Mar 06 2026 2026-03-06 2026-03-06 NoComment by Ross

The Only Way to Win is Not to Play…

Posted in Old Man Yelling at the Sky
I was listening to a podcast today about a guy who figured out how to hack the Spotify system. His scheme was simple in concept: create a massive library of AI-generated music and then run a program that streams it over and over so he collects the royalties. (Darknet Diaries. Melody Fraud)

I’m only partway through the episode, but the story had already gone in a direction that made my head hurt.

Before he even got to the Spotify part, he was explaining how his company used to “hack” social media platforms for clients. Their job wasn’t security hacking—it was attention hacking. They figured out ways to manipulate the systems that decide what goes viral, what gets likes, and what gets pushed into people’s feeds.

One example stuck with me. They would hide “like” or “follow” buttons inside image carousels. You’d click on a picture, thinking you were just flipping to the next photo. Instead, the click secretly followed some random page they were promoting on Facebook, or triggered a YouTube video playing in the background to inflate the view count. Then, when you clicked again, the image would finally change as you expected.

You never even knew you’d been used.

And that’s just one trick.

On top of that, there are the algorithms that decide who goes viral on YouTube, X, Instagram, and TikTok—systems that can be manipulated by companies, influencers, or even the platforms themselves.

Then layer in the bots.

Bots generating engagement.

Bots amplifying outrage.

Bots pushing political agendas.

Bots pretending to be real people arguing with each other.

Add in PR firms, marketing agencies, and even governments that deliberately stir controversy because outrage spreads faster than truth. At some point you start wondering: how much of what I’m seeing online is even real?

I see it happening to blogs I used to enjoy. Sites that used to be thoughtful have slowly turned into clickbait factories. Rage bait. Headlines designed to make you angry enough to click. They don’t care if they leave the internet a little worse than they found it. They just want the traffic.

And honestly, I’m tired of playing in that ecosystem.

So I’m opting out. No bots. No shady tricks designed to make me follow something I didn’t choose. No manipulated “viral” moments. No algorithm pushing outrage into my day.

There’s a line from the movie WarGames where the computer finally realizes something about nuclear war strategy.

“The only winning move is not to play.”

That’s kind of where I am with most social media. I’m just not playing anymore.

One of the nice things about running my own blog is that there’s no algorithm deciding what you see. No bots trying to game the system. No engagement tricks.

It’s just words on a page.

If you happen to stop by and read them, great.

If not, that’s fine too.

At least it’s real.

(While some might claim this is novel and we live in some particularly shitty information era, I could’ve used “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” from the movie Network back from 1976.  I think this is just a continued slide, but not fundamentally different)

 


Mar 06 2026 2026-03-06 2026-03-05 NoComment by Ross

Morning Music…

Posted in Music


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Mar 05 2026 2026-03-05 2026-03-05 NoComment by Ross

If You Can’t Find the Light, Be the Light…

Posted in Old Man Yelling at the Sky

The other week I joined a new (to me) social network just to see what it was about. I heard about it on a podcast and figured I’d poke around for a bit.

The network is called the Fediverse. If you’ve never heard of it, the easiest way to think about it is this: instead of one big company running a social media site (like Facebook, Instagram, or X), the Fediverse is made up of thousands of independently run servers that all talk to each other. Each server has its own community, rules, and vibe, but users can still interact across servers. It’s decentralized social media. Think email, but for social networks.

In theory, it sounds great. No single company controlling everything. Communities are built around interests. A chance to escape the worst parts of the big platforms.

So I joined a server hosted by the podcast hosts.

I’ll admit, at first I didn’t really know how to use it. The interface felt a little like Twitter from ten years ago, and the culture seemed… intense.

What I found in the beginning was more of the same thing you find almost everywhere online: endless political rants and hot takes. Usually from one side of the aisle. And it ranged from far that side to farther that side to farthest that side.

That was disappointing.

But I kept experimenting and eventually learned how to mute hashtags and follow only the things I wanted. Once I did that, my feed improved dramatically. Suddenly, it was posts about hobbies, music, random observations, and people sharing things they enjoyed.

In other words, the internet I actually want.

