Month: March 2023

Building a Better Me

Late fall 2022 through Christmas break (aka “The Week Between“), a number of factors, including but not limited to vanity and mendacity, conspired to inspire me to make some changes in myself. In an aspirational fit of hopefulness, I made a list of goals for myself. The categories:

  1. Health and Fitness
  2. Professional
  3. Passions and Hobbies
  4. Social Life and Support System

Regarding health and fitness, I wanted to do the following:

  • drink less
  • increase some key health metrics
  • increase my bench press
  • row 5k easily
  • fit into a smaller size of pants, which hung, dormant, in my closet

I won’t get into everything here, but I want to highlight the degree to which I was able to follow some metrics to chart my progress. I used my Apple Watch and a couple of apps to keep track. I checked my updated stats each day in the health app on my phone. But first, what did I do?

First, and not necessarily in the order of the impact I imagine it makes, I row in the morning before work for 30 minutes. I drink less, but don’t teetotal. I eat less, because I drink less, because where there are big martinis, there are glasses of wine to follow, and too much dinner usually follows suit.

Rowing

I am luck to have a Concept 2 ergometer in the basement. I’m lucky, too, I suppose, to have a large basement, and to work and live in the same city. I row for 30 minutes most days, using Apple Fitness+ to structure my workouts. I started off following the stroke rate recommended by the trainers, but I blew past their versions of easy, hard, medium, and “all out” a while ago. I warm up around 33 s/m, and push up above 35 s/m for all-out efforts. I use Drafts and a configured action to log the distance and speed. I rowed a good bit back in 2015, and I have surpassed my stats from then.

rowing

Dranks

I used the Reframe app to learn a bit about the impact of drinking and to log my drinks. This was helpful briefly, but I settled on what I consider a reasonable amount to consume each day (tiny martini and a bit less than a glass of wine per night). I sleep better, most nights. I take less famotidine. I save money. And more good things, as you’ll read below.

Food

I didn’t really change anything except quantity here. I’m not afraid to miss a meal, because I don’t feel bad if I do. And when dining out, I usually don’t finish what I order. I eat about half and take the rest home. I can always eat more later if I under-eat, but that never happens. Did I mention I eat less when I drink less? Ah, yes. I did. It’s true. That’s like a two-fer.

Blood Oxygen

The Health app on the iPhone reports that my blood oxygen ranged from 88-100 over the last week. It has gone down as low as 77% in the past year… but not lately. I like to see it up around 97% or so, and although it does dip into the mid-90s, it’s usually in the range 97-100%. This is the so-called COVID feature on the Apple Watch. As the sampled bands of data move towards the present day, I see my blood oxygen moving up from 77-100 to 88-100, most recently.

Blood Oxygen

Cardio Fitness

I got a warning a while back that I had “low cardio fitness,” which is what Apple calls V02 max.This is basically how efficiently your body uses oxygen. At the time of the low cardio fitness warning, I was exercising regularly, but only strength training. This sustained period of rowing has seen my average move up from aroudn 24 to over 30, and I’m on the precipice of breaking into “low average.” That sounds bad as I write it, but it’s the truth that it has taken a sustained effort to make a dent in this.

Cardio Fitness

Walking Heart Rate

My walking heart rate went from an average of 107 BPM to 93 BPM for the last five weeks. I have never felt winded or tired walking, but it’s good to know that my heart finds this essential activity less impressive and worthy of exertion than it once did.

Cardio Recovery

This measures how much my heart rate drops within a minute after reaching its peak during exercise. When rowing, my heart rate gets as high as about 165 BPM (alhtough it has gotten highter, into the mid-170s). For the nine months leading up to my experiment, my heart rate would drop by about 12 BPM after exercising. For the past 17 weeks, I’ve seen an average of 20 BPM, athough for the last week, I’ve seen a drop of almost 30 points. The more readiliy your heart rate recovers to a more normal rate after exertion, the more healthy you are.Cardio Recovery

Resting Heart Rate

My resting heart rate has dropped over 10 points, from 83 to 73. This means that when at rest, like sitting at my desk or at a meeting, my heart beats 10 times less per minute. I remember a karate instructor saying once that your heart only has so many beats in it, so make them count. So: a more efficient heart.

Resting Heart Rate

Active Energy

I burn over 250 more calories per day for the past nine weeks. It must be more than that, because I’ve been burning anywhere from 250 to 300+ calories each morning that I row. (I bench press one day per weekend and managed to keep my 1 RM over 200 despite a break in the action due to shoulder problems.)

