Month: September 2024

How about those consoles?

I own two consoles currently (well, four, if you count two that are stashed away–my Xbox One and Nintendo DS Lite): an Xbox Series X and a Nintendo Switch.

The Xbox is used pretty much every day–as a streaming box and media player. The Switch mostly sits idle. I bought two games for it, early in the pandemic (Super Mario with Flying Hat1Super Mario Odyssey and Animal Crossing: Subtitle2New Horizon). I have never actually purchased a game outright for my Xbox, though I have games for older Xboxes available for play, if I get the urge to jump into, say, Lode Runner.

This is to say that while I spent my teen years playing various consoles, among them the first consoles ever (Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision), by the time the next big wave of consoles arrives with the NES in 1985, I’d already moved onto home computers (an Atari 400 in 1982 and one with a “real” keyboard, a Commodore 64, in 1984).

And yet I have two current gen consoles that I do no play games on. Why did I even get them? With the Switch, it was a desire to get games that Nintendo simply doesn’t make available anywhere else. Then I never played the games, because if I really want an Animal Crossing-ish experience, I can always play Stardew Valley on my PC or something like it if I want.

For the Xbox, all the big releases are also pretty much on PC, plus I just don’t feel like sitting on the couch to play games. I like plugging in headphones and immersing myself with a screen right there in front of me. Also, the couch sucks, so it would probably kill my back for longer gaming sessions.

And I think I view consoles differently because of my age. I was young enough to experience the first consoles, then “move on” from them when technologically superior computers came out, and skipped pretty much everything that came after from Sony, Nintendo and (briefly) Sega.

I got an original Xbox in 2002 (?) in part because it didn’t feel like much of a leap from a PC–something that would dog the Xbox forever more (“just play on PC!”) It remains the console for which I got the most games, and played the most, too. It was fine. I also lived alone when I had it, which I think made it feel more like playing games on my PC.

Anyway, just a Sunday morning ramble to explain why my two consoles either sit collecting dust or never get used for actual games.

Making Firefox faster (by confronting my bookmark addiction)

I have used Firefox as my primary browser on every platform for about the last hundred years. I’ve dabbled with others:

  • Edge
  • Chrome
  • Vivaldi
  • Brave
  • Opera
  • Safari (on the few platforms it supports)
  • Arc (Mac version)
  • DuckDuckGo
  • Various Firefox forks, like Librewolf and the new Zen Browser

And way back in the olden times I was an Internet Explorer user. I know, I know.

I always come back to Firefox because:

  • It works for me, and I’m comfortable with it.
  • Mozilla is one of the few companies out there with a non-Chromium browser engine and I think it’s important to fight against having a single engine largely controlled and maintained by Google, a company I think is heading in all the wrong directions. Mozilla is also not moving in a direction I like, but lesser of evils and all that (I am keeping an eye on Zen browser, though, more on that in a future post).
  • There always seems to be some feature or design quirk in the other browsers that grates on me, and somehow the things in Firefox that grate do so at a level I’m willing to tolerate.

But recently, Firefox had been getting sluggish–noticeably so. Recent updates had added browser tab previews (which other browsers have and which I enjoy, but consider non-essential). I thought this might be the culprit, so turned it off. No change. I tried clearing out the cookies and cache (the browser equivalent to turning it off and back on). Also no change.

It occurred to me that my bookmarking habit (bookmark everything) had been getting a bit out of control recently. I use a new tab extension called NelliTab. It presents your bookmarks as large icons, lets you re-order them (within their respective folder), and allows you to collapse or hide specific folders. It’s great because I’m a visual person, and it allows me to create a visual grid of bookmarks I can use with muscle memory. But as I mentioned, I have a lot of bookmarks and maybe the extension was getting bogged down.

Reluctantly, I disabled NelliTab and went back to the standard Firefox new tab page, using four rows of sites, pinning the ones I visit the most. And it worked! Firefox is now back to behaving normally.

I may eventually go back to NelliTab and see if a truncated version of the bookmarks (hiding most folders and creating a small list of most-visited ones) may solve the issue there as well. For now, I’m happy to have the browser performing smoothly again. And, you know, sometimes a little change is good, too.

Plus, it shows me the current weather conditions. I don’t need this, but I like it. I am weird.

