Remembering Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter wearing an Allman Brothers t-shirt

I was 11 years old in 1976 when Jimmy Carter was running for president the first time. He had been the governor of Georgia, a state that borders my own (NC). All I had ever known about US presidents was that they were either bad people (Nixon) or boring (Ford). Carter was exciting. He was nice and famous for his big smile. He had been a farmer like my grandparents, who loved him.

During the Carter era my brother, sister and I traveled through Georgia with my grandparents to two shrines for Southern Democrats. The first was Warm Springs where FDR often vacationed to seek relief from the pain in his polio stricken limbs and where he died in 1944. The second shine was Plains, Jimmy Carter's home town where his somewhat ne-er-do-well brother Billy operated a gas station and his mother, Miss Lillian lived.

Richard Nixon was the first president I was aware of. I started reading newspapers as soon as I could read and my initial encounters with the political press were during the Watergate era. Not only were stories about the corruption in the Republican party always in the paper, the Watergate hearings were held broadcast live on every channel and like the geeky little kid I was, I watched them. I remember when Nixon resigned and how happy and relieved the adults in my were.

Life in America in the late 70s was rough. Inflation was as high as it had ever been. It started creeping upward during the Ford administration but it really skyrocketed after a while. The after affects of the Arab oil embargo were still having a dramatic affect on life in the US. Unpopular mandates like the 55 mph speed limit and the voluntary reduction of home heating use was implemented. Then the Iranians took over the US embassy in Tehran and took the staff hostage, triggering a crisis and eventually collusion with none other than Ronald Reagan. Yeah - that Ronald Reagan - the same one who started selling the Iranians weapons just a few years later.

I don't remember people disparaging President Carter during those years. Life was tough, but people believed that he cared, that he was facing problems head on and that he had a very hard job in very hard times. Most people felt like he had done a lot for world peace when he facilitated the Camp David Accords that resulted in a peace between Israel and Egypt that has lasted until this day.

Ted Kennedy, blind to the anything but his own personal ambition challenged an incumbent president from his own party in the 1980 election. Carter defeated him and polled well against Reagan until shortly before the election, being weighed down my Iran, primarily.

In the years since 1980, Carter has nearly achieved sainthood - a tough go for a Southern Baptist. It became fashionable to classify his presidency as a failure, although most people who repeat that have a difficult time articulating why or defending any reasons they put forth. Instead, we got the union busting, inflation riddled, tax-cutting for the rich, budget ballooning, arms to Iran puppet of the right-wing, Ronald Ray-Gun.

Since Jimmy Carter left the white house, his basic goodness and humanity has never, ever wavered. He has represented the US admirably and performed with unmatched wisdom in advocating for world health improvements that have saved millions of lives. The pictures of him volunteering for Habitat for Humanity into his 90s are famous.

I'm sad tonight to know that I'm going to be on a planet without Jimmy Carter on it for the first time ever.

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Bartender - Still Best in Class

Bartender Presets
Bartender Presets

For years, Bartender was one of the most highly recommended utility apps in the Mac space. There were many highly complementary recommended reviews in the tech press and from satisfied users. All of that came crashing to a halt in 2024 when the original developer cashed out and sold the app to new owners without anyone immediately disclosing the sale. Because menu mar managers like Bartender require screen recording permissions, security minded users were justifiably alarmed but the tin foil hat brigade lost their minds. All kinds of nefarious plots and schemes were pitched (the commies, spyware, price increases, subscriptions and more). Some people even accused the new owners of counterfeiting messages from the original dev. Telemetry was briefly introduced and then removed, sparking more tin-foil hattery. 

Outside of the Reddit and perpetually online bubble, Bartender remained popular. On Setapp, the subscription app service with 1 million users, it is the number one most downloaded app. The reason for this is simple. Bartender is great, and it has been through several versions. I've used it non-stop for over a decade. I have over 40 menu bar apps running most of the time and it manages them without a hitch. The program is under active development and even more features are on the way.

What Makes Bartender So Good

Like other menu bar managers, Bartender allows you to select what is visible on your screen during normal operations. With a click on the Bartender menu, you can see a secondary display of icons, called the Bartender bar, which can also be summoned through a variety of user defined actions. You can also specify that certain icons never appear in either the menu bar or the Bartender bar.

