WWDC 2026

Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference began today, as always with the Keynote, where the next versions of all of its OSes were announced. macOS 27 will be called “Golden Gate,” and, of course, there is a new OS-specific wallpaper. I was very enamored with the dark version, and thanks to Basic Apple Guy, it now adorns my MacBook Pro’s PowerBook’s desktop:

Screenshot of my MacBook Pro's desktop with the macOS 27 Golden Gate dark wallpaper

Because I have a free Apple Developer account, I have access to the developer betas of the new OSes. I only have one machine that can run the new Mac OS, and I’m not about to put that on my everyday machine. I do, however, have an iPhone 12 mini that I’ve been dabbling in iOS 26 with, so I decided to put iOS 27 on there as well, most notably to check out the supposed improvements regarding Liquid Glass.

It was noted during the keynote that there is now an opacity slider for iOS, so you can reduce the transparent glassiness of the OS. However, if you want to turn that completely off, as I do, your best bet remains going to Settings -> Accessibility -> Reduce Transparency.

Lock screen screenshot after first iOS 27 developer beta installation
Lock screen screenshot after first iOS 27 developer beta installation
Screenshot from first iOS 27 developer beta with the opacity slider and Reduce Transparency pop-up
Screenshot from iOS 27 developer beta with opacity slider and Reduce Transparency pop-up

With actual developers I count as friends and acquaintances, it’s going to be interesting to see what they have to say in the coming weeks. Apple releases the new operating systems to the public in the fall.

This is pretty great. Love Seth’s enthusiasm. That transition at 4:20 is <chef’s kiss>.

This is a nifty little interactive map tool that Eric. S Raymond posted about on Twitter X, where you can select all the states you’ve visited. Here’s mine:

Create a map at Fla-shop.com

As of June 1, 2026, I’ve been to 32 states (well, 31 plus DC), or 63% of total.

Retrophisch Review: The War for Middle-earth

Cover for the book 'The War for Middle-Earth' by Joseph LoconteIt’s difficult to know where to even start with a review for this book. Joseph Loconte has woven together such a thoroughly enjoyable story of the blossoming and growth of Tolkien and Lewis’s friendship, and how they combined forces during the darkest of times to shine light where they could in the only ways they could.

It was enlightening to learn little tidbits here and there that I didn’t know, as Lonconte combined facts and quotes from sources I have not yet gotten to. And it’s all so easily read and digestible. I was struck, as he laid the groundwork for the state of the world at the conclusion of the First World War and in to the 1920s, how, despite the move from Modernist to Post-Modernist thinking in the majority, we really have not moved on from the attitudes so prevalent during that day. The parallels, in so many ways, are so striking that it is a bit disheartening to think that history is on its way to repeating itself. After all, as the maxim goes, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” and man, it doesn’t seem like we’ve learned much at all.

At the end, however, one cannot be left anything but hopeful, that so long as we keep the fires Tolkien, Lewis, and their contemporaries lit during this time period, that more can be brought out of the darkness and in to the light. All with the help, of course, of our Heavenly Father, the creator of Narnia and Middle-earth as much as Lewis and Tolkien were. I highly recommend this book!

5/5 phins
Amazon: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle
Bookshop: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook

Just gave X-Sinner’s Goin’ Out With A Bang the first all-the-way-thru listen, and man, if you wanted some new AC/DC reminiscent of their “Thunderstruck” days, but with biblical lyrics, this is definitely your jam.

Cover art for X-Sinner's album 'Going Out With a Bang'

You can also buy from:
Boone’s Overstock
Roxx Records

If, like me, you were working today and missed the second running of the Wienie 500, never fear. Courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the full replay is on YouTube. It’s like one long dad joke with double entendres, and it is GLORIOUS.

On the latest episode of the Empowered Parent Podcast, we continue our discussion on trauma-informed care. We share stories and examples of the practical application of connected parenting ideas and how they can be used to build trust.

In the ’80s TV show Airwolf, Jan-Michael Vincent’s character, Stringfellow Hawke, played the cello. So it’s only natural that someone (in this case, Samara Ginsberg), has arranged the show’s ’80s-techno theme song for the cello. Eight, in fact:

Happy pub day to Jack Stewart and Chad Robichaux! 🎉

The latest in their Silent Horizons series, Riptide, is out today, and it’s fantastic! They took everything great from the first book and amped it to 11. Get this one, thriller readers! đź“š

The democratization of Bible reading, a process begun by Martin Luther in Germany, became a potent force of liberation. Reformers soon wielded the Bible to confront oppressive political and religious regimes. The Protestant defenders of England’s Glorious Revolution of 1689, which deposed an autocratic monarch and established a constitutional government, were armed with a biblical text deeply rooted in Tyndale’s translation.

So, too, were colonial Americans. As the historian Daniel Dreisbach has observed, the King James Bible was “the most accessible, authoritative, and venerated text in early colonial society.” Thus in 1776, even Thomas Paine, a religious skeptic, drew from the Bible to make his famous case for American Independence. “That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchical government is true,” he wrote, “or the scripture is false.”

Great article by Joseph Loconte celebrating 500 years of the first English translation of the Bible.