I’ve been out for three days and came back with three shots. Only one usable. I miss portrait photography because this sucks. This town is so un-photogenic.
Chris
Brainiac
Time to organize the backlog of notes, posts, pdf and blog archives into my second brain, Brainiac.
Digital Minimalism
Or essentialism. After taking a look at my software, I cleaned out a few redundant applications. I also took the time to reorganize my iPhone and remove apps as well. I should keep doing this until only the essentials are there.
Productivity?
I should really get my shit together.
I’m thinking of changing/eliminating my complex “productivity” system with something simpler.
Such as “Write it down so I don’t forget it. Then do it as soon as I can.” I don’t need more software. I need more ideas and the energy to act on them.
Writing Software
I have three writing apps with a variety of features and all are redundant: Drafts, iA Writer and Ulysses. Drafts and Ulysses are both subscription based whereas iA Writer is a one time purchase. Drafts and Ulysses both have issues connecting to my well-secured web server. This prevents me from posting my drafted article on to my website. iA Writer stands out here as well. I am typing in it right now and when it is complete, I will hit “Publish” and it gets posted to my website.
The verdict: Drafts & Ulysses are no longer on my devices. That’s two down.
Notes & Journaling
Apple Notes, Bear Notes, Day One, GoodNotes, Obsidian are the current note taking apps and of course they all have unique properties. Out of all these only one could be deemed necessary, Apple Notes. It’s free, syncs to all Apple devices and allows collaboration with others. But it is so.damn.ugly. Bear Notes is all that and customizable. Worth the $15 annually in my mind. Day One is a private, digital journal that is not worth it to me anymore. Good Notes allows you to use your iPad and Pencil to scribble notes. I have physical notepads for this now. Obsidian is not only my second brain and pensieve but a repository for my notes. The same notes that are hosted in iCloud and now redundant.
The verdict: D1, GN and Obsidian are no longer on my devices. That’s three down.
Everything Else
As subscriptions come to an end I will review 1in a future blog post of course and assess their worthiness. Chances are I will go with the stock Apple apps for these. I don’t mind supporting small developers and their wonderful applications but subscription bloat is real. Their software is redundant and causes paralysis by over analysis.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
James Clear, Atomic Habits
Micro Photo
I want to start posting images, maybe not daily but close to it. This will be a running log and who knows how long it lasts?
D.R.
Missing the Dominican Republic and testing a new code embedding url from Vimeo to my website. It works!
Signal vs. Noise
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
James Clear, Atomic Habits
Writing on the WWW
Own your website. It’s important because you control the format now and forever if you want to. No social media because that isn’t yours. Your social media account is just renting space until you are evicted.
Buy a domain name, choose a blog host, install WordPress blogging software on it. Once you are about 50% content with the way your own site looks, move on to long form and short form writing, photos, drawings, whatever you fancy… because it is yours. Leave the final 50% for slow, and incremental enhancements along the way. If you’re wondering what style or format you should write, write as though if you were writing a friend in an email.
Categorize and tag your posts for future reference and easy search on a topic you wrote 5 years ago. You’ll thank yourself later.
While going through the downloaded archives of my old Twitter account, I realized several things which are going to shape the way I write on the web in the future.
The mundane rituals of the past will now seem fascinating in 10 years time, because you see that things have changed and have also stayed the same. Such as living in a different state(s), or you’re now with someone else. Taking a moment to capture your life as it is now helps nostalgia down the road.
2006–10–25 19:37:06 +0000 My obligatory first tweet here on TWTTR.
2007–12–07 03:42:50 +0000 still can’t get Photoshop working and now I can’t open the RAW images I took from my new Nikon D200 camera. @#$%@*&
2012–01–17 21:30:40 +0000 Relocating to Tulsa in T-minus 12 hours.
2012–12–07 13:50:58 +0000 Holy shit I turned 40 today.
Twitter: @mojodenbow
Those tweets are well and good for documenting the times but how much more valuable are they on your own website? Social media isn’t forever, they come, go and most will take all the effort you put into it with them. I can look back fondly on my brief flirtation with both Linux and Windows operating systems, or a photo of my daughter from 2009 easily.
JANUARY 1, 2013 / CHRIS / INFODENBOW
HAPPY GNU YEAR
I’ve taken on another project that involves diving deep inside the Linux operating itself. For a few years I’ve been using a dual boot hybrid desktop using Ubuntu and Windows 7. I’ve added the Fedora distribution inside a virtual machine inside Ubuntu and deleted the Windows partition. Oh, and GNU = “Gnu’s Not Unix”
So I continue generating text, photos, doodles and anything else I want. For me. This website is a kinetic journal and I plan to continue doing this right to the end. I suggest everyone create their own website here on the WWW.
Microblogging
I’ve embraced the idea… that a short update or single photo post counts. In the past I would send a tweet or an image to somewhere else on someone else’s social site. No more. Not when a quick post here will suffice. Because these tweets and images are equal to a blog post here. Everything I post to my personal websites have the same weight.
Connectile Dysfunction
I’ve made posting to this site as easy as I’m capable of but still restricted due to no SSL certificate assigned to this micro site sub domain. This blocks my writing software from posting automagically to this site. So manual it is. Too much friction.