dreamshark

Democrats in Congress don't have a lot of options for fighting the ongoing authoritarian makeover of the US Government, but for the next two weeks there is an opportunity to fight back, be it ever so tenuous. Congress is currently trying to pass a series of funding bills to avert government shutdown with a deadline of Jan 31. After last week's horrifying events in Minneapolis they managed to get enough Republican support to pull Homeland Security funding out of its "minibus" bill so it could be debated separately. Actually Defunding Homeland Security isn't likely to happen, but the Democrats hope to attach policy riders that restrict the behavior of federal agents in American cities. Or insist on the right of local governments to prosecute ICE agents for murder. Or ban masked agents and require body cameras. Something, anything.

Anyway, it's pretty easy to message your Congressional delegation, so I did that. They all have comment forms on their websites. I actually did use "Defund Homeland Security" as my subject line, but did a little quick research on how to word the text of my comment so that it was specific and coherent. Here's what I came up with.

I am a constituent, and I am writing to instruct Representative ..... to vote NO on the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 4213) unless it includes specific policy riders that mandate body cameras and behavioral oversight for ICE and Border Patrol agents. This may be our only chance to reign in the unconstitutional and illegal behavior of these Federal agents. DO NOT BACK DOWN! This is very important to me!

In the case of senators the action on the table doesn't have a name yet, so I was instructed to refer to the FY2026 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. But either way, I imagine the intent is clear.

Yes, we still subscribe to the paper copy of our local city paper, the Star Tribune. It's not perfect, but I very much want to keep what's left of local journalism alive. And Richard doesn't use electronic media, so he actually reads the whole thing.

But last weekend it just stopped being delivered. Curiously, that means that two different carriers just stopped showing up: the weekend one and the weekday one. When I reported it I got a canned response and credit for the missed papers. But there probably isn't much they can do about it. The paper carriers are probably in hiding from ICE.

Do you have an iPhone? I do, and have just been compliantly updating my IOS as recommended for the past year or so. Another recommended update rolled out today - and it updated me from IOS 18.something to 26.1!! What have I missed?

Apparently this is the big one everybody has been waiting for with bated breath - the Liquid Glass Update. Also the "Apple Intelligence" nonsense, but I don't care about that because it doesn't run on iPhone 13. It looks like they have mashed up the User Interface majorly (boo!) but also introduced an infinitude of opportunities for fiddling with your lock screen and wallpaper options, which I admit that I am powerless to resist.

My iPhone just emerged from a very long update with a cheery Hello! and is sitting there simmering, waiting for me to try to use it. *ulp*

If you just upgraded your iPhone, let me know what you found - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

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ETA: Huh. Changes aren't as big as I expected. I think I actually like the tweaks to the camera and Photos interfaces. The 3D lock screens look cool, but setting home screen wallpaper seems to be broken, so that's kind of a wash. There are apparently sweeping changes to Messages, none of which I understand how to use, but plain old text messages look fine. There's some kind of intrusive new Games App, which seems to be obsessed with tracking every game ever downloaded with my AppleID (90% of which are obsolete toddler games that I was loading onto an old iPad). Disturbingly intrusive and completely useless to me, but at least it's removable (unlike the old Game Center). I'm not sure I even understand what Liquid Glass is, but I don't see much difference anywhere.

It took me a month. Partly because I bought a new computer, and switching computers takes me a long time. But mostly because, as is my wont, I trundled through every single setting, many of which were opaque enough to require considerable Internet research. For instance: WTF is Recall & Snapshots? Click to Do? BitLocker? Dynamic Lock? "Communicate with unpaired devices?"

If you don't know what these mean, you probably want to disable all of the above, with the possible exception of BitLocker. And if you decide to keep BitLocker you MUST LOCATE THE DECRYPTION KEY and record it someplace that is NOT on your C Drive!

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I kept copious notes along the way and promised to send them to a friend who was adjusting to a new computer. So I thought I'd post them here in case anyone else is still in the middle of setting up that new or updated computer. Since Windows 10 support ends tomorrow, I suppose most people are done with this transition. But it's never too late to review your OS settings. And there is good reason to do so with this upgrade.

Microsoft has made their business plan refreshingly clear (no conspiracy theories necessary). They hope to suck all their users into a curated, monetized virtual universe where all data and computing resources are centralized in the cloud and your computer is reduced to what used to be called a "smart terminal." In return they offer convenience, security, and helpful suggestions based on what they think they know about you. Also ads.

