Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
I am not really sure what my dad would think of his prescription pad’s being used as note pads. He was a man who brought me home scrubs from work so i could use them as Pajama’s. Based off that he might think this is a good use of paper.
Photo from my mom’s use of these when we last visited NY.
I had been waiting for Apple to come out with a new Mac Mini that I can upgrade to for a long time. I even wrote about it as far back as 2016. By then it had been two years since Apple had released anything new in the Mac Mini models. I had the 2012 model at the time. They had came out with a 2014 model however by 2016 when I wanted a new computer it was not worth spending money on a two year old computer model that is only slightly better than the one I already own. The challenge was what I owned was four years old and really needing a replacement.
It would be another two years before the mini was refreshed in 2018. At that point I was prepared to buy a new one. I may have even had an order ready to go. However on reflection the differences between what I had that was six years old in the 2018 variant wasn’t hugely different and the amount of money was not insignificant. At the time I past on an upgrade and just used a laptop as my desktop. I also purchased A significantly cheaper Intel Nuc with better specifications that I put Linux on.
Even after coming up with an alternative plan I still really wanted a Mac Mini. I just couldn’t justify the price for what it was getting me. Flash forward to fall of 2020 and I was excited to pre-order a M1 Mac Mini. I did in fact have an order placed and it was on backorder for about six weeks. After a little while though I talked myself out of getting it and continue to use my old laptop. It was not until this winter then I finally decide the time was right to make a purchase. For the money the mini was a pretty nice computer with the M one chip in it. I also had a 12 inch iPad Pro that are used around the house and out and about like a laptop. It’s not a laptop replacement however someone said the perfect quote that it’s about 90% of our computer replacement. For when I’m not at my desk having the iPad Pro is perfectly fine. For when I sit at my desk having a desktop computer works better than a laptop docked to a monitor.
After literally over four years of waiting I finally got my new mini. Was it worth the wait, I won’t say that. It is a pretty nice computer though. my 2012 mini stop being functional as my main computer about three or four years ago. I used it for a while with Debian on it. At this point it is a paper weight.
I was so slow to write this post that a funny thing happened after a few months with my Mini. I started missing a personal laptop or the freedom that being undocked from a stationary position. Even if it was rare that i did it, the flexibility was nice. I went out and got the stock 8Gig M1 MacBook Air. I was worried that the base configuration was not going to be powerful enough. I was wrong. It has been perfectly fine. After having the MacBook Air a while i can say that i do not use it away from my desk often. When i do it is worth the flexibility. I do see the iPad Pro 12” getting flexible enough that i may change that decision over time.
As great as the Mini was, after about a year I had sold it on eBay in favour of the MacBook Air. I still miss a desktop now and again but the laptop is way more flexible.
Flowers, check. Wedding anniversary gift, check. Baby sitter and fancy dinner reservations, well that is Tuesday but check. Still on some level it has not set in that I am married to such an amazing women for what according to the calendar is now 11 years.
Side note Grogu got onto our mantel and knocked over the glass dome that was protecting the cake topper. M’s head is not sepeat4ed from the dolls body. Sadly this is the only good photo we have of that awsome wedding cake topper that M had made via Etsy.
It would be easy for me to say I’m leaving Twitter because of the new owner. The reality is that is just background noise and just nonsensical to me. I have talked about leaving social media for a while. I’ve deleted my Facebook account and recreated it at least once. A few years ago I wrote how I didn’t really post on Twitter. I previously used Twitter to get real time information during a few weather related incidents. And also during a bomb scare in Times Square. That at the time had some value to me and was why partly why I kept it. The other reason i kept Twitter around was I would automatically send blog post links to Twitter when I posted on WordPress. The intention was to radiate to friends when i posted.
In recent years I have not used Twitter for any real time searches for anything. I could do searches like that without an account anyway. I simply get no value out of the service. The shenanigans going with the platform now might have reminded me of that fact.
