halloween is dumb, but it is forever
I consider Halloween to be the weirdest holiday of the year, because I don't even understand why it's called a holiday. I've never known anybody to get October 31 as their day off or be paid time-and-a-half for working that day.
Halloween gets even weirder for the following reasons:
No gifts are given on Halloween
There is no requirement to give nor receive any gifts on this day. It's just a day.
It's "spooky" for the wrong reasons
All Hallows' Eve a.k.a. All Saints' Eve is supposed to be a day to remember the dead, as in to remember saints and passed loved ones, among others. But that's not what happens at all. Nobody does that.
Instead, kids on Halloween eat too much candy, and many adults go and get drunk.
There is supposed to be a feast following Halloween
You know All Hallows' Eve, so is there All Hallows' Day? Yes! It's the day after. It's also called All Saints' Day, Feast of All Saints, Feast of All Hallows and even Hallowmas.
Do you know anybody that holds a feast on November 1? Didn't think so.
Should we reconsider what Halloween is supposed to be?
No, because nobody wants to do that. The kids want their candy and drinking adults want their booze.
What mystifies me somewhat is how October 31 changed from a day of respecting the dead to being about pumpkins, candy, booze and cheap costumes.
I'll probably never be able to solve that mystery.
I'll also never understand why anybody eats candy corn, the grossest candy ever made.
But I can understand buying things like the This Is Boo Sheet and/or I'm Just Here For The Boos t-shirts, because those are funny. The coffin letter board is also kinda cute.
counting steps does work
Counting steps is a form of exercise that does work - conditionally. I say that because whether you can actually do it or not depends on a few things.
Right now at the time I write this is a fantastic time for step counting because it's mid-October. It's cooler outside and humidity is down. The middle of September to the middle of November gives me two solid months where I can go walk for step counting almost every day.
The only thing that would prevent a walk is rain. It's not that I can't walk in rain, but if I do that for 30 minutes straight, I may catch a cold.
Weather is the first and more or less only condition to be met for step counting. The only other thing you need to count the steps is a cheap step tracker, a.k.a. a cheap pedometer, which starts as low as 9 bucks and goes up from there.
This is the one I use, and what it tracked after walking with it for 10 minutes was 1,051 steps. After 30 minutes, 3,152 steps.
Is that accurate? No idea. The more important thing is that I'm physically moving by walking for 30 minutes.
Presuming my pedometer is accurate, I get in a little over 1,000 steps every 10 minutes of continual walking at my pace.
What do I do when I can't walk?
If it's raining, too hot, or too cold (or in rare instances, too windy) to walk, I have two backups.
The first backup is a basic 15 minute low-impact aerobic workout. I use a Casio watch with timer set to auto-repeat every minute. My watch of choice is my W213, although the WS1000H and WS1600H are also both excellent for doing that.
Side note: Yes, I did consider getting the Casio WSB1000 as that does have a step tracker built in (along with the WS2100H and LWS2200H). I passed on it since I already have a pedometer and have other Casio watches that do the timer thing for me.
My basic routine is stretches and squats. I purposely wear flip flops while doing this routine mainly for squats so my feet stay flat to the floor (better to have feet flat instead of elevated slightly from wearing sneakers for that particular exercise).
The second backup is "dumb dancing".
Whenever I get bored of the basic exercise routine, I just put on a video and then dance around the room for 15 to 20 minutes. The "moves" I do are the dopiest things I can think of, which at times gets me laughing at myself.
What's funny, other than the dumb dancing, is that it's actually more difficult to keep dancing without stopping for 15-20 minutes compared to a basic exercise routine. For whatever reason, doing a bunch of fake karate kicks, fist pumps, fake high-fives and whatnot works my body more than regular exercising does.
For now, the weather is good for outside step tracking. When the weather isn't good enough for that, it's back indoors where I exercise or dance and hope I don't kick over a lamp.
garmin 2025.20 map update removes junction view
I was excited to see the new 2025.20 North America map update had been released. Given the giant Garmin nerd I am for automotive models (I own way too many of them), I got to see what happened after the update on everything from the current Garmin DriveSmart 66 all the way down to the old Garmin nuvi 1100LM and a whole bunch of models in between.
I noticed something. Junction View has been removed on some older models. Not all. Some.
This takes a bit of explanation.
Something new Garmin did this time around for North America models is that every single one labeled as "lifetime map" eligible (i.e. if "LM" is in the model name and has been updated in the last 2 years, it qualifies), the full USA + Canada + Mexico map data set is now included instead of just being limited to "lower 48" US or USA + Canada. This of course will require the addition of a 32GB microSD memory card, as many older models don't have the internal space to fit all that map data...
...and that's not the problem since getting a 32GB card is cheap.
On some - and I have to repeat this again so it really sinks in - SOME older models, the Junction View was removed. All the map data is there, but those little images to the side on SOME models aren't there anymore.
