Top Four is one of my favorite podcasts. Possibly my number one, although its probably tied with ATP and The Talk Show. It’s a strong contender. Marco and Tif Arment chat about some random group of things, and attempt to rank said things, usually failing because they can’t make up their minds. It’s adorable. It’s clear that the two of them are having a good time, and listening always makes me laugh.

In a recent episode the pair ranked their top four favorite “Fall-tivities”, things to do in the Fall. They named a few things I’d never heard of, like pumpkin blazing, which sounds like a lot of fun, and talked about the corn mazes in the Northeast, which for some reason sound bigger than ours here in Iowa. A travesty if true.

Listening to the podcast put me in the holiday mood early this year, and since it’s good to think about good things that make us happy, here, in no particular order, here are a few of my favorite things about Fall.

• Flannels, sweaters, and jackets
• Getting a chill outside and coming inside to warm up under a blanket with a hot drink
• Apple pie
• The smell of cinnamon and spice in the air when baking said apple pie
• Also pumpkin pie
• Pumpkins on peoples porches
• The leaves changing color and falling
• The holiday season is coming, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years 🎁🎉🎊
• Getting up before the sun comes up and going outside to look at the stars
• Soups, stews, and chili
• Smores in the backyard over a fire, just because.
• Football and Fall soccer seasons
• The long, hot, miserable summer is over. The seasons change, life goes on.

Fall is by far my favorite time of the year. The grass stops growing, but we don’t have snow yet. The days get shorter, but there’s still plenty of sunshine. Time to break out the gloves and hats and scarves. Time to bake some cookies and carve a pumpkin. Run a little later in the day, and enjoy it more because the temperature is perfect for running in long sleeves. Go for a hayride, have a bonfire, dig the decorations out of storage. Put our petty differences aside and remember that we are all neighbors. Give, laugh, love. Fall is the best.

I’m in St. Louis for the Strange Loop conference, and the conference kicked off last night with a party at the City Museum. I didn’t bother to look into the museum much before I came. A few friends told me a bit about it, but it wasn’t enough for me to really understand what the museum was; the City Museum isn’t a museum, its a mad amusement park.

I heard from another conference attendee who’d been there before that the museum was the product of a single person’s desire to make something out of an abandoned building. A mad genius. I describe exploring the museum like going through someone else’s code… you’re always finding things that make no sense. Why is there an airplane on scaffolding outside? Why are there two? Why is the only way to get to the plane through a maze of metal steps and tunnels? Why is the basement built to look like an underground cave? From the insect display to the collection of Italian movie posters to the human-sized hamster wheel, the City Museum makes no sense. It’s an eclectic collection of amusing things. Five stories of collected randomness.

My friend fulfilled a lifelong dream of falling into a ball pool. There was a live band playing on the first floor, board games on the second, food and drinks on the third, and mazes everywhere. There are two massive bank vault doors connected to a hall of mirrors that leads back to the hamster wheel. There are statues of whales, gorgon heads in a fountain, HO scale model train with flying dragons breathing fire, stairs that don’t lead anywhere and slides that go for several stories.

I’m not sure how “safe” the museum is, or how it manages insurance. The structures I climbed on all seemed sturdy enough, but I did wonder at times how old they were, or when the last time they were inspected was. My original plan was to walk to the museum, grab some food for dinner, and walk back to the hotel, mainly ignoring the festivities and the museum. I’m glad I stayed for a few hours.

At the beginning of Spring, I signed up for two races, the half-marathon Dam to Dam in the summer, and the full Des Moines Marathon in October. This was my second half, but I’d never come close to a full marathon, so signing up for it was aspirational motivation. I was training with a group running long on Saturday mornings, so as the time for the half approached and I started thinking about the full, I was feeling more and more confident that I would actually be able to run it. Then I ran the half, and things went wrong.

It was hot. Not ridiculously so, but it started out in the 70s and went up from there. I probably would have been fine, but I wore my long Under Armor pants under my shorts, mistake number one. I started out at a good pace, but too good, running at around 8:30 or so, which for me is pretty fast, even when I’m at peak training. Mistake number two. The first few miles were fine, but around mile four or so the sun beating down started to take its toll. I stopped at every water station to take a drink. Around mile six I started taking an extra cup to pour on my head. Mistake number three.

Mile seven I hit The Wall. I hit it far too early, I was only halfway done. The water I had been dunking on my head soaked my shirt, which started chafing and I started to bleed. I was absolutely ready to quit. I saw quite a few other folks on the side of the road who’d given up or pushed themselves too hard and collapsed, needing medical attention. I’d stop and walk, then jog, then walk, then jog, pushing and pushing to get through the race. It was a struggle. It was hard. I was miserable.

