This Voyager era captain has an older Shore Leave uniform.
J.P. out.
J.P.
Energy.
Words can not describe how much I love the energy of this Fleetwood Mac performance of “Rhiannon”. Raw. Honest. Moving. Ethereal.
Filmed at a rehearsal in 1976.
Old School.
I am delighted to see items marked in an old school way. These young whippersnappers though think they need to use the “FOR” mark, which would actually be used in a 2 FOR 99 scenario.
I’d probably do the same thing, though. It’s geeky cool.
HomeKit, Part 2.
The switch from Amazon’s Alexa to Apple’s HomeKit to handle our household technology needs is going mostly well. HomeKit hasn’t lost any devices or scenes and routines I’ve set up, but accessing them can be tricky. Apple has a “gap” in the device department; there’s nothing equivalent to the Echo Dot or Google Home Mini. I don’t want to buy a HomePod for the bathroom, but we like to listen to music and podcasts during our morning routine.
Another gap in the HomeKit device arena is an equivalent to the Google Home Hub. We tried having an iPad fill that role, but it’s just not the same. Google has knocked it out of the park in this area; Earl can ask the Home Hub for a recipe for something spectacular and a combination of audio commands and visual cues can take him through the recipe at his own pace. An iPad requires physical input, which is not convenient when your hands are covered in cooking oil or whatever. I haven’t found an iOS app that replaces the functionality of the Google Home Hub, so it’s back on the kitchen counter again. I’m thinking of installing a couple of freebie Google Home Minis in strategic locations in the house as well.
This takes us away from an all HomeKit setup but it helps keep costs down.
The other kicker of this conversion is that some of our home automation outlets are either HomeKit or something other than HomeKit, none of the controlled outlets we purchased will interface with both systems. I purchased a couple on Amazon that should be here tomorrow; hopefully they will work with both systems simultaneously. This way we can talk to Siri or the Google Home products when we need to.
My husband just asked that we don’t continue to use Alexa, because that seemed like it took the longest for anything to happen and we found Alexa to be the least reliable when responding to voice commands.
I’ll probably have a part three to this saga in the next week or so, but I’m learning that Home Automation is still well entrenched in the “early adopters” stream. I could never see my grandparents setting up something like this.
Updates.
Who knew there would come a day when updating software in our car would become a thing? I’m surprised the car doesn’t update itself, but it’s a fun little exercise.
Theme.
A live version of the “Charlie’s Angels” theme song. One of the best television theme songs of all time.
There better be a nod to the original theme song in this movie coming out at the end of the year.
Feelin’ It.
I walked with the National Gay Pilots Association in the Chicago Pride Parade again this year. It is a magnificent feeling, hearing all that cheering and celebration as one walks and waves their way down the parade route, simply being who they are.
Mother Nature came barreling in when we were making our way through the crowds and the parade came to an early end due to lightning being detected in the area. I joined my fellow pilots at a Pride House Party. I was the oldest guy in the room but I still had a great time. Talking airplanes and getting to know each other a little more was an awesome feeling. I remarked that I missed a little bit of the aviation energy I felt back when I was flying out of KRME; there are so many places I want to take my aviation career (even though I was the oldest guy in the room), and participating with the NGPA today gave me the energy boost I was seeking.
I was talking with one of the newer members who is working on her CFI or Certified Flight Instructor rating. One of the examiners she flew with remarked that he thought women didn’t make good pilots. Some of the best pilots I know are women. I wonder how many pilots don’t think gay men make good pilots. They’d be wrong about that too.
And this is why we march in Pride Parades.
PixMob.
So last night the family went to Allstate Arena to see Shawn Mendes. He is touring on “The Tour” and puts on a good show. I’m not a huge fan of his music but he exhibits a decent amount of talent, has a good voice that doesn’t sound electronically modified too much, and puts a lot of energy into his performance.
When we were entering the arena we were all given white wrist bands with little LED lights in them. I thought these were to be used in place of lighters of the old days, but it turns out they didn’t turn on when we removed the battery protector. There were no switches.
Made by PixMob, these little bracelets lit up as Shawn took the stage and for the next 90+ minutes, our bracelets were part of the performance’s light show. They twinkled. They flashed. Waves of color danced over the crowd for the entire performance.
I was captivated by this technology.
According to Wikipedia, the bracelets are controlled by infrared signals, much like the remote control on your television.
It’s not the most productive use of technology in the world but it was impressive and it contributed to the positive energy of the show. And these days we need all the positive energy we can get.
