*Here's what I've been up to since the [last weekly status](/this-week-2024-07-13/)...*
### New Gear
I took advantage of Prime Day to pick up a few gadgets I'd been considering:
- [Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 5300 toothbrush](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084TM4XKG). My dentist recently pointed out that some of my gums aren't doing great and suggested that a Sonicare would likely help. Initial impression: *boy this thing is loud, but my teeth do feel clean.*
- [SHOKZ OpenRun bone-conduction headphones](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BW1T7X2). I'd like to listen to tunes while riding, but I don't want to block any of the sounds around me... and I *definitely* don't want to be one of those people blasting music over my phone's speaker. Initial impression: *hearing sounds in my head even when I plug my ears is **wild**.*
- [Garmin fenix 7 Sapphire Solar smartwatch](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NMHSHX7). After wearing various Wear OS smartwatches for the last ten years, I wanted a watch that was more serious about fitness tracking—and one with a battery that lasts more than 24 hours. Initial impression: *it's larger than what I'm used to, but packed with features and configurable options. Currently estimates it won't need to be charged for another **14 days**.*
I'll probably share more thoughts on these items in the coming weeks.
### New Blog Post
I've been working on a detailed post about how I'm using Packer and Vault to build VM templates for my Proxmox homelab for about six weeks, and it is such a relief to [finally post it](https://runtimeterror.dev/building-proxmox-templates-packer/).
Of course, I did end up basically splitting the post in half. I *promise* I'll post a follow-up detailing my use of GitHub Actions to fully automate these template builds soon!
### In Other News...
- I survived the Great Crowdstrike Outage of 2024.
- I finished reading [What the Hell Did I Just Read](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20188485W/What_the_Hell_Did_I_Just_Read?edition=ia%3Awhathelldidijust0000wong) by Jason "David Wong" Pargin and, well, what the hell did I just read? It was a wild ride, even by Pargin's standards. Enjoyable for sure, but it's kind of all over the place.
- I'm now reading [Truth of the Divine](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24198736W/Truth_of_the_Divine?edition=ia%3Atruthofdivineboo0000lind) by Lindsay Ellis.
