Posts on Justin Vollmer

Weekly Notes 2026.07

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 11:15:00 -0500

Short entry this week; I’ve been busy with work/personal projects and I don’t have much to share…

Goal Progress

Books: 2/18 📚
Photos digitized: 5/500 🖼️
Workouts: 3/7 💪
GTD reviews: 3/7 daily, pending weekly

Work

This week was particularly busy with project meetings at work; nothing specific to report on.
I mentioned starting to experiment with Claude Pro at work last week. That continued this week, and on Saturday I spent time intentionally attempting to develop an app using entirely Claude Code (with my guidance) to find the boundaries of the current technology. I was overall impressed with capabilities, though it’s abundantly clear that using LLMs requires forethought to actually get outputs you want.

Personal

I’m looking at using LLMs to help augment some of my GTD workflow; still experimental, but I work better with external prompting & conversations vs working through my own checklists.

Notable

Game nights continued this week with some new additions: 5 Minute Mystery and Really Loud Librarians.

Potpourri

I watched this video on agent teams on Saturday to better understand agent team architectures in the context of Claude Code.

Weekly Notes 2026.06

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 11:15:00 -0500

At long last, my schedule started slowing down this week! 🎉

Goal Progress

Books: 2/18 📚
Photos digitized: 5/500 🖼️
Workouts: 3/7 💪
GTD reviews: 3/7 daily, pending weekly

Work

Nothing major to talk about at work this week. With fewer meetings, I had time to sit down and work through some project planning, along with some testing and hands-on engineering work.
For the meetings I did have, I intentionally added breaks in my calendar to refocus, which seemed to help. I’ll be doing the same in the upcoming week.

Personal

I still didn’t get my GTD practice back on track, unfortunately. I started working through my inbox backlog, but I think I still have a week or so of periodic work before I’m back to a truly “good” place.

Notable

I finally got time to work on some photo digitization again this week! Not much progress, but a little is better than none.
Game nights continued again this week, though nothing new. I may need to look at extending my collection soon to keep things interesting… I’d really like some more cooperative games, but not a full-fledged TTRPG (I think).

On Saturday I went out to the 208 House with friends. As usual, the food was amazing! 🙂

Potpourri

For personal use I’m still predominantly using Kagi Ultimate for LLM access, but this week I began experimenting with Claude Pro at work, and for certain types of interactions I was much more impressed with it than with the same model through Kagi. Which has me in a bit of a dilemma… Splitting work across multiple LLMs feels counterintuitive to me, but using whichever gives me better results is probably the right choice?
A week ago today I saw Kev’s post wondering if our children/families will inherit our blogs. It’s a topic I’ve thought on briefly over the years, and seeing that Kev and others are pondering the same is interesting. I’ve wondered if I could set up a fund to pay for my website in perpetuity after I’m gone, or save everything into a book that I publish before death and give to family? 🤷‍♂️
I also ran across the make a freaking website website this week (yeah, I edited that - I don’t like swearing). As someone who whole-heartedly advocates domain ownership and making your own website/blog, I thought it was completely worth sharing!
…and one more post on blogging: lessons learned from 20 years & why you should blog by Adam Caudill. I’ve never run across Adam’s website before, but saw his post linked by someone I do follow, and enjoyed the read. Something he calls out that I need to focus on more is creating a website for yourself, not just a blog. While I have some extra pages on this site, it’s definitely an area I could improve in…

Weekly Notes 2026.05

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:15:00 -0500

This week actually ended up busier than the last, though unlike last week it was primarily during office hours. 🤔

Goal Progress

Books: 2/18 📚
Photos digitized: 3/500 🖼️
Workouts: 4/7 💪
GTD reviews: 3/7 daily, pending weekly

Work

Somehow my meeting load at work went up this week, even though fewer people were in the office. I’d say 90+% were genuinely useful, so no real complaints. However…
… I’ve realized that I don’t have a good plan for decompressing after meetings or resetting my brain when switching gears. That’s something I started looking into this week in the evenings, and I may tweak how I block my calendar going forward to make sure I’m actually useful in all those conversations.

Personal

On Thursday I finished the audiobook of Apple in China. It was an interesting look at how one of the world’s largest companies became tied so closely to China and Chinese industry, and I actually learned some potentially useful stuff for my own career - at minimum, understanding the dynamic between US companies and Chinese CMs.
This week my GTD practice really started falling apart. I’ll need to spend some time this weekend and early next week getting back on the bandwagon. 😬

Notable

Game nights with M and her mother continued this week. Late in the week I introduced them to 3D5, a game I’ve had for years but rarely play. It’s a fun three-dimensional twist on Tic-Tac-Toe that requires some concentration. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s no longer produced…

Potpourri

I haven’t actually tried this myself yet, but I’ve seen a bunch of articles recently on OpenClaw (formerly ClawdBot), including this one by Federico Viticci on MacStories. Every time I’ve looked at similar concepts in the past, it feels like a solution looking for a problem I don’t know that I have… but that could just be me being stuck in my current workflow and struggling to adopt new tech. 🤷‍♂️
- The most interesting idea I’ve read (in another blog psot) is automatically pulling tasks out of meeting notes. But I think I need to get better at taking meeting notes before that works… 😉
I completely forgot to mention this last week: I saw a post from Cassidy Williams on tricks for getting discovered by LLMs and AI tools. Will I actually use any of the recommendations? Probably not… this is really more of a personal blog without a specific theme, but it’s helpful to know. I’ll keep an eye on https://llmstxt.org/, and maybe add a “/for-llms” page in the future.
Completely non-AI related: I ran across the Lolgato project a few weeks back, and while I haven’t tried it yet, next time I work from home for a few days it’ll probably get installed. For those unaware, I use Elgato lights in my conference call setup at home.

Weekly Notes 2026.04

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0500

This week’s update might be even shorter than last… with Winter Conference going on, my week was heavily consumed by work discussions and dinners. But I’ll make up for it with more photos than normal. 😉

Goal Progress

Books: 1/18 📚
Photos digitized: 3/500 🖼️
Workouts: 3/7 💪
GTD reviews: 5/7 daily, weekly pending

Work

Tuesday through Friday of this week was our annual Winter Conference at work, which is a 4-day event (each day is identical) where we both present agronomic topics to farmers and share our latest results and new products. For this year’s announcements, see https://www.precisionplanting.com/resources/news/2026-ptx-winter-conference.
A majority of the week for me (outside of watching a few of the sessions) was spent in conversations and planning with colleagues from across the company who came in for Winter Conference.

Personal

I started a new book this week (not because I finished another, but because it sounded interesting): Barbarossa: How Hitler Lost the War, by Jonathan Dimbleby.

Notable

Since coworkers were onsite, we had a number of meals at multiple local restaurants. I’ll share the highlights here, from BlackBand Distillery, The 208 House, The Oyster Bar (Jonah’s), and Jim’s Steak House.

Game nights continued this weekend with M and her mom. No new games, but I did introduce her to Rock Runners by Scott Johnson, which I haven’t played in ages.

Saturday evening I also got to see a view of Peoria from a height I’d not been to before (see below). 🙂

Potpourri

I’ve heard of 512 Pixels’ macOS Screenshot Library before, but was reminded about it in a recent podcast episode I was listening to (probably ATP?). It’s an interesting trip down memory lane for those who enjoy Apple’s UI design.

Weekly Notes 2026.03

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0500

Shorter post this week… a lot has been going on, but mostly work-related, and therefore not much to share here…

Goal Progress

Books: 1/18 📚
Photos digitized: 3/500 🖼️
Workouts: 3/7 💪
GTD reviews: 5/7 daily, weekly pending

Work

This week has been a whirlwind at work. Monday-Thursday were in office; Friday I stayed home for tire maintenance on my truck, expecting downtime, but had several unplanned conversations instead.
At the beginning of the week I felt on top of all of my projects; by the end of the week, I have a few hours of review/clean-up to do. I’ll focus on that some today, though it may bleed over into tomorrow in-office.

Personal

I finished my first book this year: Dr. Mutter’s Marvels. 🎉
And I’ve started another, this time in audiobook form: Apple in China, a book I’ve heard a lot about but never made time to read. So far, it’s a very interesting look into Apple’s interactions with contract manufacturers (I’m only 20% done).
My photo digitization & workouts still need more attention this week, though I did a bit better on my daily reviews!

Notable

Mid-week I started adding in game nights again with M and her mom (a consultant working with our company). And to mix things up a bit, this time we tried a few new/new-to-me games: Castle Panic (which I bought my sister for Christmas, and enjoyed enough I bought for myself too), Backgammon (I’m still learning), and Small World of Warcraft (owned for a while, only played once before). And we threw in some Mario Kart to break things up (which… I’m ok at. Not great…).

Potpourri

Late in the week (Saturday, maybe?) I ran across Cassidy’s encouragement to not give up your brain, related to using LLMs, and avoiding their overuse. It’s a good reminder, and reaffirms my current approach too.
Speaking of LLMs: earlier in the week I saw two articles that I’ve partially read, and will be revisiting over the coming weeks. I haven’t decided if I agree with them, but the first is from the founder of Todoist, who I’ve followed for years, and the second is a recommendation from his post:
- How to ramp up on AI (as a dev and non-dev)
- Everyone should be using Claude Code more
In non-LLM news… apparently there is some new Linux malware. 😬 It’s probably worth a quick review if you run Linux at home or in the cloud.
And finally, a fun post: a 100-year-old self-playing violin! I recommend checking the article out, and watching the accompanying videos!

Next Week

This coming week is our annual Winter Conference at work. If you’re a farmer, in the ag industry, or even ag-adjacent or ag-curious (is that a thing?), it’s worth attending at a site near you to see what we’ve been working on, what’s coming, along with a whole load of agronomic data and commentary from our agronomists! 🚜

Weekly Notes 2026.02

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 11:15:00 -0500

One full week of 2026 over already? 😐

Goal Progress

Books: 0/18 📚
Photos digitized: 3/500 🖼️
Workouts: 3/7 💪
GTD reviews: 3/7 daily, weekly done

Work

This week, the team and I were back in the swing of things, and I was in office all 5 days.
It was slightly belated due to shipping, but this week we also began passing out Christmas ornaments to the team, both local and around the globe. Making a department Christmas ornament has been an annual tradition almost as long as I can recall being at Precision, and we’ve carried it forward through org changes.
I’ve continued experimenting with useful ways to incorporate LLMs into my workflow. I’ve found both good and bad ways to use them for project & meeting planning, now trying to find the right balance as I move forward…

Personal

While I’ve yet to finish any books this month, I have been reading daily, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. My guess based on current progress is that I’ll hit 18 books by years end, but may not make it much over that goal.
I’ve struggled to make time for workouts though… I’ve done a few, but that clearly needs more focus in the coming week.
As does working on photo digitization. I made time to work on it briefly this weekend, but I got distracted soon after starting.

Notable

This week was RuneScape’s 25th anniversary, and I made time to log in and play through the celebratory event. Wednesday also marked my 21st year of playing the game, though it’s been in fits and starts. And no, I still do not have 99+ in all skills. Perhaps next year? 🙂
Tuesday was the 12th anniversary of my website as well. I briefly considered writing up a post (like I did for the 10th anniversary), but I think I’ll wait and only do major posts on the 5-year incremental anniversaries. I haven’t changed much in the past year on my blog, other than being intentional with my posting schedule!
And, I found a fun new game (or at least, fun so far!): Against the Storm. I try not to buy computer games too frequently, as I’ll never play all of the games in my library. However, I sometimes enjoy city builders, and this struck me as a fun option to pick up while it was on sale. More to come in future posts, I’m sure!

