We're going free-form today. Just some little thoughts about things. It's like a twitter feed but not run by a fascist.
I did finish that book from last week. Felt good to get finish a book, even if it was a short one and I'm not even sure I liked it. I started a new book too, and it's of a similar lenght, but I'm already about 60% done with it. I don't want to call my reading slump over prematurely, but it's a good feeling.
I'm gunna change your life with one phrase: Sheet-Pan Pancakes. You make the batter like normal, then you line a sheet pan with parchment and pour it all in, and then bake them in an oven (350f) until they're golden brown and delicious. Slice and serve. No standing over the stove trying to guess when each one is ready to flip, and they're all done at the same time!
I've been using the same podcast app forever, and it's pretty good. But then the most recent update was a full ground-up rebuild and now everything is different in the UI> I'm sure it's fine, but the worst part is that the app apparently had to re-download all the previously downloaded episodes that I had saved on my device. Which is a problem, because I probably had 50-100 episodes of things I swear I was gunna get wound to listening to eventually. And the two or three episodes I actually wanted weren't available when I tried listening in the car. I pre-download them because I have bad internet and worse cell service, so It would be nice if the app kept the things I downloaded. Nor is there a way to prioritize the episodes to download, so it's just trying to download everything at once. And it apparently is having trouble downloading when the app isn't open so it's just not happening unless I leave it open on my desk, like I'm doing right now.
Grief never really goes away does it. I lost a dear friend many years ago and every time I remember it's like picking open a scab. The wound is still there. It's the 9th anniversary of his death tomorrow, which I did not know until I started writing this.
I've watched about 90 minutes of live olympics coverage so far this games. I'm more of a winter olympics fan, so I don't try as hard to catch what's happening in the Summer games. But the one thing I learned watching the live feeds is that a good commentator can make a sport cool, and the ads they show during the olympics are excruciating. I get ads on one or two of the streaming services I have, and I don't love them but they're tolerable. They happen only a couple times per episode and are usually short. Olympics live overage ads feel like they can happen at any second. They're like commerce jump-scares and also they're bad? Not in a charming "local heating and plumbing company doing their best" sort of way, but rather in an "Uber trying to convince me I'll never be alone if I can pay someone to deliver food to me" or a "pharmaceutical company trying to make me excited about drug ads (A thing I actively hate)" sort of way. I actually stopped watching the olympics because of the ads.
I got tired of fighting the apple music app, which is no longer an app for playing my own music, but rather an ever present series of design choices to encourage me to sign up for the apple music streaming service while making it harder to access the music I own and paid for. So I downloaded the plexamp music player app and have used it a very small amount. I like it so far since it immediately recognized the music on my server/computer and made it easily searchable. I can also download the music for offline play, which is something I was previously paying apple $25 a year for. So this is already an improvement.
Ok, I'm gunna go make some coffee. Remember: Salt binds to the same taste receptors as bitter flavors do, so a very small amount of salt in your coffee can greatly improve the cup. It's the same reason salted caramel works and people put salt on dark chocolate. You don't need to put it in an already good cup, but a bad cup will be better.
