I found the new iPhone 15 Pro wallpapers online so you don’t have to. Right-click and “Open Image in New Tab” to see in full size.
September 2023
Announcement Day.
Today was the day of Apple’s latest round of announcements, and following the lead established during the pandemic, Apple had a slick, pre-recorded presentation to spill the goods.
I cleared my calendar at work and switched my Teams status to “Do Not Disturb” so I could enjoy the festivities.
Today Apple announced the latest generation of iPhone, the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The fastest iPhones ever (why wouldn’t they be?), all models showed a decent spec bump and some amazing photographic capabilities. I am currently rocking an iPhone 13 Pro, which replaced my iPhone X back in the day. To secure this iPhone 13 Pro from the family budgeting department, I had to sign a document and place an entry on the family calendar stating I would not update for three years. So I see an iPhone 16 Pro Max on the horizon for next year.
Apple also announced WATCH 9 and their latest version of the WATCH Ultra, dubbed the Ultra 2.
I guess phrases like “Windows Vista” destroyed any marketing chances in the future of having something than iterative numbers attached to device names in the 21st century.
The Apple Watch upgrades boast impressive features and more iterative spec bumps. I’m not compelled to replace my WATCH Series 7 at this time; maybe I’ll go crazy a year from now and/or when we win the lottery.
As mentioned in my previous blog entry, the little skit around Apple’s initiatives for becoming Carbon Neutral by 2030 was my favorite part of today’s presentation and I’m really happy Apple is doing the right thing by focusing on a better environment. Sometimes it feels like the long way around to this goal; buying a new device the is friendlier for the environment than your current device, instead of just keeping your current device, seems like the long way around but with recycling practices and the like, it makes sense.
This!
I know most will not agree with me, but I found this segment of today’s Apple presentation to be the most compelling, and the most important.
There’s a lot of snark online about Apple and their devices and their features and all of that. I know, your flip phone could do everything plus bake a loaf of bread back in 1972. Your “blarrrrgggggghhh” tweets/Xcrements from your Android phone could wipe the floor with anyone and everyone that works at Apple. I know, I know, you need your superiority.
You know what’s superior? Taking care of the planet. Listening to Mother Nature. And Apple gets it right. And it shows, right here.
This was the most important message of today’s presentation. Let’s do everything we can to be carbon neutral, as fast as we can.
And let’s face it, Octavia Spencer is one fine Mother Nature.
Flag.
A few of our neighbors have American flags in their landscaping and/or front yard. All do the proper thing and have solar powered lighting to keep the flag illuminated during the night. The previous owner of our home had a flag hanging over the garage but I didn’t see anything indicated it was illuminated.
It was well into my adulthood that I realized hanging a flag like this was much more of American thing versus patriotic displays in the rest of the world. Of course too many folks take this to extremes and wear the American flag on their underwear, hanging off their car, etc. which I think is a bit too much, though I do have an American flag top I bought in 1990 from International Male.
I don’t wear it anymore since it’d look like a crop top today and it was never intended to be a crop top.
Cessna 182.
Back when we lived in Chicago I earned my “high performance” and “complex” endorsements as a private pilot. These two endorsements allowed me to fly airplanes faster than 200 HP and with retractable gear. I earned these endorsements on a 1978 Cessna R182, or a Cessna 182 with retractable gear. She was called “Large Marge” and was a fun airplane to fly. I liked the speed and being able to comfortably carry my husband, full fuel, and a bit of luggage to a destination in a decent amount of time.
When I joined the flying club here in Arizona I was delighted to see they had not only a Cessna R182 of the same vintage, they also have a Cessna 182 “straight leg”; same airplane without retractable gear. The latter is a newer airplane (2001) and yesterday I went up with an instructor to begin the insurance checkout required for the club.
Due to a Temporary Flight Restriction over Redington Pass, near where the Molino 3 Fire seems to be now under control, we opted to fly to KOLS Nogales and do some touch ‘n goes. We did what we call “air work” on the way down; showing off my proficiency in steep turns, stalls, and the like.
We’re scheduled to go up again in a couple weeks to continue the checkout process. Prior to yesterday’s flight, I had one hour less than the amount needed for insurance requirements.
I’m always a happy guy after a flight. While I’m flying quite a bit this year, I’m never flying enough.
Caturday.
Truman has been pretty chill lately. He shows his contentment by positioning himself on the floor and just watching the world go by. His claws going in and out indicate happiness.
Molino 3.
I was surprised to see “orange lights” near Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains last night. I spotted these “lights” during my sunset walk; once the sun was down I realized it was a wild fire.
