“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”
– Pablo Picasso
Chris
Regarding The Last Post
Suppose we suddenly wake up and see that what we thought to be this and that, ain’t this and that at all?
Jack Kerouac
Bored
After reading about the latest Apple products yesterday I had to ask “What drives American consumerism?” Americans are bored. Or we want the latest and greatest.
This is a new concept to me and I find myself content with what I have for now.
This Week
It’s been about a solid week since re-using iA Writer exclusively, instead of Ulysses and I’m thrilled to be back. I’ve never stuck with iA Writer except for editing Markdown files but now I am using it exclusively to publish here.
I’m thinking I have too many cameras and one has to go. Eek!
After reading about the latest iPhone, Watch and AirPods I think I will…pass on upgrading this year. I’ve finally arrived to the point where I am content and this is a unique experience for me. That Apple Ultra Watch though…
The idea of using a manual typewriter is a nice one but I almost never use it because it is very loud. Satisfying but loud. (::::::)
I have stacks of notebooks with virgin paper to fill but I’ve been too lazy. This has got to change or they go out the door.
I’ve decided I am going to do one more portrait session with the film cameras and then I’m going all-digital for awhile. Film prices are outrageous right now. Ten years from now when the film market is abandoned, I’ll dust off the 35mm cameras and be a hipster photographer.
Geo Location
I’ve enjoyed using the DayOne journal app on my Apple devices since 2016 because it includes the current date/time, weather and location of the post in every entry. But I am not a fan of paying for an annual subscription so I am looking at building my own alternatives here and in my pensieve software, Obsidian.
I want to add these features to every blog post here as a way to document, in context. Example: writing a post in December about a topic and the post shows I am holed up at home while a map on the post displays it is snowing outside. The post will ideally show a map, current weather and temps.
The solution must support adding geo coordinates, a location taxonomy, and a textual location description to a post, comment, user, or attachment. Supports adding weather data to a post or to a widget based on location. It must offer a choice of map displays. It supports retrieving location using the HTML5 geolocation API by default. Clicking the location icon or ‘Lookup Location’ will retrieve the location.
A work in progress that will enhance my online journaling experience.
Digital > Analog
I am on a hiatus with analog film photography for now. The price of film, developing, scanning is getting out of control and is not sustainable for me right now.
I love the results but damn.
Going all-digital for a while.
Back To Flickr
I was a charter member of the photo hosting site, Flickr since it’s inception back in 2005. Since then it has been a shit-show roller coaster and grew stagnant. It’s been sold more than a few times and then again to a more stable photo host called SmugMug. That seems to have been the life-saver for Flickr. However, I canceled my account back in 2019 for various reasons. A quote from the article on my website:
I am on a roll when it comes to de-bullshitting my life lately. I have been a Flickr photo account user since 2005 and have been through the ups, downs, acquisitions and no more. I simply do not see the value in another photo host with little to no social engagement with other photographers.
Now that Flickr has been stable these past few years, I am back. With unlimited photo and video hosting on a paid Pro plan, I am in the slow process of uploading images. Migrating years and gigabytes worth of data will be worth it. Flickr organizes galleries and albums anyway I see fit and includes camera/image EXIF data. It will be good to see it all in another back-up location to my Archive Vault on the external hard drive.
I am hoping to reconnect with the amazing talent of other photographers there and rebuild the photo community. I use to draw a lot of inspiration from them as well as contribute my two cents as well.
Make Do With What You Got
Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with that there is.
Ernest Hemingway
A Different Path
Lately I am having issues with my ankles turning while on a dirt trail or geocaching. I think city hiking for a while is a good alternative. Future walks will include paved trails, parks, desire paths and green spaces.
More wandering, more flanuering. These evoke freedom, serendipity, and encounters with city life.
Long walks (nothing like Craig Mod’s expeditions across Japan though)to explore, quantify, document, record and archive my discoveries.
In the future, I will acquire a Garmin watch to help track and quantify these urban excursions. I believe they will do a better job than the Apple Watch currently on my wrist with a third-party app.
Body Over Mind
Which should I listen to? I’ve come to realize lately that my body has more self-wisdom than my mind. My mind tells me what I want to do, whereas the body tells me what I should do. Huge difference,
Should is moral and ethical dogma, when must is a bodily command.
