No post-Mass photo this year, but merry Christmas everyone!
The story of Christmas through masterpieces of painting (Culture Critic, thread on “X”).
Midnight in Arizona, which means it’s Christmas Eve. All my love and best wishes to each and every one of you, reading in your timelines or on my blog. Merry, merry Christmas.
The disdain for Substack is misplaced. It continues to be one of the best sources of good writing on the net. I encourage skeptics to consider Elle Griffin’s essay on the matter.
American Achilles in the War on Terror
John J. Waters interviews Emily Wilson at RealClearDefense about her new translation of Homer.
The arc of history demonstrates the activity of warfare is always changing; weapons, technology, and troop formations are constantly in flux. But the condition of war, how people experience combat, remains largely unchanged.
Excellent interview.
Moving my Academic website (from Github) to Hugo is my 2024 project. I need to find some readings on porting or writing a custom theme so that the home page is a landing page, the blog is in the background, and supports Maxjax for the (very rare) use of LaTeX.
Anyone who has advice, hit me up.
Orrin Kerr reminds me (on “X”) that Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder is 60 years old today. 🤯
We just ordered Papa John’s ‘Shaq-a-Roni (Thrillist) pizza. What’s the over/under on how long it takes my 8 and 6 year old to eat the whole thing? 🍕
🗞️Rudy Giuliani files for backruptcy, WSJ
From the NYT:
On Wednesday, the judge overseeing the election worker case… ordered Mr. Giuliani to start paying the two women immediately out of concerns that he might “conceal his assets” if he were allowed to wait the typical 30 days.
The little one saw her first bunny, in our back yard of all places. But then it ran off with his food and now she’s devastated. “I love it” she’s sobbing. 🐰
It’s all fun and games until your little brother kicks out the (already very loose) baby tooth. Hashtag-Christmas-miracle.
Near complete agreement with @ayjay on the Fediverse:
The fediverse would be a great thing if so many of the people using the various social media platforms weren’t simply seeking to continue all the bad behavior that made Twitter “the hellsite.”
Honestly, I didn’t have the Colorado Supreme Court on my bingo card.
Got a paper submitted. I think I spent more time formatting to the journal’s house style than I did writing the thing. But it’s off. A Christmas miracle.
Finished reading: Paradoxes of Education in a Republic by Eva T. H. Brann 📚
Apple to Suspend Some Apple Watch Sales in U.S. Over Patent Dispute - WSJ
The company will pause online sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 beginning on Dec. 21, removing from the market a popular Christmas gift just days before the holiday. In-store sales will cease on Dec. 24, according to the company.
Subscriptions, end-of-year 2023
TLDR; $632.57 per annum: could be better, could be a lot worse.
I was waiting until New Year’s, but Pratik, {maique}, and Robb among overs have already posted theirs. I never got around to posting new year lists like this in January, and so the last one I did was January 2022.
Apps
- Dark Noise ($19.99) Infrequently used but absolute clutch when I need it. I often need to drown out distractions in my office or when traveling. Dark Noise lets me create different colored and ambient noises. When I need to concentrate and background music won’t cut it, I use this.
- Darkroom ($19.99) I got this in July before I went on holiday to Yosemite. Since then I forget that I have it and post photos without processing them. If I keep using it, I’ll renew. But if the next six months is like the last, I’ll likely let it go in July.
- DEVONthink To Go ($19.99) Work tool. Essential for accessing my DEVONthink databases on my iPad.
- Drafts ($19.99) I love this app. And if I had to keep only one non-native app on my iPhone, it would be this even over other very powerful apps like 1Password and OmniFocus.
- Macrofactor ($71.99) Nutrition tracking. It’s very good. I don’t know if I’ll renew it but as of right now, I’m 50/50
- MindNode ($19.99) Mind mapping, likely expiring it.
- Scanner Pro ($19.99) Great little tool. Could be cheaper but it is too valuable not to keep going.
- Timery ($9.99) Presets and stuff or Toggl, and while I don’t use all the features I will keep it up for a bit.
All prices annual. $201.92 total.
Media and services
Ok, this is a weird category. It is the area my wife and I have cut the most, letting Paramount+ and other services go. We have Prime Video because we pay for Prime shipping, and after Disney raised its annual rate by nearly double, we let it go only to get a Black Friday Sale of Hulu for a buck per month, and Disney for $2/mo extra
- Hulu & Disney Plus ($48)
- Prime Video ($0.00)
- 1Password ($32.25) This is the end of my discount and next October it goes up to ~$60. But I now manage passwords for my wife and mom (who lives out of state). This is essential.
- The Athletic ($12) It’s worth it at full price, but I snagged the Black Friday sale.
- Fastmail $50
- Apple iCloud (128.40)
- Micro Blog ($60)
- YNAB ($100) Budget and expensive tracking. The least sexy but perhaps most important on this list because it compels me to consider all these (and all the ones I pass on each year).
All prices annual. $430.65 total.
Not listed
- MLB Live. I usually wait until mid-summer and then grab a sale. So it isn’t a subscription, strictly speaking.
- Overcast Since I paid for it prior to ::checks notes:: 2015, I’m grandfathered in such that I don’t get ads but don’t have to pay the $9.99/yr. I’ve tried a lot of other podcast apps, but next year it’ll be ten years with this app. It’s not going anywhere.
- Tunnel Bear VPN I don’t remember when I did, but some time ago I paid for several years at once. I’m not sure they’re the best VPN service, but they’re good enough for my needs and I don’t need to think about it until my multi-year service is up.
- Apps that I’ve moved over to work and now have my work paying for them. These include Readwise, Backblaze, Fantastical, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Apps that are subscriptions now, or primarily, but which I just buy outright, like iA Writer and MarsEdit 5 (haven’t bought yet, but will soon). I have no problem with subscriptions (see above). But I like buying apps outright to keep me from subscription creep.
Expected additions
I’ve been off Qobuz for over a year. Of all the music streaming services, this is the one I love the most. We might have more streaming services for the kids now that the big two are older and want more than just children’s movies. College Football has a lot of changes next year, including the realignment and 12-team playoff. I fully expect that I might need to opt back into Peacock, Paramount, Fox or something to catch more games. I also need to consider a photo service. I love Flickr, but never went pro. I killed Instragram almost two years go; then I tried Glass but it’s more for pros (I think). Nothing has stuck, yet, and until I have time to really think through my online photo presence, I’m ok with Micro Blog being the one-stop shop for my habits.
Fiesta Bowl Parade
Don’t ask me why the parade is weeks before the game, even before Christmas. I don’t make the rules. It’s a complete mystery to me. 🤷🏽♂️
Thirty Months with a 12-inch PowerBook G4 – Shawn Blanc
I loved my 12-inch PowerBook. It was the first Mac I bought, in 2006 thereabouts (after being converted in the school library for years. I think my cousin was using it, with Linux, to do music as church as recently as 2015. 🧑🏽💻
Why we should be bullish on X, @Culture_Crit (on Twitter/X).
TLDR; the ‘24 election will make X the de facto platform for public discourse, ads will return, etc.
Not entirely wrong. Even if most of his predictions don’t pan out.
(See also, the replies to @gruber re Mastodon & Threads.)