Amber Ruffin makes me laugh. I’ve really only known her from her writing and her segment on Late Night with Seth Meyers, but she’s never failed to make me laugh.
I see she’s been booted from the White House Correspondents Association’s bullshit dinner show event. An event where journalists get together to celebrate one another and have a good time is perfectly fine, but to include anyone from the government is absolutely gross (and always has been).
The press and the people they cover are not friends. The press knows better than most (because the press doesn’t print everything they know) how awful some of these people are. Stop yucking it up with them. And talk about obeying in advance, sheesh.
Now, with that out of the way, if Amber has a set to perform of this material, I’d pay to go see that.
I haven’t been to any protests over Tesla. I fully support these protests and hope they have the desired effect.
Based on the news articles and images about the protest, protesters should consider signs with alternatives. There should be signs for the Chevy Bolt, Mustang Mach-E (which is ugly), VW ID.4, and maybe even the more expensive Honda Prologue (based off of the Chevy Blazer EV).
I did a little looking around, and the Tesla Model 3 is still a pretty good deal for folks looking for an EV with decent range for around $40K (it’s a little over that amount).
Folks shopping for a car might not really care that Musk is a fascist or whatever; they might just want an EV that’s not $75K, and offering them an alternative might put other models into their minds that they didn’t know about.
If I were buying a car now, I’d look at the newest Prius. It’s a hybrid (which I’m aware adds a whole lot of complexity) that gets really, really good fuel economy (57 city, 56 highway) at a price that’s pretty good (mid-$30K). For the record, I don’t have my own car or drive one with any regularity thanks to living in NYC.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #8: I was going to post this article about Greenland’s government defying Trump, but it doesn’t feel good, you know? Not really good, anyway. It’s good in that it’s what should be happening, but I am not feeling good that it has to happen at all.
So I looked inward. I feel good because I just cooked up an omelette for Mrs. Bob, and while cooking, I listened to Reverb Deluxe from The Derailers. For a while, I thought I imagined the album because it’s not available on Apple Music. Luckily, past Bob had purchased it on CD, ripped it to his Mac, and, because of iTunes Match, present Bob has access to it. I have no idea if I am supposed to still pay for iTunes Match since Apple claims it’s part of Apple Music, but I don’t believe it. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Anyway, if you like a more traditional honky-tonk sound, this album is a good one (I love Tony Villanueva’s sound).
My wife didn’t even text me about supper.
My son was home for spring break this past week, and today I walked him to the subway on his way back to school. I haven’t recovered from it.
Mrs. Bob said that was the reason she didn’t go on the walk. She could have told me that before I left.
I asked a friend for some pics of her kids (she has a brand-new one!) and wow are they adorable. I shared two pics back of my kids (from long, long ago).
While I have tens of thousands of photos, I only have two photos on my Mac easily accessible via Finder.
Sharing my two back somehow made me think of my dad (gone 32 years now). When he died, he lived alone, and the only pictures he had of his short married life were contained in a plastic cube that held a total of six square pictures. He never asked for any updated ones (despite never seeing us).
I’m glad my brain took a nice thing and made me sad. Sigh.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #7: Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Not being an expert about the tech industry, AI, or, in fact, anything, I think being a white guy gives me the privilege to weigh in on Apple’s AI debacle1.
Seeing as Apple is clearly behind in this AI nonsense, I suggest they punt to ChatGPT and focus on Swift Assist2. It’s something they should be experts in (Swift) and would directly help developers make apps. I hope Apple talks among itself and comes to a good solution.
I mean, they need to do all the things, but focusing on one at a time might allow them to actually get it done. ↩︎
Check this out: Not only do I have a crap mayor and crap governor, but I also have crap senators.
Feelin’ Good Friday, #6: I can’t wait for the day when I don’t have to clean exhaust residue from my window sills. I live along a busy-during-the-day road, and while heavy trucks aren’t supposed to use it, there are tons (literally) using it all day long.
I find it interesting that “everyone is welcome” is divisive. I mean, I know it’s because people want to be racist, but don’t want to have to say it out loud.
I can’t imagine being a public school teacher. I know folks who say, over and over again, “Pretty good pay, actually” when they themselves have never worn those shoes. Shoes that have to deal with constant budget cuts, be blamed for society’s ills, and are literally in the line of gunfire because our legislative body won’t do a single thing to reduce access to weapons made solely for killing others.
My personal klaxon is my knees popping when I squat down.
Thumbs up to the teams at Apple who make the Notes and Weather apps.
If you want good school lunches, the superintendent should be eating them. If you want good public transportation, the mayor and their entire department should be taking the bus and the train to work. If you want good, safe bike lanes, the head of the roads department should ride a bike to work.
For the vast, vast majority of those scenarios, they aren’t happening. Yet we subject our children to them. I’m amazed the kids haven’t risen up and ended all the people making these decisions.
On Saturday, March 8, 2025, we attended Night in the Library at the Central Branch of the public library.
I love libraries and think they are one of the best ideas we’ve come up with, and boy do I love the Central Branch (and not just because it’s so close to me).
Despite all of that, I have very mixed feelings about this event. While I 100% believe it should be free, they need to limit the number of people attending.
This is a review of the Battle Hill Tavern1 restaurant in Brooklyn. I am of a mixed mind about this. If I write how I really feel about this restaurant, I fear I will no longer get a table, but if I don’t tell folks about it, I will feel like I’m letting my reader down.
Atmosphere We went to Battle Hill Tavern on Friday March 7, 2025, at about 6:50 p.
I’m still seeing so many articles about how expensive all Apple products are. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but it really does feel overblown.
Yes, you can spec up a Mac Studio to $14,000. There is no question it is a lot of money. But when the Mac Pro (Intel version) first came out in 2019, you could spec it up to $56,000 (around $69,000 in Jan 2025 dollars). And the M4 Ultra Mac Studio is faster. Heck, even the $599 M4 Mac mini is faster for many tasks (graphics aside).
When the pandemic hit and we stopped spending money, I got it into my head that I needed a 16” MacBook Pro, so I bought a refurbished (from Apple): i9, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD. It was $3,339. Not brand new, mind you. It was refurbished. Today, an M4 MacBook Air with 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD is $2,400. About $1,000 cheaper. I’m aware the screen is likely better on the Pro.
So, yes, Macs can be very expensive. But these headlines about cost are just to have articles to throw ads around.
