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# Ughh… | Chris Brummel

Good stuff, along with bad stuff.

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://chrisbrummel.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Friendship](https://chrisbrummel.com/friendship-2/) - ★★★★☆ Being a Tim Robinson fan, I was excited for his leading-man debut. The early reviews described it as a "throwback comedy". It's a great movie, but I don't know if that's how I'd describe it. That made me think of a joke-a-minute movie like a David Wain or early Adam McKay movie, but this
- [The Need for Culture in Our Software](https://chrisbrummel.com/the-need-for-culture-in-our-software/) - My wife and I made a conscious decision to live in the city. We both grew up in smaller areas that didn’t have as much access to culture and the arts. Even in the face of the high expense, heavy traffic, and crime, we still find living amongst culture a benefit that’s strong enough to
- [SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)](https://chrisbrummel.com/sly-lives-aka-the-burden-of-black-genius/) - ★★★★☆ I've waited decades for a definitive look at Sly Stone, and this is as close as it will get. Part of the documentary felt flat at the end, because as a mirror to Sly's life, it is flat. It's disappointing feeling the waste of great potential, regardless of how understandable it may be. I
- [Giving It Another Go](https://chrisbrummel.com/giving-it-another-go/) - After 15 years away, I’ve decided to start up this blogging thing again. In the 2000s, I was never a heavy blogger, and while I used to sign up to every social media platform, I was usually just a lurker. By the early 2010s I became even more dormant and stopped posting. I just liked
- [Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir](https://chrisbrummel.com/thank-you-falettinme-be-mice-elf-agin-a-memoir/) - ★★★★☆ I'm a superfan, so I'm excited to hear these stories — but it's sad to me that you can still hear how much he lacks self reflection. It's going to be interesting to hear how this compares to the documentary coming out about him this week (which I've heard he didn't participate, so maybe
- [Love Heart Cheat Code by Haitus Kaiyote](https://chrisbrummel.com/love-heart-cheat-code-by-haitus-kaiyote/) - ★★★☆☆ This is one of my favorite bands, but this is my least favorite of their four albums. I've listened to it a handful of times, but nothing's grabbed me the way "Choose Your Weapon" did. Still good, but not spectacular.
- [Ladies & Gentlemen: 50 Years of SNL Music](https://chrisbrummel.com/ladies-gentlemen-50-years-of-snl-music/) - ★★★★★ They couldn't have hired a better director for this. If you're wondering if this documentary needed to be made, in the first 5 minutes you'd realize how misguided that would be. Loved it.
- [Neva](https://chrisbrummel.com/neva/) - ★★★★☆ It's a beautiful and touching game, and the puzzles are solid. It's an improvement over their previous game, Gris, but not by much.
- [Silo: Season 2](https://chrisbrummel.com/silo-season-2/) - ★★★★☆ Still good, but not as good as the first season — much slower. But according to folks who read the books, it's supposed to pick up in the next 2 seasons, which Apple just green-lit. Steve Zahn is a national treasure.
- [The Wonder of Stevie](https://chrisbrummel.com/the-wonder-of-stevie/) - ★★★★★ The moment I found out about it I binged all of it. It's an analysis of Steve Wonder's run of albums from I've been listening to that 5 album run in the early 70s. 50 years later it's still perfection.
- [Social](https://chrisbrummel.com/social/) - Ivory ★★★★☆ Voyager ★★★☆☆ Because I'm a sucker for great software, once Twitter and Reddit swore off third-party clients, I jumped ship and won't do corporate social media again. Ivory is fantastic, and Voyager seems like it's lost some steam. I'd love to see it handle video much better.
- [Shipment Tracking](https://chrisbrummel.com/shipment-tracking/) - Deliveries ★★★★☆ I know everyone is using Parcel, but even though they seem so similar in the feature sets, I've loved the design of Deliveries.
- [Mail Server](https://chrisbrummel.com/mail-server/) - Gmail ★★★☆☆ I have a feeling that this won't be on my list for long with the way things are going. I'm sure Google's going to do something to send me to privately host. But otherwise, it's perfectly good.
