Using a habit tracking app is a hell of a lot more fun as a retiree than it was as a working stiff. My personal goals these days are about improving my health and learning new things, not closing tickets and progress on projects.

I just uninstalled a half dozen electron apps and now I don't need a new hard drive any more. Those suckers weigh in at about .5 GB each. It's ridiculous for a notes app or a messaging app to be that size.

When it comes to security, anyone who is more concerned than me is paranoid. Anyone who is not as concerned has their head in the sand. That seems to be the prevailing wisdom in most Internet conversations.

Smart people of the Fediverse, what’s a good backup solution for Ubuntu Linux?

So, the kids were a little sketched out but full of questions about the lady charging her ankle monitor at the electrical outlet by the campground bathrooms. I did the best I could explaining it and told them that living here is better than jail. #2025

Sage advice I was given in junior high school by an alcoholic sports writer at a Friday night football game - never eat more than two hot dogs at one time because too much rat shit and pig lips isn't good for you.

The best thing about staying in a hotel is the make your own waffle iron at the breakfast buffet.

Biggest snowstorm in years on the way and we woke up this morning to find the heat isn’t working.

Drinking hot coffee while looking out at the cold rain. I love the world at 4am, so quiet and still. Happy Sunday, y’all!

Wonder Woman is going to see Riverdance on a girl's day out with four generations of her family this weekend, while I hold down the fort at a home.

Trying as hard as I can to avoid a pending work order for the anatomy lab at work in my last few days. Every table has a computer mounted about a foot away from where the cadavers are positioned while the students operate on them.

My boss, who purports to be a fully grown adult male, has pointedly refused to speak to me a single time since I turned in my resignation last week. That's a little train wreck I did not see coming.

"Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art."- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec #quote

My favorite thing about going back to work after being on vacation... does not exist. I turned off my email while I was gone and I fully expect Outlook to explode when I log back in.

Going to spend the day exploring in the Florida Keys, getting some sun, some seafood and just relaxing, just like you are supposed to on a getaway.

Ever since I set up the Aura frame I got for Christmas, the steady stream of photos it displays bring me joyous little dopamine hits all through the day. Excitedly asking my wife to check out the current picture is my new hobby.

I haven't done this not even once for any of the hundreds of blog posts I've written, but the one from tonight is straight from the heart. It was challenging to get my feelings out on the subject. I feel like what I wanted to say came out OK and it would mean a lot to me if you have a chance to read, "Let's Talk about Some Uncomfortable Topics, Shall We? "

We went to McDonald's to get some coffee. The older lady who took our order looked grumpy. So, I ordered two medium coffees and a smile. She turned around to pour the coffee and when she handed it to me, it was two mediums and a small. Score one for the McDonald's lady.

"You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old." - George Burns

Current situation - holed up in a cabin deep in a National Forest with plenty of coffee, snacks and Wi-Fi. May never come out.

Enjoying a full day off on Friday because it MIGHT snow on Friday night. The bosses are giving us extra time to fight over the milk and bread.

I know it's time to get a haircut and beard trim when face ID stops working on my phone. It's a foolproof method!

It’s ironic when people use Social Media apps with super invasive privacy policies on a device with built in telemetry to scaremonger about security.

I don't know what makes living in the south better, shrimp and grits or biscuits and gravy.

We got an Aura electronic picture frame for Christmas and now our kids can mainline photos of our grandkids (all 13) straight into our living room with an app.

My last words to my wife today when she left for a 19-mile fun run, were "Don't wake me up when you get home." I'm lucky she doesn't murder me in my sleep.

What in the world possesses someone in 2024 to go on social media to make the 1 trillionth unsolicited "I hate X platform" post? I have a clear preference, but no interest in rehashing one of the oldest arguments in tech.

So far, today I have provided tech support to my septuagenarian mother and father, as well as the president of the university where I work. You may refer to me as Saint Lou going forward. (Truthfully, none of them are hard to help, it's just when it rains, it pours.)

I truthfully told someone this morning that the most influential, life-changing book of my professional career was Windows 3.1 for Dummies. That's how I got started in IT and 31 years later, i'm still here.

If a job requires the use of a computer, a demonstration of competency should be part of the hiring process. Can you save a file to a network drive, switch printers, email a document. This applies to every level of employee.

Some of the worst things in my life never even happened. - Mark Twain

On this Thanksgiving Day here in the US, I want to let all of my International friends know that I am grateful for you and for the perspective you bring to my world. Thank you!

All good things must come to an end. I got busy last night and forgot to post to my links block, ending my 163-day streak of updating all three of my blogs daily. Time to start a new streak.

I don't know who won the last Superbowl. I can probably name about five NFL players. Some of my favorite social media folks are big fans, and my preference to see their posts overrides my anti-football filters. #FirstWorldProblem

How in the hell is it not Friday yet?

I survived camping with all the kiddos. They're back home and so am I. Kids are great. It all about "What fun thing is next," "What can I eat now" and "What time do we have to go to bed?" That's it. What a life.

Wonder Woman and I are taking five of our grandchildren on a camping trip this weekend. If you never hear from me again, now you will know why.

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep moving forward. With every day that passes, we are one day closer to the end. Nothing lasts forever. We will survive.

Remembering the reason for this holiday weekend - my fellow veterans. Most serve quietly and with honor and deserve thanks for their willingness to put themselves on the line in difficult circumstances.

I’m going to find something, anything to fill my mind today that isn’t politics. I’m not going to keep writhing in agony. That’s what they want us to do. Not me. Life goes on. I’m not giving them any power over me.

I don't want to talk today. Talking requires thinking, and I just want to turn my brain off. Rinse and repeat for the next four years.

I’m ready for this to be over, and by “this”, I don’t mean America.

