New emacs org-mode category in place…! Actually, it was there for a while, but now it’s in the navigation bar, complete with my own AI illustration of what the Emacs GNU looks like. Check it out: taonaw.com/categorie…
Decided to give Wired another try after my post this morning. First year for $6 is a no brainer. Figuring out the account / subscription while riding the subway is a different story though.
Not caring is caring
The last time I scanned the news was in the AP app on my Android two days ago. I gave it about two seconds before I swiped it away and out of my mind. I’ve been doing this for the last week, and I’ve been feeling good. Then the guilt came in hitting me like a hammer a second later.
Can I really disconnect? Now? Can I really not care? If I’m honest with myself, I’ve already been doing that. The week of the elections I barely checked the news, and then the night off I was glued to it feeling more like a sack of shit by the minute. Now I’m back to being peaceful, more or less. For me, there are two dimensions to this: I’ve also been following closely the news from Israel, and I stopped doing that as well.
It’s depressing. All of it. It makes me angry. It wastes my energy. Instead of, say, sitting down and enjoying my cup of coffee and writing on this blog, I’m shaking my fist at the farts of other men. Screw that.
The same guilt I described earlier was part of the reason it took me so long to stop subscribing to the New York Times. I hated hearing about the clown in chief, as I called him then (and will again now), but I made myself so I stay informed. Well, I reached my limit of worrying about shit I can’t do much about besides being angry.
Once I made peace with my decision, I realized I was not alone. I liked what Patrick did, for example: “I’m thinking the solution to breaking (broken) news is to do my best to avoid it and, instead, subscribe to two printed sources with a track record of good journalism,” he wrote. Why two? Well, he answers that, so go read it and the comments; there is some good stuff there. To my point here, though, reading something good instead of the themed paranoia the New York Times kept injecting me with is a good idea. I think I’ll do that.
Also, I’m not giving up on caring in general. Kind of the opposite, actually. The other day, I talked to my overly concerned sister for an hour after chatting with NK, who is trying to avoid their larger (and Republican) family circle. Nat is in a similar mindset, and giving them more affection these days feels good, as do other people in my life.
My circle of intimate friends all reach out to each other now more than before. It fills me with positive energy. There are more hugs, physical and virtual. We’re here, together in this. We’ll endure and move on. And if we need to be active about something we will do it. But until that time comes, let’s just conserve our batteries and enjoy some peace of mind. Isn’t that why we get angry in the first place?
Once again I’m reminded that public bathroom is a luxury in NYC. Wanted to get a pair of pants from H&M, no bathroom. Was directed to next door Target. Only one bathroom working, huge line. Had to get myself coffee across the street just to be able to piss so I can shop. Stupid.
Continuing my digital notes re-exploration, I expended my usage of Reminders on both my iPhone and Mac. I’ve used those before, but not to this extent:
The notebook taught me to write anything that pops into my head down, and I can do it distraction-free with my Apple Watch using Siri. All I have to do is lift my wrist as if checking the time and ask Siri to “remind me to write a blog post about reminders today at 10 PM,” and I get exactly that—quick, fast, and readable.
My quick Reminder list is shaping up to be quick to-dos, where bigger projects go into Emacs, as always. Over there, I’m using my project capture template generously to capture anything that requires more than 10 minutes of work.
I had 5 meetings today as I hammered away at my keyboard (a loud mechanical one), taking notes. It’s faster than writing by hand, and it’s easy to reorganize those meetings into the bigger projects they belong to.
Unlike the notebook, I feel I’ve hit a certain groove where I’m engaging my productivity with the confidence that I’m not forgetting stuff.
Good morning
The news is in. Many of us want to stay in bed. Wake up. Stand up. Keep calm and move on.
Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped Look at that low plane, fine, then Uh oh, overflow, population, common group But it’ll do, save yourself, serve yourself World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light Feeling pretty psyched
I’m sad, but I’m not shocked. Oddly, I find some comfort in the familiarity of the situation. We’ve been there before, and we survived.
In Israel, where I’m from, Netanyahu fired his Defense Minster, which was one of the last (maybe the last) person in his government who kept standing up to him.
I’m sad, but I’m not shocked.
