It’s that time of year when publishers, artists and generally most in the media like to focus on the “Best Of” for that calendar year. So, I thought it would be a good time to roll out the first ever Denbow Awards.
Books
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Project Hail Mary
The Plot
Strange Beasts of China
Apps
Obsidian
Feedbin
Geocache
Hipstamatic
Games
Asphalt 8
Alto’s Odyssey
Both games are from Apple Arcade and, for me, the only games I really play. If it wasn’t a part of the Apple One subscription, I wouldn’t play them, but they are both excellent ways to enjoy some downtime.
Film
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the only movie I have seen in theaters this year. A nice continuity from the original actors’ story line and to the next generation.
Matrix: Resurrections- I haven’t seen this yet, but I am eagerly anticipating this, so we’ll call that a win.
TV
WandaVision- Disney Plus
Foundation- Apple TV
Tech
iPad Pro M1 2021
Music
I tried to break the Apple Music algorithms by listening to different genres. You can click here for the Audio Denbow radio station and Apple has set up their annual review of most played songs for me on Replay 2021.
Podcasts
My podcast listening has been limited, but I’ll note my two favorites here anyway. Smartless and Camp Monsters.
“SmartLess” with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind.”
“These are the stories of impossible encounters with impossible creatures in the wildest corners of North America. We’ll travel the country, sit around campfires and talk about that thing that ran across the trail in the middle of the night, just beyond the beam of your flashlight. Come closer to the fire. Let’s hear the next legend.”
And that’s it! The first annual Denbow Awards show has come to a close. It’s been a good year for entertainment and technology, and I cannot wait to see what is in store for 2022.
A few months ago I wrote about my own publishing house and how much fun I was having. Even more recently I mentioned that I wanted to branch out by creating digital photo zines. After jumping on a Black Friday deal, I finally decided on Affinity Publisher over Adobe InDesign.
It didn’t take long to work out the basics of the software app, so I combined some images and text, hit “publish”, converted to the PDF format and done. I then uploaded it to Apple Books for easier, more enjoyable reading. Assuming there are any interested parties, the download link is a .pdf. Enjoy!
Long-form writing is becoming a lost art during these days of short attention spans. With all the media content available to us, our time feels limited, so we want to maximize our consumption time. Blogs have been taken over in favor of quick social media posts. Twitter limits a tweet to 140 characters. Tik-Tok and Instagram promote short video clips, etc.
Microfiction is the natural progression of all this. It is considered to be even shorter than the short story genre. Much like a haiku, it forces concise wording to tell a story. There is no set word limit, but the general guideline is 100-101 words to tell your story. The trick is to make it meaningful enough to make an impact, as opposed to having your reader hop on to the next nano story.
How to start: Come up with an idea, create a rough draft, check your work count and revise to fit. Ulysses writing app is brilliant for this.
Where to publish: On your website first, of course. Then, save your work as a PDF and distribute to your interested followers, either for free or fee. Thereafter, use the same social media platforms if you must. There are even publishing houses looking for microfiction authors.
Finally: Microfiction is a tiny sub-genre (see what I did there?) in the writing/reading world. You won’t earn a lot of money from it, but the challenge itself can be very rewarding.
In an effort to keep my library and current reads organized, I purchasedBook Track. It is a simple but gorgeous app that is easy to use. Just take a picture of the ISBN barcode on your book and it does the rest. You can mark the progress of your reading, create a wish list and more. My collection and reading progress is not up to date but I hope to change this soon. Eventually I’ll get to the point where my Library page and this app will be in sync. In the future, I’m considering doing book reviews with notes that I have added.
A few days ago I mentioned I am back in minimalist mode. I want to reduce the amount of possessions, or stuff that I do not need and appreciate what I have. I want to make everything I have useful and appreciate it. I’ve had a lot of success, donating clothes, shoes and trading in physical media like record albums, movie discs and yes, books. I know, I know. Getting rid of books is tantamount to blasphemy to some.
I enjoy reading, always have. If I am not reading a book, then I am reading content online or e-books. But I am drawn to books because of the tactile nature. The feel, the smell and the looks of them. Drop me off at a library or bookstore and pick me hours later.
Reading books transports me to the places I want to go and explore, it stimulates my mind, they relax me right before I go to sleep and they have been comforting while in my home office when I take a break, grab something from the bookshelf, sit in the comfy chair and relax.
I’m learning to let go of physical books for long periods of time. I don’t need an anti-library. But the process of removing them was easier than I hoped. I sorted what I wanted and parted with those I don’t. During a move across country, I would squeeze my vast library into about 25 totes that were a burden to carry and transport. I am down to sixteen physical books after ruthlessly culling the herd.
The winter season is almost here and I anticipate a lot of free time will be spent reading. So my thinking is to plan what to read specifically for the next few months.
A minimalist’s approach to reading can be just as rewarding as having your own physical library but without all the occupied space.
Screenshot from Libby, the public library app
Here’s what I plan to do:
Purge those books I haven’t gotten around to reading or are a one-time use.
Borrow from the library, either physical or digital books.
Sell, trade or give away the rest of the books I no longer need.
Get comfortable reading from the iPad.
Organize my digital libraryusing my BookTrack software much like a librarian, or curator would. I can enjoy thousands of books on one space-saving, portable device wherever I go.
I will no longer purchase digital books. After closing my Amazon and Google accounts a few years ago, I lost all ability to read them because I purchased a license and not a product.
