We’ve lived in this house for over a year and I’m now ready to tackle figuring out what uses so much electricity. Usage is far higher than I would expect and is higher in the winter than in the summer! Looking for some answers with Advantage Electric on it. ⚡️

Tammy and I finally watched Oppenheimer tonight. Incredible movie. Everything about it pulled me in.🍿

This chart of SPSC performance since IPO is amazing. Compared to the high growth tech giants — outperforms AMZN, MSFT, GOOG, AAPL. 🤩

Tyler and I watched TRON: Legacy again tonight. It is a great movie and made me think it would be fun to watch in the Vision Pro in 3D. 🍿

Game Store Tour

Tyler and I had the day to ourselves and we decided to start with a trip to Tower Games to look around a bit, which then extended, and ultimately turned into an ad hoc visit to five gaming stores in town with recommendations from my brother-in-law Dylan.

  1. Tower Games: Nice store, conveniently located for us. Great selection of board games and a lot of RPG stuff, including miniatures. Wide selection of Magic cards.

  2. Level Up Games: We missed this place the first time as we were looking for it because it is in the basement, so you have to walk down to get in. Great selection of video games, board games, and much more. One of the few that sold single Pokemon cards, but focused on higher end cards. Great selection of used video game gear.

  3. Gamezenter (formally Fantasy Flight): This place is huge and was very busy! Huge variety of board games, and a ton of Magic stuff. They also sell beer, wine, and some snacks. They have a large area with tables for gaming and there were a bunch of people there. Parking lot was very full.

  4. Source Comics & Games: By far the largest selection of comic books of any of the stores. Also general selection of books and anime stuff. Wide array of RPG items. Overall the broadest selection of any of the stores.

  5. Dreamers Vault: Wide variety of games. They sold single Pokemon cards and also had books of cards.

Tyler said Level Up and Source were his favorites of the day. I would agree with an emphasis on Level Up. However, Gamezenter seems to be the place to go if you want to actually game with other people.

We were out with friends to see Martin Zellar at the Parkway Theater tonight. He performed his Neil Diamond show — covering an entire array of Diamond songs. It was a fun night! 🎶

Valentin brought Medovik last night from Masha’s Cake. I got to try my very first slice today and it is delicious and so pretty! The honey and caramel flavors are so good. 🍯

While blog gardening today I found random <0xa0> characters in over 100 blog posts. A quick search revealed it as the decimal for a non-breaking space. I used micro.blog replace function to replace with a space, except two that were in titles and manually replaced.

We had friends and colleagues from Ukraine as well as local folks that have moved from Ukraine over for dinner, lots of wine, and even more stories and laughs. It was a wonderful evening for my spirit and soul. 🇺🇦💙💛

Watched Monday’s Daily Show with John Stewart and wish he was on every night. Seemed like riding a bike for him — was smooth and funny right away. Felt like good times again.

I was very excited to read that OmniFocus is now on TestFlight for Vision OS! I enrolled and am now one step closer to having my core productivity tools in Vision OS.

We saw Jax Hollow at The Dakota for the first time tonight. Talented musician and performer. I think she is just getting started. 🎶

Honored to receive these amazing Ukrainian vyshyvanka from Yuri — visiting for the first time in five years. I’m looking forwarding to celebrating Ukrainian culture on Vyshyvanka Day in May. They are from Piccolo. 🇺🇦

Very fun time playing in virtual reality at REM5VR today. Space Pirate and Elven Assassin still favorites.

It was great to see Mason Jennings at the Dakota tonight. The vibe of the Dakota is perfect for him. I left thinking it would be amazing if he did a residency there for a couple months.

It seems we were at a stoplight behind a Dungeon Master. 😎

I got a Magic Keyboard to pair with the Apple Vision Pro. I want to use the Vision Pro for productivity and typing is a must. I hooked it up (it is charging in the picture) and I was surprised to see this typing display that floats above the keyboard. it also knew which keyboard I was using?

Minneapolis Downtown Council 2024 Annual Meeting

I got to attend the 2024 Minneapolis Downtown Council annual meeting today at the Armory. Our own Karin Lucas chairs the board and addressed the crowd. Amelia Santaniello emceed the event, with special appearances from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

There were many, many statistics shared about all the great things going on in downtown. It did seem like there was a lot of development going on. There is also a strong focus on safety and law enforcement. It was cool to see that SPS Commerce is the 9th largest employer with 1,465 people, up one spot from 2023 when we were 10th with 1,346.

A large indoor event with crowds of people milling around tables, a projection screen displaying information, and the logo “mpls downtown council” illuminated on the floor.

Karin Lucas on stage at a conference with a large audience, large screen display above showing the speaker, and banners indicating the event relates to the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

Mayor Jacob Frey on stage at an event, with their image displayed on a large screen behind them. The audience is seated at tables in a large venue, with banners reading “mpls downtown council” and “ARMORY” visible in the background.

Governor Tim Walz speaking on stage at an event with an audience in the foreground. His image is also displayed on a large screen above him. The stage is adorned with floral arrangements, and banners with “mpls downtown council” logos are visible in the background

Leaders from SPS Commerce sitting at a dining table in a festive event hall with a live performance in the background.

An event setting with a large audience and a stage where four people are seated, engaging in a discussion, with a large screen displaying a close-up of a speaker. The Minneapolis Downtown Council branding is visible in the background.

See also: 2023 Meeting; 2020 Event, 2020 Music, and 2020 Speakers.

Ordered a Magic Keyboard to pair with the Apple Vision Pro so I can dive into more of the productivity use cases.

I wanted to celebrate getting my Apple Vision Pro and what better way than with a POAP! I’m sharing this POAP with anyone that demos it with me and experiences Spatial Computing — likely for the first time! I’m attaching POAP Moments to this event, and see on POAP Family.