The week that was (in images + a video)

The new Ipad Pro with M2 chip

I had my doubts. There’s already something wrong with the new iPhone 14’s camera system and its video format is confusing and tedious to work with.

But I’ve been wanting to upgrade from my (old) five year old 10.5 inch iPad Pro for so long, that it was a foregone conclusion; I was going to buy one no matter what though I was trying not to grimace at the thought of two very expensive lemons.

When I finally got it and set it up, I just had one regret; I wish I stuck with my original choice of an all-white combo- a silver variant and a white Magic keyboard. I had been dissuaded by Sam telling me horror stories of his work colleagues toting less than pristine all-white iPad combos. Apparently, stains are difficult to remove.

I sort of teach tech for work and deal with user experience issues, but I’m never one to be super conscientious about reading and following instructions to the letter. I just let intuition do its job - yup, just zoom, swipe, tap - and if it works, then the device or website works. Maybe the new iPadOS 16 is amazing, who knows. That, or the fact that I never did anything much really with my old 10.5 iPad Pro. But you have to consider that five years in tech time is literally a lifetime; a lot can change and I’m glad that I sort of waited. I’m not sure if it’s the right analogy, but I think that updating your devices is similar to managing your Kiwisaver. Best practice is to stick with a specific fund instead of shifting it to a more conservative or safer one when you’re hit by losses due to the ever fluctuating markets; by doing so, you’re simply cementing your losses.

While we get the advantage of leaks, it’s never really certain what you’ll get. But after waiting for five years before I upgraded, I got a way better and bigger screen (from LCD to mini LED), a faster chip, and an operating system that almost replicates the work-flow you have on your laptop. The leap in capability is just phenomenal. if you have last year’s model, you’re not gaining anything dramatically new and spending another NZ$2,299 for a chip change is a waste of money- unless of course, you have money to burn.

Bag of bones

When we visited the Pokeno Butcher shop last weekend, I got a pair of split beef marrow bones for $13. At the Asian shop the other day, I picked up a $5 pack of beef bones- so it’s literally a meal from bones.

Other ingredients
Diced garlic and ginger
spring onion for garnish
flavour packet of sinigang and pinapaitan
cabbage and spinach

Method
Saute the garlic and ginger in a pan and put into slow-cooker. Sear the beef bones on the pan where you just browned the garlic and ginger. Slow-cook for about 6 hours. When done, separate from the bones and set-aside. Add two cups of water to the slow-cooker broth, season with the sinigang and pinapaitan to desired flavour (I prefer it to be sharply acidic and bitter), add the beef chunks and let simmer for 30 minutes. Steam the cabbage and spinach separately. Season bone marrow with pepper and garlic salt and grill on high for 15 to minutes. Assemble as below. Garnish with spring onions and garlic chips.

Saturday (in images)

What happened in the world today? DON’T CARE- to each his own.I have chores to do and things to learn.

The 'fuck you' list (because why not?)

  1. Ron DeSantis and to every Florida lawmaker who opposed climate law changes; you deserve what nature gave you.

  2. To the common cold ( as it turns out, it’s not Covid but is worse than Covid).

  3. Herschel Walker

  4. Luxury labels raising their prices

  5. Password security

Everything I ate last week

‘Eating well’ can be dangerous. I blame the dip in my immune system to the food I ate in the last week.

Sunday (in photos)

Tested negative for Covid and feeling slightly better so went out to spread my germs at the mall!

The questions list

  1. what are you really, really good at that?

  2. Is this what you’re supposed to do?

  3. do you really, really need to have it?

  4. Are you prepared to get it?

  5. Do you have what it takes to get it?

  6. Will doing it prove once and for all, that it’s what you’re meant to do?

  7. If not, what then?

The 'ugh' list

  1. Lip readers

  2. ‘Righteous’ people calling out Lea Michele

  3. The far-right

  4. Real-estate people on TikTok

  5. ‘Experts’ on TikTok

  6. Under-seasoned food (like this breakfast platter I had recently at Bird on a Wire)

  7. Any kind of vegetable that is 2x its normal price

  8. Fast-fashion

  9. Summer fashion (you don’t need it- what you need is a perfect body)

  10. House of the Dragon (boring, boring, boring)

What's your fantasy?

In the Christopher Nolan film, Inception, there is a scene where Cobb (played by Leo Di Caprio) and his group tour a secret basement filled with sleeping men hooked to IVs and dreaming the equivalent of 40 hours a day.

‘The dream has become their reality’, the watcher says.

A scene from the movie Inception

When I was growing up, reading books had the same effect on me; I’d be in bed reading away for hours or days on end.

I would remember the books I read, but not the time I read them. There is a Christmas that I don’t remember to this day, but I vividly remember the book I read- The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy.

I was made to expect that when I finally ‘socialised’, or ‘got some friends’ or left the one-person island that my mother said I spent so much time in, things would be different. But alas, it wasn’t!

The world was boring! The people in it were as dull as the oatmeal I forced myself to eat every morning years later, in the (vain) hope it would lower my cholesterol levels. Or- it could all be just me. So to this day, I would dive right back to books when I needed a different and better reality.

I have a soft spot for fantasy; if genres were drugs, I would pick it not for the high but for its hallucinatory effect, and the longer the better.

The Chronicles of Narnia were the 1st fantasy books I read when I was in the 6th grade. It was so real to me, I kept inspecting closets for that secret door to another world.

In high school, I plowed through War & Peace and Anna Karenina- hardly fantasies, but to a 14-year old, 19th century Russia seemed exactly that- and I don’t think I finished either. In college- which really didn't get exciting until my last year- I passed the tedium of days reading through Tolkien (LOTR & The Hobbit ). Then it was the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, but I only got as far as the third book. Tried to start Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson with Gardens of the Moon, but couldn't finish it for some reason. I would have gone on and finished the entire Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey, but in the era before Kindle, it was hard to find books and they were also expensive- I only finished the 1st four books.

And it also happens that there are some books that are better off seen on screen. I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but opted to watch the rest of the series on the big screen.

Lately, I discovered Raymund Feist’s Riftwar Trilogy which I finished while I was in Ashburton to visit Doyet and the family. It felt like being at home again in Pangasinan, comfortable with no care in the world; you read, slept and ate with the food magically appearing on the table.

Feist’s world-building of magicians, lords, dragons and sorcerers is familiar, but it’s the conviction in the writing that creates the illusion of being firmly in that reality. A thousand pages fly past like a fast-moving photo carousel and it no longer feels like reading, but living.

I finished the trilogy just as I was heading back to Auckland so I didn’t feel the full weight of that emptiness that almost feels like grief, as if you had just lost someone, when you finish a book that you’ve inhabited so completely.

You just sigh and face this reality with some reluctance.