Personal posts

The life and times of Toby

in

Another bird incident happened today. I was walking my brother’s dog, Duncan, when he came upon something. He lunged toward it. I saw a small bluebird flutter up, but it was having trouble fully flying, so it just got to the height of Duncan’s mouth and moved away from Duncan. As this was happening, I yelled something like “Duncan, leave it” and pulled on the leash. Duncan’s mouth was open, biting at the bird as I was pulling him, keeping him just inches away. The little bird flapped over to a spot on the road 10 feet away, and Duncan stared at it. It was chirping. As this was happening, two other birds up in a nearby tree started chirping at us, and then took turns diving at us. I pulled Duncan along and the two presumably parent birds eventually stopped diving us and went towards the little bird, chirping at it. When we came back, the little bird was no longer on the street and one or more bluebirds were up in the tree, chirping. So, presumably the little one was fine and managed to fly under the less stressful situation.

in

Had a weird bird incident the other day. I was going around a turn on a residential street (by Stan Hywet), following the car ahead of me. Suddenly, something came flying from the side of the road among the bushes, fast like somebody threw something hard, and it hit the car ahead of me and bounced off. As it bounced back, I saw wings: It was a bird, probably a robin. We weren’t going fast since we just came around a curve, so less than 25mph, but the bird just bounced far, to the ground. It all happened super fast, and with how hard it hit, I assume it was dead.

New phone: Samsung S24

in

Yesterday, I got a new phone, a Samsung Galaxy S24. Jade green, ordered from samsung.com because that was the only place to get green. I never got my Pixel 3a running again and my Moto X was just a little too broken, slow, poor network connecting, and unable to handle some apps. The S24 was my first Samsung and notably more expensive than any phone I’ve gotten before. But I justified it by its:

  • likely longevity with 7 years of updates, strong build, waterproofing
  • reasonable size
  • full features
  • 5G data
  • Dex desktop mode and USB video out

I’m still getting set up and getting used to it, but I think I’m happy with it.

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Eclipse day

in

Eclipse totality has come and gone where I am. Good show, worth the price of admission. Really cool at totality, a dark circle with bright edge and glow radiating out a bit. Dusk-like sky. Peepers.

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in

Happy Eclipse Day. As I unterstand it, it has recently started over somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. It’s sunny here right now, so hopefully when it gets here in a few hours it still is and we get a good eclipse. Hope everyone in its path gets a good show.