Bartender allows you to make a number of aesthetic changes to the appearance of the menu bar, including borders, colors and corners.

You can create multiple presets containing different configuration of icons if you want to show and hide icons depending on your workflow. Any of those presets can contain groups of icons, basically a submenu. I group all of my cloud services into one of these.

Bartender can automatically load a preset using triggers. The current triggers are:

  • Battery - trigger when on battery power or charging, or at a specific level.
  • WiFi - trigger when connected/not connected to a WiFi network. Or when connected to a specific network
  • Location - trigger when at a specific location.
  • Time/Date - schedule when to trigger
  • Icon Appearance - useful for icons like VPNs that change appearance when connected

You can choose icon spacing using three categories: normal spacing, small spacing, no spacing.

There is a search feature that lets you bring any of your menu bar icons into view. You can open it from the Bartender menu or from a hotkey.

If you would like to test Bartender, you can get a four week free trial at the app's website.

If you are still not convinced, but you need a menu bar manager, here are some more options"

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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - 30 Years Later

Book Cover

Thirty years ago, writer John Berendt published a surprise non-fiction book that ended up spending a near record 216 weeks on The New York Times best seller list. The book was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, an account of the multiple trials of Jim Williams, a Savannah, Georgia antique dealer and a member of the local high society. Williams killed a local male prostitute in the study of Mercer House. The book's main character isn't really Williams. It is the Georgia city along with a variety of eccentric individuals.

My personal favorite was The Lady Chablis, a local transgender woman and well known club entertainer. She went on to play herself in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film version of the story.

Also featured in the book and the movie is Emma Kelly, a musician known as the Lady of 6,000 songs, so named by famous composer, Jonny Mercer. He couldn't name a song she couldn't play. He estimated that she knew 6K.

Minerva, a Gullah woman and renowned root doctor was the name given in the book and movie for a character based on Valerie Boles. She served as a conduit of local knowledge for Jim Williams during his trials.

The book was a delight to plow through . At times it reads like a novel but Berendt swears it is 99% true and 1% exaggeration. The film was not a hit, but I enjoyed it as well. John Cusack played one of his best roles in it. This weekend (December 28-29, 2024) I'm making my first trip Savannah with plans to see many of the locations described in the book.

Lady Chablis

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) ⭐ 6.6 | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story

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I updated my /now page - What I’m reading and watching, plus links to this week’s blog posts, the week’s best purchase, and the links I added to my personal bookmarks.

Book cover of 1971: Never a Dull Moment

This Week's Bookmarks - 3D Street Art, Marsala Recipe, Travel Photography, Real Credit Repair, Potato Salad, Life Hacks, Scientific Mysteries

Enduring the Interstate

Bonaventure

Today was one of those day when we just had to endure slings and arrows to get what we wanted. We traveled by car from our home in SE North Carolina down Interstate 95 to what will hopefully turn out to be the lovely city of Savannah, Georgia. I didn't even have to drive. I didn't have to navigate. The only thing I had to do was avoid irritating Wonder Woman, who had to fight with stop and go traffic for hours. What should have taken about three and a half hours instead took nearly six. We got off and on the Interstate more than once trying to find a less congested route to no avail.

Honestly, I didn't have it too bad, I wrote a couple of blog posts and half listened to some ultrarunning podcasts, while Wonder Woman, who ran 15 miles just before we left home, tried to find a comfortable sitting position for an aching hip with little success. I'd offered to drive but she elected not to take me up on the offer, not that I was insistent.

What little we saw of our destination city was nice. We are staying in the historic district. The streets are lined with giant old hardwoods. There are park like squares close by and many, many highly rated restaurants nearby. We had to cross the Eugene Talmedge Bridge over the Savannah River to get into town. I don't know what it is about Southern cities keeping the names of devout segregationists on public landmarks. Talmedge, who was governor in the 30s and 40s, pursued openly racist objectives such as restoring the white primary and enforcing segregation of the state universities. The bridge was built in 1991, and they named it for a sorry old cracker. That's a shame.

We plan to tour the city with a special side excursion to Bonaventure Cemetery. We are also going to load up on Dramamine and go out for a boat ride in hopes of encountering dolphins. Wonder Woman will undoubtably run from one end of town to the other. I'll look for stuff to write about. We will be recovered from the car ride from hell tomorrow, I'm sure.

