Chris

Reading Hacks

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RSS, or, Really Simple Syndication, is having a comeback moment for many people. I’ve used this invaluable web tool since 2005 to hack my reading workflow and highly suggest others pick this up. It’s a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. It’s an easy way for you to keep up with news and information that’s important to you, and helps you avoid the conventional methods of browsing or searching for information on websites.

My feed reader of choice: Feedbin

The benefits of using RSS include the ability to stay up-to-date with the latest news and information from your favorite websites without having to visit each site individually. It also helps you avoid the clutter of email newsletters and other notifications, and allows you to easily organize and filter the content you receive.

RSS was originally introduced in 1999 by Netscape Communications Corp., for use with its MyNetscape portal. After Netscape abandoned the standard, software maker UserLand picked up development. Although RSS formats have evolved from as early as March 1999, it was between 2005 and 2006 when RSS gained widespread use, and the (“”) icon was decided upon by several major web browsers. RSS feed data is presented to users using software called a news aggregator and the passing of content is called web syndication

All that to say, is that most of your web reading sources come to you, as opposed to visiting each website to browse their content feed. I’ve subscribed to hundreds of websites, blogs, tweets, YouTube videos, newsletters over the years and all without leaving my RSS feed reader. You can then save an article to read for later use. Read what you want, when you want. Brilliant.

After gathering your content, then what? For me, I take notes and save them for later.

Readwise

Enter Readwise Reader- One tool to benefit, or hack your reading experience. With the content I consume via RSS feeds, I can then highlight and annotate notes inside the app. Some other benefits they offer:

  1. Annotation, tagging & highlighting text are the killer features of digital reading.
  2. Ghostreader is a GPT-3 companion for reading. It will analyze the text and then format a summary for you, ask questions, define terms and simplify complex language.
  3. Text-to-speech- listen to any document narrated with the lifelike voice of a human.
  4. Integrated with your favorite tools- Your annotations can flow effortlessly from your reading app into your writing tools. Instead of wasting hours of reformatting, reorganizing, and repeating, Reader eliminates the hassle. Export to Readwise, LogSeq, Obsidian, Roam etc.
  5. Read anywhere, anytime. Online, offline. iPhone, iPad, MacBook or the web.
Screenshots of Readwise on the web, iPad and iPhone. 

Readwise is a companion app to Readwise Reader. When I consume books on my Kindle , I can highlight and annotate notes in that device. Those notes are then synchronized into Readwise and then automagically imported into my personal knowledge database for later. The same occurs when I use Apple Books. Neato.

Conclusion

The purpose of  note taking isn’t to remember- it is having the freedom to forget and reference for later.

Think of all this as taking a pencil and highlighter to writing in the margins of a physical book to take notes on and review later. But digitized.

Readwise is $8.99/mo. Matter, an alternative to Readwise, but needs more development in my mind, is also $8/mo. To be clear, this is not a piad sponsorship. But I wouldn’t turn down a gratis subscription either.

Autodiadactism

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“Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individuals who choose the subject they will study, their studying material, and the studying rhythm and time. Autodidacts may or may not have formal education, and their study may be either a complement or an alternative to formal education.” – Wikipedia.

That reads as impressive, no? All that to say, I enjoy reading, studying and figuring things out on my own, for my own enrichment. Over the years I am slowly fine-tuning the process. I have built my own personal knowledge database which houses decades worth of knowledge, thoughts, writings, white papers etc all in .txt, .pdf and .md formats.

📚
If you enjoy reading for knowledge, do you receive value for that time? How do you retain what you’ve read? How can you refer back to a specific instance that you came across but can’t remember where?

This is where my personal knowledge management database comes in. I call it “Grey Matter.” Others refer to their database as a “Second Brain.”

A visual graph of decades worth of inter-connected notes in my Grey Matter database
Look at that web of connected notes!

