Category: Tech

Air Pods Pro

I got a set of air pods pro for Christmas. I like them, but were they better than the original air pods? I couldn’t really say. I think the originals fit better, or at least were a little more comfortable. They feel more secure in my ear. Sound wise, they were about the same. If the seal on the pro’s isn’t good the sound is really toppy and a little tinny.

Last night though, it all changed. Last night I seriously bonded with the little suckers. I was sitting up in bed watching an episode of The Stand (I’m still a bit behind) and I literally couldn’t tell if I was hearing the audio through the air pods or not. It was so clear and perfect, I thought it was coming through an actual speaker. Nice. I had the noise canceling on, which was okay. The transparency thing is good too, but I was the only one awake. The spacial audio… well… as someone who used to be an audio engineer (at least in his head he was) I find the very concept offensive. Some kick ass audio engineer worked his or her ass off to place every sound within the stereo spectrum, and then here’s Apple saying if you turn your head the air pods change the perspective with you. Ummmm… no. I think I’ll go with the audio professional’s opinion of where the sound should be coming from.

Anyway, the point here is that I’ve finally had a break through moment with my air pods pro. For the first time, to my ears at least, they lived up to the hype. Nice!

Day Two is Done

My closet has been cleaned out and completely reorganized. I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass, but it was a bigger deal than I thought it would be. The closet organizing insert thing was smaller than we thought it would be, but it still works fine. I also hung some shelves, proving once again that I don’t have the ol’ carpenter/contractor gene. Not even close. While I was doing all of that, Jen was reorganizing storage spaces and closets all over the house. She was amazing. Right now she’s on her computer planning out a hypothetical post-covid redesign of our kitchen and dining room. That’s what happens when you watch too much property brothers. You start getting crazy ideas about knocking down walls and putting islands into your kitchen. As always, she is amazing.

Jen and I are both off from work tomorrow and there should be a new bed frame getting delivered. That’s goal number one. I also have to drive my father to a doctors appointment. That’s goal number two. Goal number three? I haven’t played guitar in days. I have a new wah wah pedal literally sitting on the floor next to me and apart from proving to myself that it works, I haven’t played with it yet. That needs to change tomorrow. Mental health dictates that I get some significant playing time in tomorrow. I have spoken.

Wallet

I recently got myself a new iPhone. The iPhone 12 Pro Max, to be exact. I also bought a simple case and one of the new magnetic wallet things. I told myself I wasn’t going to get one of those, but when I found myself shopping on the Apple website I just went with it on impulse.

I don’t think I will use it all that often once the world is open again and we can go places. It’s just not terribly big. I can fit three credit card sized objects into it and that’s it. Under normal circumstances I am going to stick with my old wallet. At Disney World, or in some situation where I don’t want to have a lot of stuff on me, the magnetic thingamajig will be nice. For now, during the Covid-19 ridiculousness, I am using it. I guess just to get used to it.

Turns out that getting used to it is a problem. I was not aware that I did this, but every time I stand up from a sitting position, the first thing I do is unconsciously touch my right front pocket to see if my wallet is there. My right front is my normal home for wallet and keys, and over the past week every time I’ve stood up and checked I’ve had a split second of panic where I think oh shit where’s my wallet. Then I remember it’s stuck to the back of my phone.

It’s been a week and I still do it every single time. I’m guessing I will stop doing it about a day before my company opens up the buildings again and I have to start leaving the house every day.

Typical, right?

Apple Nerds

Our Apple TV Siri remote has gone missing. It was there last night, it’s gone today. I think the cat ate it.

I was sitting at my work desk messing with my MacBook Pro and watching some hockey so I popped on over to apple.com and ordered a new remote. As I was starting the check out process Jen walked into the room to tell me that she just ordered a new remote.

Nerd love. It’s a beautiful thing.

Crazy Friday

I’m 94 minutes away from a long weekend. There is talk of watching Hot Fuzz tonight. I need this work day to end now. It’s been wacky from the word go. Uncle! That’s me crying uncle for the day. Enough. Here, I’ll do it again, Uncle!

I have a research project to do this weekend. There is talk of a Roomba. Do I want to open the door to the oncoming robot apocalypse in order to keep my floors clean? The answer is probably yes, but it’s expensive.

This is also our last weekend with Bellana before she goes back to school. We must make it a good one, Roomba not withstanding.

WandaVision is out. The list of Marvel Cinematic Universe things I have not seen is now up to one movie and two TV episodes. WandaVision will be covered this weekend. Thor II… someday.

The Boston Bruins are 1-0 on the season. A perfect 56-0 is literally in our grasp. No it isn’t, but statement like this after one game are pretty obligatory.

Trump is still impeached, again. Trump’s term ends in five day.

88 minutes until the weekend. I need a vacation. I need a Covid-19-free vacation.

Two Laptops

Another tweak to my working from home workspace. I now have both my personal laptop and my new work laptop plugged into Jen’s gigantic, mammoth monitor. I still need to move my USB hub between the two lappy’s when I want to switch, as well as change the input setting on the monitor itself, but now I can use this desk for personal stuff, like posting to the blog or binge watching The Flash on Netflix, without having to use my work machine. I’ve got an HDMI input for one machine and a display port for the other. I still have a mini display port input available. If I can get my mitts on an adapter to convert to USB-C I can have a dedicated input for my MacBook too. Oh what a technological marvel our world is.

Still Waiting

I haven’t heard anything from the House of Representatives today. The expectation was they were going to be debating something about the 25th Amendment. Can the Congress force Pence’s cowardly hand? I don’t know. They can vote on whether or not to impeach the terrorist in chief, but it sounded like they were waiting until tomorrow for that.

Why are they waiting? Every minute cheeto remains in power is one minute closer to a catastrophe. Remove the fascist terrorist now. Get him out of there. Stop putzing around and DO SOMETHING. He orchestrated an armed assault on the US Capitol building. He needs to be in jail and he needs to be there six fucking days ago.

It’s so freakin’ frustrating. It’s like the entire Congress wasn’t paying attention when the mob stormed their chambers. What the ever loving fuck?

I can’t even distract myself with hockey yet. The NHL opens up tomorrow and the Bruins open up on Thursday. I thought we would have a new, temporary president by then, but nope. Terrorists are only punished when they pray to the wrong version of god. That’s the precedent the US Federal government is setting right now. Nice job, folks. Let the evil run free. Good work.

On the up side, I coded a custom utility today. I usually let my staff handle tasks like that, but it’s been so long since I’ve done it I felt the need to make sure I still know how. I do. At least until it gets to peer review and the reviewer skewers it. That’s gonna happen. Until then, good boy, robbie.

Now REMOVE THE GOD DAMNED TERRORIST. Pretty please.