For awhile now, the Windows 11 weather app (which I quite like–it covers all the basics and has a pleasing, subtle aesthetic) has been missing text for weather warnings or alerts. For example, right now I see this:
I mean, it’s nicely minimalist, but some text describing these dire-looking warnings would be handy!
(And yes, I used the Feedback app to report the issue, like a good interweb citizen.)
I decided around noon to get my exercise and move goals out of the way, in part to get them out of my mind, and also to avoid getting my body all worked up by doing a workout just before bed and getting another poopy sleep score from my Garmin Forerunner 255 (43/100 last night, boo).
I ended up doing a little over 50 minutes at a speed of 6.3 again. I started out really fast, slowed a bit, but kept up a steady pace. It went well. I then ate a Nanaimo bar. Actually I ate it beforehand, but kind of the same thing, really.
Still really hoping this stupid snow will melt, so I can run outside again.
Speed: 6.3 Incline: 0 Pace: 9.17/km Time: 52:24 Distance: 5.64 km Calories burned: 363 BPM: 112
The photo I based this on was take from a longer-than-desired distance, mainly because the warbler was sitting on a rock in the middle of the Brunette River.
But the drawing turned out pretty decent.
Yes, I just plain forgot to record this workout from last night. Maybe I worked it right out of my brain. Fortunately, the Workout app remembers.
I used a speed of 6.3 and kept going until I hit both Exercise and Speed goals, watching inspirational and/or silly videos. I got kind of wrapped up in them.
Fortunately, I still remembered not to touch the handgrips, thus avoiding getting zapped repeatedly.
Stats:
Speed: 6.3 Incline: 0 Pace: 9.29/km Time: 35:58 Distance: 3.79 km Calories burned: 245 BPM: 113
Here we go:
Maybe the definition of “amazing” has changed, but here’s what you can do on the iPhone’s lock screen with IOS 16:
Here’s what you can’t do:
Now, I will grant one thing from the article (found here), it’s nice to be able to customize the lock screen and wallpapers easily now, without having to go into the Settings app. This also encourages people to have different lock screens, whether for variety or other purposes (maybe a work/play split). But none of this is “amazing.” Also, the article mentions vibes multiple times. How very 2022!
Really, I just take issue with “amazing.” The improvements are welcome. They’re nice. They’re good.
They are not amazing.
Also, I’m kind of grumpy right now. That’s my vibe. RAARR.
Today is the Winter Solstice, also the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight. So it gets better from here. Summer, here we come!
But as I type this, there is a huge amount of snow on the ground, making a white Christmas a distinct possibility (rain is coming, but will probably be insufficient to wipe away this winter “wonder” land before then). It’s also -13C, which is a low temperature record. The high is going to be -7C. -7C!
So yes, it’s definitely winter. On the plus side, we’re only three months from spring, my second favorite season of the year. We hardly get any snow in spring!
Here again, is the cat on ice, deluxe version:
It started snowing yesterday around 1 p.m. and is still snowing at 10 a.m. the next day as I type this (though it is sputtering out at the moment).
I’ll update with more photos in a bit, but for now, the area has seen 20-30 cm of snow fall overnight, on top of a lot of snow already on the ground. Roads are a mess, the transit system is at a standstill, ferry sailings cancelled, flights from YVR delayed.
And it’s still not technically winter!
So instead of complaining, we drink hot chocolate, stay warm and wait for it to warm up, rain and wash it away.
We have some little lights installed outside, shining toward our unit. They are still working, deep inside a snow bank (shot through a window, so you can see my monitors reflecting:
And a short video Jeff shot on the SkyTrain this morning, before he gave up getting to work because the buses were completely absent. The trains, meanwhile, were accumulating snow…on the inside:
And some shots of the Brunette River, doing the winter wonderland thing.
Curvy snow:
Creative shovelling:
And yes, even its shiniest, newest products, like the Apple Watch Ultra, are ho-hum.
I used to get at least a cheap thrill from some of the Apple rumours that would come out, but Apple has fallen so madly in love with its image as a “premium” brand that I now no longer look forward to anything, knowing how absurdly high-priced it will be. I feel like the entire company is in a funk, even as it hits massive new profit and revenue records. It’s also boring and cut through with a deep cynicism.
Both of its monitors are overpriced and its “consumer” monitor is an overengineered and actually pretty ordinary 27″ LED display ($1600 US with no way to adjust the height without paying extra)
The Apple Silicon era started impressively in late 2020, with the M1 MacBook Air, but there were disappointments right from the start, such as reducing ports on the Mac mini and restricting the M1 to only a single external display (technically two for the mini). Since then, it’s been a decided mixed bag, In two years Apple has only released a single new SoC, the M2, with some minor improvements, and has yet to update its entire line. The Mac Pro is still MIA, the higher end Mac mini is still an Intel machine, they nuked the 27″ iMac with no replacement. The M2 MacBook Air clearly shows cost-cutting shortcuts, despite costing $200 more.
