Twin Cities IndieWeb - BlogFlock

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-12T01:04:32.000Z

Update on Lucio: He has a wife who is 5 months pregnant at home. She was contacted about what happened. Immigrant rights groups/attorneys have his info. He’s likely already been disappeared into the detention system or deported. Who knows if he’ll see his child born… So angering and heartbreaking.

Post on Jamie Thingelstad - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-11T23:02:04.000Z

I’ve been having fun playing Clash Royale with Tyler — he’s my coach and is really good at the game! The game had some big changes recently that are not being well received by the community. He wrote up where he thinks Supercell is going wrong. Spot on! 🎯

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-11T14:31:41.000Z

Kurt gets to cleaning out the closets

Post on Jamie Thingelstad - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-11T05:04:43.000Z

Excited to see the MSP airport has been added to the Airport POAP Rally! Follow the Rally. ✈️

Turning an Old MacBook Into a Minimal Writing Workstation - Barry Hess

2026-01-11T04:19:59.000Z

In the past I’ve mused about getting a writing-only workstation. This led to explorations into things like the Freewrite, AlphaSmart, or searching for “the best laptop keyboard” and buying some old, used machine from 2010.

Meanwhile, I’ve been selling older and unused electronics (etc) on eBay this winter. As I was preparing an old MacBook Air that I expected to sell for $150 (at best), I realized this was probably a great test machine to see if I enjoyed writing away from my primary workstation (potentially with wifi turned off).

To prepare for sale, I had restored this 2018 MacBook Air to factory settings. In the time it took to install iA Writer I already was asking myself, “Why is this machine so slow? It didn’t feel slow when I bought it!” So I set about minimizing the things running on the machine, which definitely isn’t the first thing I should have tried! Here’s what you should do first if you want to get an old MacBook moving quickly…

Installing an older version of macOS

The reason the MacBook Air felt so quick when I bought it, and so slow when I reset it, is that it had two different versions of macOS installed. When I purchased the computer it had El Capitan (10.11) installed, while the factory reset installs the most-recent macOS one’s computer supports, which in this case was Sonoma (14.8.3).

So I thought things through a bit and decided to click the link at Apple support to install Big Sur (11.7). This took me to the App Store and started downloading that version, which eventually finished and told me I can’t install an older macOS version on a Mac with a newer version. Bah!

I restarted the Mac and held down Command-R to go into recovery mode. Unfortunately, this mode would only allow me to install the latest version, Sonoma. So then I restarted and held down Option-Shift-Command-R, which allows you to install “the version of macOS that came with your Mac or the closest version that’s still available.” For me, that’s El Capitan.

I had some trouble getting El Capitan to install in recovery mode. At one point I read something about El Capitan not working on the latest Apple filesystem, APFS, so I reformatted the hard drive to an older file system. Then I was given a warning that El Capitan must install on APFS, I reformatted back to APFS, and things seemed to work. 🤷‍♂️

At this point I figured I’d just roll with El Capitan. In my ideal world this computer would use iA Writer full screen, an occasional web browser and that’s about it. As of this writing, iA Writer’s documentation says it supports macOS version 10.11, El Capitan, so all good!

In reality, when I went to install iA Writer from the App Store, I was given a warning that iA Writer only works on macOS 10.15+ (Catalina). So back I went to the Apple support link to install Catalina. From there, things have been working well. (Though I’ve found the version of Safari I get with Catalina, version 13.1.3, isn’t rendering the web well, so I’ve installed Firefox for now. Funny that I can get the latest Firefox on an old version of macOS.)

Other things I changed

I was reading an old article about a mnmlist mac setup and I updated some things:

Hid the dock, which I do on my primary machine as well. I also hid the menu bar.
Disabled Spotlight, including running sudo mdutil -i off in Terminal. This should speed up the system by avoiding Spotlight’s indexing. I installed Alfred, which I’ve used for many years.
Disabled Spaces by unchecking System Preferences > Mission Control > Displays have separate Spaces
Installed uBlock Origin on Firefox. Every time I accidentally hit a browser without ad blocker I’m completely aghast. (And a bit surprised that Pika isn’t more popular than it is, honestly.)
Added a nice desktop wallpaper.

