I created my Instagram account July 2011.

It was a lot of fun to take photos and apply filters. Eventually, for me, it became the place that captured Jasper and my adventures as we traveled around and he played baseball.

When The Chaos began, I stopped posting. I didn’t want to share what was going on. It wasn’t until I announced his passing that I returned to Instagram.

For the first year, I didn’t really feel any motivation to take any photos. I’ve started to feel the urge to take photos. For the most part, I’m not pleased with anything I take, but every once in a while, I’ll capture something that I think, “I’d like to share this.” Get a little of that affirmation dopamine. I’m hoping that restarting on Instagram will motivate me to take more photos and help me heal.

I’ll continue to post things here, first, but, I’ll also post things over to Instagram under my new account 2soxPix2.

Looking at the photo I posted last night, I thought I’d change the crop. Initially, I thought the “story” was a chance capture while I was driving. But I like the closer crop where the story is what I was feeling; friends appreciating a moment. 📷

A couple weeks ago, I witnessed an amazing sunset as I drove home. Because I was driving, I held my phone, pointing out the driver’s side window, finger tapping the shutter button. As I review my photos, I see that I caught a small scene where a group of friends were riding across the bridge and stopped to take it all in. It gives me some reassurance that there’s still beauty and people care.

📷

One of my souvenirs from tonight’s show. An orange Ship to Shore beanie.

Richard Thompson and Zara Phillips at Revolution Hall, PDX. 📷 🎵

We were marching to the Steel Bridge. A punk band was playing on the median. (They rocked) 📷

This band was playing as we walked to the Steel Bridge. Great punk performance. Hats off to the drummer playing in heels. 📷

No Kings Day Portland. OR. Down by the river. Big, peaceful crowd. 📷

Working on new sticker designs while waiting at the DMV 📷

2 years 📷

Waiting in line at the Portland, Oregon Apple Store. 📷

#BitCam

📷

Having seen the video of the 2nd ICE murder, I am shaking with anger.

4 men held him down and shot him.

It was not ICE “officers” defending themselves. He was on the ground, they had pepper sprayed them, they had the advantage.

And they shot and killed him.

He was exercising his 1st and 2nd Amendment Rights. And they shot him.

ICE is the antithesis of American and needs to be stopped.

Making a note of this Apple Support document Symbols used in Music on Mac, as I may need to revisit.

I was listening to a playlist and I saw this button, on the far right, in the Music app.

From left to right, the buttons are Shuffle, Repeat, Crossfade, and AutoMix.

I knew Shuffle and Repeat. I thought that the infinity symbol meant “keep shuffling and repeating.” Only when I looked up the double-circle symbol, did I learn that the infinity symbol meant “Crossfade” which is “to fade in each song (gradually increase its volume) while the previous song is fading out.”

The final symbol on that row is “AutoMix”, which is “to seamlessly transitions between songs, like a DJ.”

In my previous life, I think I would have relished the challenge of trying to come up with a symbol that could convey the concept of Crossfading and Mixing Songs like a DJ.

Wen I used to DJ music for parties and weddings, I appreciated the skill in transitioning between songs.

But, as I stood out by my wood pile, trying to figure this out, I was mainly annoyed. I’m not sure I see how these last two symbols mean what they do. Maybe I these are used elsewhere in DJ circles? Is this something I can blame on Alan Dye? (former Design Lead at Apple)

Tangent: Good write up by John Gruber at Daring Fireball: Bad Dye Job

📷

Just last week, I was missing the Core Intuition podcast. I found it when it began, and listened all the way through to the end. It was one of my favorite podcasts. It was some current events, it was some tech, it was some Apple Developer talk. But, most of all, it was a chance to listen to Daniel Jalkut and Manton Reese talk about stuff in a casual way. I missed Daniel’s mischief and quips, and Manton’s thoughtful dialogue.

Then, as I scanned my podcast app, tonight, I saw a new episode! They stopped the podcast almost a year ago. Since then, they had a surprise episode about six months ago. Always a treat.

Core Intuition Episode 26.2: A Little Bit of Light

Manton and Daniel check in about what they’ve been up to for the past six months. They talk about Micro.blog’s new video hosting features, Daniel’s son’s college search, and Tim Cook’s rumored retirement. Finally, they ask, and answer the question: “Can you replace Steve Jobs?”

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