The iPad line is a muddled, confusing mess, filled with a confusing array of features sprinkled across its low and high-end offerings. And dongles!
The iPhone 14 is about as close to an incremental upgrade as you can get without actually not updating at all. I’m not sure why it even exists. The “Dynamic Island” of the 14 Pro is not only the most twee name Apple has come up with in many years (and Apple is generally terrible and wildly inconsistent about names1Explain the difference between Pro, Plus, Max, Extreme and Ultra.), it’s also bifurcating the UI experience between product lines, which is bad design. Users should not have to pay more to get the “best” UI experience.
And then the price hikes as the US dollar strengthens, making its stuff even less affordable around the world.
And of course, let’s not forget the real legacy of Tim Cook: hitching Apple’s success to China and bowing obsequiously to its government’s every request as it continues to be an oppressive force against its own people. But hoo boy, that supply chain is efficient!
And yet…record revenue, record profits. Apple is secure. If they ever fall, it will be, as I’ve said before, a slow descent (though it will quicken at the end).
And I really do think it will fall, eventually. The company is no longer hungry, it’s fat (and nakedly greedy–I don’t think the company has ever been more transparent in trying to squeeze as much from their customers as they can), content and full of itself, convinced of its own greatness. It displays naked hypocrisy and misrepresents reality all the time to make its case on whatever the topic may be (like claiming a forced USB-C connection on the iPhone will stifle innovation, even though their lightning port has remained unchanged for the past ten years). Only direct government action, such as the changes mandated by the European Union, will actually push it to change. And, like a petulant child, it will only do the absolute minimum it can get away with.
One rumour going around is that Apple will allow third-party app stores to comply with upcoming EU regulations, and it’s all but expected that Apple will make such stores as unappealing as legally possible, such that no one will ever want to use them, technically complying with regulations, but completely thumbing its nose as their intent.
And so I end here, disillusioned by a company that once tried to position itself as the ones who did things differently. Apple has eaten itself. It’s time for others to show real innovation and kick it to the curb.
* My last Apple rant for now, though I really do not plan to write more. Honest!
And yet here we are. Today we got another dump of snow and given the forecast (mostly clear/cloudy and very cold) it’s reasonably likely we will have some kind of White Christmas, which I was not dreaming of.
Right now, we’re in the “pretty to look at” stage.
Tomorrow it will be the “snow turns to ice after a night of sub-freezing temperatures” stage, and by the end of the week it will be “here comes the slush!” Then another week before it’s finally gone. Until the next big dump. WHICH BETTER NOT HAPPEN.
Forecast:
A picture from outside my condo, looking toward the Fraser River, which you can’t really see, but it’s there! Taken about seven or eight hours after the snow started.
UPDATE, October 1, 2023. This has not yet happened, but I’m thinking about it again less than a year later, which is less hopeless than usual in terms of “Will this actually happen?” So there’s that!
Yeah, nearly every promise I’ve made about writing I’ve broken in some way or other, but every time I come across some goofy old story I’ve written (usually based on a prompt or ridiculous high concept) I’ve always found things that delight me. Perhaps I’m just excellent at delighting myself.
But I’m going to try to write more of these. Plus, I think writing is just a good way to keep my mind nimble, to constantly force myself to write “its” when the entire internet is writing “it’s.”
What made me think of this was recalling that I had written a short-short story about that classic concept: Going back in time and killing Hitler, but imagining it from the perspective of a not-incredibly bright barista.
The story is here in case you are time travel curious: Writing prompt 1: Inevitable time travel
When I finally also do that other thing I always promise to do but never quite pull off, namely the redesign of this very blog, I’m going to collect all these short stories and fiction bits (mmm, fiction bits) so they can be easily accessed and enjoyed and/or wept over. Stay tuned!
A bald eagle, that is, not Don “Grouchy Grandpa with 60 lawyers watching YouTube like the Eye of Sauron” Henley. Taken at Alaksen National Wildlife Area (next to Reifel Bird Sanctuary):
And a few more…
A robin, shot in terrible light, saved in post!
Herons brooding together in the marshland.
A bag of nacho tortilla chips. And I ate the whole bag!
I weighed in at 163.8 pounds this morning. That’s almost seven pounds above my low this year and taking me further away from reaching my goal of 150 pounds, which I should have trivially reached by the end of the year. With two weeks to go, I will probably not even break 160.
But I’m going to try, so I am publicly stating this to the entire interweb to hold myself accountable (I already yelled at myself in my diary):
I vow to not purchase or consume any snacks for the rest of 2022, all 16 days of it!
Let’s see what that big mean scale says on December 31st.
Now, I’m off for some cake. KIDDING.
(I don’t have any cake. Not that I would eat it if I did. I’m pretty sure. No, I mean, I am absolutely 100% sure. Yes. RARR NO CAKE. See?)
Look at how thin and svelte this cat is:
