In 2024 on average I had been fueling up my car well under $4/gallon. In contrast to that, sometimes in late January 2025 I noticed I started paying over $4/gallon of gasoline.
Just a rant.
Gasoline Over Four Dollars per Gallon.
Mac mini, for work.
I requisitioned a Mac mini for a particular task at the office. I went back and forth on what computer to get. This would be the first desktop Mac at this office.
A Symbol of Resistance
Somehow food item can be a symbol of resistance. Resistance to stupid and dangerous ideas.
Speaking of food, a dozen of eggs right now costs more than double than 6 months ago.
Monolith, Light, and Shadow.
Having a bit of an adventure with cameras. There were a lot of subjects to capture and at the end of the day I chose a photo of a rock.
Parasomnia (Instrumental)
One official day listening to Dream Theater album number 16: “Parasomnia”.
“Parasomnia” Deluxe Edition comes with CD of the album, CD contains instrumental version of the album, and Blu-ray contains Dolby Atmos & 5.1 Surround Sound, High-Resolution Stereo Mixes, animated visualizers for each song.
The best part of “Parasomnia” Deluxe Edition is the Instrumental version of the CD. I’ve acquired Dream Theater’s album releases with Instrumental mixes whenever they were made available. My personal collections of Dream Theater releases with Instrumental mixes:
- Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)
- A Dramatic Turns of Events (2011)
- Distance Over Time (2019)
- A View from the Top of the World (2021)
- Parasomnia (2025)
Parasomnia tracklist:
- In The Arms Of Morpheus (Overture)
- Night Terror
- A Broken Man
- Dead Asleep
- Midnight Messiah
- Are We Dreaming? (Interlude)
- Bend The Clock
- The Shadow Man Incident
Right if the bat, the record contains 2 Instrumental tracks out of 8. That leaves 6 other tracks that have the different Instrumental mixes. Still worth getting the Deluxe Edition of the record.
On another note, the artworks in the Deluxe Edition are underwhelming. Blame that on the overused Computer Generated Slops, also known as AI Generated Slops.
I both like and feeling underwhelmed by this record. Probably I’ve become jaded when it comes to Dream Theater’s music.
Apple Watch Sans Blood Oxygen App
I was aware that I would be losing “Blood Oxygen” App on the replacement Apple Watch Series 7 I received couple of days ago.
I paired it late last night, (or was it early this morning?) and received the confirmation.
Learn more in the Health app on your iPhone.
Luckily I still have an Apple Watch Ultra that still has the Blood Oxygen feature.
Sweet Music Box o’ Mine
The crew at Guns N’ Roses sent two music boxes for their “Nightrain” community.
First music box played melody from their 2024 single “The General”, made available for Nightrain packages, Standard and Premium.
Then, there’s the second music box, which they said are given to randomly selected Nightrain members who purchased the premium packages.
Also as a surprise, the package comes with a poster.
🐉 —> 🐍