After converting then, importing all your documents into the database, you then need to sort and organize in a way that seems logical to you. I choose to sort by year/month such as: 2023/03. If you take good notes, you should be able to sort by categories after that. An extra step for me is to backlink each note to another relevant note. Example: By typing double brackets, [[photo workflow]], the database then suggests previous documents with your suggested topic. As soon as you do this, the database generates a link to that document in your current document.

Back-linking for the win

When you perform a search for something you want to recall, look it up and every document with that tag or backlink will display and you can choose your relevant article. Neat, yeah?

Make connections to your thoughts scattered over time

As a self-proclaimed autodidact, I enjoy hybrid models of both, old knowledge and new knowledge. The challenge is discovering solutions to merge the two of them together for your benefit.

Why Read?

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  1. Fresh perspective.
  2. Escape.
  3. Different worlds.
  4. Answers to your questions.
  5. Ready to read at book store, library, dad’s bookshelf, online, offline, anywhere, everywhere.
  6. The answer you seek.
  7. Inspiration.
  8. Guaranteed to add points to your intelligence quotient.
  9. New skills added on an inexpensive budget.
  10. Endless pleasure.

Books
Reading is a lifelong habit for me. I enjoy reading for pleasure as well as knowledge. To have access to both old and new knowledge in our hands is one of the greatest gifts we have accomplished together. The list of reading material below is not an exhaustive one but
Chris Denbow [.com]Chris

A Gentleman’s Take

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Delighted to have been a guest for the up-and-coming YouTube series. If you’ve arrived here via YT or Twitter, then welcome! Kick back, relax and maybe even subscribe to the website via newsletter or RSS.

Photo Film Is Expensive

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With Kodak raising (again), the price of their film stock, it doesn’t make sense to use recreationally anymore. Over the years, I have developed presets inside of Adobe Lightroom to apply to my images. These presets convert a digital image I’ve captured into a film emulator. I am very pleased with the results. Of course, you can always tweak the settings to suit you. I am giving serious consideration in releasing these presets for a low cost of 10 presets for $10. Let me know if interested by commenting below.

Kodak Gold 200
Ilford HP5+

Just For The Hell Of It

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I’ve been thinking a lot about what I do, what I want to do and understanding my motivations. Not sure if this is because I just turned 50 and may be having some kind of crisis. Doesn’t feel like it. I am learning how to prioritize activities and being more intentional with my time.

I enjoy writing, not just for my website, but also for my personal knowledge database. Whether it be manual scribbles or typing on a keyboard, I love writing. And for the past twenty-two years, there has always been a nagging question: “Why are you doing this?” The question always exists of “what is it for”. I wrote about this recently in fact.

Sure, Chris, you write because you enjoy writing. True.

I don’t do this for attention, money, clicks or internet fame. I’ve had all of that in the past but no longer need them.

No, my interest and motivation is solely internal. If I wanted to write to an audience, I am going to have to step up my game with relevant content and frequency. If you are still reading or have stayed with me through the years, bless you.

These thoughts give reason behind simply enjoying the process of writing instead of the results. I love writing out my thoughts and that is enough motivation to do it. Although enough of it takes place in private that hitting publish barely seems worth it at all, the process could be enough. Although it is a joy to hit “PUBLISH” and send out to the WWW.

Besides, haven’t you ever done something just for the hell of it?

Cropping My Photo Gear

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Just how good is the iPhone as a camera? Good enough for someone like me, a photographer for over three decades, want to sell off almost all of his gear. It is that good. I just sold off the mirrorless Sony A7 and am looking at other options to sell off the 35mm cameras and film. With film prices going up (again!) a few days ago (thanks Kodak), film developing is no longer in the budget. I am keeping Nikita, the Nikon D90 because she is one of my all time favorites. The Canon will stay here to be used by MissAdventure. The Minolta 110mm is staying because I have to have at least one film camera for nostalgia, right? Right. Shut up.

