Bought new smoke/CO detectors for the house. Having false alarms in the middle of the night from the First Alert models we have are getting really obnoxious. These should work much nicer, and actually silence with the press of a button.

Finished reading: Castle Roogna by Piers Anthony 📚

Book 3 of Xanth. Really enjoying this world.

Finished reading: The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony 📚

Another fun trip around Xanth.

Tempting fate and installing Sonoma. Fresh clone made before I clicked install, so I can quickly recover if I need to.

Finished reading: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz 📚

What a ride! A cool sci-fi concept. Quite dystopian.

We were wondering if we needed a humidifier for the 2nd floor. So instead of just buying one, I put together my Arduino kit. So far, I don’t think we do.

Finished reading: A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony 📚

I don’t know how I haven’t heard of Xanth before, but this was a fun fantasy world to jump into. The negative is that it is certainly a product of the late 70s, early 80s.

My XBox 360 has officially become a paper weight. The optical drive will no longer read discs. Can’t even use it as a DVD player for the kids. The key matching between the logic board and drive is incredibly annoying. Would be nice if I could easily repair it.

iPhone has been updated to 17.1. Macbook Pro is still enjoying 13.6, but may consider updating now that 14.1 has released. Hesitant to update it still as it’s a development machine, and I don’t want to troubleshoot issues with a big upgrade.

Finished reading: The Pirate’s Wife by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos 📚

Really intriguing read. Shows some of the good that came from piracy, I had no idea NYC was a haven for pirates at one point, and they were very beneficial to the colonies as England was too busy waving swords with France.

Finished reading: The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes 📚

Another fun entry in The Inheritance Games series. This one was much more high risk and thrilling, a very captivating read.

Finished reading: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix 📚

Mixing the ancient world and real (1980s) world in a fun, whimsical fantasy novel. I enjoyed this one.

I picked up a Traxxas TRX-4M this weekend so our 4yr old and I could play with it. It’s great for small children as it doesn’t do 30+ mph like larger rc cars, but it’s hobby class so it’s better than toy aisle rc cars. I think I may have to get another truck, as she doesn’t want to stop driving it.

Time standards for computers are one of those things that should have been stopped after the first standard was developed. Dealing with different time standards, and converting between them makes me want to find everyone that developed a new standard.

The Kia EV9 looks like a great upgrade from our 2017 Subaru Outback. Sure I’d love an electric Outback, but who knows when Subaru will produce one, and the Outback is starting to feel pretty cramped on even just weekend trips with two littles. Side note, why do most EVs have hideous wheels?

Finished reading: The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes 📚

Super quick read, but a thrilling ending to the trilogy.

Finished reading: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal 📚

Really fun sci-fi thriller/murder mystery. Quick read, but very captivating.

Finished reading: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 📚

An epic fantasy novel. This was an amazing read, and I didn’t want to put it down. Beautiful story, wonderful characters, and plenty of twists.

I picked up an Ugmonk Analog during their warehouse sale. I’ve been using the notecards for a couple weeks now and like the system.

Tried some almond butter instead of peanut butter. It’s good, I like it, but the price difference between almond and peanut butter is significant.

All ready for Pelikan Hubs. Inked up a pile of pens to bring to the meetup. Looking forward to seeing pen friends. #fountainpens

Finished reading: European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss 📚

Fantastic sequel to The Alchemist’s Daughter. Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Frankenstein, Van Helsing, Jekyll & Hyde all in the same story. Thrilling and exciting read.

Cleaned out several fountain pens and inked a few more up. Looking forward to the Pelikan Hub meetup next week. 🖋️

The iPhone might be the biggest and most popular mobile gaming platform, but it’s a sad platform. Apple really needs to do something about the App Store. You have to dig through so much garbage in the app store to find anything decent. I hardly play games on my iPhone any more because I don’t bother looking through trying to find anything good. Any new games I install are now filtered through word of mouth from tech sites or Mastodon. No I don’t use real life friend recommendations as many of them are OK with the garbage Pay2Win games.

Finding something as awesome and fantastic as The Room series is now a rarity because Apple just doesn’t care about the quality of the app store contents.

Finished reading: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers 📚

Such an enjoyable series. Becky Chambers writes some fantastic depth into her characters. This was a nice way to wrap up the books. I’ll be looking for more of her work.