A heron
Gone Fishing
I haven’t gone fishing, but the bird has.
An SVG clock
Sometimes we experiment and play with technology. The clock below is an SVG clock using SVG and Canvas technology to display local time. Doing it with these two technologies was easier than with JavaScript. The code doesn’t require calculating thousandths of a second like another clock I tried. The tutorial to make this clock is here: W3 Canvas Clock.
My errors when writing the code were to miss out a zero, hence missing out the central circle, and then adding + instead of * for minutes and seconds, so that the minute and second hands were wrong. When I spotted the typos I corrected them. Now it works.
I have 45 minutes of course left before I finish this course: Front End Web Development Ultimate Course 2021. Some parts could have been shortened. I find that it is a good course to take you through some of the parts that other courses skip on. I like that it takes time to explore bootstrap in full, jquery, SVG to some degree, and canvas. It showed me tools I either struggled to understand, or others that I didn't know existed. It allowed me to fill in gaps in knowledge that should make follow-up courses more interesting.
Tomorrow I have to experiment with the game that is included in the course. When I finish this course, I can move on with the next.
Learning About Canvas And SVGs
Other the last week I have been learning about canvas and SVGs. I am not certain that I will use this knowledge immediately but it is good to learn nonetheless.
I struggled with some code when setting up a clock. I went back through the code line by line two or three times before trying to find a version in written form. I did and went through each line yet again. Eventually I found that I was missing one zero. I added it. Saved it, refreshed and then loaded the page again and it worked. I studied for almost two hours today.
Pandemic
Omicron is going to sweep through populations but instead of wearing masks, self isolating and avoiding large groups people will do the opposite and then blame governments for their lack of understanding about the pandemic.
For a year and a half it has been self isolate, wear a mask, social distance and more. The winning strategies not to fall sick have remained the same and yet people pretend to be clueless. The result is a pandemic wave sweeping through Europe and the US over the coming month.
Life continues. We just adapt to being satisfied with what is safe.
Seeing the Pandemic As A Journey
Last night I was reading and began seeing the pandemic as a journey. The pandemic has been a journey for everyone, but especially for those in solitude. For those of us in solitude, it has required that we completely change how we consume the media and how we interact with the world. We go for weeks without hugs, without kisses, without meals with other people. For weeks, we may exchange a few words at a shop or petrol station but without ever having in person conversations.
This changes us. I believe that this is why I walked two to three kilometres further, sometimes, to avoid being within meters of others. Solitude is painful when we are reminded that others are not solitary. Bizarrely, with time, the pain of pandemic solitude diminishes as we give up on some aspects of life.
Giving up on those aspects does mean avoiding most films, television series, current affairs podcasts. Instead of listening to the usual content, I ended up with podcasts about journeys, whether the American thru-hikes or other forms of journeys. I am currently reading “Le Camino Seule, enfin presque” and this is what made me think of the pandemic as a journey, where we work on ourselves, on our inner journey, while waiting impatiently for normality to return.
It isn’t easy to turn fourty in solitude during a pandemic. It wouldn’t be easy out of pandemic either, because we know that doors are closing. The energy to be lively around toddlers, of not going on road trips and sitting in cafés alone. Of never speaking about “we” because of the never-ending I of solitude.
I am fine with solitude. What bothers me is ageing and theoretically running out of time to experience certain chapters in the standard model life, as I like to call it.
The pandemic has forced us to accept two years of solitude, and to cope with it, to be fine with it. I refuse to accept the fatalism of married people, and people who have a home life. I want society to do what it can to end this pandemic. Teenagers, children and single people are forced to grow old without being able to enjoy a “normal” life because those who are not alone make excuses for not self-isolating.
I like solitude because I am not expected to feel sorry for people who have more than me, emotionally. I am not forced to hear things that make me miserable. Whether we are miserable or not, during this pandemic, depends on what we are subjected to. Solitude is pleasant. Fatalism about the pandemic being out of control is soul-destroying.
Pandemic life is absurd, so the sooner it ends, the sooner people who are not in solitude, do what they can to end the pandemic, the sooner people in solitude, can start experiencing social lives again.
I want the pandemic to end, and I want people in power to stop making excuses for why this evergreen pandemic can’t end. The pandemic could end within two or three months, if we had ambitious optimists in power, rather than corrupt individuals. For clarity, I mean corrupt in the sense that people are too afraid to lose their job, than to fight for human rights. The right to health, the right to live out of pandemic.
Pandemic as Journey
Although not discussed as such the pandemic is an interior journey in the same manner as thru hikes as they are called in the US and pilgrimages in Europe. We start with one identity and one life and we have to adapt it to suit the things that can be realised during a pandemic.
We are in solitude with our thoughts so we need to work on our inner character, ready to resume post pandemic life, once that opportunity comes back. Whenever that may be.
The Evergreen Pandemic
We are currently living through the evergreen pandemic. I give it this name because the more time passes the more we remain trapped in it. Every time progress is made restrictions are loosened and we revert to the way things were.
I don’t feel there is anything new to write today. Enjoy the picture.
Roman Fish Salting in the Mediterranean
For years I heard about Roman pisciculture baths near the sea in Spain and I thought that this is where they would keep fish for eating, like they did in medieval Europe. That idea is wrong. The pisciculture that you have near Javea, Cadiz, and other parts of the Mediterranean coast were for the production of Garum and other salted fish versions.
If you walk by the coast you can see this channel, and you can even walk along it. If you look out to see it looks like this. If you look the other way it has been filled in and exploration would require excavation, and that would require a permit. This is one of the smaller channels.
The channels are deep enough for me to stand in. The experience is interesting because they block the sound of the sea. Someone who has studied the process in depth should produce sketches to give us an idea of how this would have looked. I feel no need to know how it smelled.
This channel Is at least two meters wide and three or more meters deep. I don’t know which way water would have flowed.
You can see one of the tanks in this satellite image.
Another satellite image to give you some context
For a better understanding of Fish satling during Roman times I recommend reading this paper. .
The answer to the question of why the really large salting factories are found in the western
Mediterranean, Brittany and the Black Sea, but not in the Eastern Mediterranean
probably lies in the fact that the large-scale factories were designed to handle the
massive catches of migratory species along particular routes. They are therefore found
chiefly on the key migration routes along the Straits of Gibraltar and the North
African coast; through the Kimmerian Bosphoros; and in the Bay of Douarnenez
(Brittany) where there are migrant shoals of sardinesQuantification of fish-salting infrastructure capacity in the Roman world
The site is accessible on foot, as long as you are wearing good shoes.
One Hundred And Eighty Days In a Row
Writing one hundred and eighty blog posts in a row is a challenge. I would say that I have learned something but I haven’t. Some days inspiration comes easily and other days I struggle to find something to write.
We are in a pandemic and most days resemble the one before and the day after. Most days are not unique. We are grinding through this pandemic until someone competent takes control of the country’s response. I would like them to work towards Covid zero but leaders are not confident enough to set that as a goal in many countries.
If only this was a photo blog I would not be struggling to write content every day.
