Uncovering Merlin’s Scottish Legacy
Merlin was my first wizard.
TIL a new phrase: bibliophilic olfaction
It was in a TikTok about the smell of books
It tickled me. That is all.
There is no race to see who can start a Teams meeting the earliest.
The butterfly house was not a bad way to sit in stillness. They will come to you if you wait.
We did get to see the Walz motorcade, so that was cool
The worst of the night were the people who amplified their voices to preach hate. I do believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe my freedom of religious expression and yours do not need to be hostile. As a captive audience member while waiting for my bus, it felt like an ambush.
Several times we simply opted out of the crowds by picking a bench and sipping a lemonade until we felt up to facing them again. So many things we might have eaten or done but for the long lines everywhere. This wasn’t our year.
Today’s trip the the Minnesota State Fair was a challenge through and through. No surface lots had room at the fairgrounds, and it wasn’t until the 4th park-and-ride lot that we could actually park-and-ride. Lines everywhere were the worst I have ever seen. Moving in the Fairgrounds was difficult.
Today I learned, via my work MacBook Pro, that having your clock set to update automatically will override settings preferences for 12-hour or 24-hour time displayed on the menu bar. I started having “Ava” announce the time again, and prefer the audible updates differently than I had initially chosen.
I’m not grumpy all of the time, I promise. I’m just looking at yet another change in collaboration technology that is going to find its way into a company still spending a lot of energy maintaining SMB filers and with people synchronizing sharepoint folders to File Explorer.
Asking for real: What is Microsoft Loop? Why is Microsoft pushing this separate workspace inside of Teams? Why does Loop immediately want me to create and name a workspace when I don’t know why I would even use it?
Fourth support scenario: Your organization’s most senior leader publicly denigrates technology you support on behalf of the organization, but specifically praises members of your team
Third support scenario: An important leader in your department is having issues performing tasks that _should_ work on the face of it. You can demonstrate to your supervisor that it does work and via multiple avenues. Important leader is on a conference call and you must wait for more details.
Second support scenario: Simple software request reveals deeper and deeper issues caused by security policy changes since the workstation was purchased, in addition to lack of access to critical passwords. More than an hour passes of attempts to work around limits. No success.
One support scenario: Executive Assistant notifies you about someone else having a problem. You must wait for that person, and you spend that time thinking about possible causes and resolutions. When you finally get time with that person, the thing that wasn’t working works flawlessly now.
Tonight’s listening included In Through The Out Door and Meddle.
With some thoughtful setup, two speakers playing a record sounds every bit as good as surround sound programs played through 5.
Interesting. Updating a Windows 11 laptop at work. 24H2 update is available. After it downloaded and began the install process, I walked away from it to do some other work. When I came back to check its status, it’s back to downloading. Concerning, but interesting. Watching.
Waiting for the machine to make my morning cuppa at work, I had two completely different conversations. One where the individual was completely vulnerable about a tic. And a second revealed a mind-blowing but simple, tiny little thing a parent can do for their kid.
Miffed. One of my email providers does not mention in their mobile device set-up instructions that you must log into your account on the web and check a box to allow email retrieval on other devices and apps. My internet search revealed a forum where Apple support helped them do this.
I am a sucker for sequencers. In high school in the mornings I turned this up really loud. Had the house to myself for a half hour or so before catching the bus: The Fixx, Deeper and Deeper
Brief but spectacular Northern Lights visible overhead in my back yard in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I had the wrong device with me and could not capture good images.
Today I listened to side one of Peter Gabriel’s So album, and side 1 of Led Zeppelin’s In Through the Out Door. I had been gifted an inexpensive turntable and it was the first time I have played vinyl in at least two decades.
On the same token, if I meet people with more musical overlap on the Venn diagram, I’m never fan enough or weird enough or my collection is too shallow. I like what I like, and deeply so. But on that front I don’t feel like I’m part of a community.
If there was a Venn diagram of the music I listen to relative to almost anyone I know, the overlap is low. I’m not proud of this, but it’s a real thing. I’m super interested in learning more about new (to me) music and artists from others, but I don’t know many people who feel the same way.