My granddaughter is amazed at my ability to nap anytime, anywhere. She wrote me a note today and said I was the sleepiest man in the world. It's a superpower I learned in the army. I should charge for lessons.

Tonight was our grandson’s first Halloween in his wheelchair and it was not a good experience. His little brother gave him half his candy to make him feel better. Sad and proud.

Trying to decide who to give my WaPo and NYT money to. Leaning towards ProPublica and Joan Westenberg at the moment. I want to support good journalism w/out the corporate overlords.

A day feels different when you know you'll remember it forever.

I can’t wait for Apple’s iOS 18.1 release. I’m wondering if Apple Intelligence will judge our life choices. I can hear Siri asking me, “Are you sure you want to binge-watch that AGAIN?” I just want a phone, not a life coach in my pocket.

Made a note while at the poll today - There’s one guy here in a MAGA hat surrounded by a sea of young people and POC who are all staring daggers at his dumb ass. If I can catch his eye, Ima let him know that I’m canceling his vote.

Don't people in Europe call corn, maize? If so, do they go to Maize Mazes in the fall? Just wondering.

We recently finished Slow Horses and tonight we will be starting something new. I just know it won't be as good.

Some app have great big balls when it comes to asking your permission to ruthlessly track and exploit every data point they can extract from you and your phone "to better serve you". They mean to serve you on a platter to advertisers and info merchants.

Annoying person of the week - user changed her keyboard layout to French, put stickers on all the keys to match the layout and then resigned, turned in laptop, left stickers attached. Guess who gets to peel them all off...

Teacher that I know to her students: would you like it if I came to your house, put a flag in your front yard and said "this is my house now"?

Students: Nooooooooo!!!

Teacher: Well, that's what Columbus did.

The most meta thing I have ever seen happened yesterday - You know the guy from AAA who helps you when you lock your keys in your vehicle? He locked his keys in his truck and all of his kit was inside it. He had to call AAA.

It's hard to believe all the stuff I got done on a 486 PC with a 14-inch monitor when I have people telling me they "can't do anything" unless they have two 27-inch 4K displays. And don't insult them with a wired mouse or keyboard because evidently those are productivity killers too. #GiveMeABreak

Today might be a life-changing day for me. After senselessly putting it off for ages, I recently had a sleep apnea test that found that I have hundreds of instances every night where I stop breathing. My CPAP machine arrives today and tonight I have the prospect of getting a good night's sleep for the first time in a decade or more.

Do NOT let me touch your computer today. Everything I've encountered so far has ended up bricked. I need to reboot myself.

Dammit! I swear it was Friday like eight seconds ago.

My six-year-old grandson is very affectionate and loving except for one thing. He absolutely refuses to give goodbye hugs and kisses. My daughter told me tonight that he thinks if he withholds them, then we will not be able to leave and we will stay longer. That is wonderful and heart breaking at the same time.

In hell, every day is Monday.

The pictures keep rolling in from the devastated western portion of our state and you just know some of those places will never be the same again. Several entire towns have been washed away.

At the end of my senior year in high school, I was homeless and my best friend's family took me in so I could stay in school and graduate. Tomorrow I'm going to his Mom's 90th birthday party and I'm still appreciative for what they all did for me all those years ago.

If you have never been to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the fall, you owe it to yourself at least once while you are on this earth. It's as close to heaven as I'm ever going to get.

I only live a couple of hours from the coast so good shrimp ought to be easy to find but it's not, too much frozen imported stuff. Surprisingly enough, the best I get is from my neighborhood Thai restaurant where the owner has been in the kitchen every work day for 20 years and prides herself on freshness. We need more of that.

Wonder Woman is so much better looking than me that the cashier at the supermarket put the plastic divider down right in the middle of our groceries.

Having weird tech woes lately. Since upgrading macOS I have trouble connecting to any site, including the App Store that updates apps. Also Nord VPN won’t stay connected and is even hosing my Wi-Fi connection. Computers are too complicated. They’ll never catch on.

I feel dumb. Bought a new car with Apple Car Play months ago and just discovered yesterday that I can use more than the default apps with it.

Feeling under the weather on a weekend is so unfair. I only want to be sick on days when I call in and get paid for it. Being sick for free sucks.

Worked on my first squirrel damaged technology item today. The varmint got in the ceiling and rained debris down into a printer and now it won't stop jamming. This was not on the exam.

New York Times political headlines make my blood boil. A news source I trusted most of my life is now a GOP rag. "Harris Won But Undecided Voters Don't Care" WTF?

The loss of privilege is not the same thing as oppression.

If you don't know the difference between "log out" and "turn it off" you shouldn't even be allowed to use a computer. We are 24 years into the 21st century.

Few things in this world feel as good as the first cool days of autumn.

I don't fly often. Anyone got any good airport/airplane survival tips or life hacks?

I went to my first art gallery today for the opening of a show by a French artist, relocated to Texas of all places. They also had a Dali exhibition. It was super interesting!

As a benefit at my job, I get to eat in the university cafeteria once a week. I can see why they talk about the Freshman Fifteen. They have a wide variety of food and plenty of it. I sit with the football players, so I don't look like a glutton.

One of my favorite quotes of all time - When I'm in a slump, I comfort myself by saying if I believe in dinosaurs, then somewhere, they must be believing in me. And if they believe in me, then I can believe in me. Then I bust out. - Mookie Wilson, New York Mets, Left Field

Question for y'all. I was eating at a local Greek restaurant. A man walks in and loudly goes on an anti-liberal rant to his friend on the other side of the dining room. I decide to express my lack of appreciation for having my meal interrupted by encouraging him to sit down and speak in a more conversational tone. Now that I've left I'm not sure I made the right decision. Should I have gotten the baklava or not?

