Week Notes, 2025-08-24
Weekly Features from August 18th - August 24th:
📋 I have been a big fan of RSS readers for many years, going all the way back to the lamented and practically sainted Google Reader. The layout of the reader is one major component that differentiates them from each other, so I've cycled through a few during my time. My current reader is News Explorer, which works on the Apple ecosystem as it only allows for iCloud syncing. While I have many options for readers, one option I don't have is the publication of the RSS feeds within the reader. Syncing your read articles, whether by iCloud, a self-hosted server, or a service provided by the reader itself, is only as good as the source provider. If your RSS feed provides you with old articles upon refresh, or articles dated recently but which were published a while ago, it's bound to provide confusion. You are expecting the articles to be published "now" or "recently," and not from several months ago or even a year ago.
🙈 The above is a partial explanation for an embarrassing error on my part. Last week, I had read in one of my RSS feeds a published piece from a participant in August's IndieWeb Carnival. The topic chosen for August was "rituals," as in what they mean to you, what you choose to do with them, are they helpful to you, and so on. This piece inspired me to write my own entry on the topic of scents, and the role they've played in my life over the last few decades. My reading skills, unfortunately, failed me at the same level as the RSS feed, because the inspiring piece was from August 2024's IndieWeb Carnival! I didn't catch this error until the host of the August 2024 IWC informed me via email, so I sheepishly edited my entry to reflect the proper date, though it's staying online regardless. Note to self: learn to read one of these years.
🌿 Friday 08-22 was a tough day due to an early start for both myself and L. I had a half-day of being onsite at my "regular" office, whereas L. had to reschedule a car appointment for 7:30 AM due to her mistakenly believing she was off that day. My sleep schedule has been jacked up ever since, so tonight I will partake a sleep aid that's legal in the state of Missouri. Let's hope this edible resets my body's internal clock.
🏝️ Vacation planning is underway. In October, we will be attending my college's Homecoming once again, though this time with a larger group of people in tow. The bigger vacation will be at some point in November, featuring a return to New Mexico along with a couple days in El Paso (and a potential day visit to Juarez in Mexico). My parents-in-laws and my brother had separately mentioned plans to visit us in the fall, but they have both delayed their travels to spring of 2026, thereby clearing more days for our own travels. After the TX/NM/CHH trip, I think the last major vacation will be to visit family in the Chicagoland area around Christmas.
🆕 I will be providing further explanations for the media files I'm noting below. This week, I will be talking more about the--*spins wheel of fortune*--Watching links.
Other Things to Note from The Week That Was:
💫 Creating:
- The IndieWeb Carnival slip-up, as mentioned above.
- I had to create a rule in a Facebook group I administer, as a member has been spamming it with her self-published evangelical Christian workout book. I'm okay with limited self-promotions, but her posts were numerous and repetitive, and were formatted such that they looked like spammy AI slop. So far, no blowback.
🏥 Health:
- Shopping at Costco is considered a workout in my book, so I'm counting the excursion there on Monday 08-18.
- A late-night swim with L. on Monday 08-18 after Costco shopping. This may be one of our last swimming events of the season.
- 7-minute workouts on Tuesday 08-19 and Thursday 08-20.
- Neighborhood walk with L. on Tuesday 08-19 and Friday 08-22.
- Walk around complex on Thursday 08-21.
- Lots of "passive" walking at work on Friday 08-22, taking advantage of the workplace being in a dense urban environment.
- Hiking at World Bird Sanctuary and Bluff View Park on Saturday 08-23.
- Walk in Kirkwood after recycling run on Sunday 08-24.
🎧 Listening:
- Episode 36 - Summer Breeze, Ambient Daily - Ambient Music Mixes
- With the weight of what was lost, the air hums with the ghosts of what could have been., Dark Ambient Noisescapes
- Ambient Sleeping Pill streaming radio
- The Inside Story of Tea, 404 Media
- Episode 602 - Rev Heat Wave, ABV Chicago (a THC seltzer is consumed before high-alcohol beers, leading to a really loose episode)
- RA.1000 DJ Harvey & Andrew Weatherall, Resident Advisor (over 6-1/2 hours long!)
🗄Organizing:
- Progress on vacation scheduling, as noted above.
- A small rearranging of iPhone apps on my iPhone to cut down on number of screens to scroll through.
