Weeknotes
Web, Tech, and the Socials
I updated the Lambda Function that scrapes my television/movie and book progress to announce additions to statuslog (status.lol). This has the side effect of publishing the announcement to Mastodon (which has the follow-on side effect of being echoed to Bluesky. Now I have it working though, it seems like it’s a little chatty. Maybe I need to make it so updates are limited to once a day instead of happening in real time? Does it matter?
I loaded the Vivaldi browser on my Mac and iPad. So far I’m really happy with it. Synchronizing bookmarks and tabs across devices works well without any fuss and performance seems good. I’m reading some scary things about battery usage so we’ll see what happens when I load in on my iPhone. More to come.
Wednesday was my Omglolliversary! It’s been two years since I joined OMG.lol with my first address. Since then I’ve added four more addresses and am now hosting five blogs/sites using weblog.lol. Most importantly, Adam has built a community that is really special. It’s a privilege to be part of it.
I realized that I have a lot of followers on Mastodon who I am not following back. Should I be? If I follow them all, I feel like there’ll be no way for me ever to keep up with my feed!
Partly because of the supposed mass exodus from X, but mostly because of the recently added support for it on Echofeed, I am again (somewhat) active on Bluesky. My Mastodon posts are mirrored and I’m checking my feed every few days. I’m still trying to figure out who to follow over there, but I’m trying to make more of it than following people I already follow on Mastodon. I still consider this an experiment, but I am curious to see if it builds into anything like what Twitter used to be.
🇪🇸 Mondly, a far less annoying alternative to Duolingo, is offering a limited Black Friday promotion in which I picked up a Lifetime Premium access subscription] for $90. I’m usually skeptical of such offers, but sometimes they work out so I took a chance. I’m using it as an opportunity to resume my foreign language study.
Music
🎵 Hans Zimmer Live is coming to America next year and they’re making a stop in Columbus AND I scored tickets and I am so stoked I can’t even tell ya!
Sport
I’m still trying to prepare for my upcoming 5k run/walk in Las Vegas, but boy have I been slacking! When I do get on the treadmill I feel good, so I’m optimistic that when the day comes it’ll go smoothly.
Got out and played some pickleball at the weekend. Got my butt kicked as usual, but it was mostly fun. Every time I play for ratings, my rating goes down. Soon I’ll be relegated to the abject beginners section!
Reading
⛪️ I always enjoy reading Lou‘s stuff and his post this week entitled, “Living in the Bible Belt“ was no exception. Although our paths have been very different, I connected with his stories of “mental gymnastics” while also finding balance and acceptance in a world filled with (shall we say?) inconsistency.
- Keiran Southern’s Times interview with Gregory Maguire provides a really interesting understanding of Wicked author’s pursuit of a story of the roots of evil.
If you haven’t read the US Army’s Orientation Fact Sheet #64, “Fascism!”, you really should. Written in 1944 and published in 1945, the 8-page pamphlet defines Fascism, how to identify it, where it inevitably leads, and how to stop it.
Watching
My wife, daughter, and I went to see Wicked at our local AMC. The book was great. The musical was a knockout. The film was simply magnificent! It hit on every cylinder: music, choreography, costumes, makeup, pace. I know the second act isn’t as great as the first, but I’m looking forward to part two all the same.
💋 Finished season one of Nobody Wants This and I really loved it. It was charming and quirky and above all funny! Looking forward to another season.
💙 Shrinking is another show with a lot of heart and a lot of humor. Season 2 was a little slow to get going, but seven episodes in and it’s got a head of steam.
🦼 Thelma is a cute film in the “good but not great” category.
🎅 I’ve been pushing through The Santa Clauses despite it having nowhere close to the same level of quality as the trio of films. I put it on mostly as background noise because I’m a sucker for Christmas movies.
It is Thanksgiving week here in the states, so in that spirit I wish you all a safe and happy week. Cheers!