Curious Musings

This is my emacs carnival blog post for January 2026 responding to Christian Tietze’s prompt “This year I’ll…” This year emacs-related goals include moving into denote, updating workflows, integrating AI where it makes sense and sharing more publicly.

1 Ab Initio In the beginning, there was TECO1.

1 Emacs Carnival, December 2025 - “The People of Emacs” This is a writing prompt for Emacs Carnival for December 2025.

I recently faced frustration while trying to get clarity on my insurance coverage.

Some perspective from a person who spent decades providing financial advice, planning for retirement and was then diagnosed with brain cancer at 61….

In ancient Rome, there was a temple to the god Janus (he of the month “JANUary” fame).

I got motivated yesterday to do some credit-report hygiene.

Today was the day I removed the TNI (Telephone Network Interface) from my house.

So, life.

I’m going to subvert the system and try to connect with humans I talk to in call centers as humans … at least until they are all replaced by AI.

We’ve got to do better than this … https://haveibeenpwned.com/ Not sure what the answer(s) is(are).

This is a story about the similarity between finding good information to identify vulnerable devices on the Internet and finding the info one needs to sign up for US health care.

Warning.

GoodRX may save my son $3,500 or more on his prescription meds.

It is somehow fitting that the day I retire, the state of Ohio chose to unveil an historical marker outside the former headquarters of my first employer, CompuServe.

Ode to emacsconf 2023 All the world’s a text, And all the men and women merely editors; They have their reads and their writes, And Emacs in its time plays many parts… With apologies to William Shakespeare and actual odes.

The chart below is a mental framework I’ve used to evaluate my work situation over the span of may career.

On my Mastadon feed this week, the question was asked “Why have #podcasts become so popular in the last few years?

In your “Presidents Log Book Entry” article in the monthly newsletter, you talked about the need for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) to build its “brand identity” to reach our target “consumers”.

Do something radical.

Dad made lists.

The past couple weeks, I’ve intentionally cut the phone out my morning routine.

Believe it or not, you will be OK if you don’t use your “smart”-phone to look up everything the minute you think of it, if you don’t have it by your bed at night and you don’t turn it on for a few hours.

Today I’m going to pay my taxes, work on updating my living will and health care power of attorney, telling others when I want doctors to pull the plug if I can’t make that decision myself.

I think I’m a member of “Gen-P”, the “Peter Pan” generation who grew up in the shadow of the 1953 Disney production that touted the idea that we never have to grow up.

In http://curious.galthub.com/blog/2022-12-25/ I said Bruce moved on from there to be VP of MSN at Microsoft for a while.

This is two part rant on planning with (and without) Emacs Org Mode, shoved together into one post in much the same way as Lennon-McCartney songs were shoved together from musical scraps they had laying around.

make up a mak twain quote about crypocurrency Here is a possible quote that Mark Twain might have said about cryptocurrency: “The only thing more elusive than the value of cryptocurrency is the person who invented it.

Why do we hack?

So, day 1 of EmacsConf 2022 is in the books.

I got a flu shot this week.

This is a HOWTO on publishing certain Unix config files while keeping others private using GNU stow and ?

As we approach another election in the US where hearing cries of “Red” vs.

I’m in the process of installing a new “git” server.

I was once eating in a restaurant with some co-workers in Prague, and it came time to leave.

See the title. #31 of #100DaysToOffload take 2.1, https://100daystooffload.com/

Aristotle identified three types of friendship - friendships of association, utility and virtue.

2022-10-17:14:06:52: Installing and migrating to Manjaro 2022-10-17:14:29:04: pacman -Syu # update pacman 2022-10-17:14:30:06: sudo pacman -Syu # update pacman 2022-10-17:14:30:23: sudo pacman -S ed # install ed 2022-10-17:14:32:41: scp -v -r -p 192.168.0…

So, I’ve been listening to the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Audible.

Email from [company I have investment with]: We are pleased to let you know that there is a new document for you to review Translation, the corporate machine sent this to you to mitigate it’s risk of being sued by you and fined by government regulators f…

Over the years you pick up useful ideas from people.

I’ve been reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.

This is the view from White Rocks 13 miles north of Harpers Ferry.

Shared experiences bring us together.

I am listening to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road - Wikipedia.

The sun is always shining.

Cars have changed.

When you’re on a world tour following COVID lock-downs, nominated for 3 Grammys, scheduled to play at the Grammy’s this year … and your drummer dies…. https://youtu.be/fns6N_iAVBw I close my eyes Only for a moment and the moment's gone All my dreams Pass…

Steve Wilhite died last week.

Shelving the self hosting for a while.