Thu Dec 27 10:59:05 EST 2018

Slept from midnight to ten.
Woke briefly around five.

High of forty-three today, and rainy.

Goals:
- Order new glasses
  Done.
- Grocery (hand lotion, bananas, laundry detergent)
  Done.
- Extended family holiday party at Norm's?
  No.
- Do something creative
  Not much.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/science/chess-artificial-intelligence.html
> Tellingly, AlphaZero won by thinking smarter, not faster; it examined only 60 thousand positions a second, compared to 60 million for Stockfish. It was wiser, knowing what to think about and what to ignore. By discovering the principles of chess on its own, AlphaZero developed a style of play that “reflects the truth” about the game rather than “the priorities and prejudices of programmers,” Mr. Kasparov wrote in a commentary accompanying the Science article.

Vacuumed, took out trash, washed dishes.

https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/iconic-mods-how-sonic-youth-invented-the-jazzblaster
> Sonic Youth guitar tech Nic Close recalled an exchange he had with Ranaldo about their mods during his interview for the gig. “I said, ‘I know you guys are using a lot of Mustangs and Jazzmasters, and I know those things have a lot of crazy circuitry,’” recounted Close. “Lee said, ‘Oh, no, we just rip all that out.’ I don’t know who the first person to rip the electronics out of a Jazzmaster for Sonic Youth was. When I walked in, it just seemed obvious. How could it be any other way? At least for Sonic Youth. I assume they ripped the stuff out themselves early on.” 
> The circuitry wasn’t the only thing to go. “We’ve streamlined a lot of the electronics on the guitars to suit our own needs,” explained Ranaldo. “We don’t really have any use for tone controls or all the different knobs and switches that were on Jazzmasters or Jaguars, so we’ve kind of stripped it down to a jack point, volume knob and toggle switch to switch between the pickups.”

The Last Chess Shop in New York City
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh8U6SLvNgs

https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/john-carlisle/2018/02/16/upper-peninsula-ghost-town-homes/1034513001/
> But rising production costs, a failed strike by miners in 1913 that required the Michigan National Guard to restore order and the collapse of copper prices during the Great Depression effectively brought an end to mining in the region. A brief spike in demand during World War II revived a few mining companies, but after the war, the jobs again vanished, this time for good. So did the residents, who left ghost towns in their wake as they moved elsewhere, leaving the buildings to be slowly consumed by the elements.
> Today, the Keweenaw Peninsula economy relies mostly on tourists who come for hiking, fishing, skiing or snowmobiling, plus some small-scale logging operations. But that’s a fraction of the economic activity of the glory days.

https://www.carniklirs.com/project/fugazi
> Fugazi documented everything. They kept ledgers. They recorded their live shows. In 2011 the band put together a Fugazi Live Series website that includes information on every show they ever played. They’ve consistently been adding live recordings to the archive, and are now up to more than 800 shows. There is an obsessive amount of detail on each show, such as how many people attended, who they played with, and a comments section where attendees of that show can share their experiences.
https://www.dischord.com/fugazi_live_series

https://www.dischord.com/fugazi_live_series/pontiac-mi-usa-90493

Watched season seven of Steven Universe.

Servings: grains 8/6, fruit 2/4, vegetables 5/4, dairy 8/2, meat 3/3, nuts 0/0.5

Breakfast: carrots, banana, coffee, two eggs with tomato and cheese
Lunch: lettuce, coffee, pita with tomato and cheese, orange
Dinner: pizza

128/80