¶Renee and I are starting our anniversary vacation with a one night stay at Grand Floridian tonight. We’re heading over to Port Canaveral for our cruise tomorrow. Lunch today, celebrating 26 ears.
Stream
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/2023/09/22 at 4:46 PM
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¶Monday before vacation hits just a bit differently.
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/2023/09/18 at 11:52 AM
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¶“And it tried to stop us in no man’s land. Insane. Anyone seeing this behavior would have thought I was drunk. So next time something like that happens if I’m in FSD mode, I’m going to cancel it by turning the steering wheel slightly and taking over fully.”
¶I won’t say this happens regularly, but it certainly has happened to me several times over nearly five years of Tesla ownership. You always have to be ready to take over control of the car in FSD in an instant. It is nowhere near being a license to ignore the road, traffic, and surroundings. I hope to see that someday, but we’re not there just yet.
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/2023/09/10 at 9:21 PM
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¶“Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.”
¶The Midwest has ready access to a lot of fresh water, and tech is coming for it. Intel is building a giant fab facility near Columbus and, apparently, OpenAI developed ChatGPT in Iowa.
¶Cities like Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago should really benefit from tech’s growing thirst for water. I hope Ohio and the other Great Lakes states are ready and prepared to protect our resources. I’m all for progress, and the Midwest should leverage the need for water to gain economically from this, but ensuring sustainability of our natural resources should be the first priority.
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/2023/09/10 at 9:16 PM
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¶My Model 3 has been neglected a bit since we got Renee’s Model Y. It’s no longer the cool car in the family. And it’s no longer the car she and I take on routine errands. It has quickly become the car I use for commuting to the office and back.
¶And that’s ok. I love her Model Y.
¶I felt the 3 needed some attention, though, so I washed it yesterday and cleaned the inside today. That should feel nice on the way into work tomorrow morning.
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/2023/09/10 at 6:24 PM
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¶Jake flew from BG to Akron today, which is a couple hours of flying in a Piper! I tracked him most of the way, and even pulled up the Live ATC feed from Akron-Canton Airport when he was in the area. I think I managed to catch his calls, but it was hard to tell (there was a bit of an echo on the line).
¶Aviation tracking is really quite incredible these days. The amount of information available – real time information – is nothing short of incredible.
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/2023/09/07 at 7:06 PM
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¶How’s our new empty-nester lifestyle? Well, Renee and I happily stayed up late tonight to track Jake’s second flight to Akron for the day. I put my iPad on the nightstand and split the screen with a flight tracker and the live ATC feed for Akron-Canton airport. Renee heard Jake make radio calls for the first time, which was pretty cool.
¶And we watched the Lions beat the Chiefs, too, which was fantastic!
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/2023/09/07 on September 8, 2023 at 1:41 PM
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¶Jake’s flying again tonight…same plane, and same route as this afternoon. And I’m watching again.
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/2023/09/07 on September 8, 2023 at 2:23 AM
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/2023/09/06 at 11:26 PM
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¶Finally, we’re getting the NFL v. NHL matchup we’ve always wanted, thanks to trademark law.
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/2023/09/06 at 4:38 PM
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/2023/09/06 at 1:00 PM
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/2023/09/06 at 11:19 AM
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¶We’re eating in a Panera in Cheektowaga, New York as the Tesla charges out back. I guess the charging time is the downside of traveling with the Tesla, but it’s also kind of nice. Breaks things up a bit, and changes what we eat on the road, mostly for the better.
¶There was only one open spot when we pulled in, so we almost had to wait for a charger.
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/2023/09/04 at 5:58 PM
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/2023/09/03 at 12:52 PM
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¶“It was lucky [that we survived], but we know from evolutionary biology that the emergence of a new species can happen in small, isolated populations....”
¶This is fascinating, perhaps morbidly so. Are we smart enough to avoid repeating history? We may be on the verge of finding out, measured on a scale of thousands (or maybe tens or hundreds of thousands) of years.
¶Here’s the original research published in Science.
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/2023/09/02 at 4:48 PM
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(bbc.com)
¶RIP Jimmy Buffett.
¶I’ve never been a Parrothead, but I’ve always enjoyed Buffett’s music. And more than just the hits, too. He blended a lifestyle into music that made both appealing.
¶On a side note, I wanted to post the Rolling Stone obituary for Buffet, because that would just feel right. More right than a BBC link, anyways. But…paywalls. Anyways, if you’re an RS subscriber, click the link in that last sentence and enjoy. I’m sure it’s an excellent article on Buffett’s life and unique career in music. If you’re not, join with me in lamenting that the masthead that should be the source of record on biographies of famous rock musicians…isn’t.
