Lessons about journalling and taking notes
Journaling has become an essential part of my life. I’m definitely in the digital notes camp, with the opinion that using a phone is faster and better in terms of search, but handwritten notes have their place too, especially when reflecting. A few tips if you want to start.
Denote includes the option of adding different directories, so this now makes sense:
(setq denote-directory
(if (eq system-type 'gnu/linux) ; If I'm using Linux, include the private folder.
(list (expand-file-name "~/Sync/Notes")
(expand-file-name "~/Documents/private"))
(list (expand-file-name "~/Sync/Notes")))) ; If I'm using anything else (macOS) just Notes.
(setq denote-excluded-directories-regexp "data") ; the data folder (with attachments) is excluded.
I have a private folder for Denote notes on Linux only. I used to only sync my Sync/Notes folder, which includes my informational notes and blog posts, but that means I’m missing out on Denote’s abilities in my private folder, which is slowly increasing in size. This solves this problem.
There’s no need to list the data folder (which includes my attachments, mostly in file formats that are not Denote’s format), so that’s why the exclusion is there.
Or Something, 2024 - ★★★½
I was on a flight back home when I picked this movie up, not knowing what to expect besides that it had to do with New York. Happy I did.
It's a bit of a modern twist on When Harry Met Sally, but also, not really. It's a slice of life movie, a tale that can happen and probably does happen every day in NYC, with two city "muts" of mixed heritage and past.
As a New Yorker, especially one who lived uptown in the last couple of years, it felt very homey for me. The acting is organic and interesting, even though the plot is somewhat vague. It's basically just two people talking about a bunch of stuff. Or something.
But it's good. The questions they bring up, the stuff they talk about, it's questions I ask myself also on a regular basis. I've been in these shoes for a while now, and the movie serves as a sort of validation.
The ending of it threw me off a bit, I didn't see it coming - but then I just needed and said to myself, "yeah, makes sense."
starting to get annoyed with Zen on the Mac.
Can’t play Netflix and the like because DRM issues. Can’t view embedded MP4s on my own blog because of a decoder issue. With the fact that Zen never synced fully using my Firefox account, I am considering returning to Orion, or just using Safari again.
Org files to beatiful docx files with Pandoc
Did you know that Pandoc allows for seamless conversion of org files to docx format by using a customized Word style template to maintain consistent formatting? And it looks good too. Here’s how.
I have mixed feelings about stuff like www.resistandunsubscribe.com/.
Of course I agree with the sentiment.
But for folks out there, saying something like “it’s easy! Simply change how you buy stuff, get rid of your credit cards, get used to finding alternatives for transportation, entertainment, and how you talk to your family and friends! That’s all!” it’s just not gonna work. Not to mention many workplaces for Microsoft, Google, or Apple.
I don’t know what the solution is, maybe for folks to try and see how hard it is to change their ways and how dependent they are on all these things would do it, but I don’t know.
Of compliments: give them when the person you give it to has your attention and is not distracted. Be specific, not generic. Give it once, mean it, and do not repeat unless it’s something else. Do not expect a thank you automatically, that’s not the point.
This was encouraging to read through quickly. If teens worry about their relationships and students worry about lack of creativity, this is a good thing.
A bit of a teaser:
This bit of dwim-shell-command magic works nicely:
(defun jtr/dwim-shell-command-pandoc-org-to-docx ()
"uses pandoc to convert an org file to docx using a template docx file. The docx template file is stored in my synced notes folder"
(interactive)
(dwim-shell-command-on-marked-files
"converting from org to docx"
"pandoc -s '<<f>>' -o '<<fne>>.docx' --reference-doc ~/Sync/Notes/custom-reference.docx"
:utils "pandoc"))
It’s been fun, but would it shock you if I said the part I appreciate the most is the weather? It’s in the single digits in New York, and today it was 60 here, and sunny. 📷
