Browsing through some old posts here using Surprise Me and I think this picture is really good.
Google launched the Pixel 10 series this week, and there are several things about it that I like but I would prefer to not spend more than $500 on a phone even if I can get $200 in trade-in for the Pixel 7a. I am leaning toward getting the Pixel 10a when it comes out next spring, particularly if it has the Pixelsnap charging and the Tensor G5 processor. I might consider buying a Pixel 10 later in the year if Google (or Amazon or Best Buy etc.) has a sale that can be combined with a trade-in that gets the price closer to $500. I do like that Lemongrass color.
I like collecting and looking at data about myself and I have been using Exist.io for many years now. Today I learned about the update they have made to their mobile apps and web site, which looks very nice. At one point in time it appeared the app was going to be shutdown, so it’s nice to see the improvements being made.
Turns out that Kyle Tucker had a small fracture in his hand, which likely the cause of his broken mechanics at the plate. It seems to me the job of a baseball manager is to prevent players from being their own worse enemy. No matter what the player is saying, the manager has to make the right decision and I don’t think Counsel did in this instance. Further, the GM and President have to also know this is happening and step in when needed. A total failure by the Cubs organization in my opinion. Ricketts must have also known this and still rewarded Hoyer with an extension. I am sure the hope is that by sitting Kyle now he can be right for the push to the playoffs in September.
Workism is idolatry. The Jewish commandment to practice sabbath is intended to protect us from this idolatry and thus protect us from ourselves. I am coming to the end of my career in IT and honestly struggling in my mind between doing what I want to do that I believe is the right thing to do and the fear of doing it. One thing that I think would help society is to learn the difference between happiness and joy. Most in the United States is in constant pursuit of happiness, heck that is even written in one of our founding documents, but happiness depends on external factors. Joy is a state of being, a choice that one makes in how they view the world that comes from within. Joy is what makes one appear to be happy even when they live by the world’s definition of poverty.
Finished reading: Sabbath as Resistance, New Edition with Study Guide by Walter Brueggemann 📚
That Christianity has almost entirely equated sabbath with worship may be amongst the reasons why it has so completely failed in the United States.
During our staycation this week we have been going to restaurants that we have never been to before. Last night we went to Mother Handsome for pizza. While there are many carry out pizza places near us, there are not many pizzerias, this one was ten miles away.
I think staycations are the only real vacations.
In what way does a military occupation of a nation’s capital project an image of freedom? What does the United States stand for today?
Talk about the current state of affairs needs to place the reason behind them on Republicans and not Trump. Our problems are really not because of one man but because of an entire party that allows if not embraces what is being done. Whenever there is a federal election the debate needs to be framed in the context of a clear difference of what is America between the parties. A person’s affiliation with the parties means that person stands for those things because they choose to run as a member of the party.
The best thing about baseball is that until playoff series deciding games there is always tomorrow and a chance for the team to redeem itself. Yesterday the Cubs won and continued to avoid a three game series sweep and thus keep avoiding long losing streaks, which are the real deal of a major league team. The team’s weaknesses are real and could be exposed in the playoffs, but avoiding being swept and winning a majority of the season series ought to be the path to the playoffs. On August 18 the Cubs will play their last four games against the Brewers for the season, and in some ways that will be their last best shot at controlling their own fate.
I wonder if Tom Ricketts can be embarrassed? First he extends Jed Hoyer’s contract before the trade deadline, then the lone pitcher Hoyer trades for to help a severely depleted starting rotation pitches two innings before being injured, and there were concerns about that pitcher’s velocity decrease prior to the trade. Finally, the Cubs hitters have gone cold as ice and have dropped to four games behind the Brewers for the NL Central lead. In fact, the Cubs now only have a 2.5 game lead in the Wild Card. Most likely Kyle Tucker, for whom Hoyer traded away a top prospect to the Astros, will leave at the end of the season. Factor all these recent events with the over all failure to win the National League or the division under Hoyer’s leadership sums up the very questionable decision by Ricketts to extend Hoyer before seeing whether the Cubs win the NL Central this year. Instead Ricketts rewarded mediocrity and sent a message to the team that he is not committed to winning.
The wild fire smoke moved in late yesterday creating this sunset like view.
Same Old Cubs Ownership
Hoyer can rationalize his trade deadline decisions all he wants the bottom line is he did not get the job done, and no improvement to the starting pitching rotation has been done. Assad better perform when he makes it back to the team after being out all season. I don’t doubt that the additions that he made will help, but it was not enough.
Truth is, the real failure was made during the off-season by not signing more high quality players. I doubt that Tucker wants to stay in Chicago, in fact if I were him the lack of signings sealed the deal of going to another team; the Cubs can and will be outbid for his services . The consequences of Hoyer’s failures is he lost one of his top prospects while getting no closer to the World Series just to make the playoffs.