- [Time Wasiter](https://chrisbrummel.com/time-wasiter/) - Threes ★★★★★ I've spent more time on this game than any other, and still play it daily until I at least get a 1536. I haven't looked in a long time, but I used to be raked #144 in the world and still feel proud of that.
- [Maps](https://chrisbrummel.com/maps/) - Apple Maps ★★★★☆ I know it's almost blasphemy to some that I don't use Google Maps, but there's too much noise for me in Google Maps and the results now are just as good. I just wish I could share and collaborate on my guides.
- [SFTP](https://chrisbrummel.com/sftp/) - Transmit ★★★★★ Easily the oldest continuous use of a software product that I still actively use (since '98!). It's as impressive today as it was then.
- [VNC](https://chrisbrummel.com/vnc/) - Screens ★★★★★ Really well polished software. Great way to tunnel in from my phone (and laptop) and get things done.
- [Media Management](https://chrisbrummel.com/media-management-2/) - Ruddarr ★★★★☆ This one just started, and is a well-designed interface to Sonarr / Radarr. They need to rethink the UX on the calendar, though.
- [Media Player](https://chrisbrummel.com/media-player/) - Plex ★★★★☆ Iina ★★★★★ I've been a Plex user for about 15 years, and it's crazy how far it's come. And I like the moves they've been making. Iina really came out of nowhere for me. I was a VLC guy, but the amount of polish in this is impressive.
- [Media Management](https://chrisbrummel.com/media-management/) - Sequel ★★★★★ I have this mapped to Trakt, which maps to my Plex server and Sonarr / Radarr. It's very well designed and the "share sheet" integration is magic. (needs to be on MacOS)
- [Media Reference](https://chrisbrummel.com/media-reference/) - Callsheet ★★★★☆ Like IMDB, but without the noise. Lots of great features — and I love the integration with Plex when it runs well (which it often doesn't).
- [Weather](https://chrisbrummel.com/weather/) - Apple Weather ★★★★☆ Since they've integrated the Dark Sky features, I'm really impressed with the stock weather app. I enjoy Carrot weather, but not enough to switch.
- [Music Practice](https://chrisbrummel.com/music-practice/) - Capo ★★★★☆ I use it frequently when I get a gig with complex parts, but it hasn't been updated in a long time.
- [DAW](https://chrisbrummel.com/daw/) - Logic Pro ★★★★☆ Naturally, I gravitate towards things that feel natively Mac, so I land here over ProTools and Ableton.
- [Design](https://chrisbrummel.com/design/) - Figma ★★★★☆ Sketch ★★★★ Figma has become the juggernaut of the UI industry, partly because of the constant innovations they're bringing to the table, but mostly because it's cross-platform. Sketch is going to struggle to keep up, but I love the fight in them and that they're "mac-assed".
- [IDE](https://chrisbrummel.com/ide/) - Nova ★★★★★ I'm not a programer by trade, but I did this site by hand and ported it to Wordpress to be the CMS — so I have a limited take on what an IDE should be. That said, it's great and I love it.
- [Passwords](https://chrisbrummel.com/passwords/) - Apple Passwords ★★★★☆ I was really happy they made this a separate app in the latest round of OS updates. Having it in my menubar is perfect. I choose this over the other password managers because of it's OS level integration.
- [Podcasts](https://chrisbrummel.com/podcasts/) - Castro ★★★★☆ I try other podcast apps, but I keep coming back to Castro. The way they handle the queue is what I need
- [Music](https://chrisbrummel.com/music/) - Apple Music ★★★☆☆ Sleeve ★★★★★ I like Apple Music, but I feel that for a company that makes Mac Apps, it feels too "web" for my tastes. Sleeve is a great companion app that has a ton of customization.
- [News](https://chrisbrummel.com/news/) - RSS / Lemmy / Mastodon ☆☆☆☆☆ This keeps me relatively in the loop — I get news of my choice through RSS, and everything else from what people post. Every now and then I miss stories that travel in right-wing circles, but I catch a lot.
- [Budgeting](https://chrisbrummel.com/budgeting/) - One Finance ★★☆☆☆ I'm still mourning the loss of Simple Bank, but One had promise. Then Walmart bought them. It's still okay, but I just get too many ads for deals with Walmart.
