May 2021

Cozy.

Every week we do a little more to make the new home feel like our home. We’ve settled in quite well, but the little touches help move things along.

I’m actually surprised at how much this new location has felt like home; it feels like we’ve been here much longer than two months. Ironically, there’s still a part of me that can’t believe we live in the desert. Now that we’re all fully vaccinated and getting out to explore more, it’s feeling even more like home.

Our master suite has a front room identified as the “Activity Room” on the original blueprints for the house. We have about 20 different sets of blueprints that neatly orchestrate the evolution of the house, including when they decided to flip the floor plan and build a mirror image of the original version. Our Activity Room is enjoyable for when we want to get away from the noise of the family room or cooking frivolity in the kitchen. Truman likes to park himself on his favorite blanket on the couch we moved from Chicago. He is seemingly so much happier here with all this space to run around in.

Overall I am quite pleased and happy.

31 May 2021 by Desert Life. 0

Absent.

Senator Kyrsten Sinema, courtesy of azcentral.com

Senator Kyrsten Sinema did not show for today’s Senate vote on the creation of a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Insurrection at the Capitol Building. Earlier this week, she spoke about the importance of this commission but apparently she did not find it important enough to warrant her vote. She didn’t even show up for work today.

I’m new to Arizona politics, and of course I understand the wild west is much different than the solidly blue stomping grounds I used to inhabit. I’m good with that. I’m good with learning, understanding, and growing as an American.

I’m not good with supporting a Senator that is a no show. I’m not good with with supporting someone who chooses to not do their job. I’m not good with supporting a coward.

I tried contacting Senator Sinema’s office but my call would not go through. I ended up writing an email instead.

I hope the Arizona Democratic Party has a better option when Senator Sinema’s term comes to an end. Her theatrics and complete disregard for doing her job are really not worthy of my vote.

More information at azcentral.com (sorry for the paywall).

28 May 2021 by Desert Life. This Ain't No CNN. 0

Monsoon.

I love the weather here in the Sonoran Desert. We have an abundance of sunshine, I have absolutely no breathing issues from stuffy air, and I find the warm wind, especially in the evening, particularly enjoyable. Granted, I’m not one for being in the sun, but I find my way to enjoy the outdoors and the sunshine safely and without sunburn at the end of the day.

A few folks have spoke about the upcoming monsoon season, and how spectacularly beautiful it is here in Tucson. I’m looking forward to experiencing this. In the meanwhile, he’s a video I found on YouTube, showing the Arizona Monsoon of 2019, in 4K HDR.

Enjoy.

I’m always saying how awesome and beautiful Mother Nature can be. Her mood here in the desert is much different than what I’ve experience all my life up north. I still find her moods completely spectacular.

27 May 2021 by Desert Life. 0

Brave.

The vast majority of users of the software we write for work use a Windows computer. Our applications are all web based; the “casual” users tend to use Google Chrome as their web browser, the more technically minded users tend to use something else, mostly Firefox but once in a while we’ll get hit by a one-off like Opera or Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft recently announced the impending end of support for Internet Explorer 11. Our applications haven’t worked on IE 11 in years, it’s just too weird of a browser, but we’ll occasionally get hit by a user that has IE set as their default. They’ll see weird results from our applications if they see the application at all. We usually steer them towards Google Chrome.

Microsoft is going to redirect their IE 11 users to Microsoft Edge, their web browser that is based on the same code base as Google Chrome. For the most part, if it works in Google Chrome, it works on Microsoft Edge.

I develop software on a Mac. Apple wants me to use the built in Safari web browser. While this is a very nice experience, it does not replicate what the typical user experiences. I have Firefox on my work Mac to make sure things I write work well in that arena, but I was hesitant to install Google Chrome on my Mac.

A quick aside, I did install Microsoft Edge but did not perform as well as I had hoped it would.

Enter Brave.

Brave Browser website screenshot

Brave uses the same codebase as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge to render web pages, so if it works on Chrome, it works on Brave. But the better thing is, Brave is focused on privacy. It has an Ad-blocker built in. It let’s you select your search engine of choose at installation (rather than digging through preferences panes). I always opt to use DuckDuckGo.

So far Brave has performed as expected and then some for my web development and surfing needs at work. If you want something that behaves like Google Chrome but better, I recommend checking out Brave.

25 May 2021 by Geek 2

Industrial Artistry.

I liked the way the sunset, powerlines, and trees came together for this shot. Taken on Irvington Rd. on the east side of Tucson.

24 May 2021 by Desert Life. 0

20.

Twenty years ago today was the final episode of “Star Trek: Voyager”, the episode “Endgame”.

Captain Janeway has always been my favorite captain in the entire Star Trek experience. “Endgame”, while seemingly cut short at the very end, is probably one of my favorite final episodes of any of the series.

23 May 2021 by Geek 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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