Lin-Manuel Miranda is both (1) the primary reason I got interested in the “His Dark Materials” TV series, and (2) didn’t seem right to play the “grizzled Texas cowboy” character, Lee Scoresby. I barely remember the movie version of “The Golden Compass”, but what I do remember is Sam Elliott playing that role.

Myles McNutt, writing for the A.V. Club, argues that that is intentional, and has a pretty good take on Miranda’s part:

Lin-Manuel Miranda is not really playing that Lee Scoresby. Yes, he’s an aeronaut, ostensibly from Texas. Yes, he’s got a history with an armored bear. And yes, he is swiftly caught up in Lyra Belacqua’s journey north with the Gyptians to free the children taken by the Gobblers. But his personality and his role within the tonal framework of this story are nothing like the character in the books, which is likely not a byproduct of Miranda’s casting but rather the reason behind it.

“His Dark Materials” is, mostly, a straight-ahead adaptation of “Northern Lights,” so the different take on the Lee Scoresby character surprised me. It took me a few minutes to warm up to his performance and take on the character, but, by the middle of the episode, I enjoyed it and was on board with wherever it would lead the series next.

We changed my son’s crib into a toddler bed today, and he hasn’t gotten out of it yet! (I’m tempting fate by sharing this, I bet.)

I don’t mind that Apple removed user reviews from the Apple Store website. Honestly, those reviews were sparsely populated and completely unhelpful.

I did a little audio geekery this evening. I set up shairport-sync on the little Ubuntu server that sits toward the back of my desk, so that I can AirPlay to it from all my iOS devices. AirPlay is great because it transmits audio over WiFi with no quality degredation, and AirPlay devices are always listed in iOS, unlike BlueTooth speakers, which have to be connected to. Next, I configured PulseAudio to automatically switch to my headphone DAC/Amp when I turn it on. (My DAC/amp is a portable one with an internal battery, so I can’t leave it plugged in all the time.) So far, so good with the new setup! By far the hardest part of the setup was searching online for the correct instructions to type into the terminal. I was happy to learn that shairport-sync is now in Ubuntu’s repositories, but I think that things like this need to be easier to discover, and possible to install, in the GUI.

Why do I keep wanting to buy new audio equipment (DACs and amps, mostly, now that I have so many headphones), when what I probably should want is a subscription to a lossless, hi-def streaming service? I am happy with, but stuck with, an Apple Music family plan.

I canceled my Apple Arcade subscription. It was…not for me, which surprised me, to be honest. I wish I hadn’t bought an Xbox Wireless Controller to use with my iPad and Apple TV, but I can still use it for other games, I guess.

🎵 I am enjoying the album “All Mirrors” by Angel Olsen.

I was doing pretty well with the New York Times crossword puzzles this week—until this morning, that is. 🤯

📺 I watched Bears from Disneynature tonight with my kids. The photography is just incredible, and it is exactly the sort of thing I want to get my kids interested in. My daughter loved it so much she drew a picture of a bear. 🐻😀

One thing holding me back from ordering more Amazon Echo Show devices, for other rooms in my house, is the feeling that I don’t own them. I can’t fully control what is displayed on the screen (I just want the clock), which is frustrating.

I wish there was a social club for people who want to go to concerts that aren’t too loud for my ears to handle.

I can’t wait until the day that Google announces that Android is canceled. That has to be coming someday. Google will stop updating Android and start releasing Pixel phones based on some GoogleOS that is more locked down and more beneficial to Google.

Google is shutting down its Cloud Print feature in 2020. Never rely on Google to keep anything around that isn’t Search. 🙄

I’m doing some work out of order today because I just discovered something that will make putting my current tasks off even more difficult. 😱 It doesn’t help that it’s Friday, and I’m not working at 8:00 AM tomorrow.

Tonight was another night when the Apple two-factor authentication popup started alerting me over and over that someone was trying to sign in, in my area, with my account and password. I don’t see how that is even possible, but I changed my password yet again.

🎵 I love “Dream Boy” by Beach Bunny. It’s such a fun song, and everything about it is great, from the lyric to the vulnerable vocals to the production. I wish it had been around when I was younger and listened to a lot more power pop and emo—it would have fit right in.

My daughter is a little like the kids in this light article by Kevin Noble Maillard:

What’s the most accurate way to describe kids’ relationship to “Frozen”? Adoration is insufficient, and obsession is downright weak. It’s more like a cathexis, an acutely intense energy focused on a singular entity.

My daughter was borderline obsessed with Frozen for about five years. It lulled a bit for a while, but the existence of “Frozen II” on the horizon has revived her enthusiasm, especially with Elsa, quite a bit this year. After months of looking forward to it, my wife and I are taking her to see the sequel this weekend.

I am going to start trying to get my kids to watch the nature documentary-style movies on Disney+ later today. The new ones look gorgeous, and the old ones had fun narratives, invented from the wildlife footage, to follow. I loved the old True Life Adventures movies that used to be on the Disney channel all the time when I was a kid, and found one of them, The Living Desert on Disney+ last night. Disney+ also has National Geographic content, which I have to dive into more next. I am cautiously optimistic that my kids will enjoy them (or at least tolerate them sometimes and learn something).

I’m pushing a small bug fix update out for one of my apps, and re-thinking my git branching strategies a little, because I have been stuck in version control hell for a while now.

I got over my last cold-turned-sinus-infection late last week, and I am already coming down with the next one. Oh, the joys of having a toddler in preschool. 🤧😕

I am updating my FreeNAS box right now, not because I need to keep it current (it’s working fine), but because I can’t help myself. 🤞

My personal life today consisted of no news, then bad news, then good news, all on different fronts. I plan to unwind a bit, later on, and watch “His Dark Materials” on HBO.

I am happy that I have subscribed to the “Poem-a-Day” email series from Poets.org. Each new poem makes my world a tiny bit bigger. Poetry is something I have missed, without realizing it, since I studied and wrote it in college.

Jeanne Marie Laskas’s article in The New York Times is absolutely wonderful:

“If you make him out to be a saint, people might not know how hard he worked,” Joanne said. Disciplined, focused, a perfectionist — an artist. That was the Fred she and the cast and crew knew. “I think people think of Fred as a child-development expert,” David Newell, the actor who played Mr. “Speedy Delivery” McFeely, told me recently. “As a moral example maybe. But as an artist? I don’t think they think of that.”

Go read it.

I started my day by putting “do something great" at the top of my task list. The greatest thing I did today was rather humble: I cooked delicious butternut squash soup for my family. I will count that as a win.