I really didn’t write much in the springtime here. Much too neglectful. I don’t even know where to start. So let’s make it a little random…
WORK
My work area was renovated. New furniture, new configuration and I am so digging it. My boss also got new furniture and we are both looking quite business-like at our desks. My area is very open now and probably more welcoming for visitors. I have so much more counter space and I’m hoping to keep the counter behind me mostly clear unless I’m working on some kind of project or just my files in order. I haven’t had much to do with any of the interior decorating– all credit to my boss and our nurse. They have the eye and the touch for sure!
VACATION
The first weekend of July was a hot one so we went to Carmel for the cooler weather. It was LOVELY! While it was in the triple digits or thereabouts here at home, it was in the high 60s in Carmel. LOVED IT, even though we were only there for two nights. It was a great way to start my week off from work.
It cooled down by the time we were back home and July 4th wasn’t as hot as it could have been. We watched the parade in the morning, went home, then came back to hang out at BCBC before the drone show. BCBC was non-stop while we were there and we were lucky to have a table to pass the time. The drone show was short. We didn’t have a good view though if it had been a little bit higher, we would have seen more.
The rest of my vacation week was rather chill. I didn’t have a car to drive (mine ended up in the shop) so I just stayed home and didn’t do too much but relax. I did go to the movies before the car needed work to watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I liked it! Well, I liked it much better than the Crystal Skull one. The Dial of Destiny was a good end to Indiana Jones. (Well, I hope it’s the end of Indiana Jones.)
TECH STUFF
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
In a not so surprising move, the husband went back to the iPhone. He was carrying the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 for seven or so months, which might be a record, but he couldn’t resist the calling of the iPhone. This left me with the Flip4, using one of our extra lines. So yes, I’m carrying two phones. I’m calling it Captain 2 Phones Jr but if I wanted to go with something shorter, I could call it Sabina since she and I are the lock screen.
The phone number to the Z Flip4 doesn’t seem to have been used by anyone before me because I have not gotten any wrong number callers. It’s going to be my super secret phone number since I’ll have my Google Voice number forward to both my phones. Not that I get many calls.
If I wasn’t so damn tethered to Apple and their suite of products (more on that later), I would be like Michael Fisher aka MrMobile and go full foldables. I am utterly fascinated by the foldables out there. A perfect world to me would be a foldable iPhone alá the Z Flip4 although the notion of a foldable like the Pixel Fold is certainly intriguing. I’m just glad to be able to dabble in two mobile operating systems.
The Z Flip4 is certainly attention getting. Just the other day, I shut it after taking a picture and the bartender commented on it. I went into wannabe tech girl mode and talked a little about it. I like the size and the Android OS is certainly on par with iOS. The camera is decent enough and I really LOVE taking selfies by placing the phone down and using gestures to trigger the camera.
I want to say I’ll use the Z Flip4 as my weekend phone but I can’t keep the iPhone too far from me since it is my main phone. I don’t have any payment information on the Z Flip4 (yet?) so I’ll always have to at least have my Apple Watch on the wrist.
MacBook Air 15″
On Friday afternoon, we headed to Walnut Creek to the Apple Store. It was a hot day but we weren’t too long in the store. The transaction was smooth and easy. Maybe too easy? I walked out with a new MacBook Air, 15″ edition, in Midnight. I went with the 16 GB of unified memory, 1 TB of SSD storage configuration. And it’s what I’m using right now to do this post. Can it be I just needed something new to get back to writing my blog? Hmm, what does that say about me, besides being a bit uninspired of late?
The Midnight color is definitely fingerprint prone but I knew what I was getting into so I can’t complain. It’s a beautiful machine, solid, responsive, fast, and smooth. I haven’t worked in MacOS regularly but it’s not been difficult at all to figure out how to use everything. Besides, I say I like learning things to I can’t grouse about not knowing right away how to make the computer do what I want it to do. I figured out that I want to store my photo library on my external drive and learned how to do that. I will probably download a lot of my music to this machine but we’ll see. (Not sure if my old iPods will work with the MacBook since they’ve only ever been connected to Windows computers.)
