“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations.”
– Mark Twain
Journal
Sunday Reads
Reading a book on a Sunday allows you to travel and escape. It will get you to think and think more and to ponder and sometimes have an epiphany. It will cause you to want to finally create that plan, write that long over-due letter and go on that hike. Sometimes it’ll get you to cry, to become a page-turner and/or laugh out loud.
Add some light jazz, a good beverage and perfect company and you get that Sunday bliss.
Currently reading “Rising Tiger” and listening to Julian Lage’s “Squint” album.
Publishing On The Go
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.
On Photography
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.
Photo Archive & Curation
2023 is the year I finally go RAID (redundant array of independent disks).
After that, a dedicated photo file server.
Then organize images with tags, keywords, geotags, faces. Easily searchable.
Convert to the Digital Negative format and use as backup
One Lightroom catalog per yearly archive as backup.
Make yearbook prints out of the top 24 images per year, two per month.
Apple Photos for cloud storage. Maybe even Flickr.
Suggested Reading
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?
RSS
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.
Want this website to be the first in your feed reader? Add me @ chrisdenbow.website/feed/
Solvitur Ambulando
Constant reminder to myself about the benefits of walking/hiking-
- Boosts mood
- Sharpens my thinking
- Increased energy
- Become more fit
- Increases creativity
- Pumps blood & oxygen to the brain
Walking is the most underrated tool to improve your physical, mental & emotional health and I’ve enjoyed my early morning saunters.
Overorganized & Underused
Over-organizing is a great way to procrastinate.
Am I doing something useful or am I avoiding something that is intellectually more difficult?
I am not an archivist.
But I want to curate my notes and articles.
I am not making notes for legal documents.
Just for me.
For 99.99% of my notes, lists, notebooks, drafts, files… done is better than perfect.
If I can reliably find my notes and figure out later on what I meant when I wrote it, that’s all I need.
The Batcave- GC6NMCX
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.
This Too Shall Pass
“If you feel the urge to write, just lie down and read a book: it will pass.”
Fran Lebowitz
Light Reading
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.