One thing I started doing recently with my almost-8-year-old daughter is saying “I’m happy I could spend this time with you” as often as I can to her. Results so far have been excellent.

I’m interested in the New Hampshire primary results, but what I am really thinking about tonight are the speakers I’m expecting to get on Friday. I just unpacked a Chi-Fi amp that will drive them, and ordered some cables for them.

I thought that I kept up with politics pretty closely, but I don’t think I even realized this guy was even running for president.

Andrew Yang dropped out of the presidential race tonight. He certainly stayed on brand when announcing it: > “I am the math guy, and it’s clear from the numbers we’re not going to win this campaign,” he said. “So tonight I’m announcing that I am suspending my campaign.” I hope he does something good with his newfound fame.

🎵 I like the new Nada Surf album.

🎵 Today’s listen: “Out of Time” by R.E.M. This is one of the foundational albums in my music collection. It’s 10th track, “Country Feedback,” is R.E.M.’s best song, in my opinion (and in Michael Stipe’s).

App Review approved my app update within an hour of my submission of it tonight. That is a new speed record for me.

My daughter got a ukulele and is starting lessons. I just ordered one for myself so I can play with her. Hopefully that will keep her motivated and be a fun thing we can do together.

Now I’m a crank who hates the new Google Maps icon.

There is a lot of confusion surrounding election security, and how voting machines should work. Every tech pundit podcaster I listen to says that electronic voting machines must have a paper trail, so there is a backup if the software behind the voting system fails. That sounds reasonable.

The thing is, they all have it backward. The original vote should be on paper. The paper trail should be the actual votes cast, not the results recorded by voting machines. After all, if the software running the voting machines is improperly coded or compromised by malware, why would we trust the paper trail that same software creates?

I’m sure there are election experts that know far better than I do how to do it right. I just wish someone would call into question the assumption that a computerized machine is necessary to cast votes in the first place.

🎧 I haven’t been listening to all my awesome headphones nearly as much for the past week, because of some tinnitus-related problems (which I have discovered may not have anything to do with noise exposure). It’s uncanny how weird they sound all of the sudden.

I wonder if/when Mitt Romney will be booted out of the Republican Party.

Rejoice! The bottom toolbar of the iOS mail app is changing back to its prior, more sensible layout in iOS 13.4.

⚾️ The Mookie Betts trade, which was rumored for months, is still disappointing enough to me to consider not bothering with my MLB TV subscription this year. He was my favorite player to watch on the Red Sox roster.

🎵 Today’s listen: “Old Dominion” (2019) by Old Dominion. This is a pleasant country album with great playing and production. None of the songs really grabbed me, but I enjoyed the album nonetheless. It’s the sort of music I like to have on but not really listen too closely to.

I am looking forward to the upcoming Hamilton movie. I like that it is just the filmed stage performance; I’m not really interested in an immersive, realistic adaptation. (How would that even work?) October 2021 seems so far away, though.

My third (third!) 12.0" 2017 iPad Pro is starting to exhibit backlight bleed on the bottom (left) edge of the screen. It stays on my desk most of the time and isn’t abused in any way. All the other iPad models my family has have never had screen issues. At this point, I’m considering it a failed product model. Hopefully the next iPad Pro, which I hope comes out later this year, will be much better. I’m ready to upgrade, despite the cost.

Jeremy Egner, of the New York Times, interviewed show runner Michael Schur about “The Good Place," which is ending its run on Thursday. I’m not sure how I feel about how the show’s plot is winding down—endings are hard to pull off well—but I love so much of it that its humor and its moral philosophy are always on my mind.

Today’s listen (#2): “Songbook” by Frank Turner. Disc 1 is basically a Frank Turner greatest hits collection, and it is so damn good.

🎵 Today’s listen: “WestWorld: Season 2 (Music from the HBO Series)” by Ramin Djawadi. I am getting psyched for season 3, which starts in March. Season 2 had some awesome atmospheric music as well as cool covers of “Runaway”, “Heart Shaped Box” (I like the piano one best), and “Seven Nation Army”.

John Gruber does not like the iPad multitasking interface:

The iPad at 10 is, to me, a grave disappointment. Not because it’s “bad”, because it’s not bad — it’s great even — but because great though it is in so many ways, overall it has fallen so far short of the grand potential it showed on day one. To reach that potential, Apple needs to recognize they have made profound conceptual mistakes in the iPad user interface, mistakes that need to be scrapped and replaced, not polished and refined. I worry that iPadOS 13 suggests the opposite — that Apple is steering the iPad full speed ahead down a blind alley.

Gruber is far from the only person decrying the software on the iPad on the 10th anniversary of its reveal, but I think the strength of these opinions has more to do with punditry than with actual problems with the iPad’s usability. I would imagine that most iPad users don’t use multitasking, don’t want to use it, and don’t trigger it by accident. Moreover, multitasking can be turned off in the Settings App (look for the switch for “Allow Multiple Apps”).

I think the iPad multitasking interface is fine. What I would hate is if Apple put a freeform, windowed interface on it, to make it more like the Mac. That would introduce far more fiddliness than I have the patience to deal with on a tablet.

🎵 Today’s listen: “Manic” by Halsey. Overall, I like it. But, after one listen, I don’t have a strong opinion about it or any track on it. I’ll give it another shot later this week.

This afternoon my cable internet provider’s tech support told me there is something wrong with my cable modem. The woman sounded concerned about how messed up it is in a way that was kind of hilarious, like it was haunted or something. I hope the replacement I ordered comes in time for me to send the current one back for a full refund.

Reading this article about an article about an article about TV streaming service subscriber counts made me think about the relative lack of new content, being released regularly, that I am interested in on Disney+. The library is important, but I don’t rewatch things enough for the library to be enough.

I have been giving my ears a multi-day rest from headphone listening, because I have had terrible tinnitus lately. I’m starting to think it is related to the medicines I am taking, rather than volume level, however. I never listen to music that loud though my headphones. 🤷‍♂️