We woke up to slipper weather this morning! I love this time of year.

I made matzoh balls tonight and chopped veggies so I can make matzoh ball soup in time for dinner tomorrow.

After reading this article about Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, I ordered myself a 3x3 speed cube (not a Rubick’s brand cube).

I had a Rubik’s Cube as a child, and never solved it. At one point, I remember having solved it except for two squares, and I peeled the stickers off and swapped them. (That was sort of my “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gord…” moment, I guess. 😂)

At this point, I don’t care if I ever do solve it on my own (there are guides to solving it that I might decide to follow), but it will likely be fun to play with while I’m on conference calls or watching TV. Hopefully it will be an object of fascination for my kids, too, and I will get them their own to play with.

🎮 To see if I should buy the “Super Mario 3D All-Stars” game for the Nintendo Switch, I started playing “Super Mario Odyssey” again last week. I beat the game (which is, basically, completing only about a third of the objectives) and have enjoyed, somewhat, the post-game experience. I have concluded, though, that I am terrible at Mario games. Lots of the platforming sections are frustrating for me, maybe because I didn’t grow up with 3D gaming and can’t get used to the perspective. Perhaps the Zelda “Hyrule Warriors” sequel would be more my speed.

I am looking at pictures of trees and wondering which park my family and I should go to on Saturday.

With their iPad Air and their Apple One offerings, Apple is continuing its strategy of offering too little, or just barely enough, storage at a base price, and then a big jump up in both storage and price for what you probably need to buy.

I can’t save money with Apple One, because I am not interested in most of the bundled services.

Pixelmator Photo Adds ML Super Resolution Powered by Apple’s Neural Engine and Split-Screen Preview Slider. I love Pixelmator Photo and am excited to try out these features. Hopefully my old iPad Pro isn’t too slow.

The new iPad Air looks very, very compelling. It leaves me with no reason to want an iPad Pro anymore, other than if I want to keep the 12.9" screen size.

Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup won’t have high-refresh 120Hz displays, says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. People are so bored with smartphones they feign disappointment at things like this. 🙄

🎵 I am very late to the “lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to” craze, but I am enjoying it. For convenience, rather than than streaming YouTube all day, I am just plugging that phrase into this search box in Apple Music, which has numerous playlists (like this one) in that genre.

Feds proudly announce seizure of ‘counterfeit Apple AirPods’ that are actually OnePlus Buds. Well, they’re not right…but they’re not wrong, too.

The turkey chili I made to repay my father-in-law for fixing our kitchen sink today was a really big hit!

I am trying to find ways to make PowerShell/Windows Terminal more useful. I’m not an admin, so it isn’t immediately obvious what I can do. I want to use it to launch things (maybe groups of apps) and automate folder tree setups for new projects. That can’t be too hard.

Holmdel Park

Holmdel Park

My mantra for today is “I have been overthinking things.”

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 am enjoying a freshly steeped cup of Yorkshire Gold (loose leaf) tea.

I slept through a little earthquake this morning that was centered only a mile or two from hy house.