What did you do this weekend?

Mowed my lawn, which was miserable and I hated it, because the city sent me a nastygram about it getting too deep. Hiring lawn care is definitely in the cards; it would be worth a fair amount of money for me to never have to think about or do this stupid, thankless chore again.

(If I were planning more than a few more years in this house, the grass would go. It's a performative emulation of conspicuous consumption among European nobility, showing off that they had the wealth to employ groundskeepers, and it's bad for biodiversity and—when you give it the care it theoretically needs, instead of semi-monthly hacking it to the ground like I do—the environment.)

I completed the 5 th week of the CS50 course and turned in the problem set. The problem was to create a fast spell checking algorithm, my algorithm is ranked at about 120 of all the participants. Hope it didn't come out as flexing, I really am proud of myself this week. :)

I followed the protests going on in Minneapolis (I live in the suburbs but some of my friends live in the city).

Aside from that, I've just been really busy with work. Constantly reloading news sites and thinking about all sorts of things that aren't work make getting things done difficult. I know that excessive control-tabbing isn't healthy, but I also don't want to be caught off-guard by something happening.

I tried a couple of new marijuana strains: Durban Poison, Blue Dream, Skywalker OG

As a result, I did a ton of cleaning, especially on Saturday, where my significant other was concerned I had taken something else.

I cooked a lot this weekend too. Saturday I made a loaf of bread and Sunday I made a big rack of ribs. While they weren't smoked, they still ended up really good, and a fuck ton cheaper than the mediocre ribs that are sold in BBQ places locally.

Started reading "Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law and Psychology". For years I have listened to True Crime podcasts as well as tons of shows on past serial killers. One thing that always interested me was the psychological profiles that are developed to try to either understand them or try to better target them. So I decided to dive head first into the Forensic Psychology literature that is out there since I really only studied work psychology instead of the other branches of psychology. I'm only 4 chapters in but so far the book has covered Lee Harvey Oswald, Patty Hearst, the Guildford Ford, and George Metesky (the Mad Bomber). Its not exactly at the point where it lays out how to build a psychological profile or anything, but rather key aspects of the use and history of forensic psychology. For example, George Metesky is seen as the first widely-known use of psychological profiling. His profile that was developed:

Single man, between 40 and 50. A lone wolf. Introverted. Unsocial, but not anti-social. Skilled mechanic. Immigrant, or first-generation American. Neat with tools. Cunning. Egotistical of mechanical skill. Contemptuous of other people. Disinterested in women. Resentful of criticism of his work, but probably conceals resentment. Expert in civil or military ordnance. Religious, probably a Roman Catholic. Present or former employee of Consolidated Edison. Possible motive: discharge or reprimand. Resentment kept growing. Probably a case of progressive paranoia.

Describing Metesky after locating a matching personnel file from Edison Consolidated:

Two days after these records were uncovered, New York City police officers went to Metesky’s home in Waterbury, Connecticut. There, much as Brussel had predicted, they found a stocky, unmarried, fifty-four-year-old son of Lithuanian immigrants who lived in the house with his two older sisters. Metesky was a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps who had learned bomb making while serving as an ordnance mechanic. In Metesky’s basement police found an amateur bomb-making laboratory. Metesky soon admitted he was the bomber and volunteered that his moniker F.P. stood for “fair play.” Allowed to change from his bathrobe to street clothes before being taken into custody, Metesky opted for a double-breasted suit with the coat buttoned. After Metesky’s arrest, authorities learned more about the man who was the Mad Bomber. After his mother died when he was young, Metesky graduated from high school, entered the Marines, and became a trained electrician. After his military service, Metesky worked as a generator cleaner for about two years for United Electric, a company that later merged with Consolidated Edison. After the September 5, 1931, incident, Metesky was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent time in two TB sanitariums. Thereafter, aside from a brief stint as a toolmaker, he was unemployed.

The caveat was that the psychological profile probably cost police more time and effort through people phoning in false leads. Additionally, the case was moving towards locating Metesky through traditional detective work, and he likely would have been caught without the profiling. They knew the bomber was a disgruntled former employee of Consolidated Edison, and the clues Metesky would leave in his letters to the media would have led the police eventually to Metesky's personnel file. The moral of that story was that psychological profiling often does little to actually catch criminals. Reading this book though does make me wary as the amount of data that is readily available grows, so too will the level of detail that can be generated for a psychological profile.

I dug out the basin at the terminus of the french drain that I put in last year. It's about 1m across, and .75m deep and wide. That's a lot of dirt to remove. I lined the bottom with sand, and filled in the rest of the hole with river rock.

