Five Things This Week: week 12

I still owe you the third and final installment of “Utterly Unexplainable”, but it’s been a rough week for a number of reasons, one of which was that the internet went out at my house mid-week. The cable modem is upstairs and I’ve been using, well…
TP-LINKThis thing has been working wonderfully for some time. Rather than running a CAT5 cable from upstairs, this uses the house’s electrical wiring to carry the network signal down to my wifi access point. Turns out, it doesn’t work very well when people working on the unit upstairs unplugs it upstairs.
Oops.
Plugged back in, literally and figuratively, let’s move on to the rest of the list…
Atlas Obscura
The Choctaw people, who had just been forced from their land to to an Oklahoma reservation, who had everything stolen from them, still put together funds to donate to the Irish during the potato famine. Another instance of those with the least giving the most of themselves. This lifted my spirits after a rough week.
Car & Driver
The last two Bullitt tribute Mustangs were beautiful, and I absolutely adored the reveal of the forthcoming 2019 Bullitt Mustang when it was revealed during the North American Auto Show next to… the original Bullitt Mustang. Here’s the fascinating story of how that car went from being “lost” in a garage to the brightest stage in the automotive world.
Jalopnik
Meet one of the best Ferrari mechanics in the country and how she persevered through some rough times.
Car & Driver
If you’re a car nerd, then this is pure car porn. For most people it’s just a new engine that’s going into some of the top-of-the-line Mercedes, but like so many technologies that start at the top, this engine provides a preview of what’s to come for the future of the internal combustion engine: the conversion of the engine electronics from 12 to 48 volts; the addition of a particulate trap (like on diesels) to offset an unintended consequence of the increasingly-necessary direct fuel injection; an electric supercharger that spools up almost instantly to negate the larger down-stream turbocharger. It’s a beautiful, brilliant piece of engineering.

Selfie Week 12: My Brain Is an Extremely Odd Place

A weird picture for an odd post. I asked Fern’s help and she decided I should represent the chill in my house by doing a weird Facetime capture with her space heater in the corner (flanked by Wakandan warriors, no less (they’re not really Wakandan)). Strange, no? Seriously, click on it for a bigger version (if you dare!), it’s freakin’ weird.
For tonight’s post I’ve tried a number of different directions, and nothing is sticking, so to that end I’m going to go all stream of consciousness on you:

  • March is a weird month. There’s the whole “In like a lion/out like lamb” (or vice versa), but there was also pi day last week on 3/14. Speaking of stream of consciousness, I completely missed Bloomsday this year on March 16th, commemorating the birthday of James Joyce. That same day in Boston, they celebrated “Evacuation day,” which is the anniversary of the first major victory of the revolutionary war when the British evacuated Boston. Really, though, I think it’s just a warm up for the following day when Boston celebrates Saint Patrick’s Day. Did you drink green beer and look for leprechaun gold? Me neither. I am excited that tomorrow is the Spring equinox — quite excited by the longer days going forward. I signed up for a daily email from the National Day Calendar folks which alerts me of such critical days as today’s National Poultry Day — sorry, I didn’t get you a card.
  • File under “I’m my own worst critic”: last week I was patting myself on the back for being fairly consistent about updating my blog. Today? Beating myself up for not making any progress on the two features I’m working on for the site, not to mention the state of the two don’t-call-them-novels novels. Good thing I’m getting more adept at sorting the wheat from the chaff when it comes to self-criticism – Bad Jordy is right, I’ve been negligent on some of the projects I’ve been meaning to get to. Though, I think the time away from at least one of the features has been helpful – coming back to it today, I think I might have a narrative structure! Take that, Bad Jordy!
  • My four-year-old iPhone 5S is driving me nuts. It had been growing steadily slower, but it wasn’t until the last major update that it went utterly batty. You’ve probably heard about the battery issues plaguing earlier iPhones, well, given that my model is the oldest that could get that update, it’s made it positively insane. I won’t complain too much, suffice it to say that it will drop from a full charge, straight off the plug, to 85% within minutes. Should I dare actually, you know, use it? It’s going to drop below 50% within the hour, and rip on down to the 20% warning in no time at all. Three hours off the electrical tether and I’m getting a sub-10% warning. Though the moment it registers its plugged in the battery jumps to at least 55%. It’s maddening, but now I’m taking it personally. It’s like me and the iPhone are locked in a battle of imbecilic wills – I will not let its slowdowns, its molasses-like opening and switching of apps, and its intermittent freezing and restarting beat me! I won’t, I won’t, I won’t!!!
    (maybe it’s already won? Shh, don’t tell!)
  • And now for your moment of zen:

Five Things This Week: week 11 – Gadget Edition

I’m doing things a little different this week. My goal in life is to eventually be able to make a living through writing. Being realistic, I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that point, but a guy’s gotta dream, right? In the short term, though, I have a more realistic goal: to have this site at least pay for itself. Eventually I hope to put ads on here — discretely, of course — but I’m not there yet. Now, though I’m starting with Amazon Affiliate links. If you’re not familiar with how the links work, when you click on them it takes you to the product on Amazon’s page. If you buy it — or anything on Amazon during that visit — Amazon kicks me back a tiny percentage for getting you there with the link. For media links like songs or movies I’ll still make alternative links — Spotify, iTunes, YouTube when I can find it — but now you know why I’m leading with the link to Amazon. 
To start this off, this week’s Five Things are gadgets and tools that I use on a regular basis and make my life a lot easier. Let me know if you have any useful gadgets you can’t live without in the comments!
Brydge KeyboardI’ve been seeking out a great keyboard for my keyboard-less devices since I first bought a folding keyboard for my faux Palm Pilot, the Handspring Treo Prism back in the 90’s. I’ve tried a number of keyboards with iPads over the years, but I love this one with my iPad Air. It matches the Apple aesthetic and looks like a little laptop — I’ve had more than one person mistake it for a MacBook Air. I won’t pretend the keys are the finest in the world, but they’re responsive enough, they’re backlit, and most days I take the iPad with the Brydge instead of lugging around my laptop. Love it. 
Retractable cordAs you might have guessed from above, I’m in a predominantly Apple-tech universe. However, I have plenty of devices that require Micro USB for charging, too. Rather than carry two cables around, I carry one similar to this (the one I have isn’t made anymore, but this is pretty close). It’s not super long, but the convenience more than makes up for the short length, and having both types of connector ends has allowed me to help Android-using friends when their batteries run low.
PowerbankI don’t know if this the best power bank out there, but I’ve had it for the last four years and — with the state of the battery on my ancient iPhone — I rarely go anywhere without it. The wonderful thing is, with 10,000 mAh I don’t have to recharge it all the time. Oh, and the ability to charge two devices at once is handy, too!
NotebookI’ve always wanted a Moleskine notebook but haven’t been able to justify the price. One of these days. In the meantime, when I was shopping for a notebook, I decided to give the AmazonBasics notebook a try (it’s almost six bucks cheaper). Like I said, I haven’t used a real Moleskine, but this is a great little notebook. Rediscovering writing (with awesome colored pens!) has been a lot of fun, and the pages don’t bleed through — I’m not using Sharpies, but the ink is still heavier than a traditional ball point.
AmazonBasics Laptop bagAbove I mentioned that often I just carry my iPad with the Brydge these days, this is what I carry it in. I’ve tried a lot of gear bags over the years — oversized messenger bags, gear backpacks, tactical bags — and they all have their benefits, but this guy is great for its size — and price. Usually I carry everything above, along with whatever paperback I’m reading and more. It’s small enough that it’s barely noticeable.