Sat Jul 23 2022

Sleep 0430 to 1300. (8-1/2 hours)

• So hard getting to sleep last night because my foot hurt whenever I laid it down. Took 2 Advil and that helped.
• Broke my Beats Studio Wireless Pro again. Both times I've broken a spring on one of the limbs and it keeps the earphone snug on your head. Now my left earphone hangs a bit loose letting more noise in. I guess in the end these are light (due to being plastic) but not built sturdy enough to last (whereas the wired version is metal but grips my head like a vice).
• Checked AirPods Max and it uses metal stalks so probably sturdier. Will upgrade next time I see it on sale.

Sun Jul 24 2022

Sleep 0630 to 1430. (8 hours)

• I finally got it that Podcasts with both iCloud sync and syncing over USB is redundant and kind of messes up my Podcasts in iPhone with it losing track of which episodes I had just listened to.
• iOS 15.6 update has "TV app adds the option to restart a live sports game already in progress, and pause, rewind or fast-forward". Previously I had to wait for the baseball game to be finished and then another half hour before the replay was available and rewinding a live broadcast is nice when I miss something. Next thing I hope is that when I switch devices and go back to the replay it continues from where I left off instead of starting at the beginning (with no fast forward/scanning option on iPad!).
• Speaking of which, using my Mac to update a device mostly locks the Mac from start of download to when update is done (mostly locks means text entry doesn't work though keyboard can still be used to say navigate Preview pages). Also Finder is stuck in spinning cursor until I relaunch it.
• Foot still hurts and I've been hobbling about Saturday and today. Wouldn't trust it taking a shower and I haven't a shower in over a week so this is not great.

Mon Jul 25 2022

Sleep 0500 to 0900. 1 hour nap. (5 hours)

• Lots of early morning to mid-afternoon drilling. Tough to get anything done especially with my bum foot.
• The Apple Store Time Machine. FPS-type simulation of four Apple Stores (original, mini, Fifth Avenue, Infinite Loop) that you can walk around in and admire. Just the public room. Even this simple thing quickly triggered my motion sickness.

Tue Jul 26 2022

Sleep 0400 to 0900. 1400 to 1700. (8 hours)

• Steph wants me to cat sit Horatio this weekend. She and C3 are going to Lake Tahoe.

Wed Jul 27 2022

Sleep 2345 to 0630. (6-3/4 hours)

• Woke up and foot only hurt a little. Could stand up and hobble immediately. Before had to sit up and wait a few minutes for blood to get to my foot.

Thu Jul 28 2022

Sleep 0100 to 0300, 0630 to 1230. (8 hours)

• Steph was kind enough to bring over orange juice, milk and food.
• Plan was to bring Horatio to my place but she is worried he'll eat something and die (my place is a mess). So I'll go to her place.

Fri Jul 29 2022

Sleep 0200 to 0600. 1 hour nap. 1 hour nap. (6 hours)

• Staying at my sister's place cat sitting.

RapidWeaver gave me a popup upgrade offer for RapidWeaver Classic. Odd name and not much info in the ad so I went to RapidWeaver web site to investigate.

RapidWeaver 8 is the current version and was released Aug 2018 so four years is pretty good for a major release. RapidWeaver Classic is effectively v9 and renamed because there is a new RapidWeaver Elements in development.

RapidWeaver Classic: regular RapidWeaver with modest improvements, I assume. Yearly subscription though and it says about cancelling "If you no longer have a valid subscription, your copy of RapidWeaver will still be able to open, edit, and publish existing projects." which is fine for me as I only have one project and as long as edit means I can add pages and such then it's great.

RapidWeaver Elements: Elements is their new drag-and-drop component UI. I assume it's kind of like Stacks, an add-on that also has drag-and-drop components and you can buy other components.

I bought RapidWeaver 8 Oct 2019 on the Mac App Store for $75. RapidWeaver Classic is $80 and upgrade is $40. I'll wait until I've used it four years before upgrading and if the upgrade price increases or is discontinued I guess I'll wait longer.

DriveThruRPG Christmas in July sale goes about 7 hours into August so I can buy like eight items that will go to fulfilling August's debit card purchase requirements for my bank.

