Ora et Labora

Wed, 20 May 2026 14:44:15 -0500

Fallon is the court jester of the Anthropocene, a figure who invites us to watch celebrities play parlor games on stage while the air outside the studio begins to smell of tear gas and smoke. In Fallon’s sterile loop of viral repetition comes the final victory of the commodity over human beings—a world where even our laughter is outsourced to the demands of the algorithm. You don’t even need jokes anymore. All you need is to say something that sounds like it could be a joke, and the hollow laughter will come.

The true loss with Colbert being forced off the air after this week is the sincerity that comes with his show and can’t really be found anywhere else. Colbert has the ability to ask the question and know when to let his guests speak, last night he asked Steven Spielberg about how he’s changed as a director and the answer was something you really won’t find on the other shows. As for the rest, Kimmel is fine, Seth always seems kind of uncertain, and Fallon, well, he’s just deeply unfunny to the point it makes me uncomfortable.

Thu, 14 May 2026 13:08:57 -0500

Watched: Eraserhead 🍿

Not nearly high enough to appreciate this, I guess?

Thu, 14 May 2026 07:02:29 -0500

Finished reading: Hated by All the Right People by Jason Zengerle 📚

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 14:03:19 -0500

Watched: Project Hail Mary 🍿

Rock is the best part and is better than the book at a lot of points, the rest is less appealing.

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 20:01:17 -0500

Finished reading: Chronicles Vol. 1 by Bob Dylan 📚

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:28:59 -0500

Finished reading: Ghosts of Crook County by Russell Cobb 📚

When this came out it seemed to always get compared to Killers of the Flower Moon, which really is a disservice because while both deal with shady dealings to claim oil rights and payouts within Oklahoma during the early 20th century boom, Ghosts is a much different subject. The thing that makes this book frustrating and rewarding at the same time is the simple fact that when it comes to oil rights in the state much of the crookery came through legal means that don’t make as gripping a story as the sensational murders and violence that allowed Scorsese to make a 3 hour movie.

Ghosts deals with the legal maneuvers to secure access to allotment land for Tommy Atkins, who never existed. Yet by the end of the book numerous parties have made various claims to the allotment in an attempt to profit off the generous earnings it provided. The most prominent of those was Charles Page, the founder and benefactor of Sand Springs. While Page had the money and fame to attract attention, smaller drillers and family members also sought to stake their claim to the allotment. The Atkins case was a sensational story that attracted national attention as it touched on issues of class and race and had far too many twists and turns for anyone to keep straight, including readers of the book.

04/03/26

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:00:57 -0500

Today: Slowly inching towards the end of the semester

Status: Cut up a bunch of the branches from the honeysuckle bush we cut down in the backyard and the thumb is a bit sore. Bought a new Fiskers cutter for this whole product and the rubber grip hasn’t survived the first project.

Reading: Everything and nothing all at once.

Last Watched: The Gilded Age, I’m out after one episode. Downtown Abbey was never my thing and the American version doesn’t really do anything else.

04/01/26

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:17:40 -0500

Today: April Fool’s Day, stay the hell off the internet.

The AI Tax is making everything more expensive and terrible. Turns out my Mac Mini is now the go-to computer for AI weirdos and they’re sold out everywhere. Anyway, if anyone wants to give me $5K I’ll sell you my M4 Pro Mac Mini with 64GB of RAM.

Status: Meh, fine. I guess.

Reading: Kind of want to read The Count of Monte Cristo after watching the first two episodes of the Italian mini-series that has premiered on PBS Masterpiece.

Listening: Seems the Supreme Court is ambivalent about the idea of ending birthright citizenship. The 14th amendment couldn’t be clearer and the same court that decided Plessy v. Ferguson couldn’t bring itself to find an argument against birthright citizenship. The fact that Trump is attending the arguments is not the power move he thinks it is.

Watching: Lecture last night on Catholic theology and immigration. You know, the basic, love your neighbor stuff.

03/30/26

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 08:42:21 -0500

Today: Need to get caught up on some grading and discuss socialism in Oklahoma and 1950s America. Getting so close to the end of the semester.

Status: The neck has been giving me issues lately. Hopefully it’ll hold up for a month and I can get in after the semester is over to get it checked.

Listening: We went to a hockey game on Saturday and there were teens in front of us and one of them had a 5th generation iPad Nano. I know the iPods are making a comeback because of phone bans in schools but this is the first time I saw one in the wild. And they were sharing headphones.

Last Watched: The first episode of ER and The West Wing. At some point I will get through ER but given everything else, Aaron Sorkin’s rosy centrist mentality is going to win out.

