15OCT2023

Happy Eclipse Weekend to all who got to celebrate it! Here in Austin we were very close to the epicenter of the Annular Solar Eclipse and got a heck of a show, nearly a full ring of fire. It was even more fun because the climax was right in the middle of our son's baseball game, so we got to pause the game and enjoy it with a whole bunch of very excited little ones. It's now got us all even more eager for next Spring's Total Solar Eclipse here in Central Texas.

Fun mix of stuff this week:

• 🪀 K2 Crystal Yoyo: The kids and I have been getting in to yo-yo'ing, and so I went down the rabbit hole of various YouTube channels, web forums, and Subreddits to learn some basic tricks and of course figure out which gear we should be buying. I can spare you the searching, if you're wanting to get a really nice yo-yo but not spend $315, the consensus seems to be that the $12 K2 Crystal Yoyo is among the best ones you could get. We bought two and have been really impressed with the build quality, and bearings that let you do both basic starter tricks and scale up to pro-level moves.
• 🦾 $3Mil Gundam Suit: A company in Japan has built and is selling actual, operating Gundam-style Robot suits. Seriously, watch the video and tell me you don't want one. Anyone have $3 million I can borrow?
• 📱 Sequel App: If you're like me in that you discover way more movies, books, shows, and/or games than you have time to consume, but you're also afraid of forgetting them, you'll love Sequel. I've been using this apps for a few months now, and it is fantastic for keeping track of recommends I get from friends or discover online. It's also filled with lots of great additional features like telling you which streaming services you can find the movie and/or show on, or how long it takes to read the book or beat the video game. It also lets you keep track of media you've already consumed, and has a simple rating system. It's just really delightfully designed. I fire up this app at least one or twice a day.
• ✍🏼 TinkerCad: I dusted off my 3D Printer a few weeks back and have been cranking out all kinds of fun and silly prints, mostly Halloween-related toys and the like. Normally, I source my print files from the literal millions of free, community designed files that I find on Thingiverse, Printables, Cults3D, and the like, however I've been wanting to play around with making my own designs. After checking out the various tools available, I have settled on TinkerCad for the iPad, a great, free, beginners-oriented 3D design app. It's got built in classes for kids and adults to learn the fundamentals, as well as a lot of pre-built models you can play around with and modify if you don't want to start from scratch. You can then export files for looking at in Augmented Reality, 3D Printing on your own printer, or even send the files directly to an outsourced printing shop that will then mail you the physical print. Highly recommended if you're at all curious about 3D design.

That's it for this week. Have a safe and fun week all!