I’m sure there are other things I can to make this computer feel even more minimalist and focused. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Let’s see how it goes

I’m writing this blog post in iA Writer right now. While I love the Pika editor, I want to try writing in a focused mode. (I was also going to say that I want to write offline, but opening Pika, turning off wifi, and writing in the Pika editor be fine, especially because Pika saves one’s writing in browser local storage). Will I really pull this computer out to write? Will it really help to focus my mind? Will I like the copy-paste workflow? We’ll see.

The only real challenge with this experiment going forward is that my old MacBook is one of the last ones with a butterfly keyboard. Even ignoring the double- and missing-key mistakes it makes (thank goodness for auto-correction), I hate the feeling of typing on this thing enough that I’m considering an inexpensive Keychron keyboard to sit on my lap while I write. That doesn’t seem conducive to actually writing, though. And if I’m doing that, maybe an iPad with a keyboard makes more sense.

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Post on Jamie Thingelstad - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-11T01:57:38.000Z

Mazie is doing her final packing and preparation to depart tomorrow for her semester abroad in Barcelona. I’m excited and proud of her, and as her Dad nervous and hopeful, as she embarks on her biggest excursion yet. Starting tomorrow I’ll be counting the days until we visit her. 🇪🇸✈️

Escape Rooms of 2025 - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-11T00:10:29.000Z

Escape Rooms of 2025

This year we jumped way into our Escape Room adventures, more than any previous year. We completed 25 rooms in 2025!

This year we went through all of our records and made sure we had a complete inventory of all of our rooms, resulting in our Escape Rooms list. We are getting close to having 100 rooms so that we can become TERPECA voters! Speaking of TERPECA, we did seven rooms that were in the top 100 for 2024 of the Top Escape Rooms Project. Note the ⭐️ next to those rooms in the list.

It was a super fun year for escape rooms! 🤩

Our log for 2025 was…

Copper Cat Escape - Granny’s Recipe Rescue in Brainerd, MN. See post!
Copper Cat Escape - Deep Woods Cabin in Brainerd, MN. See post!
Puzzleworks - The Museum in St. Paul, MN. See post!
No Esc Puzzle Collective - Sherwood Forest in Shakopee, MN. See post!
Enigma Adventures - The Istanbul Gambit in Bloomington, MN. See post!
Puzzleworks - The Hospital in St. Pual, MN. See post!
Doldrick’s Escape Room - Crazy Train ⭐️ in Orlando, FL. See post!
Puzzleworks - The Dungeon in St. Paul, MN. See post!
Puzzleworks - The Anomaly in St. Paul, MN. See post!
Enigma Adventures - Pirates of the Spanish Main in Maple Grove, MN. See post!
Escape City - Mindmaster Industries in Calgary. See post!
Solve Escape Rooms - Caper in the Escape Room in Waukesha, WI.
Solve Escape Rooms - 14 Floors Below in Waukesha, WI.
Escape in Time - Gold Rush in Madison, WI. See post!
Cabinet Mysteriis - The Dreamwalkers ⭐️ in Quebec. See post!
Cabinet Mysteriis - 2002: The Bovine Odyssey ⭐️ in Quebec. See post!
Cabinet Mysterlis - Screaming Metal ⭐️ in Quebec. See post!
Escaparium - Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen ⭐️ in Quebec. See post!
Escaparium - Wardrobe for sale ⭐️ in Quebec. See post!
Escaparium - Magnifico ⭐️ in Quebec. See post! Number 1 on TERPECA 2024 and 2025!
Escape Room Alexandria - The Experiment in Alexandria. See post!
Puzzled Escape Rooms - Time Machine in Fargo. See post!
Breakout ND - Gemini Quantum Quest in Bismarck. See post!
Escape Game - Ruins: Forbidden Treasure in Nashville. See post!
Escape Game - Yeti Escape Room in Nashville. See post!

Post on Jamie Thingelstad - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-10T23:17:13.000Z

We had a great time solving the Scooby-Doo™ and the Spooky Castle Adventure room at Escapology today. It was our first room at Escapology and we’ll be back. Finished in 39m 46s — very fast for us! Room 86!

