I recently found my 11” MacBook Air. I was impressed at how thin it was. It was fun to have a Mac in such a small package, but, after working with my Anker 7-in-1 USB dock/hub/dongle with my iPad mini, I’m not sure I would go back.

I have my favorite keyboard, which requires being connected via USB-C. I have power plugged into the USB-C PD port on the Anker (but my iPad says “not charging.”).

Most of the time, I use my iPad as a small tablet/reader. The mini size is perfect for me. Easy to carry. Most of time, I don’t need a keyboard. It’s either short texts that I type out on the on-screen keyboard or I use dictation.

We’ve been wrestling some networking issues and it seems that DNS may be part of the problem. (I know! Big surprise!). I was reminded of the trusty O’Reilly book “DNS and Bind: Help for System Administators”

While looking for a use copy at Powells, I found a free book “Alternative DNS Servers”.

A quick look at the table of contents shows that this is a generous gift to the Internet. Thanks Jan-Piet Mens! 

Hands Off! Vancouver

From the Hands Off! website:

This mass mobilization day is our message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country.

A core principle behind all Hands Off! events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.

Hands Off! Portland

12-4 at the Japanese American Historical Plaza

Support democracy, not autocracy

Shovel

Total lucky accident. When I was at Music Millenium, I saw Deep Sea Diver perform some songs from their new album, Billboard Heart.

“Shovel” stuck out instantly.

They’re going to be playing at the Wonder Ballroom on April 11. I can’t wait.

Last night, Cess & I stopped at the market where Jasper had been found. I bought a Mikes Hard Lemonade and a Hershey bar. They were favorites and one of the few things he would ask for.

We shared some of the drink and a few squares of chocolate.

We left the rest for him.

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since he passed.

Usually, when someone close to me passes, I actively don’t look at the calendar. I want to remember them, but I don’t want to focus on their passing. That’s been my thinking, at least.

But, for the past few weeks, even though I wasn’t trying to think about the upcoming date, it still popped into my mind.

I didn’t take the day off work, because I was afraid I’d mope around all day and feel sad.

I was holding up Ok, until I put the can down at his final resting place. I miss him so much and it’s still a huge hole in my life.

I’m back online! I am not sure what I did, but when I updated some blog setting, it stopped rendering.

Fortunately, I didn’t lose anything, but, I couldn’t update.

I did some half-hearted testing and research, but could not find a solution. This is the last post that I read, Tried to switch themes and now 404 - Hosting on Micro.blog - Micro.blog Help Center.

I removed a theme plug-in that I wasn’t using, Cypress, and updated the blog to the default theme. Voila!

It appears to be related to the way that Hugo handles themes.

Glad to be back.

We have several systems, services and other things that I like to keep an eye on during the day.

Some have nice web pages for monitoring systems. Some provide hooks so I can use Uptime Kuma or Grafana.

I heard of a couple Chrome extensions that cycles through open tabs, like TabCarousel or Auto Tab Switcher, and I looked for something similar for Safari. I did not find anything. This seemed like the perfect time to use AppleScript.

This AppleScript allows me to open all the different sites in tabs, then cycle through the taps.

Automatically scan/cycle through safari tabs? - Ask Different

In preparation for his upcoming gathering, I’ve made 3 stickers that we’ll have out for anyone to grab.

They’re small, in the range of 3-4 inches.

This is based on a self-portrait that he painted on our back fence. I changed the colors for the purpose of creating the sticker. The original was black features with a yellow fill.

This was probably when he was 19-20. He had long hair.

In the later days, he would grow his hair, but then shave it off. He never told me why, other than he “wanted a change.”

I found this sketch, below, in one of his notebooks. He did a lot of drawings of faces. Sometimes they were him, sometimes I imagine they were of people he met, others people/things that were appearing to him in his dreams.

All include the URL for his website, JasperRank.ART. (you can also go to JasperRank.com, and it will redirect you to the dot-art domain)

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I am making a post after a near 6-year absence. Around this time, six years ago, chaos started, and it quickly evolved into Hell. It was tough for our family, but it was always hardest for my son. He was once a sharp student who had As and Bs, was a brilliant baseball player, and a gifted multimedia artist. Unfortunately, over the past 6 years, his mental health degraded and by the end, he believed he was useless and didn’t deserve love. He told me time and time again that he didn’t want to be here. He tried multiple times to leave. We were fortunate to find people who helped us try to help him. The only solace is that he is finally at peace. This is one of our last selfies, taken during a brief window of calm. Rest in Peace, Jasper.

(originally posted to Instagram April 6, 2024. It was a couple weeks after his passing and I was starting to get texts and calls asking if rumors were true. I wanted to post to answer those questions where most people would see, but I didn’t really want to engage. I’m posting it here, because I feel like I really should have this on my blog.)

Today’s mood (un-ironic)

Picking up some curry

Broadway bridge into downtown PDX

Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.

Good Night Coming: I’m here for The Mighty Missoula

It started as an attempt to capture the sunset and skyline. Then I saw a neat abstract. It also is a subtle selfie.

I like that it looks like a photo collage.

Dave Hause & the Mermaid played great middle set

Buffalo Jones opened

Between sets

Super excited for this evening. I’m heading to the Hawthorne Theater to see Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.

Of course, this is much easier, if I want to blog a page. (I’m using the MarsEdit extension).

A Shortcut to Create a Markdown Link from Safari in macOS | Jorge Arango:

The Shortcut is useful when capturing a page for my notes in Agenda (or Obsidian)

Found a nice page on a simple Shortcut that will create a Markdown link of the front-most window in Safari (which is usually the thing I want to capture)

It gets information about the page and then generates a simple Markdown link and puts that link on the clipboard.

Simple, and helps reduce friction.

Let’s try now… A Shortcut to Create a Markdown Link from Safari in macOS | Jorge Arango

WiFi Testing in the Garden

I was asked if it would be possible to host a hybrid tour from the garden area behind the buildings. It was a beauty day and worth a test!

It was also crazy busy today, cuz we had new staff that I had to meet and get them up to speed with their new accounts and tech.