My website has being going for over twenty years. In that time, technology has transformed my life and the way I write has gone through some pretty major shifts. What was first typed into a frustratingly slow WordPress installation can now be published from a variety of apps with surprising ease, and often now straight from my phone.
It’s amazing to me that I can sit in my car waiting, and type out my thoughts to instantly post online.
I love pushing the “Publish” button, and appreciate even more the ability to do so while I am mobile as opposed to sitting at my computer all the time.
There is no getting away from my love of photography and cameras. My favorite thing in the world is going somewhere, anywhere, and just wondering around pointing my lens at things. The simple act of doing so is like mediation to me, and nothing thing else comes close.
I have a particular hatred of American politics and its ability to worm its way into everything. During the entire Trump administration, even tech blogs managed to sneak in some snark and commentary. No thanks. All media and social media were covering the poison of politics (still do) and then infiltrating everything that large-scale services suggest I should read. Now, media outlets auto-suggests posts that they think I want to read, which means I don’t read as much. It is not clear how the recommendations work, but clearly, some people are reading these posts, but that person is not me.
Taking recommendations from a broad a selection of people, or making all the suggested posts human-curated. This may work for some people, but again, not I.
In a world of algorithms and intelligent services, you would think that someone, somewhere would be able to learn what I enjoy reading and recommend more like it. I do not want to live in an echo chamber, but I want to avoid having to put in as much work as I do to find enjoyable articles. This is precisely the type of useful application new technology should have instead of manipulating people on media and social media. Can I not just find things for me of interest to read?
Whether you are sick of social media, want to get away from endless notifications, or just want to read all your news all in one spot, an RSS reader can help. RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” It’s a protocol that allows an RSS reader to talk to your favorite websites and get updates from them. Instead of visiting 10 different sites to see what’s new, you view a single page with all new content. There are two parts to RSS: the RSS reader and the RSS feeds from your favorite websites. RSS has been around a while now, so there are a lot of very good RSS readers out there. Most of them feature built-in search and suggestions too, so you don’t have to go hunting for RSS feeds yourself. You just might discover some cool new sites to read, too.
Wired magazine
If you’re reading this, then you are most likely a someone who spends some part of your day reading. For as long as I can remember (2005?) RSS has been the backbone of my web reading experience. Reeder is my RSS client and GoodLinks is my read-it-later/bookmarks client. If you want to get started with RSS these are both great apps.
Once you discover how to consume content with RSS, I’m sure there is no going back because the user experience in RSS is so much better than consuming content on an advertisement-infested, tracker-filled website.
875′ into the storm drain leading underground from 41st & Detroit to the Arkansas river in Tulsa. We found the cache hidden high, stepped all over each other before finally grabbing a ladder and logged the find.
Not too many things can beat a free public library card paired with the Libby e-reader app. I’ve downloaded and read so many e-books from there this year that I’ve beaten my goal of twenty two books for 2022. I knocked out that goal by March and I am still going. I do want to try my luck and download the audio book to listen to during the day, and finish the day with the digital form as well but I haven’t been that lucky to get both at the same time so far.
Since cancelling my Apple One subscription, I’ve lost out on the News app which includes magazines. Well, thankfully they are available through the library/Libby app as well. Huzzah!
And here is another plug for book titles in the public domain. Project Gutenberg and Standard E-Books help fill in the gap on classic literature reading. My digital bookshelf is stocked.
There are phases I go back and forth with in my photography such as mobile-only for awhile or a professional camera. This article will discuss my continuing fascination with iPhoneography and tips on how to make it better.
iPhone Camera app interface
Clean the lens on your iPhone
Our iPhones get stuffed inside pockets, purses, backpacks, etc. You’ve seen how dirty your screen can get, now go show your camera lens some love. A clean lens will give you sharper, higher-contrast images. Make it a habit to regularly clean your iPhone camera lenses.
2. Composition
Keep your compositions simple or minimal. Duh.
3. Shoot from various angles
iPhones are compact compared to a heavy DSLR or mirrorless camera. This makes it far more effective when shooting high, low or at various angles. Put your iPhone on a tripod mount and explore all those options too.
4. Get a new camera (app)
The stock iPhone camera app is brilliantly intuitive, but you can get more control with other dedicated camera apps such as Halide or Camera+. These allow you to adjust settings manually, shutter speed, ISO etc. This seems like an appropriate time to mention editing apps.
5. Post-Process Fun
There are plenty of amazing iPhone editing apps but only a few are really worth your time as a serious photographer.
Adobe Lightroom Hipstamatic Snapseed VSCO Everything else are just fad apps.
With the above apps, you can adjust image exposure, crop to improve the composition, correct image white balance, add beautiful color effects, improve sharpness, and so much more. Many of these apps also offer advanced features, such as vignetting, noise reduction, and masking. If you really want to have fun with editing images, there are specialist applications that’ll remove image backgrounds, objects, and apps that’ll stitch layers images together.
I enjoy editing images. It’s a fun way to enhance your photos, and once you’re done with the basic enhancements, you can have fun adding creative effects.
6. Shoot It Until You Get It
Digital photography has an advantage over film in that you can afford to shoot a lot. You can also make a lot of mistakes that can be forgiven quickly. Pick out your best images later. Don’t delete any photos while you are out shooting. Wait until you are done to properly review.
7. Zoom with your feet
All cameras have two types of zoom options: optical zoom and digital zoom. An optical zoom is created by the camera’s lens. A digital zoom is made by cropping an image. The iPhone deletes pixels to create a zoom effect. Digital zoom destroys the quality of your images.
Don’t sacrifice image quality, just zoom with your feet. Move closer to your subject if possible. If it isn’t possible, then shoot your image and crop later. The difference in quality is improved and you’ll be happier.
8. Hold your phone like a camera
I always shoot in landscape mode (phone is horizontal instead of vertical.) I also almost always shoot with two hands on the iPhone for control and stability.
With my friends joining me, I have claimed an island in the middle of the Arkansas river as my own and renamed it “Mojo Island.” After verifying GPS coordinates, I placed a container full of treasure and a log for those intrepid explorers who follow me. From the geocache description:
This geocache is rated as a 5/5. Not everyone may be able to attempt this cache. It will require walking down rocks, wading, or possibly swimming in river water currents (not suggested) You may have to use a canoe or kayak to access Mojo’s island. Either way, you need to understand that you assume the risk. Myself, nor Geocaching.com/Groundspeak can be held responsible for your decision to attempt to retrieve this cache. You are looking for a container on the island itself. It could have a tendency to leak, especially in high water, so if you cannot sign it then a photo of you and the container will qualify as a smiley in your log. Due to the nature of the terrain and difficulty level, photographic proof is required in addition to the signing of the log. Please send images to me directly instead of in the geocache log. Good luck and stay safe out there as there are potentially sharp rocks along the shorelines.
– Geo Mojo, host of Mojo’s Island
I’ll be headed back to Mojo island as soon as I have found a more suitable container, more treasure to add to it and even a human skeleton that I will chain to a tree as a waypoint for future explorers to discover.