If this sounds good to you, don't bother customizing the settings on your new Windows 11 computer. If you're not sure that's what you want, open the Settings app and take a close look at everything in the Privacy & Security section. Also System->Nearby Sharing. And Accounts->Signin options.

Then login to the Microsoft Account that you were strong-armed into opening in order to activate Windows and disable every setting that looks sussy, especially anything relating to "Apps" or "Accounts." If you have a LinkedIn account, be aware that Microsoft now owns LInked In and is mining it for information about you. If you would like them to use your contact list and activity on LinkedIn to "enhance your online experiences" [their words] be sure to leave those options enabled in both your Microsoft and Linked In account. Also, if you are tempted to use the built-in default browser (Edge), be aware that by default it not only filters your search results to protect you from bad images, it tracks everything you do and sends it to Microsoft in order to provide "personalized advertising and experiences for Bing, MS News, and other MS services." There are Edge settings to disable all that. Which I did, even though I do not intend to use Edge again now that I have downloaded other browsers.

CUSTOMIZATIONS

The first thing I always do with a new Windows is put the Computer icon (now called This PC) back on my desktop in the upper left corner. This setting is, as always, well hidden under Personalization -> Themes -> Desktop Icon Settings
Then I download Chrome and Firefox and disable both Edge and Bing in every possible way. It gets harder with each Windows release to change the default browser setting, but Chrome and Firefox will give you hints on how to do it. Now you have to open Settings->Apps->Default apps, navigate to the browser you want to use, set the default, and then scroll down through every document extension to make sure that the parent setting propagated to all of them.
PUT THE TASKBAR BACK WHERE IT BELONGS (left-aligned). Personalization->Taskbar->Taskbar Behaviors
MODIFY SEARCH BOX to search local computer only, not Internet. This is complicated. I used the Group Policy Editor method.
DISABLE SEARCH HIGHLIGHTS ("suggestion" popup on the side of the Search Box). Settings->Privacy->Search Permissions
DISABLE constant nagging to link my phone to my Microsoft account. Windows Security -> Settings -> Manage Notifications -> Account protection notifications -> Uncheck "Problems with Dynamic Lock" [note: not in regular Settings app]
Download PowerToys. I used it to restore the mangled context menu, and to remap the deprecated Apps/Menu key to something useful
RESTORE WORDPAD (the RTF editor). Did you notice that it was gone? If you care (I DO), you can get it back
Copy all my saved data files onto the 1 TB hard disk, including my ENTIRE GOOGLE PHOTO ARCHIVE
Reinstall all my programs from DVD, including a newly purchased copy of Office 2021 (the last version that included Publisher)

GREAT NEW FEATURES IN WINDOWS 11
There are not a lot. Win11 is probably the most boring OS release in Microsoft history. Even Microsoft couldn't think of anything to brag about except their new centered taskbar with modern rounded corners (a feature that absolutely nobody asked for, and which I immediately disabled). But I did stumble across some obscure new features that I quite like.

PrintScr key now opens snipping tool instead of capturing both my monitor screens (a feature I have never found useful).
WIN-ALT-PrintScr New shortcut that snapshots and AUTOMATICALLY SAVES the active window! It's intended for gamers (Microsoft has acquired XBox) but incredibly handy. I remapped the key sequence to the useless Apps/Menu key with PowerToys and LOVE IT
Bulk File rename Two different versions, simple and advanced! Hidden in the right-click context menu.
Shortcut to Task Manager on the Taskbar (right-click) in empty space. I think this is just a reversion to Win7 functionality but still good.
Taskbar can be configured to appear on both monitors, not just the "main" one.
Microsoft news feed (confusingly renamed "Widgets") can now be edited to remove all the newsfeeds and leave just weather.
File Explorer UI. Usually I do not appreciate pointless fiddling with the user interface, but I actually do like this better than Win10. I hated that giant ribbon (which I think was introduced in Win10, but is apparently out of fashion now). And clicking next to the truncated file path brings up the full path, highlighted in purple, which I love. I like to know where my files are.

Is something going on at Lake Harriet? I was sitting quietly in the Peace Garden around noon when this helicopter started buzzing back and forth over the north end of the lake and vicinity. There were a lot of people strolling toward the bandshell, some carrying signs.

Someone in that group even greeted me by name but I was on a bike and passed by before I could see who it was. If it was you, “Hi.”

