Star Trek PADD’s are not as good as an iPad Mini 6

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Years ago, when I was working in New York, I got my hands on one of the first-generation iPads. It was fantastic. Right from the start, I knew this device was going fit a tech gap I didn’t even realise I had until I saw it.

One memorable day, my boss called me into his office. As usual, I grabbed my iPad—I often used it to jot down notes or show something relevant during discussions. Walking into his office, I felt a bit like a character from Star Trek, carrying something essential. I couldn’t resist sharing this thought with him: “I totally feel like Commander Riker walking into Picard’s office to discuss something important.” It earned a good laugh and lightened the mood.

Recently, this memory came back to me while I was thinking about how indispensable my iPad mini has become. It’s with me almost everywhere, serving as a book, a large phone, or a general input device. Comparing the sleek design of the current iPad mini with the clunky Star Trek PADDs from science fiction 30 years ago, I couldn’t help but appreciate how far technology has come. Back then, they only thought about each PADD doing seemingly one thing since people walked around with many of them. 23 century suckers, my iPad mini can multi-task.

Reflecting on these advancements, it’s clear that our modern ‘PADDs’ have far surpassed the sci-fi visions of the past.

W Sisters and a Child a who Is Bored of McDonalds

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As a child, I was an extremely picky eater. Let’s face it, even as an adult, I’m still picky, albeit to a lesser degree. However, today I want to discuss something different—my children are picky eaters too, and I’ve had to come to terms with that.

What’s peculiar is how they’re picky. My pickiness revolved around eating very plain things repeatedly. My kids, however, will eat something regularly, then suddenly get bored with it and refuse to eat it, only to possibly want it again later. This issue is more pronounced with one child than the other, but both share this tendency. There was a time when my children didn’t want to go to McDonald’s because, as they put it, “we’re bored with it.”

I cannot relate to being bored with fast food as a kid. I vividly recall in university, my friend Sean would drop by and ask, “I’m going to the mall, do you want to go to McDonald’s?” Even if I had just eaten or was eating at that moment, my answer was always, “Yes, let me get my coat.” Based on that, I can’t quite understand children who say, “I don’t want McDonald’s.”

It’s not just McDonald’s. There was KFC, Burger King, and even Nando’s had its phase. I’d prefer if they just wanted to eat chicken nuggets all the time, but they get bored of those too—except at certain restaurants. Which ones? It seems to change day by day. Keeping up with their ever-changing preferences is challenging. I’m sure my mom is delighted I’m getting a taste of my own medicine, but still, I’d like to know if other parents have this problem of children getting bored with fast food instead of constantly craving it.

Another example is pizza. Our kids stopped liking the really good pizza from our local place and insisted on going back to Pizza Hut. Ironically, we started going to the local place, Fire Away, because they grew tired of Domino’s. These are just a few examples.

If we offer pizza more than once a week, our kids will complain. It’s rare that we do, but it sometimes happens, especially on holiday. This is baffling to me and M because both of us would be perfectly happy eating pizza two or three times a day. While I haven’t done that in ages, it’s certainly possible, and I wouldn’t get bored with it. So, when my kids refuse to have it twice in one week, I find myself scratching my head.

Look, I don’t think we’re bad parents. We don’t offer fast food every day, it’s more of a once-a-week treat. Some weeks, we don’t offer it at all because it’s so difficult to get them to agree on the same thing.

Another thing I never had living in America… Milk Deliveries

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A while ago, I wrote several articles about the some observed differences between living in England and the US. Recently, one such difference came to mind: milk. Yes, you can get milk in both countries, but the experience can be quite different.

M had wanted milk deliveries for a while. I was reluctant at first but finally agreed about 3 years ago. This idea initially struck me as something straight out of a 1950s sitcom. However, after some research, we discovered at least two companies that offered home milk delivery in our neighborhood.

Though it’s about twice the price of regular milk, we decided to go for it. Now, we have milk delivered in glass bottles left at our door 3 times per week. It’s pretty cool and something I’m not sure is still common in the States, at least not in big cities. While there is an option to save a bit of money by getting milk in plastic containers, we prefer the glass bottles. We simply wash them and leave them out for the delivery person to collect with the next delivery.

This service is quite clever and as close to getting fresh milk as you’re likely to get nowadays, which makes it pretty awesome.

Should We Have Named Grogu B.A. Baracus?

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As a kid growing up, I loved the TV show, The A-Team. Yeah, I know, it’s not that realistic. Even then I kind of realized that they spent a lot of time shooting things and never hurting anybody, but I digress.

One of the gag’s that they always pulled was how they always found a way to get B.A. Baracus (Mr T) on a plane. He hated flying but they always tricked him into drinking milk or something. Whenever it’s time to give our cat his flea treatment every month, I feel like he’s B.A.

We get him and cuddle and snuggle up with him and wrap him in a blanket pretty snugly, and then one of us will put the medicine on his head, and then he finally realizes it as we’re finishing and slithers out of the blanket and runs away. The damage is already done, though, and he’s got his flea treatment.

Yet when I take him to the Vet he now knows not to eagerly get out of the carrier and will hiss at the vet straight away. He never hisses. He’s a smart cat, but he falls for our blanket trick every time.

Everyone Gets an IP Address

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I just got a new internet provider (might blog in more detail about them another time. One of the reasons I like them is they are not restrictive. I get a static IP address on my router. Nothing is filtered. I even get a /64 IPv6 range. Now I am trying to figure out how to use that many addresses. To non tech folks it’s never. That is how much it is.

