Reporter: ‘What makes you tick?’

Tolkien: ‘I don’t tick. I am not a machine. If I did tick, I should have no views on it, and you had better ask the winder.’

“While Tolkien might appear a touch cantankerous in this exchange, he is, in principle, right to contest such metaphors because they have a tendency to mediate our self-understanding and shape the way we imagine who we are and what we’re about.”

https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/owning-our-words-sounding-the-depths

Tropical high noon thoughts:

Singapore lies virtually at the equator, at ~1°N latitude, so I’m guessing you don’t have to tilt solar panels there; they can just point straight up and will still be optimized for harvesting sunlight across the year.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there are a lot of people who own spare rooftops there.

A Pulse Asia survey found that a majority of Filipinos don’t consider tax evasion to be a form of corruption.

https://notes.reversedelay.net/2026/01/mundane-corruption-and-mundane-resistance/

Got to do a Sierra Loop ride again yesterday. I was afraid Tropical Storm Ada would interfere with my plans, but fortunately the rains and winds didn’t reach Rizal, and the all-day-long cloud cover actually made for the most comfortable cycling weather one could ask for here.

I tried a fancier place for lunch this time, Tanay Highlands, and the food there was good, to my untrained taste buds. The view there was also nicer, perhaps because of the coniferous trees framing the landscape (which I suspect were planted and not natural to the place).

I also noticed for the first time that Mt. Banahaw can be seen from this area, looking massive and formidable.

#cycling #Philippines #nature