After getting into town so late last night I didn’t think I was going to wake up and run today. However, with it being so much more sunny at 5am here I shot out of bed thinking I overslept. I didn’t and knew I wouldn’t fall bask asleep so I went running.
Changed it up this time and decided to have dinner at Luke’s Lobster. I am not sure why I don’t come to this place more often good food and a nice view. Helps the weather is amazing out right now.
Writing with Obsidian
For the past couple of posts I have made, everything has been written in Obsidian and then pushed to Micro.blog via Micro.Publish created by Otavio Cordeiro.
Not only have I used Obsidian to create and post those, they have mostly been done on my iPhone as well. I have also found that using Jarrod Blundy’s wonderful iOS shortcut called Multimedia Uploader to get pictures on my site is the perfect addition. I can then copy that link and put it in my Obsidian document, so I can finish any extra writing as necessary prior to hitting publish.
This new process has been working well, and I not only have been doing it for my longer posts as part of WeblogPoMo2024 but also on some of my shorter posts about runs and other random thoughts that would not come through my Status.lol.
Not sure if I will continue with this for the long haul, but right now, this has also renewed my want to use Obsidian as I can use it on my various devices. A great example is this specific post: I started it on MacOS, but I am finishing it up on the plane on my iPhone prior to takeoff.
It was a warner one than I anticipated but I know my body is not heat ready still with all these changes in temps. However, I pushed through the miles for this run as I know my evening will be spent in airports and on airplanes.
Where Balloons go to Deflate 🎈
I didn’t think much of it a couple weeks ago when I found a balloon sitting next to my office door in the backyard. However, a couple days later I saw another mostly deflated balloon in my side yard by where I take the dogs out. After that a day or two went by and yet I found another one blowing around in the backyard as it had my motion camera going crazy.
Not really sure what that logo is.
Again I thought nothing of it but was starting to think it was very odd. Finally, I was taking out the trash one night and saw something moving slowly in the street towards my house. Yep another balloon.
This was slightly disturbing as it slowly was moving towards my house in the street as I thought it was an animal.
Now this time it really got me thinking… Where do balloons go to deflate?
It is actually a great question and had me wondering what happened to balloons that people let go of in the air on purpose or accident. I mean they have to go somewhere or deflate and end up in someones yard or in the trees. Come to think of it every year on my mother-in-laws birthday since she passed away we would have the kids write messages on balloons and let go of them in the air. Cute and fun I know but now I am worried what if someone every year got these random balloons that showed up in their yard talking about their Grandma Diana. I am wondering would those people have thought about it and then the consistency of when it would happen. As come to think about it we would do it on special occasions as well. However, now that the kids are older we don’t do it as much or frequent so maybe those people are wondering what happened?
Lets just hope my house doesn’t become a constant balloon deflating ground as I don’t really want it to look like this.
The kids slept in this morning so I took that time to quickly get a run in. Legs felt heavy today so probably good that this week had some lighter millage in. I didn’t know how wet the conservation area was going to be but not all that bad on the trail.
Mystery Solved just a NameDrop
Last night I saw this random animation on my Apple Watch that I had seen once before but had no idea what it meant or why it started. It seemed to be telling me to do what the animation was suggesting but again no idea why. Honestly, it had an eerie sense to it like I was watching something on the show Severance. This is a screenshot from my watch of what I saw:
I went my normal Apple expert route of bothering Jason Burk with anything and everything I randomly want to know about my Apple products. I am pretty sure he appreciates all of the questions or Apple issue rants I send his way. However, this one stumped him and didn’t have an answer for me either so I went to internet searching.
Come to find out it is an Apple feature called NameDrop… Never heard of it 🤷♂️.
NameDrop (part of AirDrop) is an easy way for you to share your contact information with someone, or receive theirs, without handing them your iPhone.
Ah, well that makes sense and actually now that I know what an interesting feature. I am sure it was talked about and I missed it but I think back to when my kids were younger and trying to exchange contact information with other parents (assuming they had iOS devices) this would have been super slick.
Still the one odd thing is you can activate it between your own devices which I would think it would know I don’t need my own contact information from my phone to my watch or vice versa.
I decided to capture a longer video below vs just the quick screenshot I took earlier.
Went to support one of my kids friends perform in the school play Annie tonight. I miss going to play as we haven’t been for years. Also, reminds me of all the plays I did lights and sound for and then one that I actually played a key role in on a whim.
