Bomb Cyclone: It's Freezin' Season!

It's 22℉ (-6℃) in Philadelphia, PA, this morning. Meanwhile, the temperature is maxed out at 66℉ in my living room, which is comfortable enough if I bundle up a bit. An equilibrium has been reached between the cold creeping into the house and my radiators' ability to hold it at bay. Turning the thermostat up causes the furnace to run more, but the apartment isn't appreciably warmer for the added energy expense. And I'm lucky to have gas-powered heating, too, because the electric company is asking customers to conserve electricity, warning of an overworked power grid and potential rolling blackouts, which have yet to happen here.

At the moment, I have cabin fever from being trapped indoors and staring at social media for much of this holiday weekend. The aimless scrolling had gotten bad enough that I've started using the Freedom app to block websites that tempt me into wasting lots of time on the computer and phone. Freedom^* lets you create one or more lists of domains to block and schedule them to activate at regular times across all your devices. You can also start sessions spur-of-the-moment. When I feel I'm wasting too much time at the computer, I lock myself out of social media and news websites for a few hours. I've got it set up such that even force-quitting the application is far more trouble than a quick peek at some feed or timeline is worth. It's irritating as all heck and works well.

^*On my oath, this is not an advertisement.