Sold: Nikon D200, Sony A7

Selling: Nikon D50, Holga 120mm, Pentax K1000 35mm, Nikon F35mm, Canon SureShot 35mm, Lomo Diana 110mm, Polaroid Instant 600 (2), Fujifilm Instax

Keeping: Nikon D90, Canon Rebel T6, Minolta 110mm

Most of the gear is listed here:

Photo Denbow – Gear
Lifestyle Photography
Photo Denbow

The iPhone 13 Pro Max

I need minimal gear. I’ve gone all-in on so many cameras, lenses, & accessories over the years, it makes me wonder what I could have done with all that money spent. Here is where minimalism, or essentialism kicks in: the iPhone. This device checks all of my requirement boxes.

Process

  • Portable
  • Anywhere
  • Anything
  • Built in lighting
  • Minimal
  • Consistent style of shooting

Photography gear

  • One camera- iPhone
  • Three interchangeable lenses, maximum
  • Carry-case for said lenses

Set of three Moment Lenses, our Phone Case, and a Lens Pen.
Save some cash! Get a set of any three of our lenses, perfect for capturing more than you could with your phone alone, plus our Phone Case, Lens Pen and a Strap
MomentMoment

I am eagerly awaiting my recent purchase of the Moment brand lens starter set to upgrade my iPhonetography. The wide angle, telephoto and fisheye lenses are going to be a joy to use. Check it out ^.

With forced limitations that come with minimal gear comes new chances for me to get more creative for the desired results.

Because I am cropping my gear, I feel like a huge weight is off my shoulders. Literally. I don’t need to make gear choices anymore. Everything is minimized and maximized for mobile photography.

Do you use all your gear? Could you benefit from a gear resizing too?

2023: Chapter Two

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Happy 3/3 day! It is March 3, 2023- time to start the second chapter for the new year’s resolutions. In the past 10 years or so, I have attempted a variation of resolution themes in an attempt to hold myself accountable, and all of them have had limited success. The first few attempts were centered around my resolutions and a monthly check-in by way of accountability. For ten years I would focus on what I called Groundhog Day Resolutions. The kickoff would always start on February 2nd or 2/2. This was a little over a month after the western calendar of New Year’s Day on January 1st.This year I want to do a variation of a monthly accountability check-in. I mentioned the “Groundhog Day Resolutions” and its limited success. While I believe the theory behind those initiatives were sound, the practice was not. So it’s time to have a re-think about the process.

In 2023, I am writing a book on it. This year I am thinking of each month of this year as its own chapter in a book. I’ll do a chapter review on the same date that corresponds with the month.

Example: The book will start on February 2 (2/2) and will go on until March 3rd or 3/3. On 3/3 I will conduct a review of the previous month, and so on and so forth. With the chapter review, I’ll throw in some chapter highlights (in blue) of the previous month in hope that by the end of the year (11/11), I’ll have written a book I can be proud of.

Here is a quick list of things I want to do for the new year:

  • Learn Spanish
  • More meditation & yoga
  • Organize the photo Archive as a database
  • Minimalism/essentialism
  • Quit smoking
  • No alcohol
  • Lower BP
  • Lose 20 pounds

Learn Spanish

My goal of learning Spanish kicked off 63 days ago, on December 28, according to DuoLingo, my language app. Anything over a week is fairly impressive if you know me at all. I’ve had a chance to converse a few times with Spanish speakers in the field and it felt good to get back into it.

💬
Chapter Two Highlight: Learning Spanish 60+ days in a row!

Meditation and yoga almost daily.

Almost daily is correct. Some days you feel alive, awake and feeling great, while other days you just hit the snooze button a couple of times. On the good days arrive, I can walk out of the house feeling even better. I must remember this the next time I am tempted to hit that snoozer again. I cannot quantify the workout this past month since losing and gaining an Apple Watch again. Now I am back on track with the fitness recording.

