Sat Jun 21 2025

Sleep 0430 to 1100 (6-1/2 hours)

• Foot still slightly swollen.
• Apparently the USA used B2s to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites. Stock market may be down tomorrow so good thing I sold some ORCL stock when I did.

Sun Jun 22 2025

Sleep 0215 to 0945, 1 hr in naps (8-1/2 hours)

• Gaming at Woo’s place. Corina and Cjr were not there. Conversely Sophia and Jonathan made a few combat rolls.

Mon Jun 23 2025

Sleep 0330 to 1230 (9 hours)

• Foot is 98% fine. Slightly swollen still but doesn’t bother me at all. Haven’t tried running or anything strenuous.

Tue Jun 24 2025

Sleep 0315 to 1115 (8 hours)

• I tried several online QR code decoders and QR Code Raptor allowed me to drag and drop an image and decoded it correctly.

Wed Jun 25 2025

Sleep 0430 to 1230 (8 hours)

• C3 Dinner (Corina at work). Kajiken Nikumori Aburasoba which is their #1 dish and it’s good so I should stick with it. Have tried one or two other dishes there and wasn’t impressed.
• DDO Expansions Sale: 30% off Magic of Myth Drannor (this is the last released expansion and largest discount so far); 50% Vecna Unleased (same as for last Black Friday), 85% Fables of the Feywild (most ever); 85% DDO Expansion Trove (same as Black Friday 2023)

Thu Jun 26 2025

Sleep 0315 to 1115 (8 hours)

• HOA Meeting. I have a lot of TODOs.

Fri Jun 27 2025

Sleep 0415 to 0915 (5 hours)

• Foot hurts like it might swell up tomorrow. Still slightly swollen. Guess I started eating meat a bit too soon though was cutting it down to one piece a day instead of two.
• Comcast now offering unlimited data plans. For less money than current plans. And existing customers aren’t automatically updated to the new plans cause Comast doesn’t really care once you’re a customer hence a big reason why I stopped using Comcast when my building got Sonic as an alternative.
• YouTube Live popout chat can’t click and do mod commands. I assume it’s a temporary bug… I see now you have to click the three dots on the right to get that menu.

Now let's look at discounted Windows games most expensive descending.

Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm (2023, $36, 40% off) - "a grand tactical wargame set at the height of the Cold War, with the action centered on the year 1989." Armchair Dragoons talked about an earlier Flashpoint Campaigns game and this series seems to be very detailed. Maybe too detailed. I do like that it's very graphical but doesn't try to be fancy — it's a hex-based map with counters and no extraneous 3D or animation effects.

Dwarf Fortress (2022, $24, 20% off) - "Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world." Roguelike with ascii-reminscent graphics and detailed simulation. I guess in the same mold as Caves of Qud though this one has no macOS version.

Reentry - A Space Flight Simulator (2018, $21, 30% off, Early Access) - "Reentry is a realistic space flight simulator based on NASAs space programs" Detailed in the cockpit with lots of instruments. Not necessarily interesting but looks cool.

Ehh, three is all I found before I got bored scrolling and scrolling.

Steam Summer Sale runs through Jul 10. I'm looking through all discounted macOS games by price descended and picking interesting ones.

Caves of Qud (2024, $24, 20% off) - "science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants." More of a classic roguelike where the game looks like rogue with ascii-like map. Do have this on my wishlist.

Stray (2022, $18, 40% off) - a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity and find their way home." You're a cat. You solve puzzles. Theoretically via various streamers I've seen this through to the end but probably wouldn't remember.

Empire Deluxe Combined Edition (2018, $18, 10% off) - I suppose this is the current version of Empire that I played on my roommates Amiga 500 in college. Graphics look about the same which is not a bad thing. I would be worried that, since it's from 2018, it's an Intel app so will stop working once Apple drops Rosetta 2.

The Banished Vault (2023, $16.75, 33% off) - "A strategy game of exploration, endurance, and space travel on an interstellar gothic monastery." It's like a complicated board game. Atmospheric.

