2022

Shot in the dark here. Anyone looking to sell a Fujifilm X100V or Ricoh GR III?

Annual reminder that your in-laws WiFi password is taped to the bottom of their modem/router combo.

I’m going to push this until the end of the year, because it’s a crazy deal. Join OMG.lol for $5/yr (no autopay required). Price goes up to $20/yr Jan 1. Even if you’re unsure if you’ll use it, sign up for it to get that price. Features a blog, pastebin, landing page, & way more.

After a lot of tinkering, I think I’ve managed to create a Drafts/Shortcuts combination that allows me to post everything to Micro.blog from directly within Drafts (including posts with titles, posts without titles, images, and link posts). On top of that, it all works on Mac and iOS.

I was 0-2 on tonight’s @ivory@tapbots.social alpha invite party. The struggle is real.

A Few Thoughts on My Blogging and Social Media Setup

Even before the Elon-Runs-Twitter era, I was starting the process of creating a more seamless and less time consuming online strategy. I knew I wanted to keep my blog. I knew I wanted to limit my social media exposure without completely leaving it behind. The first steps were easy: Delete my Facebook profile along with the Facebook and Messenger apps Make my Instagram account read-only, private, and largely inactive But What About Blogging?

I’m surprised at the amount of companies telling you “refund is being processed” and “no need to ship it back.” I understand the logic, but it seems that opens the door for some easy theft. So far, I’ve seen it from Amazon and Target.

If you haven’t signed up for OMG.lol, what exactly are you waiting for? I mean, $5/year is more than worth it!

Mini golf time with the family. Brigsby (6) has been asking to go for a while, and we finally found the time to play a round!

Scientists Achieve Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough With Blast of 192 Lasers

That changed at 1:03 a.m. on Dec. 5 when 192 giant lasers at the laboratory’s National Ignition Facility blasted a small cylinder about the size of a pencil eraser that contained a frozen nubbin of hydrogen encased in diamond. NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/science/nuclear-fusion-energy-breakthrough.html This is over-my-head for the most part, but when a paragaph includes phrases like “192 giant lasers” and “frozen nubbin,” you have to share it.

It took a while to update every Apple device I have, but I managed to get through it and enable Advanced Data Protection without issue.

What is your code editor of choice? I’ve been a BBEdit fan for ages.

You know how movies sometimes have that intimate “downtown” area? We are fortunate to live 1 block from that type of place (still only 15 minutes from a bigger city). Tomorrow is the annual close-the-streets small town Christmas party. Add a love story and it’s a Hallmark movie.

How to Show Micro.blog Bookshelf on Any Page

If you’re using Micro.blog and the accompanying Bookshelves feature, you can show a book (or selection of books) on any page of your site. Use the code below and follow the directions to get started. See my home page for a live example. Have questions? Let me know in the comments. Copy and paste it into your theme Change currentlyreading to the name of your selected bookshelf Style using css to your heart’s content

After going somewhat frequently, it’s now been 4 years since our last trip to Hawaii. Mostly thanks to COVID. I think it’s about time we head back. 📷

It will be politicized. Some will think it’s a lie or impossible. Despite that, this is a big announcement from Apple that everyone should get behind.

I have a Mystery Ranch 3-Way Briefcase available for sale. Lightly used, no rips/tears. Comes with strap. No zipper issues. $110 shipped. Ask for them and I’ll throw in some new Field Notes as well.

My favorite feature of OMG.lol so far is the Pastebin. I actually like that’s it’s basically feature-less. That alone is worth the $5/yr.

So should I sign up for omg.lol?

If you are using a custom theme (or have just customized an available theme) for Micro.blog, drop a link in the replies. Would love to see what you’ve done!

Any bag or EDC people out there? I’ve got a very lightly used Mystery Ranch 3 Way Briefcase (Black) available. Let me know if interested.

As a Kindle user, I’ve always been underwhelmed with the on-device font options. I would alternate between Bookerly & Ember, but never loved either. I finally took time to add multiple custom fonts. After lots of back-and-forth, I’ve landed on good ole Georgia. What do you use?

Entertaining the idea of trading in my Kindle Oasis for a Scribe (can stack some discounts). But as of now, I think I’m leaning towards holding on to the Oasis. The main appeal of the Scribe is the larger screen, but it may be too large. I won’t use it for notes. Only reading.

This was last year. Feels about the last time one of us did not have a cold or cough. Of course that’s an exaggeration, but the last few weeks have been quite the challenge. 🙏🏻

Has anyone seen an actual hands-on review of the new Kindle Scribe?

I still have to clean things up on the backend, tweak a few design elements, and work on a couple more features, but my new micro.blog theme is live. I went with the now page strategy.

Is Pinboard still active? I know the dev was taking a year off of some things, but it seems the blog has gone offline and there have been no status updates that I’ve seen.

She woke up and decided Black Friday should be deep clean the kitchen day.

A day late on the Thanksgiving pic because I was in the land of no signal. Rowyn (the 3 year old) was very excited about this photo opportunity. 📷 🦃

Happy unsubscribe-from-emails day to all who celebrate.