- A roofing project will start this week on my apartment building, so on Sunday 08-24, both L. And I had to shuffle about our cars so they can be parked in an area away from the roofers.
📖 Reading:
- Rob Manfred says potential MLB expansion would provide ‘opportunity to geographically realign’, The Athletic
- Projecting what MLB realignment might look like with expansion on the horizon, The Athletic (this looks like a sensible realignment plan, which is why it won't get many headlines or attention)
- The Terminal Demise of Consumer Electronics Through Subscription Services, Hackaday
- How language is hiding the real internet from you, BBC
- How Tea’s Founder Convinced Millions of Women to Spill Their Secrets, Then Exposed Them to the World, 404 Media
- Various Artists ~ Household Objects (and sundry massed gadgets), a closer listen (what the follow-up to Dark Side Of The Moon could have been, in some alternate universe)
🌾 Socializing:
- Rosemary Coffee on Monday 08-18, then Kaldi's Coffee on Tuesday 08-19.
- Shopping at Costco on Monday 08-18, as mentioned above.
- A return to Black Mountain Wine House on Thursday 08-21, followed by a pickup of an order at Side Project Brewery.
- Coffee and lunch at Park Avenue Coffee near my office on Friday 08-22 (a convenient spot but rather meh in terms of products, unless it's gooey butter cake).
- A drink and discussion at Crafty Chameleon on Saturday 08-23, followed by picking up dinner at the nearby Dierbergs.
- Grocery shopping on Sunday 08-24.
🧪 Testing:
- Running Beta 7/Public Beta 4 on macOS 26 and iOS 26. Stability and performance improvements overall.
- Switched to Omni Crosswords (iOS) for my crossword needs, and deleted the Crosswords app.
- Decided to return to Ice Cubes (iOS) as my Mastodon client. I like Ivory, but I also like Ice Cubes, so now it's time to use the former once again.
- Deleted Ivory and Stellarium (both iOS).
- Downloaded, but not yet installed, Aspect (macOS) as a photo organizer.
📺 Watching:
- 🇬🇧 Riding on £8 London Heathrow Airport’s Driverless PODs, YouTube, Kuga’s Travel
- Heathrow Airport has a personal transportation device that looks like a nicer version of the PRT at West Virginia University. I can't imagine Heathrow's version handling a lot of traffic, as its setup precludes anything but mild usage at best. Looks futuristic, but doesn't look practical.
- Onsen Hotel in the Highlands of Japan’s Best Summer Retreat | Le Grand Karuizawa H & R, YouTube, It's Time to Travel🇯🇵 / 旅する時間
- A hilly, Western-style retreat in the Nagano Prefecture which I bet is insanely popular for weddings. The couple behind this channel isn't afraid to spend money for their onsen or hotel stays, but even by their standards, this stay was really pricey--¥143,880 or $976.92 per today's exchange rate of ¥147.28 per one US dollar.
- 3-day Ferry Trip on the Sea of Japan | Hokkaido - Akita - Niigata - Tsuruga, YouTube, CAPSULE JAPAN
- The ferry trips on these Japanese tourist channels are somewhat samey, but also rather relaxing to watch. Ferries in Japan seem to slide in between cruise ship amenities and rapid transit offerings, and in many parts of the country, ferries are absolutely necessary.
- New England Summer - Live Webcams, Weather, Music, Timelapse, YouTube, Boston and Maine Live
- A Saturday tradition with L. We both wake up slowly and later than usual, eat breakfast, then drink coffee while watching webcams cover all of New England, with particular emphasis on Maine and Massachusetts. After a couple cycles through the cameras, which as of yesterday was 128, we're finally awake and ready to start the day.
- Episode 519 - Outlaw (of Gor), YouTube, MST3K
- Cabot! Cabot! Cabot! Cabot! Cabot! Cabot! Oh, and Jack Palance, who is reluctantly in this film. His memories of this film are all over the place.
🗃️ Work:
- Onsite on Friday 08-22, as mentioned earlier.
- Watched the 3-hour Cool Stuff presentation from UGM at Epic. The theme was "science fiction," and lots of wacky hijinks involving Star Trek and Doctor Who ensued.
- My boss has assigned me various small projects that relate to hardware inventory, as there isn't a large spreadsheet or database showing which hospital departments are assigned specific hardware items. I'll be working some of the time with an intern on this project.