Middle daughter woke up sick. There goes today’s schedule!

I write about this kind of thing extensively in Humble Service.

This picture of newly-built 737 MAX aircraft on the ramp by Lindsey Wasson for Reuters is really cool. I love seeing all of the liveries together. It’s also cool to see the old and new United liveries next to each other.

AirPrint is one of the best utilities ever.

Eight years of tracking, over just like that.

Roger Stone Trial Likely to Be a Spectacle - WSJ

Contacted for comment, Bruce Rogow, Mr. Stone’s attorney, said: “I enjoy reading the WSJ and will look forward to your article. It will be an interesting trial.”

A much better reply than, “No comment.” Well done!

Cool clouds as we ran errands this afternoon.

Just witnessed OfficeMax charge a really old man to scan and email two sheets of paper. No class!

Book interiors of Humble Service have been delivered to Apple and Amazon. I ordered one more paperback proof to verify layout with the final page count.

Digital versions will release at midnight on November 26th. I expect the paperback edition to be available in the afternoon.

I love when Apple breaks their own software with OS releases and then doesn’t fix it.

iTunes Producer 3.1.1 doesn’t work in Catalina. I installed it on my MacBook Air running Mojave and got a certificate expired warning.

Classic!

We bought a new set of flatware in late August. We really like the set, especially the weight and the design.

Frustratingly, rust spots have started to develop on the handles of the knives. The flatware is made of the same material, with the same finish, but the spots only appear on the knives and only on the handles.

I contacted the manufacturer, Oneida, to find out about their warranty process. The rep informed me that rust is not covered under their warranty.

It’s always shocking to me when companies don’t stand behind their own products, especially an established company like Oneida.

Just complied the files of the First Edition of Humble Service.

Six months of work, five rounds of edits, and 40,000 words.

What an incredible feeling.

Can’t wait to release this book on November 26th with my family at our annual Thanksgiving vacation.

🎉

Fitbit will give you all of your data in CSV format, but only in 31-day increments.

What a bunch of tools.

It’s been nearly nine years since that cold, winter morning when I stepped on the scale and saw a number that scared me. I was six months out of college, living on my own, and in the worst physical condition of my life. That weigh-in set me on a journey. Today, all these months, meals, and workouts later, I’m 25% lighter, having also cut my body fat by 13 percentage points.

Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible. I set my weight goal in the upper limits of what the World Health Organization & CDC call “healthy.” I’ve done plenty of research and reading along the way, and I know that weight goals are normally subjective. Every body is different, and every body has a natural set-point, the point at which it’ll stubbornly resist further reduction in weight.

During this time, I’ve become an avid walker. It’s an exercise routine that’s a bit odd for men of my age, but it’s my preferred method of exercise. It’s great for managing my migraines, and gives me a little bit of quiet time to enjoy my podcasts in the morning.

The biggest breakthrough was not in my exercise regime, but in my diet. I had a pretty typical American diet up through the end of 2018. It was in December of that year that I really started looking for a diet to fully implement in my life. I wanted something that would give me a clear plan for what to eat. Alison and I settled on the Keto diet.

We were on keto for eight of the last ten months, only recently transitioning to a low carb high fat diet (LCHF). The key difference between the diets is basically 50 net carbs per day on LCHF instead of the keto 20 net carbs. As it turns out, many of the foods that I really love are LCHF.

The clear source of my weight problem was my high carb/sugar diet. I now average 6 grams of sugar per day and have no cravings. (6 grams is about a 1.25 teaspoons per day!) All of the sweets and treats that I used to eat no longer appeal to me. There are more than a few LCHF-friendly treats that hit the spot. I can manage to eat 1/4 cup (about a small single scoop) of Halo Top ice cream and be satisfied. I’ve even experienced the wonderful taste of coffee, who’s natural flavors I used to drown out in an ocean of cream and sugar.

The factor that made the biggest impact is that I adopted this diet not as a weight loss gimmick, or a short term fix. This diet gives me a clear plan with parameters in which I should operate.

I’m now entering dangerous territory. I’ve spent eight years in a period of weight loss; I now need to learn what it means to maintain my weight. I plan on continuing the positive daily habits that contributed to this success. I’m going to continue a food diary, daily weigh-ins, and morning walks. Over time, as I stay within the +/- 5 lbs. weight limit that I set for myself, I may pare back on the daily weigh-ins and the food diary.

I feel fantastic, for many reasons. I took my kids to swimming lessons last week and for the first time that I can remember, I took off my shirt before getting into the pool and did not feel self-conscious for a moment. That’s a tangible result from hard work and discipline.

The greatest source of joy that this change has brought is how I smile when I see myself in the mirror. The person that I see is the young, healthy, vibrant man that I used to see in my mind’s eye. Only now, there’s no distortion; it’s truly me.

Mixing cream is delightful to watch. ☕️

🎞

I have a two week vacation coming up at the end of the month. Once I finish up Humble Service and get it uploaded this weekend, I might take a break and start my Apple Arcade trial. 🕹

Alternate heating source.

Just a bit further now.

For three books, I’ve been doing my editing all wrong. Now I know for #4!

Recipe Behind Coca-Cola’s Milk Success: Less Sugar, More Protein - WSJ

While regular milk has 8 grams of protein and 12 grams of sugar per 8-ounce serving, ultrafiltered Fairlife and Organic Valley Ultra each have 13 grams of protein and 6 grams of sugar.

Fairlife rocks.

I went into BestBuy to get new AirPods. They rang me up at full price, so I had to price match them with… BestBuy.com.

They don’t have the same prices in-store and online.

Unreal.

Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party Fires Election Warning at Boris Johnson - WSJ

described British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s divorce deal with the European Union as a “sellout”

I don’t know about UK politics, but this makes Farage look like he’s secretly trying to prevent Brexit.

After rumors swirled last week, Google announced today that it will be acquiring Fitbit in the coming months.

My relationship with Fitbit goes back to January 2011, when I purchased my first tracker. The company had a compelling offer to consumers over the next few years. Decent products, built-in weekly step competitions with friends, and trackers to fit your preference. I personally always used the waistband clip-on models. I also loved the sleep tracking and silent alarm features.

My Fitbit account has 25 friends, family members and close personal friends. Only about seven are still active. That was the thing about Fitbit. People would get one as a gift, get really into it, and then slowly fade away. The trackers were easily lost, including my father-in-law who lost one in a snow bank.

Fitbit inspired my love of walking. I’ve also used two versions of their scales, which I think are among the best digital scales out there.

Some of the blame for the company’s failure is due Fitbit’s refusal to play nicely with others. When Apple Health came out, Fitbit adamantly refused to support data logging. You could use a work-around through other apps, but it was never clean. It seemed that Fitbit’s perspective was that allowing people to share their data with Apple or other apps would somehow risk them losing customers. This data lock-in policy turned me off to Fitbit.

It’s been more than a year since I’ve worn a Fitbit regularly. I did have a Inspire for three weeks in October, but I returned it on rumors of this merger. Interestingly, I paid $98 for the Inspire + waistband clip. For an extra $100, I could’ve bought an Apple Watch Series 3.

Now that Fitbit is joining Google, it’s time for me to do what I’ve done with all of my other Google accounts: erase my data and delete my account. I’ll keep using my Fitbit scale, but it’ll be disconnected from the Internet and I’ll log my daily weigh-ins manually.

It’s a shame that technology companies are being sucked up into the Big 4, but that’s what’s going on in the market today. I hope that changes, soon.