Backlit senescing cultivated hybridized California grapes (“Roger’s Red”). So far the Northern Mockingbirds are its prime visitors for raisins. We’ve seen Lesser Gold Finches seemingly drinking water or eating bugs out of the raisin’s nooks and crannies.
Friday, January 1, 2021
Got a Logitech Circle View doorbell. I haven’t mounted it yet but I’m already pretty happy with it after setting it up and testing it. It can power up using USB with 2A power. Logitech says it needs a hardware chime but it doesn’t! It indeed has HDR video for dealing with shadows and sun. It looks nice with a very minimal branding logo on it. The HomeKit Secure Video function works well.
Apple is successfully getting me to put HomePod Minis all over my house. Bought one, liked it for my smaller rooms, so I’m slowly adding more. They all have U1 chips and Thread radios. I hope Apple takes advantage of this new network of devices. So long, Sonos.
I installed a Lutron Caseta in-wall dimmer switch for the hallway today. Before it was wired as a 3-way so one switch is now a wired dimmer and the other switch is now a Pico remote (with adapter for switch box install). Real nice. Caseta is solid for home automation w/HomeKit.
Currently reading: Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor 📚
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Earthquake M 3.8 - 16km ESE of Willows, CA: well, I heard a quick shifting/crack-like sound from the house reacting from this earthquake and that was that. I filed a Felt Report.First earthquake I’ve felt at home! See, earthquake insurance is needed here ;-)
Finished reading: Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman ★★★★★ 📚
Annual chest freezer de-icing, cleaning, inventory, and organizing. This year it’s especially important since we’re about to get a 1/2 Table Mountain Ranch Beef. So excited!
We had a lot of left over brisket so some went into disco fries.
Tonight’s brisket prepared by my partner using Sous Vide for literally fork tender meat and then finished with convection bake for decadent crust/bark.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
MultiMarkdown Composer and Marked 2 fit my Markdown needs perfectly. One key item is that I can drag a photo into the MultiMarkdown window and it’ll insert the image syntax with relative paths. For some reason that feature I need is astonishingly rare on other editors I’ve trialed. MultiMarkdown Composer can be set to automatically launch Marked 2 for previews and proofing – real nice. It is a bonus that Marked 2 can easily preview MarsEdit in-progress posts too.
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Automating Deselection and Unchecking of Twitter Interests - EvilTester.com: The final JavaScript works to automatically deselect Twitter ad interests, but I had to change the timer from 2000 milliseconds to 10000 milliseconds or 10 seconds per uncheck to avoid Twitter Over Capacity errors. The process is taking forever but isn’t invasive at all so this Safari JavaScript console automation can go all week for all I care. By Twitter’s estimation, I am interested in everything in the universe.
Wednesday, December 23, 2020 →
I like Apple Fitness+. HIIT workouts are accessible for a newbie. The trainers make me feel at ease and not judged (it’s irrational). I exercise daily for mental and then cardio health. Usually I’m on an elliptical watching Netflix or I go for a brisk walk.
The preceding sunset was way more picturesque than Jupiter and Saturn 😜
Here’s Jupiter and Saturn through a pair of high powered 9x63 binoculars.
A benefit of not having anyone over for Christmas dinner is we can do wild, special food experiments. So we’re making Sous Vide Smoked Brisket for Christmas dinner. Method 1 with liquid smoke.
The front yard California fuchsias (Epilobium canum) are still flowering and providing forage to the hummingbirds. I really need to cut these back but…. the hummingbirds! And other small pollinators!
And here’s the final caramel. They’re perfect. 🤗
Annual caramel making. These seem 👌and perfectly plastic. Here’s a series of photos showing sugar mixture color at ~300°F, 320°F, near 340°F, after cream & butter added, and cooling to finish. Stressful making these as one errant crystal can cause it all to crystallize.
Black Phoebe! These flycatchers are elusive in our backyard.
