during the course of watching two NFL games and the Colorado Avalanche playing hockey into overtime. Watching sports and tinkering on my MacBook Air M3 has been working out well enough. I do strongly prefer to work on a 38 inch monitor, but that is not the only way to get things done. It’s just the most productive. 

    My current setup includes a FlexiSpot standing desk with an AWMS-2-BT75-FS model monitor stand from ATDEC. Both computer screens hardly move or wiggle during the transition from sitting to standing. They don’t shake during the typing process either which is a vitally important consideration. Both monitors are 38 inch Dell UltraSharp curved screen units and they are VESA mounted to the ATDEC monitor stand. The stacked deployment offers a lot of screen real estate for getting work done. They are plugged into a Dell WD22TB4 Thunderbolt 4 docking station by USB-C and that is how via a single USB-C cable the entire desktop setup can be swapped between computers.  

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250104

    Things are on track today for a good start to the weekend. We are going to get some snow later today around the time the Colorado Avalanche play some hockey. Right now I have had breakfast and am ready to sit down and write for a little bit before transitioning into some type of research note project. I’ll be able to watch a couple of NFL games today on ABC as well. I’m looking forward to a low key day of just progressing forward without having to do anything substantial or outside the house event driven. Sometimes it is nice to just enjoy that low key day and be ok with that happening. My standard writing routine on the weekend is to spend the start of each day working deeply on some type of research note. 

    I ordered some new speakers for my desk. Earlier this morning I found out the shipping has converted to the ever disappointing, “The delivery date will be provided as soon as possible.” They are in transit somewhere near the middle of the United States being delivered at a now indeterminate time. They were supposed to arrive today in the afternoon. It was going to be delightful. I’m very particular about what type of speakers I use on a daily basis and finally making the decision to upgrade was a big one. More updates to come on this one as the saga continues and the new speakers eventually arrive. My guess is that it will be sometime next week. 

    Instead of doing the best possible research this morning I might have logged into World of Warcraft on my MacBook and played a new character for like 15 minutes. I gained a couple of levels and then gave up playing. That happens from time to time. My weekend video game of choice remains a couple of runs in Diablo II: Resurrected. That does require booting up my main workstation. At the moment, the entire workstation is totally powered off at the actual power switch on the back of the power supply. It’s possible that I’m going to go ahead and boot up the Windows machine as resurrected is not available for Mac. I know that some people do use an emulator to play the game, but that sounds exhausting and it would be much easier to just power on the other computer. 

    I built out a Categories page for the weblog that seems to be working well enough. Both the Categories page and the RSS feed are now linked in the footer as icons. I’m not sure if either of those things is super useful anymore, but I did complete that work for the weblog.

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

  • 20250103

    My big writing plans were foiled. I had extraordinarily big plans to write something interesting and impactful today. Today was a very busy day. It really was consistently busy. Last night the game was very exciting and controversial with the Colorado Avalanche winning a hockey game in overtime. We got home pretty late. That combination of a late night of hockey and a very busy day just crushed my writing ambition for the night. It just wholesale crushed it into a fine pulp of not what I would describe as procrastination, but maybe disappointment and exhaustion. I had meant to spend this hour here just writing away to keep my weblog productivity streak going. I did spend a little bit of time trying to figure out how much snow we will be getting tomorrow.

    Instead of being a productive writer on this Friday night I’m watching the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings movie series part one about the fellowship of the ring. It’s a pretty long movie. Watching the entire thing is a pretty decent investment of my evening, but it seems to be what is happening. 

    Dr. Nels Lindahl
    Broomfield, Colorado

Nels Lindahl -- Functional Journal

A weblog created by Dr. Nels Lindahl featuring writings and thoughts…

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