Active Energy

Blood Pressure

My doctor doubled my blood pressure medicine last fall. I recently knocked the dosage back to the original, because I felt dizzy a few times after taking it. I take my BP religiously to keep an eye on it, and it’s almost always below 120/80. As with rowing, I type the diastolic/systolic/heart rate data into Drafts, and fire an action to append this to a text file in iCloud.

Blood Pressure

Heart Rate Variability

This is a stubborn and somewhat mysterious metric, but it too has crept up from below 20, and in some individual caess much lower, to often spiking during the day into the 30s and 40s. I know it’s low if I’m tired or in a blue mood. I am usually pleasantly surpised to see a higher number, but often reflect that I was busy and not terribly reflective when the number is at its highest.

HRV

What else?

What besides data? Cheekbones! I have them. I got into my “skinny” pants and then blew past that benchmark, having to go out and get some new trim fitting chinos, and even two pair of size 34 jeans. 34! I wore that size in college, for a while. And in high school. High school.

So that begs the question of weight. I’m not going into specifics, but I started paying attention to my weight (not daily) about a month into this shredfest, after I’d managed to squeeze myself into some long-relegated-to-the-back-of-the-closet jeans. But I’ve shed an additional 12 pounds since then, so I’m gonna guess it’s around 30 lbs.

I even signed up for a testosterone blood test, which I paid for myself. I have never been a swarthy beast, prone to slavering over women or getting in fights. I wondered where I might be on the T scale. I wasn’t one to prowl for women in college or seek conquest. Turns out I’m in the upper range of average on the normal band, where between 200+ and 800 is considered normal. I got a 700 ng/dl (no, I don’t know how much is free T). Not bad for an middle-aged guy with a sedentary job. As with my weight, I didn’t take a baseline measurement, so for all I know, it went down. But I doubt it. It doesn’t mean much, I guess, but I will confess that I expected to be worried by the result.

It’s one of those reminders from the cosmos that you shouldn’t avoid things you’re afraid of.

I attribute the dedicated rowing and caloric restriction to everything. I want to pat myself on the back for doing it, and of course i did have to drag myself down in the basement every morning, and forgo some food, and drink less when I might have fancied another glass of wine or a larger cocktail. But it’s just what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a better version of me.

Still do. So I’m sticking with it.

Email Ninja Hacks: Making Your Inbox Look Smaller Using Gmail Search Operators

I was on a meeting last week and the topic of email management came up. Our superintendent has his secretary filter his email for him. A building principal said he has tried using Gmail Labels to make his email more manageable. Having made some comments about my technology collection (conspicuous in my background), it was suggested that I might have an opinion on managing email.

boxes

My Device Box Collection

And I do.

I wrote about my particular setup here, at the time using Apple Mail. (I’ve since moved to MailMate, which works the same way as Mail in this regard.) But most people use Gmail in a web browser, and happily, there’s a way to do pretty much exactly the same thing.

I don’t think labels are terribly helpful in Gmail, and the process of labeling or tagging is laborious. Users are likely to give up on them after a while when time grows short and the backlog gets too long. And backlogs really are the trick: the problem with email is that it never stops, and you’re likely to get overwhelmed and give up on it after a while.

The trick is to make it look like there is less to process than is: you make your inbox look smaller. You can use Gmail’s excellent Search Operators to accomplish this bit of self-deception.

Gmailinbox

My Gmail Inbox, Unfiltered: lots of messages

Here are some examples; type them into Gmail’s search field (replacing “user@gmail.com” with your email address:

to:user@gmail.com label:inbox newer_than:1d

to:user@gmail.com label:inbox newer_than:2d

So what are you filtering here? In the first example, email that came in within the last 24 hours that’s still in your inbox. In the second, anything in your inbox from the last two days. Add days as you need, replacing “newer_than:1d” with 3d, 4d, etc. You’re including your email address, because you’re skipping, for now, any org-wide blasts, distribution lists, and marketing stuff.

Why in your inbox? Because if it’s been archived to All Mail or deleted, you don’t need to see it any more. You already decided what you were going to do with that email.

Do you want to see yesterday’s email, but not today’s? Not a problem:

to:user@gmail.com label:inbox newer_than:2d older_than:1d

Again, you’re using Gmail’s search operators to show you email that came in in the last two days, but adding that you only want those messages to be older than a day. So it’s the last two days’ worth of email, but nothing that came in in the last 24 hours.

