Quick Thoughts

Shorter than a blog post.

I heard the rain when I woke up this morning and assumed we’d skip our morning walk. I was wrong. Liz still wanted to get our walk in. We headed out back and walked for a couple of miles in a cold drizzle. We’re incredibly lucky to have these trails in our backyard and I’m glad we are taking advantage of them.

Mungo Park in Irmo SC Bob and Liz on a walk. High water on Rawls Creek Liz takes a picture of a rain drop.

Six years ago today, I wrote a post about some Micro.Blog Kickstarter that I was excited about.

Just finished a nice hike.

I know the name is officially still in use, but if Apple ever manages to release an electric car, they should recycle the name “Claris.” Apple Claris sounds like an EV.

My wife and I are discussing a tropical vacation to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We visited a couple of resort web sites and I followed a couple of interesting options on Instagram. Now, every ad I see is for a Caribbean resort.

I occassionally do this thing where I go to bed early, then wake up at 2 am and work until about 4 am. I find that I’m more productive after some sleep. Thankfully, I’ve learned to schedule my emails for delivery at normal times, so people don’t think that I’m insane.

Our house is on a golf course that went out of business. Long story, but the course was eventually purchased by the original developer and gifted to the local rec commission. It’s taken a while for them to rebuild pedestrian bridges and do some improvements, but now, the park has about 4.5 miles of (very hilly) trails accessible from our back yard. Went on a wonderful walk with my wife this weekend and discovered trails I never knew existed.

Finally got around to watching Glass Onion. So much fun. Going to have to watch it again to catch all the details.

I enjoyed Seth Godin’s podcast episode about why blogs are important.

I’ve been walking on Main Street at lunch this week. Today, I ran into a bunch of friends who were also out and about. Almost had a pre-COVID vibe.

Looks like BMW has found a use for color e-ink technology… car exteriors.

Every time Sticker Mule has holographic stickers on sale, I end up buying some. I love the way they look and $29 for 50 die cut stickers is a great deal. Just got to figure out what I want to order.

My 11-year-old son is cleaning out his backpack after winter break. I’m not sure how he accumulated so much junk and trash.

Getting back into the normal rhythm this morning. My wife has to work today so the alarm was set for the first time in two weeks. Brutally early. Tomorrow, the kids are heading back to school and I’ve got work, but I wanted to get back on schedule so I’m up, too.

The Verge wants us to bring back personal blogging.

2023 was a great year for Star Trek. Strange New Worlds was my favorite new Trek, but lost in the shuffle was Star Trek: Prodigy, which just wrapped up its first season with a spectacular finale. Smart show with a solid arc. If you like Star Trek, give it a shot on Paramount+.

I want to keep a daily journal in 2023. I’ve tried DayOne several times in the past. Love the app, but I’ve never stuck with it for more than a few weeks. Any recommendations for other apps/services/approaches that have worked for you?

Who Wants the Metaverse? An interesting academic look at the history of the term “Metaverse.”

Got word this week that a book review I wrote for New Media and Society was approved for publication. It feels so wonderful to have this finalized before the end of the year.

Just bought some Nanoleaf smart lightbulbs for our bedroom lamps. Setup with HomeKit was incredibly easy and the price was reasonable. I really like them.

At my daughter’s physical therapy session and it’s hard to believe she had an ACL repair just over a month ago. She’s moving really well and her leg strength is improving rapidly.

Merry Christmas from Team Wertz. 🎄

I’m intrigued by Keychron’s Alice keyboard releases. I love my current Keychron K2 and I don’t really need another keyboard. But I’m tempted.

For years, our Alexa was incredibly reliable, but about six months ago, accuracy dropped significantly. I bought a new one recently thinking the issue was with the older hardware, but nope. Still bad. We are having better luck with Siri and our Apple HomePod Mini and I think we’ll start using that more.

Had coffee with a friend this morning and was telling him about Micro.Blog. I followed his Mastodon account and he was able to follow me on Micro.Blog, which worked great. I need to polish up my Micro.Blog sales pitch, though, and my explanation of Activity Pub.

The little suburb I live near doesn’t have a historic “Main Street” like a bunch of the other cities around us. (Irmo was founded in the 1920s as a railway stop for nearby dam construction.) The weird thing is that they’ve just decided to insert a new Main Street into the middle of the existing community. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m sure it will be nice… but instead of leveraging what’s already in the community, you are creating something that never existed.

📺 Rewatching some Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episodes. Such a great show.

Taking all of my index cards from my planning session this morning and capturing it all in Notion.

Hanging out at a coffee shop today and working on 2023 planning. Trying to settle on some goals and themes for the year ahead.

📺 Rewatching Hawkeye on Disney+ and I forgot how much fun this show is.