Holmdel Park
Zoom completely failed today for my daughter’s classroom. The teachers' stream had distorted audio and frozen video much of the morning. I think the school lacks sufficient upload bandwidth, because the other students' video feeds were smooth. It’s frustrating.
My favorite internet search thus far today was: “calming music that is not annoying.” All it turned up was YouTube videos, which I wasn’t really after.
Silly me. I thought my (real) work was a basically done for the week and I would have an easy day today.
I am trying to find ways to make PowerShell/Windows Terminal more useful. I’m not an admin, so it isn’t immediately obvious. I want to use it to launch things (maybe groups of apps) and automate folder tree setups for new projects.
The stress level at my house is extremely high. The first week back at school sure is fun. 😳 It’s even weirder when it takes place at home.
I am grateful that I don’t have to experience directly the California wildfires. If things had turned out differently for me, it’s feasible I would be in the San Francisco area, in the thick of things.
I slept through a little earthquake this morning that was centered only a mile or two from hy house.
Because it is back to school time, my mind has once again turned to collecting new recipes to try for easier fall cooking. Vegetable soups are the top priority today.
📚 I am enjoying Dan Moren’s latest book, The Aleph Extraction.
I decided I wanted a universal snippet on my Mac to use to insert the date in the format I want it in. To my surprise, Dash, my code reference tool, can do that. If I want something more focused, it looks like aText might be the best, cheap app to do it on the Mac (and there’s a Windows version, too). (I used to run TextExpander, but that’s too expensive and way more feature filled than I need.)
There are thousands of COVID-19 cases at colleges and universities in the news this week. What happened to the elementary, middle, and high schools that have opened already? What’s going to happen in a week or two when students around where I live start going back to school? All the news articles I came across about them were about parents' anxiety rather than the actual consequences in schools that opened up in August. Has nothing much happened? That seems impossible, based on what young adults (not that different than high school students) are facing.
I gave myself a haircut today. It seems that it takes longer to do the less often I do it. It has been hard for me to keep to a once-per-week schedule, but I like the idea of having that kind of discipline.
How can it be that the teapot emoji hasn’t existed until this year and that Apple doesn’t support it yet, even on the iOS 14 beta?
I’m thrilled and relieved to discover this morning that the reason my desktop stereo stopped working yesterday is because, somehow, I toggled the input switch on my DAC (which I never touch) to some incorrect setting. Of course, I pulled all the components (with dials and switches I use all the time) apart and tested them individually first. 😅
My AnyList subscription is expiring soon. I am strongly considering switching to Paprika 3 for my grocery list app. I already own it, it does what I need, and, most importantly, its Apple Watch app doesn’t require an annual subscription. My wife and I are going to try it out next week.
Lord & Taylor is closing all its stores. Pier One closed all their stores earlier this year. Years ago, when I was in business school, I thought that retail stores mostly were going away. I expected it, but it still feels weird to live through it as it slowly happens, especially when places nearby are going to close and it is unclear what will replace them.
School is starting today for my wife, who is a teacher, and for my daughter, who is a student in a different school and district. Both are starting the year remotely. We will see how it goes for the surrounding towns doing in-person/hybrid models. The news reports about COVID spreading in universities are really worrying. I hope for the best, and I hope that students and teachers can learn and work remotely for the whole school year.
Nintendo bringing Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy to Switch. This is great news for me, because I missed all those games. Of course, now I don’t have any time to play them. 😅