If you’re buying IKEA light bulbs, you need to pay attention to the Kelvin number. They don’t say “warm” or “cool” white, but they will tell you a Kelvin number. They’ll also tell you what the Kelvin number means, but not on the page where they sell the light bulbs. You have to google that separately, after you’ve realized you bought the wrong ones.
Grumpy Website - iOS 14 is confusing as hell, and I’ve been using an iPhone for four years. I should be good at this stuff by now.
Christopher Wray-McCann on Instagram - hey, protip: if there’s an Instagram account you want to “catch up on” occassionally, you can just bookmark the page and be happy.
I moved my novel from Scrivener to Notion. Notion does a lot of what Scrivener was doing already. Not everything. Scrivener is really amazing. BUT. But. I found myself avoiding Scrivener. It being this other thing was partially getting in the way of me touching my book. I’m in Notion a lot right now. Put the book where you are. Don’t ignore it.
I emptied out my drafts folder and published a handful of link posts today. A while ago, I set up a Drafts Action that sent links to my Dropbox so I can turn them into proper link blogs. It works, and I just rarely remember to actually post them.
While I was there, I updated the last two episodes of Fran’s Not Here on the blog. We’re trying new things!
Tags are great but they break so easily. I just realized I’d tagged a bunch of blogs with “tech” instead of “technology.” This is stupid and only I care but that bugs me.
I learned how to reset Ubuntu Linux today (pushes up glasses). I’m a windows user and not a programmer, so Linux has always been a little intimidating. I’m absolutely the sort to just copy and paste commands from forums (which seems like the way lots of people are about programming?)
I’m beginning to build a personal Toronto yelp for myself in Notion. Maybe I’ll share it at some point.
I re-upped my subscription to Bike Share Toronto. I didn’t think I would, because I haven’t used it a ton this year. But they added a tack 3 minutes from my apartment instead of 10, and now the Danforth is one giant bike highway, so my usage went up. They’ve also added ebikes and they’ll likely add more. There is remarkable utility to these things that you don’t figure until you’re already sold, which isn’t great for gathering new customers. I own a bike. I love my bike. But my bike is a big thing that needs to be locked up when I’m out, and that anxiety about it being stolen has never dissipated. Using a bike that you can forget about the second you’re done with that particular ride, that’s a feeling of relief.
We don’t take as many trips as we used to. When we were younger, we’d travel every year or twice a year. But it’s been a few years since we did anything. We were planning on going to Italy this month, but obviously that’s out. Now it’s next year. None of this was supposed to happen. Definitely feeling some woe today on that one.
I’ve been having problems with Crunchyroll lately. They recently made a new version of their Roku app, and it signs me out every day. They used to have a Google-esque sign-in thing where you got a code and tap a button on your phone and you get in. But now you have to type in your email and password (on the TV!) and it’s annoying. Maybe I’m signed into too many devices? Crunchyroll lets you determine where you’re signed in, and I was somewhat shocked to see that number be not five. It was much larger than five. Maybe bringing it down a bit will help.
I rode my bike this morning. I downloaded a Peloton cycling video and let it play while I ride my trail. It woke me up. I felt good. 12° is perfect cycling weather. It’s just cool enough that wearing a mask 100% of the ride feels fine. I passed a raccoon. He was just strolling along the path. He looked at me. He wasn’t threatened. I reminded myself afterward, hey, I’m wearing a raccoon mask. It’s like a deku mask. That raccoon isn’t calling the guards to kick me out of the village.
The trailer for Mandalorian Season 2 features a quick shot of Sasha Banks, so my nerd energy level has been filled up for at least a quarter.
Apple has a new set of iPads. I don’t own an iPad but I love it, the Air especially. I guess I love the idea of a perfect little computer. I don’t own it because I talk myself out of it pretty quickly. My Surface Pro is a “real” computer in the ways that count where the iPad isn’t. It’s not like I could replace my iPhone with it, because it doesn’t sync with Apple Watch, and doesn’t do some “phone” things. And yet, there’s an ideal there. Maybe one day I’ll be the kind of person living the kind of life where an iPad Air is all I need.
Playing around in Notion feels safe because their export options are robust. If I feel like bailing, I can grab a zip file full of markdown files and be on my way. One nitpick: you’ll give me markdown files, but why can’t I link in markdown? Oh, I can? Welp.
Stateramorphism. There’s your word of the day. Look at those pretty, pretty icons.
I went for a bike ride this morning. I live in an area with a ton of public schools, and it felt like the sidewalks were bursting full of families. I think it’s the first official day of school here. I didn’t notice the kids much, but the parents. There were so many parents. Two thoughts collided: it’s probably more normal to walk your kids to school now than it was in the 80s when I was in grade school, and it’s likely these parents are more protective this year.
Thinking about my own childhood collided with something I’ve been watching on YouTube in short spurts: Tim Rogers’ review of Doom. It’s over three hours and there’s only “fat” on it if you don’t enjoy Rogers’ winding asides, which I do and find essential to his arguments. His review of Doom is personal and I love it. It reminded me of many moments I had with proximity friends in the mid-90s. I had a friend in grade school who seemed to get whatever he wanted from his mom, and having a friend like that opened me up to experiencing games I never would have otherwise. I played Sega Genesis games on the Sega Channel delivered through a cable TV network in 1994! It barely worked but in 1994 “barely” is a miracle contraption.
