FEB 28, 2018

App recommendation: Libby

I’ve been using Libby for the past month and it’s been great. As a general rule, I don’t worry too much about spending money on books but having such easy access to books I can borrow for free is nothing to sniff at. I haven’t tried borrowing an audiobook yet but excited to give that a spin soon.

Pro tip: if you’re a resident of Massachusetts then you can get an e-card from the Boston Public Library website without ever stepping foot in the building.

But you do need to have a library card to get started using the app.

Unsurprisingly, most items that I want to borrow have a waiting list but I’ve just been indiscriminately placing holds on things so I have a steady queue that’s becoming available. So far, it hasn’t been an issue at all. If anything, I’m unable to keep up with things.

My only complaints so far (to be fair, I’d bet most of these are beyond their control)…

• You can only search one library collection at a time. A universal search across all libraries I’ve added would be amazing.
• I wish there was some way to integrate with my Goodreads “want to read” shelf so I could easily see what is available in the library collections automatically instead of having to search title by title, trial and error style.
• Sending the ebook to your Kindle locks the loan period with no option to renew your loan. So basically if you don’t finish the book within the loan window then you lose access, which means if the book has a queue then you have to get back in line to borrow it again. A pretty unfortunate experience for the most popular ebook reader. That said, the loan period seems to require a network connection to be enforced on your device… so if your Kindle happens to find itself in Airplane mode then…
  • Note: I only mention this because the book is marked as returned in the Libby app so I don’t believe this “trick” negatively affects any other uses. If I’m wrong on this, please let me know.

FEB 21, 2018

"It's the case stupid" aka my AirPod review

I’ve owned a pair of AirPods for a month now and I’ve enjoyed them much more than I ever expected. I concede that they look a little goofy and are on the expensive end of the spectrum. But those are really my only main complaints. And, to be fair, when you really look at other bluetooth headphone options, they all look goofy in some way. They sound better than the normal EarPods and generally exceed my non-audiophile needs. I don’t know if it’s the lack of “cord weight” (as some have speculated) or a slightly different shape but they stay in my ears remarkably well. For me, they feel more secure than EarPods by a significant margin. I’ve run on a treadmill in them with no issues. In fact, the only time I can recall them falling out of my ears is when I’ve bumped them while taking off a t-shirt. Pairing them with my devices was painless and switching between using them with my MacBook Pro and iPhone 6s is trivial. Auto pause when you remove one pod is cool and useful trick. The double tap controls, while limited, have generally seemed sufficient.

But, for me, it really does all come down to the case. After the first few days, I’ve completely stopped worrying about the battery life and charging in general. I store them in case when not in use and I plug the case into a charger here and there as it’s convenient. That’s it. My Kindle is the only other electronic device where I feel so laissez faire about charging. It seems like a small thing but it really reframes my thinking from “this is a device I have to consciously manage” to “this is a tool I use.” And, in the one situation when I did find my AirPods almost out of juice, the fast charging got them from ~5% to ~30% in a few minutes.

The other, maybe more important, aspect of the case is that it has led to almost constantly carrying my AirPods with me. There, of course, was nothing preventing me from carrying around corded EarPods day to day but having the cord get tangled or bunched up in my pockets was enough of a deterrent. It is simply more convenient to carry the case and I find myself doing it more often.

In terms of small gripes…

• Using the AirPod microphone for video calls on my laptop has given me a slight echo a few times.
• Not AirPod specific, but I wish iOS was better as resuming playback from third party apps after 30+ minutes of idleness. It’s really annoying to try to resume playing a podcast only to end up with a random song on Apple Music instead. I assume this has something to do with memory or battery optimization but it takes away from the user experience in a material way.
• Not realistic but I wish the case where somehow a bit thinner.
• Switching from using both AirPods to a single AirPod is a little clunky but not that common of a use case either.

OCT 24, 2016

⬀ 10 Learnings from 10 Years of Brain Pickings

I always find myself wishing I had more time to digest the content on Brain Pickings so I enjoyed this concise list of themes and lessons.

1. Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.
2. Do nothing for prestige or status or money or approval alone.
3. Be generous.
4. Build pockets of stillness into your life.
5. When people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them.
6. Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity.
7. “Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.”
8. Seek out what magnifies your spirit.
9. Don’t be afraid to be an idealist.
10. Don’t just resist cynicism — fight it actively.

JUL 27, 2015

Love For Sale - Chicago Cultural Center Exhibit

Saw this (free!) exhibit over the weekend. Cool historical component to it and a very distinctive and influential graphic style that spanned decades. I had never heard of Valmor before and had no idea of the cultural relevance. Highly recommend if you get a chance to see it - the artwork has a very comic book vibe to it and must have influenced Shepard Fairey’s style to some degree.

JUN 25, 2015

“Whatever happens, you’ll probably have to improvise, and failure of nerve is really failure to trust yourself.  You have a great endowment of brain, muscle, sensitivity, intelligence – trust it to react to circumstances as they arise.” – Alan Watts