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September photo 📷 challenge day 19 Edge

Looking down at a street with cars, there's a leg of a person standing on a metal vent some 14 floors above.
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Got a new MacBook Pro 14, and I gotta say, the screen is phenomenal. It’s like my eyes are being polite and saying please and thank you. The keyboard is nice, but I’m used to my Mechanical split keyboard. And now that I got my plastic shell for it, I need to cover it with stickers.

edit 2023-09-19: The MacBook doesn’t fit in the stand I got for it with the plastic shell 😕. I guess I need to put it on every time I leave with it, which will get old quickly

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Blade Runner, 1982 - ★★★★

I watched Blade Runner more than once, but this time, I did so after reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. To me, there's no question about it: the movie is much better. No, let me rephrase this. The film is on a different plane.

There's a moment early in the movie where Ford (Decker) walks into the police station to talk to his old boss, who sits in a booth in an otherwise large hall. The camera pans slowly from the heights of the ceiling, showing us a dissolute police station that looks more like a train terminal with rows of empty seats. At one point, it crosses through the ceiling of the smaller booth inside the hall; this is where I paused the film for a moment to admire the details. On the booth roof, among the debrief, there were pieces of facade from the walls next to something that looked like an old rake and a few more pieces of trash. A shot of perhaps 2 seconds showing us junk, nothing significant - and yet, so much attention to detail. Someone thought about this trash, and someone was creative about this trash. This movie goes above and beyond to give you details.

A rich world with future society lights and music aside for a moment (I could go on for an hour about these alone), we have to talk about the actors. There is, of course, Rutger Hauer as Roy Battey and the famous tears in the rain. But Harrison Ford and Sean Young come close second, even when they recite lines from the book that seem a bit out of place. The supporting cast provides additional gravity to the world (Edward James Olmos as Gaff is one of my favorites). And then there's the music, a rich soundtrack I could listen to on a long commute, humming along.

But what makes this movie a masterpiece is not all that there is there, lying in front of us. It's what it implies. Especially today, it brings up the topic of what it means to be a minority group and how, under a certain light, one group can be morally exterminated. It asks us what makes us human and has us watch tests trying to prove just that and (in light of the end of the film) fail spectacularly. It also gives us a vision toward a future, in my opinion, better than the one in the book (which seems to focus more on religion and its role in human life). A future where everyone's different, but everyone's the same. A depressing shadow of a world that was destroyed (was it the war mentioned in the book? An environmental catastrophe? Doesn't really matter) due to the apathy of its inhabitants.

I'm going to watch this one again.

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September photo 📷 challenge day 18 Fabric

I’m having fun with the different photo modes on the iPhone. I didn’t explore them in depth before, but there are some interesting options.

Three kitchen towels, and a pillow on a chair with a vintage finish. The primary color is red-brown with some streaks of blue and patterns in the fabric.
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Currently reading: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke 📚

I think someone here mentioned it. I’m impressed with Clarke’s factual fiction of science fiction… it reads realistic. So far this is a pretty interesting read!

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September photo 📷 challenge day 17: Intense

🎶 These hot sauces are not kidding around. I only dare to use one drop on a bun. Any more than that, and I have a hole in my tongue. 🎶

Three bottles of hot sauce of different kinds. From left to right: Burn, Fiya Fiya, and aka miso

2024-09-19: I still have ‘em. Still only use one drop at a time. They’ve been in my fridge for about three years now.

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September photo 📷 challenge day 16: Oof!

Oof, this hits the spot! London fog (oat milk) and almond milk rice pudding.

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September photo 📷 challenge day 15: Red

The red tail on my mom’s favorite animal (I can’t stand him)

A big gray parrot picking at you through the bars of his cage. He has a red tail
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September photo 📷 challenge day 14: Statue

When we visited Copenhagen, we saw these statues underwater in the canal. They were intended to be presented this way, with the algae and fish swimming between them.

five human figures made of stone, underwater. They are green and blue, with algae growing around them an on them.
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Docking a new Mac?

