💻 I was so close to buying an 11" iPad Pro until Jason Snell posted the perfect picture in his review of the new iPad Pro models. Now I am not sure if I can deal with the smaller version.

I’m not a pro user. I putter around doing my day-to-day nonsense (looking at animals and/or getting enraged at politicians for being dirty grifters) and I can almost guarantee the sixth generation would probably be just fine. But boy do these iPads look sweet.

Oh curse my vain tech side!

🗳 While I certainly appreciate the sentiment, I am not sure this is something that can happen on a federal level.

But because some states are all goofed up, I could see fun relocation slogans being created: “Want Your Vote to Count? Move to Vermont!” “Move to Florida: Where We Don’t Care if You Vote (and we won’t count it anyway).” I’m not sure who pays for that second ad. Soros, probably. 🙄

Note
I didn’t even know there was a ballot emoji until very recently. Now I can’t stop using it.

👩🏻‍💼 ❤️ 🇺🇸 If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t cut out this do-gooder crap, she’s going to wind up getting elected president of the United States.

💻 I just stopped at the Apple Store (Downtown Brooklyn) to touch the new MacBook Air and the new iPad Pro models. A couple things struck me: The MBA looked and felt great. You know: beautiful screen, keys felt great, very responsive. Now, to be fair, this wasn’t some real test. I just typed a little, switched apps, etc. The other thing that struck me, was… Let me get to that.

Then I used both iPad Pro models. The 12.9" felt a lot smaller than the 12.9" I’m typing on now. But the 11" felt different. I think it had something to do with the straight edges - it felt like something I’d have with me at every moment.

While I was typing on the new keyboard folio thing (which I thought felt perfectly fine, despite being pretty spendy - not sure why so many are hating on it), two men each bought the same exact kit: 11" iPad Pro, keyboard folio, pencil. And both in the same configuration: 64GB, space gray.

It really feels like the 11" iPad Pro 64GB is going to be the halo device for an expanded iPad line.(1)

The other thing that struck me was, despite the MBA feeling like a solid computer, compared to the iPad Pro models, it felt old. It felt like “This is how we used to do it in my day and we liked it!”

(1) I’m betting they make two bigger iPad Pro models before too long: 15" and desktop-sized 20+". We’re all patiently waiting for iOS to take advantage of it all.

🥃 Whenever I have one of those weeks (or days), I get into a cleaning mode. Since I can’t really run away, I decide that cleaning and getting rid of things is a form of running away.

I have created an account on Swappa to see if I can clear out some old tech I have that works perfectly well, but isn’t being used. It feels like this tech takes my space in my head. I’m hoping by selling it off I can clear this cognitave load.

This whole “less is more” thing doesn’t last as long as I’d like it to because, clearly, I keep having to do this. Maybe one day it’ll stick.

👩🏻‍💻 Thanks to Jason Snell for introducing me(1) to more women in tech through his podcast Download.(2) I’ve been listening to Carolina Milanesi for months (maybe over a year) and she’s super smart.

(1) Not literally. I was going use the word exposing but that seemed problematic too.
(2) The intro music is solid!

🏛 I’ve spent a lot of the last 24 hours being angry about the outcome of the election. Stacy Abrams and Andrew Gillum would have been fantastic governors for their states. And while a doorstop would be better than Ted Cruz, Beto O’Rourke would have made Texas proud.

Meanwhile, I’m incredibly excited that so many women and people of color are now part of congress. That is what the future looks like.

🗳 I voted today and it felt great. As soon as I was done, the pit in my stomach came back and I’ve felt like it’s been there all day. Now I’m hesitant to read the news.

🗳 I’m so excited to vote tomorrow I can barely stand it. I know things won’t radically change (they might not even change at all), but I am hopeful more folks than ever before will come out to vote.

🌎 On Friday (November 2), during my lunch break, I decided to take a long walk to clear my thoughts before wrapping up a week’s work. I live in a big city so endless noice is part of my life and it’s generally not a problem. On my walk along Prospect Park West there was some minor driving infraction that I imagine involved Car A cutting off Car B. Well, the driver of Car B sure let the driver of Car A (and everyone else within horn-hearing-distance) how unhappy he was. He laid on the horn for a good 10 seconds.

Yesterday (November 3), I was walking past a local store and saw in the window one of the employees had died. I hadn’t been in the shop in a bit, so I am not sure the last time I spoke with that person. While I had interacted with him, I never took the time to learn his name. Now I can never greet him by his name.

