Am I the only one who thinks that Facebook’s commercials for its video chat gadget, the Portal, are in incredibly poor taste? Putting aside the obvious problem that putting a video camera controlled by Facebook in your home is a terrible idea on numerous levels, the jokey video calls they depict are so mean spirited that it actually makes me sad to see them.

There are actually some good Black Friday deals on Master & Dynamics and Bose QC 35 headphones 🎧, and some KEF speakers 🔉🔉 I had my eye on. Of course, I already spent my “gifts to myself” money this year. Wirecutter has a great list of deals. 💸

Here is my obligatory Thanksgiving turkey photo.

I just got up. Time to start cooking!

The NY style crumb cake I baked this evening looks so amateurish that I dubbed it “baby’s first cake”. 😅

I think I need Apple’s “Screen Time” feature only for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (which of course runs on the Nintendo Switch).

Most of my cooking and cleaning plans today were derailed when my kitchen sink detached from the granite countertop. I was soaking oven racks in scalding hot water, which I do every year around this time, but this time the weight and the heat were too much. The sink’s seaI failed, and the sink dropped about an inch on one side. I had to bail gallons of hot water out with a bowl. Luckily, I was able to get it repaired about an hour later, but I can’t use the sink again until sometime tomorrow. At least this didn’t happen to me on Thanksgiving!

🎵 I have enjoyed Regina Spektor’s Remember Us To Life for the past two years. Her evocative lyrics, expressive voice, and theatrical arrangements make this collection of songs loom large in my imagination.

I am working only one day this week. I wish every week was like this one!

After a nice lunch with my family, I will say that I am thankful for the little Italian market and deli nearby that sells yummy foods.

I don’t really like how Mastodon posts are now in the auto-generated Discover sections for things like music and specific sports. I just want to see Micro.blog posts in Discover.

I am happy that I was able to cook homemade chicken soup for my family this evening.

I can’t believe we got a couple inches of snow on the ground today.

I am disappointed in the current slate of Broadway musicals. I thought last year was particularly weak, but this year is worse. I am only an infrequent Broadway theater goer, do to the ticket prices, but I listen to a lot of cast recordings. Nothing is grabbing my attention now.

Do any Micro.bloggers have any suggestions for a good iOS guided meditation app for beginners? There are so many to choose from.

I’m happy that the Accidental Tech Podcast hosts got invited to the Apple Mac and iPad event, and that @marco got a couple of review units, too. I have enjoyed ATP’s last two episodes all the more because of it.

🎵 I’m listening to a bunch of different versions of what is probably the greatest Bossa nova song ever: “Aguas de Marco"/"Waters of March”. It’s lovely and hypnotic.

Chrome (on Windows 10) does not take that long to load, but it takes long enough for me to forget why I launched it by the time it opens.

I voted!

My favorite line from @gruber’s 2018 MacBook Air review:

The Esc key works perfectly.

I am so relieved.

🎵 I thought to myself this morning: “Why don’t I just play all my songs on shuffle?”

My employer is changing its email retention policy to discourage employees from keeping email forever, and focusing on its use as a communication tool rather than an historical archive. I have been waiting for 20 years for such a thing to occur.

I am excited to go vote today. My wife and I made a voting plan and everything. Thankfully it is not that hard for us to vote where we live.

🎮 I have been playing a lot of Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey the past couple weeks. I am very glad I bought them. It’s good to have escapist fun for a change.

I bought a “fast” lens for my micro 4/3 camera to take pictures of my kids indoors, where the light is not good. I have gotten some great shots, but I have concluded, after about a month of shooting, that what I really need is a TTL flash that I can bounce off the ceiling.