I’m on my third try of attempting to “get” Notion. I see the appeal, but I’m still not sure it works for how I work. In theory, it could replace a bunch of apps I use, like Airtable, Bobby, some of OneNote, Microsoft to do, and Streaks. Apps are beginning to do more things, though, and I wonder if that’s a response to a) nobody wanting yet another app on top of things, so now we’ve entered this phase where they have to begin eating one another, and b) it being nearly 15 years into our current model of computer software.
I actually leapt in excitement over seeing that Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game is coming to Switch. I owned it on my Xbox 360, but the license expired at some point, meaning it wasn’t re-downloadable. So many great beat-em-ups in the past are lost relics because of licensing expirations (TMNT and the Spider-Man SNES games, especially). This game is a joy and I’m so happy it’ll be on a modern console. I mean, just look at it:
Seeing this trailer reminded me of a task that’s been gathering dust: getting rid of my old Xbox 360. It’s been plugged into my bedroom TV for years but I’ve barely touched it. It really feels like that era is over and done with now. If I ever want to play those games, all I really need to do is buy a new Xbox. 99% of the games I owned digitally for the 360 will just download and run. So I learned how to do a factory reset, which is almost a game-like side quest in and of itself.
Chris Gethard’s “Career Suicide” hit me like a sack of doorknobs. I’ve seen him in bit parts for years, and felt he had a star turn being interviewed for Class-Action Park. I hadn’t seen his stand-up from a few years ago and did not know what I was getting into. It’s very funny, but so dark. It’s a suicide-and-depression story that hit me really close. At one point, he talks about going off his medication and having a good few years. I feel like I’m at that stage myself. I haven’t seen my therapist in a while and I feel good and stable. The pandemic has had a strangely calming effect on my life. The only real anxiety I get now is when I think about what comes next.
Something I’ve noticed about tiktok: it’s full of adults. I never see a teen. I think this year my generation of elder millennials showed up and all the kids left. Where did they go? I hope I’m now old enough to not find out. I’m sick of moving to a new place every few years. Do you know there’s still people on Facebook? Like, they just stayed there, slowly mutating into republicans.
We recorded a new Fran’s Not Here on Instagram. I often don’t like Instagram but I do think it’s well suited to a “live” show with two people. It pings whoever’s following you to go watch it, and (now, at least), it’ll save it as a post when you’re done. It isn’t obvious how to download the video to your phone (Facebook really doesn’t want you to have your stuff back in the same condition you originally uploaded). Thankfully, there are dozens of sites that will download videos from YouTube, Instagram, etc. I used this one, but that’s not necessarily a recommendation.
Peloton added some resistance-band workouts. This is awesome. A resistance band is cheap and can do a lot, but it’s nearly impossible to make yourself use it without prompts.
PoolsideFM, one of the few nice websites, is now one of the few nice iPhone apps. Man, I want that hat.
I’m reading Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby. It’s super quick and definitely makes me want to write like her. But I can’t write like her and that’s okay. I borrowed it from my library and it’s probably in your library too.
Men’s magazine writers are in pure fuck-it mode, it seems. Mac and Cheese for breakfast is insane. It reminded me of a video I did like about breakfast, though. I watched this Johnny Harris video a few months ago and it jostled something in me. I tried a more Japanese-style breakfast a few times this summer and it was nice. I still revert to the laziest possible breakfasts, but occasionally I’ll try to fix my life with protein. It never works.
I watched some phone porn. It’s not even aspirational phone porn. I don’t want an android phone, or anything by Samsung, and I definitely don’t want to spend US$2000 on anything if I can help it. So why am I watching videos like this? Is it just Dieter Bohn’s tech review charm? Maybe. I think I have a sort of tech review inertia. My iPhone XR is only 16 months old, and should last me another 16 months if I don’t drop it on bathroom tiles or try to take a picture with it at 1am on New Years, or try to take a picture in a bathroom at 1am on New Years. Anyways my shit still feels brand new and I’m barely hungry. I wonder what would happen if I turned off all my tech websites for a month? I’d definitely lose out on all those hot takes.
Speaking of, there’s an Apple Event next week. They’re usually pretty fun to watch, but it’s been quite a few of them since they revealed something I actually wanted. I’m an elder tech person now. I want some refinement and I want a think to last a long time. It’s why I bought a Surface 4 and an Apple Watch 5 and a Logitech M720. Those first 719 mice were for beta testers.
The G1 Climax 30 bracket was released. I made my bracket. I’ve got Jay White and Evil winning both Blocks and doing a Bullet Club finale, with White winning back his leader position. It feels right for 2020.
I’m recording a new Fran’s Not Here on Instagram Live at 5:30. We did two of these in the Spring, but Instagram deleted both videos immediately. They’ve since added a feature where you can download the video. Part of it being a “podcast” is you need to be able to archive the damn file somewhere.