This is also where I acknowledge that I turned in for UConn/Duke last night and turned it off around half time. With Uconn down 19, it didn’t feel worthwhile to subject my girlfriend who dislikes basketball to the second half that seemed pointless.

OH MY GOODNESS. BRAYLON MULLINS WITH .3 LEFT!!!

"MARCH MEANS DRAMA!!!"@UCONNMBB pic.twitter.com/ER2wWCg3Ds
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 29, 2026

Oops

03/27/26

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 08:42:58 -0500

Today:

Thought I could escape out the door this morning without a coat. Oklahoma has increasingly just given up on Spring. Turns out today is 50s, windy, and wet. Whoops.

Status: The cat gets treats in the morning when I wake up and he has increasingly decided he can try and compel me to get up by walking over me an hour or two before the alarm goes off.

Last Watched: Baseball’s back thankfully. A few hours of easy background noise broken up with action at various points. I entirely ignored Netflix getting to claim “opening day” on Wednesday night and it was the right call, seemingly everything about the game was terrible. Instead I started with the Mets beating the Pirates with former OSU player Carson Benge hitting a home run in his big league debut. Much better.

03/25/26

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:22:49 -0500

Today: The governor’s seat is open in this year’s election and we’ve had ads for months now. First it was the Speaker of the House and the Attorney General flooding the airwaves. Now it seems to to be the “outsiders,” neither of which are really anything close. One is a former three-term state senator, the other is literally the son of Frank Keating, the former two-term governor from 1995-2003, and a former cabinet member in the outgoing administration. I just needed to get that out because I yell at the TV alot.

Status: Terrible sleep last night and woke up this morning feeling like death warmed over. A two mile round trip walk to collect my new glasses kind of improved it, but it’ll also be up into the 90s later today.

Last Watched: The Pitt, still crams way too much in, still thoroughly enjoyable.

03/23/26

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:21:00 -0500

Today:

Back to reality after a week of Spring Break. Spent most of it catching up on reading and taming the backyard. All the while Oklahoma has apparently decided to simply skip spring and head right into summer. Now that we’re past the true beginning of spring we might as well have high temperatures in the upper 90s. None of this should be normal, but it is seemingly going to become our new normal without much protest.

Status:

Sore, a week of weeding, cutting down bushes, and moving mulch and top soil makes you sore.

Reading:

I rebooted the BOOX Palma I bought to try and avoid screen time and then quickly discarded. A phone sized e-ink reader gave me so much joy at the thought of it and then using it was less than ideal. It was kind of slow, the text would skip, so it just sat unused and dead on my bed side table. Charged it this week and have used it for reading prior to bed. It runs Android 11, which hasn’t been supported since 2024, so I assume it’s EOL is pretty soon. I doubt I’ll be buying another given the fact that the Palma 2 runs Android 13 which ended support at the start of the month. The Palma 2 Pro with color e-ink runs Android 15 and BOOX doesn’t seem to push new versions out.

Listening:

I got all caught up on the podcasts and then lost that by the end of last week. I should recharge my old beats that stay on the ear for yard work because too often the airpods just fall out so I just don’t use them.

Last Watched:

Spring Break was spent getting through the first season of The Pitt, which is the newest show I’ve watched in quite a while. It’s fast-paced, entertaining use of time, although one I’m sure isn’t particularly, uh, real. That being said, the show does cram so much in it makes it overwhelming at times. In the first season it was how many current events can we smash into one 15 hour day. The answer was a lot, and most of them were treated with a heavy hand. I won’t spoil anything, but there was a point in every episode seemingly made for people to scream at the TV.

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:08:41 -0500

Watched: The Secret Agent 🍿

03/16/26

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:16:31 -0500

Today: We want everyone to help us open the Strait of Hormuz but please forget the last year where we said bad things. Also Newt Gingrich thinks with can use a few thermonuclear explosions and bing bang boom, new canal.

Status: Eye doctor at 8:45AM, meaning even though it’s Spring Break, I was basically up and out at the usual time. Eyes are fine, new prescription ordered.

Reading: The Economist’s Espresso app is really lovely. Short and simple stories that provide a quick overview of the significant issues of the day.

Listening: Train Dreams was one of my favorite movies of the year, and while he was never going to win, Nick Cave’s song for the movie is like all of his music, a lovely song.