Potpourri

Early on in the week, I thought this section was going to be short, or non-existent. What a sweet summer child I was… 😂
First up: Manu’s yearly reminder to use RSS. I really have no notes to add - I’m a longtime RSS user/reader, and I encourage others to try it out if they haven’t, and continue using it if they have!
Cal Newport’s article on why AI didn’t “join the workforce” in 2025 also caught my attention, as it highlighted something I’ve noticed when using LLMs: they seem particularly good at certain tasks (data summarization, editing, coding), but lacking in many, many other areas.
Speaking of LLMs and coding: this thread by Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code on how he uses Claude Code was both interesting and almost baffling. I understand the words used, and even most of the process (I think), but this is not something I’d have ever considered attempting personally…
One more LLM-related topic: I don’t recall how I found this, but a Wall Street Journal article on the downside to using AI for all those boring tasks at work somehow crossed my digital path this week, and it was interesting enough to pass on. A short summary/premise: “The catch is that our brains aren’t capable of thinking big thoughts nonstop. And we risk forfeiting the epiphanies that sometimes spring to mind while doing easy, repetitive job functions.”
Alex Chan wrote a helpful blog post explaining how she stores her multi-factor recovery codes. It’s a bit more involved than I’m ready to emulate currently, but overall I quite like the concept!
Mid-week I saw a number of posts on how Logitech mice were not working/freaking out due to an un-renewed certificate. I normally try not to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to “I just want my tech to be simple”, but… come on. Really?!?
And to wrap up the week (though he wrote it Tuesday): Kev Quirk’s post on The Case for Blogging in the Ruins. Okay, so it’s actually his response to Joan Westenberg’s post of the same name, but since I first heard of it through Kev’s blog, I’ll give him credit. 😉 The quote below is his pull-quote from Joan’s original post, and a great way to end this weekly review:

Start a blog. Start one because the practice of writing at length, for an audience you respect, about things that matter to you, is itself valuable. Start one because owning your own platform is a form of independence that becomes more important as centralized platforms become less trustworthy. Start one because the format shapes the thought, and this format is good for thinking.

App Defaults 2026

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:30:00 -0600

All the cool kids, or at least Robb, Matt, and Jan-Lukas are updating their app defaults, something that started in the blogosphere back in 2023. And I can’t resist jumping on a fun bandwagon when I see one, and so… here’s mine! (honestly not much has changed since 2023 and 2024)

✉️ Mail Service: iCloud, Fastmail, Zoho, all with custom domains
📬 Mail Client: Apple Mail
☑️ Tasks: Todoist
📓 Notes: Obsidian
📰 RSS Service: Feedbin
🗞️ RSS Client: Fiery Feeds
⌨️ Launcher: Alfred
☁️ Cloud Storage: iCloud, Nextcloud
🖼️ Photo Library: iCloud, with Immich backup
📷 Photo Editing: Pixelmator Pro, Affinity Photo, Adobe Photoshop, darktable
📹 Video Editing: Final Cut Pro
💻 Screenshots: CleanShot X
🌐 Web Browser: Firefox
💬 Chat: iMessage, Matrix, WhatsApp
📆 Calendar: Fantastical
🌤️ Weather: Mercury Weather, Radarscope
🎙️ Podcasts: Overcast
📚 Audiobooks: Prologue with self-hosted library
🎵 Music: Plexamp with self-hosted library
📜 Word Processing: Pages
📈 Spreadsheets: Numbers
📊 Presentations: Keynote
🔑 Password Management: 1Password
💁‍♂️ Social Media: Mastodon
🐘 Mastodon: Ivory
🧮 Code Editor: Sublime Text
👨‍💻 Git Client: Sublime Merge
🔎 Search: Kagi
✈️ Flight Tracking: Flighty
✨ AI Chatbot: Multiple via Kagi Assistant (mostly Claude)

Weekly Notes 2026.01

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 11:30:00 -0500

First weekly note of the new year! 🎉

I’m trying out a new format for my weekly notes this year; we’ll see how long it lasts. Instead of a giant run-on list mixing personal and professional, I’m splitting the two, and throwing in a “notable” section, which is for events, and may sometimes be omitted. Additionally, I think I’m going to try keeping track of my goal progress, though I may pull this into a monthly note in the future.

Goal Progress

Books: 0/18 📚
Photos digitized: 1/500 🖼️
Workouts: 2/7 💪
GTD reviews: 0/7 daily, weekly pending

Work

Only one day of work this week (Friday), mostly spent catching up on some remaining emails, Slack messages, and planning for the week and month ahead.
I’m still experimenting with useful ways to incorporate LLMs into my workflow. I found them helpful for cleaning up some emails I needed to send (effectively proofreading/editing), and for some meeting planning. I’ll see how they work out over the next few weeks.

Personal

I spent some time trying out gaming on Linux, since that’s a serious consideration instead of my aging Windows gaming rig in the future. Northgard worked relatively well, although there was more lag than I expected (which I’ve not narrowed down yet).
I haven’t completed any books yet this year, though I started two, and have been keeping up with my morning reading routine ever since Jan 1.
- Dr. Mutter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (paperback)
- Silverthorn (audiobook)
As I already shared in a status update on New Year’s Day, the moon was particularly bright, and easily to photograph out of my office window. And so, since taking photos with my GH5 is on the list for 2026 (and I wanted to try out some old glass), I took photos with both an old Minolta 80-200mm lens, and my Panasonic 100-300mm lens. I had the best results editing the raw files, as the out-of-camera JPEGs looked okay, but not amazing.

Notable

Monday I returned from visiting family in Ohio. The trip was mostly uneventful (thankfully), although it was by far the windiest driving conditions I’ve ever made the trip in, and it took me an extra ~30 minutes, not counting stops.
I met some coworkers for lunch on New Year’s Eve at Casa Agave, which was a new locale for me. We all ended up having nearly the same meal, but it was delicious, and it was fun to meet up before the new year began.

Potpourri

I ran across an article on how poor sleep health is associated with an older brain age. TL;DR - getting healthy sleep (not just amounts, but good quality sleep) is good for your brain, as I think we all know.
I wrote up my own goals for 2026, and then shortly after read Matt’s post on the same topic. He was much more concise, and much more willing to put numbers/metrics to goals.
Speaking of 2026 - I ran across an interesting thread from Paul Fairie on predictions made in 1926 about 2026. I highly recommend a quick perusal if you have time!
I’d been putting off reading some blog posts by Cassidy Williams, as I was debating linking or writing a comment post… I’ve decided on the former. Her post entitled My inbox is so full hit close to home. I don’t deal with quite that amount of email yet, but email hygiene, shall we say, is something I’m focusing on in 2026.
And another post by Cassidy: influencing without authority. This is an area I find myself in frequently, and her commentary on tools at your disposal you can use in such a scenario was much needed encouragement.
Thanks to Slashdot, I ran across a post on how reading is a vice. A vice, you say? Really? I don’t know wether I fully agree with that premise, but viewing reading as something to do for pleasure, not a duty, is definitely beneficial, and the way I attempt to approach it.
Music ownership and not relying on Spotify seems to be a big topic of conversation in the blogosphere currently. I have been hosting my own music library for a while, and may have more commentary at some point. But interesting reads:
The Trekorama project on GitHub is cool, for the Trekkies among us. 🚀
Today’s Miniature Calendar post, Styrofoam Fight, is pretty cool. 🙂

2026 Goals and Aspirations

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0600

I did a little review, and unless I’ve missed a post somewhere, I’ve only once written a public “New Year’s Resolutions”. I considered titling this post my “2026 Resolutions”, but that doesn’t exactly capture what I’m going for. Rather, these are intended to be goals and aspirations that I can measure myself against at the end of the year, and if I chose to ignore, change, or rewrite them throughout the year, then so be it. 🙂

Personal Goals

Read 18 or more books. As noted in a post at the end of 2025, last year my reading took a hit. I feel better about myself when I read more, and I enjoy learning new things by reading (history, personal development, etc), and enjoying the imagination of the authors (in fiction specifically).
Reduce morning screen time and rebuild devotion/reading habit. There’s not much to say about this; my reading habit took a hit because I started scrolling the web on my iPad in the morning. My goal is to get back to reading books during my morning coffee.
Revive my GTD habit/practice. I’ve written about my interest in the Getting Things Done methodology before, and while I’m not convinced that every single piece can be applied to my life well, I definitely feel more on top of things when I am doing brief morning reviews (daily) and a weekly review on the weekends. Maybe I should track this in my weekly review post? 🤔
Visit family for at least 4-6 weeks. During 2025 I spent close to 6 weeks (between vacation and remote work) visiting family, if I did my calculations right. As long as they’ll have me, I’d like to aim for the same in 2026. Something I realize as I get older is that I didn’t prioritize family as much as I should have when I was younger, and I don’t want to continue making that mistake.
Contact distant relatives for genealogy research. I mentioned in my year-in-review that I have received family histories from relatives; I want to be intentional and begin building out a list of family members that I keep in contact with, on both sides of my family.
Double the number of old family photos digitized. I currently have 450 family photos that have been scanned, edited, dated, and cataloged in my photo library. While I have many more digitized and waiting for me to edit them, I want to increase the total number that have been through the full process to 1000 this year (i.e., roughly doubling).
Take more photos with my GH5 and lens collection. I also mentioned in my year-in-review post that I was getting back into photography with my GH5, instead of only relying on my phone camera. I want to expand that usage this year, and perhaps do some sharing on my blog?

Health/Fitness

Rebuild daily workout habit. Last year my daily workouts took a hit, mostly because I didn’t prioritize them. I still was active during the day, but I didn’t spend 30 minutes each morning in either cardio or weight-based workouts, and I think I feel better when that habit exists.
Reduce snacking outside of meals. This hasn’t been a huge issue in 2025, but I think there is a direct link between lack of weight loss and evening snacking habits. So here’s another area I can improve in!

Work

Obviously, I’m not going to post my professional S.M.A.R.T goals here for the world to see, as they are confidential, but I can at least share a few work-related areas I want to improve.

Increase the timeliness of replies, especially via email. I’m normally good at replying to Slack messages quickly, but sometimes email falls by the wayside. I think this can tie in well to my refocusing on my GTD habits, as they tend to go hand in hand.
Improve project-management habits. I don’t exactly know how to describe this, but keeping accurate notes on the state of projects and revisiting them when needed has always been a struggle. Maybe this could tie into my reading and GTD habits, as both an area of study and something to revisit daily/weekly?

Blog/Website

Post at least weekly (Weekly Reviews). I like the idea of weekly reviews as a way for me to look back at what has occurred this year, and as a way to share interesting things I’ve read, found, etc. And perhaps this year I can expand them to also help track habits? (I’m still pondering this.)
Write more interesting posts. I think sometimes my posts, especially weekly reviews, became too formulaic. I want to keep things interesting, both for my readers (hi! 👋) and as a way to improve my writing style. I’ll probably keep using LLMs for proofreading, but I doubt I’ll use them at all for drafts, as I experimented with briefly last year. I ended up rewriting them all anyhow, as I don’t like how… fake? LLM-generated posts sound.
Tweak my website design. This is at best a maybe. Do I actually have anything I want to tweak right now on my website? Not really, other than perhaps a little formatting and choosing different fonts. I’d say I’m 90% happy right now, but occasionally the theme I’m using doesn’t match what I’d personally do. I did fork the theme a year ago, so making personal modifications wouldn’t be that hard.

Home/Tech

Replace my aging R710 home server. While my old Dell server has been holding up well overall, I’m reaching the storage limits of expandability, and it definitely feels slow at times. For what I use it for (primarily music/audiobook libraries, photo backup, and storage) it works alright, but in the coming year I’d like to migrate to something a bit newer and more capable.
Find a new project to self-host. Okay, yes, this is vague. Really vague. But I want to keep my eye on cool open-source projects, and if there’s one that either fills a current hole (maybe that I didn’t know I had), or else replaces something I pay for today, it would be fun to move to a self-hosted solution.
Stop switching productivity tools. This is specifically aimed at the amount of time I have wasted over the years hopping between Todoist and other tools. Look, is Todoist perfect? No. But I think most of my issues are normally self-induced due to lack of good habits (looking at you, weekly reviews), and not something wrong with the tool itself. I need to get over “grass-is-greener” or “shiny-new-tool” syndrome.
Become more intentional in maintaining my photo library. I still don’t have a good way to describe this, but album creation, tagging, etc (and maybe pruning?) is something I want to get better at. Another idea is to potentially share pictures with family in a printed photo book… I’ve heard the guys on the ATP podcast discuss it a few times, and it could make for a fun gift!
Create one personal project (coding or building/assembly). This is still pretty ambiguous too. However… Most of what I create is for work at this point, and I’d like a personal passion project to work on. I don’t have a great idea for what it should be, or what it should entail, but it seems like something that would be worth focusing on? 🤷‍♂️

Conclusion

Okay, I probably don’t need a header for this! 😂 Anyhow. That’s my goals and aspirations for 2026! In a year, I’ll get to look back and score myself on how everything went! (And maybe, just maybe, I’ll add in some weekly or monthly updates…)

2025 Year in Review

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0600

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings

That remains one of my favorite quotes. I’ve used it before, and decided instead of as the ending quote, it would be my opener. Anyhow… on to my year in review!

Another year in the books! As has become my yearly routine, I’m taking time to reflect on the major changes and areas of focus across different parts of my life, rather than walking through a purely chronological recap. 2025 brought some meaningful shifts - some intentional, some just… life happening? - and it’s worth documenting (if only as an exercise for myself).