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-10T17:59:31.000Z

If in my last post one were to replace the word “ICE” with “SS” and an obviously Jewish name with an obviously Latino one and imagined him being put on a train instead of a plane…

There is no difference.

Think on that.

We all imagined what we would have done if we lived there then.

We live there now.

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-10T17:50:09.000Z

I watched a young man get snatched by ICE outside yoga this morning. I filmed the whole thing.

His name is Lucio Fabian Navos Nietos.

I know this because they just left his passport and all other identification in his car. And left his car.

They don’t care who he is. They will deport him anyway.

Post on Jamie Thingelstad - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-10T15:43:43.000Z

I’ve always thought it would be amazing to go to a World Cup match and with the 2026 FIFA World Cup being in North America it is time! Tammy did the research and Tyler and I will be at Lumen Field in Seattle on July 6th watching W81 v W82 in the Round of 16! ⚽️

Post on Jamie Thingelstad - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-09T23:16:18.000Z

Stone Pit Old Fashioned (bourbon, apricot, demerara, peach tincture) at Animale’s. Tasty. 🥃

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-08T21:23:04.000Z

Daring Fireball: Let’s Call a Murder a Murder

Yep. This. All of it. Important links within too. Including a full version of the best video captured.

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-08T16:08:02.000Z

My word(s) for 2026

Adjust and Adapt

This year will bring much change to my life. So much of my time revolts around household support and Beatrix logistics. Once she’s off to college my life will need to become much different. Just one example of how I will need to be guided by these words.

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-08T13:24:52.000Z

Important analysis of the killing of Renee Nicole Good by the NYT.

The Party told you to ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

— George Orwell’s novel, 1984

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-08T01:41:59.000Z

A frequently told joke among Minnesotans, and those in the Twin Cities especially, is that every time someone tries to leave or move somewhere else they always come back.

It’s true for me. For my wife. For anyone I know who’s tried.

We love it here. Leaving only makes us love it more.

Problems Transferring from an Old to New Playstation 5 - Barry Hess

2026-01-07T21:06:48.000Z

My PS5 is going to travel to college with one of my daughters, so I picked up a lightly-used one to replace it. Some points of reference if you ever are doing this and have trouble transferring data between the systems on your network.

If your problems are similar to mine, what will happen is the step that tells you “to hold the power button on the second PS5 for 1 second until it beeps” will result in the old console preparing for transfer while the new console says it lost connection with the old console.
Do not bother trying to do this over wifi. Just don’t even try!
After trying three different network cables to connect your new machine to the LAN (and to be fair, your cable might be the problem), try connecting the new PS5 more directly to your router. I initially tried a perfectly fine modem > router > in-wall cable > switch > cable connection and it failed. When I moved to modem > router > in-wall cable > cable, it started working. Keep removing variables until it works.
This is why I’m always hesitant to go lightly-used. The whole time I was questioning if the used PS5 was the problem. I hate having that question in the back of my head (though even with a new machine I might still have that question).

Anyway, let the nine-hour transfer commence!

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Things I Posted About In 2025 - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-06T16:39:45.000Z

The first of a few posts about the work here last year and my plans for the year to come.

These are the things I wrote that I’m the most proud of.

Take good care of your body. After all, you only have one.
I thought a lot about culture change. I still do.
In fact, everything we call “culture” and “society” is built on one thing and one thing only; trust.
I also thought about AI as a tool for learning.
Are you leaving things better than you found them?
Everything good in my life is because I have a policy of yes.
Your path is your path.
All I’ve ever aimed to be is a knower of things and it’s all the working world has ever wanted from me.
Beatrix is the most astute art critic I know and gives a fine example of how we should think about art.

Pokémon Pocket Collection at 100 Days - Jamie Thingelstad

2026-01-04T14:08:36.000Z

In September I started playing with Pokémon Pocket as the First Anniversary celebration was coming up. Tyler had been collecting on Pocket since launch day. The anniversary celebration had a ton of promotions associated as well as the limited edition Deluxe Pack ex. I did some in-app purchasing to get Poke Gold and help catch up a bit, I’ve also subscribed to the Premium Pass. I’ve created a pretty complete collection in the first 100 days.

Post on Patrick Rhone - Patrick Rhone

2026-01-04T02:43:55.000Z

My January? Not so dry…