Last Watched: The Oscars, which as always are too long and have the presenters try to do bits that just don’t add anything. Just have people present the awards and let the winners say what they want. Except Javier Bardem, he can say whatever he wants before presenting. Bravo to Amy Madigan, the best part of Weapons, a delightful movie, but one that really didn’t hit in the way I was hoping. But not only do we get to see horror recognized at the Oscars but we get to be reminded that Madigan, Ed Harris, Nick Nolte, and others were rightfully annoyed at Elia Kazan’s honorary Oscar.

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:34:33 -0500

Watched: Blue Moon 🍿

03/11/26

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 10:18:04 -0500

Lacked the ability to focus yesterday while waiting on some news. Luckily the news was positive, so time to catch up today.

Today:

Corpus Christi could run out of water - Mad Max level stuff in the article if you buy in to the worst case scenarios.

Facebook buys Moltbook - So now Facebook can be filled with even more AI slop. Dead internet is probably no longer a theory I guess.

Status: Late spring temperatures have arrived far earlier than they should and the house has been annoyingly humid/hot for this time of the year. So naturally sleep last night wasn’t great.

Reading: I subscribed to The Economist to be that person while paring down my magazine subscriptions on Libby. Also, if you’re not actively using libby through your local public library you’re missing out. Yes, reading a hard copy would be better but I can use my tax dollars to read far more magazines than I can actually read.

Listening: So many podcasts.

Last Played: I finished Spiderman 2 on the PS5 yesterday when I realized personal issues were not going to let me actually work during the day.

03/08/26

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:31:00 -0500

It’s the Monday after Daylight Savings Time, so naturally everyone is complaining. As a reminder we tried year-long DST in the 1970s, that time of terrible economies and fashion, and it went as well as Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

So anyway, my choice being in Oklahoma would be yearlong standard time. In the summer it’d be bright before 5 but so be it. But if we need DST, at least bump it back to April and end it at the start of October.

Today: Karoline Leavitt wouldn’t rule out a draft - I’d live to re-animate Nixon and LBJ and have then discuss this one.

Status: I feel fine, this morning I was no groggier than usual.

Last Watched: Big 12 wrestling championships, I am who I am.

03/06/26

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:55:37 -0500

I teach three days a week, the other days days of the week we I have off from commuting. But, in theory, I should still be working. I’ve never managed to find a system that truly allows me to feel productive at home, even when I do get stuff done.

Today: Storms? Probably? It’s the start of March and the weather this week has given the vibes of April and May, we’ve already had small hail and now they’re predicting the likelihood of severe weather at some point this afternoon and evening.

Also Markwayne is going to be DHS secretary, so now Misspoke will be everyone’s problem.

Status: Less than ideal. I had a health issue last May and yesterday kind of felt like the beginnings of what happened then. Feel more confident it’s not happening again but I guess we’ll see.

Reading: Black Moses, Caleb Gayle. The story of Edward McCabe, the major proponent of Black settlement in Indian/Oklahoma Territories prior to statehood.

Listening: Smooth jazz, need to calm the nerves here.

Last Watched: House of the Dragon, first episode. Not nearly as sold on it as Game of Thrones at its best, but I’m committed to finishing this television universe.

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:31:41 -0500

Finished reading: I’ve Been Here All the While by Alaina E. Roberts 📚

03/04/26

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 09:45:12 -0500

Today: Apple announced new studio displays and I’ve always been tempted by them, especially when the old Asus monitor would constantly flicker when using an M Series mac. Luckily the Dell Monitor I picked up a few years ago has worked really well and reduced by desire for a studio display, but darn if it isn’t still there.

Also curious about the cheap Macbook Neo they’re releasing. I really do not need the level of tech I have, and the allure of a cheap, efficient laptop is really compelling. That being said I don’t exactly have faith the 8 GB of RAM is going to hold up very well.

Status: Spent past of yesterday tinkering with screen time and app limits. Frustrating I have a few apps that are defined as separate based on if it’s an iOS or MacOS app.

Reading: I read some more of Martyr! after about a month of not reading it, still not sure I’m committed.

Last Watched: Penultimate Game of Thrones episode. It really is rushed. I never paid attention to why people hated the end of the show, but the final season really does feel like a sprint to get everything tied up as quickly as possible. You’re already in for so much money in these seasons, would seven more episodes across two seasons have added that much to the cost in the long run?

03/03/26

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:48:03 -0500

It’s nearly 80 degrees outside and we’ve got rain on and off for the rest of the week. Spring in other words.

Today:

These explanations fail because they assume something has gone wrong. If we start instead with the premise that something has gone right, the puzzle solves itself. - Why Are American Passenger Trains Slow?

