In case you don’t know, it’s very hot 🔥.
Yesterday, I went to see The Muppets Take Manhattan at the Museum of the Moving Image. The Muppets are ageless and always relatable, as were the people who came to the viewing - all ages, colors, and sizes - just like the muppets themsleves.
As Pete said, “We’re all just people.”
Trying to improve my workflow with Outlook and Emacs… and getting a headache. Nothing. My workplace blocks any third-party syncing options with Outlook, so I’m unable to set up email inside Emacs. Outlook doesn’t even generate links to an email (without API, which I have no access to)
28 Days Later, 2002 - ★★
I wanted to watch this again before its sequel, 28 years later - and then I found out there's also 28 Weeks Later. Seems like I have work to do.
28 Days Later sets us up with our usual blend of zombie apocalypse with its own little twists; there's nothing too original that we haven't seen before, one way or another. What is a bit different is that this movie is not about the zombi.. err, infected, as much as it's about human nature and violence.
Toward the end, there's a bit lord of the Flies kind of thing going on, but with grown men instead of.. You know what? Scratch that, they're nothing more than children with guns. This is also the point where the protagonist goes through some near death experience that tranfsform him into a lean mean killing machine who can take on the soliders and the infected and save his girlfriend who up to that point was a doing fine kicking ass on her own, but you know, her hero is around so now she's poor and helpless and can't do anything. They even got her a dress and all. That's where the movie went from 3 - 3.5 for me to a mere two stars.
Not sure if I want to watch the next one, hopefully it's not the same formula again.
micro.blog is one of the few places I know where not all the blogs are made by web developers or IT folks. Not that I have anything against IT folks (I am one myself) - I just wish more people would feel comfortable having their own website. I feel like it’s almost like having a driving license.
I haven’t used this coffee ☕️ beaker in a while. Very fitting when I’m writing about org-mode experiments.
Adjusting my org-mode workflow
I decided I don’t want to keep my meeting notes in Journelly after all. Meanwhile, trying to figure out a way to convert Outlook emails into org-mode projects.
I was trying to summarize some of the things I like about Orion on macOS, but there’s a lot I’m still learning. All in all, it’s growing on me. Here are some of the highlights:
- Dark mode for individual websites is nice, especially when the rest of the windows are dark
- Compatibility mode is a quick way to lift ad blockers and disable extensions for websites that don’t work with those
- Vertical tabs.
- Links from the page you’re on show under it as sub-tabs.
- You can organize tabs into workspaces for individual projects
- Tabs can also be auto-hidden
- Extensions from Chrome and Firefox allow me extra privacy and tweaking.
Worries
I’m voicing some of my worries about the current situation in the US and Israel. This is a political post, so stay away from it if you don’t want to deal with it.
Been meaning to write some opinions about Orion for macOS, but I’m running out of time. In the meantime, does anyone use Orion on iOS and know how to turn on reader mode there? It’s very handy on Safari.
In other personal tech news, going back to Apple Mail and Apple Calendar for my stuff. Outlook makes it easy to see everything in one place (I have to use it for work), but I don’t like to see work stuff when I just want to check on friends and hobbies. I must be getting grumpier.
I downloaded the Orion browser from Kagi. So far, I’m not really impressed. It’s… fine, but it doesn’t do anything much different, and some muscle-memory things (like double-clicking the tab to get the URL) don’t work or work differently. Meh.
I just found out Kagi made its assistant available to all paying customers, meaning I can use quite a few LLMs (like ChatGPT or Gemini) directly from Kagi, included in my plan.
I don’t fully understand how the token system works or how it’s used to determine the search’s cost, but it seems like I’m not going to run out anytime soon.
Like the rest of Kagi, AI is available if you want it - it’s not shoved in your face everywhere you go (looking at you Microsoft) as if it’s the damn messiah delivering you from the horror of search. Search is still enjoyable - especially on Kagi. I don’t understand exactly how the token system works and how it’s used to determine how costly the search is, but it looks like I’m not going to run out any time soon.
Like the rest of Kagi, AI is availble if you want it - it’s not shoved in your face everywhere you go (looking at you Microsoft) like it’s the damn massiah delivering you from the horror of search. Search is still fun - especially on Kagi.
compressing mp4 files while keeping better quality with dwim in Emacs
DWIM tools for Emacs by Rameriez are already excellent, but even better, they let you build your own commands. Here’s my first one: reducing the size of MP4 files while retaining better quality.
Journelly is having me try a new perspective
I want to try to keep my journal notes in Journelly, and that requires rethinking how I journal. I also discovered (with help) a Syncthing iOS client!
I wish I could use Journelly's new location features, but...
Journelly keeps getting updated with good features. One of the latest features I noticed (I’m not sure if it was part of the latest patch) is that locations tagged with entries can be revisited in iOS Maps from the app. This makes Journelly a good spot to save locations and integrate them with personal memories, to be revisited later on the map. I would like to use this (instead of, say, a saved of locations on Google Maps), but I can’t - for two reasons.
The first one, which I can work around, is that the list of entries on Journelly quickly becomes long, and finding where you were a couple of weeks ago requires some scrolling. While Journelly has a search option, I usually don’t remember the name of the place I’m searching for, which is why I’m searching for it in the first place. Still, I could probably look for who I was with at the time, or even better, use the tagging feature, which was introduced a couple of weeks ago, for, say, “#cafes” to filter down cafes only.
The other issue is more challenging: I don’t keep my notes in Journelly. I keep refiling my entries into my main journal file. That file, while still on my Mac, is not synced with iCloud. Call me paranoid, but I don’t trust Apple’s iCloud with my personal notes along with my pictures throughout the years. As far as I’m concerned, Apple just has a better PR department than Google and Microsoft, and they only care about their users' privacy as long as it’s what looks good in the news. Because of that, I am not comfortable with Journelly being my archive of notes. There could be other options besides iCloud, but as far as I know, they all involve a cloud company somewhere. On Android and macOS, I still use the excellent Syncthing, which doesn’t involve any cloud storage. However, Syncthing doesn’t work on iOS, so I’m out of luck.
Besides these two issues (which have nothing to do with the app), the app is terrific. It’s amazing how polished and responsive it is.
This morning, made Seitan tacos as part of improving my cholesterol intake. I don’t know that I’ll go full vegan, but I’ll go back to “my roots” and past it. 📷
Ackerman talks about the different owl explorers in her book. At the beginning, I didn’t know what to make of it, but I came to like it. The explorers, much like the birds, have their own interesting stories. So far very few are “ traditional” scientist. What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman 📚
I was looking for something to write about, but instead spent some time reading. “You know what,” I thought, “let me just post what I have open on my browser right now.” Good idea, me. Let’s call this “In the Tabs”:
- The NASA picture of the day of Jupiter is nice. I love the colors. Wallpaper material.
- Manton interviewed the maker of Kagi search engine, which I use every day. Turns out he kinda has his own irregular podcast of sorts, Timetable.
- (via irreal): Awesome Emacs on macOS from the guy who made one of my currently favorite apps, Journelly. When he talks Emacs, I listen, or er, read.
- The New Yorker has an appropriate cartoon about Musk leaving Doge. Good riddance.
- Manuel is frustrated and has stuff to say on Browsers, AI, and the web. He got a point. Several of them actually, as he usually does. Worth a read.
My partner knows me apparently, and has sent me an owl treatment. Warning: this site may cause you to go “awww” and “omg how cute!”
Some instances of loud laughter are also known to happen. Treat with caution.
Owls in Towels owlsintowels.org
They’re on BlueSky too.
