When traveling between timezones, Mac app timeline is still in the original timezone @help
Seeing all these pictures of snow and frost on the east coast and south amongst Californians complaining about a nippy day in the 50s.
Flying in a 767 feels so much more comfortable than any of the modern single aisle aircraft. Even the economy seating in 2-3-2 config is spacious both in seat width and leg room. It’s a pity they are getting retired.
Skipped one Christmas party the hosts were invited to and I lucked out. Every adult who attended has Flu A/COVID like symptoms and the kids, ear infections. I’ve extended my stay to act as caretaker and boy it looks and feels bad with bone chills and high temps. Stay safe NoVA.
In a Wegmans after 15 years. Looking back it is astounding that we even spent any money in one as Grad students without assistantships. But it gave us a sense of what good produce tastes like in America.
Driving up to NoVA and quickly coming to a realization that ATL has dewinterized me. Need to shop if I need to survive the next week.
Delta, GDOT and the hell that is Metro Atlanta traffic
Leave home at 3pm to drop off family at ATL. Return home at 730pm, after spending 2 minutes to get luggage out, hugs, goodbyes and a photo. Also includes 10 monutes after a bio break at Kirkwood LIDL. We’ve used MARTA last few trips but decided to drive today because of luggage.
4.5 hours for the airport round trip from Suwanee is preposterously arcane. Refusing train expansion while also not having plans for a second airport, Metro ATL is going to remain a parking lot.
Iron Box of Memories
R had a piano recital today at the local mall as part of a concert series at his music school that they do leading up to Christmas.
He wanted to suit up for it so we did some last minute shopping. While in the trial room, he was set on a white shirt and a black suit combo. He typically chooses classic styles and combinations so it wasn’t a surprise in that way but before he put on the tie, he looked exactly like my dad in his advocate attire ready to go to court. When I shared this with him, he had a lot of questions about the whys and what’s of a uniform for lawyers. He wasn’t satisfied with my explanation of an advocate neck band after I used bow tie to give him a reference and asked to see a picture of Cheenu Thaatha going to court.
We don’t have a single picture of him in his court attire because by the time we got a digital camera, Appa had stopped going to court due to health issues. There may be a passport photo of him in his coat but nothing with the full paraphernalia. With nothing to show the kiddo, I asked my cousin who is now practicing, to send a picture of him in regalia. Only picture he has of himself, is the Passport photo in his coat. He has been directed to rectify this right away.
It’s funny how grief and time play with our memories. My brain, in its infinite wisdom, had conjured to never bring up this image of my dad, an image that was the very definition of him, for a good 15 odd years. It was my daily chore to iron our school uniforms and dad’s advocate attire along with polishing the boots. I took, what I find unusual now, a lot of pride in the ironing, and always found our neighborhood Dhobi’s work shoddy in spite of him having better tools at hand. The neck band needed extra time on the hottest setting for it crisp up but had to make sure it didnt burn.
So today when I was ironing for the kiddo, it felt very emotional, a certain life comes full circle moment. While I’ve ironed his clothes before, that white shirt and black coat dialed back the years.
I was in a phone screen when the interviewer got an Emergency alert midway through. She continued but cut it 5 minutes short from the scheduled 30 minutes. I didnt realize till later that it was for the Earthquake.
RMAs in SSD Land
Last month I had 2 SSD failures but two completely different RMA experiences. Bought a SanDisk 8TB DeskSSD in Aug from B & H Photo and that unit stopped powering on in October. After a bunch of back and forth, Sandisk finally sent me a Shipping label and received the unit around Halloween. I couldn’t get them to acknowledge the receipt, till Nov 7th. Since then, the ticket is stuck there, even after multiple escalations via chat. Yesterday, the replacement was authorized but no ETA still.
On Nov. 14, while swapping NVMe SSDs from the NAS to the PC, one of the 3 year old Samsung 2TB 980 Pro stopped responding. After a bunch of diagnostics(involving multiple trips to Microcenter) to ensure it was the drive and not the slot, reaching out to Samsung was a breeze. Within 12 hours, I had a label and following the shipment, every step of their internal process was transparent with email updates. Shipment updates, Tech evaluation, Replacement authorization and shipment tracking - the whole shebang.
Received the replacement shipment on Black Friday, within 2 calendar weeks of original contact. The replacement was an upgraded 990 Pro unit. I was happy just receiving the replacement and the relative ease of the RMA but the upgrade made sure I’ll be preferring Samsung for SSDs in the future.
45 days of hassling Sandisk to no end on a 90 day old unit compared to 15 days for an upgraded replacement on a 3 year old disk.
Still not buying Samsung refrigerators though.
Catching up on First Man (2018) and the OST feels like an extension of Lalaland for the piano chords and wind instruments, Whiplash for the percussive feeling of the launches, and a good bit of strings thrown in to fuse them together.
Hallelujah!
Walked in on the kiddo’s piano lesson at the end of the session. They are in private rooms with a glass window to peek through. They stick to the Faber series, but his new piano teacher had him play follow along to something new on YouTube on an iPad to finish the class(today was the first time, I learn later).
R didn’t know what the piece was, just playing his part of the tutorial, while the teacher was playing the secondo.
But about a minute in, it clicked for him that he’s heard this song before and recognized it. After that moment, while he continued to play Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, he had a big smile on his face throughout the rest of the song, gleaming with the excitement and anticipation of meeting me in the lobby to have me guess what new song he’s learnt.
This, from a kiddo who needs to be interrogated daily to pry out if he’s finished his lunch.
AppleCare Replacement and Migration Assistant for iPhone on iOS 18.1
Triggered AppleCare replacement for the iPhone 14 Pro. While the shattered back was bearable, the main camera started showing artifacts. Overnight delivery is good but the factory flashed SW (iOS 17.5.1) is so far behind that the migration flow is completely broken. New phone knows it needs an upgrade, but that upgrade flow assumes it is a single step process(Current phone is at 18.1).
From my Telematics/IoT experience, that choice is Harikiri rather than Seppuku.
Had to treat it as a new phone setup, get it to 18.1, wiping it and then finally initiate migration. It was a method ( using DFU and IPSW) I used in the past when I was running iOS Betas but it looks like it still remains the best way to migrate.
I like artsy fartsy films more than the average person but I just can’t seem to get into Megalopolis.
May be it would have worked in a theater where you’ve made the commitment to the big screen but the Wes Anderson-esque quirky cinematography doesn’t line up for me with the subject matter at hand.