Status: Bought a new low profile mechanical keyboard and I’m ready to throw it out the window already. Never had so many typos with a keyboard as this one, which I just switched away from mid sentence.

Also considering experimenting with utilizing Obsidian, templates, and it’s various plugins to run a self-hosted Hugo blog. My idea was to utilize micro.blog as my default blog platform moving forward but even though I like a lot about it, it just doesn’t feel right for a number of reasons, none of which are the platform’s fault.

It feels weird to write anything long on the platform. Yes people do it, yes you can do it, but it doesn’t feel like the right place, especially when you look at the social feed.
While Micro.blog backs everything up to github, it still doesn’t provide the simplicity of something like a regular static site where all my posts and materials are in individual files and I can easily move them around and use them as I see fit.

The templates in Obsidian and the ability to use git to publish the blog generally solves my major issues with Hugo in the past, namely that it never felt simple to write and publish something.

Anyway, it’ll probably get filed away in my to-do list for the summer.

Last Watched: I can see why Game of Thrones lost support towards the end. We’re in the last season and there’s basically three episodes to wrap everything up and a lot of the plot points in the 4th episode were iffy at best.

03/02/26

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:14:31 -0500

We had a thunderstorm and hail yesterday, which yes, fell on the start of meteorological spring, but feels far too early. We had one snow storm this winter and while it could still happen, our temperatures are very quickly trending up. Time to put away the winter coats and uncover the outdoor faucets.

Status: Tired, went to bed early and did nothing on Sunday but a busy week last week is still hitting it seems.

Reading: Trying to plan out lectures for the African American experience in Indian and Oklahoma territories

Last Watched: Game of Thrones, “The Long Night.” I remember the complaints about how dark this when it came out but it wasn’t nearly as dark as I expected. The ending was less than pleasing for a handful of reasons, but a good, moody, hour and a half of violence.

02/27/26

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 10:04:47 -0500

Today:

Status: Tired. Maybe 5 hours of sleep last night.

Listening: Eric Church in concert. This is the first concert I’ve left early in quite a while. Not because it was terrible, but because it started so damn late and I’m just not really committed to Church’s music to stay out past 11PM. He didn’t take the stage until after 9PM (thanks to playing the full suite of Pink Floyd’s Time / Welcome to the Machine / Run Like Hell, as the intro music). I like Church for basically three reasons: the nostalgia of “Springsteen”, the Mr. Misunderstood album, and his willingness to play covers relevant to the area. After getting “Springsteen”, JJ Cale’s “If You’re Ever in Oklahoma,” and “Record Year” I called it a night.

Also, venues, please notify people ahead of time when you upgrade seats to close off the upper bowl. While it’s always nice to find out the cheap upper level seat is now a more expensive lower bowl seat, at least email and tell me to check in at the box office if you can’t distribute a new ticket. If a section is that undersold, you know about it well in advance. Don’t make me stand in the security line only to have to fight my way back out and walk around the whole building.

Last Watched: Game of Thrones, nine episodes left.

02/25/26

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 11:24:39 -0500

Today: The TV upstairs that I saved from the dump a few years ago by replacing the motherboard, may finally have decided to give up the ghost again. When it first died it starting acting weird, not correctly changing inputs, turning off when told to; basically little annoyances that piled up until it just died. If it is dead, I’m not all that sad, it managed to make it another few years with a relatively cheap motherboard off ebay, I’d just rather not buy a new TV right now. Although being able to buy one with an antenna jack will be nice because I currently can’t get over the air channels seeing as how this TV is a glorified monitor.

Status: Spring weather in Oklahoma. One day it’s 24 in the morning and 48 hours later it’s 50s and 60s. We’ll be passing 80 by the weekend if the weather is to be believed.

Listening: Roger Deakins talking about cinematography at Magic City Books in Tulsa last night. My favorite response to a question, on lens flares: “I wouldn’t put it that way, but I hate them.” (in response to his wife saying he hates them). He was thoroughly British in all the best possible ways.

02/22/26

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:35:22 -0500

Today: Big blizzard flying through the northeast has tied up a bunch of travel plans and left us (blessedly) with an extra houseguest for two days as mom cannot get back to New England with the weather.

Status: Tired, slept at the hotel last night in Stillwater and none of the doors had soft closing mechanisms, so naturally every let the door slam at all hours of the night. But I did get up this morning and go to the gym for the first time in months, I do kind of miss it.

Last Watched: Oklahoma State-Iowa wrestling dual. A full arena of 12,000+ fans for a wrestling dual is not something you see many places.