September photo 📷 challenge day 4: Orange
A woman and her dog taking a nap between stops on the NYC subway, which happens to have orange seats.
September photo 📷 challenge day 3: Precious
I can’t think of anything precious that is not some sort of an inside joke, so here’s something I enjoy: homemade pizzas when my partner makes them. Precious.
Where do my photos belong?
A few weeks ago, Jack decided to stop using Glass. Around that time, Manton wrote about what’s wrong with Glass, raising different yet related questions about the service. I wanted to reply at length, but I was still forming my own opinion.
I recently started to use my camera (Sony Alpha 6000) again and take it in a bag almost every time I leave home. This practice allowed me to capture photos I wouldn’t otherwise capture with my phone, which is the opposite route most folks take: usually, it’s the camera that starts collecting dust in favor of the phone.
The best answer I have for this is that certain things just cause an “itch” to my photo sense in a way my phone doesn’t. There’s something about holding the camera that elevates that sense in a way the phone can’t. Unless the photo idea is very obvious, with an object staring me right in the face, I need to search for it. I move around with the camera, crab-dancing sideways hece and forth, kneeling and standing again, playing with the light. I used to be more conscious about this, but when you live in NYC, everyone’s a weirdo, and no one is at the same time. Doing this with the phone doesn’t work.
My phone photos are usually snapshots of life routines. Making coffee. Writing in my notebook. A pretty flower. These photos end up on my blog or on Mastodon, where I discuss these routines, which are further illustrated in the photo. Micro.blog connects to Pixelfed (as well as Mastodon, of course), so every picture on the blog also shows up on Pixelfed.social.
The better photos, the ones I take with my camera and filtered by my selection process back at home, end up on Glass. I sometimes also post those on the blog, but not always. I should do that, especially now that I have a dedicated Photos page, but the blog still feels like an “everything” place, and these Photos feel more unique. I don’t feel my photos can be viewed as “art,” but the concept of it makes sense to me. The photos on Glass are usually processed and worked on with a sense of purpose. They convey a message or a story. Roughly, one in eight shots stands out to me as “timeless,” relevant today as it would be in 50 years. These photos don’t need a blog post to stand with; they express themselves. At least, that’s how I view them, and I hope others can see them this way as well.
This brings me to the other usage of Glass: following other story-teller photographers. I love how the platform is built. I like their filtered tags, which are somewhere between too little and too much. I found several photographers whose work I enjoy looking at on Glass. While I agree with Manton that Glass is eventually a silo and should offer more sharable options, Glass is still the place for just photos and nothing else.
Meanwhile, Instagram is the exact opposite. I started posting to Instagram again about a year ago to mostly show some of my photos to family and friends, and this is also where I interact with them. I don’t like Instagram as a photo platform; it has long become a place for ads and cheap brands. People barely use it for photos as much as they use it for communication. I post to Instagram when I want to say something to a bunch of people I know; I post to Glass when a photo I take wants to say something to a bunch of strangers.
Of course, this is all a personal conceptualization of these services. Some great photographers post to their blogs regularly alongside lengthy posts. There is also the notion that what I think today is one thing, and what I’ll feel next week is another. For now, that’s how my brain makes sense of it.
September photo 📷 challenge day 2: Buildup
September photo 📷 challenge day 1: Abstract
Evaluating writing in a notebook
Today, I wanted to know if my notebook 📙 has been useful to me. I’ve been writing down notes in the morning on and off since February, so I have about six months of experience to consider.
Writing in a notebook is very restricting, especially when compared to a versatile tool such as Emacs and a wonder like a Mac and the internet at your fingertips. The notebooks I keep are all pocket-sized, so I have little room for my scribbles before I run out of space. Restriction, though, is not always a bad thing. The wonders of technology can be very distracting. Having access to all the information is useful most of the time, but not when you only have a vague idea or a “feeling” about something that you’re trying to define.
There’s also comfort in this restriction. I often get overwhelmed by information overload. One side of my mind is like a madman laughing into the brainstorm; the other is left in the dust, yelling at me to slow down. In a notebook, I have to slow down if I want my notes to be readable. This slowness makes the notebook inviting to use. It also feels nice to write on pen and paper in a way typing on a keyboard is not 🖊️. It’s not that I get no joy from the computer; it’s just different.
Because the notebook is not connected to the internet, there’s no Google to hold my hand and guide me on a journey of tangents. The only entity behind the pen is me; hence, the only person who can guide my thoughts is me. I feel this level of personal intimacy is lost on us in the digital age. Our thoughts are constantly in danger of being underdeveloped, distracted into oblivion - Death before depth.
There is time and place for thinking and processing large amounts of information, and it’s good we have the tools to do so. At the same time, we lost the ability to think deeply, even sulk. We’re afraid of boredom and perhaps depression. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to dive in and revisit these thoughts, even if they carry a weight. Having a pen and paper anchors me down, like entering my mind-maze with a yarn ball to leave a string behind.
My movie watching habit in org-mode
Not too long ago, I organized my routines on Emacs with new habits. I’m particularly satisfied with my “watch a good movie” habit:
This chart might look confusing, but it’s simple once you get used to it.
Each colored rectangle represents a day. The exclamation mark represents the current day, and an Asterisk represents the last time the habit was completed. The green is the “good range” of the habit in days, which means I have that many days to complete the habit. For example, the head buzz habit above the movie one has today and tomorrow (one more green rectangle) to complete. A day after that is yellow, indicating the last "good day" to do so. After that, the red rectangles indicate days behind on completing the habit.
