I’m not an expert, so take this as far as you’d like — reading has real benefits to our brains such as improving vocabulary, improving critical thinking skills, and improving focus. I don’t think short form videos give us the same brain benefits.

Here’s an article from Piedmont health on the benefits of reading. I haven’t seen such an article for short form videos, but am open to it if there is one.

https://www.piedmont.org/living-real-change/health-benefits-of-reading

On the other hand, the older I get, the more excited I am to greet the next day.

I also enjoy an earlier bed time than I used to, usually.

I have one that does this, too.

It usually doesn’t last super long; I get too hot with him near my chest, and he gets antsy if I’m not perfectly still. 🤷‍♂️

Ah damn, and it looks like almonds are grown mostly in California. Adding insult to injury.

California-grown almonds account for 80 per cent of the world’s commercial almond production.

(From https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/the-best-plant-based-milks-for-the-planet/)

It’s theoretically possible to reduce cost of food and reduce factory farming if we convert feed fields to other human-consumable options. Additionally, water is conserved, and greenhouse gasses (methane) are further limited.

It’s my opinion that we should not stick with and try to iterate on a bad, unjust, and unfavorable system for the sake of keeping prices low with our current dietary preferences.

I am a current meat eater and former 6 year vegetarian.

And republicans (or, at least one, in my district) are campaigning here on how cashless bail is letting criminals go free.

Cashless bail isn’t letting criminals go free any more than cash-based bail was. I am just as safe. There is nothing to see here, except a more level playing field for all.

Why do the republicans in charge hate people so much? I don’t think their constituents hate people nearly as much as the leaders.

Please share how to run the pesticide and herbicide places out of town. Would love some good options.

3 months ago I cancelled Spotify, following yet another price increase. I went to Tidal for the 2 month trial, and another month full price.

This month I cancelled Tidal, following their deprecation of Plex integration, my finding a couple tracks with bad meta data, and some other here-and-there’s where the service was lackluster.

I’m current on Apple Music.

I like that Apple Music has lossless, like Tidal did. The Apple Music algo seems a bit better so far, even comparing to Spotify or the last time I tried Apple Music (~3-4 years ago). And, one of the things I didn’t know I wanted, music videos for my morning jam time, are better with Apple Music.

I imagine I’ll be staying here for a while.

I was an efficiency whore while working management at a big software company.

It sucked in some very specific ways. I didn’t even realize the impact until after I left that environment.

There were some good things from corporate America, too, but they didn’t bring real ultimate power happiness.

In my rural area’s 50 mile radius, there are just gas stations with to-go bags. The gas stations are, at best, convenience stores.

I uninstalled the app after seeing it was just an advertising opportunity for those gas stations.

Alternatively, if they are happy with their pro-grums, familiar with the interface, and not getting gouged worse than the next cable subscriber — consider letting it rest.

From things like being able to punch in a channel number to having the cable company to call for issues, folks in that generation might really prefer paying.

I’m basing this on my years of experience with a now 60-something and now 80-something. YMMV

The Spaceburger looks pretty dope.

I asked Tidal to expand on the why. Not the most satisfying answer, but I thought this was a fun sentence:

We can confirm that since your account was activated with TIDAL Direct billing, you can still use the Plex app, and since the partnership will be concluded at some point, it won't work any more.

🤦‍♂️

I tried it, and it’s a real nice way to discover stuff. I’m coming off the Tidal 2 month trial, and part of me wishes I hadn’t tried this functionality (because I will miss it).

Apple urges developers to not use DeviceCheck for anything beyond basic device verification, and if you're a developer that's also misusing it, then you should definitely cease that—there are probably more reliable ways to check whether it's the same user trying to access an account from a device or not.

I don’t think I care about not being able to erase the device ID. It seems useful to have this, actually, for back-tracing if need be.

Snapchat probs shouldn’t use the DeviceCheck services improperly. But hey, that’s just like my opinion, man.

More, not very interesting, info on DeviceCheck services here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicecheck

It was probably Aspen Dental.

It’s not so much the motivation, but the just doing it. Shia has a great video on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0

Sonic sage playlists FTW

Similar - I signed up for my Spotify account with a VPN, as it was only available in Europe / UK / something like that. Have been paying for as long as I can remember.

With our family account, we had a house account, wife, mother, grandmother, and myself. In reality, only 2 of those accounts really got used.

The family verification emails were definitely annoying. But the yearly price hike with few important feature improvements, combined with things like audiobooks being for the primary account only, caused me to re-eval.

Now, my wife is on a student plan on Spotify, and I’m trialing Tidal. I expect to stick with Tidal based on lossless and higher pay for artists. If I don’t, I’ll likely swing over to Apple Music. Switching and migrating playlists is pretty painless, overall.

In any case, I’m glad I’m out of that abusive relationship with Spotify.

That’s not quite what I said. You have strong convictions, and I wish you well.

xoxo -rando