Life

This year kicked off with a major first: I traveled internationally for the first time, visiting Brazil for a week to see some friends. The whole experience was incredible: first international flight, first time experiencing a completely different country and culture in person, and first time using a translation app for a lot of my interactions. 😂 The highlights included exploring the sights, diving into actual Brazilian food (not the Americanized versions I’d had before), hitting the beach (yes, I know, hard to believe… but I legitimately enjoyed it!), and catching a local concert.

I also made it out to visit family in both South Carolina and Ohio this year, which also meant my first multi-city flight (Peoria - Charlotte - Fort Wayne - Chicago - Peoria) in the Spring. The rest of my personal travel was all by car, as usual, and I was able to find time to be around family for nearly a month combined this year (with some remote work thrown in… not all vacation).

There’s not much to report on my church life. I’m still attending the same Lutheran church, still actively involved in my congregation, and that’s been a consistent anchor. I’ve reduced the amount of theological research/reading that had become my normal over the past few years, though I want to increase that in 2026.

On the personal projects side, family history got more serious attention this year. A family member who had done genealogy work passed away, and her husband shared with me what she’d compiled, though that wasn’t the only catalyst. I also received some new information from other distant family members that opened up some breakthroughs, including finding (more) distant relatives still alive that I didn’t know about, and managing to push further back up the family tree. (Or would that be down? Hmm…) I didn’t find anything overly surprising, but it felt like important/useful work. I even set up and maintain a Gramp Web-based website for my family to access, which has become a nice way to share my research, and interact with family members.

Family photos continued to be a real focus this year too. I’ve been systematically scanning in old family photos and editing them (cleaning them up), which has been both tedious and rewarding. There’s something about handling physical photos, seeing the quality and texture of older prints, that I think has shifted some of how I think about photography.

In parallel, I’ve been taking more photos at family events with my GH5, and I think perhaps the scanning work actually intensified my appreciation for the aesthetic of photos taken with a real camera. Seeing how differently film-era photos express themselves compared to digital phone snapshots… it’s like the scanning project gave me a new lens for understanding why I prefer shooting with actual gear. 😉 I’ve also been listening to a few camera-focused podcast episodes this year from Waveform/MKBHD and the guys from Accidental Tech Podcast, which have definitely helped feed the interest.

My media consumption shifted somewhat noticeably: I’ve watched way more YouTube than traditional movies or TV this year. My gaming also stayed light - mostly RuneScape and Northgard - and that’s tied to a bigger tech decision I’m currently debating: I’m seriously considering removing/mothballing my Windows computer. More on that later.

Health/Fitness

Unfortunately, my workouts took a hit this year: life got busy, and I didn’t prioritize it the way I should have. I’m calling this out mostly for my own reflection and accountability (this means you, future Justin): it’s something I want to improve in 2026.

On the diet front, I’m about 75% convinced the changes I’ve made are good. I spent roughly seven years eating low-carb/keto, and this year I expanded my dietary options to basically a standard diet, though still biased slightly low-carb. My energy levels remained high, and overall I feel decent, but it’s still something new and different. That’s partly why I’m still on the fence… the change seems to be working, but there’s an adjustment period to something that was a habit, and effectively part of my identity for so long.

Work

My work responsibilities shifted/increased again this year, though there’s not much else to report on the surface. I did travel twice for work out to Fargo (see previous blog posts), which means I flew noticeably more than I have in previous years. Nothing particularly standout came from those trips beyond what I’ve already written about elsewhere, but I’m becoming increasingly comfortable with what all air travel entails. Oh! And I got TSA pre-check, which made work and personal travel a lot more seamless.

Blog & Website

I stuck with my goal of posting weekly throughout 2025, even if a few were slightly late. That consistency feels good, though I’ve noticed it’s meant fewer standalone blog posts. That’s something I want to improve in 2026.

I also remained committed to GitHub & AWS for hosting and deployment, which continues to work well for my needs. I switched to my current workflow during Thanksgiving 2024, and while I sometimes debate if I want to continue to rely on big tech for my website, the publishing process is about as seamless as it can be while still using a static site generator. Most writing and posting still occurs from my computer, but occasionally I’ve authored and posted updates from my phone and/or iPad.

Home & Tech

My self-hosting setup got a significant upgrade when I switched from running Ubuntu as a bare-metal server to standing up TrueNAS on my Dell R710. It’s been a solid move, though it took some getting used to, and there were definitely some false starts. I also ditched traditional VPN services like PIA, which I’d been using on my phone when not on my home network, and instead have been using Tailscale to tunnel directly into my home network when out and about, with one of my computers operating as an endpoint.

As already noted in my post on what I read in 2025, my reading dropped noticeably this year compared to normal. I think it was for a few reasons, chiefly that I changed one of my habits (negatively) from reading from physical books in the morning to reading off my iPad. That’s something I’m planning to revisit in 2026.

On the task management/GTD front, I took another swing at OmniFocus (my third documented attempt for those counting), but ultimately migrated back to Todoist (again). The OmniFocus apps just had too much friction: too many clicks, a busy interface, occasional syncing slowness, and the overhead of managing task notes, descriptions, and attachments felt like unnecessary lift. Todoist’s simplicity wins (which, you know… I should have known. I kind of wrote about that before.)

And on a completely separate topic that I never thought I’d be writing about (because visual apps have never clicked for me before)… I’ve been thoroughly enjoying another app from the OmniGroup, OmniGraffle, for diagramming and visual thinking. It’s become a genuine tool in my arsenal, not just an experiment, and I’ve found myself using it in meetings (for drawing out product concepts), on my own to understand/diagram concepts, and even to make a pattern for my sister for sewing (a stretch, but it worked!).

Switching gears: my photo library got a bit of an overhaul this year. Ever since I’d moved back to iPhone, I’d been using Apple Photos to some extent, but had been using Immich as my primary library. By the middle of 2025, I made the decision to use Apple Photos wholesale as my primary library, with Immich and Google Photos specifically as backup layers. I wrote a bit about my photo backup strategy and workflow earlier this year, if you want the details on how that works.

In less groundbreaking news, I upgraded my video conferencing setup with a Stream Deck Mini (for easy control) and Elgato Key Lights, which has made remote calls feel a bit more polished. Does anyone else notice? Not really. But having a well-lit video feed makes me happy.

I also referenced this in my notes on gaming earlier, but I’m increasingly debating if 2026 is the year that my Windows gaming computer retires. At this point, I use my Mac about 90% of the time, and my Linux machine the other 10% or so, except for gaming, and taxes once a year. However, Steam Proton has continued to improve the Linux gaming situation, and for the style of games I have time for now, it works fine. I’m seriously wondering if in the coming year I will migrate to only two primary computers, a Windows VM for the few times I need it. 🤔

And with that, we’re to the end of my review! 2025 was an interesting year across a lot of different areas of my life. As is usual, some things improved, some things I let slide, and some things shifted direction. But, that gives me someplace to start and improve from in 2026! See y’all next year! (And because I’m me… I’ll leave you with another quote.)

“Look back and be grateful. Look ahead and be hopeful. Look around and be helpful.” - Paulo Coelho, Manual of the Warriors of the Light

Update #1 (2026-01-01): I originally had a disclaimer on this post noting that while I wrote the content myself, I used an LLM for proofreading and light editing. Instead of a per-post note, I’m choosing to have a single place where my LLM Policy exists.

Books I Read in 2025

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I’ve seen a number of other bloggers writing year-end book reviews and commentary on what they read (shoutout specifically to Manu, SuperBetsy, and Jeremy Keith), and I decided to join the fun!

I already keep a reading list of every book I finish (see here), so the following list is copied from there.

Books I Read (Finished) in 2025

Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger, Ryan Mac; 408pp (01/07/2025)
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen; 20h47m (02/03/2025)
Team: Getting Things Done with Others by David Allen, Edward Lamont; 9h46m (03/08/2025)
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams; 400pp (03/24/2025)
We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1 by Dennis E. Taylor; 9h56m (05/08/2025)
The Invisible College: The Invisible College, Book 1 by Jeff Wheeler; 10h39m (06/08/2025)
Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart; 18h50m (09/05/2025)
The Sword of Shannara: The Shannara Series, Book 1 by Terry Brooks; 26h21m (10/26/2025)
Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist; 17h16m (11/30/2025)
Magician: Master by Raymond E. Feist; 18h22m (12/21/2025)

Commentary

This year I read fewer books than in any other year since I began keeping track. I debated why, and I think it came down to a few reasons:

Early in the year I picked up a new iPad, which is often what I look at in the mornings while having morning coffee. This is sometimes a positive, as it means that I skim emails, prepare for the day, and can explore topics that interest me. However, it has had a negative impact on my reading habits, as mornings are when I read physical books.
In either May or June (I don’t recall the exact date), I had a failure in my primary server, which ended up taking it offline for a few months while I debated what route I wanted to take. That happens to be the same server I host my audiobooks on. While there was no data loss (thankfully - I keep multiple backups), it did mean that my book-listening plan was disrupted for a few months, and the solution I used in the interim had more friction. I eventually rebuilt my original workflow, which is working much better. 🙂
I spent more time listening to podcasts than audiobooks this year… looking back, I’m not sure that was the right decision for my goals.

Weekly Notes 2025.51

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 20:00:00 -0500

Week in Review

It’s the last full week of the year! (Yes, I know, next week is 50/50… I will probably start my week numbering over for 2026 next week though.)
Sunday afternoon, after posting my weekly update, I headed home to visit family for the holidays.
Sunday evening I gave my sister one of her gifts: a cold brew coffee maker, which we promptly had to try. Spoiler alert: she loved it. 🎉

Monday and Tuesday I worked remotely for a few hours in the mornings, and otherwise spent time with family.
Monday evening we made pizzas for dinner, which turned out spectacularly!
Wednesday was my first full day of vacation. I spent time with family during the day, and in the evening we went to the Christmas Eve service/children’s performance at the church I grew up in.
And on Thursday… Christmas! We always go to Christmas Day service at church to start the day, then have lunch with family, and open presents. And this year was the same!
Thursday afternoon my sister and I made rum cake, which turned out surprisingly well. My dad even enjoyed it, and he’s normally not a cake person!
Friday was round two of Christmas food for us. We had planned on doing a turkey on Friday (taking after mom’s side of the family), which gave us more time for prep, and ham and scalloped potatoes on Thursday, which was easy to prepare and a traditional meal on my dad’s side of the family.
Saturday was my parent’s 39th anniversary! I wished them a happy anniversary early, then went to my sister’s office to help with a computer backup (yes, I’m sometimes family IT, but I don’t mind - it’s interesting as long as it’s in small to moderate-sized doses).
Saturday afternoon, my sister and I tried our hands at making crème brûlée, which turned out shockingly well. Unfortunately… I forgot to take a picture to share!
Saturday evening we’d planned to go out for dinner, but my mom wasn’t feeling well, so we ended up ordering in instead. I got pizza, and for dessert, Buckeye Cheesecake 😋
And once again, we’re to Sunday! Sunday morning started with Divine Service, followed by lunch with family, and then spending some time wrapping up anything else I wanted to do before returning home (and writing this blog post!).
I delayed posting this until this evening, so I could add a picture from dinner: Apple Strudel. Thanks mom!

Potpourri

On Christmas Eve I ran across a post on rats in the toilet from One Foot Tsunami. Weird, but kind of amusing.
Christmas Eve also saw a (very infrequent) post from Linus Torvalds on GPLv2. I don’t follow him as closely as I once did, but seeing his thoughts on a legal ruling was interesting.
The Christmas Day post from Miniature Calendar was a really fun Star Wars-themed picture, and worth checking out!
I also saw this fun thread on BlueSky (well, technically reposted on Mastodon, but 🤷‍♂️) of Christmas movie posters, but with Muppets.
On Saturday, I ran across a video from MKBHD showing the scale of transistors on modern electronics, which was interesting enough that I had to share. As someone who works with MCUs/MPUs, I have a general idea of just how impressive the scale of modern tech is, but seeing it in video form that is easy to understand was super useful.
I also saw an opinion post on The Register (via Slashdot) on how memory is running out, and so are excuses for software bloat. While I don’t think that hyper-focusing on memory efficiency is the right tradeoff to make all the time, it is true (as the author noted) that memory usage seems to have been steadily climbing for years, and it would be worth it for software developers to examine if there are some easy ways to reduce their memory footprint. I don’t focus on software development as much as I once did, but many others at work do spend time every year making sure our products function well, and one aspect is managing memory in a constrained system. Viewing desktop platforms as a constrained system from a memory standpoint might be worthwhile. 🙂
And finally… PhotosExport. I haven’t used this yet, but I frequently think about what I would do if I wanted to leave the Apple Photos ecosystem, as I’ve put a substantial amoutn of effort into metadata there. This looks like a handy tool if I ever need to make a full backup/export of my library.