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/2023/09/02 at 1:56 PM
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¶It’s moving day. Second moving day, actually. We’ moved the stuff Jonathan had left at home into his dorm yesterday. Today we’re moving the stuff from the apartment into the dorm. Shouldn’t be too bad or take too long - I think his apartment stuff will fit in one car load, but we’ll see. Two, tops.
¶Renee and I started the day with breakfast at Tatte in Harvard Square.
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/2023/09/02 at 1:37 PM
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¶We walked to dinner after getting Jonathan’s room situated. We decided on Pinocchio’s, his favorite pizza place (which is not Dave Portnoy’s favorite, btw). We all love it, too, so we weren’t upset when he requested it.
¶“Cash only tonight guys, credit card reader is down.”
¶Luckily we had enough cash between us, and had a great dinner.
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/2023/09/02 on September 3, 2023 at 12:39 PM
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¶Ready to start senior year!
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/2023/09/02 on September 3, 2023 at 12:35 PM
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¶All moved in! This was probably the easiest move yet. Jonathan has thinned his belongings a bit, and we’re getting a little better at the process. Easy parking helped, too. All in all, the process was smooth and easy. He’s ready to start his senior year.
¶He simplified the chalkboard this year, too, which really simplified things. We left the old one at home and bought four chalkboard panels at Home Depot. A few heavy duty command strips on the backside appear to hold everything just fine. He’s going to let this first one sit for a few days to make sure, then will hang the others. He even tested the first one out right after hanging it, writing out the equation he worked to prove in his research over the summer.
¶One load for the apartment stuff, btw. We’ve got Renee’s new Tesla Model Y, which is surprisingly spacious.
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/2023/09/02 on September 3, 2023 at 12:29 PM
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¶We’ve all been bamboozled when it comes to streaming. Remember when it was supposed to be simpler and less expensive than cable? Yeah, I don’t either.
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/2023/08/28 at 4:17 PM
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¶Here comes Idalia! Sort of an unconventional storm/hurricane, originating off the Eastern coast of Mexico and projected to roll over Cuba and into the Gulf before crossing Florida to the Atlantic. Looks like St. Pete Beach will meet her tomorrow evening. We’ll see how long my camera stays online!
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/2023/08/28 at 4:03 PM
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¶RIP Bob Barker.
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/2023/08/27 at 11:34 PM
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¶I had the chance to watch some preseason NFL football over the weekend. I love football and am always glad to see its return in the fall. Watching this game over the weekend reminded me of something that bugs the heck out of me, though.
¶One of the people I was watching the game with made a ridiculous comment as a defensive player sacked the quarterback and did a little dance in celebration of the play. I’ve watched plenty of football with this guy over the years, and this isn’t the first time he’s made this comment. Indeed, it seems to be one of his favorites.
¶“Stop the celebrating. Just do your job. I don’t celebrate every time I do something I get paid to do. Just walk back to the huddle already.”
¶Yeah, does your job involve a massive adrenaline rush every 30 seconds? And I don’t think you’ve ever “done your job” on national television as you competed for a spot “on the team” (he made his comment in the second half of the game, which, in preseasons games, is generally reserved for players trying to earn a spot on the roster.)
¶“Just do your job.”
¶What an asshole comment.
¶I love the celebrating, as long as it doesn’t rise to taunting (which it rarely does these days). It brings a bit of individuality to the downtown between plays. It adds personality, and brings some levity to the downtime between plays.
¶It’s like the bat flip in baseball, which is great.
¶I say bring it on.
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/2023/08/27 at 11:15 PM
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¶Jake had his first flight as an aviation student at BG today. It also happened to be his first time flying a Piper, his first time flying with his new instructor, and his first official flight as an instrument student. He doesn’t know yet, but I went down to the airport to watch him fly. I’ve been driving him to his flying lessons since he was 14, so my role has changed. And that’s going to take a little getting used to.
¶The airport was busy, too! He hasn’t had to deal with much traffic in his training up to this point, so I think that’s a good thing. There was plenty in the air yesterday, and on the ground, too. He was third in line for takeoff when he first taxied out.
¶I suspect he did sort of an orientation flight today to familiarize himself with the Piper, the glass cockpit (also new for him), the airport, etc. And his instructor.
¶He landed twice, and both looked pretty smooth!
¶I’m looking forward to talking to him about it…and telling him I was there. ;-)
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/2023/08/26 on August 27, 2023 at 2:32 PM
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