Wonder Woman reads my blog and is amused because it's full of nothing but my opinions. I think she thinks I ought to have journalistic standards rather than hot takes on watermelons and wiener dogs.

After a day of slow Internet at work, I'm at home enjoying broadband that only the 21st century can deliver. I felt like I was dialed into a 14.4 modem all day. I kept listening for the AOL guy to tell me I had mail.

I got "Well actually"'d today over a blog post about wild horses (excuse me, Reply Guy, I mean feral horses). What makes a grown ass man with Internet access feel the need to start a semantic argument with another grown up? Grateful for mute and/or block buttons.

I've reviewed 125 Mac and iOS apps in 125 days and I'm running out of obvious candidates. Do me a solid and let me know your personal favorite so I can write it up too. #AppAddict

I have answered the phone about 50 times today and every single call has started off with "I don't know my password." #FirstDayOfSchool

Our daughter sent us a picture of our grandson wearing his new contacts. Think about it.

Gone to the coast for the weekend. First stop was my Mom's house and she had a fresh shrimp lunch waiting for us. Life is good.

Going to start carrying a note in my pocket that says "Wonder Woman did it" in case I get murdered. She's not violent. I just don't want her to get remarried.

People I've battled on the Internet:

• People who think the solution to gun violence is more guns
• "I'm not a racist but... " people
• Leviticus Christians (as opposed to Matthew 5 Christians)
• 5th Avenue Republicans
• People who don't respect the taco
• Manmade climate change deniers
• Confederate flag defenders
• "The Democrats started the Klan" people
• The Pumpkin Spice Nation

There definitely needs to be another day between Sunday and Monday.

As complicated and finicky as they are, I'm not sure that computers will ever catch on.

Listening to the remnants of the tropical storms play out across my roof, glad that we are getting “Hurricane” Day tomorrow off work.

I'm just loving Tim Walz. We are the same age. We were both in the national Guard. We both retired from public education. We both believe in progressive political policies. There's never been a politician I could relate to more on a personal basis.

The number one sign that Wonder Woman is in a bad mood is when she asks me why I'm so grouchy.

I became a father for the first time 41 years ago today. My favorite man in the whole world is my son Drew. Here's why -

Wonder Woman's trip got postponed by the tropical storm about to hit the southeast and she is one her way home where she will find the fridge full of bachelor food I bought for myself. I am so busted.

Wonder Woman is going to be gone for a few days, taking our grandson to an out of state clinical trial. I'll be fine. I'm old enough to take care of myself. I just don't like to. #RamenLife

I got plans to take so many naps this weekend. August is one of the busiest months of my year and I stay perpetually tired.

I had to explain to a VP today that a new laptop would not make her employee smarter.

Today is the 7th anniversary of the time I put the dishes away without telling my wife!

I tried Farcaster and Nostr but the engagement was pretty low and there was way too much talk about crypto, something I am 100% uninterested in. Bluesky is iffy and Threads is now employing Project 2025 architects. I'm a Mastodon guy through and through.

Note to self: If you stress out planning your leisure activities, you're doing it wrong.

I love being a grandparent so much. When the littles are around, we have delighted company doing the most mundane things. I mean they get excited just to be able to go to the market with us or clean out the car. Plus hugs.

I like installing Windows 11 all day just about as much as one would think I would. Microsoft hurt me.

I'm turning into the Mom that calls all video games "Nintendos" AND the Apple nerd who refuses to say "laptop" instead of "MacBook"

We can stop having these "you'll remember this day for the rest of your life" days on a weekly basis any time now. I'm a big fan of regular, run of the mill days. OK?

Making the five-hour road trip back to the home front from a weekend getaway. Wonder Woman, who ran a half-marathon in the mountains this morning, plans to drive so I can rest up, tired from all this blogging.

Wonder Woman and I are staying in a little cabin with a view across a field of freshly mown hay of the Appalachian Mountains. We are way off the road and can hear nothing but bird songs and wind.

Heading to the mountains of SW Virginia for a long weekend getaway. One of the prettiest places in the south and absolutely worth a visit.

How come in any discussion of software, there's always that one guy (and it's always a guy), who's like "I just need emacs and vim and I can do anything"? I usually tell that guy that I just use a sharp stick and some dirt. Beat that, Mr. Old School Rules.

In my new career as a Reddit mod over at r/macOS, I have been happy to discover that the icon for the action to ban a user is literally a hammer. I haven’t used it yet but I’ve issued two warnings for not being civil.

I filtered a certain person's name out of social feeds and already my cortisol levels are dropping.

Obligatory, life sucks because I've just tested positive for Covid post. I can only stay awake for 30 minutes at the time, have a nasty cough and am getting ready to burn up the PTO I need to use for helping Wonder Woman at her next series of races.

Because four blogs and a full-time job isn't enough to keep me busy, I just volunteered to be a Reddit mod on a subreddit with 320K members (r/macOS) and help a friend work on a cool new web project.

The worst sound I ever heard in my life was when my teenage daughter dropped her life, I mean her Nokia cell phone, in the toilet in 2005.

My wife can tell by the sound of my keyboard whether I'm arguing with someone online or not. I didn't even know I was loud typer until I got married.

Going to post a blog entry soon that will hopefully make you laugh even if I end up in jail because of it. No one was harmed in its writing, promise. The things we do for art.

Canceling the New York Times subscription I've had for almost 20 years today because their current editor and publisher have skewed their coverage so badly.

People are getting intermittent SSL errors trying to reach my blog and my domain host is all "Not it!" and I haven't heard back from Herman at BearBlog to get his take on things. Getting frustrated putting effort into writing stuff people can't get to.

I just discovered Tabasco Sriracha sauce and I think I'm in love. I think I'm going to put a bottle of it in my car to carry into restaurants with me.