- [Meal Planning](https://chrisbrummel.com/meal-planning/) - Crouton ★★★★★ I know that people love Mela, but Crouton is the OG and Devin keeps adding great features. It's not often I get my wife to actively use an app, but this was an instant hit.
- [Shopping Lists](https://chrisbrummel.com/shopping-lists/) - Apple Reminders ★★★★☆ I wish tags were something that could be shared in collaborations, but otherwise it's great.
- [Presentations](https://chrisbrummel.com/presentations/) - Apple Keynote ★★★★★ For various roles I've held, I've done a lot of presentations — Keynote is the best. I've gotten great at PowerPoint out of necessity, but I use Keynote if given the opportunity.
- [Spreadsheets](https://chrisbrummel.com/spreadsheets/) - Apple Numbers ★★★★☆ I use this because it's free and does what I need, but I will admit that Excel is the only product from Microsoft Office that deserves praise.
- [Word Processing](https://chrisbrummel.com/word-processing/) - Pages ★★★☆☆ I don't have a strong preference in this space. I mostly spend time in Notes, but if I have to do something meaty, it'll be in Pages. I'm just happy I'm not using Microsoft products.
- [Bookmarks / Read-it-later](https://chrisbrummel.com/bookmarks-read-it-later/) - Arc ★★★★★ Reeder ★★★★★ I don't understand the need for apps specific to these needs compared to the built in features of the existing apps you are already using. What am I missing that I can't do in these apps?
- [Chat](https://chrisbrummel.com/chat/) - Apple Messages ★★★★☆ While I use WhatsApp, I can't stand it and only use it because of people I know outside of the US. I'd much prefer to use Messages exclusively. I like Apple's focus on it and the yearly updates are solid.
- [Browser](https://chrisbrummel.com/browser/) - Arc ★★★★★ Safari ★★★★☆ I absolutely love the ideas that Arc was regularly bringing and was following their every move. I understand why they've chosen to go a different route, but I'm not happy about it. If iOS allowed deeper integration for browsers, I'd likely use that on mobile, too.
- [Contacts](https://chrisbrummel.com/contacts/) - Cardhop ★★★★☆ On the Mac, I love the menubar app, but my 1 note is that compared to other menubar apps everything feels oversized. Works fantastic, otherwise.
- [RSS](https://chrisbrummel.com/rss-2/) - Reeder ★★★★★ I use the classic version, and I wouldn't change a thing for how it fits my needs. I can't think of a single thing that needs improving upon.
- [Cloud File Storage](https://chrisbrummel.com/cloud-file-storage/) - iCloud Drive ☆☆☆☆☆ Not rated as it's not something I think about, but I'm sure I should…
- [Calendar](https://chrisbrummel.com/calendar/) - Fantastical ★★★★☆ Still the king. Amie tries some interesting ideas, but I don't want to bundle my calendar with to-dos and email. I'm more in the Offspring camp — keep 'em separated.
- [Photo Management](https://chrisbrummel.com/photo-management/) - Apple Photos ★★☆☆☆ Can't live with it. Can't live without it. This is one of the more integrated apps on iOS, but is so engrained that competitors don't exist. Bulk management needs to be rethought. Feels like there's an opportunity here.
- [Photo Camera](https://chrisbrummel.com/photo-camera/) - Apple Camera ★★★★☆ Strikes the balance I need. I'm impressed with things like Halide, but I am not focused on photography enough to bother.
- [To-Do](https://chrisbrummel.com/to-do/) - Things ★★★★☆ Even when they don't do something "stock-iOS", it still feels very "iOS" — minus the settings section. Dock'd a star because you can't collaborate with others.
- [Notes](https://chrisbrummel.com/notes/) - Apple Notes ★★★★☆ It’s gotten very good! I’m sure that there are features that note-fiends will say are missing, but it hits every note I need.
