Choosing a feature image — a quiet desk, a laptop, and blank cards waiting to be filled. I have been debating lately whether feature images are a good idea. I think they are, because I am a very visual person. Even though I often read materials without pictures, an image grabs my attention and interest first. I first discovered feature images when I started learning WordPress. The feature image option was one of the only parts of WordPress I liked, even though I struggled with the block editor.
Quiet golden-hour read with tea and tech in tow.
My week has been hectic with work and being off Camzyos for over a week now.“Why are you off your Camzyos? I thought it was helping.”Yes, it has helped. I have felt better. I am not energized and still fatigued, but I have been able to do things without feeling like I was going to pass out from exertion. The specialty pharmacy would not fill the prescription without every box checked.
I live in Hillsborough County, Florida. Within the last few months, our Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) and at least one other local agency have been using what they call cruise mode with their emergency lights. This is creating a lot of confusion for motorists, myself included.
In this mode, the emergency lights are steady and static while the deputy drives normally. The problem is you cannot tell if they want you to move over, pull over, or simply let them pass with priority. Traditionally, emergency lights flash, sometimes with sirens, which signals drivers how to respond. The issue is especially acute when a patrol car is directly behind you or approaching an intersection in front of you. I’ve been in both of these situations, and each time I was unsure how to react.
Rainy night comfort: vintage TV, streaming apps, and a glass of iced tea
If you’ve been following or reading my blog over the years (and
many people probably haven’t), you know I like watching TV. I love Star
Trek (all the iterations except TNG) and older shows like Green
Acres, All in the Family, MASH, Bunker’s
Place, Barney Miller, and British series like Doc
Martin, Grantchester, and Foyle’s War, along with
many others. I really enjoy how new streaming services like Amazon
(MGM), Pluto TV, Tubi TV, and Plex make so much of this content
available for free. One of my favorite features is when they turn a show
into its own channel.
This past weekend it rained the entire time. I watched one movie, but
before and after that I mostly had either the Pluto TV Star Trek:
Voyager channel or the Amazon MGM Green Acres channel on,
unless I was watching regular TV.
Amazon Video seems to be throwing a lot at the wall hoping something sticks. Heads of State was good and genuinely funny 😂. Deep Cover has its moments too, funny in parts and boosted by a star-studded cast ⭐. But overall it fell short. It wasn’t consistently believable or entertaining, even if a few scenes worked.
After Friday’s good news from my cardiologist, I’m celebrating by cooking dinner for my parents and me: Chef Jean-Pierre’s pot roast recipe👨🍳🥩🥕🧅🥔. The house already smells amazing 😌🍽️ It’s in the oven and cooking 🔥⏲️. Photos may come later 📸.
Two wins this weekend 🎉: set up Webmentions and Bridgy Fed on my old Blogger site (now www.michaelponders.com) after a week of troubleshooting 🛠️, and updated my Micro.blog theme to Jim Mitchell’s excellent mnml ✨.
Saw my cardiologist today 🩺 (visit 2 of 3, monthly echocardiograms). EF is up: 51% in May → 74% in July → 77% today 📈. Gradient keeps improving. I feel better and mostly symptom-free 😊. Looks like Camzyos is working for me 💊❤️
Lately, especially in the heart of summer, I’ve been thinking about air conditioning and the inventions I’m most grateful for that have matured over my lifetime. I don’t think I could have lived in Florida back in the day without air conditioning. You really notice it when it’s gone. Last year, after Hurricane Milton, we lost power for four days. I couldn’t sleep, not only because the A/C was off but also because my CPAP had no power.
We may be about to repeat history in ways that will not be obvious tomorrow, next week, or even next year. This post discusses politics and history; if you prefer to avoid that, stop reading here.
From Paramount+:
🎬 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 3, Episodes 3–5 ⭐⭐⭐½ No spoilers!
Continues to be a solid contender and, for me, the best of the Star Trek series on Paramount+ in this “new era.” 🎬
From Prime Video:
🎬 On Call – Season 1, Episodes 1–8 ⭐⭐⭐ Spoilers
This one was okay. I didn’t expect it to be renewed. I watched the whole season; it had moments where it could have been brilliant, but overall it was just okay.