Ironically, though, it wasn’t something on the Fediverse that made me rethink it. It was an Instagram post.

I wish I had saved it because I can’t find it now, but the basic message stuck with me. The post talked about how easy it is to look around and see all the darkness in the world. The bad news. The anger. The constant outrage.

And let’s be honest, that’s what a lot of social media has become. A place to wallow in whatever the worst thing happening today might be.

But the post ended with something simple:

Look for the light. Look for the good things.

And then the line that stuck with me:

If you can’t find the light, be the light.

Yes, I realize there are some pretty strong religious undertones there, and I’m 100% fine with that.

That quote actually prompted me to clean up my Fediverse feed. I muted political hashtags and followed good-news type tags. Travel. Music. Hobby stuff. People posting interesting or funny things.

But when I mentioned I wanted to keep my feed mostly non-political, the responses rolled in.

Apparently, I was “living in a bubble.”
Apparently, I needed to be political everywhere because of tyranny.
Apparently, choosing not to engage in constant online political debate was some kind of civic failure.

I get my news from plenty of places. I read across the spectrum. I stay informed.

What I don’t need is political commentary on every single website I visit.

Eventually,I just decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. I deleted the account. To be fair, I probably could have stayed and curated it better. But the moment had already done its work on me.

Because I realized something.

I already have a place on the internet that I control.

This blog.

The other nice thing about a personal blog is that there’s no algorithm. No company is trying to feed me outrage because outrage keeps people scrolling. No system boosts the most extreme voices because they generate engagement. What you see here is simply what I choose to write and what you choose to read.

No trending topics.
No rage bait.
No “you might also like this argument.”

Just a quiet corner of the internet.

Now, I know I complain here sometimes. I whine about getting older. I write pity-party posts. I talk about injuries, triathlon training mistakes, random annoyances, and occasionally yell at clouds.

That’s not going to completely disappear.

But I’d like this space to lean toward something else.

I’d like it to be a small corner of the internet that’s a little lighter.

Not fake positivity. Not pretending the world is perfect.

Just a place that occasionally highlights the good stuff. Music. Funny complaints. Triathlon adventures. Random observations about life. Maybe the occasional success story.

In other words, my attempt to be the light, even if it’s just a small flashlight in a very large internet.

And if nothing else, at least it will be a place where the comment section doesn’t turn into a debate about the fall of civilization every time someone mentions a bicycle ride.

Which already makes it better than most of the internet.


Mar 05 2026 2026-03-05 2026-03-05 NoComment by Ross

Morning Music…

Posted in Music


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Mar 04 2026 2026-03-04 2026-03-04 NoComment by Ross

Morning Music…

Posted in Music


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Mar 02 2026 2026-03-02 2026-03-02 NoComment by Ross

Base Phase – Week 2…

Posted in Cycling, Running, Swimming, Training, Triathlon

Moving up a bit. Not dramatically, but enough to feel it.

Run 🏃

  • Workouts: 3
  • Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
  • Total Distance: 13.75 miles

That’s a decent percentage jump from last week’s ~10 miles. It felt manageable. The longer run (6 miles) was along the Charles River in Boston, which made it far more enjoyable than grinding it out in the Chicago cold. Scenic miles count double.

Bike 🚴

  • Workouts: 3
  • E-Bike Distance: 24.73 miles
  • Peloton Distance: 9 miles
  • Total Bike Distance: 33.73 miles
  • Total Bike Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

The long ride was 1:30 on the e-bike. The other two were Peloton rides totaling an hour. A good mix for this stage — outside time when possible, controlled effort inside when needed.

Swim 🏊

  • Workouts: 2
  • Total Distance: 3,000 yards
  • Total Time: 1 hour 4 minutes

Swim volume was a bit low. I’ll add some distance this week, even though it’s another slight build. No need to rush it — especially after the broken arm.

🧮 Total Training Time

  • Total Time This Week: 5 hours 49 minutes

Not insignificant. Especially while still teaching full-time, but it’s just over an hour off my target.  Most of that is the swim.  I should be swimming 5000 yards per week and gave myselt one hour each workout.  I’m doing half as much.

