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POAP 7180533 at First Computer Build.

White PC case with RGB fans glowing purple and blue, sitting on hardwood floor, labeled First Computer Build August 15 2024.
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I queued up with the newest High Kings vinyl and got it signed after the show.

Four members of The High Kings signing vinyl records and CDs at a table after a show. Signed vinyl record cover for The High Kings album The Road Not Taken, with four band member autographs, resting on a wood floor.
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Tammy and I had a great time seeing The High Kings at the Parkway Theater tonight. 🎶

Parkway Theater marquee showing The High Kings on 8.15 at 7:30pm with people gathering at the entrance below Four musicians performing on a colorfully lit stage, playing keyboards, acoustic guitars, and a mandolin, with an audience in the foreground. Four musicians performing on a stage with red curtains and colorful stage lights, playing guitars for a standing crowd indoors.
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Tyler got his gaming PC assembled and running tonight! It was super fun to help him out with this. So many LEDs! 🤩

White open-frame gaming PC case with blue LED lighting sits on a wooden table, connected to a white gaming mouse and keyboard, with a TV visible in the background. White open-frame gaming PC tower with RGB lighting sits on a wood table alongside a compact RGB mechanical keyboard and honeycomb gaming mouse.
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Wet Summer 💦

We’ve had 28.26" of rain in 2024, just 2.97" behind the wettest year on record in Minnesota. However that 1892 record had what must have been an absolutely wild July 27 when 6.36" of rain fell in one day! Before July 27 this year has been setting new records by a good margin

We are 38% above normal precipitation levels. We’ve had 5 days with more than 1" of rain, with May 21st being the wettest at 2.33".

August 11
Current Year-To-Date (2024) : 28.26
Accumulated Daily Normal Precipitation: 20.49
Wettest Year-To-Date (1892) : 31.23
Driest Year-To-Date (1910) : 6.02

This is why our sump system has been working overtime all summer! Data from Minnesota DNR.

Line chart showing 2024 Minneapolis precipitation at 28.26 inches through August 11, well above the 20.49 inch normal and near the 1892 record of 31.23 inches.
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Only 52 °F on Cannon Lake this morning. The air still clings onto summer humidity as the sun gets up over the trees. But crispness of the cool air suggests of the impending arrival of autumn.

Wooden deck overlooking a sloped lawn and calm lake at sunrise, with ornamental grasses, hydrangeas, and yellow patio umbrella nearby.
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Due to all the flooding this year we just now got out on the pontoon!

Man and child taking a selfie on a pontoon boat on a sunny lake, child wearing a Minnesota United FC jersey Four people and a fluffy white dog enjoying a sunny day on a pontoon boat on a calm lake with tree-lined shores.
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Gorgeous evening for National Night Out!

Neighbors gathered in a closed residential street for an outdoor block party with folding chairs and a long table set up in the road
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The marine batteries in our pontoon are completely dead and my ancient car charger wasn’t doing the job. I had no idea they had these waterproof onboard marine battery chargers! Ordered one and will be happy to put this on both batteries and stop worrying about their condition.

NOCO Genius GEN5X2 two-bank 12V onboard marine battery charger with dual MODE buttons and green status LEDs
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Gmails Spam Randomness

I subscribe to my own newsletter via Gmail so that I can see how it is treating the Weekly Thing. I have Gmail configured to forward things to Fastmail which I intercept into an “External” folder. I do the same with iCloud. This morning it didn’t come through. So I went looking…

Sure enough Gmail had decided that Weekly Thing 291 / Ireland 🇮🇪 was deserving of the spam folder. Why? The sender address is in my contacts! It hasn’t relegated any recent issues to junk! No idea. And isn’t an address being in your contacts effectively an allow-list to get email? I guess not.

While there I noticed that Gmail had also put several Google Search Console, Google Cloud, and Google Account emails in spam as well. Perhaps this is some nod to anti-trust watchers but it seems ridiculous that Google’s own emails to a Gmail user be flagged as junk — including my Google Cloud invoice notification!

I share this mostly out of frustration due to the popularity of Gmail and also the perception that people have that it is the senders issue if an email doesn’t land in the inbox. It is fairly common that a friend will say the Weekly Thing went to their spam folder, and the implication is that there is some issue with the email. I’ve properly configured every email acronym you can imagine — SPF, DKIM, DMARC. But still the battle persists.

Gmail likes to add arbitrary other criteria like “Hey, this email is just too long.” or “Hey, we don’t like hyperlinks in emails.” I’m not going to change how I write for some email service, regardless of how popular it is.

What is the point? I guess my thought is to remember that your email services actions are under your control more than the sender. And beyond following standards there is nothing a sender can do to make it better. I would suggest making sure to keep tabs on these other folders too.