Crucial Track for September 24, 2025

"Vacation" by The Go-Go's

Listen on Apple Music

A song that reminds you of your last vacation or holiday.

This is the first song that came to mind when I thought about vacation. When I hear the song I think about a commercial for a vacation more than the vacation itself. Either that or a comedy about vacations.

It's weird to me that vacations cause so much stress that I sometimes feel I need an extra day after just to rest and recover.

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Sometimes it’s the simple things that do not work.

Siri does not understand the command to drop a pin.

Lillie likes to chill at the landing.

A dog is sitting halfway up a carpeted staircase, looking to the side.

I’m going to this week’s Homebrew Website Club Europe/London meeting.

I haven’t really done anything to the website in a while, but it’s nice to hear idea that I can put on the list.

Crucial Track for September 23, 2025

"Djobi Djoba" by Gipsy Kings

Listen on Apple Music

A song in a language that you don't know.

This is my favorite Gipsy Kings song. It's fast and seems fun and I have know idea what they are saying.

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Another day of selecting all email and archiving them.

iPhone Air A light touch of sadness in my hand

I went to the Apple Store1 to check out the new iPhone Air Saturday. The mall parking lot was horribly crowded and I got to experience the insanity convenience of car culture in America. After driving around and avoiding getting hit by people who follow different rules of the road than I do, I finally parked across the street in the overflow parking. I walked into the mall and saw that the line to purchase new phones only had a couple people in it. Maybe most people had already bought theirs online?

I went inside and picked up the new phone.

And just felt a little sad.

It confirmed that the issues that I was seeing when running iOS26 on my phone were there by intention.

Photo libraries that cut off the top row of options show up with plenty of space on the new phone.

Menus at the top have plenty of room for options.

Animations are fluid - almost like flowing liquid - and not sporadic or slow.

Is it unfair to complain that the newest os doesn’t run that great on my 5 year old iPhone SE?

Maybe.

I remember a report that engineers would be required to use older phones to test these things out. Feeling my phone get warm as I navigate between different apps, makes me think that it didn’t happen as much. Trying to get my phone to take a picture and having to wait for the last picture to load or trying to find where they placed options has decreased the amount of times that I want to do something with it.

Holding the new phone brought up all the joy that I’ve been missing about being someone who identifies as an Apple Enthusiast. The thrill of new possibilities from exciting applications is tarnished by drama with the App Store. Services that only increase in price but not functionality. The community that I used to share my enthusiasm is shrinking as people move to other platforms.

All in all, I’m actually a little discouraged from spending money on something like this.

I put the phone down and it zips back into place due to the antitheft tether.

And, I think that’s where I’m at.

I’m not tethered to the idea of getting one.


  1. It’s kind of funny that the autocorrect will capitalize the s in store. ↩︎

Crucial Track for September 22, 2025

"Skid Row (Downtown)" by Michelle Weeks, Tisha Campbell, Tichina Arnold, Ellen Greene & Rick Moranis

Listen on Apple Music

If today were a genre, what would it be? Pick a matching song.

I'm just being cheeky this morning.

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Crucial Track for September 21, 2025

"Tainted Love" by Soft Cell

Listen on Apple Music

What’s a remix or cover you like more than the original?

This is one of those songs that you see in a compilations of Songs you didn't know were covers. This one is special to me because it was the first time that I knew of it happening. Before I knew about Motown or any of the music I was popular in the 90s that was associated with Puff Daddy.

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Lillie doesn’t get out of the bed for less than two (2) treats.

American bully mix sleeping underneath a blanket.