BAD NEWS: my beloved old bike was stolen on Thursday from outside a hair salon on Nicollet. It was locked, but not particularly securely - they left the seat behind, chained to an iron bar. I'm not sure why anyone would steal a battered 30-year-old bike that they couldn't even ride away. The bike luggage was certainly more valuable than the bike and would have been easier to steal without the bike attached to it. Hell, the SEAT (which I had just replaced a year ago) was more valuable than the bike, and they left that behind.

Here's a picture of good old Esmeralda from 2021 (without the pricey new bike luggage). She was the first new bike I ever bought and the difference between just riding any old bike that came my way and a bike that actually FIT me was a revelation! I bought her at Erik's Bike Shop, which back in 1995 still carried a variety of bike brands, including Univega. This one was the only one in the shop that felt right. I bought another bike in 2007, because even then I could see that Esmerelda was getting a little weak in the knees, but I kept coming back to her.

GOOD NEWS. Now I get to buy a new bike! Poor old Esmerelda was really past her prime, but I didn't have the heart to get rid of her, and didn't really have room for more bikes in the shed. So I spent the next two days doing pretty much nothing but bike shopping. As I feared, this has gotten a lot harder in the last 18 years. A lot of bike shops have closed their doors (tragically, including the magnificent worker-owned Hub Bikes on the West Bank). Most of the ones that are left have narrowed their focus to one or two brands, and half of those are e-bikes (looking at you, Erik's). Smaller bike shops mostly do repairs and sell a few kid's bikes, mountain bikes and "comfort cruisers" to the neighborhood. Some of them don't even know what a hybrid bike is (follow the link if you don't know, but are curious). Most of the major brands still carry one hybrid model, but finding even ONE in my size that was actually in a shop available for a test ride was a real challenge.

I spent a lot of time online trying to learn the new terminology and looking for leads. ChatGPT turned out to be surprisingly helpful. If there's anything ChatGPT loves, it is shopping! The guy at Freewheel Richfield was as helpful as he could be without having a single size Medium hybrid bike in stock. Little Tangletown Cycle turned out to have an impressive range of brands along with another friendly and helpful salesperson. But I didn't find quite what I was looking for until ChatGPT sent me off to Mendota Heights to an all-Trek shop I had never heard of (One Ten Cycles). By that time I suspected that my best option was probably one of the bewilderingly variable Trek FX models if I could just find one in my size to try out. And sure enough - a match was made! minnehaha was right - sometimes you just know.

The Trek Verve had some interesting features, but was too upright with big mushy tires, and just felt cumbersome. The Rolls was a helluva bike for $900, but felt a little too much like I was riding a restive stallion that just wanted to run. The Jamis was okay, but a little too traditional - by that time I was on board with the idea of the new disc brakes and simplified gearing system. But the medium Trek FX just felt balanced and compact and nimble, even with those terrible straight handlebars on it. It's still a Trek, and Trek isn't really happy unless their riders are leaning into their ride, but I feel confident that with an adjustable stem and back-swept handlebar, this little honey will be perfect. The guy at One Ten (David) spent at least 45 minutes combing through product listings on his computer to find me the right combination of stem and handlebar, which they will install when the parts arrive. So I don't have a picture of the final bike, but it should look something like the picture below.

Silver Sneakers DOES let you join more than one gym at a time, unlike the similar but different Silver and Fit where you have to choose just one. My Medicare Advantage program switched us to Silver Sneakers a couple of years ago, but I just figured out this new wrinkle. So now I can go gym shopping without having to give up the obviously most practical health club choice (YMCA).

So now I am embarking on an exciting new round of Gym Tourism. I've always enjoyed trying out different Y locations, but now I can expand my horizons. On Wednesday I joined LA Fitness and did a little workout at their Richfield location at 65th and Lyndale. Here's my review.

