Liam

Pics from the roof of the back building here from when I cleared the gutters yesterday :)

I think this is the first #thisOldClownHouse and #mosstodon crossover post!

I had planned to make my focus today working on catching up my website and sharing what I've been up to with people.

Instead I filed old paperwork and scheduled my next two weeks of project work at #thisOldClownHouse.

...so it goes. Not too busy to *take* notes, but seemingly too busy to share them the way I'd like to.

Note on the ikea window screen: "wall/ceiling screws not included"

Different walls/ceilings need different screws. All good, makes sense, and clearly labeled, both online and in-store.

Me: "No problem, we've got about a bajillion different screws at home, I'm sure we'll have something that works!"

...

I'm sure you can guess how this turned out.

#thisOldClownHouse

@OkieSpaceQueen@scicomm.xyz
I think the difference to me is that a mistake involves what, in retrospect, was an incorrect judgement call.

An accident is something that happened passively, without intent.

It's absolutely a range, with overlap.

For example:

If I knock over a glass because I'm gesturing while I'm talking?
That's an accident.
.. is there an argument for delving into the decisions of glass placement, gesturing decisions, awareness of environment etc as choices? Sure. And some of those might even be addressable, meaning that *future* recurrences of the problem I might start thinking of as mistakes but for the most part, that was an accident.

Whereas,
I evaluated options when I hired a company to handle a container shipping need. (like PODS) One of the companies I could hire had a higher than average number of folks complaining of bad service, long phone waits, deliveries not happening on time, etc.

I chose to disregard many of those because they'd happened several years ago, and I think companies *can* improve when they get enough feedback. They had a pricematch that made them the most inexpensive option, clearly trying to stay in a market dominated by a single company. I'm a sucker for an underdog and I dislike monopolies.

After many hour+ long holds trying to sort out mistaken billing....

I now consider that a mistake.

On your second question:

Something you *know is wrong*? No, that's not a mistake.

Something that completely betrays your morals/ethics isn't a mistake.

Something that you knew would cause harm, and that whatever positives were in play would never outweigh that harm, but that you did anyway? Not a mistake.

Something you know has higher than average risk of a negative outcome, but that you legitimately believe you can make work? Or that you believe you can minimize harm from and is somehow necessary for a significant positive impact?

When that doesn't pan out the way you believed it could, I think that can be considered a mistake. But that is where it gets messy.

Wow.

In reading people gearing up for #blaugust2026, I took a look through my notes and not-yet-published blog post ideas to refresh myself on what's there.

...Y'all, there are like 10 random rambles that just need a spell check and then to figure out where they go on my site.

Unfortunately a lot of them are of the form "I've been thinking a lot lately about XYX", within contexts from like, 6 months ago.

I don't think I'm going to formally participate in blaugust, I'm swamped this month, but what do y'all think, should I post these wildly out of date rambles on my site?

There's someone in my life who's entering into a very hard time.

They could use some light, nice, distracting things.

Anyone got any to share? I intend to sprinkle them throughout the upcoming difficulties, but I don't have a lot of nice distractions readily to hand.

Silly/cute memes and images, good news, anything like that welcome.

Remember when people weren't carrying around phones all the time?

Stories like this one happened!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YZNPOc_nEA

(link to Rupert Holmes' Answering Machine, unless I mixed up what link I grabbed lol)

#amIAnOld? #music