I am not sure why I am relating these events, but I can’t seem to stop thinking about them and combining them in my mind. The driver of Car A never learned the name of driver of Car B. And I never learned Issac’s name until it was too late.

This “war” for our precious time often has a casualty. Humanity.

⚖️ I keep reading about people who have never voted and it blows me away.

I’d love to read stories not just about first-time voters, but why they never voted in the first place. What circumstances led them to a life that voting was never something they needed to do? Was it never mentioned anywhere that reached them? Did work make it too difficult? Did family pressures stop them? Did they think it didn’t make a difference?

This isn’t meant to come across as judgey or “better than thou.” I really think these stories would be good lessons for our society.

Like all elections, I’m looking forward to voting on Tuesday. And my wife, who will be out of town, made sure to get her absentee ballot in time to mail it back so it would count. That’s someone who wants their vote counted.

Your vote counts because you count.

☕️ My superpower is being able to (continue to) drink coffee at the opposite temperature it was served.

🎃 When I was younger I used to think traditions only came from people trying to relive the past.

My wife’s tradition of insisting we watch The Nightmare Before Christmas on Halloween is now going on for four or five years. At first I didn’t like it.

I’m not anti-Tim Burton, but his movies make me feel weird. I used to think that was bad until I realized most movies don’t make me feel anything at all. Other than, I guess, antipathy to Hollywood.

Now, as we watch the movie, I have to admit that while I still haven’t totally embraced it (I’m sitting here writing this after all), I am thankful we have another tradition we can call our own. My daughter is old enough that she no longer goes out trick or treating, while my son does. He’s younger yet doesn’t want -or need- us to come along.

As I get older I am thankful for our traditions. It’s like we’re making the future.

💻 My daughter is in need of a newer computer for school. When it comes to schoolwork, it makes complete sense, in my mind, an iPad is the right machine for the job. Why an iPad? It simply feels like the future compared to Mac (it hurts less than I thought it would to say that). And with new iPads just being released, it seems now is the time to jump.

But, sigh. My daughter’s school relies on G-Suite and the Google experience on iOS is very short from spectacular. Apple has to do two things in order to make this work (Google should but will not do this, so it falls to Apple):

  1. Let Safari grow to be as capable on iOS as it is on the Mac.
  2. Let the Files app be as useful as Finder is. I know the learning curve hits a brick wall when it comes to file management and manipulation, but come on. Find the right researchers and designers to make this work. Let us plug in a hard drive and be able to import files!

Until then, I can’t recommend an iPad for folks who rely on G-Suite.

💻 I am insanely jealous of everyone who has already ordered an iPad Pro. But I am super happy for everyone who got something of what they wanted today.

These prices, however, have never felt more premium to me then right now. I reject the label of luxury when it comes to Apple, but there is no doubt these products are premium.

📚 I am not sure how I came across this app, but boy is Libby a piece of cake to set up, use AND (here’s where I’m going with this) get books from the library. Audio books too.

It even sent the book straight to my (dusty-from-sitting-on-my-nightstand) Kindle.

I remember using an early version of something like this from Overdrive and hating it to the point of swearing (which, really, is ridiculous and embarrassing to admit… I mean, just delete the app and move on).

Well done, folks.

📱 If you watched me use my XR you’d think I miss the home button. Muscle memory is a hard thing to break.

📻 I love podcasts. I listen to podcasts more than watch movies or shows, more than listen to music, more than read books (sorry, Ma).

Every once in a while, a podcast episode comes along and does that mind blowing kinda thing that’s best represented by 🤯.

I must have stopped this podcast five or six times to exclaim “I never thought of that!” (Or something along those lines). To be fair, that’s me during many podcasts and some bits on TV shows. I’m super annoying to be around with listening or watching anything.

In this case, I’m referring to one of my all-time favorite podcasts, 99% Invisible.* And the episode is Welcome to Jurassic Art. I also recommend you read the accompanying article because it, too, is so 🤯.

Man, I love podcasts.

Update
It was hard to decide on which emoji to choose from. Both 📻 and 🎙 are good choices.

*I’m Roman Mars.

📱 I haven’t had my iPhone XR 24 hours and it’s my favorite phone since the iPhone 5. I’ve had 5 iPhones and my most recent one, the iPhone 8 Plus, has been my least favorite. The XR is close in size and weight, yet feels totally different. I bet it ends up being a big home run.

📷 I wonder if I could do this with my X-100F which, predictably, sits on my nightstand as another object gathering dust. I mean, I could just decide to use only the viewfinder and not look at the images until I get home.

Right?