Finished reading: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 📚

A funny and sad story full of memorable characters. I enjoyed the flow of the book, as it often introduced something bizarre, but then shortly describes how it came to be.

Currently reading: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 📚

Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure, so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that’s probably because it’s full of shit.

📷 We were able to see the Northern Lights from our front porch. Pretty cool!

Why you need a “WTF Notebook”

For two weeks, that’s all I do. I just write it down. I don’t tell the team everything that I think they’re doing wrong. I don’t show up at retro with all the stuff I think they need to change. I just watch, and listen, and I write down everything that seems deeply weird.

For a couple of weeks, you observe and write down anything that makes you think “WTF” in your notebook. You are accumulating a list of things that are unusual from your outsider perspective. Later, you can meet with the team or group and review what you noted. An interesting approach.

🍿 The Fall Guy (2024) - ★★★★★

A fun action-comedy that pays tribute to stunt doubles.

🍿 Argylle (2024) - ★★★★☆

Argylle is a fun action comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which makes it easier to enjoy the over the top action.

🎵 Meteora by Linkin Park

Meteora

Linkin Park

Listening back, I forgot how many great songs are on this album. Each is a “banger” (is that what they say these days?).

I completed the Johnny.Decimal Workshop this week. The course itself if very well done and I highly recommend it. It was fun going through the process, thinking about the areas of my life and what type of content I have. I organized my Apple Notes and Files into the Johnny Decimal structure to see … read more

🎵 Pyromania by Def Leppard, Pyromania (Super Deluxe)

Pyromania

Def Leppard, Pyromania (Super Deluxe)

Pyromania was my first album I ever owned as a kid. I remember going to the store to buy a new Walkman and the Hysteria album because Pour Some Sugar on Me was a big deal at the time. The Hysteria album wasn’t available at the store, so I got Pyromania instead, which I never heard of. I’m so glad I did. It’s one of my favorites to this day.

I’m still using Feedbin as my one-stop for RSS, YouTube, and Newsletters. However, I started using the ReadKit app on iOS and macOS to sync my feeds.

I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It’s easy to swipe over to get the actual post, which is great for some types of content, like Micro.blog the timeline.

I added the archive page back to my blog, and it shows my categories as well as search, thanks to the Search Partial plugin by @gregmorris. I also highly recommend the Suprise Me plugin by @sod which gives you a way to load random posts. It’s a great way to reminisce.

🔗 Proton and Standard Notes are joining forces | Proton - proton.me

In the coming months, we hope to find ways to make Standard Notes more easily accessible to the Proton community. This way, in addition to protecting your email, calendar, files, passwords, and online activity, you can also protect your notes.

I’ve been using Proton Mail and Proton Pass as well as dabbling with Standard Notes. I’m interested to see what Proton does with Standard Notes over time.

Cortex 154: Workplace Therapy with Grey

I’m listening to Cortex 154, and they talk about email and Apple’s Focus Modes. They have the same grip I have with Focus Modes. I would rather not see the preview showing me what I’m missing. Show me when I leave the focus mode, not during!

Everywhere I look, I see negative posts about how the web is falling apart. Either by AI, politics, big corporations and a dozen other reasons. And everyone who hates seeing this happen seems to constantly write it. How they hate what the internet has become and miss what it once was. This seems to … read more

We were listening to an owl last night by and I thought I would take a quick picture from our back deck.

🔗 Building ActivityPub - activitypub.ghost.org

This means that, soon, Ghost publishers will be able to follow, like and interact with one another in the same way that you would normally do on a social network — but on your own website.

I love seeing Ghost start to implement ActivityPub. I’m not using Ghost myself currently, but it is still one of my favorite platforms.

🔗 Two years as an independent technologist - jmduke.com

All of this is to say: creative independence is not for everyone. My experiences may not — probably will not! — reflect yours, and my circumstances and context are probably different than yours.

I’ve always envied independent developers. For years, I’ve had an itch to create a service or app to share with the world.

I may lack the commitment and other attributes that are required to be successful.

Maybe someday.

🔗 Firebelly Tea

I’ve been experimenting with tea in the afternoon and before bed. I’m buying tea from the store and realize it’s not the best quality.

I wonder if this Firebelly tea is worth the cost. Or, perhaps there are other places to get quality tea.

Anyone casual tea drinker out there with suggestions for buying quality tea at a decent price?

🔗 AeroPress Coffee Maker

I’ve been using the pour-over method for a while. I thought I would give this AeroPress a try. So far, I’m happy with it. Great flavor and easy to clean. I didn’t realize the original only makes a 10oz serving, about half my usual. But I am trying to cut back, so I’ll see how it goes.

🔗 How to Trust the Internet - coleb.blog

I would love to see search results tagging AI articles as such, so we know before we click. Or browser extentions that show if a web article was written by an AI model. These features would go a long way in restoring my trust in the internet.

I’d rather AI-generated content like this not be allowed on the internet at all. However, I wonder, if search engines could display an indicator of AI content, that content would get substantially less traffic and desensitize this type of content to begin with.