It’s not perfect, but what you’re doing is reducing the visual array before your eyes. You can focus on today’s email, and get most of that processed, and then back up to yesterday. And then the day before that. Process as much as a time as you can, without overwhelming yourself.

Gmail today

Gmail filtered: Today’s Messages Only

One quick parting note: Saved searches don’t really work for this, because the filters don’t update themselves after you move or delete an email. That doesn’t sound like a deal breaker, but it is to me.

What’s a solution? Create text snippets and use an application like TextExpander or AutoHotKey to trigger your favorite defaults. I use the former, but anything will do. Mac users and iOS users can even use the build in the system-wide text expansion feature.

Sparkmail and a Clever Use of Obscuring

Sparkmail does a clever thing that I’ve never seen in an email client: composing a new message does not automatically show you your inbox. Let me explain.

If I sign into Gmail, I see this before I can craft my message:

Spark Gmail

Gmail

So the first step in creating a new email is seeing your received messages, most notably new ones (if you have any).

MailMate is a first-class Mac-assed Mac app, and it of course shows you whatever you were last looking at when you last used it. Which was probably your inbox…

Spark MailMate

MailMate’s inbox (Distortion Mode for photo purposes)

Spark Desktop, though, has a feature called “Home Screen” that, if enabled, hides your inbox after 15 minutes (or whatever you set it to). As you busy yourself elsewhere, Spark will eventually display a picture and notify you if there are any new emails in your inbox (but not show your inbox). Nice enough feature.

SparkMail Splash

But Spark takes it a step further: if you switch to Spark to compose an email, you can tap the “C” key or click the pencil icon and compose a new message… all without ever seeing your inbox. Once you send the message, you’re back in the Home Screen. It’s a subtle thing and easily deactivate, but if you’re prone to intrusive adrenaline boosts that accompany new messages in your inbox, Spark can help you maintain focus and keep doing what you need to do.

Spark-Home Screen

Spark’s Home Screen Settings

Mac Nerd Tries Surface Pro, Survives

I’ve been a Mac user since 1993, when, that spring, I returned from my senior class trip to find a Colour Classic on the table; my father had, despite my lack of enthusasim about having my own machine, purchased one for me to take to college. Before that, we had an Apple IIe. I fell in love with that Mac, writing my graduation speech on it and playing Prince of Persia. A procession of Macs has graced my computing life since: A PowerBook G3, PowerMac G4, PowerBooks G4 (titanium and aluminum), a black plastic MacBook, an Air, and many more.

Color classic 208
My First Mac

My usage of PCs and Windows has always been either professional or academic, where I had to use a machine for work because that’s what they gave us, or because the library at school used it for literature research. A succession of uninspired HPs and Compaqs took unwelcome residency on my desk at work, until the day came when I was able to use my own computer because everything had moved to the cloud, the network admin told me how to log onto the district wireless network, and platform didn’t matter quite so much.

But even when you get what you want, you always wonder what’s going on on the other side. In that spirit, I took a chance to borrow a Microsoft Surface Pro 7 for to kick the virtual tires and see what life is like for a Mac user taking up a Windows device. That, and my kids are Windows users who don’t care a lick about troubleshooting. And now, a couple of years later, I’m trying out a Surface Pro 9.

Surface-Pro-7
Surface Pro 7

The good news? Both devices are nice hardware. Windows 11 is a fine OS. And a lot of my favorite, must-have apps are available for Windows. 1Password? Yes. TextExpander? Yep. OmniFocus? Sorta.

The bad news? Battery life isn’t great, although the 9 is much better than the 7. The hardware/software integration is not what you would expect for a boutique expression of a platform. And surprisingly, the software landscape is thin.

I’m going to whack this up into a few different posts: Hardware, The Windows-as-Tablet Experience, and Software.

Hardware

“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” -Steve Jobs

Unlike the plasticky, off-the-shelf garbage that I had been handed at work, the Surface Pro 7 hardware is top notch: it feels solid in your hand. The magnesium backing provides a pleasing texture; the lines are tight and clean, and the power cable, while proprietary, uses magnets. The newer Surface Pro 9, however, a less premium-feeling aluminum.