Some days I can get out and knock down ten miles and feel great during and after the run. Sure, I’ll feel exhausted, my legs will feel tired, I’ll be breathing heavy, but inside I’ll still have energy, I’ll still have that spark of joy that makes running worthwhile. At the Dam to Dam, I lost that spark. I dragged myself across the finish line, got my finishers medal and went to find my friends I drove up with. While they agreed that the run had been one of the worst, they had finished far in front of me. It felt like my months of training had all gone out the window. I thought about the full marathon in the Fall, but the seed of hope that I’d fostered during the training leading up to the half was gone.

The week after the half I ran a local 10K, finishing first in my age group (being the only one in my age group), and then started training on my own for the marathon. I was on mile six of a ten-mile run when I gave up. My run out was great, my run back turned into the same kind of slog I experienced in the half, and what was left of my resolve to keep running dissolved. I went home and told my wife I was done. She thought it was probably the best thing for my knees.

My wife and I joined an early morning workout class, and I realized that all my running had done little for my overall health. The women in this class were out-punching, out-kicking, and out-squat-jumping me through the entire class. I’d built up endurance, but my overall strength and physical ability had floundered. This class kicked my ass.

At first, it actually felt great not to have a long weekend run to be anxious about during the week. I slept in on Saturday, had too big of a breakfast, and generally loafed around the house. I was getting into the workout class two to three times per week, so why not? Over the weeks that followed I slowly started noticing something in myself. I was more agitated, I became frustrated more easily. Something was wrong. Missing.

While the workout class pushed me physically in ways that I was not accustomed to, the loud pounding music and group environment didn’t allow me the quiet, personal time that was the primary reason I ran in the first place. What was missing was the meditative experience running provides, the feeling of doing something by yourself, for yourself, where you can literally run away from everything for an hour.

I quit running because I forgot why I ran in the first place. I’d had a bad run and thrown in the towel, and this created two problems for me. For one, I was missing out on the benefits to my mental health. Running helps me put everything in life in perspective, it gives me goals to work towards, it clears my mind. Secondly, I gave up on something I said I was going to do, which I felt violated my personal integrity. I noticed that whenever I thought about the marathon I felt, bad. A tinge of guilt. The same feeling I get when I think about my failed software company, Farmdog. I’d given up on something that I am. I’m a runner.

I can’t have that.

I decided to start running again after reading an article in Runners World about pushing through the hard things in life. The author said, paraphrasing, that we run because it’s hard. When we overcome the hard runs it prepares us to overcome whatever other difficulties life throws at us.

This morning I strapped on my phone, put on a podcast, and had the Nike app track a 20-minute run. I’m easing my way back into the habit, but with fresh eyes and a new habit to mix into my runs. I’m keeping up pretty good with the rest of the crew at our morning kickboxing workout now. Although there are some workouts where I’m ready to quit after 15 minutes, by the time we hit the 45-minute mark I’m feeling pretty good. I’m positive that the workouts will help with an overall total-body approach to health, but I’m going back to the road for my mind. I’m too late to start training for the full marathon this year, but I’m not giving up. I’m just saying, “not yet”. I’m still a runner.

This is a bit silly, I’ll be the first to admit. The contraption I’ve built to host this site is clearly unnecessary, especially when I could host the site on Github for free, with very little effort, but I was curious, so down the rabbit hole I went.

I thought it would be interesting to host my site on S3. The site is entirely static, no database back end or dynamic programming required to generate the site, it’s just HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I also wanted to understand the AWS CodeBuild service, and how I might be able to use it for other projects.

There are four components of this system: Github, which hosts the code for the state. The domain name is registered and managed through Route53, where I’ve configured an “A” record as an alias to point at the S3 bucket which hosts the site. Finally, CodeBuild is the glue which pulls the code from Github, runs jekyll build, and pushes the site to S3.

CodeBuild works by starting a Docker container and pulling the repository down. It then looks for a file named buildspec.yml which contains the instructions to build the project. This file contains arbitrary Linux commands, whatever you need to build your code. Mine looks something like this:

version: 0.2

env:
  variables:
SITEBUILD: "yes"
phases:
  install:
commands:
apt-get update -y
  pre_build:
commands:
gem install bundler
    bundle install
  build:
commands:
echo Build started on date
    bundle exec jekyll build
    aws s3 sync _site/ s3://jonathanbuys.com
  post_build:
commands:
echo Build completed on date

The interesting thing about this system is that I could replace Jekyll with Hugo, Hakyll, or any other static site generator, even my own scripts, and the system would stay the same. I’d just need to update buildspec.yml with the new commands to install the right tools and build the site. Hosting costs so far have been pennies, my cost this month might reach $1.27, and for the past couple months the cost has been below one dollar.