Cult of the Lamb (2022, $12.50, 50% off) - "build a loyal community of woodland Followers and spread your Word to become the one true cult." After much paging down (and past a lot of adult-themed games which I figured out how to filter out by tags too late) finally settled on this game with a cute name.

Sat Jun 14 2025

Sleep 0230 to 1100 (8-1/2 hours)

• A bit gross but finally took a shower after two weeks (13 days). Probably could have done it a few days ago though iffy with my foot. Today I felt I could stand steady in the shower.
• Foot still getting better. Swelling definitely less now. Still can’t walk great. Going out to dinner tonight so we’ll see if I can wear shoes ok.
• Oops, parents coming over tomorrow. Hopefully foot swelling keeps going down.
• An ongoing problem with Apple TV+ Friday Night Baseball is, at least when I watch the VOD, sometimes for the whole broadcast the announcer/commentator voices are low compared to field sounds so it’s hard to tell what they’re saying. And I for one would rather have clear commentator voices than clear field level noises.

Sun Jun 15 2025

Sleep 0500 to 1245 (7-3/4 hours)

• Mom and dad came to C3’s place and Steph made dinner for Father’s Day— braised chicken legs in mushroom sauce with sliced carrots. Got a lot of food from mom and dad. Will take them to SFO airport tomorrow morning.
• Foot was not too bad today and getting better. Can put it in my shoe and walk around although a little pain.

Mon Jun 16 2025

Sleep 0045 to 0715, 1200 to 1330 (8 hours)

• Woke up early to drive mom and dad to SFO. They're on a United Airlines flight to London.
• Stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way home.
• Hobbling around but doable. Once I got home my foot hurt enough I rested it for half an hour and it felt better.

Tue Jun 17 2025

Sleep 0215 to 0945, 45m nap (8-1/4 hours)

• Woken up to help the county pool inspector get into the pool pump room which has a lock on it. Took a few minutes and a couple of phone calls to figure it out. The lock numbers need to line up to the top row not the middle row like most locks (or I suppose we could note to try a number that will cause the right number to line up in the top row).
• Walking around in my shoe is still a little painful but less than yesterday as my foot is also less swollen.
• Adobe has a free online utility to convert a PDF to Word doc. I used it to convert last year’s Summer Rules so I could make some edits. After importing to Apple Pages it wasn’t perfect and I ended up creating a new doc and copy/pasting the graphic and text (with lots of bullet sections). Then more editing. But a lot easier to recreate the same look and feel -- I can copy/paste from PDF itself but it’s mostly plain text (e.g. bullet lists don’t transfer).

Wed Jun 18 2025

Sleep 0600 to 1245 (6-3/4 hours)

• Foot feels pretty good. Can walk at almost normal speed. Foot a little swollen. Toe is a bit tender if I try to put weight on it.

Thu Jun 19 2025

Sleep 0300 to 1100 (8 hours)

• Submitted stock sale to BenefitsCal.com. Not the easiest interface and I had to settle for Other Income.

Fri Jun 20 2025

Sleep 0445 to 1130 (6-3/4 hours)

• Foot slightly swollen but now feels 95%

GOG's Good Old Games (a confusing label for the games they are committing to keep running on current Windows) that I own:

Akalabeth: World of Doom
Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy 1+2+3
Bling!: Sex, Intrigue and Scalpels
Bio Menace
Castles 1+2
Crusader: No Regret
Crusader: No Remorse
Dragonsphere
Dungeon Keeper Gold
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard
Fantasy General
Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Iceland Dale 2 Complete
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Jagged Alliance 2
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection
Jill of the Jungle: The Complete Trilogy
Might and Magic: 6-pack Limited Edition
Myst Masterpiece Edition
Pirates! Gold Plus
Populous
Riven (1997)
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack
SimCity 2000 Special Edition
Star Control I & II
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Star Wars: Rebel Assault 1+2
Star Wars: Tie Fighter Special Edition
Star Wars: X-Wing Special Edition
Starflight 1+2
Stargunner
System Shock 2 (Classic)
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Tyrian 2000
Ultima 1+2+3
Ultima 4+5+6
Ultima 7 The Complete Edition
Ultima 8 Gold Edition
Ultima 9 Ascension
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Ultima Underworld 1+2
Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams
Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War
Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat
Wing Commander: Privateer
Wing Commander 1+2
Wing Commander 3 Heart of the Tiger
Worlds of Ultimate: The Savage Empire

It's a lot more than I thought.

