iPhone Upgrade Regrets

Back in September when the latest model iPhones were announced, I took advantage of T-Mobileā€™s Jump On Demand feature and upgraded from the iPhone X I had to an iPhone XS Max.

I loved it. It shot great photos, the screen was amazing, and, for the first time ever, I got silver instead of space gray. It was gorgeous.

Then, at the end of October when the iPhone XR was released, I decided to switch to that in order to save some money on my monthly lease payment with T-Mobile.

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Quitting smoking

When I came back to Pennsylvania after visiting my boys in Portland for Thanksgiving, I decided to quit smoking, and I decided to do it cold turkey. This has been really, really hard. Probably one of the hardest things Iā€™ve ever done, but:

Today is day 20 without a cigarette.

Iā€™ve been posting every day — usually only one or two lines, or in some cases emojis — about my progress so far. If you want to follow along with this shitshow, you can do so over here.

8:30pm

I originally wrote and published this in 2012, three years after my dad died. Today is 9 years. I canā€™t believe it — it still seems like yesterday.

I usually try to republish it every year, but havenā€™t for a couple of years, mostly due to not really writing or posting much during that time. Now that I’m posting again regularly (or semi-regularly at least), it’s back.

Also, in case you’re wondering, this is why the site theme has gone dark (and will be staying that way until the end of December).

December 12, 2012

Three years ago tonight, at 8:30 PM Pacific Time, I was sitting on my couch playing Assassinā€™s Creed II. My twins were nearly 6 months old, and they were laying on the floor in front of the couch playing with some stuffed animals. Tiffany was at work. It was cold and rainy outside. My phone rang. The caller ID on my iPhone showed it was my brother, so I answered the way I usually do when he calls:

ā€œHey! Whatā€™s up, man?ā€

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AirPods are great

I know that Iā€™m wwwwaaaaaayyyyyyy late to the party on this, but I finally got a pair of AirPods right before flying out to Portland for Thanksgiving, and I absolutely love them.

Before the new iPad Pro came along, I thought the AirPods were really interesting, but I didnā€™t have much of a need for wireless headphones. I had a bunch of wired EarPods from various phones over the years, and a couple of lightning to headphone jack adapters from the last couple of years and could make do with those.

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Apple says the iPhone XR has been its top-selling iPhone since launch

From Shara Tibken at CNET:

Apple’sĀ iPhone XRĀ has been outselling theĀ iPhone XSĀ andĀ iPhone XS MaxĀ every day since the cheaper, colorful phone hit the market last month.

Greg Joswiak, Apple vice president of product marketing, told CNET in an interview Wednesday that the device has “been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available.”

I canā€™t say Iā€™m terribly surprised by this at all.