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FileBrowser Pro - For File Intensive Network Connected Workflows

FileBrowser Professional
FileBrowser Professional

If you do a lot of file based work on iOS or you need to consistently connect to network and cloud servers from an iPhone or iPad, FileBrowser Professional might be the solution for you. With it, you can connect to the following cloud storage services

  • Microsoft OneDrive
  • Microsoft OneDrive for Business
  • Microsoft SharePoint 2013 or later
  • Box.com
  • Google Drive (including TeamDrive)
  • Dropbox (including Dropbox for Business)
  • Backblaze B2
  • Amazon S3
  • pCloud
  • Digital Ocean
  • FileBase S3
  • iDrive Cloud S3
  • Wasabi S3

Additionally you can connect to

  • WEBDAV servers
  • FTP/FTPS servers
  • SFTP server
  • External compatible USB devices

FileBrowser Professional provides backup and sync between your device and any file storage option. You can access your Photo Library from within the app. It has a built-in file viewer for Office files, PDFs, images and video allowing you to access the files in place in their network location. You can open and edit files on the network without copying them to your device.

Other features include bookmarks for frequently accessed locations, a history of recently accessed files and batch renaming. You can select groups of files within a folder for different operations.

FileBrowser Professional is $14.99 on the App Store. It works on iPhone and iPad. It is MDM compatible and has custom features for mass deployment.

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Obsidian Plugins for Writers

Man using a MacBook Air to write

I do almost all of my personal and professional writing in Obsidian. In 2024, I’ve composed almost 500,000 words after clicking on the purple icon in my dock. Ranging from app reviews for Reddit and my blog to instructional documents for JIRA Confluence, I find Obsidian a great tool for composition and formatting. All of this is made easier by employing a few of the free and source plugins from the Obsidian ecosystem.

  • Better Word Count - This plugin counts not only the total words in your current document, but also the word count in any section you make. Features include: Words, Characters, Sentences, Footnotes, and Pandoc Citations in current file, in your vault or typed today.
  • Editing Toolbar - While I don’t find it difficult to write in markdown most of the time, having the toolbar available for more complex edits or edits with a lot of text is handy. is a plugin that provides a toolbar similar to Microsoft Word, and adds a minimal and user-friendly text editor modal for a smoother writing/editing experience .
  • Language Tool Integration- Language tool is a commercial product with a free and a paid version. This plugin supports both versions and is a consistently excellent spelling and grammar checker.
  • Readability Score - This small plugin analyzes all or part of a document using the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formula. Your score appears in the status bar. It considers the length of the words and sentences you write.
  • Text Generator - I am not a fan of anyone on the Internet using AI to create content. I don’t see an issue with using generative AI to come up with ideas, craft titles, create summaries of notes or to generate outlines. You can also use this plugin for proofreading, although there isn’t much benefit in employing it over Apple’s writing tools for macOS 18.2 users.

What Makes Us Who We Are?

Identity

I often wonder "Why am I like this?" and "Why do I feel this way? " Those aren't the most original questions. Philosophers and psychologists have been pondering them and attempting to answer them for a long time. Trying to figure out if it's nature (hereditary) or nurture (environment) can be a fun parlor game. Alternatively, the truly curious folks, who also have good insurance or a lot of money can undergo analysis in any one of several flavors, Freudian, Jungian and so forth. 

I'd really like to know how I ended up such a political outlier. Both of my parents are Republicans, although my Mother was a Nixon despising liberal until she married a conservative a few years after I left home. Despite living in a red state, never attending college, serving in the military and working in manufacturing, plus being straight, white and cis-male, I'm an AOC, Bernie Sanders type, a loud one. 

Some parts of who I am are definitely genetically influenced. Alcoholism, unfortunately, is a problem that's affected people in my family for more than just a single generation. Luckily for them, my siblings have a STOP button and can drink moderately or not at all when they choose. For me, only total abstinence from everything mood altering has been the only solution. I've never been bitter or jealous about it, though. I just didn't win the genetic lottery.

As anyone who reads this blog with any regularity knows, I consider myself to be the luckiest married man on the face of the earth. I absolutely lucked out when I met my wife. I was 47 and did not have a good track record when it came to maintaining a happy home life. Somehow, though, the two of us have not had a difficult time staying enamored of one another. We spend every possible minute together, and each of us takes care of the other in different ways. How, so late in life, did I acquire the skill to be happily married year after year?