A wordless summary of our current civilization

Presented by Chris Silverman.

Description: “A dull gray background. Hurtling from the sky is a huge asteroid, white heat glowing around it and streaming from behind. Directly in its path, seconds from impact, is a person holding up a phone, taking one last photo.”

Check out Chris’s excellent work on your favourite (?) social media platform or at notes.art

I write at the intersection of tragedy and farce

Not really. But it seems popular these days to be writing at or about the intersection of some thing and some other thing or things, and as I get older, I descend more into, “How do you do, fellow kids?” territory, wanting desperately to seem hip, cool, and relevant while being only a little of each.

Things I also write at the intersection of:

  • The street I live on and the one nearest it
  • Apple and why it’s so much fun taking shots at the company
  • Apples and pears, the eternal battle for snack fruit dominance
  • Technology and penguins
  • This and that

Have a favourite intersection you want me to write at? Let me know!

I cannot confirm

I got presented with this dialog box in Windows 11 today. I can confirm it left me unsure on how to proceed.

(I also confirmed that at least the current version of Windows 11 I’m running gets a bit snaky with programs if you leave them open and running for long periods of time.)

Run 885: Leafy

View from Cariboo Dam, post-run.

My two goals today:

  • Adopt a more moderate pace, to reduce the possibility of injury
  • Finish before The Rains moved in, as they were forecast to do this afternoon

Success on both counts, if only technically. My overall pace was 5:37/km, which is slower than the 5:35/km on Wednesday, but in practical terms, it’s not really much different. I did start out slower, with my initial lap being 5:41/km, and felt kind of weird/off, as if I hadn’t eaten enough (I ate a normal breakfast before heading out). Whatever it was, I shook it off and caused a weird reversal, as my 3rd and 4th km were faster than the first two, which happens approximately never. But it happened today!

Conditions were quite similar to the previous run, and my BPM dropped another smidgen, right to 150. Once I shook off the initial weirdness, I felt fine and picked up the pace without really trying to, which was nice.

And unlike Wednesday, there were people on the trail today, probably because I headed out later. There was a large walking group, but they were spread out, and I managed to pass them without incident.

And leaves. There were bunches of leaves here and there, a reminder that fall is officially only nine days away.

As for The Rains, they started just minutes after I got back home. I would have stayed dry for the run itself, but would have been soggy on the walk back, so woo for keeping dry.

Overall, a good way to wrap up a full week of running.

Still Creek, post-run.

Stats:

Run 885
Average pace: 5:37/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 12:16 p.m.
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 28:19
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 16-17°C
Humidity: 78-75%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 150
Weight: 166.4
Total distance to date: 6,285 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (70/153/223)

Bird art: Brown creeper

Based on a photo I took at Burnaby Lake this summer.

This is the first time the background1I’m still not sure I’m entirely happy with it, either, but it’s pretty close. I may tweak it, I may not. took longer to do than the actual bird. Much longer!

A review of my current domains

Or, How I Am Really Reluctant to Let Things Go.

I saw this on Mastodon (I am sure it’s been making its rounds on all the socials for some time) and it reminded me of the domains I have let go in the past. None of them were dropped for financial reasons–back when I dropped a few of them, the cost of renewing was as low as $10 a year.

But there’s a psychological weight to holding onto something you (secretly) know you’re never going to use, and so I let them go. I am currently paying for five domains right now, which is not a big number in the grand scheme of things, but seems like a lot of domains for one random dude to have.

Let’s see where they stand!

  • creolened.com. This domain! It’s been running as a WordPress blog since February 2005, so its 20th birthday will be coming up soon. This is the one domain I actively use.
  • stanwjames.com. This is my name and it’s a domain. If I was advertising for a job or something, I’d probably slap something on it. I have occasionally thought of moving everything from creolened.com to this domain, but ultimately I don’t have a compelling reason to do so.
  • gumgumpeople.com. Currently a bare-bones WordPress site. I may do more with this in the next few years. Even if I don’t, I’ll keep it around (hee hee).
  • gumgumgames.com. This is idle, but could be used if I ever finish a game.
  • doodlingsandnoodlings.com. This was meant to be a place for my writing and drawing (sort of a more focused version of creolened.com), hence the name, but I never quite put together a plan for it. Also, I regularly forget if doodlings or noodlings comes first. This is another maybe for future use.

