📷 I received a picture of my father today. It was sent to me by my cousin and I didn’t think to ask how he came upon it. I guessed it was from the late 50s or early 60s, but it was 1970.

Two things stick out to me when looking at the picture. Pictures from 1970 look really old to me now. And I just didn’t know him. The man. My father.

Parts of my life from back then never overlapped with my life now. I guess it’s something I’ll never fully feel resolved about.

🗽 I’ve learned more about how Congress works from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram account than from anything else. Well almost anything else.

I hope you consider following her on Instagram and on Twitter. Thanks, Alexandria.

☠️ What am I supposed to say here? Things are going swimmingly and everyone will be okay?

I wonder if there’ll be a day when I don’t feel sick to my stomach from waking to sleeping.

😬 Google subsidiary doing a thing. That by itself gives me pause, even if it’s a bit (or totally!) unfair.

But another – possible less controversial – tactic is to tweak the pathogens that attack mosquitoes, like Wolbachia bacteria, which can be bred into to male mosquitoes (who don’t bite and therefore can be released in large numbers without concern that this will increase the number of everyday stings inflicted on people), and who will transmit the infections to females they mate with, rendering them sterile.

Rendering the females sterile. What could go wrong?

📲 Thanks to Jason Snell’s site for pointing out this great post criticizing the App Store. It’s freshing to read real honest issues about Apple (rather than the endless bullshit that gets posted each and every single day). In fact, it looks like all of David’s posts are well thought-out.

😞 I was one of the people who crapped all over Monica Lewinsky during the whole stupid Clinton affair.

I don’t exactly remember my thought process at the time, but it was along the lines of “Come on, Monica, you had to have known better!” There are so many flaws in my logic that I am embarrassed to even admit that, but me looking dumb is nothing compared to what she went through.

If I were to meet her I would say I was sorry for being dumb and blaming a young person for being taken advantage of by an older, powerful man. Shame on Bill Clinton. And shame on me.

Monica Lewinsky, it turns out, is pretty okay.

💻 Engadget asks Do you really need a tablet?

By tablet they mean, of course, iPad. There’s no tablet market to speak of. There’s just iPad. That’s not me saying so, the market speaks for itself.

The question that should be asked is, Do you need a legacy laptop? For most people most of the time, the answer is no. The iPad does what most people want most of the time. And it’s easier and more reliable. Hell, it lasts longer too!

To be clear, that doesn’t mean legacy products are bad! I use one all day long and I love it. My 2017 MacBook Pro (no touchbar, sad face emoji here) and the latest version of macOS (Mojave) is great. When the premise of an article is off, one should wonder what exactly is the motivation that caused that article to be created.

☠️ Romaine lettuce needs to ask the NRA for tips to find out how it can keep being sold regardless of how many it kills.

📲 Out with the old and in with the new. My 12.9" iPad Pro and our old 2011 MacBook Pro left Brooklyn today and a new 11" iPad Pro has entered.

While I was waiting to buy my new iPad Pro, two more were sold. I know it’s purely anecdotal, but it feels like the 11" iPad Pro with 64GB of storage and in space gray are flying off the shelves.

🎥 I think it’s funny I fell asleep during the movie Inception and am therefore a little confused about the ending.

Others in the family don’t find it funny.

☠️ All I want to do is write how I’m thankful for my family and friends, but, really, I’m nothing but angry and sad much of the time.

I’m so tired of politicians talking about sensible gun laws. Ban the things before every single one of us is dead.

🤓 My big tech purge project is coming to a close. While the goal wasn’t to go without using a Mac as my main personal computer, it will be the end result. In a way it’s not totally fair since I have access to a MacBook Pro (my wife’s computer), but I’m excited to have gotten rid of:

  • iPhone 5
  • iPhone 5c
  • iPhone 8 Plus
  • Apple TV 4th generation
  • Apple TV 3rd generation
  • Apple Watch Series 1
  • iPad 3
  • iPad Mini 2
  • iPad Pro 12.9" + Keyboard + Pencil
  • 2013 MacBook Air
  • 2011 MacBook Pro

And reduced it to:

  • iPhone XR
  • Apple TV 4K
  • Apple Watch Series 4
  • iPad Pro 11" + Keyboard
  • 2015 MacBook Pro (not mine)

Now, to not seem weird, many of the items from that first list was just stuff laying around and not in daily use. I was able to sell, recycle or trade in everything from that first list. I hope this is just the beginning of a series of purges.

💪 In the world of superpowers everyone picks invisibility or flying, right?

I never thought of “No sense of shame” as a superpower, but clearly Trump has that. And it is serving him well. He’s likely the world’s biggest hypocrite and, when his hypocracy is pointed out to him, he is not remotely ashamed. It bounces right off him. And still no one can figure out how to deal with him.

Meanwhile the media is constantly writing about him constantly while dancing around his lies. Perhaps lacking a sense of shame is not as unique as I thought.

📺 We just finished the series House of Cards and, while I loved the series overall, I really didn’t like how it all ended. Frig.

🤔 How come we never see things like this posted about Apple? I am genuinely curious. Is it that Apple doesn’t donate at all, doesn’t get outed for donating to questionable people, or do they just not donate to terribly gross people like this?

📰 Thanks to Kate Aronoff for pointing out that those on the “left” opposing the progressive plan of a New Green Deal are getting money from… the planet-ending fossil fuel industry. First, fight these people and, second, get them out of office.

🏛 This has to be the most positive I’ve felt about politics in years, maybe decades. When I saw that protestors were holding up signs to sitting (and newly elected, I guess) Dems saying “What’s your plan?” showed me they have no illusions things are magically going to get better and that current Dems can be trusted to “do the right thing” just because they aren’t Trump or part of the GOP.

Make a good, progressive plan, follow through and we’ll get along. Else you are no better than the rest. And there’s no time left.

🎂 My son turned 13 today and now there’s no getting around he’s not my little boy… I love each phase of my children’s lives, but boy I wish the years would slow down.

👊🏻 The right would ignore Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez if they weren’t afraid of her. But they are. And she’s coming for you boys.

👩🏾‍🦱 A week ago I was almost inconsolable. Then I saw this picture and I saw the future of America and I immediately felt better.

I hope these people work as hard as I believe they will and get the respect they deserve. I know they will make the changes we all need.

They will kick ass.