On one hand I don’t like to see the cooler weather because it is a sign that summer is drawing to a close, on the other hand, I am enjoying the refreshing cooler breeze.
“What the world doesn’t tell you—because it doesn’t know—is that you cannot become successful. You can only be successful. And what is that? There is a sense of quality in what you do, even the most simple action. Quality implies care and attention, which come with awareness. Quality requires your Presence.” from “A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle a.co/4iyJkLX
Today I discovered NixOS, and the web site provides a nice VirtualBox appliance to easily download and test it. What I find is that it runs very well in VirtualBox, better than the Debian installs that I have built in it.
It functions differently than Debian, particularly package management and installing apps, so there is a learning curve.
A year ago I signed up for Exist in search of an application that would help me analyze the data I Collect in Google Fit. Unfortunately, it only imports a few months of historical data from Fit so I needed to wait until now to see the year over year benefit.
Now I can easily tell that I am walking less this week but more than last year. I can easily see whether my monthly activity is above, at, or below my average. Exist also provides a way to track my moods and provide tags.
A few things that I wish Exist provided are a direct way to enter sleep information, similar to mood tracking. I don’t use devices to track my sleep but I would like to simply be able to enter the times I went to bed and got up and provide a rating for how I think I slept. Not scientific, but a start.
I would like it to integrate with food tracking apps, or provide a direct way. Right now I am using LoseIt mostly to track carbs.
Finally, I wish it provided me a way to create my own queries/reports of data.
Overall I am happy with the service and can recommend it. Web, Android and iOS applications are available.
My measurement of a great article written for the web is the number of links it contains, and by that measurement, this is a great article written for the web.
I just learned about Google Meet, is this really a free web conferencing app? It’s obviously a version of Hangouts.
The official release of Android 10 must be imminent, perhaps as early as tomorrow. I’ve been running beta 6 on my Pixel 2 for a little more than a week and like the upgrade. It’s not earth shattering and I am glad that it doesn’t require me to buy a new phone. This will be the third major release of Android that I have run on the Pixel 2, prior Nexus phones I owned only survived two releases.
And now we know, Google has run out of desert names for Android. From hence forth release versions of Android will be known by their release number and not a desert. The next release will only be known as Android 10.
I find it ironic the Little League would be the one to have a true World Series.
The MLB game in Williamsport during the Little League World Series has got to be one of the coolest things MLB does.
Chatwood should be the current closer for the @Cubs until Kimbrel gets back. He clearly has the best arm in the pen.
Go Cubs Go
The Chicago Cubs have one of the best home records and one of the worst road records, and they have the best run differential in their division. People seem to be scratching their head over how the same team can be so good at home and so bad on the road. The problem is not the hitting, although they could be more consistent. To me the problem is the bullpen, they are giving up too many runs in the 6 thru 9th innings. Nobody in the pen is reliable.
Twenty years ago the bullpen wasn’t so important because starting pitchers pitched more innings and more often completed games. Now, starting pitchers are only expected to pitch six innings and that means you got have more pitching than ever before.
The Cubs overall pitching staff is not good enough. You might see an uptick in performance if they make the playoffs because the starters tend to go longer and you tend to narrow the pen down to a handful of pitchers, but I don’t expect the Cubs to get beyond be first round if they do make the playoffs.
I don’t know what specific things the Cubs need to do for next year. I don’t think the problem is with the managing or coaching, it seems to point to the talent in pitching. Lester and Hamel will be a year older and there doesn’t appear to be any replacements coming from the minors. The window on the talent the Cubs do have is getting smaller and it will be a shame if they only make it to one World Series.
At the bottom of this page are links to pages that describe all of the new items introduced in each of the Android Q betas. After a few days of use, I am can say that I like the gesture navigation, particularly the back navigation. My one wish is that they added a swipe down gesture that works within the middle of the screen, because swiping down from the very top is the one gesture that for me requires two hands.
We appear to be within a few weeks of Google flipping the bit on Android Q that turns it in to Android 10, so I have installed Q on my Pixel 2. Enabled dark mode and navigation gestures. So far do not see any problems.
On Our Twenty Third Wedding Anniversary
Each year we try to celebrate our wedding anniversary on vacation to spend time together. This year we traveled to Marquette, Michigan, stayed at the Landmark Inn, took a tour of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Munising, and then on our way back spent an evening at Headlands International Dark Sky Park near Mackinaw City.
Here are pictures that we took during the trip:
I defintely recommend all three venues. Pictured Rocks might be the closest thing I’ve seen to the Grand Canyon east of the Mississippi. The Dark Sky Park is a great place for star gazing, just be sure the moon isn’t too bright and you have clear skies.
This happened at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore two days after our tour. You will see several kayaks along the water, there were 20 in total with none of them injured. Here is a news report of the event.
One of the many pictures I took at Pictured Rocks. I can’t get over the color of the Lake Superior water and of the rocks.
Without Google Night Sight
About last night
Art by @LakeSuperior
