“Alien: Earth” just got a few notches more interesting last night. Now we wait until next week. I have to acknowledge; even though bingeing is nice, the anticipation of waiting to see what’s next can’t be beaten.
“Alien: Earth” just got a few notches more interesting last night. Now we wait until next week. I have to acknowledge; even though bingeing is nice, the anticipation of waiting to see what’s next can’t be beaten.
I have been in love with Expedia’s “Two Step” commercial for a long time. Not only is it well produced, but the smile of the main actress captivated me from the very first time I saw it. Yeah, a silly crush. 🤭
On this one, upgraded to Tahoe last night. This time I didn’t do a wipe-install, but a regular upgrade. Simply restarted the mini—which has been running without reboot for a couple of months, or so—and went through the upgrade. Smooth, no issues.
I have macOS 26 to install and play with, and today, out of all days, I am stuck working past 3.5 hours my quitting time.
I have failed at this. Like, miserably. I feel powerless against myself. I shall try much, much harder! Perhaps enlist family, and work mates to help? “Hey, smack me if you see me chewing the inners of my mouth!” That could work, right?
Watched “The Piano Teacher” (★★½) because Muan wrote is was good. I didn’t like it. Ten minutes into it I knew I didn’t like it, but I watched it all. Maybe I will watch it again; it might be an acquired taste.
A very dear friend of mine is turning 70. I have known him for more than half of his life and, yet, I don’t know what to get him on his birthday. I am at a loss! See, he is one of those for whom shopping is very difficult. He is not that into technology. He doesn’t use Apple products. He doesn’t wear watches, nor any kind of jewelry. Ugh! So hard! I only have two months—barely!—to choose, shop, and ship.
Saw the movie “Black Bag” (★★★★½) the other day, and I liked it very much. Both main casts, Cate Blanchett, and Michael Fassbender are favourite of mine. Recommended!
Eating out is something that I am giving more and more thought, before I do it. We used to go out to eat at least once a week (weekends), but prices have gone up everywhere, and portions have shrunk, and quality has diminished. Yeah, “times they are a-changin’”.
Call me old school, boomer, curmudgeon, whatever! I, for one, have absolutely no interest, no desire, to carry a foldable mobile device, of any kind. OK, moving on now.
Thanks to Claude I learned about, yet another, Japanese phrase—and concept—embodying cultural and philosophical meaning. The word, mottainai, means “what a waste”, as in “don’t throw that away yet; it can still be useful.” I wonder how long is the list of Japanese’s concepts/philosophies, but I am in love with each I have come across with!
So, about the Apple Event today, I am planing to get an Apple Watch 11, likely for Christmas, or Epiphany. Tempted by the AirPods Pro 3, but not quite sure I will get them. Excellent event, as always!
Today is “the day”. I will say—or, rather, write—no more.
Taco Bell wants you to use their self purchasing machines. They are a mess. No search function, so it is next to impossible to find what you want, especially if you are not a regular.
At the one at 7853 Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL, waiting to order at the counter takes an eternity. They keep servicing their drive through, and kind of ignore you. Once you have successfully placed your order, and it arrives, make sure to check it carefully. It will be wrong 98% of the time. Mine was, and I realised too late, when I was already at home.
That Taco Bell sucks.
I am struggling trying to get me stop biting the inside of my mouth. You know, like gnawing the skin inside of it. I almost got it once, but subconsciously went back at it again. It bothers me greatly. Today I am starting once more.
Update: 04 Sep 2025 @ 14:07:01
Caught myself again at it. Stop biting your mouth! (ala General Bethlehem (third comment), on “The Postman”.
I came across the following quote, and that sent me through the rabbit hole. The quote goes (and there are several variations of it):
“Be not afraid of any man, no matter what his size; when danger threatens, call on me and I will equalize”.
It seems that the exact wording for this came from Winchester (not Colt), thought I haven’t found verifiable sources for that. One bit caught my attention, though, which relates to Colt, and a phrase on similar sentiment, which is “God created men equal, Col. Colt made them equal.” According to PBS, Colt died failry young, “having never fired a gun at another person”.
I am absolutely loving Perplexity AI. I have gotten to a point on which I treat everything with an “AI” on its name with reservation, even disdain. Perplexity is a different kind.
“Perplexity AI is an advanced AI-powered search engine designed to provide accurate, well-sourced, and real-time answers to user questions in a conversational format. It uses cutting-edge language models, such as GPT-4 and Claude, combined with real-time internet searches to synthesize responses from authoritative sources and always cites these sources for transparency. Unlike traditional search engines that just list links, Perplexity delivers direct summaries and supports features like document uploads, contextual follow-up, and the ability to handle both factual and complex queries for individuals and teams.”
Emphasis mine. Authoritative sources, and citing them, is paramount. This one might be the first AI (ugh, that acronym!) I will be willing to pay for.
We have been watching “Alien: Earth” (★★★★) on Hulu and, though it is an ongoing series, I can safely rate it. I like it! Quite entertaining, offering a completely different plot twist to the “Alien” movies.
Yep, it is happening again—like each year, LOL. Christmas is (might?) coming early, everyone! Add the Apple event to your calendars, and be there or be square!
Only three days on the Star of the Seas, and we all want to go back to be cruising. Oh, and certainly do not want to be at work! LOL. Oh well, it is what it is.
Rob, our crazy—his own words, not mine—ex-coworker and friend came by the office today. He talked shit about Trump, and Fanny Mae, but we truly enjoyed his visit. We love Rob!