GOG Summer Sale is Jun 18 to Jul 09.

Let's take a look at Good Old Games labeled games, which are games that GOG is committed to keep running on modern Windows PCs in perpetuity.

Tomb Raider: Legend (2006) ($1, 86% off)
Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) ($4.50, 50% off)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008) ($4.50, 50% off)

These three are a trilogy (even though Anniversary is the original remade with current graphics engine). I have Anniversary on Steam (but it's not going to be updated so whether or not it runs well on Windows 11…). I also have Underworld from the macOS App Store (port by Feral Interactive) and supposedly still compatible (through Rosetta 2 I assume).

Fallout (1997) ($2.50, 75% off)
Fallout 2 (1998) ($2.50, 75% off)

I love Fallout and haven't played Fallout 2 but at least it's still isometric (and probably turn-based combat). I have them both from the Epic Games Store though once again whether they'll always work or not… Oh I forgot CrossOver which would allow me to run some Steam and Epic Games Store games.

Heroes of Might and Magic (1996) ($2.30, 77% off)
Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Complete (1999) ($2.50, 75% off)
Heroes of Might and Magic 4: Complete (2004) ($2.50, 75% off)

Turn based strategy games in the Might and Magic fantasy world. (I already have Might and Magic 6-pack Limited Edition). HoM&M 2 and 5 are not part of the Good Old Games project, though I suppose they might be added later on. M&M is not a series I've played other than the original and even then not to completion.

Sat Jun 07 2025

Sleep 0200 to 0430, 0515 to 1015. (7-1/2 hours)

• Took an Advil about 2000 before I went to see Lima. Then went to sleep. Woke at 0430 and foot in pain unless I had to in a specific position. Took another Advil and got back to sleep. About noon now and foot not too bad though still swollen.
• Got notification that my resting heart rate has been noticeably higher for 5 days which tracks with my foot issue.
• Noticed that Monterra Credit Union added 2FA option for authentication apps. Unlike every other site I’ve set this up on Monterra does not give you backup/emergency codes so I am leery to turn off SMS as a backup.

Sun Jun 08 2025

Sleep 0515 to 0945, 1115 to 1345 (6 hours)

• Last night we did another Gloomhaven scenario (minus CSr). Reward was a Cloak that if used you take 3 damage and get +1 Attack for attack action, great for my arrow storm.
• Foot has been not pained today. Took an Advil last night but not today. Can walk around slowly and it’s not painful. Still swollen. Hope that tomorrow will be even better.
• Music app still hadn’t uploaded the last D&D podcast file (iCloud status = waiting). I re-authorized my computer which then said I should turn off/on syncing. After doing that eventually it did upload the file.

Mon Jun 09 2025

Sleep 0130 to 1230 (11 hours)

• Viewing WWDC 25 Keynote in macOS Developer app. Not a great experience. Default windows has small video screen. You can make it full screen but then I can’t take notes. You can popup and make it bigger (up to video original size, not unlimited) but there is only pause/play control, can’t go forward or back.
• It’d be nice if Shortcuts ran in the background instead of bringing up the Shortcuts app to the foreground then running. This behavior is common to all Apple OSes.
• Playing DDO Keep on the Borderlands. For my campaign I was copying the dialog by hand. Forgot that the dialog is written in the General Log so I could have copy/pasted from there and saved lots of time.
• Foot was sore but not really hurting. Didn’t have to take an Advil last night nor today.

Tue Jun 10 2025

Sleep 0600 to 1315 (7-1/4 hours)

• Foot was hurting a bit last night. Today so far not so much. Still swollen. No Advil last night or today.