- [Mail Client](https://chrisbrummel.com/mail-client/) - Mimestream ★★★★☆ Spark ★★★☆☆ This is one of those categories in which the right solution is so hard to come by. Apple Mail has never handled snooze the way I expect. Mimestream is perfect on desktop, but I don't like that it's exclusive to Gmail and doesn't have a mobile app. Spark used to be
- [Let Me Have It All](https://chrisbrummel.com/let-me-have-it-all/) - Around the age of 10, I started discovering music that I felt that was meant for me for the first time. The first band that I ever latched onto was Faith No More, but that quickly turned into a strong connection to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My friend Kaley and I were drawn to
- [Mr. Wonderful](https://chrisbrummel.com/mr-wonderful/) - For the past couple years, The New York Times Magazine has been running serialized comics by popular artists in their Funny Pages section. Last month, Daniel Clowes wrapped up his 20 pg. story on awkward mid-life romance, Mr. Wonderful. The magazine has been releasing each page as an individual PDF, but I combined the 20
- [Covers](https://chrisbrummel.com/covers/) - After Stacey Lester posted his 12 favorite song covers on Facebook, I couldn’t help myself but to compile my own list. In no particular order: Andrew Bird – Don’t Be ScaredOriginally performed by the Handsome FamilyDrastic reinterpretation. Don’t miss the reprise at the end. Love the 3 bar loop over 4. Groove Collective – Martha My DearOriginally
- [Obama Loves Comics!](https://chrisbrummel.com/obama-loves-comics/) - Rutu Modan, author of last year’s great Exit Wounds, just finished up her 17-part strip in the New York Times Funny Pages, the Murder of the Terminal Patient. Earlier this year, I consolidated Dan Clowes’ 20-page entry for the Funny Pages into a single PDF file; and now I’ve gone back and complied single PDFs
- [Put It Better Than I Can…](https://chrisbrummel.com/put-it-better-than-i-can/) - Every now and then, I’ll somehow find my way into a conversation on social policy and individual responsibility. I might enjoy the conversation, but it doesn’t take me long to realize that I don’t have that Chomski-like ability to recite facts and recall quotes. And that’s where I loose: I can tell people how I feel,
- [Good Things Come To Those Who Don't Plan Shit](https://chrisbrummel.com/good-things-come-to-those-who-dont-plan-shit/) - Greg and I had a mantra before we embarked on our trip to Thailand: “Make as few plans as we could get away with.” We didn’t want to be tied down to an agenda when reading about Thailand was only going to give us a small window into the best way to travel here. We’ve
- [We Love Korean Air!!](https://chrisbrummel.com/we-love-korean-air/) - Greg and I just got into our layover in Seoul before hitting Bangkok. Best plane ride ever. They have Tetris built into the seats! Greg and I were able to play vs. each other for about 9 hours. Outlets in the seats, hot towels applied to the face, spacious seats. I applaud you, Korean Air.
- [Music Share](https://chrisbrummel.com/music-share/) - I love discovering overlooked music from back in the day; particularly those that have been used in samples. Below is a mix of all sorts of stuff form the 60′s and 70′s: soul, jazz, mood, Orleans, ska; some of which as been sampled more than just a couple times. I have no real reason to
- [Friendship!](https://chrisbrummel.com/friendship/) - I had a bunch of people get together for my birthday three years ago and we all played a few rounds of my favorite board-game, Hoopla (seriously, I’ve played this game with the same set of cards for about 6 years and I still love it; and yes, I understand it’s technically not a board-game). For people who
- [The Brummies ’07](https://chrisbrummel.com/the-brummies-07/) - I’m a sucker for “Best of” lists, particularly if they come from my friends (hint, hint). Here’s mine: Books Exit Wounds by Rutu ModanBig time comic releases seem to be more sporadic these days in comparison to a couple of years ago, but this one fits the bill. Israelis with identity issues makes for good reading.