I’m looking for a good docking station solution for a MacBook pro 14''. When at home, I want it to connect to LAN, power, SD card, and a coupe of USB-2s (two would be good) as well as USB-Cs.

How do you use your Mac at home? I have a KVM switch connected to my PC, which I use for Windows at the same time. I prefer to use my big mechanical keyboard and screen.

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Stomach/head issues again

I spent most of my evening with a paralyzing head/stomach pain combo. I couldn’t do much besides to lay down and hope to sleep. I think the trigger was eggs, though I can usually eat them and be OK. I think it’s the combo of an egg and certain oils. I wish I had a better idea so I know what to avoid.

This is an issue I’ve had for years with different levels of severity with different kinds of food. I know, for example, that too much sugar will cause headaches, but not to this level.

I usually don’t eat a lot of fats (no red meat, little fired food, I eat cheese occasionally, on a single slice of bread), and I’m fairly active, so maybe there’s something about handling a lot of it (as in two eggs) at once? No idea.

Edit: 2023-09-14. 10:52: After an episode like this, as I was taught by Nat, one of the best things to eat is wholesome buckwheat, known as Kasha. It looks like this when ready:

a bowl filled with boiled buckwheat, with slices of reddish stuck in it with a bit of salt
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September photo 📷 challenge day 13: Glowing

Three glasses with an unknown cocktail glowing orange to the light of a candle.
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OK fine, I will also talk about the Apple Event:

  1. Oh, a USB C! Am I sure this is an Apple event?
  2. I love my camera, but having a 120mm and micro lens always on me? Tempting. The size though…
  3. Why are all these phones so BIG y’all?!
  4. This action button is a smart idea, but I can see how some folks (sorry Mom!) will have a problem programming and getting used to it.

And as usual, everything is so, so expensive, and somewhat “cold” and without a soul. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it feels more like a money-making machine than the old days of Ohh and Ahh. Maybe they should have some of their excited users on the stage next time after they tried the new stuff for a while? That’ll show some excitement and relatable real-world experiences 🤔

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Hey @manton.org, this looks pretty good…! When was this implemented, and who should I thank?

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September photo 📷 challenge day 12: Panic

Here’s a goofy one from pre-COVID days. I call it “that moment when you finally got yourself out to the gym and realize you left your keys behind 🔑 "

A selfie, eyes big and open in panic, towel wrapped around the neck, wearing a white t-shirt
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The most important thing in any reminder/notes system is to stick to it. Scattered notes in 5 different apps mean you’ll never find what you need when you need it.

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September photo 📷 challenge day 11: Retrospect

In retrospect, I enjoy small parties with a few good folks. This one is from around Christmas two years back. Also, now I know what a Range Hood is.

A range hood reflecting green, yellow, and blue lights from hanging small lightbulbs on a wire.
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Finished reading: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner, #1) by Philip K. Dick 📚

I always wanted to read this one, and now I did. A couple of flaws made this story less believable than it could have been, and that’s a shame. The world-building is leaning to extremes, as well as the sexist roles of women, perhaps typical to the era in which the book was written. The story itself is not so much SciFi as it is a criticism of religion and the human condition, but if that’s the point, it’s a bit blunt. Overall, I did enjoy this one, and it’s well-written; I guess I just expected more from the book that gave birth to Blade Runner. I think it’s time to watch it again now.

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September photo 📷 challenge day 10: Cycle

I talked about my sand timer (hourglass) before; it’s how I measure my productivity/work cycles and downtime/rest cycles. I try to have them as even as possible, though it’s usually 2 cycles of work, 1 cycle of rest…

An hourglass standing on a desk on a wooden plastform. In the background some electronics and wires
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September photo 📷 challenge day 9: Language

After traveling from Bangor Maine to Portland and now to Boston to catch a train to NYC, that’s the language I have in front of me.

Buckle up, bucko, this is a big country.

A sign on the back of a bus seat saying buckle up for safety