A new mug from my daughter, along with some high expectations

A dark blue mug with text describing the various roles of a dad is placed on a wooden surface with a serene lake and forest background.

A top ten favourite feature of iOS 18: eliminating those pesky clipboard alerts

A mobile screen prompt displays options for pasting from other apps, including "Ask," "Deny," and "Allow," with "Ask" currently selected.

Calm after a storm ⛈️

A peaceful lake is reflecting the sky with a small dock floating on the water and trees lining the horizon at sunset.

Finished reading: Starter Villain by John Scalzi is a fun, easy vacation read 📚

🎵 no name is distilled Jack White

no name - Jack White poster

Finished reading: Provenance by Ann Leckie is an entertaining political thriller in space. Nice to learn more about the universe beyond the Radchaai 📚

🏃‍♂️ All runs here are hill training

Auto-generated description: A peaceful, tree-lined road stretching into the distance under a clear sky, with overlay text displaying running metrics and a map route.

🏊‍♂️ The dogs are vigilant lifeguards while I swim

Two dogs sit together on a wooden dock overlooking a lake, with performance metrics overlayed from a fitness app.

Finished reading: A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith is an entertaining and informative exploration of what is actually required to colonize space. A good counterbalance to all the sci-fi I’ve been reading 📚

Lunch companions

Two dogs, one black and one golden, are sitting on a wooden deck beside a body of water.

Chose a run over leisure

A running app screenshot shows a distance of 13.73 km covered at an average pace of 5'41/km, with a road and a LEISURE Ln sign in the background amidst lush greenery.

Finished reading: The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal is a good entry in the Lady Astronaut series. I enjoy these alternate histories of space exploration books📚

🏊‍♂️ The easing in continues

A lake surrounded by trees features a dock extending into the water, and workout statistics overlay the image detailing an open water swim.

🏃‍♂️ Easing back into a routine

A winding road sign along a lush, green forested pathway indicates curves for the next 8.0 kilometers, with running stats overlayed on the image.

Finished reading: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a surprisingly amusing story about the robot apocalypse 📚

🎧 Given the rewrite of Overcast, I’m switching back from Apple Podcasts to try it out (yes, right on time). Although the audio engine is better and there are some other, nice refinements, I think my favourite feature of Overcast is that it just shows me a clean list of the podcasts I’ve actually chosen as subscriptions. Apple Podcasts pushes discovery too hard for me.

Finished reading: Adam Frank cleverly uses interest in UFOs to get at the science of extraterrestrial life in The Little Book of Aliens 📚

Finished reading: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport has some interesting concepts for how to manage pseudo productivity. Almost makes me want to have the type of job that would allow me to really apply the advice 📚

Finished reading: Black Hole Survival Guide by Janna Levin is a short, fascinating, and entertaining book all about black holes 📚

📺 Thoughts on recent television shows

Some short notes on recent seasons of shows that I’ve watched:

Adding The Peripheral to the list with Outer Range and Night Sky makes me reluctant to watch sci-fi shows on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed each of these well made and smart shows, only to have them all cancelled.