UPDATE: I thought I had saved a local copy of the image but apparently not, and it’s now been updated (presumably by Book Bub) to something completely different, thereby ruining this sarcastic post forever.
UPDATE #2: The image keeps changing, so I appear to have turned this post into a micro-portal for Book Bub ads. I should probably fix this, but at the same time it amuses me. If the original ad reappears, I’ll grab a local copy of it, but it has seemingly vanished.
That’s the best I can gather based on this BookBub ad I’ve seen a few times. That is one nasty eye-swirly issue happening there.
I otherwise have no idea what the story is about, other than it’s a series, so maybe there are multiple ophthalmologist visits. Also, typing the word “ophthalmologist” is hard.
In this post I said I would make a decision on a task manager/to-do app in a week, then two weeks went by and here I am, sans decision.
Which perhaps underlines the need to start using one of these apps.
Previously, I had considered these options:
Things 3
TickTick
Microsoft to-Do
I’ve tinkered with the trial version of Things 3, and it’s very nice, even fun, but ultimately I feel it being limited to Apple devices only is a dealbreaker. I still do a lot of stuff on my PC and will continue to do so into the future. If they at least offered a web version, I’d probably still consider it. But alas.
To-Do offers good integration with Office 365 and collaboration, neither of which are of any use to me. As one reviewer noted, it’s nice-looking and the ability to set custom backgrounds for different tasks allows you to make them visually distinct, handy for at-a-glance recognition. But this is easily the most basic of the to-do apps (I mean, look at its name), and I feel it’s just a little too simple to make it worth committing to.
TickTick seems decent enough, but in my brief time with it I didn’t really warm up to its interface. There’s nothing wrong with it, I just don’t find it compelling. It’s hard to explain.
This leaves Todoist, which I had toyed with years ago, and was reminded of when it came up in several surveys of to-do software. It’s multiplatform, including a web version, and offers a lot of functionality even before you consider the subscription version. And for whatever reason, I spent more time poking around in it and testing stuff out.
So my tentative decision has been made: I’m going to try using Todoist. Starting next week (for real, I double dog swear) I am going to start scheduling stuff and see how it goes. I expect minimal drama and no more than one instance of curling up in a ball on the floor.
I got a newsletter from my local grocery store (I won’t name them, but you may be able to figure it out using advanced internet detective skills) that had this at the top of the newsletter:
A delightful collection of not-exactly-light recipes
And had this below:
I mean, maybe this is a coincidence, but it’s a little on-the-nose, don’t you think?
If it was a deliberate juxtaposition, I say kudos to the sassy ad writer not only for posting the logical sequence of thousand-calorie-sugar-nightmares followed by treating-diabetes-because-I-think-you-know-why, but for actually providing a public service while making the point.
As I type this I can hear the rain outside. But I am inside and the windows are closed. I should not be able to hear the rain, especially with my lab-certified terrible hearing. And yet I can hear the drops plinking madly off the polished stones in the garden outside my window.
Earlier this afternoon, I went for a walk and got caught in a very localized monsoon. I sought cover under a pine and noted that just beyond this small stand of trees, the sun was shining. I felt like Charlie Brown.
But without the glove.
This is what it looked like as I waited and watched:
Me: Standing in the rain. 60 m ahead of me: Glorious sunshine.
Once the mini-monsoon moved on, the rest of the afternoon was actually decent. There was a rainbow and everything was swell. Until tonight, when The Rains began anew.
Yesterday, shortly after leaving Iona Beach, where Nic and I were looking for birbs to shoot (with our cameras), a funnel cloud briefly formed over the water and there is now some question over whether an actual tornado landed at UBC as a result. You can see footage showing at least four trees coming down at the golf course there in the video below. It looks very tornado-like. And is a good reminder to not seek shelter under a tree in extremely high winds.
There is another wind warning in effect for tomorrow.
On the one hand, winter is approaching, and it can get blustery around here, so this is not really unusual (save for the possible tornado, which is still a pretty rare thing for this area), but it just somehow feels different, like the minute hand on the big global warming clock (I just made that up) has ticked ahead again. What this means for when actual winter starts next month, I’m not sure, but I feel bad for all the future ex-trees that get knocked down in the storms to come–or anyone who gets knocked down by said future ex-trees.
The title really sums up the whole post. I went out for a brief walk this evening (it’s cool, but clear out) and was greeted by the non-stop crack and bang of firecrackers, fireworks and possibly surplus munitions being set off all around not just the local neighborhood, but even across the Fraser, where I could see fireworks bursting into the sky above Surrey.
It’s all kind of weird. How did fireworks become associated with Halloween, anyway? I realize that in 2021 I can trivially look up the answer, but I prefer to make up my own. So I’m just going to say it was Satan. Or maybe the Robot Devil (I’ve been watching a lot of Futurama).
This is pretty much the only thing that makes me look forward to November. It’s not that I hate fun, it’s just that, well…I hate fun. Specifically, noisy fun that makes my ears ring (even as I am typing this sentence, fireworks are still going off. It’s 11:22 p.m., go to bed, people!)