🙏🏼
Chapter Two Highlight: More mindfulness and flexibility
Yoga & Meditation programs with Apple Fitness+ 

Photography Goals

Well this didn’t take long to fizzle out. I was looking forward to digging below the service on learning Adobe software but no. I came across a podcast with Mylio as a sponsor and was intriqued. A 30-day trial didn’t last 3 days before I decided to go all-in. When I say all-in, I mean I have discontinued my Adobe subscription. Yes, Mylio’s photo organizing tools, beat out Adobe.  The end result will be an organized archive system where I can easily find and use any one photo on demand.

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Chapter Two Highlight: Photo Archives almost organized!

Minimalism and essentialism

I’ve taken some big strides in reducing my clutter and relegating stuff to a box in storage to be sorted later, or kept, to moving stuff out of the house. But as usual, there is always more. Got to keep looking and reviewing what is essential. For example- I have more than a few film and digital cameras. Each of them have their own personalities and strengths sure, but none of them are essential. I am selling Sonya, the Sony mirrorless camera. Keeping my original Nikon D50 for the kid to use if she wants to (she’s a great photographer already!) Keeping the Nikon D90 for myself as a backup because Nikki is my favorite. The Canon is reserved for Miss Adventure, when she wants to use it. All the film cameras, save for the FujiFilm Instax Square 90 is going out the door.

🗑️
Chapter Two Highlight: Throwing out the junk

Quit smoking

This goal lasted two weeks. One of the benefits I was hoping to see was to help lower my blood pressure. When I was not getting the intended results, I frustratingly wimped and lit back up. Now that the high blood pressure is lowering, slowly, it is time to extinquish the flame again.

Black Sheep is smokin’
🚭
Chapter Two Highlight: Quitting tobacco (again)!

No Alchohol

Alcohol consumption is not difficult for me, and I can refrain even while at a bar with friends. This is an easy one so I should see less weight and overall health as a result.

Lower Blood pressure

Priority one with results. I started taking BP medicine to help recuce the tension. Too soon to tell if it is having any effect but I am hoping. Less, salt. Less sugar. Less eating out. Increase my cardio with more walking, yoga. All of this should help me lower my weight and eventually those readings will come down.

❤️
Chapter Two Highlight: Lower blood pressure!

Lose 20 pounds

In the past few years, I maxed out at 217.4 pounds. That isn’t great for a 5’7″ frame. When starting this initiative last month (2/2), I was down to 204.4. Currently (3/3) I am down to 197. So glad to see some results and hope the remaining 12 pounds will not be too difficult. My goals is to get down to 185 pounds. 175 is better, but let’s be realistic. The issue here is nutrition. The job has me out in the field for 8-10 hours daily and the temptation to eat out is strong. But the job is also a physical one so I should take advantage of all that lifting and walking.

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Chapter Two Highlight: 12 pounds lost so far!

It’s time to get to writing a new chapter. See you on April 4th (4/4) for a review of Chapter 3.

Rage Against The Machine

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My personal printing at home history has always followed the same patterns:

  • Buy a printer (with scanner, copier, fax!)
  • Buy the over-priced, proprietary ink.
  • Use the printer.
  • Enjoy a small window of time for when the printer actually works.
  • Don’t use printer awhile until I need it again.
  • Run an urgent print job I need immediately.
  • The printer does not work.
  • Waste time trying to get the printer working.
  • Take the copies I need printed somewhere else and over-pay.
  • Get rid of the printer.
  • Buy a printer.
  • Buy the over-priced, proprietary ink.
  • Get rid of printer.

This planned obsolescence is maddening for almost everyone who owns one of these damned things. It isn’t one brand, it is the market and no one is willing to help you. Guess what, Hewlett Packard/Brother/Epson? Piss off enough people and they won’t buy your crappy products anymore. This printer is my last home printer.

Oh, does anyone want an Epson printer/copier/scanner/fax? Only used a few times. Free to a good home. Or a bad home, I don’t care.