- [Who Knew?](https://chrisbrummel.com/who-knew/) - About three years ago, I had no idea that I would be anywhere close to where I am today. Around that time, my roommate came up with an idea to solve a problem: Music in an open space (Coffee shops, shared offices, etc.). Collaborative filtering of the collective collections from the open space could potentially be a
- [The Brummies ‘08](https://chrisbrummel.com/the-brummies-08/) - Once again, it’s time for the BrumBrum Awards honoring excellence in various media over the course of the last year: Books Runners Up: Droppin’ Science Fiction by the Mighty Underdogs, Shine by Estelle, Doomtree by Doomtree, New Amerykah, Pt. 1 by Erykah Bad Movies Bigger Stronger Faster by the Chris BellI went into watching this movie against steroids in competition to now not knowing
- [Andrew Bird at the Tractor Tavern](https://chrisbrummel.com/andrew-bird-at-the-tractor-tavern/) - Holy Smokes! I’ve been a fan of Andrew Bird for a few years now and have become a bigger fan with each release he’s come out with. His last full album just came out about 2 months ago and I think it’s his best yet; and now he’s on tour to promote it. I’ve never been able to make it
- ["How Many Years ?!"](https://chrisbrummel.com/how-many-years/) - Anytime Greg and I hit anything remotely resembling a tourist trap in Bangkok, we’re surely going to get asked by locals, “How many years?!” They then commence to point at our beards (occasionally even tug on them). Following this, we’re always propositioned to whatever service that they’re pimping. This happens with enough consistency that it’s
- ["It's That Building, Right There…"](https://chrisbrummel.com/its-that-building-right-there/) - Greg and I had 10 hours to kill in Taipei on our flight. To kill the time, we decided to go visit the current tallest building in the world, the Taipei 101. Finding an incredibly tall building turned out to be too much for our cabbie. Greg and I became curious as we got farther and farther away
- [Dustin Curtis — Dear American Airlines](https://chrisbrummel.com/dustin-curtis-dear-american-airlines/) - Interesting: Designer dreams up a redesign of American Airlines’ website and chastises the company (particularly their design department) An employee from the AA design group writes back to say, “You’re right.” AA fires said employee for breaking their NDA. Lots to take away from this. For me, most of all is that I’ve been in this employee’s shoes and this story
- [The Brummies ‘09](https://chrisbrummel.com/the-brummies-09/) - After 6 months of serious and strenuous evaluation, the BrumBrum Academy is proud to announce the Brummies for 2009. Previously: 1, 2 Music Boom Shadow by Nino Moschella2nd album from the guy who I anticipate new work from the most. It’s a near-guarantee that I’ll love every piece of music that he puts out. Good City for Dreamers by
- [Scott Stevenson on Measuring the Design Process](https://chrisbrummel.com/scott-stevenson-on-measuring-the-design-process/) - The best thing to come out of web-design icon Doug Bowman’s resignation from Google is this well thought out article by Scott Stevenson. Doug on his departure: Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent
- [The Jerk: That Movie About Hating Cans](https://chrisbrummel.com/the-jerk-that-movie-about-hating-cans/) - I recently finished “Born Standing Up“, Steve Martin’s memoir about the beginning of his career. Martin’s “The Jerk” has been my favorite comedy since I was in high-school; but there is a relative a dearth of information about this classic film. So I decided to see what I could dig up. Below is a few

## Pages

- [About](https://chrisbrummel.com/about/) - I’m Chris Brummel, and I’ve been designing digital stuff since the early 90s and made it my career since ’95. I’ve had the good fortune to work with clients such as Google, Viacom, Sony, Amazon, Sesame Street, and a lot of other fun stuff. In that time, I’ve built, managed, and grown design and product
- [Archive](https://chrisbrummel.com/archive/)
- [Category](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/)
- [Defaults](https://chrisbrummel.com/defaults/) - I love high quality software. …like, really love it. Probably more than most people. I check the iOS App Store updates multiple times a day to see if someone wrote interesting release notes. I follow a Mastodon hashtag for #TestFlight so that I can see if people are working on something interesting. I’ve been closely following companies
- [Sample Page](https://chrisbrummel.com/sample-page/) - This is an example page. It's different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this: Hi there! I'm a bike messenger

## Categories

- [Media](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/media/)
- [Design](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/design/)
- [Thoughts](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/thoughts/)
- [Music](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/music/)
- [Comics](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/comics/)
- [Default](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/default/)
- [Consume](https://chrisbrummel.com/category/consume/)

## Tags

- [Movie](https://chrisbrummel.com/tag/movie/)
- [Game](https://chrisbrummel.com/tag/game/)
- [TV](https://chrisbrummel.com/tag/tv/)
- [Podcast](https://chrisbrummel.com/tag/podcast/)
- [Music](https://chrisbrummel.com/tag/music/)
- [Book](https://chrisbrummel.com/tag/book/)