Wed Jun 11 2025

Sleep 0200 to 0800, 1400 to 1630. (8-1/2 hours)

• Can walk without pain, though not fast. Foot maybe a little less swollen. Standing up to eat lunch was pretty much fine. Even yesterday it was painful standing more than a couple of minutes.

Thu Jun 12 2025

Sleep 0345 to 1200 (8-1/4 hours)

• Oracle announced their earnings and stock jumped from $176.38 to $199.86. This time I really need to sell a bunch.
• Foot is a bit better. Maybe a hint of pain at the base of my toe when I flex it. Still swollen, maybe less than yesterday. Still wouldn’t want to walk more than a couple of minutes.

Fri Jun 13 2025

Sleep 0300 to 0830 (5-1/2 hours)

• Maybe walked/stood a bit too much yesterday as my left foot might is a little more sore. Swelling went down a little.
• Stock sold for $202 which is nice. Often it sells for less than you think. Even though stock price is now $215 that is fine as I have other stock so selling “too soon” not an issue.

On RPG.net someone pointed out that there is also a DTRPG Troika bundle. Eryops made a comparison table. DTRPG tends to discount the bundle for items you already own and it looks like buying the Troika Warehouse Bundle will discount those items from the DTRPG bundle. That would leave:

Academies of the Arcane ($5, owned)
Slate & Chalcedony ($5, owned)
The Big Squirm ($5, owned)

Although it turns out I own the remaining items so this bundle is superfluous.

Bundle of Holding's Troika Warehouse bundle is for the "acid-fantasy RPG" and includes the core rulebook. These are digest-sized books.

$10 Base Level

Troika! Numinous Edition ($5, 56 pp, owned)
Get it at Sutlers ($15, 124 pp, owned) - department store setting
Ruinous Palace of the Metegorgos ($5, 32 pp)
Fungi of the Far Realms ($15, 280 pp)

+$10 Level Up

Acid Death Fantasy ($14, 52 pp, owned) - desert adventures
Fronds of Benevolence ($14, 48 pp, owned)
Slow Sleigh to Plankton Downs ($7, 40 pp, owned) - mystery adventure
Very Pretty Paleozoic Pals ($14, 101 pp)
Eye of the Aeons ($5, 72 pp)
Hand of God ($5, 68 pp, owned)
Season of the Snail ($5, 76 pp)
Whalgravaak's Warehouse ($5, 80 pp, owned)

Although I own a fair amount already it's still $20 for $49 new products which even on a good sale would still be about $33. Worth buying I think.

Sat May 31 2025

Sleep 0515 to 1100 (5-3/4 hours)

• We played Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Started next chapter, The Son of a Witch, so I guess we’ll play it through before switching. I got separated from the others and did a side quest I think. Pretty nice in that it involved fighting flying wyrms but there was enough overhead cover (caves or tunnels) that I could pop out and back in and eventually got through most of it before the other guys caught up (they ended up high above me on a mountain but apparently a dead end so they jumped down to join me. It was nice having some time to myself.
• Checking my investments, in total back to about a level of last November. Still like 10% down from the Dec 01 2024 high.

Sun Jun 01 2025

Sleep 0400 to 1200 (8 hours)

• Left foot is hurting a bit. Once again base pad of the toe hurts if I flex it. Can still walk around ok.

Mon 02 Jun 2025

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

• Foot bothering me a bit more today. Walked to front door to check something and walked back, about a couple of hundred feet. Bit painful.
• Looked it up and last time that it lasted more than a few days was Feb 2024. Had a scare in May 2024 but it was only a couple of days. And that time it was right foot. This time it’s left foot.
• Did a load of dishwasher and this time leaked a couple of cups of water which I mostly caught in a bucket. So a large tray should be able to catch almost all the water. Haven’t tested to see where leak is coming from so that I can maybe seal it with duct tape.