I’ve mentioned books in this post but the same can be applied to all physical media like record albums, DVDs, etc. Streaming or borrowing digital media on multiple devices is quite liberating and minimal.
After scanning the website and cleaning up some design code, I came across the Library page. It has been neglected and needed a good dusting off. So of course I neglected it again but that will change soon as I also rediscovered an e-book resource called Standard E-Books and need to make room for new additions.
I just downloaded and installed more copies of public domain classics in beautiful modern formats. So this is just in time for cooler weather and curling up with a good, uh, iPad.
Screenshot from my Apple Books library. Page 3 out of 10 (not shown)
In anticipation of the upcoming movie versions of these sci-fi classics this fall, I am reading both Dune and Foundation. Dune was written in the 1960’s and Foundation was released in the 1950’s so does their relevance stack up over time? Hopefully the theatrical releases will both do the novels justice and still be relevant to modern viewers.
As usual, the library has my desired titles on hold for weeks, and then seems to release them all at once. If I don’t check them out promptly, they’ll go to the next patron and I’ll need to wait for even more weeks.
This week, there are four titles that I am reading all at once. I just finished one so make it three more to go.
Side note: I’m enjoying the Book Buddy iOS app that allows me to log what I am reading and have read. More on this later.
This is the sixteenth year I have had the internet deliver me updates using the website feed aggregation protocol and it just keeps getting better. RDF Site Summary, or Real Simple Syndication, helps me stay up to date with my favorite websites, blogs, podcasts and some social media channels. Instead of visiting a hundred different websites to find new articles, or posts, I subscribe to their RSS feed which is then aggregated into an RSS reader.
This is old school internet technology, much like the e-mail client. They’re still around because they are the best, most secure way of getting information (the internet’s first function.)
I am in control of the content I want to see, not a publisher force feeding me anything I don’t want. I choose topics of my interests and nothing more. Unless, I am forced to go to a website for a news piece or weather, sports etc, I can’t be bothered.
Throughout the years, I’ve tried most of the RSS feed aggregators and currently I have settled on Reeder. Yes, it was $10 for the Mac and another $5 for iOS, but I am getting what I am paying for- features, privacy, security and the convenience. Thanks to the iCloud, all my feeds and articles are synchronized across all my devices. There is also a built-in read-it-later service that allows you to save an article for future reading or reference. No more web clippings or bookmarks on your desktop all over the place. For me, I’ll save the articles and then have the option to share outside the reader with a share extension. In my world, it’s either being shared via text or to my stand alone read-it-later app, Goodlinks. More on that one later.
For a clutter-free reading experience, I’ll usually have the web article render in Reader View. No advertisements bombarding your screen, no privacy violating trackers watching your every move. Gone. It’s just you and your text and images. I have never, ever clicked on an advertisement from the web. I do not want Google or Facebook or 40 other trackers knowing my interests. They don’t get to do that anymore. I don’t care if that is how they get paid. I won’t pay it anymore and you don’t have to either. (please tell me you use content blockers and reader view on all your websites you visit.)
Back to the RSS reader. Some websites will generate their feeds in truncated mode, which means they’ll give you a snippet of the article, then force you to press “More” which promptly takes you to their website and to the aforementioned ads, trackers and sponsorship links. Well, thanks to the built in Reader View, 95% of the articles are pulled up in the app instead, again with only text, photos and no bullshit. That’s a win.
I’ll just click that Reader button and stay right in my cozy little app instead, thank you.
YouTube
I like the idea, hate the advertisements and trackers. I’ve left Google awhile back and it has been such a relief to be out of that evil ecosystem. I digress. Thanks to a recent update, I can watch YT videos from creator’s channels. No advertisements, no algorithms, no suggested videos. Just content I want and no more all inside the feed reader. Brilliant.
Youtube subscriptions on the left, video on the right screen inside Reeder. No bullshit YT interface or ads.
Read-It-Later
Again, I can save the articles I want to keep for future reference inside the app, but I always like to have a dedicated RIL app. For years I used Instapaper, but they moved to a subscription service. No thanks. I went with GoodLinks as a one time purchase of $5 instead.
Using the share extension tool in Reeder, I’ll just pass my saved article to Goodlinks, ideally tagging it under a category for organized reference and it’ll be there waiting for me when needed. I say ideally tagged because saving articles can stack up quickly. It started off organized but…yeah, I haven’t kept up. Goodlinks is also accessing iCloud so I can enjoy my articles on all devices.
Share, organize, read it later
Requested feature
I tried another RSS reader called FeedBin and I loved it because it gave you a generic e-mail address where you can subscribe to newsletters. Newsletters are created by bloggers, thinkers that will create articles of interest all in one letter and push it out to your e-mail inbox. I like my inbox uncluttered and am very protective of it. My subscriptions would be redirected into the FeedBin app alongside the other blog posts, articles and YT videos. A perfect all-in-one solution but at $50 annually, I balked because those same subscriptions were delivered to my inbox for $0. I’ve already invested one time purchases equalling $20 for Reeder and Goodlinks and I am pretty pleased with this setup. I’d like to see more feed readers incorporate this feature and make it standard as opposed to an add-on.
Finally, do yourself a favor and get an RSS reader. Subscribe to all your favorite news sources and make them come to you instead of scrolling through their websites. Say no to advertisements, cross-website trackers and privacy invasion. Say yes instead to a more pleasant reading experience that you control.
When you do, be sure to add this humble little website’s RSS feed and enjoy