Two Traveller 2E adventures. If you buy print from Mongoose you get the PDF or if you buy print at a store you don't get PDF. But Mongoose also has shipping charges so print maybe not that great other than as part of a Kickstarter but their KSes have only had add-ons for the bigger books not adventures. Therefore buying PDF adventures is fine especially since they're GM-only products.

Solomani Adventure 1: Mysteries on Arcturus Station ($11.25/$15)
Solomani Adventure 2: The Bell of Rocamadour ($9/$12)

Previously in the sale I concentrated on products reviewed at Fear of a Black Dragon podcast. Now let's go back to finishing up my Basic D&D PDF collection.

M1 Into the Maelstrom (Basic) ($3.75/$5)
M3 Twilight Calling (Basic) ($3.75/$5)
M5 Talons of Night (Basic) ($3.75/$5)
O1 The Gem and the Staff (Basic) ($3.75/$5)
O2 Blade of Vengeance (Basic) ($3.75/5)
XSOLO Lathan's Gold (Basic) ($3.75/$5)

Sat Jul 16 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1200. (6 hours)

• Gaming at Dave and Sophia's. We played Flick 'em Up!: Dead of Winter where you flick your shot at zombie stands and if you knock a zombie down it's dead.

Sun Jul 17 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1230. (6-1/2 hours)

• I didn't notice that some apps on CrossOver compatibility database also have data for digital releases from various stores. For example Heroes of Might and Magic V says GOG and Steam versions will run. Still, the database is not that accurate but understandable with so many computer setups.

Mon Jul 18 2022

Sleep 0230 to 1030 (8 hours)

• NOC BBQ Aug 07. It's at Beresford Park near Steph's house. San Mateo County is at High/Red level but guidance is for more masking indoors so an outdoor non-crowd event should be ok. Haven't yet decided.
• Tia Susana's birthday lunch is on Oct 16. Even though it'll be indoors in a big Chinese restaurant I said I'd go. Sacramento County is also at High level but might be better in three months.

Tue Jul 19 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1200. 1 hour nap. (7 hours)

• Noticed 4K Video Downloader has 500%+ CPU usage when downloading. Guess it's a recent bug.

Wed Jul 20 2022

Sleep 0500 to 1300. (8 hours)

• More renovation work on the jacuzzi room. They start hammering just before 0900 and go to early afternoon. Wakes me up when they start but if I'm tired enough I'll go back to sleep.

Thu Jul 21 2022

Sleep 0500 to 1300. (8 hours)

• Been exercising a bit too hard in order to do my Apple Watch rings. Woke up today and my left ankle is acting up, which it does every few years after I twisted it badly a couple decades ago. Hobbling around and will take it easy for a few days.

Fri Jul 22 2022

Sleep 1030 to 1500. (4-1/2 hours)

• Looks like my Apple Watch s7 can go the better part of two days if I leave display off (versus better part of one day with it always on). Turn your wrist to look at the time and the display comes on quick enough that it's not annoying. Of course the display tends to come on randomly as I'm moving my arm around.
• Couldn't sleep last night because my ankle was sore. Then I finally got out of bed and could barely walk. Guess no exercise today, or doing anything else.
• TwitchCon Amsterdam. Apparently lots of streamers got COVID-19. Yikes.

Eclipse Phase 2E bundle is just $15 for the lot. Prices are DriveThruRPG.

Eclipse Phase 2E ($25)

Router Case Files (26 pp, $7) - plot hooks
Xenovore (41 pp, $7) - adventure
Overrun (27 pp, $7) - adventure

All That Glitters (2 pp, $8.75 for 5 nano ops or $2 each) - encounter
Better on the Inside (2 pp) - encounter
Body Count (2 pp) - encounter
Grinder (2 pp) - encounter

On the positive side this is all the products published for 2E (except for one nano op), minus the Quick Start which you can download for free. On the other hand there's not much out for 2E. Probably will skip.

It'll be three years in September (I think) when Apple Arcade was launched. Now 15 of those games will be leaving Apple Arcade. I'm assuming many of them will be released by the developers as standalone games since they still work and they already have a store page in Apple Arcade.

