Week In Review 2026-07-18
This update covers Sunday 07-05-26 through Saturday 07-18-26 (icon Glossary, if needed).
LIFE
- 🈁 Hello again. I’ve been busy of late.
- 📕 My mother’s ashes are buried, and a chapter in my life has concluded.
- 📜 It’s nice to see things through to the end and bask in the accomplishment without having to rush forth to find something else to tackle.
- ❤️🩹 Travel didn’t take much out of me last week, thankfully. A vascular scan on my lower legs happened on Thursday 07-16, with results to follow in the next few days.
EXPLORE
- 🎨 I wrote two posts for the JulyReply project: “Re: I’m just so bored of AI” on Monday 07-06; and “Re: Weeknotes and ‘Bloggers, can we make better titles for our posts?’” on Tuesday 07-07. Thoughts about my mother’s burial can be found at “A reunion 56 years in the making,” published on Wednesday 07-15. Oh, and my Caira was sold for $500 on Saturday 07-11! I packaged all the items in their original boxes, shipped the box on Tuesday 07-14 for arrival at its new Silicon Valley home on Friday 07-17.
- 🔬 I’m running the Public Beta 1 for iOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate, as well as the HomePod 27 Public Beta. Aphera (macOS) exited beta testing this week, and I’ll likely purchase it next week before its 14-day trial expires. Deleted Caira (iOS) thanks to the sale of the hardware. Deleted Consul and Open Video Downloader (macOS). Deleted M-Kamera (iOS), which is an effective film rangefinder simulator, but it’s not for me.
- 🪟 There weren’t many outdoor excursions prior to the burial on Friday 07-10. I spent some time working at Comet Coffee on Wednesday 07-08 and had my hair cut that afternoon at Idle Hands. The next day, L. & I drove to the Chicago area and ate dinner with my parents at Kabob Q in Willowbrook. After the burial and before my relatives came over, L. & I went to Goldfinger Brewing for a few moments of rest. We spent 3 hours with my nieces and nephew, ate dinner after they left, then returned to Elmhurst to try out Beer On The Wall and Bottle Theory (with the latter having better vibes as we weren’t too keen on crowds that day). Saturday 07-11 was spent at King Spa in Niles, but not before trying out a new coffee shop, J’s, in Westmont. We left the spa to visit Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary for a couple hours, followed by dinner at El Xangarrito in Ravenswood and a nightcap at Is/Was Brewing. Sunday 07-12 saw us have breakfast with the parents at Honey Jam in Downers Grove before returning to STL. I worked at Living Room Coffee on Wednesday 07-15, then attended two private Side Project Brewing parties on Thursday 07-16 and Friday 07-17. I think that covers everything!
MEDIA
- 📰 The Fun Shortage Is Real, and It’s Making America Miserable, Bloomberg. Do you believe that everybody should have fun or that only a few people should have fun?, The White Pages. A 2-for-1 deal, with both articles discussing how expensive entertainment has become, and whether or not people are really getting what they pay for when they fork out more cash for vacations, playtime, sports, and so on. There was definitely more joy to be had with seeing how folks from around the world enjoyed themselves in the US (in spite of everything) during the World Cup, while contrasting that excitement with the exorbitant ticket prices at the stadiums, the overly-saturated FIFA sponsorships for everything except toilet paper, the difficulties in reaching the stadiums without paying triple-digit costs, etc. A “fun-for-all” movement would make for a great social, cultural, and even political movement were it to happen.
- 📰 The Lost Joy Of Music Piracy, Pigeons & Planes. Speaking of lost joys, reading about the rise and fall of what.cd still brings a tear to my eye. I was a member for a few years, though in hindsight I wish I had hit up this resource more often than I did. People will make their own ways to entertain themselves if “official” entertainment outlets become too expensive or burdensome, which is something of a lesson from the two articles listed above. These new ways don’t need to be commodified right off the bat; sometimes (all the time?), they can be left as-is without any desire to add a profit motive.
- 📰 In the Shawnee: Alpha-gal syndrome poses threat to southern Illinoisans as tick population surges, Capitol News Illinois. On one hand, I am eating less beef than before; on the other hand, the spillover into dairy, medical products, or clothing is not something I wish to consider at this time. I have been lax with using anti-bug medications on hikes, so now may be the time to tighten up my preparations when heading out into nature.
- 🎬 I Tried Japan's Ghost Motel Run by a 91-Year-Old Man Alone 🏩, travelgeek. A run-down love motel, run by a really old man who will occasionally show up in your room without warning? There’s nothing romantic about that at all!
- 🎬 Road to the Apple II: Computer Faire (Part 4), Upgrade. More stories from the very beginning of Apple’s history, including the drama leading up to the first unveiling of [the Apple ] in 1977. It’s fascinating to hear a retrospective from almost 50(!) years ago about a computer that really changed the world.
- 🎬 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280 Sedan5.4L M113 Swap: Regular Car Reviews, Regular Car Reviews. One of the better fake ads from Saturday Night Live was for the Chameleon XLE, a luxury car that had a shitty exterior that would make you think it was a hooptie, but with an interior on par with the best from Europe and Japan. The Mercedes featured in this RCR episode may be the closest real-life example of this ad, as its beat-up late 60s exterior hides 2000s-era M-B hardware, and an interior sourced from several late 60s/early 70s donor M-B’s. The amount of work that went into this car is barely believable, but the results speak for themselves.
WORK
- 🏥 “Quiet” and “uneventful” are two ways I’d describe work since the last update. It’s a weird state of affairs to be in, as I have been used to constant turmoil and action. By comparison, the last two weeks have been sedate, so I should just enjoy the current situation as it is.
OTHER
- 🗣️ In a couple of days, I’ll get to see and hear a big-ass train come through STL!
NEXT
- 🔮 L. has a medical procedure that will knock her out for a while, so I’m taking a half-day of work on Friday 07-24.
PICTURE
- 📸 A view of the Chicago skyline, along with plenty of wild sunflowers, from Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary.