The Surface Pro kickstand, possibly the most polarizing design choice, allows for a remarkable array of viewing positions. (t works only OK on my lap, which is a common criticism of the device’s design, but not as well as a traditional laptop or Apple’s iPad adhered to a Magic Keyboard. The soft, texturized plastic surrounding the Surface Pro 7’s Keyboard feels great, and the keyboard itself is a minimal, island-style keyboard in the vein of Apple’s Magic Keyboard. (The blue Alcantara on the 9 is nice, too, but I prefer the 7’s feel.) The use of magnets allows for both flat and angled keyboard layouts, which is both clever and useful. Typing feel is excellent, with enough travel to provide tactile feedback, but not mechanical or loud. Overall, the hardware feels very well conceived and considered. You want to pick this thing up.

Surface-Pro-9-Kickstand
Surface Pro 9 Kickstand

The magnets on the Surfaace Pro 7 hold the Pen firmly on the side of the device, where you can mount and unmount it as needed. It’s not so strong that you won’t find yourself fishing around in your bag for it from time to time. Unlike the Apple Pencil, I don’t feel the need to secure it while moving around.

The Pen on the Surface Pro 9 is tucked into a small dugout at the top of the keyboard, and probably necessitated the carpenter-pencil design of the new Pen. It’s not a better design, and the expensive device feels much cheaper than the textured metal barrel of the original Pen.

Surface-Pro-9-Dugout
Surface Pro 9 Pen

Speaking of the Pen, Microsoft’s version is different than the iPad’s, in ways that compare both favorably and otherwise. For example, the Pen is held onto the left side of the Surface Pro 7 via magnet, and it is a strong, reliable attraction. It does not, however, charge the pen; for that, you’ll need a AAAA battery (that’s correct, quadruple A, and you’ll need to pay attention to the charge level since it doesn’t charge while connected to the device. (On the Surface Pro 7, I was at 93% after about a few weeks of use, and eight months later, at 67%.) Unlike Apple’s Pencil, you can erase with the back end of the Pen, and there are programmable gestures available by using a (gasp) hardware button on the top of the Pen. For example, two firm presses will bring up either the Inking input panel, or the full screen Snip application, while one press drops me into Microsoft Whiteboard. Both Pens are stouter than the Apple’s Pencil.

The refresh rate on the Surface Pro 7’s display pales in comparison to any Pro-level iPad, even an older 2017 10.5″ Pro I compared it to. Windows 11 has appreciably improved the smoothness of scrolling on most applications, but you will immediately notice the difference if you’re a heavy ProMotion-enabled iPad user. The Surface Pro 9’s display runs at a much smoother 120 Hz.

The Steve Jobs quote above (ironically) points to why Microsoft went in this direction: they wanted to show off best-of-breed hardware, how they imagined Windows 11 best showcased on a premium hardware device.

Windows

So let’s talk about Windows, specifically how it works on this device. Oogling the hardware will only get you so far; at some point, you need to sit down and use it.

I am perhaps the worst choice to consider its benefits and drawbacks, but it simply does not feel integrated in the way iPadOS does with the iPad, and macOS feels on a Mac. That used to make sense, when Microsoft was designing the OS, but vendors were loading the OS onto their own hardware. But this? This should be the true Windows experience.

The most obvious consideration is this: the Surface Pro wants to be two things: a Windows computer, and a tablet. The question is whether this works, to mix the two or not. As not-unrelated aside, this is the debate that has raged on since the dawn of the iPad. “The iPad is a just a big iPhone.” This was very much true in 2010, and while iPad has gained a number of features and its own branded OS, the criticism of the device today remains: It’s not Mac enough to be your only computer. And looking at the prices for the upcoming iPads Pro, you can understand why a buyer might want an iPad to do it all, no Mac required.

Surface-Pro-Cover
Surface Pro 9 with Signature Keyboard

Swiping and gestures, for example, are present on Windows. In a very Microsoftian way, Windows 10 allowed you to swap between a Tablet Mode and a more traditional Windows interface.; Microsoft didn’t seem to have an opinion about how you should use their device. (Tablet mode is no longer included in Windows 11) Unlike iPadOS, which was once described as a big iPhone, Windows proper was always lurking beneath the surface of Tablet Mode. It looked a lot like Windows 8, with the tile-based interface and Charms. If you were expecting the Surface Pro to turn into an iPad when you turn on Tablet Mode, you’d have been disappointed: The desktop was replaced with a kind of Springboard-like launcher, but it’s not a canonical list of your installed applications, a la iOS’s default behavior; rather, it’s a permanently visible Start Menu. You can toggle a full list of installed applications, though.