2025 Christmas Hymn: From Heaven Above to Earth I Come

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 15:00:00 -0500

Following my pattern from yesterday, for Christmas this year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post the lyrics of one of my favorite Christmas hymns:

From Heaven Above to Earth I Come (LSB 358)

1 “From heav’n above to earth I come
to bear good news to ev’ry home:
Glad tidings of great joy I bring,
Whereof I now will say and sing:

2 “To you this night is born a child
Of Mary chosen virgin mild;
This little child of lowly birth
Shall be the joy of all the earth.

3 “This is the Christ, our God Most High,
Who hears your sad and bitter cry;
He will Himself your Savior be
From all your sins to set you free.

4 “He will on you the gifts bestow
Prepared by God for all below,
That in His kingdom, bright and fair,
You may with us His glory share.

5 “These are the signs that you shall mark:
The swaddling clothes and manger dark.
There you will find the infant laid
By whom the heav’ns and earth were made.”

6 How glad we’ll be to find it so!
Then with the shepherds let us go
To see what God for us has done
In sending us His own dear Son.

7 Come here, my friends, lift up your eyes,
And see what in the manger lies.
Who is this child, so young and fair?
It is the Christ Child lying there.

8 Welcome to earth, O noble Guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
You came to share my misery
That You might share Your joy with me.

9 Ah, Lord, thou You created all,
How weak You are, so poor and small,
That You should choose to lay Your head
Where lowly cattle lately fed!

10 Were earth a thousand times as fair
And set with gold and jewels rare,
It would be far too poor and small
A cradle for the Lord of all.

11 Instead of soft and silken stuff
You have but hay and straw so rough
On which as King, so rich and great,
To be enthroned in royal state.

12 And so it pleases You to see
this simple truth revealed to me:
That worldly honor, wealth, and might
Are weak and worthless in Your sight.

13 Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,
A quiet chamber set apart
For You to dwell within my heart.

14 My heart for very joy must leap;
My lips no more can silence keep.
I, too must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradlesong:

15 Glory to God in highest heav’n,
Who unto us His Son has giv’n!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth.

2025 Christmas Eve Hymn: What Hope! An Eden Prophesied

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 15:00:00 -0500

For Christmas Eve this year, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post the lyrics of one of my favorite Advent hymns:

What Hope! An Eden Prophesied (LSB 342)

1 What hope! An Eden prophesied
Where tame live with the wild;
The lamb and lion side by side,
Led by a little child!

2 A shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stem,
A branch from David’s line,
A Prince of Peace in Bethlehem:
The fruit of God’s design.

3 As banner of God’s love unfurled,
Christ came to suffer loss,
That by His death a dying world
Would rally to the cross.

4 Come, Jesus, come, Messiah Lord,
Lost Paradise restore;
Lead past the angel’s flaming sword —
Come, open heaven’s door.

Weekly Notes 2025.50

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 12:15:00 -0500

Week in Review

It’s the last week before Christmas!
I was in-office every day this week, though my schedule became more focused on wrapping up small projects, cleaning, and preparing for the new year than usual.

Monday, a couple of coworkers and I went out to Jacks for lunch, where I had a tasty chicken dumpling soup and buffalo chicken sandwich.
Tuesday evening, after work, I met a friend at the church he works on to do some lightweight repair of an electronics module. It was fun to catch up, and to get to use my skills outside of the office!
Wednesday, a coworker brought in some left-over crème brûlée to share, which I enjoyed as an after-lunch treat!
Wednesday evening brought the final advent service of the year at church, after which I headed home for a late dinner.
Thursday and Friday brought little out of the ordinary. I continued working on wrapping up small projects in the office before preparing for the holiday break.
Saturday was spent cleaning my house, wrapping presents, and picking up a few last-minute gifts for friends and family. I won’t share more, else I spoil surprises!
And we’re to today! This morning (Sunday) I went to Divine Service (see the below photo for the Christmas decorations), and will be spending the rest of the day preparing for Christmas with family and friends!

Potpourri

In my news feed this week, I noticed an interesting article on how observing pupil dilation in patients when requested to imagine light or dark objects could reveal aphantasia. I have at least one family member who we believe has aphantasia, and so I forwarded the study to my sister (an optometrist) for further localized trials (ie, seeing if we can repeat the results).
This week a coworker brought in some rum cake to share in the office, and I enjoyed it enough that I requested the recipe and make it with family sometime. 😋
I also read a post from Matt Birchler on how streaming music is the lie we tell each other this week. I’m still putting my own thoughts on it together, and may post a response/blog post in the weeks ahead.

Weekly Notes 2025.49

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 17:15:00 -0500

Week in Review

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal, with meetings scattered throughout the day. As I did last week, I worked remote Monday morning, then drove to the office for some in-person work in the afternoon.
Tuesday evening was our R&D Christmas party at a local establishment. For the… fourth year in a row, I was on the planning committee, so I arrived slightly early to set up, and stayed afterwards to assist with some minor cleaning. The food and festivities were fantastic, and I think everyone had a good time! 🎄

Wednesday was mostly my standard schedule, with the exception of a meeting with a vendor over lunch. A month or so ago I got a chicken/bacon croissant, and really enjoyed it, so I decided to try it again (and it didn’t disappoint!).
After work I drove to church for our Advent services. I (unfortunately) missed last week due to a work commitment, but was glad to be able to attend this time around!
For the second week in a row, Thursday ended up being quite busy, with only a brief break for lunch. I felt like I got a decent amount accomplished though, which is always good!
Friday was a pretty standard day in-office, though it actually started with a quick trip to our ops center to assist a colleague with a product-related question. After work I did some quick shopping, as I saw that Saturday/Sunday could be interesting weather-wise.
Saturday the temperatures began dropping, and it also snowed for about 9 hours. I think all-told we got nearly 7 inches of powdery snow, which I spent the late-afternoon hours shoveling. 🌨
I pulled out my camera to take some photos of the snow… which didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. But I did take a photo inside of my snowman that’s not… terrible.
During the day while inside, I (once again) migrated my task lists from OmniFocus back to Todoist. I’ve mentioned such a transition in the past, and as before, the allure of some of OmniFocus’s design drew me in, somewhere around a month ago. However, the interface was actually feeling slightly clunky to use, and after some consideration (and bouncing my thoughts off an LLM, which was semi-useful), I decided to go back to the trusty tool I knew.
Saturday also saw me continuing to finalize my gift planning for family for Christmas. I split my shopping between online and in-person this year, which was a little abnormal for me (I mostly shop online historically). I also used an LLM for some idea generation for gifts… I had a few individuals that I was struggling to finish shopping for, and needed some ideas (well - specific ideas, I had a general category in mind). Using an LLM made it a little more interesting than just browsing online stores or doing standard web searches.
This morning when I woke up it was below zero (Fahrenheit)… brr! Since I wasn’t sure what the roads would be like, I got around and left for Divine Service early. The roads were snow-covered in places, but overall not bad!
After church, I came back home, finished some shoveling that I didn’t do yesterday (sidewalks), played a bit of Northgard, then began prepping for the week! In between said prep, I’ve been writing up this post. 🙂
All that’s left today is some cleaning, dinner, email, and then it’s off to another week! See you then!

Potpourri

I had a few other things that don’t fit my normal format, but that I wanted to include, and aren’t long enough for their own standalone blog post… (and yes, Matt, if you’re reading this, I totally stole the section name from you! Although I’m kind of using it differently.)
It appears that others are borrowing/stealing my weekly note naming scheme. 😁
Maybe 2026 is going to be the year of the Linux (gaming) desktop? I enjoyed reading Matt Birchler’s thoughts, and realized that even though I’ve had a Linux desktop for years (that could game), I haven’t really given it a go recently. I keep a Windows desktop around for 90% gaming/10% random other uses that require Windows, and I wonder if perhaps in 2026 I should see how much of it I can run on Linux now? Most of the games I play are on Steam, which means they likely have Linux support, either natively or via Proton.
I read through (well, ok, skimmed) Joel’s post on things he learned making a game engine. Though I no longer program as much as I used to, designing a game engine (or building a game that requires only a rudimentary engine) has been something on my far-distant someday/maybe list. It was interesting to see some of what Joel learned, and perhaps one day I’l take a stab at it myself.
For those interested - when I use LLMs, it’s through Kagi Assistant. I’ve been using Claude 4.5 Haiku model, with reasoning, and with Kagi web searches enabled. I keep an eye on Kagi’s benchmarks, and switch models roughly every other month, if there is a better recommendation for my use cases.
I ran across a Chicago food recommendation blog post from Cassidy Williams this week that caught my attention. While I don’t visit Chicago often, having a list of restaurants to try in my Obsidian vault is always a good idea for if/when the topic comes up!

Edits

2025-12-14: Added comment + link from Cassidy Williams’ blog.

Weekly Notes 2025.48

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 20:10:00 -0500

This past week largely saw a return to my normal schedule.
I worked remotely Monday morning, then headed to the office for some in-person meetings later in the day.
Monday evening as I prepared to leave work, a coworker asked me about my photo backup strategy, something I’d mentioned in passing before, but never in detail. She asked me to send her my recommendations, and instead of just a text, I ended up writing a blog post, which I published the next day. LINK

I would go on to spend a majority of Tuesday thru Friday in-office, with only a few exceptions.
Tuesday for lunch, instead of eating at my desk as is usual, a coworker and I headed to a local restaurant for a change of pace.
Then in the evening, I had another meal out, this time to catch up with some vendor reps that were in the area town. We met up at the local 2601 Oyster Bar, where I (of course) had my normal salmon, a personal favorite. It was great to catch up, and we split our time discussing business and family.
Wednesday evening I joined some coworkers and a colleague from out of town for dinner at Brienzo’s. It was my first time meeting this colleague in-person, so it was nice to put a face to a name, and hear some about their background, family, etc.
Thursday was by far my busiest day in a very long time, with only a brief 30 minute break for lunch until around 3:30p in the afternoon. That, of course, meant that I crammed most of my other work into the last 90 minutes of the day, then headed out with coworkers and the colleague from Wednesday to (of all places) the Oyster Bar again. Once I’ve found something I like, I really don’t mix things up much, and I once again enjoyed the blackened salmon.
On Friday, even though many coworkers tend to be remote, I was in office for a few in-person meetings (and some work that I couldn’t do easily at home). I stayed until mid-afternoon, then finished my work week out from the comfort of my home office.
Saturday morning started with a haircut, followed by going for a short drive around the area while it was sunny (and a little warmer than the past week). After that, I worked around home, splitting time between working on old family photos, putting up Christmas decorations, and genealogy.
On Sunday I started the day with Divine Service, followed by grocery shopping, and then relaxation. I also ripped some new (to me) Christmas albums to my Plex server, and worked on a few family photos and genealogy, before sitting down (after dinner) to wrap up this post, and begin preparing for the week ahead.
Something cool I saw this evening: a “tracker action” pipe organ, in a post from Cabel Sasser. I shared it with my sister, an accomplished organist, and thought others reading my blog might find it interesting as well.
And with that, I’ve come to the end of this post. Have a good week, and see y’all in a mere seven days!

My Photo Backup Strategy

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:15:00 -0500

Yesterday afternoon in the office, one of my coworkers asked me (paraphrasing) how I back up my photos so that everything isn’t only in iCloud, and what I would recommend that she do. And, because I’m a geek (and a bit extra at times), instead of just sending her my recommendations, I decided to turn this into a full blog post that I can point others to in the future. 😁

My Photo Workflow + Backup Strategy

So first off: how do I manage my photos? The answer has changed some over the years, but my current system is designed around the Apple Photos/iCloud system, both on my Mac and my iPhone. As you’ll see, I’m not entirely comfortable putting all of my eggs in one basket, and so I have backups outside of the Apple ecosystem, but that’s where my day-to-day photo library lives. All photos that I take on my iPhone are automatically synced, and any photo that I take with my big camera, or that I scan in via one of my photo scanners (for old family photos) goes into iCloud first.

Once the photos are into iCloud, then the rest of my strategy kicks in. I back up photos three separate ways currently:

Full backup of my Photos library via Backblaze on my Mac (where I have Photos set to download originals)
Backup via the Google Photos app on my iPhone to Google Photos, with settings set to “maintain original quality”
Backup via Immich on my iPhone to Immich running on my TrueNAS server, which is in turn backed up to Backblaze B2

Let’s break those down a bit.

