Author: Mark

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Donnie Barrels

I fulfilled an adult dream of getting season tickets to the San Francisco Giants in 2021. I became familiar with this new team and their players, and something about Donovan Solano—Donnie Barrels to his friends—rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t know if it was how he carried himself at second base, or his inconsistent hitting on a team that won 107 games, but I was pretty down on him all year.

After spending 2022 with the Cincinnati Reds, he signed with the Twins in February this year. I wasn’t bullish on this acquisition, but with the season nearing its end I’m all in on Donnie. He’s playing a good-enough first base and seems like he’s always the one with clutch hits. However, I didn’t want to rely on the eye test. I have the tools to determine whether my baseball opinions are correct.

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Playdate by Panic

Sixteen months after placing my order, I was delighted to see my Playdate arrive this past week. While I haven’t spent much time with it, everyone I’ve shown it to has been absolutely charmed by it’s fun design. Who doesn’t like spinning a crank as part of a game?

It’s a novelty that likely won’t see be used as often as I wish I had the time for, but I am happy to have a small diversion available with a growing set of games. The design is fun and fresh, with a whimsy that perfectly fits my aesthetic. It makes you smile when you see it, and I can see having fun with it on trips when I want to do something other than read. It’s not for everyone—it’s expensive for what it is on paper—but I recommend checking it out if you have the means.

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Spreadsheets and Queries

When I first learned about the QUERY function in Google Sheets, I was brought back to the surprisingly large amount of discourse I’ve read regarding spreadsheets and databases, the best of which is contained in Matt Parker’s book Humble Pi. In short, the backbone of spreadsheet software is not designed to let it perform like a database. But because spreadsheets are more explicable, visual, and interactive, businesses and researchers and all other sorts of folk force them into that bucket.

Meta-research has since come out that shows the profound number of accounting and data-reporting errors that proliferate due to the use of spreadsheets as databases. Some of this comes from data type interpretation—what if your gene name is interpreted as a date or currency?—and others come from inherent limitations to how data can be stored and related to each other.

All this well-meaning discussion has tried to guide certain disciplines to take greater care in how they process, store, and access their data. It’s a noble cause, but the humble QUERY function even gets me—someone who perhaps knows better—to forego robust solutions in favor of convenience. So it goes with technology.

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A Little Rain Never Hurt Anyone – Joel Haver

I wrote about Joel Haver some time ago. He has a second channel, Joel Talks About Movies, which is focused on his ideas about movies and life rather than actual short films he produces for his main channel.

His most recent video on that second channel, a little rain never hurt anybody, was a lovely take on an idea I’ve tried to embody as I grow older. The thesis—which operates as both a direct idea and a metaphor—is to stop worrying about getting wet from the rain. If you get caught in some rain, the worst thing that happens is you get wet and you’ll be dry sometime later.

Why not have the same outlook on taking chances in life?

Joel has a particular style of rambling that I find engaging and endearing, so I recommend watching the video and seeing if it resonates. He exudes a calm demeanor and is always working towards enjoying life, whatever that life is. It’s fantastic.

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Barbie, The Movie

I went with a large group to the Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco to see a pre-release screening of Barbie. It was an official event complete with props and an opening presenter who shared their adoration for the famous doll. There was a palpable buzz among the groups of people dressed up, an excitement that was joyful with no undertone of negative tension that goes along with, say, a screening of a new Star Wars movie.1What I mean to say is, I don’t think anyone was at risk of breaking out into a fight for any reason. At the end of the movie, I was excited to see it again with Erin.

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    What I mean to say is, I don’t think anyone was at risk of breaking out into a fight for any reason.
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Going Back to iA Writer

I’ve finally decided to go back to using iA Writer on my iPad. This has several knock-on effects, with the most notable being that my drafts will all be synced via iCloud.

I say “drafts” because my plan is still to use Dropbox as long-term storage. I now have a monthly reminder to copy completed blog posts over to the proper spot in Dropbox1I’m sure there’s some automation to do this, but I don’t really care enough for the scale at which I work. and will only use iCloud for in-progress work.

I’ll continue checking iA Writer’s stability with Dropbox. However, I’m content to use an app I thoroughly enjoy for a small bugaboo of a process change. Plus, the WordPress integration is a true integration, rather than a Javascript-based set of actions that amounts to a copy-paste.

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    I’m sure there’s some automation to do this, but I don’t really care enough for the scale at which I work.