Dead End Job [/] You run a ghost-hunting business. Go into buildings and battle various ghosts. Risk going into the next room for glory and money or leave a job unfinished and save your life, which requires a lot of money to revive. I played this without a controller and found it a bit hard to play; should try it again one more time. I remember playing this late at night while PhotoChess was doing her Sherlock Holmes reading... Played it again and it's better with a controller, almost a twin-stick except you have to use right trigger to shoot -- it'd be easier if right stick fired when you aim with it.

Projection: First Light [/] wander a 2-D world using your companion light to manipulate shadows which you can then walk on.

Spelldrifter [+] tactical turn-based combat using cards for actions. I really liked it but hit a wall and couldn't progress.

Spidersaurs [/] cartoony platformer where you battle mutant dinosaurs.

Towaga: Among Shadows [+] this is a fun not-that-frenetic twin-stick shooter good for about 10 hours of game play.

Various Daylife [/] a bit of a JRPG-style game but you're going through jobs and doing them day after day.


These other games I haven't played. Will try to play them before they leave Apple Arcade.

Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree
BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner
Cardpocalypse
Don't Bug Me!
Dread Nautical
EarthNight
Explottens
Lifeslide
Over the Alps

Sat Jul 09 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1430. (8-1/2 hours)

• Julia Evans' blog mentioned a couple of uptime tracking services. I signed up for UptimerRobot which is free (50 monitors, 5 min to 24 hour interval checks, http non ssl). It'll email if your site doesn't return a success response and with pro you can do more analysis.

Sun Jul 10 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1300. (7 hours)

• Ice cream with CW3.

Mon Jul 11 2022

Sleep 0100 to 0230, 0600 to 1230. (8 hours)

• Fading Suns 4E presents the 2021 version of the RPG with a totally different rules system. The bundle has no adventures or campaigns so I'll skip.

Tue Jul 12 2022

Sleep 0645 to 1430. (7-3/4 hours)

• Amazing Adventures is a multi-genre RPG based on D&D 5E rules. Multi-genre class-and-level system is not appealing. Even Mutants & Masterminds 3E which doesn't have the class or levels still feels too much like d20 fantasy gaming.

Wed Jul 13 2022

Sleep 0430 to 1230. (8 hours)

• Castle Oldskull bundle is big but not that interesting. It's a bunch OSR GM aids. Generators for adventures, monsters and NPCs. Advice books on creating adventures, cities and campaigns. Random encounters and treasures. It looks like stuff to make me work more as a GM.

Thu Jul 14 2022

Sleep 0630 to 1215. (7-3/4 hours)

• I remember GOG used to do game ownership syncing -- if you bought games on Steam you could sync some of that ownership to GOG. Oh, it was GOG Connect and apparently it was based on developers/publishers choosing to do this as a promotion. Don't remember the last time it was active; several years ago.

Fri Jul 15 2022

Sleep 1500 to 2000. (5 hours)

• Stayed up all night because couldn't sleep then by the time I was tired about 0800 I stayed up longer to watch Nemo stream.

I never browse IndieGogo so let's see how their recommendations go.

Tabletop Games: nothing interesting.

Video Games: nothing interesting and a lot more adult content than I expected.

Writing & Publishing: nothing interesting.

Comics: a lot of semi-interesting pretty girl comics but nothing I'd buy.

Film:

To The Journey: Events - To the Journey is a Star Trek: Voyager documentary film, already funded. This campaign is for getting tickets to the premiere (three locations), Star Trek Cruise Drinks with cast (not the cruise itself), Dinner at Vegas Con.

It's kind of weird that the defaultTrending sort lists closed campaigns.

Ok, that was pretty bad selection.

Humble Bundle - Shadowrun TTRPG bundle is a bundle for Shadowrun 6E. A couple of months ago Bundle of Holding had two bundles which much the same books.

