El Presidente was such a great experience. The interior is huge and vibe was fun. Reminded me of one of those old 1950s clubs. Food was great— definitely get the nachos as an appetizer— and reasonably priced. Make those reservations now!

Heading to El Presidente to dinner and then to the Atlantis for the Maggie Rogers show because I’m a cool 30-something guy and definitely not a 40-in-a week dad who got lucky on a reservation and a ticket lottery

I JUST GOT A TICKET FOR MAGGIE ROGERS AT THE ATLANTIS ON FRIDAY. THIS REQUIRES AN ALL CAPS POST

Oh man, a replica of the old 930 club is opening next month by doing 44 shows this summer for $44 each. The lineup is—ahem—impressive.

I’m going to spend a lot of money

Guardians of the Galaxy, vol 3: This was so much more successful than any of its contemporary Marvel movie because it was allowed to tell only the story it wanted to tell

This was so much more successful than any of its contemporary Marvel movies because it was allowed to tell only the story it wanted to tell

It’s a ‘want’ and not a ‘need’ (and that’s OK!), but I sprung for the 1 TB phone this time. With the larger sizes of photos, I’ve wasted a lot of time downloading from iCloud this year.

I could have probably gotten by with 512 GB, but add in music, documents, etc. and it would have been too close.

These San Diego uniforms are definitely a choice

I’d been pretty worried about the Pro Max being too big, but the weight, size, and chassis differences of the iPhones 15 really shrink the feel of the phone.

Testing the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera on the way to the market.

I’m not sure how much I’ll use the 5x in practice, but in theory it should be so much more useful than the 3x!

Olivia Rodrigo’s new album is such an accomplishment. It’s fresh and modern, but clearly influenced by all of us olds' favorite bands. Green Day and Weezer are most obvious, but there’s plenty of Damien Rice. But then it becomes obvious she’s listened to a ton of Paul Simon! How is this happening???

AirPods Pro Gen 2 came out a year ago next week, so this is the time to assess if you need to do any warranty claims. That right air pod that doesn’t reliably charge? You should probably report it before next Saturday.

So that’s what I did.† And Dear Readers, I hate to break it to you here on jordonwadlington.com, but: Apple is– as I don’t believe has been heretofore reported– indeed a giant publicly-traded corporation whose primary goal is to make money for its shareholders.

That’s OK! It would not be good business to always keep me happy– I buy way too many Apple products and have high standards! Asking a giant corporation to not primarily value its bottom line is like asking a dog to meow: a few may be pretty good at faking it, but that’s still a bark. It’s a dog! It can’t meow. If it meowed, it would be a cat!

There was a time in Apple’s history where I felt like I held a deep emotional bond with the company, but that time passed long ago. There was also a time where the manager would have swapped out those AirPods on the spot.‡ But forming deep emotional bonds with corporations is not a fulfilling relationship (FYI) and Apple succumbing to pressure to add a bit more hassle on the customer was inevitable. Apple is still the absolute best in making it right– I do not doubt at all that these AirPods will eventually be replaced– but they’re just making me waste more time than I used to have to waste.

I still have a lingering fondness for Apple– similar to seeing a picture of a long-ago ex– but I now buy their products because they’re the best and not because I have a bond with them.

fuck it it’s fine

† The details are (mostly) uninteresting, but here they are: right air pod would suddenly stop charging and it appears (to me) to be a problem with the charging pin closest to the interior of the case. I can stick a Q-Tip down there to loosen it up and it starts charging again for a week or so. Completely demonstrable at a genius bar appointment and repeatable. But at the Apple Store only the left air pod failed the diagnostic, so they wouldn’t replace the case or the right air pod without sending it off. I asked the manager if they could just replace the whole thing, but they couldn’t/wouldn’t. I made my case (basically that these were either going to be replaced by the repair depot or they wouldn’t and I’d be back in a few weeks when the problem happened again– either way I lose). But I very much got the sense that if these were going to get replaced, they were going to need to go to the repair depot even if it meant me walking out with a brand new pair of Air Pods Gen 2 that would be returned when my other ones got back (which it did in an action that I don’t believe will be carbon neutral).

‡ Remind me to tell y’all about the time where a manager swapped out a last gen iMac for a current gen iMac because they didn’t have the last gen in stock!

In a completely forgettable year for the Cardinals, it was nice to have the solace of Adam Wainwright’s 200th win tonight. There’s no one more deserving— now let’s get to 201!

Foundation, Season 2: started out slowly, but ends just as strongly as the first season. It’s hard sci-fi and not going to be for everyone, but it hits everything you want it to hit

Just had my first ‘wow’ moment with the new AirPods Pro software: walked outside and couldn’t figure out why this construction was so quiet. Adaptive is for real, y’all

Seems like there were widespread problems this morning with the iPhone launch. I got in almost immediately (after a few time outs). Julie kept getting error messages for around 30 minutes. Both of ours are coming on launch day, but heard from many friends that weren’t so lucky

One of my favorite days of the year: The Capital Weather Gang’s annual declaration of the end of summer!!

Goodbye summer: Fall weather has taken control in the D.C. area

I also walk my kids to school with the Apple Watch Ultra. They left that one out

if double tap will let me use the new widgets with the siri watch face i will buy a new watch for each wrist

please whomever introduced olivia rodrigo to music come teach my kids. i will pay you

I’m not actively looking to upgrade my Apple Watch Ultra, but the current resale values are so good on it that I feel like I should at least consider it

(Check this space in a week for word of my new Apple Watch Ultra purchase)

Justified: City Primeval: Picks right up where it left off: a slick, but dirty indictment of our systems from the tip top to the deep depths

Finally got into Bluesky. Thrilled to have 33% more social feeds to check

What We Do in the Shadows, Season 5: it just continues to invent more batshit crazy plot lines and somehow pulls them all together while further deepening these characters. No sweat, right?

Now bring back human bartender, Jackie Daytona, you cowards!!

The Afterparty, Season 2: that first episode was so bad that I almost didn’t watch more, but gets better quickly. Very obvious that Chris Miller had a limited role in this season

Asteroid City:
-“I still don’t understand the play.”
-“It doesn’t matter. Just keep telling the story.”