I gave up on using Verizon to save money by going through them to subscribe to Apple One. No one there could make it work. Pitiful.

PSA - Don't try to save money by subscribing to Apple One through Verizon. My experience has been horrible. Hours on tech support to enable it, then double billing, then iCloud+ got turned off and my devices stopped backing up.

Got hassled by one rando today over journaling software and accused by another of having ChatGPT write my blogs for me. Pffft. ChatGPT can’t keep up with me.

The ready availability of sweet, iced tea and lemon 🍋 is one of the best things about being a Southerner in the US.

Got messages from all three my kids today, all in their late 30s, early 40s, from France, Alaska and Texas. It's not even a rare occurrence. I can't think of much I love more than hearing from them.

I got a problem only tacos can solve.

🇫🇷 - I kind of wish I was in France watching le Tour beside a field of gorgeous sunflowers , eating a fresh baguette 🥖 smeared with butter near a small village at the foot of the alps on a bright, bright sunshiny day.

Which is worse, homicide or unemployment?

Well, my Mom found my blog and now I can't cuss on it the way I want to. Also, I'm almost 60.

When Wonder Woman is watching TikTok, I pause my laptop whenever she starts laughing because I know I'm getting ready to watch her iPad from across the room as she holds it up to share the latest video with me.

When the grandkids spend the night, we have macaroni and cheese and mini-tacos for supper with YooHoo chocolate drinks because of course we do.

I've got coffee, a keyboard and a head full of ideas.

Why are 13 years of free education every American’s birthright but 17 years is straight outa someone’s Socialist Nightmare?

Wrote a fun blog post for Thursday about my TV memories from 1969 until today with a ton of links to old shows, news events, sporting moments and more. I had fun writing it. Hopefully it will trigger some smiles.

I had to work on a Windows 7 machine today and man that was the best Start button that Microsoft ever made. I can't find anything to mimic it for Windows 11 on ARM.

Feeling compassion for a couple of online friends today and wishing there was something I could do for them.

Trying to convince my 77-year-old Mom to walk across Bali. She already walked across England and Spain in the past five years.

Feeling very appreciative to all of those who reached out after I shared about my stepmother's Alzheimer's diagnosis yesterday. There are a lot of very kind people out there.

The buggiest apps on my phone are the ones I use to order food. Somehow the discount manages to disappear right before it's time to use ApplePay. I'm looking at you Wendy's.

If your version of Christianity wants to put the Ten Commandments in schools but take free lunch out of them, you are worshipping something other than Jesus. - Zach Lambert

Just did an IP scan of my home network and came up with 16 entries for two people: computers, tablets, phones, a smart TV, streaming device, three Amazon Echos and a smart thermostat. I think we are probably average or a little below.

I love naps more than just about anything, but I'd really like to get some stuff done today - my struggle #FirstWorldProblems

It should definitely be a law that canceling a service should be as easy as signing up for it. If you sign up online, you should not have to make a phone call to cancel.

I do not love manually installing enterprise applications that network engineers can't figure out how to make automated installations for. I've clicked the "Next" button about 2,000 times today.

I used to laugh at people who had more than one blog. Now I laugh at people who only have two. If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - that's my motto.

I heard about this Korean ramen that is so spicy that it has been banned in Denmark. That's what I'm buying with my Father's Day money.

I don't know if you ever think about NC, but if you do, think about our barbecue, beaches or basketball teams and not about our awful, evil politicians, please.

Going to an 80th birthday party for a special lady today. Lots of family, lots of barbecue, lots of love. Good times!

Why does pay TV leak out one episode at the time when all I want is a nice binge? So frustrating!

My goal is to go through life as confident as a four-year-old in a Batman tee-shirt.

The student worker is on thin ice with the boss for the simple reason of not showing up for work. Damn, I was counting on this kid to keep us entertained until the fall semester.

"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain." - Jack Kerouac

The student worker is fighting with the network engineer who has now been assigned to supervise him. SW just wants to write Confluence articles on stuff where he has little knowledge. The NE wants him to actually, you know, do stuff. I'm LMFAO - I have shoes older than both of these guys.

Just found out from @robb that my Apple Watch is too old to get the latest update. Simultaneously sad and happy about that. It's nice to get new gear but the watch I have is functional in every other way.

According to Apple, I have downloaded 1663 apps from the App Store and today for the very first time I asked for a refund. Details will be on AppAddict tomorrow.

The student worker spent four hours this morning finding five network ports in various buildings on campus. Current project completion date is now estimated to be August 2126.

Looking at website analytics is a mixed bag. It feels good to have a big day, but you just know tomorrow will be a letdown. My favorite part isn't big numbers anyway. It's discovering I've been linked to.

I'm so tired right now that I wouldn't get off the couch to go watch a dragon fight a unicorn. Somebody will invariably put it on TikTok and I'll catch it later.

Today I am doing my perfect husband act, which consists of doing what I'm told and keeping my mouth shut.

Perfect day=hanging out with Wonder Woman, naps, tacos with two of my oldest friends, loud music alone in the car, all the blogs I can eat, snuggling while watching TV, getting my MacBook back from the repair depot, new apps to try out and my new No Drama policy

Today the student worker (who is from Eastern Europe) is in my office working on a guide for connecting phones to the campus Wi-Fi. He wanted to have the iOS vs Android debate but I blew his mind when I told him he will be able to side load apps onto an iPhone when he goes home.

I can usually tell if someone is judgmental just by looking at them.

The student worker is in the CIO's office as I type this complaining that our network engineers will not help him take down surplus wireless access points from a dorm that is being torn down. This is the first time he has had to do more than write information on a clipboard.

Someone SWATTED me on Reddit. I got a very nice letter from their suicide prevention team letting me know that help is always available. I made someone furious yesterday by suggesting the wrong VPN and I think this is his revenge. Gotta love the Internet.