I played some Elite Dangerous while watching a woodworking youtube channel - 3x3 custom. I've been mostly focusing on trade, and worked up about 30M credits in a couple of hours. I realize this is chump change compared to what people can do via mining, but I enjoy trade and exploration.

Re: 3x3 Custom - it's a delightful channel done by a mother of 3 who makes some pretty cool stuff.

Saturday was spent on phone and text banking to promote absentee ballot registration and recruit volunteer organizers with Organizing2020.com. I missed a local #GeorgeFloyd protest occurring at the same time, and was pretty conflicted about it until I read this today. We got to hear an address from Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, and I'm more confident in state government than I ever expected to be.

Sunday - wireless network setup, yard work, and chilling on the deck of the house we still can't occupy yet. Contractors are delaying further because they're swamped (literally) with local flood remediation right now. Can't complain too much - we've got safe shelter, secure food supply, not much COVID-19 risk, and soon we'll be a two-income household again. White, rural/suburban privilege at work.

Protested then spent the next day on hallucinogens and watching protests

1. Mowed the lawn. Like @whbboyd if I was going to be here longer the grass would all be gone. My wife and I have looked at things like creeping thyme and flat out xeriscaping, but the cost isn't justifiable for how much longer we're going to be here. During the hottest months here in Texas I have a lawn guy mow, but when it's still relatively cool I do it myself to save the money. I'm at a crossroads though as to if I should get another set of batteries for my mower. I have two sets at present and they can get most of the property, but not all. While it would seem to be nice to get it all done in one shot, the rest period while the batteries charge is also a welcome thing.

2. I had my previously mentioned friend and her 16 year old child over to build the child's PC. While her mother was making breakfast we talked games (and I still haven't found the name of the one I think she'd enjoy that was a lot like another she mentioned and it's driving me nuts), 3D printing, and engineering; then did the build after cleaning off my dining room table. It was her first PC build ever and I believe it to be a bit of a rite of passage to build one's own computer so I provided tools, steps, and guidance while she built it all herself. mATX, Ryzen 5, RX580, 16gb RAM, full tower case, BIOS update and Win10 installed; it took 4 hours to build as she loses focus from time to time and gets into story telling mode, but having seen how distant and non-communicative she's been in the past prior to her realizing who she is and being that I made zero other plans so there'd be no conflict, she can talk all she wanted. It was also fun watching her mother worry every time she used the knife I gave her to open the boxes of parts. Being the younger child when her parents were married and then quickly becoming the middle child after the divorce she's always gotten hand me downs and this included the PC she'd been playing games on; 1st gen i7, GTX 580 GPU, and a case that included a chunk of 2x4 holding up the CPU cooler for some reason. Overall I'll call it a success considering I received a text late last night after her mother dropped her off at her father's that said "This may be the happiest I've ever seen her."

3. Read the text of the new HEROES act and cross referenced changes in it that impact the previous CARES act as it applies myself and those I know. While doing so I found something I missed prior; unrestricted forbearance. For those that don't know/don't own homes, forbearance is a process by which you can reduce or eliminate your mortgage payment for a period of time when you're experiencing a financial hardship. This is typically restricted to people that are at risk of foreclosure and already behind on their mortgage payments. The CARES act opened this any federally backed mortgage loan (the new HEROES act expands this to everyone) and removed all means testing. Quite literally, the mortgage servicer has to give up to a year of forbearance to anyone that merely asks for it. So I'm planning on taking advantage of this by requesting forbearance and not paying my mortgage over the next year. Now, there is no free lunch here and the government does not pay my mortgage or anything of the sort, the amounts due are just deferred to a later date. This comes in a few forms depending on the servicer and in my case I'll just have them modify the loan to add it to the end of the mortgage and likely lower my interest rate at the same time. Being that I'm early on in my mortgage and only intend to stay here for another 5 years, most of what is being paid right now is interest and not principal so I'm losing/delaying very little equity by going into forbearance right now. During this time I'll be doing home improvements that will increase the overall value of the home more than what is "lost" by not making any payments over the next year, including building myself a detached garage/workshop in the back yard.

I cleaned around the house a bit, slept, and spent the Sunday at my relatives' house. We ate, assembled some furniture, and I spent even more time lounging around half-asleep. Got a pair of surplus combat boots, too: my uncle stumbled upon them while doing some lockdown-fueled spring cleaning, and for all that they are a bit on the large side they still wouldn't fit anyone else in my family.

I'm unreasonably excited by this. I was already in the market for a pair of low boots, as my old Timberland are pretty worn and still need to be resoled: these are waterproof - can't wait to go splashing around in puddles this winter - and they look like they will last me forever. Breaking them in will take a while - they were never worn before, and the leather is very stiff - but I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere right now.