Despite being an average student, I've always performed well on standardized tests. I failed half the math classes I took in high school but scored as high on the SAT as friends who got into engineering school. It was test scores and charm (or manipulation my Mom called it when she was mad) that allowed me to participate in programs for gifted kids in school, not my grades. My only contribution to my own mental development has been an insatiable life-long love of reading and being curious about a long list of things. My brother and sister also had great test scores, but they backed them up with good grades and post graduate studies at flagship universities. Our parents, the children of farmers, both have degrees now, but they didn't get them until their 30s. I tell my wife that I used to be smarter because I scored lower on mental acuity tests given to me in rehab than the ones I took as a teenager. In any case, I was blessed genetically with thinking skills I certainly didn't work for.

There are numerous other characteristics I'd like to have more insight into. I have the skills of an extrovert but the disposition of an introvert. What's that about? Like many, many people in recovery, my preferred sports (before my knees gave out) were all endurance based. Why? Why am I a procrastinator? What makes me go from calm to irate in a nanosecond, but only once or twice a year? I'll probably never get satisfactory answers to those questions, but I'll be OK with that. It will just give me something to think about.

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I Will Always Be an Unabashed Bob Dylan Fan

Dylan Goes Electic

When I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, I loaded my iPhone 5 with music from my two favorite artists, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, but only their songs recorded before 1970. They are the only two musicians I listened to for five months. I've heard all of those songs hundreds of times. I took a break from them for a while when I finished the trail, but not a long one.

It's difficult to write about Bob Dylan without repeating what a thousand other people have written. He is a uniquely talented individual whose lifetime of work is meaningful to a great many people. He's been able to do exactly what he wants to do for many decades because, well, he's Bob Fucking Dylan. Who is going to stop him?

Here are some links to explore for my fellow Friends of Bob.

Finally, A Good Bob Dylan Interview | Linkage

The Night Bob Dylan Went Electric | TIME

Chronicles, Volume One by Bob Dylan | Goodreads

Welcome Bob Dylan Fans! | The Bob Dylan Fan Club

Bob Dylan Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More |... | AllMusic

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Zero Duplicates Free Duplicate File Finder

Zero Duplicates
Zero Duplicates

Zero Duplicates is a free utility that finds and removes duplicate files based on some smart intelligence features. It finds identical files if the content, file extension and file size are the same regardless of the file name. It has built in safeguards which prevent you from using the program to delete all copies of a file. To use it, you specify the directories you want to scan before initiating a scan. It has a function to auto-select all duplicates in a folder; however, this failed to work for me during testing. Deleted files are removed from disk, not sent to the trash. The program does not scan Apple Photo libraries. You need to use other tools for that task.

Within the app, you can preview files and get size, path and file name information. It works with documents, images, videos, audio/music and more.

You can download Zero Duplicates for free on the Mac App Store. For more information, see the developer's web site.

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Things I Don't Understand

Keyboard

I recently gave a big shoutout to my Internet friend, Annie on my links blog. The tag line for her Mastodon account is one of my favorite series of consecutive words on the Internet. "Wtf’ing every day, I’m basically a professional now." Every time I read that, I'm like, me too sister, me too. There is just so much about the world and about people's motivations that I just do not get. Here are a few examples.

Very Expensive Restaurants

I like to eat. You can take one look at me and figure that out without trying too hard. I also like to go out to eat because cooking is one of my chores and having someone else do it is a real treat. Furthermore, we are relatively debt free and have a comfortable income. Having established all that, I have no desire to frequent the most expensive places, either in town or on vacation. I feel absolutely pampered with a meal that costs between 2030 dollars. Anything over that makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. Nothing, absolutely nothing, tastes that good. I don't care how fancy the inside of the establishment happens to be or where it is located. I like good service. Tipping well is a sign of good morals, and wait staff deserve to make a living wage. I just don't want to cough up 40 or 50 dollars to a server for a party of two (which I will do if the bill calls for it) because they work at a fancy joint when the waitress at Golden Corral busts her butt for a fraction of that. It doesn't make sense.