The student worker wants to know why our (small private university with less than 1500 students), doesn't have a Computer Science Department like Cal-Berkley. I'm adding them to the firewall to keep him from looking at it.

I was very proud of myself during today's visit to the Genuis Bar at the Apple Store when I managed not to tell the Apple employee helping me anything at all about my technical background. I just let them do their job without my useless information.

I'm using a 10-year old MacBook today. It works well and I'm grateful for it but I'm missing the extreme customization of my daily driver though. A good portion of my most used apps won't work on this version of macOS.

Five-hour car ride home from the mountains means podcasts, junk food, napping and the billboard game. What do you do on road trips?

Wonder Woman is cheering on her fellow crazies today in the annual Dam Yeti 50-Mile Endurance race on the Virginia Creeper Trail where she is a past winner. I'm just cheering on Wonder Woman. It's what I do.

I spent the afternoon ensconced in a cool little mountain cabin writing, uninterrupted by ringing phones, student workers or the sounds of urban lawn care. It was heavenly.

This year my primary issue in the election is simple. I will vote to keep from breaking the seven seals and unleashing the hounds of hell and the apocalypse. My secondary issue is the economy.

Got a call from the women's soccer coach about the student worker (aka "that kid you sent down here to work on our computers"). It seems that the SW somehow managed to disable the coach's monitor and mouse in the course of plugging in his network cable. Then he left. Now I have a work order all the way across campus.

The student worker, who gets paid an hourly wage, is confused by the notion of clocking in and clocking out and definitely does not approve of signing in and out of the office with a destination.

The new student work came back for another day! Now the bosses are having a meeting to see if he is allowed to climb a ladder or if I'll have to do it. (He is a fit 20-year old and I am a grandfather with two artificial knees)

So my daughter and her family (all cyclists) are going to France in July and they don't plan to see a single stage of the Tour de France and I don't understand where I failed as a parent.

Good hotel WiFi always goes on the gratitude list, always. I'm scared to leave it off.

I just caught my wife pre-watching one of "our" shows on her iPad and I'm not buying any of her justifications. In marriages, some rules should be sacred.

We are in the mountains for a four-day get away. I love watching the sun as it rises above the peaks. Dawn is my favorite time of day.

There will be no updates on our new student worker for four days since we are on an extended break. He did promise me to study the PDFs I gave him on setting printer codes, secure email and the campus wifi guide.

We got a new student worker to replace the one who quit, and his first assignment is to work on the computers in HR. This ought to be fun.

And on Day Three our student worker quit after finding out that the IT department contains the people who pick up and move surplus computers, arrange keyboards on shelves and spool up old network cables. He thought we did sexy stuff like fighting Russian hackers in epic battles all day, every day.

I spent $3600 at the dentist today which sucked personally, but at least I could afford it. I think about all the people who can't deal with bills like that and I just get mad at the system. Everybody gets a share of a nuclear aircraft carrier and nobody gets dental care. God Bless America.

Today (Day 2) our student worker proceeded to ask me what he considers "hacking" questions. I told him that we don't go over all that until the second week of our internship program.

We got a student worker for the summer today. The first thing he asked me was if IT uses computer cameras and microphones to monitor the people on our Microsoft 365 tenant. I told him that we absolutely do.

Hanging around with my grandkids for a weekend makes me think long and hard about my favorite dinosaur choice.

What's your biggest tech regret? Mine is giving up my .mac email address closely followed by getting rid of a fully functional Apple IIe just because I didn't want to make space for it.

Great quote, source unknown - Saw a survey asking, "Where do you stand regarding current events?" and immediately thought, "Oh, I definitely oppose them."

The geek in me is all fired up for the Micro.blog online Micro Camp today.

I live in fear of accidentally cross-posting a profanity filled tirade about something like font characteristics or icon design to LinkedIn and exposing the real me to my professional contacts.

Pet peeve - people who ask me stuff they could Google and then get offended when I copy/paste an answer from the Internet back at them. Not only is IT expected to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every computer program ever, we are also expected to explain them all in our own words.

I do not understand the 100+ tabs open at the time people. Not saying you're wrong, I just don't get it. Did you get attacked by a bookmarks.html file as a young child? Is yours the laptop with a petabyte of RAM? What gives?

I'm getting close to the theoretical maximum number of keyboard shortcuts a human being can remember. Getting scared of going on vacation and coming back and not remembering all the ways my Mac is supposed to work.

I was surprised today to find out that many of the people I've "met" through various IndieWeb conduits classify themselves as introverts. Without their self-identification, I would have never known. I think it's fascinating that blogging is a way to comfortably interact with the world on our own terms.

The pre-dawn bird orchestra is a delightful background noise to accompany a cup of coffee and fully charged laptop as I begin a day of research and writing.

If Saturday was a verb, it would be one of my top 10 skills. I'm good at that.

Even though I hate talking to them, I feel sorry for the salespeople who cold call us in the IT department. There's no one here who will take their calls and I just have to be blunt about it. They sound so shocked because they just want to "help us out" or "save us money."

My most hated tech company is whoever made the last printer I had to troubleshoot. Today I'm looking at you Ricoh.

Another pro tip: Don't lie to your doctor or to your IT guy because we know what you've really been doing. Just tell the truth and accept the consequences like an adult. Also, being required to use two-factor authentication is not a violation of your constitutional rights. Long day.

Pro tip: Always name your thumb drives with your given name. That way, when you leave them plugged into some else’s computer, they’ll know who it belongs to.

According to the report I just got from Apple, since September 18, 2009, I've downloaded 1640 apps from the App Store (iOS and macOS) and spent $5657.14. I'm glad my wife is not on Mastodon.

The coffee shop at work is closing until August and I am simultaneously frightened, angered, offended, under-caffeinated and sad.