Tue Jun 03 2025

Sleep 0600 to 1300 (7 hours)

• Took me two or three hours to get to sleep foot was hurting quite a bit. I forgot that it hurts more when it’s elevated (i.e. when I’m lying down in bed). Taking an Advil helped.
• Left foot noticeably swollen.
• In the D&D campaign there was a question if the horses the PCs bought back were taken to the ranch or to the final selling place. I looked at the MacWhisper transcript: “She'll deliver them back to the horse ranch. She's not gonna deliver all the way to where you're supposed to go in the first place.” It’s not that easy to read so not sure if I change my mind later on.
• Had to put up a flyer in the front elevator. Used my old crutches (works fine though the rubber is dry and flaking away so eventually no padding will make it more painful to use). Took me like 10 minutes to hobble around the building and back and was fairly sweaty and tired by then.

Wed Jun 04 2025

Sleep 0300 to 1200 (9 hours)

• No C3 dinner because my foot hurting. They’re leaving this Friday to visit Corina’s sister’s family in North Carolina. I’m supposed to bring in the garbage, packages and pet Lima. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it.

Thu Jun 05 2025

Sleep 2330 to 0030, 0430 to 1130 (8 hours)

• Foot still hurting. Hard to tell if it’s getting better since I took an Advil at noon and 6 PM.

Fri Jun 06 2025

Sleep 0445 to 1145 (7 hours)

• Today my foot didn’t hurt so bad and could hobble about a bit better without using Advil. At 2100 went to C3’s house to bring the garbage bins and pet Lima. Wasn’t too bad walking though standing in one place more than half a minute was painful.
• Gloomhaven with DS and DW since C3 is in North Carolina visiting.

Today (Jun 12) Oracle announced their earnings and their stock jumped from $176.38 to $199.86. Back to where it was last November when I missed selling so I think time to sell some stock.

Some notes:

Would no longe qualify for Medi-Cal — limit is $21.6k. You report income change within 10 days. End of coverage triggers a 60-day Special Enrollment Period into Covered California.

Should still qualify for subsidized health care in Covered California. If my income is $55k it estimates $222 per month Silver plan ($984 per month subsidized).

Selling stocks gets taxes depending on profits. Single filer the first $48k has no long term capital gains tax, then 15% to $533k (so if I sell for $100k profit the first $48 is not taxed then the next $52k has 15% tax).

For California stock sales are taxes as regular income, though at least once again it's the profit that's taxed. If I use iCalculator for California at $55k I have $1556 in CA tax with max tax rate 13.3% — it's a graduated tax so it's not like everything is taxed at the max rate.

Question is what's my profit? If I sell 250 shares (almost $50k) cost basis is about $65 (LIFO method where my youngest stock is sold first — everything is over 2 years old). That makes $33750 profit so no capital gains. If I use FIFO then cost basis is about $28 so $43k profit and still no capital gains. I guess sell FIFO to avoid capital gains now (as stock price goes up selling that old stock will hit capital gains). I don't mind paying CA taxes as much since it's much lower.

So now I get $50k. Minus $1.5k in CA taxes. Minus ($250 x 12) = $3k for health insurance. Leaving $45.5k which is enough to cover me another year.

Platforms State of the Union

Liquid Glass
- Controls automatically get smaller when user is focused on content.

Foundation Models

XCode
- Integration with 3rd party AIs like ChatGPT and Anthropic
++ Generate code, generate docs, turn sketches into code, fix errors

Swift 6.2
- inline arrays
- span type
- WebKit Swift integration
- Swift integration with Java and JavaScript, Web Assembler (run in browser)

Containerization
- run Linux containers on Mac

Swift UI
- Web APIs: 3 new APs to bring web contact to apps
- AttributedString: String type with Rich Text
- 3D Charts
- Performance: idle prefetch - pre-render next frame when there is idle time to do so

VisionOS
- nearby window sharing
- persistent windows and widgets
- Apple Projected Media Profile (vr formarts)

Metal 4
- Updated Game Porting Toolkit

macOS Tahoe final release for Intel Macs

——————————————

I guess Liquid Glass and Foundation Models had the most coverage. I remember early Platforms State of the Union had exciting information but nowadays everything seems incremental.

Little spoiler at the end saying that this upcoming macOS Tahoe will be the last to support Intel Macs. I also read that Rosetta will be going away after macOS 27.