I noticed on older models like the nuvi 30LM, nuvi 40LM, nuvi 50LM, nuvi 56LM and a few others that the 2025.20 North America update doesn't include Junction View anymore.
For other models like the Garmin Drive 52 and Garmin DriveSmart 65, yes, Junction View is still there.
I'm totally okay with Garmin removing JCV on the older models
I'm sure some people that still use older models will get a bit miffed that JCV was removed. I don't have a problem with it, because on models like the nuvi 40LM and 50LM that never had a full North America map set before, now it does with the addition of a cheap 32GB microSD card.
I am totally fine with JCV being removed on older models and getting more map data, because that's what counts more.
i'm sad the casio w213 is being discontinued
The Casio W213 at the time I write this is still available, but not for long because it appears it's being discontinued in the North American market.
Do I have confirmation the W213 is being discontinued? No, but it's not being shown as in stock any longer on the Casio USA web site. When a model disappears from there like that, it always means it either is or very soon will be not for sale any longer.
What makes the Casio W213 so great?
The W213 has a near-perfect set of features. Easy-press buttons that allow for lightning fast operation, great legibility, great night light, ridiculously light in weight at just 28g, and a 10-year battery life.
Imagine the AE1200 with its world time feature replaced with dual time, the "1-ON" alarm function (meaning "sound once and disable") removed, its display replaced with one that's easier to read, and its countdown timer had an auto-repeat function added in. That's the W213 in a nutshell. W213 has 5 independent daily alarms, stopwatch, countdown timer with auto-repeat and dual time. This exact same feature set is in the F201WA and MWD100H, but the W213 just does it all better, however...
The W213 has three flaws
First is that circle at top left. That's where the W213 shows how many alarms are enabled. A bit dim because of the blue background. The rest of the display (which is what matters more) is fantastic, however.
Second is the strap. Not the best.
Third is that this watch will never be a looker. Plain design, silver paint on most you'll see out there (the other common color is blue). Even with the plain look, the measurements are good. 45.5mm lug-to-lug, 40mm diameter, 11.7mm thick. It certainly doesn't look like a 40mm watch, but yes, it is.
W213 is one of the very few watches that gets it right
Even with its flaws, it's very difficult to find a model of low-cost Casio digital watch that's done as well as the W213.
The time is big. The date is big. The panel has that perfect light gray to it with thick segments for superior legibility. The night light is just right.
The speed of how fast you can go through the functions is incredible. You wouldn't think speed matters on a Casio watch, but you'd understand if you used the W213 at all. There is ZERO wait time function-to-function. The only time you wait for anything is a long press to set the time, alarm or countdown timer and that's it. Everything else is instantaneous. The easy-press buttons also add to the speed of operation. You can blaze through everything on the W213 like greased lightning.
F201WA I mentioned above is the only other model that's just as fast, except the panel isn't as legible. It's close, but not quite to W213 level.
I just bought a W213 since I'm pretty sure it's going away forever. I had owned two before, but threw them out because of strap and case modification that damaged both. Since the W213 is going away, I bought another while I can still get it...
...and this one is staying all-stock. No modifications this time around. It's good enough as-is, minor flaws and all.
video games. i don't get it.
I'm dating myself here, but the first video game consoles I ever played were the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. I also played games on the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore 64. After that came the Nintendo Entertainment System, and I was more or less the exact age Nintendo was targeting when that system was released. I also had a Sega Master System at one point, then some years later the Nintendo 64. After that, some PC games. Then a few years after that, the very last game console I ever bought, the Nintendo Wii.
And then that was it. I stopped playing video games completely. Well, almost completely. I do play KMahJongg on Linux...
...but that's pretty much it.
Did I get old?
Yes. As a middle aged dude, playing anything more than a casual game for a few minutes feels like a complete waste of my time. I'd rather be doing something else, such as playing guitar or writing.
However, it's more than just my age talking.
Modern games aren't easy anymore. I'm not talking about game difficulty, but rather all the crap you have to deal with just to play.
I'd argue there are only two ways to play games with the least amount of complications. Either play games using the offerings from the file repositories on a Linux distro, or open source games from F-Droid for the smartphone.
Anything, and I mean anything outside of that means dealing with complicated crap and a lot of it. Gotta sign up for an account. Gotta deal with long load times or be forced to wait through screens so companies can show their logos. An internet connection is "required" even for single player games (which makes no sense at all). Games even with minimal graphics take up gigs and gigs of space for no good reason. There's more, but you get the idea.
You really do have to deal with a lot of crap to play a modern video game these days.
A modern console like a Switch or PlayStation or Xbox is prohibitively expensive. Many PC games start at 40 bucks with some at $70, and not even for a special edition.
So there's high cost, a lot of crap to deal with and a lot of waiting just to get started playing.
In other words, a lot of suffering.
That doesn't sound like "fun" to me.
I'll stick to my KMahJongg.