Excursions

I drove to my native village today - a trip that I took a lot many times by a passenger train as a child. The travel was tiring, took hours and usually ended with a bullock cart ride as it got dark around. The drive was comfortable today, but the travel wasn’t as much fun.

Memories, happy & sad - something I never knew staying stuck at home would ever form. The pandemic has enlightened me. Exotic locations are optional - one just need to feel inside.

In a galaxy far far away, there is a beacon being launched in search of life on other planets. They are launched often.

We call them shooting stars 🌠

One man’s spooky is another man’s adornment.

One man’s spooky is another man’s prosthetic.

At times..

One man’s spooky is another man’s art! O_o

Continuing the theme of capturing the colors of Rangoli in the light of Diyas! Of course, the skill and the underlying efforts matter a lot more than mine.

I guess “I guess” is used more as a filler than an actual guess. The world can’t survive with this amount of guessing - I guess. #goofing

Google Photos Just Made the Case for Breaking Up Big Tech→

Now that Google has lured more than 1 billion users to the service, making it an integral part of their digital lives (not to mention a huge hassle to switch , that original selling point is gone.

It’s that part emphasized that worries me - there’s no easy way to switch away from Google Photos. No APIs. No sync. Nothing.

I don’t care, or understand enough about the US anti-competitive laws. But what I do understand is that staying invested in only Google’s offering is becoming more risky with each passing year.

The chilly winds are in and around, the winter wears are out. But old ones are showing the wear, so it’s time to pull those new winter wears I had put away to wear later. That later is now.

Apple Arcade games are too large in size. Even if there’s a game that interests me, I have to first download and install it - which takes enough time to pull me out of the flow. Instant play is necessary - otherwise it’s just a games-only app store.

I don’t understand the concept of maturity ratings - why is there no universal, simple system? The brains of kids all around the world are wired the same. So why can’t we just say 7+, 13+ etc irrespective of the country?

Don’t let something knock at the walls of your heart for so long that it starts to become a burden. Say it, rather. Saying nothing, when it might affect others, might be righteous. And courageous. But it shouldn’t be self-inflicting.

The elderly - a species that knows a lot, speaks a lot, but isn’t heard enough. An unfortunate truth of our lives.

The force of circumstances has to be amongst the strongest forces that exists in this earthly universe. It can twist and break even strongest of the beings. But, hope. Now, that helps thrive.

If Apple wishes to continue selling iPhone XR, I hope it refreshes the internals along with SE. I can no longer go back to such a small screen (am not talking about the body size). But an XR with the internals of SE would really interest me.

In bind, we all are. Of routine. Of strange. Of situation. Of schedule. Of life. Yet we trudge along, our adaptability, our perseverance to break the shackles defines us humans.

Inflating egos have caused more worriment for us humans than any technological evils we fabricated. We are egotistical fools in that sense.

I’ve got a few minor (?) feature requests for Micro.blog hosting based on my limited experience with the service. I think these features will further heighten and simplify the experience.

1. I wish the edit buttons were available on the posts in the timeline, for example, right next to the remove option. The availability of the remove option makes me believe the context is already available. Also, I understand an option to edit the original posts from blogs not hosted by Micro.blog might be tricky, but I hope Manton finds some simple solution, as he usually does.
2. I believe the edit for the replies is far simpler in comparison and should really avoid all the hoops one has to go through today, just for minor fixes.
3. Just the way, the whole site can be archived to GitHub automatically, I wish the custom theme can be too. It would help to track all the changes being made to the site design. Without the option, I need to manually set up and check-in the changes to the repository. And given how easy it is to update the custom theme from the browser, it just feels natural to allow backing up the theme as a git repository.
4. Currently, the spell checks and Grammarly plugin does not work in the post drafting textarea. I am not yet sure why, but it makes the posts very prone to errors.
5. This is way down the list (literally), but I wish the drafts are auto-saved while composing longer posts. I do not want to lose a draft just because I closed a window by mistake.

Possibly these items are already on Manton’s backlog list but just aren’t prioritized. In which case, here’s an added vote for these features.

I got into Star Wars pretty late – although I do vaguely remember watching The Phantom Menace in theaters as a child, I didn’t understand much. I’ve grown to be a fan of the universe since then. However, the Star Trek phenomenon is still puzzling to me. Where does one begin?

I had no clue about the size of iPhone 12 Pro Max until I looked at all of them together. This device is huge, even when compared to the regular Pro.

Source: The Verge

Stoop, I often to greet someone in respect. Stoop, I never to earn from someone the “respect”.

From whatever little I’ve learnt about the man in the last 4 years, if Trump loses the election, these are going to be a couple of tumultuous months. Some unprepared uproar. Lots of vile tweets. Kindness is unlikely.

There’s a pathway near my home that I took a stroll on today - it was so calm, and so close by that I’m surprised it took years for me to walk there. It’s never about the distance.

It’s not the extraordinary that astonishes me anymore but the usual. Such has been the year.

One would think with the lull outside, with hardly anything to do outside, it would be easier to concentrate on work or a hobby. But we human beings have mastered the art of not staying bored, rather surround ourselves with more distraction than we can handle. Only us.

Dave Winer writing on how uneasy he feels about the impending US presidential elections. Is it so bad, really?

I wish I had a big Pause button, let’s just hold here for a while. I’m more comfortable living in limbo than knowing the outcome of Tuesday’s election.