I’ve been considering making this system more user friendly and monetizing it somehow. There’s a business model to be had in here somewhere, if I care to pursue it. Even though blogging in general appears to be in somewhat of a decline, publishing platforms will always be needed.

I got an email from my mom the other day asking me for a recommendation on a new Mac. The first question I asked was what her budget was like. She said she’d like to keep it under a grand, which right away narrowed the field quite a bit. Next I asked what she would be using the machine for, to which she replied with the standard home use cases of “income taxes, email, scanning, internet, etc”, as well as printing to a Brother ink jet.

At first glance, it would seem like she would be the perfect candidate for an iPad. Modest computing needs, tight budget, and she doesn’t want junk. Or, in her words, “I hate slow computers but don’t need top of the line either.” I considered steering her towards an iPad, but that first item in the list of things she uses a computer for gave me pause, “income taxes”. I don’t know exactly what software she uses to do taxes, but I started imagining scenarios where she would run up against the edges of what the iPad, or more specifically, iOS, can do. Would she need to download and import files from banks? Would she need to read files off a USB drive? She’s into wildlife photography in Montana, how would she get the photos on the iPad?¹ My mom’s no slouch, but she’s not Federico Viticci either. Pushing the boundaries of iOS is not what she cares to be spending her time doing.

I imagine Mom just wants to use a computer like she’s been doing for the past thirty years. Given the budget, and after eliminating the iPad from the equation, I briefly considered the desktop options. Of course, all of those were thrown out almost immediately. The iMacs are too expensive, the Mac Mini is too slow, and the Mac Pro, uh, no. That leads us to the laptop line. The MacBook Adorable was considered, then eliminated for lack of ports and high price. The new MacBook Pro also suffers from a lack of standard ports and a price tag that’s far too high. That leaves us with the venerable MacBook Air.

The Air has been Apple’s best laptop, and possibly best computer period, for years. While the MacBook Pro is the workhorse of the lineup, the Air’s svelte styling and weight paired with an affordable price tag to make an extremely compelling offer. While the MacBook Adorbs is beautiful and portable, Apple is pushing the envelope with the single port, and consumers are footing the bill for the new technology with a higher price. While the Air is plenty fast enough for all but the most demanding tasks, I’ve heard more than one user complain that the mobile chip in the MacBook Meh is sluggish. Jony’s styling doesn’t win out over performance with my mom.

In the end, I found a 13” Air with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, and an Intel i5 for $850 on Apple’s refurbished site. I think Mom will be happy with this machine for many years to come.

Next, my daughter and I are going in on a Mac for her to take to college. That’s an entirely different set of requirements and a different use case, one that I’ll follow up with here, as soon as we decide what to get.

So, yesterday I cleared off my desk and tried to work with nothing but my MacBook again. No standing desk, no external monitor. It looked great, but honestly, it felt terrible. I wound up hunched over the desk staring down at the screen. After an hour or so of this I decided, yet again, that this style of work is just not appropriate for me.

This leads me to a few interesting conclusions when considering what to buy for my next Mac. For one, I find a larger screen much easier to work with. The smaller screen is fine for when I’m loafing on the couch or traveling, but for day-to-day work it just makes getting things done harder. Secondly, the screen needs to be lifted to an ergonomically appropriate height. Photos online of beautiful desks with a single MacBook Adorable, a notebook, and a cup of coffee are nice, but I can’t see how anyone gets any serious work done on the computer in that environment. I always assume that whoever works that way doesn’t spend the majority of their day staring at the screen like I do.

So what’s next for me? I’ve been toying with the idea of only using an iPad Pro, and while I think I could work on it just fine, the overall experience would be ergonomically strenuous, and the workflows frustrating. The iPad shows promise, but until I can hook it up to an external keyboard, monitor, and touchpad, it’s not for me, not yet.

I love the look of the MacBook, but I just can’t work with it. I could leave it plugged into my external monitor all day, but there are a host of issues with that too. My monitor, a 24” Dell 4K, looks great, but it doesn’t have a built-in speaker or iSight camera like the old Apple Thunderbolt Display I was used to working with. The resolution is good for staring at text all day, but every time someone I work with wants to do a video conference or something similar I’ve got to either fish out my USB webcam or unplug the laptop. I could leave the laptop open to the side of the display, but I like having a single monitor to concentrate on.

Then there’s the wires. I’ve got a USB hub stashed in my desk drawer, which is plugged into a ScanSnap and a hard drive. The monitor needs power and a plug into the MacBook. The MacBook needs power. There’s too many wires.

Finally, since I have no speakers when the Mac is closed, I have an Amazon Basics bluetooth speaker on the shelf behind my desk. That works fine as long as I have sound being streamed to it. If I go for more then a few minutes without sound, the speaker turns off, which means I have to flip the switch on it to get it to pair again. Not ideal.