Common in both bundles

Tales from the UCAS: Age of Rust - 15-page adventure ideas
Krime Katalog - weapons and vehicles for SR 5e and 6e
Free Seattle - 58-page sourcebook and adventure
Collapsing Now - 10 organizations
Slip Streams - 146-page plot book
Power Plays - 10 megacorps
Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia - corps, orgs and people
30 Nights - 144-page campaign
Double Clutch - core rigging rulebook
Street Wyrd - core magic rulebook
Shadowrun, Sixth World Core Rulebook - sixth edition of Shadowrun
Cutting Black - 176-page campaign
No Future - guide to 2080 culture

Unique to Humble Bundle

Igentis Athletes - 10 troll NPCs and info on making troll variant characters
The Third Parallel - 168-page campaign book
Assassins Night - 152-page campaign

Unique to Bundle of Holding

Firing Squad - core combat rulebook
Gun Rack - weapon cards

The Bundle of Holding was $74 which was too expensive for me. This bundle has two extra campaigns (and I'd rather have more adventures than more rules) and is only $18 which becomes a very appealing purchase.

Sat Jul 02 2022

Sleep 0500 to 1100 (6 hours)

• Reading up on setting up a flag and you're supposed to set it up sunrise and take it down sunset of the holiday, in this case Independence Day.

Sun Jul 03 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1400. (8 hours)

• Christopher Sr/Jr and I visited Dave, Sophia and Jonathan. We had take-out Chinese food for dinner but otherwise we hung around and talked.

Mon Jul 04 2022

Sleep 0800 to 1200. (4 hours)

• Bought an Apple Watch Series 7 (45mm GPS) on sale at Amazon for $360 (almost $400 with tax).

Tue Jul 05 2022

Sleep 0630 to 1245. (6-1/4 hours)

• Drobo (or really their parent company) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Kind of sadge since I do like my Drobo.
• Dental cleaning.
• Went to Incas Grill for lunch. Chupe con Camarones. Delicious.

Wed Jul 06 2022

Sleep 0115 to 0945. 45 min nap. (9-1/4 hours)

• Finally got a hair cut. Last time was Oct 30 so 8 months 1 week ago.
• Urban Momo for lunch.

Thu Jul 07 2022

Sleep ??? (about 8 hours)

• Received my Apple Watch. Setup is pretty easy with an iPhone: iPhone will send settings, apps and wallet cards to Watch.
• Went to see Thor: Love and Thunder with Dave S and Christopher Sr. Very entertaining.

Fri Jul 08 2022
Sleep 0415 to 1215. (8 hours)

• DDO. Changed out a couple of feats but you have to change out a dependent feat before you can change prereq and it's tied to the level you got the feat at. Could have been bad but took me three exchanges to do the two feats.

iPadOS 16

Shared Photo Library
Shared Tab Groups and Pass Keys in Safari
Mail Updates
Weather in iPad
- Weather Kit

Collaboration
- start Collaboration via Share Sheet
- everyone can make edits on same document
- initiate a FaceTime call with everyone in group
- Collaboration API

Free Form app
- whiteboard app with extra features?
- add photos, video, audio, PDFs, web links
- preview in-line
- iOS, iPadOS, macOS versions

Gaming
- Metal 3 API
- Background download API
- Game Center
++ user activity
++ SharePlay
++ iOS, iPadOS, macOS

Desktop-class apps
- Lots of Desktop features added to iPadOS
++ Undo/Redo across the system
++ Availability in Calendar
++ Find and merge cards in Contacts, Lists in Contacts
++ Files: change file extensions, view folder size, expand folders in list view...
- Find and Replace inline
- Document menu
- Customizable tool bars

Reference Mode
- provides consistent reference workflow across devices

M1-enabled features
- Display scaling (increase pixel density)
- Virtual memory swap (apps can use 16 GB memory)
- Stage Manager for iPad
++ overlapping windows
++ resize windows
++ supports simultaneous external display


Weather app in iPad is great. I've always disliked not having apps across all devices Home screen exactly the same on iPhone and iPad. Though I guess that will be harder as iPadOS continues diverging from iOS.

Stage Manager on iPad is actually very cool. On macOS we already had multiple windows and Spaces and now we're getting the equivalent on iPad and it'll be interesting to see if it works with all apps (a lot of system-wide features that you think would be automatic have to be supported by apps, even if it's just setting an internal preference or doing an API initialization call).

The Boys Versus The Girls is a graphic novel and comic books bundle from Dynamite Comics. $25 for the whole bundle but the question is what do I really want?