Windows 11 is bit more ChromeBook-like; its interface is more easily suited to tablet use (when you want it), but it works fine as a desktop OS, too. I should probably put that a different way: tablet affordances are baked into Windows 11, so it works acceptably well without a secondary mode. That said, many interface elements and touch targets aren’t sized for your fingertip. Having been able to use this device on both Windows 10 and 11, I agree that the latter is much improved. Is it as good as an iPad? No. But the Surface Pro is trying to be two things.

There is one area where the interface between hardware and software is well considered and thoughtful: the Pen. I don’t know how third-party styluses work, but Windows shows you where your pen is going to land when it eventurally touches the screen… like a hover, it shows the exact touch point, and even highlights menu items on hover. It’s a nice touch that gives you feedback about where you are aiming on screen, and is a nice visual interface touch. The Apple Pecnil, but contrast, registers touches in the interface.

One big difference here is that Apple created iPadOS (and iOS) to be touch-first interfaces. You can quibble about what this means, but the touch targets on Windows are pretty small in comparison to iPadOS. This is meaningful difference, but it fades when you consider that a lot of the work you’re going to do involves websites. And websites don’t necessarily go to any trouble at all to make sure that it works nicely on the iPad.

The Appmosphere is Suprisingly Thin

Shockingly, on Windows, the app ecosystem is utterly lacking compared to the Mac and iPad. Are there speicality apps that make Windows better in niche markets? Maybe.

There are a number of big-ticket applications that exist, happily for me, on both Mac and Windows: most notable is 1Password, the lack of which would really make my life difficult. TextExpander is also available, but my writing volume is a bit lower than it once was, and I could live without it. Office, of course, is at home on the Surface Pro; I continue to pay for Office, if begrudgingly, because I use Excel a lot.

Setting up a device on a new platform makes you think about what you really need. Through a far liess rigorous process than I’d ever admit, I started looking for:

  • an RSS reader with Feedbin support
  • email
  • Text Editor
  • Utilities

Surface Pro 9
Surface Pro 9

Email

A pinch for me has always been that I don’t use Outlook. The obvious darling of high-volume email overachievers sat idle, because on iOS, it pales in comparison to both Mail and (most pointendly, for me, Spark), and on the Mac, my beloved MailMate. So I was excited to finally get to use Outlook on a proper Windows device, where it would emerge the (paid) victor of all options.

Or would it? What the fuck is the deal with Outlook and Gmail? Is it the competitive spirit that prevents them from letting Outlook exist harmoniously with a Gmail account? You have to manually add Google Calendar to Outlook using a “secret” URL. I can install iOS apps all day that will read my Google Calendar. Furthermore, it doens’t readily recognize Gmail’s dreaded “All Mail” folder, which is where (ahem) all mail goes, only to be tagged with relevant information such as “Inbox.” I get it: Gmail’s IMAP implementation is non-standard. But hey Microsoft: everyone uses Gmail. Support it. Out of the box. Make it easy. Like on the Mac.

I’m being a little harsh; Outlook handles IMAP, Echange, and Pop. My favorite email application, Mailmate, requires considerable configuring to get it working correctly because Gmail’s isn’t a standard IMAP implementation. Similar shenanigans are required to get it working on Outlook.

Microsoft Mail is probably a better alternative if you use Gmail; it functions mch more like a modern, webmail-friendly application should. It also downloaded all 9 GB of my work email to the Surface Pro without warning. Mailmate downloads all of your email, and I understand this; I have seen the giant footprint that being a fussy Mac user invites. Mail doesn’t say anything; it just nukes and paves. It works though.

I alighted for greener pastures and tried out Postbox, which is an application I tried some years ago when I was looking for a Mail client for the Mac. I liked the Mac version quite a but, but it wasn’t terribly different from (at the time) Mac OS’s Mail client, which I generally liked using (and enhanced with InfoClick). It’s a good Gmail client on Windows, though, and-unlike so many applications-it looks good on Windows. It does not, however, handle large IMAP accounts well, and they charge for tech support, whether they actually help you or not. So it’s OK if you don’t need your old email.

I tried a number of other email clients, but I’ve settled on Spark Desktop since the latest version came out. It looks and runs like Spark Desktop on the Mac, and while I can’t yet replace MailMate with Spark Desktop, I do try to run it on my Mac. So that’s what I’m using on Windows, since I’m already paying for it.

RSS

I found FeedMill, an RSS reader that supports FeedBin, my aggregator of choice. Windows does not offer the embarrassment of riches this space that you find on any of Apple’s platforms, but this one looks the part and syncs, if a bit slowly, with FeedBin. The price was nice, too, and only 5 USD. It doesn’t appear to have been updated since 2020, though, and it chokes on my account after a while. So I created a web app of FeedBin using Edge. Boring, but that’s where we’re at.

