Everyday Carry Update

For many years, I’ve carried a pocket knife and a flashlight every single day. And not just any. I have gone through countless iterations over the years. When you dive into the EDC world, you’ll find a vast number of opinions singing the praises of one brand/steel/LED/etc. At the end of the day, it’s all personal preference.

The sweet spot for a high-end knife these days is probably in the $300 range. However, most people would be perfectly content with a $30 Victorinox Cadet or something off-the-shelf at a sportman’s store. It really is a whatever-works-for-you thing. But here’s the deal, some people would drop $1,000+ on a grail (to them) folding knife. Does it offer additional utility over the $30 option? No, in fact, you could argue it offers less utility.

The same goes for flashlights. Yes, you can grab a light for $500+. You can also get...

3D Printing

For years, I’ve considering diving into the 3D Printing game, but for one reason or another I’ve always held off. But this week, I finally took the plunge and ordered a BambuLab A1 with AMS and a few other accessories. I’d been considering that exact model for a month or two, and I couldn’t resist when they announced their anniversary sale.

I know I’ll need to print a couple things for the printer itself first thing, but what are some things you suggest printing? I know I’m going to print some EDC stuff, a few household things, and stuff for the kids. I’ve also looked into some organization things like underware and gridfinity that I may play around with.

I’m open to any and all suggestions.

Plumbing Issues

We’ve been in our current house for over 5 years, and we’ve had constant issues with our kitchen sink not...

Today’s roundup will be a little different. Instead of focusing on 3-4 specific broader thoughts, I’m just gonna drop a handful of small tidbits. Straight to it…

Once you’re a husband, dad, and homeowner, you should really invest in quality tools as the need arises. Items like Knipex Cobra Pliers, Wera Tool Check Plus, and the Leatherman Arc are great places to start. Buy hand tools as you need them, but opt for quality if you ever see yourself using them more than a few times. I’m thinking of doing a quick video of my Leatherman Arc detailing accessories and mods I’ve made.

The feature on AppleTVs where you can connect multiple bluetooth headphones at once is one of the best unsung features of any Apple product. Speaking of Apple, I’m enjoying the new powerful Spotlight in macOS Tahoe. It’s obviously just beta 1 (and it does have issues),...

Apple Beta Software

I know it’s risky, but I installed the initial developer betas on my iPhone and Mac. Some years I do it, some I don’t. I have no criteria whatsoever that helps determine when I do and don’t other than impulse. Here are a few of my initial thoughts that I have not seen expressed elsewhere:

• The default Safari bar isn’t my favorite. I don’t think I should have to tap twice just to see my other tabs¹. Fortunately, there’s a setting you can change to remedy this without losing the Liquid Glass design.
• Messages has slightly more powerful filtering now, including showing your drafts which is a nice touch.
• Apple Intelligence in Shortcuts is going to be a bigger feature than people realize. I quickly created one that allows me to add a short note to the notes app. First it takes my input, corrects grammar,...
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Email Changes

Over the years, I’ve changed my email setup countless times. Off the top of my head, I’ve used everything from Gmail to ProtonMail to iCloud Mail to Fastmail (and more). Every time, I’ve taken the steps to transfer email between old and new services. For the last few years, I’ve been using iCloud Mail with custom domains. For the most part, I was content with the setup.

However, as things in my life have changed over the last couple of years, I need more integrations/automations connected to my email. I recently made the decision to switch back to Gmail. I know, I know, privacy and security and all that. At the end of the day, I made the decision (after a lot of research) that the trade-offs weren’t as severe as some people claim. Is it perfect? No, of course not. But it’s acceptable in my case.

My work email...

Baseball Travel

Every year, we do our best to catch a couple Atlanta Braves games. Some years, that involves travel to Atlanta. A couple years ago, however, MLB changed their schedule to make very team play every other team (regardless of league and division). This means, for example, that the Braves will play the Astros every season. One season in Atlanta, the next in Houston.

This works out great for us, being from Louisiana. Every other season, we can watch the Braves within a 3 hour drive. Fortunately, in the other seasons, they play in Arlington, TX (Rangers). That’s a 6 hour drive for us, but that’s still shorter than the trek to Atlanta. This is an Arlington year, and we just bought tickets for the July games.

Last time we went, my son got a ball in batting practice (we snuck in, but that’s a whole different story) AND a foul...

Tiny Theme 3

I’ve been working hard on a major update to Tiny Theme. If all goes well, it should be released in the next couple of weeks. It’ll include internationalization support (currently 10 different languages), better date formatting, category counts, and summary callouts. You’ll be able to choose your browser accent color, disable footer credits, and more in the settings page without needing to code anything.

I’ve also created a design/development mode that can help when you’re trying to tweak the theme using css. There’s more than that too. If you’re currently using Tiny Theme, all microhooks should seamlessly work between versions. Let me know if you’re interested in beta testing.

Screen Recording

I’ve been doing more screen recording projects lately, and that got me looking into the different software packages. I’ve used things like Loom, CleanShot X, and Quicktime in the past. They’re all tremendous, but I wanted to...

ToDo App Update

I’ve been using Todoist for quite a while (Apple Reminders before that), but I recently stumbled across Godspeed. It has a lot of essential things for me such as recurring based on scheduled date OR completion date, adding tasks to any list via email, and a fully working API.

In less than 1 hour, I was able to create an account, migrate everything from Todoist (flawlessly), and create a public facing page for our organization that displays a public list of actionable items using the API. To accomplish all of that so quickly and easily says a lot about the quality of Godspeed.

If you’re currently using Todoist, Things, Omnifocus, or Apple Reminders, I highly recommend Godspeed. The developer, Daniel de Haas, also responds lightning fast to any inquiries.

To make it even better, Godspeed provided me with a 25% off offer for your subscription. They did not...

Reading

I’m now about 25% through Book 11 of 13 of The Last Kingdom series. I’ve enjoyed it very much and highly recommend it if you’re into historical fiction. The Netflix series of the same title is based on the novels. I’m currently on the lookout for what I’ll read after this series.

I do almost all of my reading on the current generation Kindle Paperwhite, generally acquiring books via Libby or CloudLibrary¹.

3 Screens

I use a MacBook Pro at home (by itself) and at my office (docked in a 3-screen setup). Window managements was frustrating me, especially when moving back-and-forth. There are apps that can help with this (like Moom), but it’s wasn’t perfect for me. For now, I’m happen with setting windows using a single keyboard shortcut created with the excellent Keyboard Maestro app. You can read more about my Continue Reading →