§ All rain all week. Everything is damp. My boots squish with each step, the hallways at work are littered with strategically positioned buckets to catch stray drips. Late-evening cold spells crystallize each droplet into tenuous waterlogged snowflakes that melt on contact into thick layer of half-frozen phlegmy slush. It is beginning to feel like Cleveland has a monsoon season more than a proper winter.
§ It occurred to me that I haven’t listened to any episodes of MBMBAM since The Naming of 2023. Still, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t excited to see The Naming of 2024 pop up in my feed. Maybe a once-annual cadence is just right, at this point.
§ I discovered that my passport will expire one month before my wedding. While my fiancée and I are still in the process of planning what exactly we will do for a honeymoon, I’ll need to renew it to keep all of our options open. Dear reader, when was the last time you had to renew your passport? You might expect it to be a process that has been streamlined by technology over the past few decades—it is not. Where is the USDS when you need them?
§ Apple announced that they will begin shipping Vision Pro headsets early next month. I’m confident that, in a year or two, the next iteration of the device will be both an order of magnitude better and an order of magnitude less expensive. Nevertheless, I can’t wait to read reviews and, maybe, try one out in-store.
§ I am really enjoying my trial 37signals’ new calendar, particularly their addition of “sometime this week” miscellaneous tasks. Unfortunately, the only way to use it is with a Hey email account which I am not interested in switching to. I hope that they spur some innovation from others though. I’ve mentioned before how sad I find the current state of calendar applications and I think this is a a step in the right direction.
§ I have no connection to kaiju flicks. Still, I found Apple’s new marquee show Monarch pretty compelling. It can definitely get a bit silly and overwrought at times, particularly in its more monster-centric scenes. Overall, though, the characters are good, the acting is good, and the CGI is great.
§ Speaking of TV, The Great Pottery Throw Down has been the perfect low-key show to pair with a fairly hectic work week. I’ve gotta say, I don’t appreciate the change of judges with season three though.
§ For the sake of public accountability I should note that I am just about halfway though The Mountain in the Sea, a hair into part three. I’ve been averaging a slow but steady pace of around one hundred pages every two weeks. Not voracious by any means but I’m glad I am sticking with it.
§ Lots of excited, ominous talk at work warning that next Monday, MLK day, is always our busiest day of the year. Wish me luck.
