Category: Blogging

2023 Week 10 – IND #1 Again!

After dealing with a back issue for the past 2 weeks, I *think* I’m finally on the mend. At least I could get out of bed easier this morning. I’m sitting way too much during the day, and I think I need a new desk chair at home. Do you have any suggestions for a good one to purchase? Daylight Saving Time has been screwing with me all day, too & as I write this, It’s later than I feel it should be!

Congratulations to the Indianapolis International Airport for winning the “Best Airport in America” for an amazing 11th time! That’s a very remarkable achievement, but not surprising if you travel much. It’s the easiest airport to navigate that I’ve ever been to, and the main concourse is beautifully designed.

Speaking of air travel, the Hustle had an article last week about the long-forgotten Floppy Disk that, believe it or not, is STILL being used in some applications like Aircraft! A man in California makes $1000 a day selling these things for $1 each to people who still need them.

By now, you’ve probably heard about ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies flooding the Internet. If you haven’t seen firsthand how amazing and concerning they are, here’s an example.

In ChatGPT, I gave it the following command:

Write a 500-word blog post about the Indianapolis International Airport

And this is what I received:

The Indianapolis International Airport (IND) is a world-class airport located in the heart of the Midwest. With its state-of-the-art facilities, excellent customer service, and convenient location, it’s no wonder that IND has consistently been ranked as one of the best airports in the United States.

Opened in 2008, the new terminal at IND is a stunning example of modern airport design. The terminal’s sweeping curves and glass walls make it a striking addition to the Indianapolis skyline, while its spacious, light-filled interior provides travelers with a sense of calm and tranquility.

One of the standout features of IND is its commitment to sustainability. The airport was one of the first in the country to achieve LEED certification, and it continues to prioritize environmental sustainability in all of its operations. From its extensive recycling program to its use of energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems, IND is setting the standard for sustainable airport design and operation.

But it’s not just the design and sustainability of the airport that make it a great place to travel through. IND is also known for its exceptional customer service. The airport has a friendly and knowledgeable staff that is always willing to go above and beyond to assist travelers with whatever they may need. Whether it’s helping with luggage, providing directions, or simply offering a friendly smile and a warm greeting, the staff at IND make travelers feel welcome and appreciated.

Another feature that sets IND apart from other airports is its convenient location. The airport is located just seven miles from downtown Indianapolis, making it easy to get to and from the city. There are a variety of transportation options available to travelers, including taxis, ride-sharing services, and rental cars. Additionally, the airport is served by several public transportation options, including the IndyGo bus system and the airport shuttle.

One of the most impressive aspects of IND is its art program. The airport has a robust collection of public art that is on display throughout the terminal. From the stunning glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly in the Civic Plaza to the whimsical “Baggage Claim” mural by Jorge Pardo, there is something for everyone to enjoy. The art program at IND adds an element of beauty and culture to the airport experience, making it a more enjoyable and enriching place to spend time.

Finally, IND is home to a variety of amenities that make travel more comfortable and convenient. There are numerous dining options available, including local favorites like Shapiro’s Deli and Harry & Izzy’s. There are also plenty of shopping opportunities, with a range of stores offering everything from souvenirs to high-end fashion. And for travelers who need to stay connected, there is free Wi-Fi throughout the airport.

In conclusion, the Indianapolis International Airport is a world-class airport that offers travelers a range of amenities, exceptional customer service, and a commitment to sustainability and art. Whether you’re flying for business or pleasure, IND provides a comfortable, convenient, and enjoyable airport experience that is sure to leave you feeling refreshed and ready for your next adventure.

-ChatGP Output

Pretty amazing eh? I don’t know if I could have written this any better & I can see times when this technology can be very useful and times when it can be used for no good (like writing papers for school). It’s going to be interesting to follow this technology and see what happens next.

And finally… If you’re a Mac user, you probably have heard of Gary Rosenzweig from MacMost.com. He has over 300,000 followers on YouTube and has videos just about every day (and over 61,000,000 views). He’s created a free utility app called ClipTools. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and it’s amazing. It replaces a couple of tools I was already using and consolidates them into one app. I especially like the date insert and clipboard manager. It’s worth checking out!

https://youtu.be/pGAqV0O__4w

2023 Week 8/9 – Sorry I’m Late

I’m finally getting into a groove with the new job and the ability to work from home some days. I typically get up early on the weekends because they are my days to do what I want, and I want to make the most of it. In January, I started an early Sunday morning routine of going to the grocery store at 8 am, washing the car, and topping off the gas tank. It’s usually a really quiet time of the day, and the store is normally well-stocked. I also try and publish Blog posts on Sunday since it’s the day I’m always online prepping for my upcoming week. Unfortunately, the last post was stuck in the queue and I didn’t have time to post one last weekend, so this one is a double.

I normally do a 1-2 hour Weekly Review on Sunday, but lately, it’s taken longer to get things in good shape for the week. My previous job only involved a few weekly meetings, but the new one has me in several a day, all of which I walk out of with action items. No regrets, though, I love the new job and do not miss the old one at all.

I recently purchased some new toys, one of which is an Elgato Stream Deck MK.2. The Stream Deck is a 15-button controller that’s fully customizable. Each button has its own mini full-color LED display.

Elgato Stream Deck

You can create pages of icons for various apps and there are a lot of plugins to perform various functions. I’ve been doing some video editing lately and I have a page of commands to help with those tasks. Stream Decks are very popular with content creators because you can perform complex actions with the touch of a button. Besides that, it’s a fun addition to the MacBook Pro I use in my office at home.

While not a comprehensive list the Indy Today newsletter had some fun making a list of Indy restaurants from A-Z. They had to stretch a little for some of the letters (BBQ for the letter Q) but it’s a good read.

If you’re looking for a light morning read the Indy Today newsletter is great. it always has timely information and details about events happening in the city. It’s worth checking out!

If you’re into computers and electronics, you might have heard that Micro Center is FINALLY opening a store in Indianapolis. It’s going into the old Gander Mountain location in Castleton (just east of Ale Emporium). The nearest MicroCenter location currently is on the north side of Cincinnati.

This will help replace the void created when Fry’s electronics closed (when it was good). You can find almost anything computer-related at Micro Center, and their prices are very competitive. This place is going to be PACKED.

And finally… The History Guy had an interesting video about a “Broken Arrow” incident in 1964 at Bunker Hill AFB (not called Grissom ARB).

2022 Week 52 – Merry Christmas!

We all have a lot to be thankful for this year. I started a new job in June that I absolutely love, and I hope to be there for many years to come. I left the rat race that is consulting in favor of an operations position with a not-for-profit I’ve worked with for the past ten years. It was the easiest job transition I’ve ever made. One of the perks of this new job is they close the office between Christmas and New Year. So essentially, I have two weeks for R&R before getting back into the swing of things in 2023.

It’s Full

Delish has an article called “The Most Iconic Holiday Cookies In Every State,” I don’t know if I agree with the cookie they picked for Indiana. Still, I’ll give them credit for at least tying it back to an Indiana product essential to the ingredient list. On the other hand, they did nail Ohio with the ever-famous Buckeye (although I’d be hesitant to call it a “cookie).

Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies?

The latest version of Google Chrome has a handy new feature that helps you search your Bookmarks, Open Tabs, or History simply by putting an @ in the search bar. I’m not one who usually has many tabs open, but those of you who do are sure to like this new feature!

ReviewGeek.com

And finally… I love a good episode of Hot Ones, where celebrities eat progressively hotter chicken wings while being interviewed by the host, Sean Evans. The End of Year episode is a good one, with none other than the Elf himself, Will Ferrell. Enjoy!

2022 Week 49 -The End is Near

It’s December & the year is coming to a close. I’m fortunate to work for a company that closes over the Christmas holiday, and I’m looking forward to 3 weeks of time off before I hit the ground running in 2023. I’m already counting the days until we get back to warmer weather so I can get back out and do more camping. I noticed today when looking at the calendar & there are 53 weeks in 2022 (because Jan 1, 2022, was on a Saturday), so we’ll have to do our year-end recap that week.

If you’ve left the house in the past 3 years you’ve no doubt seen and used a QR Code, most likely in a restaurant, to access a digital menu. QR Codes have been around for years, but it took a pandemic to make them mainstream (like video calls). But How do QR Codes Work? Review Geek has the details. Pro Tip, if you want to generate a QR Code to make it easier for guests to join your wireless network, check this site out.

And finally… Is real Parmigiano Reggiano actually worth the high price? Ethan Chlebowski breaks it down so you can make up your mind (TLDR, It IS!).

2022 Week 46 & 47 – It’s HUGE!

It looks like I missed another post last week. Work has been crazy, and my schedule has been off since last weekend due to a cold (or whatever it is going around). This should get us caught up before the Thanksgiving Holiday.

After seeing a review on YouTube, I had the itch to buy some new computer hardware. So, I was pleasantly surprised when the Ultra-Wide screen monitor was on sale at Amazon (I picked this up for $999, and it’s worth every penny). This 49-inch 5120×1440 5k monitor is a thing of beauty.

LG 49WL95C-W

It’s like having two 27-inch 4k monitors side by side with no seam in the middle. So far, it’s playing nicely with my personal MacBook Pro M1 and my work HP Z-Book. This thing is a game changer when it comes to productivity. I really wish I had this when we were all working from home for months. The only thing that’s been a challenge is video calls. I have to use an external camera & my AirPod Pros (vs. everything that’s built into the MacBook Pro). Small price to pay for this much screen real estate.

I’ve been watching the Welcome to Wrexham series on FX, and It’s been an interesting lesson on how European Football operates (so many levels). The show stars Ryan Renolds (from Deadpool Fame) and Rob McElhenney (from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). It’s more of a reality-type show than Ted Lasso was, and it’s pretty entertaining. Wrexham plays Farnborough at 10:00 am on November 26

Ever wanted to learn more about Indianapolis? Well, the Indianapolis Encyclopedia is a great place to start! This website was mentioned in a meeting at work a few weeks ago, and it has some great articles and seems to grow as more people contribute. This piece on Geist Reservoir is an excellent place to start.

Eric Hilton, one of the founding members of one of my all-time favorite bands, Thievery Corporation, just released an EP called Present, Past, and Future. It’s great to listen to in the background while working or cooking. You can check it out wherever you get your music from.

And finally… Do you know all about I-69, the interstate that will never be finished? Check out this video for all the details.

2022-Week 42 & 43 – Catching Up

I didn’t post last weekend because I was out of town for a wedding (and I forgot due to everything going on). So this week is a catch-up post covering a few things from the past 2 weeks.

The trees are looking quite colorful this week, and I was going to try & go camping this weekend, but most of Indiana is under a Red Flag Warning. This means no fires, and I’m sorry, but my idea of camping is building a nice fire to cook on and sit next to into the evening. I also don’t want to get into a situation where someone else starts a fire and get caught up in it. So because of the burn ban, I decided to stay home and catch up on a few things…

AppleTV

Last week Apple released some updated products, one of which is a new AppleTV. The AppleTV is the hub of our entertainment system (and has been for years), but it’s one fault is a really bad remote control. It’s so bad that I use a Harmony Ultimate remote to control the AppleTV. The last version of the AppleTV had a redesigned remote, but I held off because I had a solution in place. Well, the latest iteration, utilizing USB-C charging and a major processor chip, led me to order the upgrade. I should have a delivery waiting for me in Early November & I’m looking forward to trying out the new remote and increased performance of the AppleTV Hub.

If you love watching food travel shows, you’ll love these resources that help you locate a restaurant you’ve seen on TV. This is especially helpful when you travel, and you’re looking for something different

And finally… It’s a great time to try a new burger. The Jucy Lucy is a cheese stuffed burger that is amazing. I picked up the burger press and waxed paper sheets shown in the video below (I didn’t try them smoked yet) & they turned out PERFECT! I think this is going to be my go-to burger for the forseable future.

2022 Week 31 – Fumble!

This last weekend I took another trip down to Cincinnati to celebrate my father’s birthday. It was the first time in over 20 years that I didn’t have my trusty Timbuk2 bag in the back of the car with all my work equipment, “just in case.”

You get used to being on-call, and sometimes, I forget I no longer am. When it clicks, I get a little bit of a rush of freedom, knowing my day/evening/activity isn’t going to get interrupted by a client needing something right then and there.

So the “Football” I’ve been carrying all these years is being retired, and I can’t say I’m sad one bit about it.

While not this big, my bag contained everything I needed to do my job from just about anywhere.

Short post this week as it’s already Monday & I have a full week ahead of me. I didn’t want to break the weekly streak, so I needed to put SOMETHING on here! Longer posts are in the hopper for upcoming weeks.

Matt Mitchel from “It’s a Southern Thing” had a hilarious skit on his channel about what would happen If Fast Food Places Could Meet. Enjoy!

2022 Week 28 – Pew Pew

July 1, 2022, was the first day of Constitutional Carry in Indiana. This means if you’re 18 or older and a person not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm, you may legally carry a gun throughout the State. Previously you had to obtain a License to Carry a Handgun (LCH) through an application process. Yes, you had to jump through a few hoops like getting fingerprinted and visiting your local Police Dept to submit paperwork, but overall it was not a big deal.

In my opinion, the LCH process prevented lazy, law-abiding people from carrying firearms outside the home because it was too much work to go through the licensing process. But, unfortunately, bad guys will carry anyway because they don’t care about the law, so this had no impact on them. Law enforcement agencies are not happy about the new law either (rightfully so).

So we now have three types of people carrying firearms:

  • 1. The bad guys, who have always carried illegally despite the law
  • 2. People who were licensed correctly (and probably go to the range on occasion)
  • 3. Individuals who can now carry as of July 1 but probably shouldn’t because they have no idea what they are doing or how their firearm works (let alone the legal repercussions should they ever discharge their weapon).

The third person scares me as much or more than the second. Time will tell if this Constitutional Carry law increases violence in Indiana. Some states have had similar laws for years with reportedly no ill effect. I hope my fellow Hoosiers can follow the same path and behave themselves.

We’re halfway through the year, and I’m still enjoying the weekly post format of the Blog I started in 2021. I hope you have been too. I usually collect ideas throughout the week and spend some time on Sat/Sun looking back on the week to create a post that’s usually out each Sunday evening (or earlier). It’s a great way to share things I find online throughout the week and gives me a reason to do some creative writing every week.

I touched on this back in 2015 at the end of my GoPro Review. One or Two spaces after a period when writing (typing)? Slate said to stop doing it back in 2011; The Atlantic was still discussing it in 2018, so will there ever be a consensus on this? Two spaces were the norm when typewriters were in regular use, which was a long ago. I guess it’s just a habit that’s hard to break. While writing this, I just noticed that double-tapping the space key on any of my Apple products will insert a period AND only ONE space after the period. I’m not sure when that changed, but If it’s the same on Windows, maybe it will be easier to change! Grammarly asks me every time I draft a blog post if I want to use one space or two. I chose one for this one đŸ™‚

And finally… You might have noticed it’s a little warm out, with it being Summer and all. I’m not one for hot drinks unless it’s cold out, and the beverage’s heat will warm me up. However, I’m a cold drink fan, especially in the morning, and when it comes to morning caffeine, if I have any, it’s usually in the form of Cold Brew.

You can purchase Cold Brew Coffee just about anywhere and pay a small fortune, or you can buy something that helps you make it at home for a fraction of the price. My initial foray into Cold Brew was years ago with the Toddy Cold Brew System ($40). It did a good job and produced at least a 7-days worth of cold brew concentrate. The only issue was that it’s bulky, and you have to replace the fiber filters every couple of uses.

Toddy
KitchenAid

Then we converted to the KitchenAid Cold Brew Coffee Maker ($85). This little thing is built like a tank with glass, stainless steel, and a non-drip spout that makes dispensing your concentrate simple and mess-free. It doesn’t make as much concentrate as the Toddy (they now have a larger model that does), but the filter basket is made from a stainless mesh and is dishwasher safe, so there’s nothing to replace. After several years it’s going strong and allows me to keep a batch of cold brew concentrate in the fridge ready to go!

2022 Week 23 – Change is Fun!

This is going to be a short catch-up post this week. Lots of new things going on with the new job, and the first week flew by. It’s been fun to immerse myself in a new type of work and the new terminology, acronyms, and challenges.

From an organizational standpoint, I decided, once again, to separate my personal and professional life. I had ended up merging the two recently with the adoption of Apple Reminders, but with all the new inputs and things to track with the new job, I decided to dust off ToDoist and give it another go, but only for work items. So I’m keeping my personal task list in Apple Reminders for the time being. It’s nice not to see personal items at work and vice-versa & it’s bringing some clarity I have not had for a while.

For the time being, project management will continue to occur in Evernote. It’s my tried-and-true capture tool with the ability to track projects at a granular level. I was happy to see that ToDoist has some basic project management capabilities in the form of Boards similar to Trello. I can see this being useful for future, more in-depth projects. It’s matured quite a bit since I stopped using it a couple of years ago.

That’s it for this week. I’ve had a few road trips and checked out some new restaurants this month, so those will be the subject of future blog posts as I get caught up and back into a rhythm. Stay Tuned!