So far I am digging this laptop. I’ve already transferred my current photos/videos from both my phones and I’ve done screenshots of one of my tv shows (30 Coins aka 30 Monedas). Transferring the screenshots to my external drive took hardly anytime at all. FANTASTIC. Battery life has been stellar so far but I’m only on day two of using it from 100% charged.
LEISURE TIMES
Alameda County Fair – We went in late June and the weather was freakin’ perfect for it! I’ve never gone to the county fair where the weather wasn’t balls hot but this time, it was very lovely. We got to watch the horse racing from the Trackside Terrace, which came with food. Fancy!
We checked out the fair itself and it was colorful and crowded and good times.
Stockton Con – Last Sunday we decided to head out to Stockton Con! Even though I had skimmed over the guest list a few weeks before, I was pleasantly surprised to see Patrick Fabian there. It was apparently his first convention (how is that even possible?!) and it looked like he was having a good time. OF COURSE, I just had to take a picture with him. You might know him from his other work but I remember him from his one episode (“King Con”) on Xena Warrior Princess.
Patrick was a total sweetheart and took the time to connect and chat. I hope it was a good experience for him and he comes back to another local convention so I can meet him again.
The convention was a lot of fun! So many people (but in a good way), so many vendors (to challenge my wallet), and so many things to see. I did buy some goodies because there was no way I was going to walk the vendor floor without buying at least one thing. I ended up with four things.
I had a good time walking around and looking at all the stuff. I resisted on buying a few things and I’m satisfied with what I did end up buying. The Funko Pops weren’t super expensive and I couldn’t resist the Superman figure. All in all, a fun way to spend the afternoon…
SOCIAL MEDIA
Threads – So there’s a new social media app out there and it’s sparked the most joy in me compared to the other networks that have cropped up since we’ve all be looking to step away from Twitter. Since it uses your IG credentials for sign up (for now?), it was easy to sign up and start posting away. I’ve seen a few things about how it’s not fair to compare it’s surge in sign ups because it’s connected to IG but do those same people realize that everyone who’s signed up for Threads had to actually download the app then sign up for the service? Just because it was super easy doesn’t mean that it doesn’t count. Since it activated during my vacation, I spent A LOT of time in the app on both my phones. I really like it because a lot of the people I like to follow (techie types) are on it and I can follow them. The other SM networks I’ve tried– Mastodon and Spoutible– don’t have as many of the folks I want to follow. Speaking of…
Spoutible – I like this one from the stability standpoint. There’s a web version but only an Android application at this writing. There are real conversations and opinions and thoughts posted there and intentions are good on the part of the creator of the network. But gosh, people are super serious on that app. And I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be serious but for me, I like balance. I don’t necessarily need someone to pay attention to my posts but I wish the ones I follow would post more than just the perils and faults and downright negative reality of this life. Everyone just seems hell bent on being so serious, so righteous, so negative. I know, I could just not follow those people but in certain moods, I don’t mind sometimes reading that kind of stuff because it brings me some balance. I just haven’t felt a lot of joy there. It’s still one of the places I post my Wordle but I can go days without posting anything else there…
RANDOM BABBLINGS
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season two has begun and I’m enjoying the show so much! I like it so much more than I thought I would and it’s been pretty good so far this season. I love the sci-fi adventure, the drama, the surprising and very welcome humor, and romance. It’s Star Trek but something more. So good…
Secret Invasion – I don’t really have many expectations with this show so maybe that’s why I don’t mind its more down to earth grittiness. It’s a good watch and I’m definitely curious how it will tie in to the future Marvel movies/shows…
RANDOM PHOTOS
IN CLOSING
It’s too hot to do anything but hope that the power stays on so that the a/c can try its hardest to keep us relatively cool. This is not my favorite part of the summer. Triple digits temperatures are just not my thing at all.
This MacBook Air is super pretty and cool and I’m going to have it too long on my lap because it’s sucking me in to keep using it. The battery is really holding up. I’ve been using it for hours and it’s at 73%. Not bad!
Hopefully this post means that I’ll take the time to post more. Maybe I’ll try to go back to the weekly posts. Not making any promises though…
