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♪ I believe I can touch the sky ♫ I think about it every night and day ♪ Spread my wings and fly away ♫ I believe I can soar…

Welp, I got a drone. I’ve only taken it out for a couple of flying sessions, and I’m already hooked. It’s just magic that within a minute of plugging in my phone and tapping a couple buttons I have birds eye view four-hundred feet in the air.

I’ve always been interested in RC flight, but the rumors that DJI might be banned in the US spurred the decision to jump in. It wasn’t so much out of fear of a ban, just all the hubbub made me think, “Oh ya, those exist and I want one.” I ended up getting a refurbished Air 2S. For what it’s worth, I haven’t run into anything out of the ordinary regarding privacy. Actually, I think DJI does it better than a lot of companies. The app is clear about what it collects and most things are opt-in.

But that model is four years old you say. Well, something I discovered while researching is that DJI stopped releasing SDKs for newer models. So the apps that enable planned flights and making maps is only available for old kit. That brings me to what’s next, learning how to survey areas and capture 3D landscapes. Stay tuned for more on that journey.

So I’m doing my usual thing, coding and watching YouTube, when I queued up a review for “The Acolyte”. I guess it’s currently a hot topic because after that review another played, then another, and another. All of them were so negative that it got me intrigued. Is it really as bad as they claim? To find out for myself I fired up a pirate stream and watched the first couple episodes.

The verdict? It’s not good by any stretch, but it’s not as terrible as the YouTube reviewers made it out to be. The writing, direction, and lead actor are objectively awful. The music, sets, and CGI are decent. It’s not worth subscribing to Disney+ to see it and its shortcomings aren’t worth ranting about. It’s just “meh”.

What I think is maybe more interesting than the show is the discourse happening around it. On one side you have Disney marketing/PR deploying an army of shills to pump up the show. On the other side you have social media rage influencers mobilizing their followers to tear it down. Both sides spewing vitriol to vilify the other and fabricating dividing lines to polarize their audience. It’s one of the most transparent attention economy spectacles I’ve ever seen.

It got me questioning, “Why the theatre? Why the posturing? What’s the point?” Then it hit me. I’ve watched thirty minutes of mediocre YouTube reviews, eighty minutes of a mediocre show, then spent an hour writing a blog post about it… Fuck.

On a whim I made a simple app for interpreting NFPA 704 signs, also known as fire diamonds. Frankly, unless you’re like really into safety or fun UIs, then you’re better off reading the poster on your break room wall. That said, it’s up on the App Store for a buck if you happen to be in the small audience of folks who might find it handy.

I’m still here! I’m just a bad blogger. I’ve started writing posts no less than a half-dozen times this year, only to talk myself out of publishing. Just to get something on up before the year ends, here are a few updates.

First, I’m currently looking for gainful employment. If you know anyone who would be interested in hiring an incredibly knowledgable and impossibly charming software architect/engineer, please send them my way 😀

On side projects, well it was another year of Den eating up most all my extra energy. The good news is that I’m finally feeling like I know what I’m doing when it comes to Apple development, especially SwiftUI. The app has improved by leaps and bounds this year and I’ve recently made a pivot to a promotion and marketing phase. There isn’t any bad news per se, just that I’ve fully come to the realization that Den is not going to be a quick or easy endeavor. I expect to be working on it for years to come. With that in mind I’m moving writing about it to the app website. In summary, the app is in a good spot and I’ve got a backlog of features to add that’s backed by user feedback. I will be working on it at a slower pace going forward so there is more room for other projects.

Not to be forgotten, Auto Reload got a nice little update in September. A wonderful GitHub Issue lead to adding an toggle button that virtually eliminated all support requests. I’ve learned so much from this silly app that it’s almost maddening. I’ve never solved 99% of complaints by adding a single button on any other project. It’s the kind of thing that makes me think, “What other magic buttons out there have I missed?”

My resolution for the new year is to write more often. Even if I have to resort to food pics, yuck, there will be more going on here. Stay tuned, more posts are in the pipeline.