What I don't have

Athena #1-4 of 4 (2009)
Barbarella #1 of 10+ (2021)
Chastity #1-6 of 6 (2014)
Dawn/Vampirella v1 (2014)
Deja Thoris and the Green Men of Mars #1-12 of 12 (2013)
Deja Thoris and the White Apes of Mars #1-4 of 4 (2012)
DIE!namite v1 #1-5 of 5 (2020)
Draculina #1 of 6 (2022)
Eva Daughter of Dracula One-Shot
Hack/Slash Eva: Monster's Ball #1-4 of 4 (2011)
Jennifer Blood v1 #1-6 of 36 (2011)
Legends of Red Sonja TPB #1-5 of 5 (2013)
Miss Fury v1 #1-6 (2013)
Miss Fury v2 #1-5 (2016)
Nyx #1-4 of 9+ (2021)
Pantha #1-6 of 6 (2012)
Purgatori #1-5 of 5 (2014)
Red Sonja v4 #12 of 26 (2016)
Red Sonja Worldscape Special with Exclusive Map
Red Sonja: 1973 One-Shot (2015)
Sheena: Queen of the Jungle #1-2 of 9+ (2021)
The Boys v4 to v12 (2006)
The Boys: Dear Becky v1 #1-8 (2020)
The Complete Alice in Wonderland #1-4 of 4 (2009)
Vampirella 1969 (2015)
Vampirella vs Dracula #1-6 of 6 (2012)
Vampirella: The Essential Warren Years TPB (2014)
Witch Blade/Red Sonja #1-5 of 5 (2012)
Witchblade: Demon (2003)
Witchblade: Demon Reborn #1-4 of 4 (2012)

What I already have

Frank Thorne's Red Sonja Art Edition v1 #1-3 (2014)
Jungle Girl v1 #0-5 of 6 (2007)
Jungle Girl v2 #1-5 of 5 (2008)
Legenderry #1-5 of 7 (2014)
Masquerade #1-4 of 4 (2009)
Queen Sonja #1-2 of 35 (2009)
Red Sonja v4 #0 of 11 (2016)
Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues v1 #1-6 (2013)
Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword #0-6 (2005)
Swords of Sorrow #1-6 of 6 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Black Sparrow & Lady Zorro #1 of 1 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Chaos! Prequel #1 of 1 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Dejah Thoris & Irene Adler #1-3 of 3 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Masquerade & Kato #1 of 1 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Miss Fury & Lady Rawhide #1 of 1 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Pantha & Jane Porter #1 of 1 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Red Sonja & Jungle Girl #1-3 of 3 (2015)
Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #1-4 of 4 (2015)
The Blood Queen #1-6 of 6 (2014)
The Boys v1 to v3 (2006)
Vampirella Archives v1 (2010)
Vampirella Master Series v1 and v4 (2010)
Vampirella v1 #1-11 (2010)

Still worth $25.

Sat Jun 25 2022

Sleep 0430 to 1230. (8 hours)

• Marble Fest today and tomorrow. PhotoChess has the Sat 1500 to 1700 PDT timeslot.

Sun Jun 26 2022

Sleep 0700 to 1430. (7-1/2 hours)

• Done working at 0500 this morning.

Mon Jun 27 2022

Sleep 0100 to 1000. (9 hours)

• HOA Meeting. Good progress on all fronts.

Tue Jun 28 2022

Sleep 0600 to 1230. (6-1/2 hours)

• Someone has been doing construction work starting at 0700 yesterday and today.

Wed Jun 29 2022

Sleep 0830 to 1430. (6 hours)

• Building in a bit of a furor when a couple of Verizon salesman were knocking door to door.

Thu Jun 30 2022

Sleep 1200 to 1715. (5-1/4 hours)

• Another all nighter.

Fri Jul 01 2022

Sleep 2300 to 0300. 1200 to 1330. (5-1/2 hours)

• San Mateo moved to High/Red COVID-19 category as of yesterday. Masks recommended indoors and public transportation.
• Taking a bit of a silent day off to recover. Manager asked me at 1530 if I could create two transactions and have them ready to merge by end of today. No but I will work on it this weekend.