Once I mark a habit complete, the colored rectangles disappear from my agenda until I'm in range (green) again. The blue rectangle represents the days before this happens. For both the head buzz and movie habit, I have two days (two blue rectangles) after I complete the habit before I should do it again.
So, for the movie-watching habit, today is the first day to watch a movie, after I watched one two days ago. If I don’t have time, I still have about a week ahead of me (in the green).
In addition, I also started to log what movies I watched and when:
As you can see, Emacs keeps a log of when I complete each habit. I then
add a note with the movie name (C-c C-z) in the logbook
drawer.
This is another fine example of why I love using Emacs org-mode to organize my life.
Grumpy Old Men, 1993 - ★★★
I felt like I wanted to watch something lighter, and this was definitely it. It's the 90s through and through, with humor and the budding start of giving women a role that's going a bit beyond (but not enough) the constant cringy 80s roles. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are of different time periods, but that doesn't mean they can't deliver good comical relief today.
Pouches and Organizers
As evident from the notebook, I was thinking about pouches this morning. I was inspired by Adam Savage’s YouTube video. His company makes nice sturdy ones, but they also have a nice sturdy price - a set of 5 for $125. That’s a bit much, so I spent a good chunk of time looking for ones on Amazon and elsewhere, realizing in the process that the good ones cost over $10.
Thinktank, the makers of my awesome camera messenger bag, make a nice looking one at the size I’m looking for (more or less) for $16. I might end up with two of those and probably pay around $50 with tax and delivery. Actually, they’re available on Amazon, so I can get them for a bit over $30 if I want two.
These will be useful for hygiene/shower stuff (toothbrush, contact lenses, solution, glasses, nail clipper, etc.) and charges for both my phones with extra cables. If I find the older pouch I buried around this room somewhere, I will have three total and use one from the two I’m going to get for my pens and notebook, which are scattered right now without a suitable placement.
My brain when I don’t sleep:
“I think I can figure out how to get Emacs Org-mode instead of my work’s annoying GUI options for text.. a bit of Pandoc magic here, a bit of HTML source grab from the site, and poof! There we go!”
My brain when I sleep:
“Do what now..? Nah, Let’s go for a walk.” 🤷♂️
Finished reading: The Maid by Nita Prose 📚 yesterday. Nicely written, from a somewhat different perspective of Molly the maid. Suspense and a couple of plot twists, I enjoyed this one overall. Got it from the library.
The latest S3 video is now up:
I was looking into Star Trek strange new worlds yesterday, then realized I never watched it’s predecessor or Enterprise. That last one is with Scott Bakula, one of my favorite actors thanks to Quantum Leap. I got the first season on the spot. So far It’s such a fun show!
Joyland, 2022 - ★★★★
When this movie starts throwing punches, it doesn’t let go. Joyland has many layers that are both beautiful and terrible. It’s culturally refreshing, emotionally draining, romantically charming, gender and traditions devastating. It’s a milestone when you consider its Pakistani origins.
What I immediately liked the most about it was its slice-of-life manner of delivery. Nothing is fantastical. The actors are authentic and candid (especially Alina Khan and Rasti Farooq). You get a front-row sit into the intimate life of a family who could easily be your neighbors, sans the language and the country. The assumed culture is, surprisingly, too uncomfortably close to home.
Go in emotionally prepared and with a box of tissues nearby. This one’s gonna hurt.
Productivity tricks at work
The quality of work at my job this week has been higher thanks to a couple of renewed workflows I adjusted to my current role. I wanted to share some of these “mind tricks.”
I got my new sand timer (I don’t like the word hourglass, it doesn’t make sense) Tuesday. A big 30-minute glass with a sky-blue sand version of the pomodoro technique, it has two roles. First, it divides my work into 30-minute sessions; this keeps me productive while motivating me to pull through and finish a task as I watch the steady flow of sand getting me closer to a break. Second, it measures how many “sessions” I have in a day, which makes my productivity measurable in units. Having my time tangible like this is a nice boost to creativity I didn’t expect.
My checklists are back as well, and the effect was immediate. I found patterns in my workflow that allow me to automate more tasks mentally and spend time on details. One outcome, for example, is more organized communication with coworkers and adding it directly into each task’s notes rather than replying to endless email threads or chat logs. The details themselves are helpful and would make it easier to find references in the future.
I also started using the Microsoft style guide more often. This guide is generally accepted among technical writers for editing and regulating instructions. Now I have “use” and “do not use” word lists. For example, using “select” over “click” or “tap” when writing instructions for users to choose an option in a workflow, the manual is full of such examples to interact with the UI. I also hope to review our own work guide and add information about visual aids, headings, fonts, colors, etc. Rather than correctness, the emphasis for me is on uniformity.
It’s been a long week. I feel tired but accomplished. I made good progress this week in the right direction, and in turn, this will lead to better work and more quality in my free time.
Good morning!
Todays breakfast sandwich 🥪 is one of my favorites: goat cheese, reddish, brussels sprouts, and mustard.
Have you ever read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? There’s a catchy phrase there, TINSTAAFL: there is no such thing as a free lunch. I want to suggest TINSTAFM: there is no such thing as five minutes. Any takers?
I tried to get into Stage Manager like all the cool kids for the last two days, but I can’t. The idea is nice, but it’s just so unintuitive. I keep fighting the UI, and I don’t need this level of separation between apps. I’m used to work with virtual desktops.