I’ve come to realize that while I automatically resist using scheduling/to-do apps (which is perhaps odd because I do like to stay organized), I may actually need one, since I am the sole person currently responsible for my schedule, and it’s easy to let some things slip by because I was busy doing important research on something else, such as cats on the internet.
I don’t have any strong leads yet, but my initial look has revealed a few candidates:
Things 3: Looks great, but it’s expensive and Mac-only (well, Apple devices-only)
To Do: This is Microsoft’s imaginatively-named app, which took the place of the apparently beloved Wunderlist. It has the advantages of being free and cross-platform, but it seems a bit spartan?
TickTick. Recommend by The Wirecutter. But Tick Tick is a seriously dumb name. Still, this one is also cross-platform and also has a web version. On the other hand, it requires a subscription to be really useful, which would ultimately make it more expensive than Things 3.
Just using the Notes app on my phone or something. Since I could have been doing this all along, I doubt I will actually consider this.
I’m penciling a decision for this in my head for sometime in the next week. Things 3 has a free trial, so I may start with that.
A lot of people declare fall as their favorite season. I declare them selective in their seasonal fandom!
Here’s how I see fall. It’s not one season, it’s really three:
Early fall. From the fall equinox around September 20 to the first week or so of October. This is really just an extension of late summer. The days are getting shorter, but the weather can still be nice enough for shorts and t-shirts (in Metro Vancouver), trees, flowers and vegetation all still look fairly lush, though the first signs of the season changing are starting to appear.
Middle fall. The time from early October to Halloween, sometimes extending to the first week of November. It is clearly fall now–the days are getting noticeably shorter, the high temperatures are no longer summer-like, but trees look spectacular as the leaves begin changing color. Halloween is coming (a favorite holiday for many, not the least of whom are the candy manufacturers). This is the classic fall many people think of when they declare autumn their favorite time of year.
Late fall. Early November to the winter solstice around December 21. November starts to get cold and wet. It can snow. The days are now down to about two hours of daylight, or so it feels like. Did I mention the rain? The leaves are gone, the trees are stark and bare. Vegetation has withered and gone fallow. Everything is gray. When people go on about how wonderful fall is, they are not talking about the bitter cold monsoons of mid-December.
The last time I ranked R.E.M.’s albums, I put Monster at #3 (of 15 studio releases). I hadn’t listened to the remastered 25th anniversary edition until now. I am as timely as I ever was!
The album consists of four discs (for those who remember physical media):
The original album
A collection of outtakes and demos from the Monster sessions
A remix version of the album
A collection of live songs recorded in Chicago in 1995 (Monster came out in 1994)
It’s a veritable cornucopia of R.E.M. stuff, but I want to focus on is that third disc, the remix of the album. I’ll have more thoughts later, as I’ve only just listened to the album, but it’s a bit bonkers.
Scott Litt, the original producer, was allowed to handle the remix, and he apparently had some big regrets in how he handled Monster back in 1994, chiefly being:
Burying Michael Stipe’s vocals deep in the mix
Overemphasizing the feedback, tremolo and fuzzy guitars, which was popular at the time due to the rise of grunge (in retrospect it was kind of the “onion on the belt” of the early 1990s)
Both of these are true of the 1994 original release, but each was a deliberate choice. On the other five albums Scott Litt produced with the band, including one that came after Monster, Stipe’s vocals (and his singing in general) is clear and in the front of the mix. With Monster, there was a conscious effort to give R.E.M. a different, “bigger” sound, as well as one that was looser, muddier, with the illusion of being sloppy, although the production was actually quite meticulous.
This makes the album unique among their releases. They never recorded anything that sounded quite like it before or after.
The remix feels like a completely different album at times. All the same songs are here, but the presentation at times is so dramatically different that they feel like they came from somewhere else. Stipe’s vocals are indeed pushed much more to the front, providing a clarity to his words that is at times almost startling. But Litt goes further, sometimes using completely different vocal takes entirely. “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” ends with a completely different extended outro. The reverb in “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” is simply gone. There are even a few bits here and there that seem to be trying to brighten the overall mood.
It’s all a little weird.
Some songs emerge relatively intact. “Strange Currencies” was always pretty straightforward, and the remix version is mostly the same, apart from Stipe’s vocals being pushed up that much more in the mix.
Is this a better version of Monster? My impulse is to say no, not better, just different.
One of the effects of the new clarity of Stipe’s vocals is to slightly diminish the feel of the characters he’s portraying in some songs. He sounds more like himself now, which is great in a general sense, but a bit of flavor is lost as a result. It’s trippy to hear how utterly clear the vocals really are, though.
“Let Me In”, with the fuzz all but removed, sounds far more plaintive, and again I think this weakens the flavor of the original, but the new crispness of Stipe’s delivery somewhat compensates.
There are a few choices that are puzzling. “Tongue” now fades out for no discernible reason. Little flourishes that didn’t exist before have been added here and there, to no real effect. “Crush with Eyeliner” begins with Stipe singing “lalala” sans instruments It’s quirky, but leaves me wondering why it was added.