First up - Photos on my Mac, backed up to Backblaze. When I made the decision to center my photo workflow around Apple Photos, I knew that I wanted to also back up my Apple Photos library, as that’s where the bulk of my efforts take place. The simplest way to have an offsite backup of both my Mac and my Photos library was to use Backblaze, and so I added a full Mac backup to my strategy ($9.99/month). Because I have Photos set to download originals to my Mac, every photo in my library is stored on my Mac at full original quality, and that (along with my library metadata) gets backed up to the Backblaze servers on a set schedule.

Next, Google Photos. I used to use Google Photos more heavily in the past, especially when I was running an Android phone, but when I moved back to iPhone, I also moved my photo library away from Google. At this point, it’s my “backup of last resort,” effectively. I have my settings set to backup from my iPhone to Google Photos at full quality, though I maintain a healthy skepticism about Google’s app settings, as spot checks have revealed to me that some files are not the same size as the originals. However, it’s another low-cost location to back my photos up to.

And third, I have an Immich instance set up on my home TrueNAS server, which I have my full library (via my iPhone and the Immich iOS app) syncing to. From all of my testing, this does in fact capture photos at original quality and file type, and is probably what I would choose to switch to if for some reason Apple Photos ever goes away (whether because I left, or because Apple killed the service). I then have my Immich library backing up to Backblaze B2 nightly, so I have another offsite copy of all of my original files.

My Family’s Photo Workflow + Backup Strategy

Years ago, my family used Google Photos much the same way I did, but in the early 2020s, when I switched back to iPhone, I brought my family along with me, which meant that their photos were split between some old folders on local desktops, their Google Photos library, and an iCloud Photos library. Instead of paying for multiple solutions, my dad and I made the decision to set up a NAS at my parents’ house, which would become their primary photo backup target. For that purpose, we selected a 4-bay Synology NAS, and I have each of their iPhones (their primary picture-taking devices) set up with the Synology Photos app, which periodically syncs to their NAS. The NAS is in turn backed up to Backblaze B2, which provides an offsite backup in the event of a hardware failure.

Recommendations to Others

First up: if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, by far the best first thing you can do is pay for enough iCloud storage to sync your photos between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Since iCloud is a sync service rather than a backup solution (meaning deletions sync across all devices), the best way to preserve everything you’ve done with your library is to have a Mac with a large enough SSD (internal or external) to download all originals, and then pay to back your Mac up to Backblaze.

For the slightly more intensive route, my next recommendation would be to set up a Synology NAS for yourself (preferably 4-bay), and use the Synology Photos app to back your photos up to your own NAS. It’s entirely up to you if you want to manage your photos in Synology, or just use it as a backup target, but it’s a still semi-inexpensive way to have a local copy under your control. For bonus points, set that to back up offsite to something like Backblaze or AWS S3 as well.

If, like me, you’re willing to do some extra work to host your own server, my “advanced” recommendation is to set up Immich the way I have, either on a Linux server or TrueNAS, and then back that library up offsite to Backblaze (or an equivalent). That strategy has the least vendor lock-in, and gives you arguably the best long-term strategy if you don’t want to use Apple or Google’s photo management tools for your libraries.

Conclusion

And so, those are my recommendations as of December 2025! Will my opinions change in the future? Of course - my recommendations a year ago wouldn’t look exactly as they do today, and I’d be fooling myself if I thought they wouldn’t change again. Hopefully that is helpful though, and if my workflow or my recommendations change heavily in the future, I’ll either update this post, or add another blog entry that supersedes this one.

Weekly Notes 2025.46 & 2025.47

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 15:10:00 -0500

This week I’m combining two posts into one (25.46 and 25.47), as I was a) delayed writing last week’s post, and b) it was looking short anyhow.
I mentioned last week that I was heading to a game night after my post, which I did! This time, instead of just games, we also did a puzzle (in only… 3-4 hours?).

Monday - Thursday I worked from the office, with my normal mix of meetings (scheduled and impromptu), plus working on a few projects that have been needing my attention.
I also threw in a couple more (short) game nights throughout the week, including teaching M Dutch Blitz, which I think she enjoyed. 😂
Friday I worked partially remote, and partially from the office, wrapping up some last minute testing on a product before the Thanksgiving break.
Saturday was primarily spent at home, with some relaxation in the morning, followed by yardwork (hopefully the last of the season?) in the afternoon.
Sunday I was up early for Divine Service, then headed home to pack for my trip to Ohio. I headed out slightly before lunch, and made it to where my family lives right around dinner time.
Monday through Wednesday I split my time between some remote work, and spending time with family. Evenings were spent enjoying homemade food, and playing the occasional game (Dutch Blitz made an early appearance, and would continue throughout the rest of my time in Ohio).
Tuesday evening we made pizzas, as I normally request to do while I’m home
Wednesday evening I joined my family members for a choir rehearsal at their church (where my sister is the director), followed by a Thanksgiving Eve serviced focused on the parts of the Lord’s Prayer.
Thursday was primarily spent with family, both enjoying good food, and playing a few games, including more Dutch Blitz, 6 Second Scribbles, and Yahtzee!
Thursday evening the skies were super clear, and on my way back from Thanksgiving I took a quick photo of the moon.
Friday morning started with some quick family photos that my mom requested for her Christmas card. My sister’s dog even got in on the pictures, as seen below. And after that, it was time to pack…
Based on the forecasted snow, I opted to head back to Illinois early, and so began the trek on Friday afternoon, ~48 hours ahead of my original plan. The trip was pretty uneventful, though I did pause to take a photo of this large… chicken? rooster? along the way.
Saturday, as expected, the snow began to fall. We got 4-5 inches in total, less than some other nearby locations, but enough that I had some shoveling to do! I spent the day catching up on work around the house, and doing some family photo & genealogy updates.
And once again, we’re to Sunday! This morning started with Divine Service (a little emptier than normal due to the weather), then on to grocery shopping for the week, then home! I’ve spent part of today beginning my Christmas decorations, and will do more after this post is complete.
I also finished Magician: Apprentice (audiobook) today while working around the house, and plan to start the next book in the series this evening.
And with that, time to wrap up this post!

The Scientific Classification of Christmas Music

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:30:00 -0500

Over lunch, some colleagues and I were discussing why Christmas music is its own genre, with specific sounds. For fun, I asked an LLM to generate a plausible but fictitious explanation, and a few seconds later, this amusing anecdote was born…

The Scientific Classification of Christmas Music

The Temporal Frequency Hypothesis

Christmas music constitutes its own genre due to a rare phenomenon known as Yuletide Acoustic Resonance (YAR). When temperatures drop below 45°F and decorative lighting exceeds 10,000 lumens in a given radius, the human ear undergoes a temporary recalibration that makes jingling bells neurologically indistinguishable from traditional percussion instruments. This is why the same person who despises tambourines in July will enthusiastically tolerate “Jingle Bell Rock” in December.

The Lyrical Density Principle

No other genre maintains such a high concentration of words that rhyme exclusively with “snow.” This creates a self-referential loop where artists, desperate to complete their verses, have collectively locked Christmas music into its own hermetically sealed linguistic ecosystem. Attempts to escape this cycle (such as “Christmas in July”) fail spectacularly because the YAR effect is dormant.

The Forced Joy Quotient

Christmas music is scientifically engineered to sound jolly at all times, regardless of lyrics about lonely nights or relationship dissolution. This paradox—sad words set to aggressively cheerful melodies—is so unique that it essentially violated genre conventions and created its own category out of sheer necessity.

Conclusion: Christmas music transcended genre status somewhere around 1950 and has been occupying its own dimensional frequency ever since.

🎅

Weekly Notes 2025.45

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 13:30:00 -0500

Welcome to weekly note number 45 for 2025!
Not much out of the ordinary occurred in the office this week. I was in all 5 days, including a longer-than-normal Friday, due to me shifting some meetings that needed to occur but that I couldn’t find a place for to Friday.
Tuesday evening, a coworker that is primarily remote was in town, so a group of us went out to dinner in the evening at the venerable 208 House. I tried pasta this time, which didn’t disappoint, and finished off with gooey butter cake (yes, it’s a lot of sugar, but it’s also quite tasty!).

Friday evening saw the return of game nights the aforementioned M, who once again traveled with her mom to the area on business. This time there was a slightly larger group, and we ended up playing Monopoly Deal (a continued favorite), 5 Minute Dungeon, Yahtzee (which I won!), and Bananagrams.
Saturday morning I worked on projects around home, then did some early Christmas shopping at some local stores. I normally do most of my shopping online, but decided to mix things up a little this year.
And that brings us to Sunday! This morning I attended Divine Service, did some grocery shopping, and wrote up this post, and am now preparing to head off for puzzles & games with M and her mom. Catch you next time!

Weekly Notes 2025.44

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 18:30:00 -0500

This week’s post will be fairly short. I was in the office Monday - Thursday, with a slightly higher volume of meetings than normal.
Wednesday morning I met a coworker at a local restaurant for breakfast and to catch up, which was a nice way to start the day!

By the time I left work on Wednesday evening, it was already dark, and the moon was out. When I got home I decided to grab my GH5 and zoom lens, and attempt to get a nice photo… see below for results 🙂
Friday, for the first time in a while, I took the opportunity to work from home. It was a nice relaxing way to end the work week, and catch up on some projects that I hadn’t had time for in office.
This weekend the temperatures finally started turning colder, though not so cold that I didn’t go for a few walks! I also spent the weekend catching up on personal projects, and relaxing, preparing for the week ahead.
Oh… and I almost forgot! On Sunday we had our first snow of the season! It didn’t last, but I took a photo of the snow on some shrubs while I was out for a walk.
And with that, we’re on to next week! See you then!

Weekly Notes 2025.43

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 02:30:00 -0500

Welcome to my 43rd weekly note post!
I referenced in last week’s post that I was heading to play games with a colleague & her daughter (M) while they were in the area. Obligatory photo below. 🙂

Monday morning started with meetings in the office, then lunch with a coworker at our favorite local ramen restaurant (and… maybe the only local ramen restaurant? 🤷‍♂️). I had a break in the afternoon then, and focused on catching up on projects in office.
Tuesday was a pretty normal day, until I got a text mid-afternoon asking if I was interested in stopping by to play games with M. They’d ended up extending their stay by a few days, so after dinner I grabbed a few games (Clue & Monopoly), then headed off to see if I had any chance of winning this time (I… did not 😂).
On Wednesday, I was to the office a little earlier than normal, to meet a coworker from Fargo in for project meetings. After some meetings in the office in the morning, I took him on a tour of our Ops Center, followed by lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. Then it was back to the office for another series of meetings.
Wednesday evening we were supposed to have an event for dinner at the offices, but I was a little exhausted, and headed home to relax, in preparation for Thursday.
Thursday, I knew my day was going to be busy, but that ended up being an understatement… I got pulled into a few unplanned meetings (unplanned by me that is), and thank goodness that I spent time over the weekend getting familiar with OmniGraffle! Many of the meetings involved project planning, and being able to rapidly draw up system concepts was extremely helpful!
Thursday evening I took the coworker visiting from Fargo out for dinner at The 208 House, which he had never been to. Dinner was delicious as always!
I had intended to work remote Friday, but ended up with a couple of meetings that I couldn’t take earlier in the week and needed to be in person. I did get done slightly early though, and headed home for dinner. With it being Halloween, I intentionally didn’t do much in my front room and kept porch lights off, as I generally don’t hand out candy (nor were there many kids in our area this year, based on conversations with neighbors).
Saturday was largely spent at home, with some walks around the neighborhood thrown in for exercise. It was a little on the cool side, so I focused most of my efforts on projects around the house.
This morning (Sunday) started with Divine Service, although not quite as usual. Today I had a coworker joining me at service, and then we both went to a service at another local church where another coworker was being baptized. After the second service, a group of us went out for lunch, and then I headed home to begin prep for the week (and to write this!).

