Matisyahu's Blog

first day back in the office after not going in for quite some time and waking up at 9:30 am I really wanted to have another hour of sleep but I know if I force my body into routine then eventually I’ll be able to get to sleep at a good time and wake up refreshed. I caught the train into town and started work at 1:30 pm and finished at 10:00 pm however they had a train replacement but on the good side the cost of the train replacement is around NZD$2 cheaper than taking the train so I guess it isn’t so bad. I have to admit, I missed the coffee machine they have at work – it has the sort of good quality coffee beans that mean you can have a black coffee and enjoy the flavour and aroma because they use good quality beans and haven’t been burnt to a crisp when roasted.

I received notification from Ikea that the order I placed is getting ready to ship – they go through Mainfreight and once they pick it up I’ll be able to opt in to letting them leave them on my back door because I’ll be hope all day when they eventually deliver it. The trousers I bought recent I wore to work and they are very comfortable and tomorrow I’ll probably given the olive coloured ones a go with the shirt and long coat that will work all together nicely. The weather was still a bit chilly especially when coming home at night so I am tempted to wear maybe a woollen jacket so when I come back from work I don’t feel as cold.

The one ting I always find funny is the American political system and the number of Democrats who chant ‘vote blue no matter who’. That sounds ok until you realise that it doesn’t apply if the candidate who ends up winning is backed by the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) then at which point the ‘vote blue no matter who’ crowd throw their toys out of their pram. This goes back to the larger thesis I’ve been saying and many others say online – the so-called ‘moderates’ and ‘liberal’ Democrats compromise to the right but punch to the left – the old fish hook theory that moderates are more willing to compromise with the right than find solidarity with the left.

Even when the left is willing to compromise the moderates keep pulling to the right – for example the left were not the ones undermining the ACA in its original form, it was the so-called ‘moderates’ and ‘blue dog’ Democrats who gutted the ACA in the name of bipartisanship even though not a single Republican voted for it even after giving them everything they wanted. Then to add insult to injury we have Joe Lieberman who threatened to filibuster the ACA unless the public option was taken out – so moderate that he was more concerned about protecting the private health insurance businesses bottom line than actually fighting for better health.

Getting back to the issue of the primaries – don’t complain when there is a candidate you didn’t like but you couldn’t be bothered getting involved in the primaries. When it comes to the primaries, push for your candidate to win and who ever ends up winning then get behind that candidate, don’t just throw a temper tantrum because you didn’t get what you want but understand that politics don’t stop the moment you don’t your own way, it continues going by lobbying who ever is the winner and push them in the direction that you want them to go in. At the end of the day if the candidate wins and wishes to keep winning then they have to start delivering – an organised movement that pushes representatives ensures that they’re kept honest because they’re constantly reminded that they’re being monitored and will be called out when they do something that isn’t in the interest of those who voted for them.

There are reports that Apple will be releasing a refresh to the HomePod in October which would probably put the announcement at around the same time as they do their iPhone refresh. I wouldn’t be surprised if we also see an Apple TV refresh – hopefully betting updated so that it can support hardware accelerated AV1 playback which will allow higher resolution videos on the many different streaming services that have adopted it over HEVC. I’ll be looking forward to that along with the release of version 27 of the Apple’s next platform upgrade – when it is released I’lll be doing a clean install on all my devices to ensure that nothing strange or unusual occurs because an incompatible app or setting causes problems.