As I’ve previously shared, I’m facing the very gnarly reality of open-heart surgery within the next few weeks – maybe sooner.
Here’s how I got here…
Towards the end of the pandemic, my Apple Watch notified me that my average resting heart rate had significantly dropped over the course of a few months, from the low seventies down to the mid-forties.
This surprised me.
I went to my GP about it, but he didn’t seem to think it was serious enough to investigate, so nothing was done. I noticed I was more tired than usual, but I’ve been seeing him for 25 years, so I trusted his judgement.
Because I can never just create one thing and then walk away from it, here’s another Apple six-color inspired wallpaper combined with the Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) default desktop from back in the day.
It’s hard to believe we had to pay $130 for the privilege of using Apple’s operating system back then – which I did as soon as it was released. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Tiger desktop…
I picked up a license for Acorn 8.0 this morning and immediately started playing with features. One of the gradient presets was a cool blurred Apple six-color sequence, which I of course had to make into a macOS wallpaper.
I think the results turned out pretty decent; decent enough to use as my own wallpaper. It looks great in dark mode.
At dawn on Thanksgiving, I reflect on life’s blessings: my enduring marriage, children, health recovery, meaningful career, and the connections that have shaped my journey.
Seeking clarity after burnout, I rediscovered Derek Sivers’ wisdom: focus on one big thing, say no to distractions, and reclaim my productivity and purpose.
I went to bed concerned with what I was seeing, but with the hope that democracy would do its thing and a tyrant would be defeated. I was confident common sense and a true sense of patriotism would prevail. I slept soundly.
I awoke to what I can only see as a disastrous future. I’m stunned, sickened, angry and scared all at the same time.
I have no words. I have many thoughts, but no words.
“We were unaware that Matt redirected sign-up emails until current Automattic employees contacted our support team,” a spokesperson for Blind told me, adding that they’d “never seen a CEO or executive try to limit their employees from signing up for Blind by redirecting emails.”
Having Slack access, as do all WordPress.org plugin and theme authors, I can confirm community moral is in decline. Many developers have been banned from Slack for their dissension.
It’s not clear what security problem Mullenweg is referring to in the post. He writes that he’s “invoking point 18 of the plugin directory guidelines,” in which the WordPress team reserves several rights, including removing a plugin, or changing it “without developer consent.” Mullenweg explains that the move has to do with WP Engine’s recently-filed lawsuit against him and Automattic.
Remember the late 90s and early 2000s when personal blogs were the thing? Everybody had one and they were like online journals; authentic, raw, and an outlet for personal thoughts, ideas, and sometimes questionable opinions.
It kind of feels like those days are behind us, buried under the avalanche of social media. But are they really?
Social Media and the Decline of the Blog
It didn’t happen overnight. Personal blogs didn’t just disappear in one big poof. It was more like a slow fade. As Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter took off, people – me included – found it easier to share bite-sized pieces of life. Why write a long, reflective post to publish on your personal site when you could sum it up in a quick status update that some “friend” you don’t really even know could give you a mindless like?
I remember the first time I touched a computer. I was in my early twenties and worked as a customer service rep for the local water company, which was a fancy way of saying I played in the mud nearly every day.
The company had just switched over from a paper and pencil method of recording meter readings to a hand-held reader, which would be connected to a computer after reading a route for the day to upload results. It was a lot faster and saved the meter readers from having to take a bunch of books with them on their routes each day.
Here’s another one of those childhood memories that left a scar; literally. This one is about the time I tried to stop my out of control bicycle using a barbed wire fence.
It was probably as painful as it sounds. Honestly, I can’t remember if it was.
Around the time I was stealing cigarettes from my mother, I was also learning how to ride a bicycle. Wicked step-father and mom didn’t want to teach me. I was simply handed a bike and left to figure it out on my own.
Hearing of the passing of Martin Mull reminded me of the time that I sort of met him quite by accident.
My daughter was a pretty good softball player in her early teens and would make the All-Star team in the town we lived in each season. I can’t remember what year or tournament it was, but we were at one of those all-weekend travel ball tournaments in Ventura, CA. It was still early in the morning and I went to the snack bar for a cup of coffee to shake the spiderwebs from my brain.
The size, weight and form factor are perfect for me. I love my 13" M1, but I like the 15" M3 more. Typing feels less cramped for my big hands.
Though the M3 is a mere 1/10th of a pound lighter, there seems to be even more of a weight difference between the two. Probably because of the larger overall footprint.
I like the screen much better. At 500 nits vs. 300 for the M1, the screen pops more at full brightness. As a former design artist, this is important to me.
The body has no micro-holes for speakers. I love this. My day job 16" MacBook Pro does, and all kinds of dust gets stuck in the tiny holes. I plan to do some sound comparisons between the M1 and M3 tonight.
The notch was noticeable when I first started setting it up, but after a while it sort of faded into the background. Thankfully Bartender 5’s menu bar styles helped with this.
Having a MagSafe charger again is great. I always thought that was a brilliant design and was sad when Apple moved away from it. I’m happy to see MagSafe making a comeback. Plus it opens up an extra USB-C port.
I like the smaller screen bezel. It makes the screen feel bigger than it really is.
It’s fast. I’m glad I got the top spec.
Sadly, it’s just a little too wide for my favorite Crumpler messenger bag I’ve had for 15+ years. I see a replacement purchase in the near future here.
All in all, after just a few hours of use, it’s a purchase I’m pleased with. More thoughts to come in the next week or two.
