• books

    Finished reading: The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚

    Now I know why people get obsessed with this series/world. The setting is so well planned and developed. Little morsels of an ancient time. Also a good adventure story that involves an interesting hike.

    Saturday April 20, 2024
  • I am so late to the game with cross posting but THIS IS A TEST OF CROSS POSTINGS

    Thursday February 8, 2024
  • books

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    book club

    Finished reading: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton 📚👥

    Another interesting spin on the whodunnit genre. This one was a little convoluted at times but the book’s main “mechanic” gave a new way to tell these types of stories.

    Monday January 1, 2024
  • The kids were on the verge of revolt if we didn’t watch Polar Express today. They put on their PJs and we made hot cocoa. We even lit a fire … at 3pm. 😂

    Monday November 27, 2023
  • It’s gonna be a chilling… I mean chilly Halloween! 🎃🥶

    Tuesday October 31, 2023
  • Got one of those silly, inspired software/web dev ideas that would make me giggle to no end but I have no time to actually implement it.

    Monday September 4, 2023
  • 📸 September 2023 photo challenge. Day 2: buildup

    Saturday September 2, 2023
  • 📸 September 2023 photo challenge. Day 1: Abstract

    Friday September 1, 2023
  • books

    Finished reading: Upgrade by Blake Crouch 📚

    I think Recursion is a better book, but this one is almost as engrossing. I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to read a sci-fi page turner.

    I finished Part 1 some time ago and then life got in the way of me finishing the rest in a timely manner.

    Tuesday August 29, 2023
  • These Athletic NA brews are pretty good.🍺

    Friday August 25, 2023
  • I have several messaging apps installed on my phone and each one is dedicated to a single chat. Since I’m trying to declutter my digital life this kinda annoys me. But there is a sort of simplicity in having a dedicated app for different chats.

    Wednesday August 23, 2023
  • books

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    book club

    Finished reading: The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci 📚👥

    Read this for book club and we all concluded this was a book you pick up at the airport; it’s entertaining but doesn’t leave an impression. The author clearly had a series in mind and left a lot of questions unanswered. The protagonist basically said “Aw shucks! We’ll get ‘em next time!” at the end.

    Sunday August 20, 2023
  • clearing cruft

    I’ve amassed so much digital cruft on my phone that I set a recurring daily reminder to delete 1 app and close 1 browser tab. I might have to add another task to delete some links in Pocket too.

    Updates:

    • 17 Jul 2023: 132 applications, 55 tabs
    • 24 Jul 2023: 128 applications, 52 tabs (it’s good that the numbers are going down)
    • 31 Jul 2023: 123 applications, 49 tabs
    Thursday July 13, 2023
  • Here are the first apps I downloaded when the App Store launched 15 years ago:

    Monday July 10, 2023
  • Hey, take off the headset when you are interacting with your family that’s right in front of you. #WWDC

    Monday June 5, 2023
  • Quick Thoughts on AR/VR

    Ahead of an Apple AR/VR headset announcement, I am simultaneously excited and worried about a future where we might wear a headset for most of the work day.

    Being able to conjure and place as many displays as you want in AR/VR is a cool idea. Your desk won’t have to be littered with big screens and your workspace is much more portable. When you are done for the day, the headset comes off and the evidence of your workspace in the physical world disappears.

    I work from home with small children around, so I don’t like the idea of my face and eyes being obscured. Even though I am lucky enough to have a dedicated room for work, I don’t like the idea of my kids not being able to see my eyes immediately when we talk. And I don’t care for the idea of having googly-eyes on the front of a headset to simulate eye contact. That’s just weird.

    We’ll need to develop some social hygiene around these devices like taking them off when talking to someone in the same physical space. But I’m not hopeful that we can handle it gracefully as a society, just look at how bad we are at combatting the negative effects of social media.

    Apple’s Screen Time feature should be integrated heavily into the headset with reminders encouraging you to take a break and regularly rejoin the real world.

    The future form factor these headsets should be eyeglasses or smaller. I’m thinking those cool glasses that Tony Stark wears in those Marvel movies. That seems like a good compromise where our eyes are still visible and we can have an omnipresent overlay.

    Monday June 5, 2023
  • Took a short hike this morning with the family at a nearby “lake”.

    Thursday June 1, 2023
  • tv

    Ted Lasso and Succession, two great shows I’ve enjoyed following, released their final episodes this past week and they both “stuck the landing.” Both told great stories that benefited from their creators dictating their end, rather than continuing at the behest of a network and forcing another season. 📺

    Thursday June 1, 2023
  • books

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    book club

    Finished reading: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar 📚👥

    Sci-fi love story presented as poetry. Difficult but rewarding read.

    Sunday May 21, 2023
  • books

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    book club

    Finished reading: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz 📚👥

    Finished at the beginning of the year. Modern take on classic whodunnits. Loved it!

    Sunday May 21, 2023