I mentioned that micro.blog now connects with movies and shows directly, so it’s even more convenient to write quick thoughts about a movie I watched. I don’t always want to commit to a whole review, and many times I don’t add something right away because I need to make the time to write a full review on Letterbox for it to show on my blog; now, this friction point is gone, and I can even add shows that I watch, which is a welcome addition. I watch more shows and often have more thoughts about an episode I watched than I do about movies.

This led me to think about centralizing again. I like that I can save everything on my blog for two reasons: first, it’s one place for everything; I don’t need to have an app for movies and a separate place for photos, and then also have my blog. It’s all here. It’s all accessible. This, of course, leads to the “all eggs in one basket” problem, which is why I make frequent updates of my blog (posts and uploads) just in case. Micro.blog is very convenient to export from, which is a critical requirement for me.

Still, I worry. I worry that Micro.blog will go away one day, and then I will have to find a range of separate solutions again. I worry I will need to re-invent my workflow, which I do quickly from muscle memory now.

The web in general and tech today are mostly built into silos. If I want to talk to more people about Emacs and org-mode, I need to go to Reddit, which is locked away and regularly bans my alternative accounts because I use a VPN. This doesn’t change the fact that Reddit is a place I have to go to often to interact with people, because, well, that’s where people go. Superuser forms and the like are a little better, but not by much. Discord is another platform that I don’t like but have to put up with, because that’s what the “kids” use today, and if I want support and a good community, then, yes, some of those Discord “servers” (I hate that they use this term) are the place to go.

I know I’m an old man yelling at clouds. I know that the people on Reddit or Discord or whatever don’t know anything else and don’t have even a sense of perspective of what privacy can mean, of what truly “off the cloud” can mean. It’s a losing argument I’m not willing to have anymore. I just nod quietly and say “yeah, that’s nice” when someone mentions a new flashy app. And besides, as a person on macOS Tahoe, I am somewhat of a hypocrite myself. The only truly non-cloud app I use daily is Emacs, and even though Emacs works well on the Mac, it requires preparations and know-how that other people just don’t know exists (try to explain Homebrew to a “regular” person, and why they might need it).

I like technology and new tools. There are many good, amazing things out there, and I would be a fool not to be aware of and not to use them out of sheer principle. I talked about photography last week and how I’m leaving Photoshop behind (just look under the Archive section, too many posts to link directly to), and I’m glad I can take photos with my phone and edit them to a satisfactory level there, without even firing up my Mac, for example. This means less friction, which means more photos, and that’s part of the point.

Is there a point I’m trying to get to…? No, not really. There’s something cooking, but it’s not ready yet. I think I’m just setting the stage. We will see.