Dubbed the “Molino 3” fire, it was at approximately the same area as a fire earlier this year where a guy shooting target practices fired off some rounds that sparked a fire and didn’t do anything about it, resulting in the “Molino 2” fire. At last check they were reporting 425 acres were on fire.
I hope they’re able to get it out quickly. Admittedly, I’m worried about the wildlife and the ecosystem in the area more than any human installed dwellings down the mountain. Too many humans have a tendency to do terrible things to this planet. Hopefully good humans will help get this fire under control quickly.
Second Thoughts.
When I was in elementary school I was a pretty strong student, hitting the honor roll on a regular basis. Presented with the opportunity to take a test or a pop quiz or the “Iowa Tests”, which were a standardized battery of tests given near the end of the school year, I generally finished any of these tests first and would silently wait for everyone else to finish. I wasn’t one to check my work; I either knew it or I didn’t and over 90% of the time I knew the answer and hence ended up on the honor roll.
This all changed in sixth grade. My sixth grade teacher, a man in his early 30s that all the girls went gaga over (I liked his mustache but that was about it; I was still bitter about my much more “enrichment” teacher being let go at the end of the previous school year), he would have us put our tests or quizzes on his desk when we were done and then we’d sit down watching everyone else do the same thing. As usual I was always first and my grades would show it, usually 88 to 92. That’s what I did. A few weeks into the school year he pulled me aside to tell me a few things. First of all, I had to stop making my penmanship “too pretty”. I wasn’t putting hearts or stars over the “I”s and “j”s or anything, I just had a little bit of a loopy flair to the way I wrote and I didn’t see any harm in it. The second thing he mentioned was that I was racing through my tests way too fast and I should slow down and recheck all my work before handing it in.
This started my tendency to second guess myself.
My grades on exams went down a bit and being as literally minded as I can be, I didn’t blame it on going against my nature of just “I know it or I don’t” but rather, I was doing something else wrong and if I just kept checking my work I’d be fine. I took his words to heart and for the rest of my school career I slowed my natural thought processes down and became a merit roll student. I clearly remember watching students take their tests up before me and counting them so I wouldn’t be in the top three or top five, and I would change answers that I second guessed so he could see I was checking my work. I don’t blame the teacher with the mustache for the drop in grades, he thought he was urging me to slow down and check my work like every other student, but that just didn’t work for me. This is what I get for growing up in the tail end of the “one student is like every other student” era. It would have been easier to go metric.
And my penmanship can still be a little loopy but no hearts or stars for the dots.
Admission.
There has been something I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for a while, and after several weeks of pondering on this, I have decided to go for it and make this bold announcement right here on my blog. That’s right, you’re hearing it here first.
I bought the official Apple Polishing Cloth.
There it is in glorious color, positioned at a jaunty angle atop the original packaging.
I mentioned this fact a few weeks ago on an Apple centric Reddit channel and was promptly chastised and mocked for having made such a purchase from an extravagant $19.00. Apparently I can go to the dollar store and buy some knock off wipes called Sham-Mee or Sham-Wow or something and accomplish the same exact task, the desire to clean finger prints from my M2 MacBook Air in Midnight, with the same ease instead of buying into Apple’s rapid and vapid commercialism and capitalism and paying a whopping $19.00 for a polishing cloth.
After all, in this era of buying $9 coffees (Mocha-Chocha-Woo-Woo-Zaire-Lite, no whip please) with more calories that an African nation, how dare I spend money that will make Tim Apple a billionaire.
I like my polishing cloth. It feels good on my hands, it completes its task quite well, and I’m so delighted I’ll probably buy another one to whip out at Starbucks.
Mocha-Chocha that.
Guest Suite.
I don’t spend enough time admiring the work Chris and Mike have done to make our guests comfortable in their suite when they visit. The guest suite is showing as the “Solarium” on the blue prints. The room features large windows on three walls, with a door out to the roof, which was suppose to have deck at one time.
The previous owner built a makeshift closet across the landing shown in the photo with our “guest iMac”; the closet had a garage fluorescent light, some utility shelves and a makeshift wall to actually mark it as a closet. If you look close behind the back, right hand desk leg, you can see a break in the molding where the wall used to be. After the previous owner put this closet in, they raised the price of the house $30K so we always referred to it as “the $30K closet”. We all hated it and when we did the monsoon related damage renovations at the end of last year that closet was one of the first things to go. The space is much better.
The door that goes out to the deck that doesn’t exist does provide a nice view of the Rincon Mountains and Redington Pass.
There’s also an in-suite bathroom with walk-in shower. Chris and Mike spent many hours painting and such to make it very nice for our guests.
It’s good to know they’ll be comfortable when they visit.