The final trigger was that when I looked at the analytics on my blog for all the referrals I get to my blog from Twitter I noticed that this year I got a whopping 13. That number throws out any notion that keeping Twitter is helping to direct friends and family to my blog posts. With that revelation on top of generally not getting any joy or value out of the service it made no sense to keep it.
It is not just Twitter that i have closed accounts for. I previously wrote about using Redding for several sub reddits that were useful to me. Compared to Twitter I did find value in Reddit. Then I read you could run or use a front end to Reddit that does not require you to logon to their website. That way i can read (its all i do) sub-reddits without an account anonymously. Having an account was just a way for Reddit to collect data on me. Now i use my own URL to query the groups i want to search Reddit with and the site has no analytics on me.
The same thing I do with Reddit i do a similar thing with YouTube. No Google account tracking for me thank you.
Both the Reddit & YouTube front ends i use are my own instances i have on a VPS. I have a new one for Twitter also however i do not know if i will use it as much as i do with the Reddit and YouTube ones.
What I have to say is not new. I learned it from my dad. He was a strong believer in clarifying this misconception. It came up recently when the girls, my mom and I were at a chocolate factory tour in Germany on half term Break.
This is very important so i will only go over it once. White Chocolate is not Chocolate.
Enjoy your holidays…
Stress dreams centered around hanging wet laundry. Of all the things i could stress about in my sleep my mind went to laundry. Go figure.
While we get Grogu accustomed to his new surroundings we have been restricting him to the guest room where my office is at in the hallway on our first floor of the house. That means at least for now I have a little friend hanging out with me pretty much the entire workday.
That means there is a new variable or two in my work schedule. How do I leave to go drop the girls off at school we are generally giving him breakfast. For at least three days this week when I got back to my desk and started working Kroger would climb up my leg and sit on my shoulder or neck. On Tuesday he did this for a good 45 minutes to an hour. I had to use my iPad because I was hunched over and didn’t want to disturb him. Other days he has just hung out upon my shoulder for 10 or 15 minutes.
Next up in Grogu’s schedule is two sit on my lap. Again he varies from a few minutes to over an hour doing that. Onto occasions I have photos of him falling asleep.
Then he will play with a toy or two. From there he will go lie around in his little cat cave we have now in the Guest Room.
Next is lunch for him and I. After that it’s pretty much a repeat of the morning for him.
During our last minute staycation/local holiday in October I needed to find things to do with the girls. With the help of the American Express Concierge I was able to get last minute reservations for Hight Tea at Ting in the Shard. I wanted something nice, yet obviously kid friendly. Everything I tried to find was booked. That is what I get for trying to plan a holiday during half term on the Monday of the break. I really had no option on doing that so I needed some help. I thought to try American Express and they gave us two options. It was Ting, or a place we had gone to already when my mum was visiting. Since Ting was on the list of top kid friendly tea lists I had seen I was eager to try it.
As High Tea’s go it was OK. The girls liked the iced tea starter that they make smoke with dry ice. The sandwiches and scones were good. Things broke down at desert. Ting had a special “pink” themed tea. The girls were intrigued and excited until desert arrived. It was all pink. That meant lots of strawberry and other pinkish jam based deserts. One of the girls liked some of it and the other did not like much. I was not interested in any of it.
The view was spectacular. We got a seat right at the window. Would I do Tea again here? Maybe. Curious on if a regular Tea would be better than the themed one. The view alone give it decent rating. Overall I would say Tea was above average.
I think the whole family is slowly getting into football. The girls convinced me to stay up a bit beyond their bedtime to watch the beginning of the game. I did however they really did not get to watch much. Their interest was good.
I can see some aspects of the game that keeps things interesting. Even after the girls are in bed now I have the game on the BBC! We will know I am hooked when I purchase team swag. I haven’t, yet…
The big argument in the Weinstein household tonight centred around frosting. There are those that believe that cake is a delivery mechanism for frosting. Then there are those that believe is not.
No matter how good the cake is it is obvious that all cake is the delivery mechanism for frosting. How in 2021 is this still a thing?