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LA FITNESS RICHFIELD (65th and Lyndale)
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LA Fitness seems to be an unremarkable mid-tier health club with a national footprint and a dozen Twin Cities locations. They accepted my Silver Sneakers ID with no fuss and I was a member within about 5 minutes. The bored young receptionist showed no interest in welcoming me to the club - no offer of orientation session, club hours, class schedules, or even "the locker rooms are over there.". I guess it's all in their phone app (doesn't EVERYBODY have a smartphone?) so no point in using IRL communication tools (like your voice, or even hours posted on the front door). So I just treated it like a video game where you wander around and take in clues from the environment.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The main room past the front desk houses the exercise machines and a very large weight-lifting area in the back. It is spacious, quiet, cool, and surprisingly uncrowded at 4:30-5pm. The weather outside is unpleasantly hot and sticky, but the A/C is doing a spectacular job in here. There are no TVs hanging overhead, no sounds from the mostly empty side rooms. It feels... restful. There's a cute little juice bar off to the side selling tempting protein-fortified fruit smoothies. There is a large mat room for stretching out, and a full set of exercise machines. There isn't a great deal here that interests me, but it feels like an inviting space, especially on a hot day. I can imagine dropping in here for a short workout and leisurely stretching session and then treating myself to a mango smoothie.

ODDITIES AND DEFICIENCIES

The stretching spaces are nice and big, but have little to no equipment besides mats. Just a few rollers, one BOSU, a couple of exercise balls. No stretchy bands. No mirrors or stretching bar on the wall.
There is no walking/running track.
The space allocation is peculiar. There is one very large group exercise room, an absolutely CAVERNOUS spinning room (empty), and 2 small racquetball courts. It's hard to imagine that this little club could ever muster up a spin class that would come close to filling that room, which looks kind of like a university lecture hall. I would think that some smaller group class rooms would have allowed room for something that might actually get used, like a pickleball court? But what do I know? I have only designed gyms when playing The Sims.
The pool is clean and new, but small, clearly not intended as a lap pool. So I won't be coming here for swimming.

BEST FEATURES

The ambience of the workout area is very appealing, especially on a hot day. My home gym is the handy but cramped old Blaisdell Y, where the A/C struggles to keep up with the humidity, so this is a big draw in summer.
The locker room is fantastic! It's spacious and clean, has nice individual showers and changing cubicles, and the most beautiful lockers I have ever seen in a health club. Look at them! They are twice the width of the usual skinny metal ones, wide enough to hold my bulky gym bag with ease. And they are made of wood - an unexpectedly retro design choice in such a modern building. Oh, and there's a warm, cozy sauna right there in the locker room! Usually only the most expensive clubs have a sauna/hot tub that you can use without having to put on a swimsuit and tromp through the pool area.

The juice bar is adorable, and the smoothies aren't even as over-priced as you might expect. I'd try one of those.

It’s Lake & Bryant Cafe (again). On steamy days like today I sometimes 🚴2 Breakfast here before it gets really hot and treat myself to their amazing breakfast sandwich. This plucky little cafe opened in the heart of the pandemic, and continues to do its part to revive Uptown from the edges inward. It’s never crowded, but doing well enough to expand their hours and menu. Give it a try.

No they are not large or red, but they aren’t supposed to be; they are yellow grape tomatoes. We could never grow tomatoes before we took out that giant tree, so this is a big adventure. Now it’s a race between us and the squirrels!

09:08 AM It is already 83° with a dew point of 72° so I wasn’t planning to bike today. But our power went out at 8am😱 so I decided Biking2Breakfast was the lesser of two evils. It actually wasn’t that bad given the biking breeze. Their AC is working just fine and they have iced coffee. 😊

Not just weird, but curiously specific. What happened in 2312 BC?

Current one is heading towards 6 years old: Lenovo X1 Carbon 14" / Windows 10. It still works fine, but Microsoft is dropping support for Win10 in the fall, so it's time to move up. I'm having a hard time finding what I want, which is pretty specific.

I want a 14" model, very durable, excellent keyboard, touch screen, and as many USB ports as I can possibly get. I also want Windows 11 Pro, not the crippled "Home" version, but may have to buy that separately and upgrade. And no, my geeky friends, I have no interest in running Linux. I was all about the Linux when I worked in a networking lab, but it does not meet my needs at home.

Connectivity is the hardest thing. It is increasingly difficult to find laptops with more than one USB-A port. I do not understand why people don't care about this. Although 95% of the time I use my laptop as if it were a desktop (connected to a hub with 2 monitors and a fancy keyboard) I seem to be constantly plugging and unplugging devices from the 2 USB ports I have. Webcam, DVD drive, RFID mouse, thumb drives, external backup drives, occasionally even an Ethernet dongle. And that's not even counting the keyboard and whatever else is connected to that steaming hot USB-C hub.

