I actually peeked at that social media data. And it’s surprisingly good. I’m still questioning if it’s worth tracking the election this time round (no guarantees). The 2026 election doesn’t feel like it’ll be as interesting as 2021 and the hard part is researching candidates.

It turns out that I actually saved my copy of 2021 polling data, but of course the incumbents redrew the boundaries to make it extra fun.

Bonus: I didn’t notice before, but there’s also data on generative AI use worldwide and locally.

The happy new year is here. I was conversing offline with individuals about courses a little ways back in time. And, if it’s any solace to anyone online deathly afraid of the future, keep reading?

Fun fact: Many seemingly think that I’ve used generative models to build this inert static site (hoho). How would you know the difference? And can you fully trust it?

There are a collection of poems called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. I saw references to one of its four liners in a random video clip of a show. That’s unexpected.

Oh, threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain–This Life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

The translation on the third line is especially spiffy, and the fourth, sufficiently crafty (at least in my opinion).

I’m remembering something kind of amusing. I used to be big on portable documents until I discovered the ultra hard way how cryptic everything was underneath the hood. They’re good enough, but have any of you ever heard of the cracked WWF format (not wrestling)?

It was an encrypted portable document where the defining feature was to make printing technically impossible to save the world. Good thing it was .wwf and not .wwe. This might sound fantastical, but maybe it was really true.