... and updated

Just updated my Mac laptop from MacOS 12 (Monterey) straight to MacOS 15 (Sequoia). I'd previously downloaded the 15GB Sequoia installer application. Thank goodness for our faster home broadband now! The MacOS update this morning took just 45 minutes, and seems to have gone very smoothly. I had to update my Reunion genealogy program (free maintenance update for my older version) because that was now crashing. But that's the only thing. Best of all my key apps are working, including MS Word, Excel, Ulysses for writing, Inform for coding interactive fiction games, BBEdit and Notion for sheet music notation writing. I've just been updating the Homebrew installations in the Terminal. ffmpeg that I use there to make my accordion recording videos is working too. Everything seems very nippy at the moment.

Python check

Double checking that my family reconstitution code still runs ok on my MacOS upgraded Mac. The only Python program I have ever written. 233 lines of Python code (upgraded a while back to Python 3) to reconstitute families from baptism and marriage indexes from Scottish parish registers. After figuring out the families it outputs all the resulting family groups in GEDCOM format to load into an external lineage linked genealogy database. Still gobsmacked the code basically worked first time 😜

"hike in Roxborshire"

Me trying the live audio transcription facility in MacOS Sequoia. Well it could be quite useful, but with serious caveats!

This week’s oracle cards spread

Preparation / Self-Interest / Memory.

Another three cards. Which in some ways connect with where I am now.

Autumn is my favourite time of year, and I’ve been getting things in place and making plans for the coming months. Especially the next month and a half, before my inevitable latest post Covid vaccine neurological flare. I’ve already been thinking an awful lot about this, but still need to sit down, with pen and paper, properly brainstorm, and make a list. I’m also planning very soon to blog about my plans on my academic musings blog.

Self-Interest is something I can focus on too much at times. But it’s also important, given how limited I am now, to focus on things that give me joy. Which ties in with the previous paragraph.

This year sees many big anniversaries in my life. Very big ones, like 30 years since both our graduation together and wedding. But also fandom ones, including the 40th anniversaries of Robin of Sherwood, The Box of Delights and even Murder She Wrote! I’d like to dedicate some time to looking back. Including remembering my undergraduate years. Before the end of 2024! So soon.

So more to ponder. But, yes, I need to formalise my musings re plans just that bit more. Writing a formal public blog on the subject should help encourage that.