The Week This Week

Did This Week
Thanks to Adam and the rest of the omg.lol gang who gathered online for a live debate watch party. That was fun!
💻 When my daughter started school in late August, we replaced her aging (2020) MacBook Air. I originally was going to trade it in, but decided to kept it for myself instead. Since switching to a Mac Mini a couple years ago, I’ve been missing the portability of a laptop so this is really helpful.
📻 I applied for and received a General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) license (callsign WSEQ699) from the Federal Communications Commission. Not sure I’ll get a ton of use from it, but it’s fun to have this as an option.
The last of my AWS certifications expired earlier this year, so I signed up to take the Certified AI Practitioner exam in early October. Now I have to start studing!
Sunday Out
Exactly one day after purchasing a new iPhone for my mother, Apple lowered the price by $100. We popped into the Apple Store and the good folks in there were able to refund the difference without any difficulty—and without having to even touch the phone!
🌸 Outside the Apple store, we spotted these happy flowers. Afterward, we ate tacos.
🏖️ We spent the afternoon enjoying the beach.
Interesting Things from the Internet
🔨 This walking table (dubbed “Carpentopod”) is part “holy shit that’s cool” and part “nope!”
🍊 A small collection of Trump-Harris debate memes
🚴 This isn’t new, but it still makes me smile: Tim Walz Fixed Your Bicycle is also on Mastodon.
Reading
Finished *What’s Next by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack. I watched The West Wing during its initial run on NBC and have rewatched it in its entirety several more times since. This book provides a true insider’s perspective and was well worth the time.
🧠 “7 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Dementia” by Tom Howarth (BBC Science Focus)
💩 “The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out.” An interview with Ig Nobel winner Saul Justin Newman (The Conversation)
💀 “Officials probe death of Wells Fargo employee found in her cubicle 4 days after last scanning into work” (NBC News)
💩 “She died in her cubicle and wasn’t found for days: Exposing myths about in-office work” (The Hill)
🛑 Killed by a Traffic Engineer by Wes Marshall (in progress)
Watching
🤔 Took and passed (just barely) Kerri Ann’s TV Quiz.
💰 The Money Game explores the shitshow that NCAA sport has become since the introduction of NIL. Instead of owning the reality that top-flight athletes are effectively professionals and ought to be paid for their service, the NCAA continues to labor under the delusion that they can have their proverbial cake and eat it too—to NOT pay players but still reap the benefit of billions of dollars in revenue generated by these kids every year. Stay tuned for more hilarity.
🏢 Only Murders in the Building (Ep. S4.E3)
🕵️ Still working my way through season 1 of The Old Man
That’s all for now. Be excellent to each other.