Brought some kisses to the office, and without showing them to anyone I asked: “Does anyone wants a kiss?”. One of my cubemates was fast to reply: “Not from you!” 😂
Saw “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (★★★★½) , finally (I once started to watch it, but didn’t go past the first minute or two, can’t remember why), and I loved it. Now I must read the book.
A user on Slashdot, referring to Steve Wozniak’s decision of selling his Apple stock, wrote: “Smart man. Great engineer. Bad decision. Happens to all of us.” To which Woz himself replied:
“I gave all my Apple wealth away because wealth and power are not what I live for. I have a lot of fun and happiness. I funded a lot of important museums and arts groups in San Jose, the city of my birth, and they named a street after me for being good. I now speak publicly and have risen to the top. I have no idea how much I have but after speaking for 20 years it might be $10M plus a couple of homes. I never look for any type of tax dodge. I earn money from my labor and pay something like 55% combined tax on it. I am the happiest person ever. Life to me was never about accomplishment, but about Happiness, which is Smiles minus Frowns. I developed these philosophies when I was 18-20 years old and I never sold out.”
Schwab almost gave us a heart attack, when we say half of our account gone at the end of the trade day today. Then this “urgent” message popped:
Account balance information may be inaccurate.
“Certain online account information may be inaccurate. Please accept our apologies as our teams work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. For assistance, please call us at 800-435-4000.”
Yo, mates, come on! 🩺
Some will say the weekend starts when you close the “work shop”. I see the start of the weekend as something unimportant, but agree with the previous. The real issue is how to slow it [the weekend] down. Its end? Ah, yes, when you clock in again.
Even though Haagen-Dazs reduced their 1 pint (16oz) to 14oz in 2009—yes, 16 years ago—there is an ongoing mention of it on social media as if it just happened. Taking things like this from social media as face value, as recent “news”, and without further research, is truly bad.
Truly enjoyed reading “Death and what comes next”. Some of the comments on its submission to Hacker News are food for the brain, and the closeted philosopher in me loves them!
“Astonishing”, said Death. “Really astonishing. Let me put forward another suggestion: that you are nothing more than a lucky species of ape that is trying to understand the complexities of creation via a language that evolved in order to tell one another where the ripe fruit was?”
➝ Via Hacker News.
While keeping my account active, I got rid of the Threads application on my mobile device, as a first step. Really tired to fine tunning notifications and still getting them, seemingly randomly, for things, or people I don’t know. Next step is to delete the account—which will also close my dormant Instagram.
This section from the NetBSD man page for the sleep command cannot be funnier, yet completely valid. I mean, quite useful if you have the time, right?
BUGS
This sleep command cannot handle requests for durations much longer than
about 250 billion years. Any such attempt will result in an error, and
immediate termination. It is suggested that when there is a need for
sleeps exceeding this period, the sleep command be executed in a loop,
with each individual sleep invocation limited to 200 billion years
approximately.
The sign on the road near my office reads “Men Working”, and you look carefully and find three women, and two men laboring. Is it “Men Working”, really?
My kid is one who often tells me, when I worry about his less-than-perfect password, “who cares, I have nothing to hide”. If you are one of those, please think again. I had a conversation, again, with the child about this last night.
“I find it fascinating when people say that they have nothing to hide. I usually jokingly say: unlock your phone and hand it to me. Your phone is a window to your life. Where a lot of people believe that it is possible to give full access to properly vetted authorities, in the world of security, when you open a door for one person, you incidentally open it to everyone.”
➝ Via Hacker News.
When I was in the military, I remember I once saw a fellow platoon mate wearing a nicely starched pass uniform (the one used when allowed to leave the base). On my next pass home I asked my mum if she could starch mine, which she did from there on. Today I recalled with love, and sadness, how much our parents (especially our mums) do for us throughout our lives. Waiting for “Mother’s Day”, or “Father’s Day”, to make mums and dads feel special doesn’t really cut it.
Yes, you guessed it right. It is currently raining cats and dogs. As with anything Florida, it will last a maximum of 1-2 hours, tops.
This guy is putting his nose—and face—on everything, everything that doesn’t pertain to him, nor anyone around him, and it’s truly bloody everything up. I can’t imagine how all of this will be unravelled.
Oh my gawd! This is an incident I didn’t know about, and I would have rather remained ignorant about it. Now can’t erase it from mind… I mean, it “went into passengers’ eyes, mouths, hair, and onto clothing and personal belongings, many of which were soaked”. Primordial shudders.
On August 8, 2004, a tour bus belonging to Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds (360 kg) of human waste from the bus’s blackwater tank through the Kinzie Street Bridge in Chicago onto an open-top passenger sightseeing boat sailing in the Chicago River below. The incident became popularly known as the Dave Matthews Band incident or Poopgate.
The members of Dave Matthews Band were not on or near the bus during the incident. The band’s bus driver, Stefan Wohl, initially denied dumping the waste, and was supported by the band. However, he was later determined to be the only person on the bus during the incident; in April 2005, he pleaded guilty to the dumping, and the band fired him without pay.
I know this is about business, yet, I still hear the question in my head, why? As presidencies are ephemeral, can’t Apple widthstand the rough seas for 3.5 years?
I have been watching “The Bear” with the kid (★★★★) . As you can see, I am liking it quite much, though at the very beginning I had serious doubts. The only reason I stuck with it was/is I am watching it with the kid. Patience and bonding paid off, alright. If it is included on wherever you get your streaming from, I recommend it. From the first episodes one of my favourite quotes:
“You’re watching the fire and you’re thinking, ‘If I don’t do anything, this place will burn down and all my anxiety will go away with it.’”
I empathise with that one so very much. It’s just, being inactive in cases like this is something I haven’t been able to do. But I digress. Watch it!