Relative Effort 📈

  • Total Weekly Effort: 766 (up from 672)

That’s a noticeable jump — and that’s with missing one bike ride. I don’t love missing workouts, but early in base, especially coming off injury, I’d rather miss one or two and layer them back in later than push too hard and lose weeks.

Injury prevention > perfection.

Reflections ✍️

This was a solid step forward. I’m building again, but it feels controlled. I’m not wrecked. I’m not dragging.

Also — I’m still working. I don’t want every free minute outside of school to be swallowed by training. Once school’s out, I’ll have the flexibility to train more freely. For now, it’s about balance.

Progress is trending up. Effort is trending up. Fitness is trending up.

Base Phase Week 2: in the books.


Feb 23 2026 2026-02-23 2026-02-23 NoComment by Ross

And So It Begins…

Posted in Cycling, Running, Swimming, Training, Triathlon

Base Phase. Week 1 of 10.

After broken arms, colds, travel, and whatever else tried to derail things, we’re officially here. Not perfect. Not optimal. But here.

Swim 🏊

  • Workouts: 2
  • Total Time: 1:13
  • Distance: A bit short at 3600 yards

Because of the broken arm, I haven’t been swimming as much as I’d like over the last month. I’d rather start 1,400 yards short than push it and reinjure something. I’ll build it back gradually. The goal is durability, not hero yards in Week 1.

Run 🏃

  • Workouts: 3
  • Total Time: 1:47
  • Total Distance: 10.79 miles

I skipped the brick run, but that was fine. The runs felt good — smooth, steady, no major complaints. I even squeezed in one last run in Florida before coming back to cold Chicago. It was heavenly. I am very much looking forward to spring.

Bike 🚴

  • Workouts: 3
  • Total Time: 1:56
  • Total Distance: 30 miles

All three rides were outside — on the e-bike. Colder, but nice. I’ll keep mixing those in while adding the Peloton back until the weather cooperates. Then the road bike can come back out to play.

Relative Effort 📈

  • Total Weekly Effort: 672

That’s a big jump from 380. Not really optimal. That kind of spike can lead to overtraining or injury. But I feel great this morning. Surprisingly fresh after a bigger weekend. No excessive soreness. No red flags.

So… cautiously optimistic.

Reflections ✍️

All in all, a good start to the base phase. Not perfect, but solid. The structure is back, and that’s what matters.

This coming week will be a bit janky because I’m traveling again over the weekend. I can get my runs in there (or at least one), but I’ll need to front-load swims. The plan: longer bike before heading to the airport Friday, long run Saturday in Boston.

The only real change is moving the rest day from today to Sunday. Which means two straight weeks without a true break. Not ideal, especially after ramping up effort.

Oh well. Might be another entry in How Not To Train.

Still — Base Phase. Week 1. Wheels are back on. And we’re rolling.


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Feb 20 2026 2026-02-20 2026-02-20 NoComment by Ross

First! ….

Posted in Old Man Yelling at the Sky

We have been getting so many political ads in the mail, but one of them caught my eye.  It’s for a judicial election, and the candidate prominently notes “NAME OF CANDIDATE WOULD BE THE FIRST ASIAN AMERICAN FEMALE JUDGE ELECTED BY THE 20TH SUBCIRCUIT.”

You can probably already guess that she obviously wouldn’t be the first female elected.  You can probably also guess that she wouldn’t be the first Asian-American woman elected in Cook County. (not even close)

But what you probably don’t know is that the 20th Subcircuit was only created in 2022.  There has only been one election for that area, and two judges (one man, one woman) were elected.  There is no glass ceiling she’s breaking through.  No great history of discrimination that will end with her election.

Everyone has to be “the first….”  That’s meaningful when it means something, not when it’s trivialized to woo voters who don’t know the history.

 


Feb 20 2026 2026-02-20 2026-02-20 NoComment by Ross

The “No Good Deed” Boomerang: A Masterclass in Being Lujacked…

Posted in Work

Everybody knows that no good deed goes unpunished. In fact, if you do a good deed long enough, it eventually becomes a permanent line item on your soul that you can never truly delete.