Mechanical Keyboards

My first computer was an IBM PC with a loud, heavy mechanical keyboard. It was in the days when we were all trained to die of thirst rather than risk spilling a Coke on our precious computer peripherals. These days I type a lot. I'm on a computer many, many hours a day. I have a definite preference for all my tech needs, but I've never once considered going back to the 80s or 90s experience for my keyboard needs. I don't like loud. I don't like heavy. I don't like expensive. I don't like dumb.

Voting Against One's Own Interest

When I see working-class people with Trump stickers on their cars, I wonder what their motivation is. Republican policies are undoubtedly hostile to average Americans. Huge cuts are made to social programs, education, health care and public services to cut taxes for corporations and the 1%. There is no demonstrable benefit to middle and lower income voters from GOP policies. The incoming administration wants to cut veterans benefits for all the working-class men and women who served in the costly Republican wars of the early 21st century. GOP senators are publishing op/ed pieces on how badly they would like to cut social security and medicare. Literally WTF is anyone with a mortgage and a car payment doing supporting these predatory plutocrats?

Refusing to Learn 21st Century Skills

I am continuing my recent campaign against technological illiteracy in the 21st century. I stepped on plenty of toes recently by mocking people who type GOOGLE into Google when they want to search for something. People told me it was none of my business and that it didn't hurt anything, and I came back at them with both barrels. Billions of dollars are lost every year in lost productivity because people with a proven educational track record of having the ability to learn are not held accountable for pretending to be stupid when it comes to using a computer. When automobiles adopt new technology, people learn how to use it. When you have to use a touch screen at Bojangles to get a sausage biscuit, people figure it out. Why can't they remember to restart their computer when they have a problem? What can't they learn how to find a file on their PC? No one makes them, that's why. Institutions would rather pay an IT department to hold the hands of otherwise competent adults than they would enforce basic tech competency on the workforce.

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Getting the Most from Wikipedia

Wiki

Wikipedia is under attack from alt-right inhabitants Libs of Tik-Tok and Elon Musk among others, who are discouraging people from contributing financially. Wikipedia has invested in ways to encourage women and people of color to become contributing editors and this has raised conservative ire. Personally, I increased my annual contribution and publicized the attack on this great resource in every way I could. It goes without saying that Wikipedia is great. Here are a few ways to get even more out of it.

How to Download Wikipedia for Offline, At-Your-Fingertips Reading

Weeklypedia - a newsletter featuring the most ediited articles of the week

17 Tips To Get the Most From Wikipedia

Inquire — Wikipedia Around You - an iOS app to find the subject of Wikipedia articles based on your location

How to Teach Students to Use Wikipedia | Edutopia

Wikipedia:Unusual articles - Wikipedia

Video: Become a Wikipedian in 30 minutes

Jimmy Wales on Why Wikipedia Is Still So Good

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Presentify - An App for the Future

Presentify
Presentify

When I started working in EdTech, instructors were still using transparency based overhead projectors. When interactive white boards arrived, incorporating connected computers for use instead of grease pencils and plastic, it felt like the future, but the high cost of the easily damaged devices coupled with the need for projectors using replaceable bulbs eventually left schools looking for a better alternative, which in most cases is a cheap, large screen television connected via HDMI. Additionally, since 2020, remote meeting software like Zoom, Google Meet and Teams is now used daily in the business world. Presenters who use either of these methodologies need an affordable and dependable tool to assist them with annotation and highlighting. Presentify by Ram Patra fits the bill.

Featured by Apple on three separate occasions, this app with its menu bar interface offers various shapes, colors and gradients, as well as text entry for anything on your display. Even with an app running in full-screen mode, you can toggle Presentify whenever you wish to add an element. If you wish, you can set any element to auto-erase. If you have an iPad connected via Sidecar, Astropad or Duet Display, you can use that as well as Wacom and other drawing tablets. Presentify has a whiteboard mode that you can use independently of other apps. Control of Presentify is achieved through and onscreen palette or keyboard controls.

The other primary feature of Presentify is mouse cursor highlighting, allowing you to change the color, size and opacity of the cursor, which can be used when it is moving or still.

Presentify is a one-time $6.99 purchase in the Mac App Store, with an IAP option to tip the developer. It is also available through Setapp. It's a well reviewed app that was received positively on Hacker News and Product Hunt.