I will say I love that this remix exists alongside the original. Seeing bands (and producers) rework their material is always enjoyable, even if the results aren’t necessarily better–sometimes specifically if they aren’t better. This is a distinctive alternate take on Monster and makes it “fit” better with the albums that came before and after it. Whether that was the right choice is really just a matter of opinion.
UPDATE: How could I have forgotten bomb cyclone? We’re in the middle of one right now!
Spoiler: not exactly fun
I learned two three new weather terms this year. Learning things is fun! Learning these terms was less fun, since they affected me in somewhat unpleasant ways.
It’s possible I’ve heard these terms before, but either forgot them or they never registered.
A heat dome occurs when the atmosphere traps hot ocean air like a lid or cap.
We had a heat dome in late June/early July. At its peak, the temperature here in New Westminster got up to 42 degrees Celsius. As I recounted at the time, this is quite warm indeed, particularly for this area where a summer high might be nearly 20 degrees cooler. I know what a heat dome is now, but feel no better with the knowledge, as I wonder if Summer 2022 will bring more domes.
Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics. These columns of vapor move with the weather, carrying an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River. When the atmospheric rivers make landfall, they often release this water vapor in the form of rain or snow.
The NOAA article talks about benefits of some atmospheric rivers, like increased snowpack, but in local context they have always meant rain and a whole lot of it. When we got one of these rivers flowing overhead recently, the Brunette River rose higher than I’d ever seen–high enough for those signs along the river trail warning about sudden changes in water flow suddenly resonating.
Brunette River looming large
See the bit of river at the bottom of the photo? That’s normally not underwater. If it had gotten a little higher, the river would have started spilling out over its banks.
So far I do not like atmospheric rivers, although they do have the advantage over heat domes of not making your face feel like it’s on fire.
BOMB CYCLONE
This one I just heard about in the last few days and as I update this post early on the morning of October 25, one is hammering the south coast, leading to power outages, cancelled ferry sailings and more.
A bomb cyclone is simply a storm that intensifies very rapidly. Bomb cyclones form when air near Earth’s surface rises quickly in the atmosphere, triggering a sudden drop in barometric pressure — at least 24 millibars within 24 hours.
I love the use of the word “simply” there, as it goes on:
As the air rises, wind spirals in at the base of the storm. As long as the air continues to rise at the top of the storm faster than it can be replaced at the bottom, barometric pressure will continue to drop. As with a hurricane, lower air pressure yields a stronger storm.
Like a hurricane. No biggie! And maybe happens once a year. And we’re only a month into fall, when the window for these things is basically now through early spring. Woo.
Did you know that the song “Tubthumping” from the album Tubthumper (there’s a good trivia question–which was the song, which was the album title?) rhymes the word “down” with the word “down”? It’s true!
I get knocked down But I get up again You're never gonna keep me down
It’s just catchy enough that you never notice until 20 years later, like me.
Why is it that for two months of the year we get bombarded with pumpkin spice everything? It’s bad enough that eggnog starts showing up in September.
Pumpkins aren’t spicy. Pumpkin pie is gross. Yes, even if you like it, it’s gross. When you carve a pumpkin, what do you do with everything inside it? You compost it, as nature intended. I may grant an exception for pumpkin seeds if enough salt is involved.
Is that perhaps what pumpkin spice is? Just adding lots of salt to anything vaguely pumpkin-y? I could possibly get on board with this.
Pumpkin spice is inescapable. It’s everywhere. Someone is probably selling Pumpkin Spice Socks.
Anyway, down with pumpkin spice. Up with hot cocoa.
And only 256 days until next summer, WHERE THERE IS NO PUMPKIN SPICE.
September is a transition month in a number of different ways, even more so this year than in others for me in particular:
At the start of the month it is still summer, and it can be quite sunny and warm
By the end of the month it’s fall and while the weather can still be t-shirt-worthy, it can also be what it is currently: in the low to mid-teens and very much The Rains. Now begins the slow turning of all the lush greens of summer, to be replaced briefly by the explosion of fall colors before everything turns gray and naked, like the aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
And this marks the first full month after leaving my job of close to nine years. I won’t go into details here, but will say that it has been a month of planning, working and setting up toward the future. It has also been a boon to my mental health because I had grown to despise both the work and work environment at my previous place of employment. Getting out of there was like removing a slow drip of poison into my system.
My birthday is also in September, so it’s a chance to reflect on gaining another year and being happy about that vs. the alternative
The start of the school year is no longer particularly meaningful to me now, for which I am grateful, but I am aware of it on the periphery, with kids no longer out and aboot the same way during the day
October brings the last of the warm weather for the year (if we are lucky), the aforementioned explosions of color (the highlight of the season by far), Halloween (the holiday I am indifferent to, but I do enjoy seeing how people decorate their homes and yards) and, of course, pumpkin spice everywhere. What’s the deal with that, anyway? Pumpkins aren’t spicy!