Weekly Notes 2025.42

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 02:30:00 -0500

This week’s update might be even shorter than last week’s, although with a few twists!
I worked from the office all week, with a majority of my meetings taking place on Monday (other than standard cadence meetings throughout the week).
This week was a little quieter than normal, as a number of close colleagues were traveling for meetings…

The unplanned portion of my week began Tuesday, when I was invited to play some board and card games with a colleague from Europe and her daughter (who I’d met the week before, and for privacy reasons will only refer to as M). I brought some of my games along, and taught her Monopoly Deal and Fluxx, both of which she greatly enjoyed (especially Monopoly Deal). In return, she taught me Uno Flip, which I think I’d heard of, but never played.
On Thursday, M visited her mom at the office over lunch, and we convinced a group of coworkers to join in a round of Monopoly Deal.
Thursday evening I was asked to join a game night again, and this time I brought along Exploding Kittens to throw into the mix (which unbeknownst to me was one of M’s favorites).
Friday (which is normally quieter around the office), M once again visited her mom at lunch, and we talked another group of coworkers into a quick game, first of Seven Up, then Exploding Kittens.
Friday evening and Saturday morning I spent largely relaxing, and catching up on some projects around the house. I also purchased and began experimenting with/learning OmniGraffle, a visual communication tool (think diagrams, flow charts, etc) that I’ve tested in the past, but never committed to learning. My job has begun to include meetings where being able to rapidly prototype ideas on such an application during the meeting is useful, and after some research, I decided that OmniGraffle was the right tool for the job. I’m still pretty new to it, but at some point I’ll probably write more, after I’ve put it through its paces.
Saturday afternoon I was invited to play some more board games, and this time I took along Sorry, Monopoly (the original game) and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, a game based on the Pandemic System. M had played Monopoly before (and she beat me quite handily), and then I taught her how to play the Pandemic-style game, which she enjoyed.
Sunday morning started with Divine Service, followed by groceries, and mowing my lawn. It’s been a while since I’ve needed to mow, but it was time to knock things down to a manageable level.
And this afternoon, it looks like I’m being invited to a game event once again. I’ve been asked to bring along the Pandemic-style WoW game, Sorry, and Exploding Kittens, so this should be fun!
See y’all next week!

Weekly Notes 2025.41

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 17:00:00 -0500

I think I’ll keep this week’s update short and sweet. 🙂
A majority of this week in-office was spent in user acceptance testing of the new systems. My time wasn’t needed quite as heavily as last week though, so I started to get back to a normal work schedule.

Wednesday evening I went out to eat with some of my local and international colleagues that were in town. We enjoyed pizza at Brienzo’s, followed by ice cream at the new-to-me Yeni’s Palarte. (Sorry, no pictures this time!)
Thursday a couple of coworkers and I headed to Yasakani Ramen for lunch. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten there, and I found that my taste for spice has increased to the point that “extra spicy” tastes only mildly spicy to me!
Friday brought a change of pace. I was in the office for meetings, but over lunch and for a while in the afternoon, I also took on the role of tour guide for both some international colleagues, and one of their children. It was an interesting experience explaining what we (and our products) do to someone unfamiliar with much of Midwest farming!
I attempted to spend a majority of the weekend relaxing, splitting my time between catching up on things around the house, personal projects, and a little gaming (StarCraft II again).
Saturday brought rain to the area, and so I spent most of my time indoors, with a few walks between showers.
By Sunday, the temperatures in Central Illinois started to feel like October finally. I enjoyed having nice weather while it was here, but I also like the cooler temperatures!
Sunday started with Divine Service, followed by groceries, as is my routine. After that I grilled some burgers for lunch (well - one for lunch, the rest for later), and finished it off with a bit of ice cream.
And with that, it’s time to prepare for another week!

Weekly Notes 2025.40

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 16:30:00 -0500

After being gone all of last week, it was nice to be home and in a little bit more of a normal routine this week!
However… as luck would have it, I had actually moved my Fargo trip from last week forward, as this week’s schedule needed my attention in-office for training on some new systems.

Training Tuesday - Friday meant that I moved a majority of my normal meetings to Monday, and Friday afternoon. Which meant that my coworkers barely saw me at my desk, even though I was often in the office before they arrived, and stayed until after they left. 🙃
Wednesday evening I went to dinner at a local Texas Roadhouse with some colleagues in town for the systems training.
Saturday morning, I got up and (for the first time in weeks) mowed my lawn. We’ve had just enough rain in the past week to cause it to grow, although only certain patches really needed any attention.
Saturday afternoon I spent some time playing StarCraft II for the first time in years. I’ve gotten in the habit of watching interesting pro-level matches occasionally on YouTube, and wanted to try my hand at the campaign again. It was a fun diversion from the types of games I’ve been playing recently!
Saturday I also spun up an Immich instance on my TrueNAS setup. I’ve talked about Immich in the past, but had not dedicated time to getting it functional again after my server rebuild. After a bit of tinkering, everything is running, and I’m slowly working to rebuild my photo library from a combination of backups and iCloud Photo sync. Since I’m currently heavily in the Apple ecosystem, my opinion is that it makes sense to use the features of iCloud Photos, but I want a functional copy on my own infrastructure in case that ever changes.
And that brings me to today! This morning I attended Divine Service as usual, then did my weekly grocery shopping. After church, I spent more time migrating data to my Plex & Immich instances from backups, and continuing to catch up on work communications from the past few weeks.
Next up: post this, then start preparing for dinner! See y’all next week!

Weekly Notes 2025.39

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 17:00:00 -0500

This week was one of my busier in a while, as I was in-office on Monday morning, then traveled Monday afternoon/evening to Fargo, ND for some meetings with colleagues based out of our office there.
Tuesday morning through Friday mid-afternoon was spent in meetings, some planned, some impromptu, and enjoying interacting in-person with team members that I normally only see virtually. I don’t have much to share publicly from my time in-office in Fargo, so insetad I’ll include some food photos! 🙂
Tuesday lunch: ThaiKota

Tuesday dinner: Pounds
Wednesday morning coffee (from Caribou Coffee) & sunrise
Wednesday dinner: Brewhalla
Thursday morning coffee (from Caribou Coffee) & sunrise
Thursday lunch: Thai Orchid
Thursday dinner: Ziti’s
Friday afternoon snack (cheesecake, courtesy of Sean)
Friday dinner: Berghoff Cafe @ ORD
Upon my return to Illinois, I spent most of Saturday just relaxing, and taking a mental break from the events of the week.
This morning (Sunday) I went to Divine Service, followed by grocery shopping, and starting to catch up on emails, messages, and small projects that I’d put off while traveling.
And with that, it’s time to wrap up my post, and begin preparing for the week ahead, which once again looks to be jam-packed!

Weekly Notes 2025.38

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 20:15:00 -0500

This week will once again be a shorter post, as a majority of the week followed my normal patterns work/life patterns.
I was in-office all week, splitting time between meetings and continued deployment work on the aforementioned ECAD tool.
Wednesday, a group from work visited Jonah’s Oyster Bar for dinner, where I enjoyed my standard spread of Salmon, New England Clam Chowder, and a delightful Old Fashioned.

Also, as mentioned before, in the evenings I spent some time playing the RuneScape Catalyst League. I’m continuing to have fun replaying some of the earlier stages of the game, although the leveling process has slowed down (as expected) as I approach the mid-level in most skills.
Over the weekend, I spent some time catching up on chores that have been slipping through the cracks due to my schedule (and, if I’m honest, choosing to spend time doing more “fun” things…).
And with that… off to begin another week!

Weekly Notes 2025.37

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 20:10:00 -0500

This week’s post is a bit shorter than the last few (which in general isn’t bad in my opinion).
I was in-office every day this week, and split my time between meetings & email (as usual), and continued work on deployment of the ECAD tool I referenced last week, which consumed a majority of my time.
On Monday, the RuneScape Catalyst League went live, and I spent some time (normally an hour or so) every night this week playing it, enjoying reliving the early stages of the game. It’s also really fun to see a lot of players all in the same areas at once, which hasn’t happened in years that I really recall.

I tried to take a walk most evenings this week as well, and continued listening to The Sword of Shannara while out and about. I can clearly see places where the author was inspired by other books in a similar genre, but so far it remains interesting, and I think I’ll finish it in the next week or two.
Over the weekend, I split my time between continuing playing the Catalyst League, working on small projects around the house, and rebuilding my Plex movie collection.
One of the small projects I undertook Saturday was updating all of my various Apple devices to their respective new OSes. So far, the Liquid Glass look is actually somewhat appealing to me, and I am enjoying the refreshed look across my various computing tools. I think the macOS changes are going to take the longest for me to get used to, with some of the iPadOS multitasking changes in a close second.
Today (Sunday) I went to Divine Service, with shopping afterwards, as usual. This afternoon I worked through both my weekly review, and catching up on emails, in preparation for another busy week ahead.
And with that, I’ll set down my… keyboard? (doesn’t sound as cool as “pen” or “quill”), and start a slow preparation for bed! 🙂

Weekly Notes 2025.36

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 17:00:00 -0500

This week turned out to include a nice mix of work projects, local events, and some quality time experimenting with new tools. The weather has been all over the place though… enjoyably cool early in the week, then warming back up to obnoxious for September by Thursday.
Monday was a pretty standard day in the office. After work (and dinner), I decided to experiment with having Claude help me write a status update for my blog (not because I needed help, more because I was curious to see what it would do). I ultimately wasted way more time than it was probably worth, but it was interesting to see what an LLM thought a status update should look like, vs what I would normally post.
Speaking of my status update… it was actually about the weather. 😬 The weather was perfect Monday evening for a longer walk through the neighborhood, and I wanted to remember that when perusing my website in the future.

Tuesday, a group of us watched the Apple iPhone event over lunch. The live translation feature on the updated Airpods Pro looked especially cool, though I would rarely have a reason to use it, and the orange iPhone Pro definitely stood out from the usual color options. Feature-wise though, it felt like a general spec bump/improvement year rather than revolutionary changes, outside of the iPhone Air unveiling. I won’t be ordering one for myself, but the concept is intriguing as a design direction… I’ve been trying to rationalize who exactly it’s for, as I’ve yet to find someone who intends to buy one.
Tuesday afternoon I was asked to sit in on the cultural interview of a candidate for a position at work, after which I and a coworker took them out for dinner at The 208 House, who just happened to have a new menu for us to enjoy (unbeknownst to me until we arrived). The food was delicious, and it was nice getting to know the candidate a little better outside of an office environment.

Wednesday was back to a pretty normal day, much of which I spent preparing for a project review on Thursday. The review (held on Thursday over lunch) went well, though as often occurs, I have additional items to do after the discussion. 🙂
Wednesday evening I decided to play around with Obsidian Bases for a while, though I ultimately decided that I’m not ready to incorporate the feature into my current workflow. I did switch back to the Minimal theme by kepano while I was at it though, and I’m enjoying it as a different style for my notes for a while.
Thursday a coworker and I also spent time planning for the deployment of an updated ECAD tool for the organization. This is one of the larger pieces of enterprise software I’ll have deployed, and it’s always interesting thinking through config, etc.
Friday morning I was in-office for meetings (more on EU regulations, yay!), then headed to lunch with a number of coworkers at the Morton Pumpkin Festival (a yearly event for our team).
Friday afternoon, a smaller group of coworkers and I went to Northwood in Morton for the Blue disc golf course. It was fun, though I definitely need to practice more! My technique isn’t great, but the course itself is really well-designed with good variety of holes.
Friday evening, even though I’d been outside most of the afternoon, I set aside an hour for mowing. Though the grass is barely alive right now with how dry it’s been, there were a few areas that needed some trimming to look even, and I like things looking tidy.
Saturday, as has become my routine, I went to the Pumpkin Drive Thru for lunch, and bought a few quarts of ice cream for family and friends in Ohio.
Saturday afternoon I spent time adding a bunch of additional music (mostly from video games that I’ve bought over the years) to my server, and then began rebuilding my movie collection as well. There’s something satisfying about having your media properly organized and accessible, and I hadn’t realized how much I’ve come to depend on self-hosted media until I didn’t have it for a while.
This morning, I went to Divine Service as usual, then headed to the store for groceries. On my way home, I started a new novel, The Sword of Shannara, listening via Prologue. I’ve had the book for a while, but never got around to actually reading it until now.
Around noon, I ate a simple lunch (fried eggs and spicy ramen), and have been working on laundry, some home projects, work email, and adding more movies and home videos to my server ever since.
And with that, I think I’m caught up, and ready for another week! (Or… will be, once I finish this and some emails 😉)

Weekly Notes 2025.35

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 12:45:00 -0500

This week turned out to be an interesting mix of holiday productivity, server upgrades, good food, and diving deeper into some AI tools (a phrase I never thought I’d write).
Since Monday was Labor Day here in the US, I had the day off, and spent it doing some small personal projects around the house, plus working on another work-related project that I’ve not had time for in the office (see the next point - and yes, I know it was a holiday, but it was a project that I both needed to spend time with and that I was enjoying experimenting on). Nothing too exciting, but it felt good to catch up on things I’d been putting off.
While I’m not going to go into detail on the work project, I did find it as an interesting excuse to attempt some “vibe coding” on a little one-off Java app to manipulate Excel files (reformatting columns, adding new data fields, combining data from other files into a final export, etc). I got the first part working with Apache POI, though I still need to finish the combination logic. I do appreciate how quickly I was able to get to a functional solution, and the code is readable/modifiable, but I’m not entirely sure how comfortable I am with the overall vibe-coding concept. It still feels potentially perilous to me.