Yes, the Cubs likely will make the playoffs as a wildcard team, but they probably will not advance out of the divisional round and winning championships is the measurement. Why Ricketts extended Hoyer before seeing how the team ends up this season tells me that he is more concerned about making money than winning a World Series. An owner expecting nor less than championships would not reward mediocrity.
So far, not impressed by the Chicago Cubs trade deadline deals. Ricketts extending Hoyer before the deadline and not at the end of the season tells me all I need to know, the problem is ownership. Cubs ownership is reverted to being happy enough in collecting the money off the team than in demanding championships.
I think that the iPadOS 26 UI looks best in dark mode than light mode. I don’t normally use dark mode except on my smaller screen devices, but I have enabled it on the iPad Air that is running the public beta of iPadOS 26.
Nillkin Bluetooth Keyboard Touchpad
A while back I decided that I needed a new, portable Bluetooth keyboard to use with my mobile devices. I saw an ad in Instagram for the Nillkin keyboard that is a tri-fold that when folds us a little smaller than the iPad Mini. You aren’t going to carry this in your pocket, but it fits nicely in a back and it is a full size keyboard with a number row and a numeric keypad that doubles as a touchpad. It pairs with three devices that you can easily switch between.
Having just installed the public beta of iPadOS 26 on my 4th generation iPad Air, I first paired the new keyboard to that iPad and found everything to work except that I couldn’t get mouse clicks to work.
The touchpad is a 2.5 x 2.5 inch square that doubles as a numeric keypad. The keys of the pad are touch points on the pad, for example you tap the upper left of the pad for the equal key. Normally the pad is locked in touchpad mode and I can easily slide my fingertips over it to move the cursor and make gestures. To do a mouse clicks I was tapping in the center of the pad as I do with every other notebook touchpad and it did not work.
Turns out that the space at the lower right corner of the pad that is labeled Enter is and actual button and where I have to tap for mouse clicks. I just discovered it this morning and this is not in any of the documentation.
On The Death Of A Sports Legend
Hall of Fame Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg died yesterday after surviving cancer and the treatments of it for several years. As a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan Ryne is cemented in my memories of the turn around of the Cubs that started in 1984. He became known to the nation on June 23, 1984 when he hit home runs off Bruce Sutter in the 9th and 10th innings of the nationally televised game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Sutter, himself a former Cubs hero, was the best relief pitcher in baseball at the time, featuring a nearly unhittable split-finger fastball. Having defected to the hated Cardinals, Sutter was the villain of the game that made Sandberg’s home runs all that much sweeter.
Prior to 1984 the Cubs had not been in the playoffs for 39 years. Back then only four teams made the playoffs, the winners of the NL East and West and AL East and West, so the champions in each league faced each other in the World Series. Further, the league championship series were five games whereas the World Series was seven games. The 1984 Cubs won the first two games against the Padres, meaning they only need to win 1 of 3 games in San Diego to advance to the World Series, but was unable to get the job done. The Cubs would advance to the NL Championship again in 1989 with Sandberg on the team and again fail to advance.
Due to Cubs decades history of losing the 1984 team was pivotal to their eventual World Series championship in 2016. Nearly all transformations of losing sports franchises to winning sports franchises lies on the cornerstone of one or two super start athletes and it is safe to say that Ryne Sandberg is the cornerstone of the Cubs current success. I watched Ryne’s entire career with the Cubs and grew to understand his cold hitting in the spring months that always warmed to peak performance in late May. As a fan you expected every ball hit toward second base to be an out and every big moment that found Ryne at the plate to be big hit.
It’s a privilege to grow old and a consequence of time is the seeing the death of your childhood sports heroes and so the news of his death during the Cubs/Brewers game last night hit hard. I am so happy that he, like I, got to see the Cubs win the World Series in 2016 and I hope he took some satisfaction in knowing his part in that moment. The path from lovable losers to World Champions rides on the shoulders of legends. Farewell Ryno, say hi to Harry!
I have installed the beta of iPadOS 26 on my 4th generation iPad Air but I have not spent much time with it. What I have noticed right away is that it seems to be much faster or more responsive. Another thought is that I don’t think the UI changes will be useful/visible when not using a physical keyboard and mouse. I wonder what iPadOS 26 will be like on the iPad Mini?
When people justify their voting choice by its outcome, I always think of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien emphasizes repeatedly that we cannot make decisions based on the hoped-for result. We can only control the means. If we validate our choice of voting for someone that may not be a good person in the hopes that he or she will use his power to our advantage, we succumb to the fallacy of Boromir, who assumed he too would use the Ring of Power for good. Power cannot be controlled; it enslaves you. To act freely is to acknowledge your limits, to see the journey as a long road that includes dozens of future elections, and to fight against the temptation for power.
Jessica Hooten Wilson, What ‘The Lord of the Rings’ can teach us about U.S. politics, Christianity and power