I’ve been listening to my 2022 mixtape ~ playlist. It’s good. Madonna’s Ray of Light is so beautiful. Impeach the President is on it. And that’s an old song. It’s got Altered Images version of Happy Birthday. I just had one of those. I have photos and a post I hope to get to this weekend. But there’s another household birthday this weekend too. Good things are afoot.
Take care. Thanks for reading.
I do love drawing M.O.D.O.K.
First posted at marchmodokmadness.blogspot.com.
Not too late to draw and submit your own! Go! MODOK Go!
I heard over the lifeguard loudspeaker an order to a group of surfers to move north from the swim zone.
I was catching waves, hanging out. Long gaps between.
They were paddling as a group, making their way bit by bit.
As much I’m in the water, I know surfers. I can see the ones who are hard charging and catch every wave. I see the ones just learning and a bit lost. I see the confident ones. I see everything in between. This group of surfers read to me like a group of friends with widely varying skill.
I don’t consciously think about all the observations I make in the water. But I am looking at everything. I am listening to everything. If I’m not, I’m in danger.
This group made their way along, they’d already paddled 70 yards.
This group of 4 were mostly together. And two went under the pier.
The other two were not close together, but kind of talking to each other. I couldn’t hear them, but it was advice about what they were doing. One was doing fine, making his way. He got through. The other: wasn’t.
But the guy couldn’t see how to do it. I was 20 yards further out.
I heard the confused guy call “I need help!” to his friend. his friend told him to go now, it was clear. It was between sets. But the guy wouldn’t go. I’m pretty sure he froze up and didn’t know what to do next. I suspect this was a group outing and this fellow was not prepared for the ocean.
I can’t listen to a person in the water say “I need help” and do nothing. I caught a small wave and got close to him. I asked him if he was okay and he repeated what he overheard him say before “No, I need help” kind of doleful. Frustrated. he was on his board and between the pilings. He was close to getting it, but struggled to balance on the board and paddle at the same time, while also being mindful to steer away from pilings. I got behind him and said “you’re okay, I’m gonna push you through okay?” and he said an “okay.”
So that’s how I did some freelance surf assistance today.
Once he got through he seemed fine, whatever was frozen about that situation came unfrozen. He was with his buddies and fine. I didn’t see them 5 minutes later. Pretty sure they got out of the water.
It’s easy to get locked up doing something unfamiliar.
It’s good to admit you need help.
I was glad to be able to help.
I share this not to self aggrandize or boast. I share it because even that small thing I did could’ve gone wrong. If I timed it poorly we both could have gotten hurt. If conditions got worse surf-wise, it could’ve gone south. And maybe the right call would’ve been to actually advise him not to go through the pilings, and instead go into shore. I’m not certain I took the best action. But I don’t regret the action. And if I hear a person ask for help I’m likely to try to help. Very near that spot a few weeks ago I experienced a hold down. In 2024 I helped a guy who had gotten bloodied in the water.
I mentally prepare myself to go in the water. I don’t go in if I feel weak or am distracted. I must be 100% present.
Today was a reminder of the seriousness of this pastime I love so much. It’s the wilderness.
Onward.
Here’s a ride I took today maybe half an hour before this.
The front page of my site has had a few different looks over the years. artlung.com/splashes/ – doing some modernizing of those pages and putting duct tape on the old code. For, you know, fun.
Another email offering would-be free money got through my spam filters. Previously: EOTD: “This is a legitimate arrangement—no risk to you.”
Hi Joe Crawford,
I’ve put a lot of thought into this email, and I hope that comes through.
I’m %REDACTED%, a Senior Full Stack Engineer from %REDACTED_COUNTRY% with 8+ years of development experience. I came across your GitHub profile and was struck by the quality of your projects.
I want to share an opportunity for a long-term collaboration that could benefit us equally.
About my previous partnership:
I worked with a collaborator in US for years through his Upwork account. He provided the account, I did all the technical work. He received over 50% of my monthly earnings, which were consistently in the $8k–$10k range. Everything ran smoothly until he unfortunately had a car accident.My offer to you:
The same successful model, upgraded to a 50/50 split. You provide your Upwork account, I handle the work, and we share everything evenly.Why I’m looking for a US partner:
- US Upwork profiles earn substantially more
- Clients gravitate toward American developers
- Timezone alignment drives more opportunities
- The %REDACTED_REGION% developer rate gap is real and significant
Practical details:
- I connect through AnyDesk on your local computer
- VPN/VPS are detected and lead to account suspension
- You can set up a VM if you want data separation
- Payoneer processes all payments through your Upwork
- You keep 50%, transfer 50%
What this means for you:
- Passive income of ~$4k–$5k/month
- No development or client work
- Your data remains private
- A proven, long-term income source
Let’s talk about it:
Telegram: %REDACTED_TELEGRAM_HANDLE%
WhatsApp: %REDACTED_WHATSAPP_HANDLE%Best regards,
%REDACTED%
Senior Full Stack Engineer | %REDACTED_COUNTRY%
I made a new site header.
This one was fun. I reused a background that was a great big GIF and turned it into an AVIF which is half the size. I added it in the same directory where the original one was. The folder name is permanent_media. I was half my current age when I named it that, I believe.
I’m building. Fixing bugs. I fixed my affirmations bot over on Bluesky, which broke a month or so ago. I used williamsdb/php2Bluesky for that, a PHP composer package.
I’ve been playing with some other old ideas too. Some cleanup. I’m also using more Markdown in source files. And more linting and still running PHP Codesniffer over my files.
And I’m still bodysurfing and putting grainy videos up showing rides. Last week was an amazing swell. I didn’t get up to The Wedge, but I did enjoy videos like this one from RAW BEEFS. It is unlikely that I would go when it looks like that, but I can see how much fun (and danger) it would be to be out in it. I invite you, if you watch the video, to consider how you might prepare to swim out in those conditions. The water is massive and crashes crosswise and up and down. It breaks surfboards. It can break a spine or a bone. Human beings go out in such conditions for fun. Waves are fun. I have notes about a children’s book about the ways we ride waves. In the video there are dolphins playing in them too. Everyone can ride waves. Danger and all. Fun and all.
That’s where I’ll leave you. Take care out there.
Addendum: If you’re looking to see The Wedge in 1966, there’s some footage in The Endless Summer, part of the double feature IndieWeb Carnival this month: Endless Summer / Girls Can’t Surf IndieWeb Movie Club. See a movie! Tell me about it!
It’s a ubiquitous and highly problematic platform. YouTube remains useful to me.
My account is at youtube.com/@artlung
The first video I uploaded was this Bauhaus animation I created using Cinema4D.
I wrote a bit about my experience with 3-D software in 2006: 3-D and Me, and about that particular model in Bauhaus 3D Model.
There were a couple on the edge of the small cliff that overlooks PB. It’s a part of the landscape that collapses. There’s signage that says “UNSTABLE CLIFFS.” Something about where they were situated prompted me to tell them “you don’t want to be there.”
The dude in the couple didn’t really take it well. I said “no worries, but you don’t want to be there.”
It is rare enough I play the role of “old man warning the young people about a safety issue” that I can’t remember the last time I made such a warning.
But I moved on quickly. It’s truly not my responsibility.
So why did I speak up? I truly wanted them not to fall down the cliff if the the old concrete section they were on felt through.
And I suppose I wanted not to feel any guilt if harm befell them.
It was a pretty good session and I didn’t think about them. On my way out of PB, 2 hours later, they were gone.
