I’ve started using my iPad for reading sheet music, and it has cleared so much clutter off my desk. It feels great to have fewer loose papers sitting around. When I am learning a brand-new song, I still like having a paper copy because it is easier to mark things up and see everything at a glance. But when I want to revisit an older song and refresh my memory on a section, the iPad is perfect.

I keep all my sheet music as PDFs in a OneDrive folder, and I can open them from any of my devices. I manage everything from my MacBook, and it works really well. It would be even nicer if I could create a direct shortcut to my Sheet Music folder in OneDrive, but for now the setup is still very convenient.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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I got a new camera! It’s an Insta360 X3 and can take 360-degree videos. I can’t wait to learn how to use it and make some more videos!

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As part of our decluttering journey, I am finally disposing of several old, broken hard drives. I wasn’t sure how to prepare them for recycling, but thanks to YouTube, I discovered that scratching the platters is a good way to ensure that the data would be difficult to retrieve. And even if it was retrieved, it’s probably of no use to anyone. But, better safe than sorry!

Ready for recycling. ♻

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I have adjusted my humble streaming setup a bit. I saw a fellow co-working streamer’s camera view, which is more of a top-down desk angle, and I really liked it so I put my Sigma ultra-wide angle lens on the Fujifilm X-E4 and tried to replicate it. I think I like this angle better.

I’ve also added a “critter-cam”, which is a second camera (my GoPro Hero9) which is dedicated to showing whatever pet happens to be around while I am streaming.

I also changed my stream URL. Please come join me at my Twitch channel if you need a virtual co-worker, or just want to see Yuzu, Anko, or Lani.

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Today I bought a new MacBook Air to use as my main computer. I’ve been using a Dell XPS desktop computer for several years now, and it has been great (and is still running nicely), but it’s a bit slow when working with video, especially 4K.

Instead of buying another Windows PC, I decided to join the rest of the family and get a Mac. Part of the reason was that I have an iPhone and iPad already, so it would be convenient to align my laptop with those. Another reason was that I could support Mariko better whenever she needed help with her MacBook Air (we now have the same model computer). And lastly, it is super-convenient to be able to write text messages using Messages on the laptop! Yes, that is HUGE.

I was worried that configuring a new machine to my workflow would be complicated and a huge hassle, but actually it was very easy. Not only are most of the applications the same between Windows and MacOS (and can be downloaded easily), but starting “fresh” and not copying over all the data from my old computer is refreshing. It feels like a very light and streamlined computing experience not having all that data sitting on the laptop’s hard drive. I still have everything on the Dell, plus two hard drive backups, but I’ve copied the things I regularly access to OneDrive/iCloud so that data is handy.

As for video editing, I am planning on using DaVinci Resolve exclusively. I used it briefly on my Windows machine, and I really liked it, but it kept crashing. With the new laptop, I should be able to use it with no problems! My other main use is photo-editing, and I’ll use the Adobe photographer subscription (Lightroom and Photoshop).

One major bummer I encountered was that when I upgraded MacOS from Big Sur to Monterey, the USB hub I was using lost functionality with the USB-A ports. The HDMI and USB-C parts of the hub still work, but I cannot attach my wired keyboard and mouse to it anymore. This is a known bug and there are numerous posts about it. I just wish I knew about it before I updated! Anyways, I am able to plug in my wired keyboard to the other USB-C port on the MacBook using a cheap adapter I got from Daiso, and I have a Bluetooth mouse on the way. So that problem will soon be moot, however I am hoping an OS update will fix the hub problem so that I can use the old USB ports for attaching my camera and USB thumb-drive.

Overall, I am enjoying using the MacBook Air. It’s very fast!

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