I am picking up a new iPad this morning. The old one has served me well but it’s time for a new one. This last week a new 13 inch iPad with OLED screens was introduced. Along with the 3 ns bus speed these are things that will make a huge difference. The old 12.9 ” iPad was the first generation in that large format but it is showing its age. The battery is limping now.

I find the ability to read with a screen that emulates an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper ideal. Being able to properly read something because it’s clear and bright makes the difference. Also highlighting and marking PDFs and notes saves printing.

I posted something on Mastodon about all of the reviews that have come out about this product. They seem to compare it with the last model and have this anxiousness about the next model. Of course the next model is only guess work. When your device is at its end, comparisons are unnecessary. And if you made a decision to get something new, you have no anxiety about what’s next. You just need it because it looks great and will work. It seems there’s a mini industry started with YouTube comparisons.

And so begins Lent. Whatever faith one has (or does not) there is always time for reflection. For me this is that time.

Reflecting on what one has seems to be a preoccupation. Reflecting on what you can sacrifice for whatever the intention, that is the difficult part. Just to get past the word “sacrifice” is in itself an obstacle.

What we consider a willing sacrifice rarely comes with discomfort. Why choose anything discomforting? Our worlds move around the theme of comfort. And it will be appreciated for a short period of time. We get used to comfort. We will pay for comfort but we sometimes don’t realize the true cost of comfort. That cost is usually born by others, the others we never see.

Now to choose to go without is certainly not the norm. It is considered unusual. But it is necessary. Without making such a choice I limit my understanding of the world around me. The discomfortable spot is a room with a very different view.

Interesting article.

The writer states “I think the resurgence we are seeing has been caused by many variables. Two primary drivers over the last few months has been the upheaval caused by unhinged billionaires and privacy invasive business models. But I think there are other factors at play too.”

When Twitter’s ownership became a toy to be played with by a variant owner you could see its bleak future. Decades ago we talked about the monetization of the internet but never realized what was about to take place. Now there is a growing element of people moving away from those insidious platforms.

It seems Mastodon has reached a level of participation that allows one to curate a following of extremely interesting people and organizations. Along with the number of applications and features available it really is a renaissance for social media. And blogging is only getting better.

https://cdevroe.com/2023/01/11/blogging-is-alive

Last Friday I picked up a new iPhone 15 Pro Max. Titanium. This is replacing a 6 year old iPhone 8+. The old phone battery was only lasting a few hours, the camera lens cover was cracked and it was not going to be able to upgrade to the newest IOS. It was getting a little slow. It was time.

Looking at the reviews it seems to point to a pretty decent iPhone. Interesting that a lot of the reviews keep comparing it to the IPhone 14 and the value of upgrading. What is it with the appetite to constantly change? Wait long enough until the old one is on its last legs and you don’t need a comparison.

What are the big differences?

• Battery last longer and charges faster
• screen is much brighter. You can read it in the sunlight.
• the speakers sound better
• Easier to hold
• camera has a lot of features to take excellent pictures
• Everything operates faster
  It seems these are all the right reasons to upgrade.

We can go down the rabbit hole feature wise explaining and comparing everything. If you wait long enough it doesn’t’t matter much because you know it is better overall.

For the years I had the old one it cost about $22 per month. If the new one lasts as long it will cost $36 per month. That is over a 60% increase. I will assume that is the increase in cost of technology that never stands still with features or pricing.

What used to be considered a materialist theory is today a result of intellect’s very method. This is more serious, because a doctrine can be refuted, but technical method cannot be called into question. The intelligence of modern human beings ceases to be nourished by the springs of contemplation and awareness. It aligns itself more and more with the data of its created instrument—the tool that has as its primary object the modification of the material world.
‘Jacques Ellul

“They believe that it is not the word of Jesus itself that they wish to evade, but that too much of what comes between them and Jesus is merely human, institutional, or doctrinaire.”

— The Bonhoeffer Reader by Clifford J. Green

What is believing?
What hinders believing?

What becomes a hindrance to believing is

• what we humanly create,
• what we build in some sort of structure to seemingly make it work better
• what can’t be challenged because we think it true.
  

Humanely what we try to explain may be limited and based on an experience that others haven’t had or shared.

The institution is so much more and totally complicated to be relevant to anything smaller and specific. It gets lost in the tangling and messy ball of twine. Rules and regulations, no exceptions, all rules.

Nothing can bend because what we believe is rigid.

Picked up a new Apple Studio desktop computer today. Decided to move away from a MacBook as the iPad allows you to do most anything you want to do portably.

The MacBook is 8 years old and beachballing regularly. The new OS will also be stunted on this machine. It has been 43 years since getting that first machine, a Apple Ii+. Seems that life will begin at 40.