Tuesday through Friday, I was back in the office for what felt like an endless series of meetings, largely due to the condensed week. No complaints though, and not much to report otherwise… it was the usual mix of project & vendor discussions, along with some team coordination.
Wednesday evening brought a fun diversion though. After dinner, a couple coworkers and I went out for drinks at Dac’s Smokehouse in Morton. It’s a barbecue joint that I’ve mentioned before, and that I am fond of. Dac’s has a nice atmosphere, and it was enjoyable to catch up over some locally-brewed beers.
Thursday I made another trip to Yasakani Ramen with coworkers for lunch. I think I’m risking becoming a regular there… the ramen is consistently delicious, and it’s fast enough for a work lunch. It’s a bit further away than I really prefer, but once every couple of weeks isn’t too bad.

Friday, I got my oil changed at the local Ford dealership, and ended up spending the wait time learning about some upcoming EU regulations with the help of Kagi Study, which I think uses Claude on the backend? It was actually a productive way to kill time, and I was impressed with how well it summarized complex regulatory language, and assisted me in thinking through potential implications.
The big accomplishment of the week, personally, was my weekend server rebuild. On Friday evening I finally installed TrueNAS on my Dell R710, and rebuilt my storage array. The migration from my old Ubuntu setup went smoother than expected, and I’m already appreciating the ZFS features, though I’m also definitely still in a learning phase…
Friday and Saturday I migrated my Plex music library (all purchased/owned, in case you’re wondering), and so far everything seems to be working well. Today, as I write this, I’m migrating my audiobook library (same addendum; all purchased/owned) to the new server as well, and that will probably take me a large portion of the rest of the afternoon (in the background, not active work).
Speaking of audiobooks, on Friday I also finished Sir Patrick Stewart’s memoir, Making It So. It was a fascinating look at his career journey, from Shakespeare to Star Trek and beyond, and Stewart’s narration of the audiobook made it particularly engaging.
On Saturday, while my music was migrating to the new server, I spent more time experimenting with Claude directly, instead of through Kagi (something I hadn’t planned on doing until this weekend). I tried out a few different lines of thought to see how it behaved, including brainstorming blog ideas (prompting me for what I should go into detail on in my weekly notes, instead of the boring versions I’ve been writing), researching some topics I wanted background on before talking to a professional, and even attempting to build a theoretical recipe list for the week (although… I didn’t choose to use the recipes for the upcoming week). On that last item though - I did find some interesting websites targeted at recipes for 1-2 serving meals, which I will definitely be using in the future. I’m still evaluating where AI tools fit into my workflow, as I have concerns both about their origin, their capability (and/or lack thereof), and the implications of using them, but I don’t think sitting on the sidelines and fully ignoring them is a viable approach.
This morning I went to Divine Service as normal, then followed up with my weekly grocery shopping.
When I got home, I also played a bit of RuneScape, finishing up my participation in The Need for Mead event (which I’ve been working on a little bit at a time since it was announced). It’s a time-limited event running until Monday (squeaking in at the end, i know!) where players collect nectar to earn rewards like the Meadweaver’s Outfit (which I personally think looks pretty nice on my character) and a Chunky Bee pet. It’s been a while since I devoted any time to playing, and it was fun to once again enter the world of Gielinor.
That reminds me… Over the past few weeks I’ve become interested in playing Sudoku and crossword puzzles again, and completely forgot to mention it on my blog. I tried a few different apps but ended up settling on the NYT Games app and subscription, which I’d used in the past. It seems to have the best design and play style for my preferences, and it’s a fun way to keep my mind active.
Oh! And I almost forgot! Throughout the week, and also this weekend, I’ve been taking advantage of the nice weather and going for walks in the evenings. For those unfamiliar with the area, September in Illinois typically sees highs in the low 80s°F, but this past week had cooler temperatures in the 70s. Yay! (I enjoy more moderate temperatures.)
And with that, time to wrap up this post a bit early, and enjoy the flatbread pizza I picked up at Kroger! 🍕

Weekly Notes 2025.34

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 18:00:00 -0500

It’s been another week already? Well, I guess that means it’s time for another blog post!
Monday was fairly routine – nothing particularly noteworthy to report. Just the typical start-of-week meetings and catching up on projects.
However, Tuesday brought a fun change of pace as I headed down to the Farm Progress Show in Decatur with some coworkers. For those not familiar, it’s the nation’s largest outdoor agricultural event, and this year marked its 20th anniversary at the permanent Decatur site. The scale of the show is always impressive, and it’s fascinating to see all the latest innovations in farming technology, both from our company and competitors.

Wednesday was probably the highlight of my week from a learning perspective. Our team has a standing monthly lunch & learn, where we either discuss ongoing projects, or a special topic that would be of interest to the team. This month we invited the data science team, who presented a deep dive into how LLMs actually work under the hood, and some of the science and terminology behind them. I’ve been aware of these tools for a while, and have used them lightly, but hadn’t really taken the time to fully understand the underlying mechanics. The discussion covered everything from training processes to how they generate responses, and I found myself genuinely fascinated by the whole thing. It’s one of those topics where the more you learn, the more questions you have…
Thursday and Friday were back to the standard mix of meetings and project work. Nothing too exciting to report there. 🤷‍♂️
Saturday started with the inevitable yard work – yes, more mowing. I think this might be the last time I need to mow my full lawn until we get more rain. It’s a bit annoying, but hey, at least I’m getting my steps in!
Throughout the week, with some extra time on Saturday, I continued working on digitizing and cleaning up/editing more family photos. My goal is to knock out 5 or so a day, which seems really slow, but keeps me making forward progress!
This weekend also brought a major decision point I’ve been wrestling with: how to rebuild my home server that recently had a few hard drive failures (within the last ~2 months). After much deliberation, I’ve decided to stick with my current chassis (an R710) and source some used enterprise SAS drives off eBay. It’s amazing what you can find in the enterprise surplus market if you’re willing to do a bit of hunting.
With the rebuild, I’m also tentatively planning to make the jump to TrueNAS instead of going back to Ubuntu. I’ve been wanting to experiment with ZFS for a while now, and this seems like the perfect opportunity. The data integrity features and snapshot capabilities have me intrigued, even if there’s going to be a learning curve involved.
Before I made the decision to begin a server rebuild & migration to TrueNAS, I spun up a temporary Plex server on an old computer that I’ve had sitting around. I realized that without a functioning home server I’ve not been listening to audiobooks, and therefore my yearly reading has been slipping. I had tried to come up with an alternate solution previously, but nothing had the same simple workflow as Plex + Prologue, and I didn’t want to switch back to the Audible app (partially on principle). As soon as I had a functional audiobook server again, I started in on a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while: Making It So by Patrick Stewart (narrated by the author)!
Sunday morning started with a combined Divine Service (which we do on 5th Sundays of the month), with a guest pastor (Rev. Dr. Chad Kendall) visiting from Concordia University - Chicago. It’s always interesting to hear different perspectives and preaching styles, and I appreciated his message.
Throughout the weekend, I also continued working with Dorico on that project I mentioned last week involving my sister. I’m still learning how the software works, but it’s beginning to feel more natural!
And that’s a wrap on this week’s post! I’ll be enjoying my long weekend (thanks to Labor Day), and look forward to seeing what happens in the week ahead!

Weekly Notes 2025.33

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 18:00:00 -0500

This week was mostly back to my normal routine, with a few bright spots that made it memorable.
Monday started off on a high note when one of my coworkers brought in homemade blueberry pie to celebrate a team member’s birthday. There’s something about unexpected office treats that just makes the whole day better – and this pie was no exception!

Tuesday through Thursday were pretty standard fare – the usual mix of meetings, project work, and catching up on things that had accumulated from the previous week. Nothing particularly noteworthy to report.
Thursday evening, however, was a nice change of pace. Instead of our yearly camping trip (which got cancelled this year due to scheduling conflicts), a few friends and I decided to meet up at The 208 House for dinner. It had been way too long since we’d all gotten together, so it was great to catch up!
Friday brought another food highlight when some coworkers and I ventured out to Yasakani Ramen for lunch. I’ve been wanting to try actual restaurant-style ramen for a while now, and it definitely lived up to the hype!
Saturday and Sunday I spent a good chunk of time working on digitizing and organizing some old family photos – part of my ongoing project that I’ve referenced before. The process is slow, but I’m making steady progress.
I also tackled some much-needed yard work over the weekend. August in Illinois means the grass is still growing, but everything else is starting to look a bit tired from the summer heat. Nothing too exciting to report there, but it felt good to get caught up.
This weekend also brought an interesting new experiment: I started exploring music notation software for the first time in many years. I’ve been curious about digital composition tools for a while, and finally decided to dive in, prompted by an upcoming project with my sister. I spent some time trying multiple tools, and finally settled on Dorico, which seems to be a good mix of functionality without breaking the bank.
And with that, my week is over, and it’s time to begin preparing for the week ahead!

Weekly Notes 2025.32

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 18:15:00 -0500

After a week away, this week it was back to the office, and a semi-normal schedule. Well… okay, half-normal. I had a coworker from Fargo visiting this week, which meant a few extra meetings, and a few extra meals out!
Monday was pretty standard, preparing for the week ahead and catching up on a few things I’d missed while out.
Tuesday we had multiple vendors meeting in for meetings, so I was barely at my desk all day. In the evening we took our coworker out to La Fiesta for dinner and drinks.

Wednesday was a bit more project-focused, followed by a (later) dinner at The 208 House with another vendor who was in town for PTI.
Thursday saw a partial-return to my normal routine, and meals at home (which my waistline needed after multiple meals out!).
Friday I had an optometrist appointment in the morning, followed by a meeting in the office, and then a final lunch with our coworker from Fargo before he headed home. Lunch was at Verandah, a restaurant that I don’t frequent often, but which has an interesting variety of foods.
On Saturday, it was once again time to mow, so the morning was largely spent mowing, trimming, and making my yard look like someone actually… you know, takes care of it. 😂
Saturday afternoon I spent time working on some projects around home, and then the evening was largely spent watching a tv show.
Sunday morning I went to Divine Service, which was a little different than normal, as the pastor was unable to be present. The service was modified slightly, and a lay-person delivered the message, but overall everything went well!
Sunday afternoon I worked on a few personal and work projects (I didn’t do any one thing for more than an hour or two), and after I finish authoring this post, it will once again be time to prepare for the week ahead!

Weekly Notes 2025.31

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 11:15:00 -0500

The past week was both more and less eventful than normal. How’s that possible, you ask? Let me explain…
Sunday afternoon I packed up and drove to visit family for the week, doing a remote work/vacation hybrid.
Monday through Friday I spent working during the morning/afternoon, with lunches and dinners with family.
Monday evening my mom, sister, and I baked pizzas for the family, and experimented with a few different flavors. The traditional/meat lover’s was my favorite, but everything turned out well.

Tuesday evening my sister and I made beef stir fry for the family (once again - delicious, and we finished it off in one setting).
After dinner, before going for an evening walk, I saw some interesting light/cloud formations, and took a picture with my M4/3 camera, which I posted as a status update.
Wednesday evening my whole immediate family went to the Auburn City Steakhouse in celebration of my dad’s birthday. It’s the first time I’ve ever visited, and I was very impressed with the quality of the food and of the drinks!

Thursday afternoon I visited one of our contract manufacturers, and spent most of the afternoon discussing ongoing projects and catching up with a team I’ve not seen for nearly half a year.
Thursday evening my brother was in the Fort Defiance Players production of Big Fish, a musical that I’d never heard of until he was set to perform in it. The cast did an amazing job, and it was an enjoyable evening at the theater.
Friday evening I went out to Two Bandits with my parents for dinner, where we enjoyed some breadsticks (appetizer), and I tried their new Ragin’ Cagin’ Mac & Cheese (which was delicious!).

On Saturday I began preparing for my trip home, and after lunch, drove back to Illinois.
And that once again brings me to Sunday! I went to Divine Service this morning, followed by some grocery shopping, and since it’s currently raining, I opted to write my weekly update a little early.