All I Did For My Birthday is Go To The Grocery Store

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Yes, you read that correctly: the main activity for my birthday was a trip to a grocery store called Omega Mart.

So while the title is technically true, it needs some context. For a milestone birthday (let’s leave the number out of this), we planned a long weekend in Las Vegas. Hopefully, I’ll write more about that trip later. Including M and myself, there were about eight of us. I had a pretty solid plan for the evenings—this is Vegas, after all. Plenty of speakeasies for good cocktails and amazing food. But I hadn’t put much thought into daytime activities for our few days there.

While running through ideas with a friend who’s been living in Vegas since college, he suggested Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart. I had no clue what it was, but the group was up for it. The group we had in total was eight people, though our numbers shifted throughout the weekend as some people arrived early and left early, while others came later and stayed longer. Initially, we planned to visit Omega Mart the day before my birthday with 6 of us that was there, but between scheduling issues and a downpour, we couldn’t make it. Thankfully, one of my friends managed to reschedule usfor the next day, which worked out well because two friends who were arriving that night could join us, too. That made it a full house.

On the day, I discovered that Omega Mart is… a supermarket disguised as an interactive art exhibit. Or maybe it’s an interactive art exhibit disguised as a supermarket? I’m still not sure. After spending hours there, I’m not entirely certain of much about Omega Mart.

Omega Mart is located in a warehouse-like complex called Area15. You enter the store as you would any regular grocery store. There are aisles stocked with products you can actually buy—each one weirder than the last. I wanted to take home half of them! (See photos for some truly bizarre examples.) After a few minutes of browsing the aisles, I was really enjoying myself, and then things got weird—in the best way possible. I noticed a hidden passageway through one of the freezer doors. A friend suggested waiting until everyone was ready before going in, but after a minute or two, my curiosity got the better of me, and I went in anyway.

What awaited us on the other side felt like stepping into another universe. I think that’s actually how they describe it. Almost on cue, a friend who we were waiting for outside in the freezer aisle wandered in from a different passageway, saying, “Oh, you found this place too!” Glad we didn’t wait for them!

We spent the next few hours exploring this alternate universe, with the occasional detour back to the grocery store. Everyone had a blast. What I didn’t realise at the time was that there were interactive storylines and mysteries woven throughout the place. One of my friends texted his teenage son about it, and his son immediately told us to check out the freezer. Apparently, he was already familiar with Omega Mart. Until two days prior, I had no idea this place even existed.

Honestly, describing the alternate universe we explored is hard to do justice here. I recommend checking out their website and reading some reviews. I’ll post a few photos, but it was visually captivating enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to return if I were in Vegas again.

When we’d seen enough, we exited Omega Mart and headed to a bar in the middle of Area15, right by Omega Mart’s entrance. I ordered an old-fashioned, smoked right in front of me, while a friend ordered some crazy drink that was lit on fire and bubbled up with a massive bubble before he drank it. Yes, we took several photos and videos—it was awesome.

We did other things too. Before Omega Mart, we had a fantastic dim sum lunch. Later that evening, we went for an amazing steak dinner. Living in London while most of my friends live around New York, I was genuinely touched that so many made the effort to come out and celebrate with me.

If you asked me to describe my perfect birthday, it probably wouldn’t have included a place like Omega Mart. And yet, I had a fantastic time. A solid reminder to always keep an open mind!

The Kids Meal

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On a flight to the States a few years ago I commented to the flight attendant when my kids didn’t like the meal that I want the kids meal since they looked much better than the adult ones. The flight attendant said they are and she recommended that I ask for one next time. I felt a bit odd doing it so I never did.

That is till this week. I am going on a flight without the fam and the menu did not look great so I figured I would order the kids meal. Let’s see how awkward that looks when they deliver it!

All I Want Is A Dumb TV

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We got a new television back in October 2022. As much as I try to stay up on the trends in technology, purchasing televisions has always made me apprehensive. When I bought the television in our living room nine years ago, I remember spending a lot of time researching and still not being 100% sure what I was getting was just right. The time before that, when I got my first LCD TV, was just as stressful. There are so many features that I really don’t know if having them matters. Even when reviewers say you need 240 Hz or whatever is the thing to get, I question whether it’s really worth the extra money when M doesn’t really care and my eyes aren’t exactly perfect anyway. I digress. I just want to talk about one bell and whistle in TVs today that you cannot avoid: the smart in smart TVs.

When I bought my last television in 2013, it was pretty hard, if not impossible, to get a decent TV without smart software. I didn’t like it then. I only used the Wi-Fi on our other television a few times to update firmware. That turned out to be a great decision on my part. The Vizio TV we had was one of the models where they were caught up spying on their customers. I forget exactly what they were doing, but I think it was either using the microphone to listen in or to see what advertisements people were interacting with. Either way, it was creepy and illegal. It didn’t impact me since my Wi-Fi on the TV was off, so there was no way for the TV to communicate with the vendor.

When I received our new TV, the folks from John Lewis went to set it up for me (it was part of the deal of mounting it on the wall). They asked what my Wi-Fi details were. I told them they didn’t need to do anything and that the television would never join my Wi-Fi network. It turns out, however, that I was incorrect. I tried to keep the television off the Wi-Fi network, but if I did that, I got a warning that remained on the screen until I connected it to the Wi-Fi. I guess the TV was smarter than I thought! 😂

Full disclosure I took the original complete blog entry I wrote previously and ran it through Microsoft Copilot, because why not. The results were not far from what I wrote but just better enough that for fun I am posting it!