I’ve had my Nintendo Switch for about 5 years. My kids started playing it six months ago, and they play a lot. This week, the Joycons developed drift and are now useless. It thought I may have avoided that problem, but maybe it’s inevitable. Time to buy another Pro Controller.

I just signed up for GitHub Copilot. I am hoping it makes me a more efficient Python and PowerShell coder. I have found this year that I spend way too much time looking up simple things because I use various APIs so infrequently.

Finished reading: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 📚 This book was way better than I thought it would be. I read it only because I listened to an interview with John Green on the “Offline” podcast and thought he was very bright.

Finished reading: The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff 📚 I liked this book but lost interest before I got to the end. It was more focused on college campus issues than I originally thought it would be.

Today I learned (from the Bing bot, and thanks to my kids’ curiosity) that there are approximately one septillion stars in the universe. A septillion is ten to the 24th power. It’s a number so large it is unfathomable to me.

🎵 Today’s listen: Boston by Boston. I’m trying something retro for a rare weekend gym day.

Currently reading: The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt 📚

I decided to finally go all in on using my Planck EZ keyboard at work. I am still trying to get faster at typing on it and sometimes forget where I mapped certain symbol keys, but I am finally loving it. Now I want another one for my Mac, which wouldn’t be a big deal if they weren’t so pricey. ⌨️

My friends from high school would never believe that I attended religious services twice this week. There was a lot of music and merriment each time.

 🎵 Today seems like a good day to listen to a ton of Lana Del Rey.

I followed a bunch of (semi-famous, mostly tech) podcasters I listen to in Mastodon and it totally became Twitter again for me, in good ways (there is content) and in bad (it’s a lot of outrage and virtue signaling). I don’t really know people on the platform, so I think it might just not be for me.

Finished reading: Constance by Matthew Fitzsimmons 📚 It was an OK sci-fi thriller. The writing was competent but it was never exciting. It was obvious from the start who the big bad was, and the characters seemed to lack inner lives. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5.

I have been enjoying playing chess puzzles and correspondence chess at lichess lately. It is free and is really, really good.

I joined Club TWiT this evening. Leo’s pleas finally wore me down. I look forward to seeing how ad-free podcasts affect my listening preferences.

Is Dilbert over now? It seems so weird. I remember 20 years ago when Dilbert comic store part of every internal IT presentation. I wonder what will happen to it. Will it get picked up by NewsMax or Truth Social or Fox News?

I had begun to think that my tolerance for hot, spicy food was very high, but the Peruvian chicken place I tried today is making me question that. 🌶️🔥😅

On the most recent Accidental Tech Podcast, I’m pretty sure Marco Arment mentioned that he uses one of my iOS apps, Simple Call Blocker, to block whole town’s worth of potential spam phone numbers.

I have gone from excited about AI to unnerved by it. At this point, I am limiting my exposure to the news articles and blog posts about it. Overall, I am worried about AI now. It seems unbelievably disruptive. Reading endless think-pieces about it is not going to resolve anything for me, though, so I will tune most of them out for now.

Currently reading: Constance by Matthew Fitzsimmons 📚 It’s a thriller with a sci-fi premise. I hope I like it. I hated the last book I started!

🎵 I’m just playing the hits today.

Finished reading: American Girls by Nancy Jo Sales 📚 I abandoned this book pretty early on. There’s nothing new in it if you follow tech and social media issues. No rating, because I did not complete it.

I’m really enjoying the Super Bowl. It’s a great game! I don’t really care who wins.

Finished reading: Fairy Tale by Stephen King 📚 I enjoyed it but wished it was 100 pages (or more) shorter. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5.

I love how people are interested in Bing again. I don’t think I know anyone who uses it other than myself, and that’s only at work. (I like keeping all my tools Microsoft-only, if possible, at work, where I am mostly searching for Microsoft-owned things.) I hope the AI integration Microsoft announced today will help it be a credible competitor to Google.

🎵 Today’s listen: Dog Problems by The Format. It’s a classic combination of feel-good music and “I feel bad” breakup lyrics. Nate Ruess, who fronted this band before he sang with fun., has a distinctive voice. Standout tracks include “Time Bomb,” “The Compromise,” and “Snails.”