Discovered the Philips Hue API and have already made my life better. Now, with a single tap or voice command, my back yard in the desert is set for a perfect evening of floating in the pool.

Pool heater and pump on. Colorful pool light enabled. Motion detectors deactivated. Entire outdoor lightning system set to a dynamic, colorful palette.

Great article that goes in-depth on one of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time: Y’s Book I & II.

Don’t miss the amazing soundtrack from the PC version! Metal as hell.

https://retroxp.substack.com/p/the-music-of-ys-i-and-ii

Had a blast tonight at the Palm Springs Film Festival awards. Lots of amazing and talented people present - Viola Davis, Cate Blanchett, Speilberg, Seth Rogen, Michelle Yeoh, Sally Field, Bill Nighy, Colin Ferrell, etc.

Lacey was able to speak briefly with Austin Butler, who she had prior given a letter and gift to express her appreciation for his performance in Elvis. He kindly remembered the gift and letter and we snapped a photo of Lacey with him. So nice.

As far as I can tell, there isn’t a single streaming device that I can buy that can support streaming content from Plex with Dolby Vision and TrueHD Atmos.

Apple TV only supports Atmos with lossy Dolby Digital, and supports a fraction of Dolby Vision, for example.

Gimme a streaming box for home theater geeks!

Completed Spider-Man: Remastered last night on my #SteamDeck. What a great game! The story was fun, the villains interesting, and the overall mechanics were easy to grasp.

Next up, I am going to play through Uncharted 4, and then I’ll start Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Bad news: I despise UGA.
Good news: I despise OSU*

Two amazing semifinal games for once! Now, we hope against hope that TCU wins it all.

Made a very successful New Years Eve dinner. Sous vide ribeye roast, encrusted with spices, and and then finished on a ripping hot grill. French scalloped potatoes with shallots and nutmeg. Roasted asparagus with balsamic vinaigrette.

Nothing too complicated. Just delicious!

Watching the “Who Gets to Lose to Georgia or Ohio State” Fiesta Bowl, sponsored by VRBO.

Just busted open my big toe while playing nerf gun war with the kiddos. Didn’t notice until I sat down and there was a huge and growing pool of blood. Gross!

Thankfully, a little pressure and patience stopped the bleeding, but I’m going to be living with a painful big toe for a little bit.

The latest SteamOS update included support for the 8BitDo Ultimate Controller’s wireless dongle. I have the controller’s charging station connected to my #SteamDeck dock, and it works perfectly!

Playing Steam Deck games on my home theater screen and surround sound is pure class. 👾🤓

New Letterkenny dropped. Merry Christmas!

Both kiddos have now tested negative. If they test negative tomorrow, after 48 hours from the first negative test, we should be good to go.

Lacey and I will get PCR tests tomorrow to hopefully confirm that we have made it through without getting infected.

Ready for this to be over!

Spider-Man: Remastered on the Steam Deck is so good. So, so good!

The Glass Onion was good fun. Definitely not the same level of excellence as Knives Out. But, it proves to me that Netflix did the right thing building around Benoit Blanc.

I invented a new cocktail named “the clever devil.” It’s six parts bourbon mixed with the soul-crushing despair of a Christmas ruined by COVID. Served on the rocks in a coffee mug.

The time for an easily self-hosted personal CMS, designed around the Fediverse and IndieWeb is now.

No, I don’t mean hacking it into a legacy CMS like WordPress. It needs to be modern, and completely focused.

(The CMS I use, Known, had the right idea, about 5 years too early).

So, I have a challenge. My son (9yo) started watching the One Piece anime on Netflix and really enjoys it. He wants to watch the rest of the series.

It seems that CrunchyRoll, the streaming service, is the way to get it, but they have next to zero parental controls, and the category is filled with adult content.

Any suggestions? Is there an alternative that I’m not aware of?

Finally getting around to watching “Derry Girls” and absolutely loving it. Everything is on point, including the soundtrack. Lovely, funny show. Watch it.

I’m also wearing a totally kickass Christmas onesie. I look like a (deeply festive) poorly stuffed sausage.

“A Very COVID Christmas™” has me stressed so I am making a pie. I have to say, as stress-vices go, pie is a pretty awesome one.

Apples. Bourbon. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Vanilla. Honey. Brown sugar. A metric ass-ton of butter. Crumble topping.

🥧 🎅 🦠