Somewhere at YYZ

Mississauga, second night

Elsewhere in Mississauga

Somewhere in Mississauga

Mourning the death of a social media system whilst extricating myself from it. Letting go of expectations. Not expecting anything else to be the same. Embracing an independent way forward.

I am a huge fan of Apple’s Find My technology. Very expensive losses can be very happily found

Wonderful phrase from a Teams meeting “I’m laughing on mute.” I think that is just amazing on several levels.

I have been giving increasing thought to dropping a phone and phone number altogether. Alas, there are still a few critical use cases.

My sense is that Apple is planning to go through Vision Pro evolution before the phone disappears. In other words, I see Apple’s path passing through iterations of Assisted Reality and Virtual assistant technology, making devices disappear behind services.

I wish that an iPad had the same phone capability as the iPhone itself. I wish now, just as I did when I had a Gen 1 iPad, that I didn’t have to carry so many devices. For the number of actual phone calls I participate in, my watch or my AirPods would work just fine, with an iPad being the center of mobile compute and data. I’m preferring the iPad more and resenting non-iPad software more.

I did the math and storing all of my collection uncompressed is very doable. Now I’m thinking about something more right-sized for the serving music in my house than the old mid-tower machine running W11. Like a Raspberry Pi or some other low-power unit.

Today I learned my receiver can stream music directly from Plex. Hmmm.

The game I bought last week is 40% off today. But the sleep I have already lost? Priceless.

Instagram just today blocked a video I posted several years ago that shows my daughter watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I can’t claim fair use as the clip is longer than 29 seconds. So no one gets to see it anymore. Merry Christmas from Warner Brothers!

Remembering that I left my keys at home harshed the mellow I was feeling after listening to Yacht Rock and Cool Change on the way to work. Never underestimate Little River Band.

I dutifully changed the battery in the Apple Air Tag on my keychain. Confirmed it was working. And left my keys on my desk anyway.

The longer I’m on Micro.blog, the more I appreciate the philosophy and the execution and the happier I am with how well everything works.

Photography is hard. The camera doesn’t see how I see and certainly doesn’t show what I’m thinking or feeling—even though images can be powerfully expressive. I don’t think it’s an issue with the tools. I have a lot to learn.

I tried taking video of airborne leaves in the wind. Unsuccessfully.

Today I learned from experienced gamers. If you want it on release day, pre-order physical media from a store that will be open at midnight. Otherwise buy digital. So I cancelled one order and made a second. Downloading now, much to my surprise. Large online retailer had not yet shipped.

“I’m a sworn enemy of convention. I despise the conventional in anything, even the arts.”

Attributed to Hedy Lamarr

Pruning my email inbox, I’m made aware again and again of how overuse of buzzwords and phrases really bothers me. It’s my special personal problem, I know. But the word “premium” and the phrase “hand crafted” really bother me. I hardly had to go more than a few messages before encountering them both.

Premium is such a truly rare thing, and the things described as premium are not rare nor unusual. It’s like the use of the word “classy” – which, in my view, is also a negative indicator or unintentionally ironic. I drive a car that has a “Premium” trim level. There are two more trim levels above Premium. That makes no sense to me.

And “hand-crafted” (in contemprary use) says to me only that you weren’t able to fully automate the process you use to make everything as close to exactly the same as possible. In other words, there was a human involved, poor you. But you use that as a selling point as if that makes your coffee or printed t-shirt somehow more remarkable than another coffee or printed tshirt.

I’m sorry to harass you with my thoughts. I only want to push back against the copycats.

Unfortunately, there is someone, somewhere, who is going to think these terms are good idea and will launch a new campaign using them.

I don’t know what my deal is, but, in the aftermath of “Trick or Treat,” I’m really enjoying the sour candies this year.

Alex: Wherever you are, I owe you an apology. I’m 55 with a customized OLED Nintendo Switch. I’m sorry I laughed. At that point in my life I didn’t get it, and I was a judgemental asshole. I’m super excited for the Switch release of Hogwarts Legacy. I’m still low key an asshole.

Feeling sorry for myself, today.

I can’t manage sugar and carbs. I need to make dramatic changes because the meds only do so much. What I have been doing has not been enough.

A very Happy Halloween to all those who celebrate with Tricks and Treats.