Anybody have suggestions? I won't really need it until October, but with the on/off tariff situation I might want to make a purchase before prices go through the roof. I don't think there are any laptops manufactured in the USA, and even if they are they are probably using mostly imported electronic components.

So far, the ASUS Expertbook line looks promising.

The decrepit old kitchen drawers look the same on the outside, but now they all have beautiful new bamboo organizer trays inside, expandable for perfect fit! Yes, that is what I spent my week doing. It’s not like we retirees don’t keep busy.

My favorite Costco item, which tragically disappeared from their shelves 2 or 3 years ago. Hallelujah!

What used to be the southwest corner of my backyard

... but I finally managed to complete the rental car reservation for our imminent Florida Keys vacations. I rented from Enterprise through the Chase Travel Portal using my CSP, (the only credit card that provides primary CDW/LDW rental insurance). I was hoping I could find what I wanted through Chase, but it took me several passes through their search engine to master the intricacies. Turns out there's a class of vehicle called "Compact SUV" that sounds like just what we want. Priced like a compact, but apparently shaped like a little minivan: higher off the ground for easy entry/exit and easy to load. Anyway, that's my hope. At $497 for 6 days it was slightly more expensive than a Nissan Versa, but not by much. And I was able to pay for it with Ultimate Rewards points, which is another plus.

What I learned along the way.

The price of the exact same rental varies MASSIVELY from portal to portal and rental agency to rental agency. The prices turned up by Costco Travel were jaw-droppingly high, more than twice the cost of the other search engines I tried. Their lowest offering was a Nissan Versa for $1175!!! The portals offered by private loyalty programs were the best (Delta and Chase).
When searching for a car, don't specify the size of the car. You never know exactly how they are going to classify (or price) individual vehicles and you just might miss the best deal.
Searching for one-way rentals is always possible, but full of pitfalls. On Delta Cars you can't specify the drop-off location until the second search screen. On Chase you can specify it whenever you want, but sometimes the "different dropoff" just disappears between searches.
Be sure to sort the results in order of price, not the stupid default (which is usually something like "Recommended," which apparently means "most expensive"). It took me 3 passes through the Chase portal to figure this out, and then I found exactly what I was looking for (Enterprise, which was much cheaper than the competition, floated to the top with just the type of vehicle I wanted).
Kayak is incomprehensible. I guess it is just a comparison engine, not one that actually completes a rental for you? It kept shifting me off to different places, like Expedia (which immediately tried to upsell me) and some squikky outfit that wouldn't tell me the name of the rental company until I agreed to rent from them (really??? What if it is Hertz?). After each dead-end I had to back up and reenter my rather complicated search criteria. I gave up and went back to search engines that remembered at least some of it.
Be sure to check the cancellation policy. Most of the recommendations from Kayak were non-refundable.
Double and triple-check the pickup and dropoff locations before confirming. I almost rented a car with a dropoff at some military base because I accidentally selected "Key West" instead of "Key West International Airport" from the dropdown list. Yikes!

I guess the secret to a good night’s sleep is absolute exhaustion and 5 nights of sleep deprivation. Doesn’t seem like the secret to a healthy lifestyle. But this is without question the best night of sleep my know-it-all Watch has ever recorded.

Our scary trip to The Keys is coming up in TWO WEEKS and I am still dithering about car rental. Haven't rented a car for years, and I don't think I have ever done a 1-way rental. We are flying into Miami, driving down the Keys over a period of 5 days, then turning in the car in Key West and flying home from there.

I know enough NOT to rent from Hertz (who have developed a reputation for having their patrons arrested for car theft whenever their computer system loses track of where a car is, which happens fairly often). I have lots of credit cards and frequent flyer memberships, some of which offer good deals on various car rentals. Maybe Delta Stays has something? Chase Travel Portal?

Let me know if you have any tips.

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dreamshark

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Recent Entries

Defund Homeland Security! Something you can do (time sensitive)

Our paper has stopped coming

Yikes! 18 to 26??? Seriously?

I think I'm finally done (migrating to Win11)

WTF?

Bad news, good news

I was wrong!

This place is great! Now serving lunch and dinner

Almost ripe! My first tomatoes

Lake and Bryant Cafe

Off Street Parking at last!

WTF?

Thinking about a new laptop

It’s what’s inside that counts

It’s happening!

It’s back!!

Yikes !!!!

Well, that was even worse than I anticipated.

This…this NEVER happens

Looking for advice on 1-way car rental (or any car rental)

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