This review is not about C.S. Lewis himself or his books, but about the movie. The actor was fine for the part, but his dialect threw me off. It kept shifting, and at times it sounded like he was aiming for an English accent, but to my ears it often came across more American. The way the film told C.S. Lewis’s story in the first person, mostly by having him walk around town and narrate, didn’t quite land with me either.
I was reading Jack Baty’s blog the other day via RSS and saw his post, “25 years of blogging”. That was three years before I started on Blogger, in the pre-Google days. I had a website before blogging: an about page, photo galleries, a guestbook, and a reading page, hosted by my ISP (GTE) around 1998. I really loved Microsoft FrontPage. I would change the theme and galleries and update the book page at least once a month, but it wasn’t a blog.
Reviewing the long list—trimming expenses brings a mix of relief and challenge.
I figured I’d give an update on my ongoing battle with
subscription fatigue. This is a mid-year check-in, and I might start
doing these quarterly just to keep myself accountable. Over the past few
months, I’ve whittled down my subscription list by several more
services. Most were dropped by choice because of price or lack of use,
while one disappeared on its own when my cell phone plan changed.
Gone by choice are Netflix, SiriusXM, Yahoo! Mail Plus, Mail.com,
Pocket, Peacock, and Protopage. The only one I lost due to my Verizon
Wireless legacy plan was Google Play Pass. Why these services? Mostly,
they became too expensive or the promotional deals ended. For example, I
had the Netflix/Peacock bundle through Verizon Play+. I not only let it
lapse, but Verizon also shut down the entire service. It was a good idea
to have everything in one place, and it could have been even better if
Verizon had used their influence to get better deals from the streaming
services. It would have made things more convenient for people, letting
them manage everything in one place and maybe even get a discount. But
it seems Verizon didn’t want to treat it as a concierge perk for loyal
customers, and they were probably losing more money than it was worth,
even if it worked well as a small loss leader.
I was just watching our local news on fox13tampabay.com, and they had a story on a ConsumerAffairs report about which cities have the worst traffic. The city I have to travel to for work (Tampa) was ranked 13th worst in the nation and number 3 in the state, behind Miami and Orlando.
I will say I don't know much about Miami. I’ve only been there once for a few hours before leaving. Orlando, though, is definitely worse than Tampa. I've lived in the City of Tampa proper and now live in the suburbs, Brandon, and the traffic has always been bad in both places. But over the last couple of years, since everyone returned to the office, it has been the worst I’ve ever seen.
It’s pouring outside right now 🌧️. This has been happening a lot this rainy season. Late-night showers, sometimes mid to late afternoon ☔. It’s helping with the heat at night 🌡️. Now there’s low, rolling, window-shaking thunder too ⛈️.
This was fun and felt more like an action comedy than a straight action movie 🎬. Some parts were a bit unbelievable, but overall it was enjoyable 👍. This is one of the better movies Amazon’s Prime Video has made ⭐. I’d watch it again if there was nothing else on 🍿.
Vintage beachside desk with Blogger on screen and ocean view.
I have so many ideas running around in my head. I've been blogging more
than ever this year, and it's been my most productive stretch since I
started blogging and building my own website—23 years ago. Although I
don’t think I have many readers, and what I write may not be interesting
enough to spark much interaction, I still enjoy doing it.
I remember when ISPs gave you what seemed like generous personal website
space. My first real ISP was GTE, now Verizon. Before that, I had
dial-up with AOL and those limited minutes, but I mostly used it for
email and a bit of web surfing—usually hunting for information about new
computer games.
Back in March, I had my six-month checkup with my cardiologist. I told him I was feeling tired and fatigued all the time, more than usual. I thought it might be the medication. My last echocardiogram in August 2024 had shown some improvement, and my PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) were down. So I figured it was just the burden of the meds.
At the time, I was taking Metoprolol 100mg ER twice a day and Diltiazem 240mg ER once a day. My heart had been doing okay. The few times I went into AFib, the episodes were short. Sometimes just a minute or two, long enough for me to catch it with my Galaxy Watch 6 Classic or my Kardia device, and then it would stop. These episodes only happened maybe every other month.