For the past few years, I’ve organized a field trip for our female students to visit the courtrooms, observe the legal process, and see what a career in law actually looks like. It’s a great trip. But this year, I decided to test my theory. I didn’t seek out the invitation. I didn’t go looking for the work. I figured it was time for someone else to step up—specifically a female lead, considering I’ve been saying for years that a female-empowerment trip should probably be led by a woman.

The organization sent the invitation to someone else. She accepted. Great. I thought I was free. I thought I could just exist in my classroom and let someone else handle the logistics for once.

The Request

Then came the request: “Can you help chaperone?”

Sigh. Fine. I said okay. I can sit on a bus. I can stand in a courtroom. I can do the “support” role. That was my first mistake.

The Hijack

A day later, the other shoe didn’t just drop; it kicked me in the teeth. I got a request for a list of the girls who want to go on the trip.

Me: “Weren’t you coming to my classes to talk to the girls today?” (You know, to actually inform them about the trip she is supposedly organizing?)

Co-worker: “I have a meeting now, so can you do it?”

And just like that, I’m the organizer again.

The Lujack

Here’s what burns: If you prioritize a meeting over the actual legwork of the event you accepted, that should be on you. Don’t lujack your choice of one meeting (with who knows who) over the meeting you had planned to come talk to the students on to me!

By “helping” her because she’s too busy with a meeting to talk to my students, I am now the one doing the recruitment, the list-making, and the logistical heavy lifting. The “Meeting” trump card shouldn’t mean I suddenly inherit your responsibilities.

I knew I should have said no. I saw the trap, I walked into it anyway, and now I’m back to square one,

Will I ever learn? Probably not. But for today, I’m just annoyed.

I will learn, though. I will learn to NEVER do anything outside my own classroom again.  Every time I do it ends badly for me.


Feb 13 2026 2026-02-13 2026-02-12 NoComment by Ross

More “Less Is More”…. (see what I did there?)

Posted in Old Man Yelling at the Sky

Last year I downloaded a habit tracker app. I’ve used it faithfully. Checked boxes. Built streaks. Watched little digital fireworks go off when I hit milestones.

At first, I loved it.

Lately? Not so much.

It’s not that I want to stop the habits. It’s that I’m starting to feel like I’m doing them to appease the app instead of because I want to.

The whole point of habit tracking is obvious: you nudge yourself long enough that the behavior becomes automatic. Fair enough. Maybe that worked. Maybe a year is enough runway.

But something subtle shifted.

Two of my tracked tasks are Practice ASL and Play Instrument—each for a set amount of time. On paper, that sounds disciplined. In reality, some days it feels… compulsory.

When I sit down at the bass or the drum kit because I have to hit 15 minutes, it’s different than when I pick it up because I feel like playing along to a song. I’m not turning pro. I’m not starting a band of other 60-year-olds reliving 1987. I just like playing. I like fumbling through a groove. I like figuring out a fill.

The moment it becomes a box to check, the joy drains a bit.

Same with ASL. I do want to become proficient. But I have time. If I skip a day because I’m tired or just not feeling it, I’m still going to get there. Fifteen minutes less on a random Tuesday isn’t the difference between fluency and failure.

Other tracked habits? Taking vitamins. Drinking water when I wake up. Journaling.

Those are already baked in. If I miss journaling one day, I don’t want the app telling me my streak is broken. Maybe I just didn’t have much to say. Maybe silence was the point. The mental health benefit of journaling shouldn’t come with the mild shame of a red “0.”

That’s the part I’m pushing back on.

In this phase of life—this ongoing “less is more” experiment—I’m trying to strip away unnecessary scaffolding. If a thing is truly part of me now, maybe it doesn’t need gamification. Maybe it doesn’t need a nudge.

Maybe doing it because I want to is enough.

I know habit trackers are helpful for a lot of people. They probably were helpful for me. They got me started. They kept me consistent.

But I don’t want to live inside a scoreboard.

If I play, I’ll play because it’s fun.
If I practice ASL, it’ll be because I’m curious.
If I journal, it’ll be because something is stirring.

Not because my phone says it’s time.

Less tracking.
More living.

You do you.