All of my domains, then, are currently safe, even though most will still remain idle. But you never know, the future is unwritten and all that jazz. Maybe I’ll start posting cat pictures to all of them.

Run 884: Solo slugfest

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Gray and damp.

My original plan today was to take it a bit easy, as my right shin felt just a little tender after Monday’s run. This is pretty normal–when I’m starting to run regularly again, the shins go through a phase where they are a bit tender before adjusting to the increased workload. I did not execute my plan, but I sort of had a reason–the weather.

It was cooler at 16C, and had showered just before (it stayed dry for my run), which meant it would be “easier” to run. I proved this with a snappy starting pace of 5:32/km. I did slow toward the middle, but by the last km, I felt energized and lengthened my stride to finish, coming in at a brisk 5:27/km. My overall pace ended up 5:35/km, which is pretty good. My legs are holding together fine as I write this summary.

The showers must have scared off everyone, because for the 5 km that I ran I encountered not a single person. I was like The Omega Man, if he jogged. I did encounter many slugs, however, and they provided extra challenge as I dodged and skirted around them. I did see two people on the trail post-run, but also nearly at the very beginning. The solitude was kind of nice. As was not having to wear sunblock.

In all, a fine mid-week effort.

Wildflowers near Cariboo Dam, post-run.

Stats:

Run 884
Average pace: 5:35/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW, short loop)
Start: 11:34 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:07
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 16°C
Humidity: 77-79%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 166.8
Total distance to date: 6,280 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (65/140/205)

I have no takes on today’s iPhone 16 phone keynote/ad/whatever

I feel kind of dumb, because it took me far too long to realize:

  • These canned (pre-recorded) keynote events are just long ads for Apple products and services, nothing more.
  • Why would I want to watch a 90+ minute ad?

Even if I wanted to, there are reasons not to:

  • Everything is incremental upgrades (which is fine, just not exactly exciting).
  • Things that aren’t upgrades, like services, are inherently uninteresting to showcase. I actually don’t even know why Apple is in TV and movie production, other than the C-suite has an insatiable appetite to make more money, and will greenlight anything that is tangential to Apple’s vision/mission/whatever.
  • Apple’s keynote presentations have grown trite, predictable and overlong.
  • Everything can be summed up in an article that takes five minutes to read.
  • Because the events are just pre-recorded segments massaged to within an inch of their virtual life, there’s no chance of something going wrong to keep things interesting, like when Face ID–the signature feature of the new iPhone X–literally failed onstage the first time it was demonstrated.

So no hot takes, no medium-warm takes, no cold takes, nothing of that from me.

Well, except a summary, because I like lists. Here’s what Apple showed:

  • iPhone 16
  • iPhone 16 Pro
  • AirPods 4
  • Apple Watch Series 10 (it’s thinner!)
  • AirPods Max (and AirPods 4) now connect via USB-C
  • “Apple Intelligence” ad nauseam, from what I can gather
  • THE END

Run 883: Cloudy, no bears

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run.

Today’s run was under pleasantly cloudy skies. My only complaint, weather-wise, was a complete lack of wind. A bit of a breeze might have been nice. Conditions were decent, otherwise. At one point the sky started to brighten and I was concerned the sun would come out–not a terrible thing, per se, but with the humidity so high the sun would have made it Super Muggy™.

It was busier than expected, but the business–mostly people just walking, not too many with dogs (all on leash) didn’t present any issues. One huge gang of people congregated near the turtle nesting area, so I was able to get by them early on.

As for the actual run, I started out fast at 5:35/km, slipped to 5:45/km, then surprisingly improved after that and finished with an overall pace of 5:39/km, my best pace in a fair while. I’m not trying to get faster, mind you, I’m just trying to improve and make sure my knees or other body parts don’t explode. So far everything has stayed intact. This pleases me.

As does the lack of bears, mountain lions or Bigfoot sightings. Occasional off-leash dogs are bad enough.

Overall, a good start to the week.

Still Creek, post-run. So still!

Stats:

Run 883
Average pace: 5:39/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:37 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:25
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 17°C
Humidity: 83-81%
Wind: light
BPM: 154
Weight: 167.0
Total distance to date: 6,275 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (60/132/192)