My nine-year old granddaughter is visiting this afternoon. She decided to clean out the cabinet where all the old tech goes when it dies: floppy disks, CD-Rs, too many old mouses. She's absolutely mystified and simultaneously fascinated by all the fossils.

While experimenting with a new app this morning (for a damn blog post), as one does, I totally hosed the carefully crafted organization on my phone and scattered all 400+ apps across multiple screens. Now I get to spend Saturday putting Humpty Dumpty together again.

Years ago, I had a colleague who posted the same message repeatedly on social media, "It's Friday, Bitches!" I appreciated that man and his unbridled joy at the end of every work week. The world needs all the joy it can get.

Things aren't perfect, but honestly, if I'd made a list at 20 about what I wanted out of life, I would have cheated myself out of so much. Practicing gratitude is the best thing I do habitually.

Why did you pick the Mastodon instance you currently use? I came to social.lol from Mastodon.social for the community and I've been very happy here.

I don't really know what to say to people who want to use technically oriented Mac automation software but don't want to read or "fiddle" with it. I understand not everyone enjoys "fiddling" and some feel it kills their productivity, but those are the people who should stay away from #Obsidian plugins, Keyboard Maestro, Hazel etc. You kinda gotta enjoy messing with that stuff to get the most out of it

North Carolina's contributions to the culinary landscape are numerous: two different kinds of pork barbecue, CheerWine, Sundrop,and this morning's pick, Bojangles Fried Chicken Biscuit. Things that make me glad to be a #Tarheel

Well, I tried to threaten the NY Times unless they gave me an educational discount, but they were all LOL. Business must be good. It's my most expensive subscription at $27 a month.

I get up so early that I have time to take a nap before work, a little strange I'll admit, but it's working for me, so I'm going to keep doing it.

I understand the need for security on the internet, I do, but sometimes people and organizations devolve into meaningless security theater to appear to be doing SOMETHING, making work harder and no one safer. Get a grip.

My son flew to NYC by himself for the weekend to go to art museums, take in a Yankees game, run in Central Park and eat bagels. It's his first year with an empty nest and he's living his best life.

The iOS app store needs a good app for collecting quotes, with room for info on authors, sources and tags. File import and shortcut support are musts. Some underemployed developer might be able to make some pretty good dough on one.

One of the biggest treats in the world is when you think it's Thursday but it's really Friday. That feeling when you find out...

I've never felt the need for window management software (Moom, Rectangle, Divvy). 90% of the time I just run my apps maximized and ALT+TAB between them. When I have two monitors, I usually have VM running on monitor#2, so I don't have any configurations for that setup either.

Another pro tip from tech support - when you submit a ticket, don't use phrases like "This must be done immediately" or "I need this right now" because you do not know the priorities management has set for IT. Put in your ticket and make a polite phone call if it's urgent.

I'm going to miss John Blackthorne. Shogun was a good show, even if the last episode was kind of mid.

Pet peeve: people who call fully functional software "abandonware" because the dev hasn't changed it during x time period. Bruh - if it works, it works. Just use it and be grateful.

While I certainly support Title IX and am I'm glad we have it, the annual class we have on it is basically "How To Snitch 101".

To anyone who uses Microsoft Teams on a Mac - have you tried running it as a Safari app instead of the native one? Any drawbacks? Any tips? I'm having a hard time getting it to notify me with enough gusto. I miss getting chat requests I need to see.

Sitting in the diner with all the other white haired men. I bet I’m the only one tooting on Mastodon though.

Yes, I can take a nap before 8am. I'm a professional.

I only watch TikToks on my wife's iPad - as she holds it up to me across the living room while laughing hysterically.

Want a reason to hate Windows today? I have a user whose computer randomly enforces a ghost policy that prevents him from opening Microsoft apps. Just Microsoft. Every other vendor’s apps open just fine.

Planning a stay-at-home writing retreat this weekend while Wonder Woman is out of town. She's leaving me plenty of coffee for keyboard fuel.

Wondering why I've had so much more interaction on Mastodon as opposed to BlueSky and Threads when I post there. Seems like Mastodon is just full on my kind of people - Indieweb types with a tech background and an absence of malice.

Has anyone had any experience with #Warpcast, an app for #Farcaster?

Dental insurance is a joke. An expensive, ineffective, useless joke. A fake job benefit and damn near a crime against humanity. Healthcare inflation is nuts and dental insurance still paying out what it paid out 30 years ago.

I have a lot of respect for people who know the difference between a screensaver and wallpape

Look, no one likes the hassle of two-factor authentication, but if you're looking to place blame, place it on the bad guys, not the IT department trying to protect you from them.

Do the Brits even know how strong their Biscuit Game is? I'm over here paying $7 a roll for Mcvities Chocolate Digestives and it feels like God is yelling at me in an English accent every time I take a bite.

Just finished 3 Body Problem. Waiting for Shogun episodes. Need something new, preferably something where all the episodes are already available. Any suggestions?

My mom, since turning 70 has walked coast to coast across England and hiked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. She's looking for her next challenge and I honestly don't know what to tell her.

It's important to stay in the moment or the name of this day changes from Sunday to "Almost Monday."

That feeling when you know you have another french fry in the bottom of the bag. But you don't.

Stayed up to 1:30am on the day I got a new computer because I have no self-discipline when I get a new toy evidently.

I just got the second freebie thrown my way for blogging and now I feel like I need to come up with an ethics statement. Creating in public got complicated.

Mrs. Amerpie comes home from a business trip today and I'm so happy - been missing the hell out of her!

Do you remember the first time you heard your favorite band?

Pro tip from IT: maybe don't write "This must be done immediately" on a work ticket if you could have asked for a solution to your request well in advance and didn't.

I'm willing to pay out of pocket to have the apps I want on my work computer. I can do that because I work in IT. Some people will think that's weird, but I like what I like, and I don't want to use inferior tools. I'm already grateful because they're letting me order a Mac to manage a mostly PC network (with a VM ).

Just your typical Monday morning dopamine crisis, nothing to see here. Move along folks.

Screw Bitcoin, pork bellies and even gold - sleep is the most valuable commodity in the world.

I love the little mini-society that springs up at ultra marathon races. Everyone is intent on taking care of their runner while remaining super friendly and supportive of each other.

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, I'm fixing to flatter the hell out of a few bloggers. There are so many cool ideas floating around the #IndieWeb. Trendsetters, that's what y'all are.

The hard stuff is supposed to be hard but can the easy stuff just be easy today? Please?

Role reversal - I complained to my son that I was bored and he told me to go read a book, specifically "Be Holding" by Ross Gay, a lyric poem that is a love song to legendary basketball player Julius Erving—known as Dr. J—who dominated courts in the 1970s and ‘80s as a small forward for the Philadelphia ‘76ers.

I just heard from one of my oldest Internet-only friends, stretching back over 15 years and over multiple podcasts, blogs and social media feeds. #FeelsGoodMan

Mick Jagger has a great-grandchild older than his youngest child. #UselessInformation

My early AM stroll through Mastodon reminds me that social media can still be fun when you stay away from the corporate owned outrage machines.

Printers suck. No one gets into technology because they like printers. They have too many options. They have too many moving parts. People print too damn much anyway. I hate printers. H-A-T-E them.

My wife is an ultra-runner (and also a 13-X grandmother). She's running a 100-mile race next weekend. I'll be crewing as usual. I expect her to be obsessive about the weather and many other things in the interim. It just gives me a chance to practice patience.

Opting for a yearly subscription rather than a monthly payment almost always makes the most economic sense, but sometimes it's just hard to get up off that much dough for a simple, single purpose app.

Cross posting across Micro.blog, Mastodon, Threads and Blue Sky has given me a little insight on what's different and what's the same on each platform. Mastodon is 100% my favorite.

“Joy has nothing to do with ease and everything to do with the fact that we’re all going to die.” — Ross Gay

looks like it's going to be everything I hoped it would be.

I'd like to see a blogroll just for newsletters. Feel free to hit me up with suggestions..

Need help convincing my wife why we need a Synology. Photo backup, Plex server... anything else that might entice a computer literate non-hobbyist to fork over some technology dough?

The longest measurable time span in the world is the distance between the date you order a new Mac and the day it arrives.

All I want for Christmas is a way to filter out pictures of other people's #Obsidian graphs on the Internet.

I get more excited than I probably should every time I find a new use for #Obsidian. Today I found a plugin to import metadata for media consumption (books, music, movies, TV).

My wife (aka Wonder Woman) has been away for four days and I have got to get my psuedo-batchelor ass off this computer and get the house ready for her return or she will kill me.

Saturday morning rituals - coffee, blogging, a trip to the diner, maybe some more coffee. Promises of naps and grandchildren later on. I live for this day.

Anyone else miss Dark Sky? I still haven't found a weather app that predicts rain as good as it did.

I have to SMDH at how personally offended some of the usual suspects in the #Apple Pundit World are acting over the DOJ lawsuit. I’m like ,“Dude, it’s a trillion-dollar corporation, not your Mom. Calm TF down.”

I got a free domain registration when I signed up for another year on omg.lol. Now I have to figure out what to do with it.

I wonder which operating system I've installed the most times? Seeing how long Windows 10 has been alive it has to be running neck in neck with XP. Here at the tail end of my career, nothing else will have time to catch up. #EdTech

Every once in awhile, my wife rediscovers our Apple family plan in the App store and loads her phone up with new to her apps that I've added over time. I love showing her how they work. Her new favorite is

Going on one solid hour of my neighbors' car alarm blaring throughout the neighborhood and I'm wondering what the judge will say to me at my trial if I do what I want to do about it.

Reddit has the weirdest culture amongst the websites I frequent, Mastodon doesn't even come close to having all the unwritten rules that Reddit has.

I thought the IndieWeb was supposed to be easy. Why can't I figure out web mentions?

Like most men, I wonder how I'm going to do the dishes if my wife isn't here for me to tell her I did them and not worry about it now.

One of the greatest opening lines in the rock and roll music canon,

What do you call taking a nap before noon on the weekend? Self-confidence? Luxury? Old age? IDK, but it works for me.

I extended my Setapp membership to include iOS apps. It allows installing on up to four devices and includes a couple of otherwise expensive subscription options like Curio and Headway. Now I have to determine if I will use them often enough to get value from them.

I use Ivory by Tapbots for Mastodon on my Apple devices but I'm stuck on a PC at work. What's the best client for that platform? I use the advanced web interface and I'm testing Elk. Got any other suggestions?

I think it's important to support fellow bloggers and members of the IndieWeb community. No one wants to feel like they are shouting into the void. Reach out to someone who's work you like today. You'll be glad you did and so will they.

Today and tomorrow only - price reduced software at the - My purchases: Audracity, Nametag, Photoscope, Evo, Logger, Mastowatch, Presets, Relog

The PC I was assigned when I started working at my job won't run Windows 11 (processor too old) and today the boss said we could order new computers. He's open to letting me get an M3 iMac and if it works out I'll be the happiest guy on campus. It'll be like Christmas all over again.

Well, at least everyone else at work will be tired too. The Monday after the time change is my least favorite Monday of them all. It sucks.

Woke up with the birds, thanks to that #DaylightSavingTime switch. Thrilled about losing that precious hour of sleep! 🌅⏰😴 #SpringForward #NeedsMoreSnooze

Breakfast at a place where the waitress calls you “Baby” tastes better.

The Worst Thing Ever is here -

I've been doing the omg.lol, Mastodon, Micro.blog thing for two months now and it has been a blast. It's exposed me to some great writing and personalities. If you're sitting on the fence, jump off and get started.

Looks like we'll be starting tonight. I hope we like it as much as the critics seem to.

All the #Apple fanboys (#NotASlur) wishing they lived in the EU today so they could take advantage of the new features in iOS 17.4.

All I'm saying about web design, is that back in the days of Geocities, it was easier to make stuff look like I wanted it to. Things will click eventually, but today I'm frustrated.

Hoping our new Help Desk candidate accepts our offer and gets me off of this damn phone and out of the land of forgotten passwords!

Almost Monday...the other name for Sunday night.

Add me to the hordes going to see Dune 2 this weekend.

Is today the day I finally rearrange my iPhone home screen for the first time in recent memory? Don't fear the widgets they say.

Gonna pull the trigger on some Thai Hot level heat from the local takeout tonight. I may not survive but that rush is going to be worth it.

My favorite quote on #walking

Anywhere is within walking distance, if you've got the time - Stephen Wright

Leap Day should be a work holiday. It's only an extra two hours a year (saved up). More proof that The Man doesn't care about us workers!

Today's gonna be the day when nobody at work forgets their password, said Pooh...

My only goal for today is to drink enough coffee to not die.

Not a Monday fan but what can you do? Damn thing just rolls around every seven days whether I'm ready or not. Guess I'll suit up and show up and make the best of it. Dang, bro!

Brainstorming ideas for blog posts over coffee on a Saturday morning is one of my favorite times each week.

Waiting on two massive downloads - Facebook history from 2008-2024 and Gmail 2005-2024. Going to use the info in my new #Devonthink setup as part of my #PKM setup.

Well, as of today, I have exactly one year to go in my 50s and I plan to make the most of it. Age is just a number (well, that and knee pain) and things just keep getting better. Count me as one of the happy people you know.

Everything in moderation. Except awesome. You can never have too much awesome. Gotta remember that.

Out of cereal so I at Ramen Noodles for breakfast like a teenager. Now all I want to do is watch TikTok and skip school.

This is a fun one: name 5 things you DON’T like that most people L❤️VE. Here’s mine:

1. College sports
2. Super hero movies
3. Reality TV
4. Talking about the weather
5. Starbucks Your turn!!

Today is my first full day with a new iPhone 15 and my plan is to...buy new cables. Also to figure out the action button, take some pictures, reconfigure Apple Pay and download some new apps. Oh and enjoy #Obsidian not crashing.

- This week's bookmark collection includes a magnificent time suck at the Internet Archive, thanks to Jarrod Blundy from HeyDingus. Also included are the YouTube channel of the week, the blog of the week as well as a helpful tool for skirting paywalls, a great article on the Fediverse, new AI tools and more.

Getting frustrated with #Obsidian for iOS. I find myself downloading my vault every day to stop the app from continuously crashing - and I'm paying for Sync.I didn't have this problem using iCloud

Wrote a little piece on some helpful

So, IFTTT just raised prices by 33% and you know what, I’m just going to pay it and keep going. I get so much value out of the automations I have set up. I need them to make my emails to #Obsidian work. Another plus, their tech support stays with problems until they are resolved.

If all my #Obsidian plugins worked on the same day I wouldn't even have a hobby anymore. The ones I fight with the most are Templater and Omnivore. I break them both on the reg.

If anyone is an #Obsidian and #Omnivore fan, I wrote a thing

The weekly update to the /now page is complete.

A sign that the end times are approaching - $200 subscription pass for a weekly date night sold out in minutes, so we suppose that answers TikTok’s question about whether it’s an acceptable date spot

Today's prompt in my writing app is "In my dreams..." and now I want to go back to sleep.

My RSS feed manager, Inoreader, just added a feature allowing you to make a feed from a Keyword. I immediately did this for #Obsidian and #Raycast - two apps with a healthy community of users and advocates. I'm looking forward to it being easier to keep up with news.

My wife, a CPA, has given me a monthly app budget to help regulate my spending on new software. Nothing happens if I go over but it gives me something to shoot for. I have a hard time resisting anything that looks interesting.

BBEdit writing an AppleScript for me right in the app. FTW!

Today's micro.blog challenge is figuring out how to configure DNS A Records and CNAME Records to point to the $1.50 domain I bought at Namecheap.

I was relying on #Artifact for new app recommendations but for now I’ll be relying on Reddit and AppRaven. You?

Updated my /now page -

I got a copy of #MarsEdit from #Setapp but I'm finding it easier to write and publish in #Obsidian using a couple of easy to configure plugins. The "paste URL into selection" tool is the best thing that ever happened to #Markup.

I always look forward to what John Siracusa, @[email protected]. has to say. His latest post at Hypercritical, , on the dilemma of training AI is well thought out. He sees this the grayness in the questions raised.

Browsing . Spent a good portion of my afternoon writing. It felt good.

Updated my now page with info on Omnivore, Hey Dingus, App-Raven, Microsoft Edge, Reservation Dogs, Fargo, the weather in SE North Carolina and more.

Monday, that day I leave my nice, warm Mac cocoon and head back into the terrible cold world of Windows.

Watched the first two episodes of Reservation Dogs on Hulu this afternoon. Good stuff. Can't wait to see more.

With the help of kind Internet strangers, I figured out how to import my Mastodon follows into my new social.lol account! Now I don't have to spend hours rebuilding the list of people I've cultivated since making the move to the Fediverse.

I signed up at omg.lol tonight but still can't figure out how to join the social.lol Mastodon instance. I'm just going to keep clicking on buttons until something happens.