We’ve lost the ability to see shades of gray between black and white, left and right alike. We can’t agree or even discuss anything. Friendships are destroyed, family ties are severed, and we are fed our own echo chambers matrix food. We eat what we shit, we shit what we eat.
Keep going. Especially now. Get up. Go to your meetings. Put on your nice clothes. Pretend you’re okay while you’re burning inside. Everyone can see you’re suffering; maybe they’d appreciate you showed up and that you’re still standing. It’s important that people know you’re there, that they can rely on you, that you have their backs. Hopefully, as you go through your day, you’ll get a nod back. A glimpse of a smile. A thank you. Let it energize you. Let yourself feel valuable.
We are all angry, but we can choose what we do with this anger. I say, use it to be there and be valuable, not just an angry sod. We’ve had plenty of those. Too many in both camps. No president will heal us or the country; that one is up to us. So start by being there.
Hello. Good morning.
So how does this AMA for November works? I could try to answer something, I think 🤔
Digital Notes vs. Analog notebook
The other day, I needed to copy some notes from my pocket notebook to my project file in org-mode, which is synced to my iPhone with iCloud. I was on the subway on my way downtown with a friend.
I played around with Beorg, which allows me to work with org-mode files on the go. Not only did I manage to get all the items in, but I also figured out how to display my active projects on the app so they show neatly on my weekly agenda.
It was relatively painless to transfer my handwritten notes into the file. I was also able to add a few more to-do items with the app, something that would be nearly impossible to do with my notebook on a moving and shaking train. My handwriting is terrible enough as is.
When I got home, the updated file with the tasks was already waiting on my Mac, synced.
I spent my reading time in bed reading into Beorg’s documentation. I was excited but also conflicted. Should I even bother with my pocket notebook when capturing notes with my phone (and watch, with Reminders) is so easy? Is there any sense in transcribing and deciphering my handwritten notes into dates and checklist items when those can be created semi-automatically for me?
The speed alone, not to mention the clarity and search capability, would increase my productivity to a new level—one that I definitely need at work right now.
Well, it’s been four months, but I’m installing Micro$hit Office on my Mac again. I need Excel and my Emails to be available offline, among other things. I considered running it on a VM, but the integration with Spotlight and Edge is important. Crossing my fingers… 🤞
Back to digital journaling once more...
For the last week or so I’ve been journaling on my computer again instead of in my notebook. This is a cycle for me I keep going through.
The urge to write in a handwritten journal is there, and I love the feeling of sitting down at a desk with a good pen and paper pages. The problem I’m having is the amount of details I need to put in—and with it, the time I need to spend on writing—and the references I need to make while writing.
Unsurprisingly, the culprit is my work. There are so many to-do items each day that, combined with my personal tasks, Start to cause me to lose track of the big picture. While I still have my projects organized in big bullet points with all the references I need in org-mode, I am missing the “so, what does this make me feel?” aspect of it all—the reflection of looking back on what I did last week or last month.
This is where my written journal would have fit in, but a written journal cannot link to my projects directly. Meanwhile, when I want to write about a fun hangout I’ve had, I want to include a list of places and map snippets, and while I can do that in my notebook, I just don’t have the time to find the locations, write down the addresses, and print out maps snippets - all are things I do within minutes in my digital journal.
Another issue is that my hand cramps if I keep writing for a long time, especially as I start writing faster or get excited. My handwriting becomes sloppier and I can’t fix my spelling mistakes without crossing out a word. Sure, I can use write out (or Tipp-Ex, depending on where you’re from), but that introduces even more time and more friction.
I started to realize that instead of just writing, the first thought I have is if I should write, where, and when. The option of taking out a personal notebook filled with intimate details is not realistic in most cases most of the time, so I can only reflect on my day at specific times that I don’t always have or want to spend on something else. I miss the availability of “just writing” what I need.
Ironically, I use a notebook, my pocket one, to write quick ideas or summaries. Again, it comes down to speed: taking my pocket notebook out of my pocket with my pen to write something down is faster than doing it on the phone.
So I guess I came a full circle. Journaling is digital, and quick ideas I want to capture are handwritten in a notebook. 📓 🤷🏼