Thankful that my early morning meeting got canceled as I was able to actually get a run in earlier than I normally would. It was so nice outside too as it was cool but sunny with a little bit of dew on the grass.
Really I can’t complain how this Friday has started out, I got an early run in and came home to try another newer coffee for me from Groundwork.
WorkOutDoors App
I really do like my Apple Ultra watch and am glad to only be rocking one watch on a daily basis unlike a couple years ago. However, having the Ultra well over a year now and knowing the Apple Watch itself has been out so long I still can’t believe that the missed opportunity to have a route mapping function on the watch with in the stock Workout app. Typically I don’t need it often but when I map out some really long runs on my phone I have to pull it out from time to time to make sure I catch the right trail or street, two things I don’t love doing when I am out running and also further makes me not want to run with out my phone.
Now, yes there are a couple apps out there that can allow you to get turn by turn directions but most are not great or require an additional subscription to use and I had found a hadful of them don’t work that great or are complex to setup. Also, you run into the issue of are you going to run just that or the Workout app as well and how do you flip back and forth.
With all of that said and even with some of the limitations that are still there I was pointed in the direction of WorkOutDoors app from Mat Routley which I have actually found to be a solid running map navigator. I have used it a handful of times now and been running the workout app at the same time but in the background. Flipping between them if I need to for any reason is a pain but I am getting used to it. However, my last longer run I started the Workoutdoor app then started my workout app and then went back to the workoutdoor app until about a mile or so left because I knew the direction. It didn’t kill my battery for being out there for 2 hrs and 45 min of two GPS apps running and timing.
I had to buy this app but honestly I have no issues paying for an app that does what it says and it woeked better than others that wanted more of a subscription base. I will say this app has a lot of settings but I think that is what I like about this, check the settings you want on your phone, load the GPX map you want to follow or map it in the iOS app and go. Nothing to crazy just filling the gap that the WatchOS left in the Workout app. Maybe someday that will be corrected but for now I don’t mid this setup and again it allows me on longer or more complex runs to leave my Garmin again at home.
The start of this run it was very misty out but then cleared up. Overall just plugging away at some miles but being careful of the geese I came across as I saw some little ones out there too, and I know they’re protective.
Bolo
Every now and then I run across something that has me remember something from my past and today it was a computer game called Bolo by Stuart Cheshire. Don’t be mistaken by the 1982 game that was for the Apple II as I am talking about the 1987 game.
I mean what wasn’t there to like about this very basic game, you were a tank on an island for a winner or team take all. In the game you could capture pillboxes (automatic gun turrets), refueling bases, build walls and boats, join alliances, farm trees, and lay mines. You could find other built maps or even create your own to add to the challenge if you wanted to play alone or even with others.
“Bolo is the Hindi word for communication. Bolo is about computers communicating on the network, and more importantly about humans communicating with each other, as they argue, negotiate, form alliances, agree strategies, etc.”
To top if off if you were lucky enough you could play against others on a local network at your school which is what some of my friends and I did. It helped that this was back when Mac computers were starting to show up in school and my dad was the Middle School Principal so he would let a couple of us go into the computer labs after school. Most of the time there was only 2-4 of us so we would boot up as many computers as we could and set most of them to be on autopilot with various “Brains” we had downloaded to the disks we had.
In my stumbling around to find out more about this old game I used to enjoy I found where you can play an old version online in the Internet Archive.
Quite a bit of wind on one of the long straight sections right in my face. Not horrible but really made I hard to listen to my audiobook. Other than that the run felt good and couldn’t beat some sunny cool weather for a change.
Tried out a new game that has been in the closet for a while with the girl that normally doesn’t like board games. How could I pass that up. It was called Abducktion: A Weirdly Strategic Game of Duck Kidnapping and let’s say it is good enough that I think we will give it another try.
Rained all day again today so got lucky to only have a little mist from time to time. Was good to get out for a run after a very derailed work day. I think the legs are ready for an easier week as I couldn’t find another gear without trying to put in more effort.
I really want to use Shortcuts more but I feel like I run into this issue so much moving from my iOS to MacOS which then I need to recreate the shortcut. It seems to only happen if I edit something on iOS that then MacOS (even though the function is there) seems to believe it is then unknown. 😖
No good reason but thought it was good idea to utilize my 2 hr and 45 min wisely. All went well on this run until around mile 12 I realized this is where my quickly tossed together route had lots of hills for the rest of the miles. Well the boardwalk was fun and I didn’t get rained on🤷♂️.