Calendar

Calendaring is a different story. Outlook supports Google Calendar, but it’s not intuitive to set up, and at least for me, was a constant source of errors and stalled syncing. Microsoft Calendar is passable for keeping appoints documented and supporting a bevy of online sync services, but it lacks power-user features like Zoom and Meet support.Calendaring isn’t much better. Microsoft Calendar is passable for keeping appoints documented, but it lacks power-user features like Zoom and Meet support.

Until the New Outlook (aka Project Monarch) becomes available for me to use with my work Gmail account and home iCloud accounts, the only tenable calendar solution is Morgen, which isn’t free. It’s a solid calendar app and it’s available across platforms. I don’t prefer it to Fantastical, but that’s not an option on Windows.

Making Life a Little Less Painful

Here are a few gems I found that make moving to Windows more fun:

PowerToys app launcher: Launchbar fans will miss having a keyboard-based app launcher. This particular little gem of an app doesn’t do much besides open applications and URLs, but it’s better than nothing. It’s minimal interface is nice, too. Fluent Search is a commendable alternative, with built-in file searching across the file system (a la Spotlight) as well as other plugins, such as firing off terminal commands. Even better is the electron-based Ueli, which is available for the Mac as well.

Microsoft Edge: I have actually been using this as the Chromium-based browser to handle G-Suite duties at work on my Mac, so I was familiar enough with it. It handles PDF with annotation duties very nicely, and you can save to the files system once you’ve made your edits.

Ditto: I am embarrased to admit that I ignored the benefits of a clipboard manager until very recently, when I read Take Control’s excellent Take Control of Launchbar. I don’t do a trememdous amount of repetitive writing anymore, but there are many times when being able to grab the last few things I copied and reuse them comes in handy. Ditto isn’t Launchbar and it’s certainly not Pastebot, but it’s a nice little free app that does what you need. Alternatively, Microsoft’s own Windows-V keystroke is a nice, simple clipboard manager.

Morgen: Until the New Outlook (aka Project Monarch) becomes available for me to use with my work Gmail account and home iCloud accounts, the only tenable calendar solution is Morgen, which isn’t free. It’s a solid calendar app and it’s available across platforms. I don’t prefer it to Fantastical, but that’s not an option on Windows.

Make Mine Nine

Regaridng the Surface Pro 9, and I have a few things to add.

The experience of using the Surface Pro 9 after having the seven for a few years is incremental, to be sure, but it is decidedly better. Gone is the sluggishness that I associated with the 7; the 9 is snappy and fast in all the right ways. The 120 Hz refresh on the display is not only welcome but necessary; the Surface Pro 7 sruggled along with a premium price but suffered in comparison to older apple iPad hardware. And the Surface Pro 9 battery seems much improved, too.

I do miss the magnesium of the origintal design; this new Pro 9 is a bit more staid in its desig (although the black looks fabulous). I paired mine with a blue alcantera keyboard and it looks downright classy.

Conclusion

I really like using the Surface Pro. I like the size, I like the hardware, and surprisingly I like Windows 11. It makes for a weird tablet, though, and I can see why Apple didn’t Frankenstein the iPad and the Mac when their own slate first came to market. It’s not weird enough not to use it, but you are confronted with some level of dissonance if you’re used to something that was developed as a touch-focused device from conception to execution.

But the software situation on Windows isn’t great, and it’s a big surprise to me, because that was always the jab at Mac users back in the dark days of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The tables have decidely turned, and if you love software, you might not find Windows exciting.

Surface Pro 9 (back)

More Existentialism

Existential loneliness and a sense that one’s life is inconsequential, both of which are hallmarks of modern civilizations, seem to me to derive in part from our abandoning a belief in the therapeutic dimensions of a relationship with place. A continually refreshed sense of the unplumbable complexity of patterns in the natural world, patterns that are ever present and discernible, and which incorporate the observer, undermine the feeling that one is alone in the world, or meaningless in it. The effort to know a place deeply is, ultimately, an expression of the human desire to belong, to fit somewhere.

Barry Lopez on the Cure for Our Existential Loneliness and the Three Tenets of a Full Life – The Marginalian

Tuscans are of this time; they simply have had the good instinct to bring the past along with them. If our culture says burn your bridges behind you—and it does—theirs says cross and recross.

Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun