Weekender #49

• Birb watch: I always feel sorry for the birds in my neighborhood during the end of the year. So many idiots have been blowing up fireworks at all hours of the day or night. I’ve heard so many birds crying into the night after someone sets one off. I was relieved to see all of the regular birbs return for some snacks and water over the last two days.

• I took some time to reflect on the past year and also ponder the start of the new year. Much like 2020, the past year (2021) was another big blur. It feels like I’ve been surviving month to month without any clear end in sight. At the start of 2021, I was very optimistic that things would somehow slowly get back to normal. I was naive enough to think that the world would snap back into place and everything would get better. After all, we had a vaccine on the way that would hopefully begin the process of helping us beat COVID. But we all know how that turned out.

  • Prior to this global pandemic, Audra and I looked forward to taking a yearly vacation in Japan. It was one of the few things I really looked forward to during the year. It’s also the one of the rare times that I could almost fully disconnect and get away from work (being in different time zones is amazing!) At the end of 2020, I was very hopeful that we’d be able to resume our regular vacation schedule in 2021, but I quickly lost hope for the prospect of traveling during the early phases of vaccination. Looking back, I realize now that getting away does a lot of good for my heart, soul and mental well being. I had to figure out other ways to stay sane.

  • To keep 2021 interesting, I decided to focus on small projects that built on things I wanted to get better at. I built another guitar, I built a bunch of guitar effects pedals, I played around with some music apps, I started writing this blog, and I started taking photos again. I wouldn’t call these projects a whole lot of fun, but they were satisfying for the most part.

  • In 2022, I’m hoping to do more in the creative realm. I’d like to get better in photography and playing guitar/making music, but what I’m really looking forward to most is working with Audra on another comic project. We’ll see.

• With the arrival of the omicron variant, and rise of infections in Hawaii, our New Years Eve dinner plans with Audra’s family had to be cancelled. I was looking forward to the Ruth’s Chris steak, but it can wait. Better safe than sorry.

• I spent way too long experimenting with the settings on my two Ricoh GR cameras. I finally settled on some defaults and now both cameras have the exact same settings. I’ll test things out this week and see how I like them.

• Audra and I finally got through our backlog for Star Trek: Discovery, watching up to the mid-season finale for season 4. I really enjoyed season 1-3, but feel like something is off with the writing of season 4. While not all episodes were bad, some of them were in the “TNG early seasons bad” territory. I’m hoping they’ll be able to pull it together when the show resumes in February.

• Seeking your fortune for 2022? Try this fun tarot drawer by AMET built on glitch. via Anil Dash

• Finally a good write up on how to sign out of your Apple ID, what happens when you sign out and what services aren’t available. via mjtsai.

• Another helpful tip, showing how to stop AirPods automatically switching between devices. Helpful if the automatic switching of devices drives you nuts while using your AirPods.

• There was a lot of great new music released this past year. One album that I really enjoyed and have come back to constantly is Pat Metheny’s - Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV). I look forward to every Metheny release and this one was no different. It took me a while to realize that the entire album was a concert performance that was recorded! The 13+ minute track It Starts When We Disappear is classic Metheny at his best. Listen: Apple Music