My Pixel 3 XL has been getting long in the tooth lately. After a year of owning it, it’s slowed down to the point where I could barely use it in some situations. As a result, I decided to get myself the highly touted and reviewed OnePlus 7 Pro. After a few weeks with it, the biggest issue with it was the camera, especially in comparison to the Pixel. In order to fully decide if I could live with it or not, I decided to study the photos it produced compared to the Pixel in multiple situations.

Trust me, you aren’t a bad parent if you yell. Pretty much every single parent will end up yelling at their kids sometimes when they just won’t listen. Whether it’s a toddler who is testing their boundaries or a school ager who needs to be told to get dressed five times every morning, every parent eventually reaches their breaking point. With two testing twin toddlers at home who have recently decided they need to test every boundary, I end up yelling just about every single day, sometimes more than once.

I ’ve been a Gmail user since it first became available in beta through an invite-only system back in 2005 or so, but recent concerns over the data that gets tracked, collected, and stored for uses beyond email caused me to find a replacement option. Luckily, thanks to my dedicated cloud server and domain for my blog, setting up my own custom email address was incredibly easy. Now I’m not longer paying for a “free” email service with my personal data and ad targeting, but am just paying for the infrastructure itself and know my data is under my control.

As hard as it may be to believe, I haven’t always had the spindly build of a runner. I actually only began running a few years ago in an attempt to try to shrink my waistline when I couldn’t stand any other type of exercise. I certainly wasn’t a runner or even all that active as a kid. But I want to prevent my twins from becoming couch potatoes and encourage healthy habits, though I don’t expect them to run a marathon.

Raising twins has never been easy, but as they grow into full on threenagers, the challenges of raising toddlers mount up. While most of the time involves countless laughs, fun family time, and goofing around together, there are plenty of tantrums, arguments over little things like which socks to wear, and being told to go away. These little things can’t ruin the fun times, but over time it can get quite difficult to maintain a cool composure.

One of the nice parts about running is that compared to many sports, it really doesn’t require much gear. However, there are a few critical parts of running gear that can make a big difference. Once I found ones I liked, I’ve pretty much stuck with them. When running, especially long distances, you never want to be weighed down with too much stuff, so finding those few items that make the run more pleasant without weighing you down is clutch.

An “extremely strenuous”, “double black diamond” rated hike up a mountain in the middle of the desert in 110 degree heat seemed like a good idea at the time. While traveling to Phoenix for work, I didn’t want to just be stuck inside the whole time. After a long and dreary spring in New Jersey where summer never seemed to come, I just wanted to get some sun. I found it in abundance in Phoenix, and so I figured getting some fresh air on a hike would be great before getting to work.

It’s been a while coming, but this week finally broke the straw for me. I’m sick of giving tech companies my private information, personal data, or contributing content to them for free for whatever limited functionality I get from them. Instead of the promised convenience and supposedly better and better “personalization”, all we’re getting it more invasive targeting, sales and leaks of our personal data, and building up more giant companies with the free content we provide.

If Phoenix is meant to rise like the legendary bird from the ash, it will probably be because of the heat there. On my first visit to the surprisingly massive southwest city for work, the temperature never dropped below 100 degrees and during the afternoon it peaked at nearly 115 degrees. Thankfully, the city provides numerous places to get out of the sun and cool down with some food and drink.

I’ve only owned my Tesla Model 3 for a couple of weeks now, but it’s quickly become my favorite car I’ve ever had. A huge part of that is the set of unique features and software first approach to design. Of course the electric motor itself is a huge feature, but I found so many other great features that come from the on-board smarts of the car. Tesla may not (smartly) herald itself as a software first company, but compared to other car companies, they certainly do tend to move quickly, push frequent updates, and continuously add new features.