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My Holiday Was Pretty Good, How Was Yours?

tree2

Wonder Woman and I drove from a family celebration at her folks' house to my mom's on Christmas Eve, a two-hour trip. When we arrived, we spent about an hour visiting and giving reports on various family members. We also opened gifts. We gave mom a puzzle from her favorite company, one of several she received. She gave me a tech widget from my wish list (a dual hard drive bay). Wonder Woman got running socks from her preferred company, Injinji and a new robe. This morning I got up and hung out with Mom, answering tech questions, while Wonder Woman went on her run. When she returned, Mom made shrimp and grits, a Christmas tradition. She told us that she's been buying local shrimp from the same fisherman's family for 44 years.

We set out after breakfast to the home of my daughter and her family, a four and a half hour trip. As usual, Wonder Woman drove while I completed a couple of blog posts while we listened to various ultrarunning podcasts. I also may have taken a nap. I'm not sure. The weather was clear, and the sun was bright as we made our away across North Carolina's coastal plain and into the Piedmont. 

When we arrived, we unloaded gifts and carried them to the door, where my six-year-old grandson was delighted to see us. We spent the day visiting and responding to messages from our other kids and grandkids. We got a video of the youngest granddaughter, who was happy to demonstrate to her mother that yes, Santa will indeed bring more than one gift if you ask. Our oldest granddaughter gave the whole family a gift by waiting until today to announce that she had been accepted to her first choice for college, Mary Washington University in Virginia. 

We had one scare. Our grandson who has mobility issues, took a spill today and had to go to the emergency room. Luckily, the wait was not too bad, and he didn't break anything, so it worked out mostly OK. He's a stoic guy. One of the funniest moments of the holiday happened yesterday when he and I were in the living room of my mother-in-law's house. I thought I overheard Wonder Woman telling the story of one of my less than stellar moments from the kitchen, where she was making giant pans of lasagna with her sister. I asked my grandson, "Is you Nana talking junk about me in there?" He didn't crack a smile, but there was a gleam in his eye as he gave me three very solemn nods to affirm my suspicions.

Like many folks at my age, my greatest joy during the holidays is enjoying my family. A day like today was just about perfect. We had a fantastic Christmas dinner. We discussed the past and the future and laughed and laughed. My granddaughter made delicious deserts that fit everyone's diet requirements. For Wonder Woman and my daughter, that means gluten-free. For me, it just means that there is room on my plate.

In the coming days, I'll visit with my Dad to help him with some end of year computer tasks. I have family visiting from out of state, tickets for the new Bob Dylan biopic and reservations for a getaway in Savannah, Georgia before the New Year. My heart is full and I lack for nothing. Wherever you are, I hope you had the holiday you wanted and a time to enjoy whatever you enjoy. Merry Christmas from Wonder Woman and I!

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Who Was Born on Christmas Day?

IMG_8170

Ok, we all know the Big Guy was born on Christmas Day. Actually, Jesus was likely born in the spring based on the dates for the Roman census, astronomical records and the time for lambs to be born in the field in Palestine. The celebration of his birth close to the winter solstice started hundreds of years after his death to pacify recently converted pagans. in any case, 1/365th of humanity was born on December 25. Here are a few of them.

Jimmy Buffett - 1946 “Margaritaville” Singer and Entrepreneur Jimmy Buffett

Annie Lennox - 1954 Annie Lennox in People Magazine

Sissy Spacek - 1949 Sissy Spacek bio

Justin Trudeau - 1971 Right Honourable Justin Trudeau

Dido - 1971 Dido on Instagram

Barbara Mandrell - 1948 Barbara Mandrell Official Web Site

Humphrey Bogart - 1899 Bogie: A Celebration of the Life and Films of Humphrey Bogart

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Glympse Location Sharing - Free and Secure

Glympse
Glympse

Glympse

Glympse is a helpful iOS app that allows you to temporarily, safely and securely share your location with anyone who can receive text messages, regardless of platform. The message contains a URL to a map with an icon representing the locale of the sender. Although there is a paid option for organizations and commercial enterprises, the basic application is free and sufficient for the typical user. 

To use Glympse, you use your contacts or enter a phone number, or multiple numbers. There is a space for a short message, e.g., "On the way".  You choose the length of time to share your location and optionally, your destination. 

You can save numbers and contacts in the Glympse app if you frequently communicate with the same people. For instance, I have my mom and daughter saved in the app since they both live a few hours away. If contacts both have Glympse installed, they can use the app to request that another user share their location. 

Glympse also allows the creation of private groups. "Glympse Private Groups is a feature of the Glympse app that creates a private, invite-only Glympse Group. Members of a Group can share their location to and request the location (within the group) of other members. Any member of the group can see the location of everyone that is actively sharing within the group. They are perfect for sharing with family, carpool, teams, or a group of friends. The Group is private and not accessible by others, unless they are signed in to Glympse, and have received an invite from an existing member."

Then there are public groups. "Glympse Public Tags is a feature of the Glympse app that allows you to quickly view and share your location with multiple people on a single, shared Glympse map. Anyone who knows your Glympse Public Tag name can view the tag map and add themselves to the map. When you view a tag map, what you are seeing is a map of people who have chosen to join the Glympse Public Tag map."

I've used Glympse for years. I find it simple and easy to use for even technically challenged folks. 

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2025 Goals

IMG_8142

Blogging

It's still fun to me to post every day, so I don't plan to stop. I may start writing more reviews of iOS apps to mix things up. I've thought for months that'd I'd stockpile some posts or at least some ideas, but nope. Every day is a blank sheet of paper. I just come up with topics at the last minute. I need to keep better records, because I've duplicated myself a couple of times.

Tech

In the past 12 months, I've updated all my Apple tech: laptop, iPhone, iPad and watch. I'm going to have to come up with a fancy excuse to get anything major in 2025. I'd love to get a Mac Mini or another machine to set up as a self-hosting device and/or Plex server. Unlike a lot of people, I operate solely from a laptop at home with no external monitor or keyboard. Wonder Woman would beat me to death if I insisted on setting up a desk in another room.

As a Citizen

I will continue to be an outspoken and vocal critic of the MAGA movement in every possible venue. I will not let pro-Trump speech go unchallenged in my presence. I'm not going to obsess over the news or watch the daily clown show, but I will stay informed. I will financially support civil liberties organizations

Professionally

My goal at work is to continue to show up as long as it's tolerable. I had to deal with a couple of crazy rude staff members this year. Time will tell if the administration adequately dealt with that behavior or if it will be culturally tolerated. I'm there to help people. I enjoy it, but I'm way past the point in my life where I have to deal with nutjobs.

Travel

I have a standing offer to go to the Alps with Wonder Woman, but I have to up my walking ability first. She knows my mountain climbing days are behind me but she wants me to be able to go for walks along river banks and around lake sides. I'd also like to make a trip to Austin where my son lives.

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Read annie's blog If You Want to Feel Good

Annie

When you spend time reading personal blogs, you start to get a real sense of some people's lives. You can follow along with their very human struggles to find a job, survive a death in the family, travel around the world, be happy with their partner and more. After a while, you really start to care. When your friends feel bad, you feel bad along with them. I love that part of the Internet.

Sometimes you just need a pep talk. You need some encouragement and advice from a wise friend, who, despite everything that's wrong with life in the modern era, always seems to be there to lift you up. You need that in your life. Well, you can have that in a single click by heading over to annie's blog, the frequently updated font of wisdom and joy freely given to the world at large by the inimitable Annie Mueller. Annie is funny, wise, very real and does a great job of lifting people up and being supportive. Her Mastodon bio states "Wtf’ing every day, I’m basically a professional now." I mean, come on, who can't relate to that?

Follow Annie on Mastodon

Annie's Micro.blog

Sample Posts

Joy is in the doing - annie's blog

Is it funny if I’m the only one laughing? - annie's blog

How to be confident - annie's blog

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Orange Card - Get Info Easily for Free

Orange Card
Orange Card


Orange card is a tiny (less than 1MB) free utility, available on the Mac App Store. It has a simple drag and drop (or paste) interface. It's used to get extended metadata information from the objects you provide it.

  • Drives - Drag a Volume (Hard Disk, Solid State Disk, Compact Disk, Digital Video Disk, Network Server, etc.) onto OrangeCard to get detailed information:
  • URL - Drop a HTTP or HTTPS URL and OrangeCard will send a HEAD request:
  • Files and Photos - For photographs and other file formats with extensive metadata support, OrangeCard provides detailed information about the camera, dates and times, geographic location and more:
  • Applications - App bundle info, all the file system attributes and spotlight metadata are displayed on the card when you drag in an application

Orange Card presents you with several small reports to copy out of the program. Choose the one you want

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