mathowie - A Whole Lotta Nothing

Sign in Subscribe

mathowie

Turntables, vinyl, and internet music players

Turntables, vinyl, and internet music players

Back in 2019, I bought the first turntable I'd touched since the early 1980s as a kid. It was super fun at first, because it was analog and lacking all the features I'd had in MP3 players for the past two decades. You just put the

Today's YouTubers are repeating the mistakes of yesterday's bloggers

Today's YouTubers are repeating the mistakes of yesterday's bloggers

I watch a ton of YouTube, on the order of an hour or two each day and I can honestly say the no-ads premium family account on YouTube is one of the best bargains on the internet for everyone in my house. Lately, YouTube creators are going through a reckoning,

Move fast with broken things

Move fast with broken things

Today I got an instagram comment on a very old photo, so I popped over to see it was spam and deleted it. But then I noticed I linked to my cousin by name in the photo, and he died unexpectedly a few years ago, so I went to his

Apple Card/Goldman Sachs scam attempt

Apple Card/Goldman Sachs scam attempt

Today I got a call from a legit looking number: 877-255-5923 and since I was parked in my car, I had time to google it while on the call to see it was the Apple Card Goldman Sachs official phone number. A guy on the line said he was in

The Dodger Stadium tour is pretty great and if anything, underpriced

The Dodger Stadium tour is pretty great and if anything, underpriced

Last week I was in LA to get some sun after a dismal cold winter in Oregon. I hung out with my aunt and while she's been a massive Dodgers fan since she was a kid, in the last couple seasons I've followed the Dodgers too

Weather on the Way is the roadtrip app I never knew I needed

Weather on the Way is the roadtrip app I never knew I needed

I take a lot of road trips, but I never knew Weather on the Way existed until this week and it's a simple concept. Put in an address for where you'd like to go and the app plots the route using Apple Maps then looks up

Old people hacks: tips for those of us over 40/50/etc

Old people hacks: tips for those of us over 40/50/etc

Time keeps marching on as we collectively age, so I thought it’d be helpful to drop a few tips I’ve learned after being on this planet for over 50 years, and using a computer for most of them. In no particular order, here they are: Get the largest

One more thing about wifi garage doors

One more thing about wifi garage doors

For the last ten years, I've been a big fan of wifi garage doors because you don't have to carry an extra key or controller and you can automate things once the garage opens (like turn on lights in your house). I've had Chamberlain/

Volvo outdid Subaru

Volvo outdid Subaru

Volvo has a new small pure electric compact crossover coming out soon called the EX30, and from early reviews it's going to be a killer small city EV, about a foot and a half shorter than most crossovers while having similar interior space, and can run for 200-250

An unexpected Tesla Model 3 review

An unexpected Tesla Model 3 review

20 years ago, I joined the Hertz gold program back before Uber/Lyft existed and you had to have a car in almost every American city you flew to. Fast forward to 2023 and I hadn't regularly rented cars in a decade but recently I grabbed one and

How to visit the Portland Japanese Gardens at peak Fall color

How to visit the Portland Japanese Gardens at peak Fall color

A few years ago, I finished a major project at work and they gave our entire wing of the company a day in October of our own choosing to take off as a reward for the extra hours and long nights. I picked a random Thursday in the middle of

Please don't destroy movie

I cannot WAIT for this new film to come out on Peacock. I have grown to love the Please Don't Destroy video shorts on SNL and love their writing (a slightly nerdier Lonely Island-type vibe). This trailer looks a bit like a Superbad-crossed-with-Goonies film but I'm

Carson Pickett: solid athlete, extraordinary person

I'm a big fan of women's pro soccer and followed the sport for years. One of my favorite players is Carson Pickett, who I first noticed from her expert defending against my favorite team. She's great at set pieces and can place a corner

I honestly have no idea what a Canadian Mountie is thinking at any time

Back in 2010, I was traveling internationally a couple times a year and I decided to go through the process of getting a Global Entry card from the TSA. It's like a magic pass that lets you run through customs in almost any country in just a few

The Louisville Slugger factory, ten years apart

The Louisville Slugger factory, ten years apart

Yesterday, I went on the Louisville Slugger factory tour, mostly to enjoy the smell of fresh wood bats in their factory. After I got my tickets, I realized I also went on the very same tour the first time I visited Kentucky back in 2013. On the 2013 tour, pro

Ford's concept car archive now online

Last week I stumbled on some automotive news that Ford released their entire library of concept cars going back to the 1950s. It's a simple site that lets you search and if you put in Ford model names of popular cars, you'll be rewarded with weird

I am Kenough

I loved the Barbie movie so much I saw it twice. It's so much better than it had any right to be, and covered all sorts of thorny subjects like patriarchy and misogyny with wit and humor that it's certainly going to open up a lot

Covid, week 2

Good news: after 5 days of Paxlovid, my positive tests faded to nothing, so the worst is already over as I'm no longer contagious (also, thankfully no one else in my house caught it). It's my second week of rest and so far I just feel

The covid chronicles

Last weekend a friend was in town and wanted to catch up on all the big summer blockbusters and I ended up seeing three films over three consecutive days in packed theaters. Haunted Mansion (boo...), Oppenheimer (in 70mm, hell yeah!) and Barbie (2nd time was as good as the first)

Crossing the Rubicon

Crossing the Rubicon

Last week I met up with some old work friends (and new friends) to tackle one of the most famous off-road trails in America, the Rubicon Trail. It's one of the few mountain crossings in the area that leads you to Lake Tahoe from the west side, but

Insane urban antics

When I was a kid and living on my bike pretty much all day every day, the one kind of rider I looked up to was the almighty Bike Messengers of NYC and SF. They rode fast, in tight traffic, brakeless. To a dumb 12 year old that thinks he

I'm a big fan of Juneteenth

About ten years ago, I first heard what Juneteenth was online, likely from a post at MetaFilter around the history of Texas. Then maybe five years ago I stumbled onto a Juneteenth celebration at a museum in the midwest. A few years ago, I tweeted that I hoped it’d

What it's like to drive a plugin-hybrid for the past 6 months

Last year I bought the number one selling plugin-hybrid vehicle sold in America, and I even got a $7,500 tax rebate for the purchase. And before you try and guess, I'll say that nope it wasn't a Prius, it was a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe.

pssst Lego Masters is much better in Australia

A few years ago, the show Lego Masters popped up on television in the US. It's fun to watch, though as much as I like the host Will Arnett's acting in comedy shows, he kinda takes on a persona of a "jock" spending most

Some recent photos

Every once in a while, I take a photo and I look at it on a desktop computer and I'm just amazed that it came out of a phone. Anyways, here are some photos I've taken in the past couple weeks that surprised me at how