Brain Dump - Issue #2
Hello and welcome to another edition of brain dump. In this edition I briefly talked about my training for the upcoming gravel race, my nerdy update on how to zip files on macOS, my bone conduction headphones acting up and a bill shocked customer who keept his AC unit running 24/7 in a month.
More Training!
No cycling updates today, although I have been training more and more in preparation for the upcoming gravel race in Nueva Ecija. The organizers have updated the event’s page with details on the prices, but my mind is not focused on that one - I figured I just want to finish the race and get that medal. I was hoping to take more pictures, but I don’t know if I can do that considering that I want to finish it. We’ll see.
The organizers also announced a mass start on both 220km and 80km legs of the event. I hope there aren’t that many participants otherwise it would be a pretty clogged release.
As much as I would like to join an RCC ride on La Mesa Nature Reserve this coming Saturday, I realized that the available slots for that ride have already ran out and so the universe has made that decision for me - stay at home this weekend and get some rest.
Zip in macOS
I have been a silly, silly boy as I try to find a way to zip a folder in macOS. I am quite familiar with 7-Zip in Windows, but I was trying to find a similar tool in macOS. I already have a tool to extract files from a zipped file, but I was trying to find a way to compress files to a zipped file.
Which is quite silly, knowing that I don’t need to install anything to do that - macOS has an in-built terminal that can basically run zip commands for me. I know my way around Linux commands but I always forget that I can do the same on macOS.
So no need to install any software to do just a simple command such as this:
zip -r EPE.zip EPE-directory
Having access to a native terminal in macOS is really a breath of fresh air for me. I need to maximize that.
Shokz OpenRun not Charging
The Shokz OpenRun bone conduction headphones that I bought from UP Bike Demo last month is no longer charging. I was still able to use it from my previous rides but after PruRide 2023 it just refused to charge.
After looking through the web, the only possible to solve this is to use a different charging cable - however the charging cable is so unique to OpenRun (i.e. magnetic) and there’s no available cable in the Philippines.
I have gone in touch with the seller and he has asked me to ship the unit back to them for evaluation. After shipping out the unit, turns out it behaved itself and charged properly.
Odd. After a few more tests, I asked the seller to ship the unit back. I said I’ll monitor it and see if it continues to be in its good charging behavior.
Savings Hack became Bill Shock
In an effort to save on electricity while maintaining a cooler room, a man kept his inverter air conditioning unit running for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; but it turns out that this life hack that he learned online actually gave him a bill shock as his electric bill jumped from ₱3,000 to ₱9,000.
I actually heard about this in the past and I must admit that I got tempted to try it out. We have been using our AC for at least 12 hours these past few days on 25℃, and while we saved more than we used to when running on a similar timeframe but on 28℃ I thought maybe we could go further.
Good thing I didn’t listen. Sometimes these life hacks found online deserve much scrutiny before actually trying them out.
Subscribe? Please?
I am super excited about my upcoming gravel race (although I will not race, I just want to finish it before the cutoff time). I will probably have some lackluster updates next week, so there’s your excuse not to subscribe. But still - consider subscribing!