My free $5 of Bitcoin from PayPal isn’t doing so well.

There’s nothing quite like cold weather and sickness to make you miss warmth and the outdoors.

I’m seriously debating leaving Instagram. I’m trying to determine if I want to sign up for Glass (or similar) as a replacement or just live without. Anyone made that move recently?

I don’t see Mastodon as a whole going mainstream. I could see a scenario where a specific instance does, but even that seems far fetched (cost, moderation, etc). It’s just too spread out and complicated for the average user.

Notes About Taking Notes

Thanks to a short post (and a long thread of comments), I decided to re-think how I capture daily notes. I’m hardly a heavy note-taker, but I do have times when they’re needed. Weekly Executive Staff Meeting Monthly All-Hands Staff Meeting Desktop Scratchpad Everyday Notes Digital Notes Bonus: Writing (Pens) Let’s take each one of those individually. But first a heads-up…you’ll notice one product line keeps popping up. Weekly Executive Staff Meeting This is an informal touching base type of meeting.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a gem of a novel. Hidden within a seemingly random conversation between two characters, I discovered my new mantra.

How are people using both micro.blog and Mastodon? Cross posting? Using individually? Some other creative way?

Tried out Arc Browser for a while, but it just has too many limitations for my use. The lack of a mobile version (thus no syncing) and no iCloud password access are the dealbreakers for me.

First fire of the year. Not many opportunities here.

I have learned way more than I ever thought I’d need to know about trademarks, BIMI, DMARC, etc over the last couple weeks.

I made a very simple landing page of sorts for the domain my wife and I use for email. There are always a few people who visit the domain to verify our email authenticity (particularly when using PayPal, etc). Maybe it’ll serve as enough verification for them.

Finished reading Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr today. It’s a fantastic and unique story that I would recommend to almost anyone.

Took the day off to go ice skating with my son for his 6th birthday. We had the entire rink to ourselves.

I’ve been a recent convert to the Kindle + Libby setup for reading. Disappointed I didn’t dive into that ages ago. The Kindle Oasis (got it for a steal) makes all the difference for me.

I’ve still got a few things left to tweak (dark mode for example), but I’m happy with my new micro.blog theme. Clean and simple.

GoRuck GR2 26L

I’ve always been a believer in having a nice bag when possible. Often times, people put thousands of dollars of equipment (laptop, phone, iPad, Kindle, chargers, adapters, batteries, cameras, books, etc) in a $40 bargain basement bag. It just doesn’t make sense! There are many solid options in a variety of price ranges. Today, I’m going to take a quick look at the GoRuck GR2 26L. My Uses These bags are almost indestructible.

I’m still struggling to find the ideal read-it-later/consumption service. Instapaper hasn’t evolved, Pocket isn’t my thing. Matter is OK. Readwise’s Reader (beta) is strong but is trying to do too much (like Feedbin, Inoreader). Any suggestions?

Having quite the productive day. Knocked out a good bit of day job stuff, redesigned my blog, and booked a small Christmas family getaway.

I’m currently reading Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr and loving it. His Pulitzer winning book, All the Light We Cannot See, is one of my favorites from the past 10 years. So far it seems CCL may be better. 📚

A Day in the Life. Around 10am in Lafayette, Louisiana.

I took the plunge and invested in a new AppleWatch Ultra. I’m a big guy, so I appreciate the extra size. Having said that, it looks just fine on almost anyone (my more petite wife included). I’m a big fan of the default (Ultra-exclusive) watch face as well. I went with both the Ocean band and Alpine Loop, but the Ocean one has been my favorite so far.

How to Ship

Ben Brooks at Brooks Review (link is behind a paywall) recently posted some tips for shipping items. I do a lot of the same things he does but with a few slight differences. My process is the best cheap/easy combination I’ve been able to find. PayPal has a solid built-in integration with Shipstation, but you have to jump through a few hoops from time to time to make it work (particularly if you don’t use Goods & Service or Purchase Protection).

My lil guy loves some baseball.

I’m a big fan of the new Omega x Swatch watches, but it looks like I’ll have a long wait before I can grab one (or ten).

It’s nice to have baseball things happening again. My oldest (5) became obsessed with it last season, and I promised him we’d go to a game or two early this season. For a while, that looked to be in jeopardy. Luckily, our plans are good to go.

Well, at least we still have baseball here.

I was able to snag an Okluma DC0 today. A particularly mind-bending purchase if you’re not familiar with the industry, but a profitable one if you understand the market/uses.

Wife and kids grabbed me a new Bugout for Valentine’s Day this year.

The dishwasher goes out and suddenly the whole robot apocalypse thing sounds like a promising future.

My son (5) really got into baseball last season. He’s been begging to go see the Braves in person this year. They’re supposed to play in Arlington (6 hours drive) early this coming season, but I’m having to hold off on reservations/tickets because of the lockout. Hopefully this all gets straightened out soon or I’m going to have one really disappointed kid. ⚾️

Ordered a new D4V2 dual channel today. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you should.

We recently traveled to Waco, TX for a quick family trip.

I was an early adopter of micro.blog, but I left it after a while. I think it’s time I get back into this.