Toby's Log

Low oil

Last Monday, my car’s (Subaru Impreza) low oil light came on while I was driving down the highway. I didn’t know what the light was and nothing sounded wrong so I kept driving. When I got to my parents’, I looked up the symbol and then learned it was probably not a good idea for me to have kept going. Luckily, no harm seems to have been done.

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In January, I made another of my cinnamon roll cheesecake’s. I was in a rush and did not let it set in the fridge at all. And it really came out as a gooey circle of glop. The center sunk in and it was hard to serve. Really wouldn’t have been presentable if it weren’t just to my close family. I’ve learned how important that setting is for cheesecake.

However, it was still quite tasty. It was huge for four people, but it did eventually get eaten over a week-long period.

This one had three changes from normal. One, I mixed in most of the cinnamon crumble to the main batter in the mixer. I think this just turned out better and I will probably do it again. Two, I used duck eggs instead of chicken eggs. That was all Whole Foods had in a six pack at the time. They were expensive too, more expensive than the dozen chicken eggs, but I didn’t want to waste any. Three, I didn’t put the frosting on top because I was in such a rush that I didn’t have time to make it.


RIP Indy

RIP Indy the dog. He was a mostly good dog. He was my former roommate and friend’s. He was wily at times and would sometimes make crazy vocalizations when he saw other dogs, so loud that he scared dogs and people. He loved to play with other dogs when he was young and was very energetic, but became angry with other dogs and lost energy as he got older. He bit me once in the hand, from which I still bear scars. I hadn’t seen him in several years unfortunately. He fell and couldn’t get back up on his hind legs. He no longer had feeling in them and had to be put down. We’ll miss you, Indy.


In Mac OS Sonoma, browsers now require and the OS will ask for the “Local Network” permission to access local websites. I didn’t know why it was asking and didn’t allow it, but then couldn’t access my sites. I had to go to “System Settings”, the “Privacy & Security” pane, select “Local Network” and turn on for my browser(s) to get access again.

If it matters, my local dev setup uses domains set in /etc/hosts pointing to IPs of VMs run by VirtualBox, managed by Vagrant, set up like web.vm.network 'private_network', ip: '192.168.56.1'.


I will be voting for Kamala Harris on Tuesday. I felt a positivity when she took Biden’s place. There are a lot of reasons I think it would be bad for the country if Donald Trump is elected again, but January 6th ought to be enough by itself.

It’s somewhat odd that this particular election is on Guy Fawkes Day this year, with the day’s connection to V for Vendetta and the authoritarian government it depicted.

If you are a US citizen, please vote your beliefs on or before Tuesday. It’s important.