daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
I recently upgraded from my 2020 MacBook Air M1 to the new 2025 MacBook Air M4. My old laptop, named “Tomie,” was still doing its job, but it started to struggle with the heavier streaming workload I’ve been throwing at it. That felt like the right cue to make the switch.
The new MacBook Air is called “Darth Tomie,” inspired by its Midnight Black color, a sharp contrast to Tomie’s original Silver. I’m hoping this one sticks with me through 2030!
I had a bit of a nostalgic trip at my parents’ house and came away with a couple of neat items. There’s a Nikon camera from 2014 that, amazingly, still works perfectly. It’s really small, which makes it super convenient to carry around – it fits right in my pants pocket! It’s fun to use, but I do miss the precision of a viewfinder. I also found an old AM/FM radio that I bought back in the mid-80s. It still works great! I’m not sure how much I’ll actually listen to the radio, but I really love its design and had to have it.
For Mariko’s birthday, we got her a Google Nest Hub. She had been admiring them at my parents’ and brother’s houses, so we thought she’d enjoy having one of her own. It’s great as a photo frame that cycles through Google Photos.
I helped my son build his first PC, and it was a fun experience, though not without a few hiccups along the way. In the end, we got it up and running, and now he’s all set! It’s been years since I last built a PC, but it turns out, not much has changed.
The process almost made me want to build one for myself, but I think I’d lean toward something like the new Mac Mini M4 — it looks incredible. Besides, I don’t play many computer games these days, so a PC isn’t really a necessity for me. If you were going to game and stream with the same computer, I think a PC is the way to go, though!
Today our internet went down for several hours due to problems caused by the Hurricane down in Houston. I broke out the ol’ Sony radio and listened to some news for a bit. Fun, but I could only pick up a couple of stations inside the house.
