I’ve mostly transitioned from my 27” iMac to the Mac mini. I had forgotten what a monster the 27” iMac was sitting on my desk. Not going to miss that…

It’s been a productive day post-Thanksgiving. Finished almost all of our Christmas gift shopping (online), decorated the downstairs for Christmas, and started preparation for my move to the Mac mini. I’ll use the mini with an old $100 Dell monitor until Christmas when I’ll get a 4K model. The mini only cost me $200 after my trade-in and Apple’s Black Friday deal.

TIL about all the different kinds/classes of cables with USB-C connectors🤕.

Next week I’ll switch from an Intel iMac to a Mac mini M2. I’m a bit torn over using Migration Assistant. It would be convenient but starting afresh might feel kinda good. Only downside is losing a ton of preferences and other associated items and probably having to tweak every single app I have (152 in my Applications folder). Hmm.

Because of 2 different CPU architectures I lean against using Migration Assistant.

Thanksgiving

Exactly one year ago, right after we finished cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner, I was hit with unbearable pain. Because it was a holiday I hung on for a couple of hours but had to cave in and go to the ER. Then into the hospital. Right before recovering I was losing 2 pounds a day.

There has been no recurrence so hip hip hooray! I’m extra thankful this year.👍🏼

I’ve been contemplating getting a M2 Mac mini to replace my 27” iMac with a discrete graphics card and tons of memory. I thought I’d probably have to add a lot of memory to the mini but I decided to test some CAD apps on my son’s M1 MacBookAir with 8GB memory. The M1 kicks my iMac’s ass so I guess I don’t have to worry about that any more. Dear Santa…🎅

I escaped the courthouse, hooray! It was a civil trial needing only 6 jurors (I was #21 out of 24). Apparently my previous experience as a juror in a murder trail was a point of interest. Not sure why but glad I get to launch into Thanksgiving prep now.

Brought an old friend to keep me company at the courthouse.

I’m just not seeing Black Friday love for the Mac mini. It’s all MacBook this and iPad that 😔

Quite a surprise to see a pink balloon floating through the courthouse!

As a CAD n00b I’m pretty happy how easily I could create a case for the weather station hung in our bedroom closet. Not long ago this would have been impossible for me.

https://www.printables.com/model/651559-di

Sigh. My hopes I wouldn’t be needed for jury duty Monday were dashed. I still have to report. I’ve gone willingly a number of times but this time I’m kinda pissed it is Thanksgiving week. Hopefully I won’t be picked because it will sure screw up our plans. 🤞🏻

Made a lunch visit to the Philippines. The mango/pineapple drink was mighty tasty.

I finally broke my days of procrastination and made my Prusa MK3S+ available locally for sale/trade. Got 4 offers in no time so I’m happy. One was from a high school kid how already had a lesser printer. He’s happy to have it and I’m happy to send it to a budding printer. Oh, and now my workbench is finally empty.

I did not know this and it seems useful. Those symbols are a mystery to me. mastodon.social/@BasicAppleGuy

Just in case you missed this Chamberlain is screwing over its customers. Bet there will be some lawsuits over this.

Doesn’t affect me though because I have a dumb garage door and integrate with Apple’s HomeKit using the iSmartGate adapter.

Chamberlain blocks smart garage door opener from working with smart homes | Ars Technica arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/1

Tina Boo’s choreography and hand movements with this song are mesmerizing. I love turning down the audio and just watching her movements over and over again. So many small details.

youtube.com/watch?v=jggDIe0txv

Song is &burn, performance at 1MILLION dance studio

I just got a jury summons☹️

For Thanksgiving week 😢😢😢

For those who were interested in the Kagi search engine, check out this stats page: kagi.com/stats.

On the right side click on Domain Insights to see which sites are most often blocked, raised or lowered.

Open enrollment for health insurance is always stressful for me. It seems akin to gambling: do we pick the best plan assuming our usual minimal healthcare needs or the plan that best covers a major event or a plan somewhere in between. There is no way to know which is best, all I can do is “play the odds”. Sigh.

One of my favorite features of the kagi.com search engine is the ability to block any site(s) I choose from search results. E.g. today the top search result for a technical query was one with nags for ad unblocking and paying for membership before I have even seen any of their content. Insta-ban. 👍🏼

Our unexpected and unintended house guests of the past 5 days finally got a replacement car key. They’re anxious to get back home (kids had to go to relatives there) so will drive into the night 10 hours. It’s been stressful for all.

Shibuya Japan at Halloween is a most excellent people watching spot.

Side note: I’m glad they imposed crowd restrictions this year. With the tourist influx they were at risk of the stampede deaths that hit Korea last year. Better to play it safe while having fun.

Ruffles have ridges … and so does our sky! It is an amazing color of blue at the moment.

1:30am sitting at the emergency vet clinic. Nothing life threatening so not really stressed but it’s a long wait to see the vet. Should have brought snacks 🥱😋

In other news we’ve had 7” of rain in a couple of days and apparently this is going to continue through Monday. Our yard is drowning. 🌧️