So, when considering my options for the next computer, I think there’s really only one choice considering my requirements.

• As few wires as possible
• Built-in iSight camera and speakers
• Large Retina screen
• Ergonomically correct for long periods of work

Sounds like an iMac to me.

I came across a neat little command line tool via Rob Griffiths’ Robservatory this morning, a Ruby gem named iStats¹. Install is easy enough in Rob’s example, sudo gem install iStats, except that when you use sudo to install gems you are using the default macOS Ruby, and installing to system paths.

➜  ~ /usr/bin/gem environment                            
RubyGems Environment:
RUBYGEMS VERSION: 2.0.14.1
RUBY VERSION: 2.0.0 (2015-12-16 patchlevel 648) [universal.x86_64-darwin16]
INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0
RUBY EXECUTABLE: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby
EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /usr/local/bin
RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
    ruby
    universal-darwin-16
GEM PATHS:
    /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0
    /Users/jonathanbuys/.gem/ruby/2.0.0
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0
GEM CONFIGURATION:
    :update_sources => true
    :verbose => true
    :backtrace => false
    :bulk_threshold => 1000
REMOTE SOURCES:
    https://rubygems.org/

While that might be fine, my personal preference is to keep the core system as close to default as possible. I once ran into an issue keeping Jekyll up to date, so now I use the excellent Homebrew to install an updated version of Ruby and keep the gems in /usr/local, which is entirely mine and safe to write to.

brew install ruby

Also, I make sure that /usr/local/bin is called before /usr/bin in my shells PATH variable.

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:~/Unix/bin/:$PATH

Now I can call gem install iStats and the gems will be installed safely, keeping my core system clean and my gems easily updatable.

I’ve seen quite a few smart people recommend using a VPN service in the wake of the U.S. government’s decision to repeal privacy rules for ISPs. Unfortunately, I find this advice to be a bit misguided, or at least ill-informed. You can move your risk around, but in the end this comes down to an issue of trust, and avenues of recourse.

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. It creates an encrypted tunnel between your computer and a remote server, and then optionally routes all of your Internet traffic through that tunnel. The case for using one for security against your ISP is that if your traffic is encrypted, they can’t see what you are browsing to and your data becomes useless to them to sell. Once your traffic reaches the other side of the VPN, it’s aggregated with all of the service’s other customers. That’s fine, and mostly makes sense, but if you are going to use a VPN service it’s important to come to an honest conclusion about how much you trust the company.

If your VPN server is outside of the United States, you are effectively giving up any legal recourse against the provider, meaning they can do whatever they want with your data, regardless of what they advertise or what they tell their customers. A single gateway for all of your traffic has a tremendous amount of power. They can inject code into any (non-SSL encrypted) web page. They can read all of your email. They can see all of the URLs you visit. All of the power of your ISP, you are transferring to your VPN provider, but if you choose a company outside of the United States, you lose whatever protection or recourse you have now.

What the ISPs are doing is not right, but at least we know what they are doing. If you pick a fly-by-night VPN service and send them all your traffic, there’s no telling what they’ll do with that data. It doesn’t matter if they post good things on their website if you can’t verify their claims.

Apple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple to update with new components on a regular basis. They’re also working on Apple-branded pro displays to go with them.

For those of us who make their living on their Mac, this is fantastic news. I might never buy a Mac Pro¹, but I’ll still reap the benefits of Apple’s development and focus on Mac hardware and software. This is a message to the community that Apple hasn’t lost it’s mind; the Mac is still going strong.

What I will plan on buying is a new Apple display. My current Dell 4K display is ok, but after being spoiled by the Thunderbolt Display I had on my desk at the previous gig, this Dell feels like a big step back. No built in iSight camera, no built in speakers, too many wires, and that ugly Dell logo on the front. It’s a beautiful screen, and I need that for the number of hours I spend looking at text every day, but it’s all the rest of it, that overall Apple experience, that I’m missing.

I’ll be interested to hear what Marco has to say this evening on ATP. He has, at least to my mind, been the biggest skeptic and nay-sayer within the community when it comes to future prospects for the Mac. Of course, that’s nothing new. Mac enthusiasts have been hearing that their favorite computer is just about to die for literally decades. Yet here we are.

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The book of Philippians is such a beautiful, and challenging book. This is what I needed to hear tonight:

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did no run in vain or labor in vain. Philippians 2:14-16

I admit I’ve done quite a bit of grumbling and questioning the past few days. On the next page, I saw I had this passage marked:

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there his anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me–practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9

• “… you shine as lights in the world…”
• “… And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”
• “…and the God of peace will be with you.”

God of peace, guard my heart and my mind, and let me shine as your light in the world.