Weekly Notes 2025.30

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I promise I’m not a food blogger, nor am I aspiring to be one, but I like to take photos of tasty food when I’m out, and I was out to eat with coworkers a few times this week, and so… this week’s update is going to include some food photos. 😂
Monday was overall a pretty normal day, not much to report.
Tuesday through Friday I had a coworker from Sunnyvale in town, for some internal meetings on tool consolidation and workflows. This meant a) a lot of our time was taken up in meetings, and b) you guessed it, some food!
Tuesday evening a local coworker and I took our Sunnyvale counterpart out to eat at The 208 House, one of my local favorites. After a long series of discussions during the day, it was great to relax and talk shop without as much pressure to settle on anything specific.

Wednesday we had a team lunch celebrating the successful launch of a product at Seasons Gastropub. It was a fun time to catch up with coworkers and celebrate wins, and enjoy a meal together!

Then in the evening I caught up with a vendor at The 208 House again (yes, twice in two days), and ended up spending an enjoyable evening both discussing upcoming project needs, and chatting about family, faith, etc.

Thursday there were no big meals (which was fine - I needed to have a day off!), but instead we had intern interviews! I helped with cultural interviews for some of our existing interns, evaluating how they would fit into our org were we to offer them a full-time position. It was interesting getting to hear more from some individuals that I haven’t had time to really meet prior to now, and also observe how other coworkers ask interview questions.
Friday I worked from home in the morning, then, along with another local coworker, had a farewell lunch with our Sunnyvale colleague at Thyme. My afternoon was pretty light, and with that, my work week was done!
Saturday I spent most of the day working on yardwork (thanks to the rain, there was plenty of mowing/trimming to do), and then relaxed in the evening while watching some YouTube videos that had caught my attention.
Sunday morning started with Divine Service (which I’ve been attending on Saturdays throughout July), along with some brief shopping.
And with that, I’m once again done with my update, and preparing for the week ahead!

Weekly Notes 2025.29

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 20:30:00 -0500

Overall, the past week has been pretty standard, without much to write about.
During the week I largely worked on catching up after being remote for the previous week while visiting family.
I don’t use LLMs much, but a few times during the work week I experimented with various ways to use them, primarily around data summarization. One example: I had a PDF of a presentation that I wanted to summarize in an email, and instead of manually authoring the entire email myself, I opted to see how well an LLM do at converting it into a semi-formal email. And I must say, I was surprised. The phrasing didn’t feel like how I would word things at times (unsurprisingly), so I did a lot of tweaking prior to actually sending the email, but it did help breeze past the monotonous part of the work. Whether that’s good or bad I have yet to decide…
During my off-hours (evenings/weekend) I mostly worked on my family genealogy. I had received a large chunk of information from my great-uncle while in Ohio that I did not have incorporated into my database, so I spent probably 8-12 hours poring over the data and corroborating everything with records online when possible.
- For those interested - I use Family Search for most of my initial research, and Gramps as my software/database.
Speaking of which - if you’ve never worked on family history before - the amount of records that have been digitized that you can now access for free online is staggering.
The weekend of course also included yardwork, housework, and Divine Service on Saturday (all as normal).
And with that, we’re to the end of my week!

Weekly Notes 2025.28

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 13:50:00 -0500

This week we had a coworker from Fargo visiting our office, so Monday saw an earlier morning than normal in the office, anticipating their arrival.
For lunch we catered a meal to the office and had a lunch & learn to give the team an opportunity to learn more about a project that the visiting coworker has been involved with.
Monday evening was filled with preparations for travel, as I planned to visit family Tuesday - Sunday.
Tuesday morning I met coworkers for breakfast, then headed the office for a morning of meetings. By around 1p I was done, and then it was last minute packing, and off to Ohio!
I worked remotely from Ohio Wednesday - Friday, taking time over lunch to visit with family, and enjoying time together in the evenings.
Thursday evening we invited my paternal great-uncle over for dinner (brisket - yum!), and afterwards some reminiscing on family history, followed by a few games of Pepper (a Euchre variant popular where I grew up).
Friday evening our family went to Two Bandits for dinner & drinks (see pictures below), and afterwards my sister and I went for an extended walk (I thought it was going to be a little over a mile… pretty sure it was over two).

Saturday I had nothing major planned until dinner, which of course meant that I kept pretty busy! In the morning I went with my sister to her office to help troubleshoot a computer issue (thankfully an easy fix), and after lunch most of my family walked down the street a little to where a neighbor was having a garage/estate sale, where we picked up a number of old but still useful items.
Saturday evening my sister and I went to a family friend’s house for dinner (burgers, corn, potatoes, and ice cream - delicious!), and followed it up with some good conversation.
Sunday morning started out with coffee and packing for my return trip to Illinois. I also attended Divine Service with my family, then had a light lunch, and it was time to start driving! Thankfully, the drive home was uneventful, and there were only some light rain showers to drive through.
And now, off to another week!

Weekly Notes 2025.27

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 20:30:00 -0500

This week’s update will be a little shorter than normal, as nothing overly eventful occurred.
I was in-office for the entirety of this week, mostly focusing on meetings and my standard workload.
Tuesday evening a group of coworkers and I went out for dinner and drinks to La Fiesta, one of our local favorites.
Wednesday evening I went out to another local restaurant, The 208 House, with a different group of coworkers who visiting our office from out of town.
Friday evening, after work, I got distracted for a while watching the Sorted Food channel on YouTube. I ran across their videos a few weeks ago, and find the team enjoyable to watch, and occasionally I learn a thing or two as well!
Saturday was a bit rainy, and so I spent most of my time indoors, split between some light gaming, working on family photos, and then Divine Service in the evening.
Sunday saw better weather return, and so my morning was spent outside working on yard work, followed by house work after lunch, a little more gaming, and continued photo restoration efforts.

Weekly Notes 2025.26

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 20:30:00 -0500

With a shortened week this week (thanks to Independence Day on Friday), my normal work week was both shortened, but simultaneously filled with a few extra meetings as everything was compacted into 4 days.
Monday through Thursday saw roughly my normal schedule of in-office work, without a lot to report.
Friday, being July 4th, meant time off, which I spent largely relaxing and working around the house.
I also picked up a new game, Northgard, on Friday, which I would continue to play occasionally throughout the weekend. I was looking for a different RTS that I hadn’t played before, and Northgard fit the bill nicely. It’s a different take on a strategy game than I’ve played before, and it’s a little hard to describe verbally… I’d strongly recommend taking a look at gameplay videos if interested to get a better understanding of how it works.
Saturday morning was once again consumed by yardwork… there hasn’t been a lot of rain in this area, but just enough to keep both grass and shrubs growing.
Saturday afternoon I continued working on scanning and restoring old family photos, and then went to Divine Service in the evening, followed by shopping for the upcoming week’s groceries.
Sunday then was left as my final day of rest prior to the start of the next work week. I slept in a little (which for me still means up before 8), and worked on housework, along with some additional gaming (Northgard) and continued photo work.
And with that, this week’s post is concluded, and it’s time to finish preparing for the week ahead!

Weekly Notes 2025.25

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 20:30:00 -0500

Monday of this week I opted to work remotely, mostly due to remote meetings, and a single in-person meeting at our manufacturing facility, which is closer to my house. It was a nice break, instead of traveling to the office.
Tuesday, after an early dentist appointment, it was off to the office, for a day largely filled with meetings. That was the story Wednesday through Friday as well, and my evenings were mostly spent either reading interesting articles online, or watching YouTube videos.
Saturday morning, before it got too hot, I spent time outside trimming shrubs, and catching up on some mowing that (if I’m being honest) probably needed done a few days ago, but… this is when I had time 🤷‍♂️
Saturday afternoon I worked on some odds and ends around the house, and then attended Divine Service in the evening.
Sunday morning I slept in, since I’d be to church the night before, and then spent time reading, exercising, and enjoying my coffee in the morning (not necessarily in that order!).
In the afternoon I decided I felt like playing a game, and ended up playing some Age of Empires II, which I haven’t played in years. It was a fun trip down memory lane. In the later afternoon/evening I called my family to check in, since it had been a few days since I called.
And now, after I post this, it’s off to finish preparations for the week ahead!

Weekly Notes 2025.24

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 20:40:00 -0500

Wow… it’s been another week already?
This week started out with me getting an opportunity at work to use a skill that I’ve not utilized in a long time: video editing. We had some onsite meetings later in the week, and my team members asked me to assist in editing two “hype” videos for upcoming product launches. So of course, I obliged! That took up most of my time Monday, and a bit of Wednesday.
Tuesday (the odd-day out in the above paragraph) was our department offsite, so instead of heading to the office I instead headed to nearby Bloomington for some team building activities, and of course, tasty food! (No, no pictures of it this time.) I was ostensibly on the team helping to prepare for and set up the offsite as well, but with everything else going on, my assistance narrowed down to transporting and setting up the tech for our over-lunch presentation from our department head. Overall it was a great day!
Wednesday was back in-office in the morning, finishing the second video. I headed home around lunch then, as I saw some bad weather approaching and decided I’d rather take calls from home rather than potentially having to sit out a storm in a restroom. Thankfully, none of the tornadoes touched down where I live (or at work), though there were at least three in our county!
I rounded out the week (Thursday/Friday) with mostly normal work in the office: a handful of meetings, and catching up on emails, messages, etc.
Saturday began a heatwave (well, at least what I’m calling a heatwave… low to mid 90s F) here in Illinois, and so my mowing happened much earlier than normal.
For most of Saturday afternoon I worked on scanning and editing old family photos and slides, and uploading them to both my own photo management system, and to my parents, so that we have two separate copies. In between, I of course added in laundry, dishes, and general housework (inside!).
Sunday morning started with Divine Service, during which we had the induction of our new DCE intern, as well as his wife, who will be serving at the Lutheran school associated with our church.
After church, it was off to do my normal grocery shopping, and then back home, where I once again began working on editing old slides. I enjoy both seeing bits of family history, and getting to “be a part” in some small by archiving and editing the photos.
And now… it’s almost time for me to call it a day, so I’ll post this and finish up some last minute chores! Till next time!

Weekly Notes 2025.23

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 13:50:00 -0500

I haven’t done this often, but I’m going to include a few photos in this update, because… why not? It’s all just food from my trip (which you’ll be reading about shortly). Anyhow… on to the update!

Monday morning I headed to ORD with some coworkers to fly to Fargo, ND for work. We were originally going to fly out of PIA, but the United flight was delayed enough by early in the morning that we decided to drive instead.
This was my first time parking at and navigating the external portion of ORD. Overall it went well, but I definitely prefer to fly into O’Hare, not drive…
Monday evening after we arrived we met our Fargo-based coworkers at Lucky’s 13 Pub, and had an enjoyable few hours catching up.

Tuesday was planned to be a day mostly full of meetings, which started at 8a. I was up early for breakfast, a tasty Eggs Benedict, and then it was a short drive to the office.

After work we headed to Würst Bier Hall, a restaurant I first visited back in November (during my first visit to Fargo). I probably should have tried a different meal than my previous trip, but I’m often a man of habits, and I again ordered a Jager Schnitzel Sandwich, along with a few local beers.

Wednesday started out with another couple of hours in the office, and then it was time to fly back to Illinois! We made it to ORD a little after 1p, then drove back to the Peoria area. I was kind of worn out, and ended up sleeping more Wednesday night than I normally would.
Thursday and Friday saw a return to the office, with days mostly filled with a combination of meetings and catching up on email, conversations, and work that I didn’t complete while on my trip.
Saturday I spent a large portion of the day debating/rethinking my note-taking app decisions. I won’t regurgitate the details here, but needless to say, I didn’t get much else done other than some chores…
Today (Sunday) is Trinity Sunday, which means it’s the primary Sunday each year that the church confesses the Athanasian Creed during Divine Service. I decided to read through all three Ecumenical Creeds this morning during my devotions as well, so that I could spend more time thinking about what they are stating.
The Athanasian Creed always reminds me of “St. Patrick’s Bad Analogies”, a fun satirical video dealing with the trinity. I recommend checking it out; I tend to watch it a few times a year. 😂

For lunch, I cooked up a couple of burgers that I’ve had in my freezer, along with some fresh corn on the cob (yum!). And now… I’m finishing up this post!

Rethinking My Note-Taking App Decisions

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 16:35:00 -0500

Intro

Over the past 48 hours I’ve once again been on a journey to rethink how I take notes. Why? I’ve actually been struggling to answer that question for myself, and I’ve boiled it down into a few potential reasons:

I’ve never felt fully at home in Obsidian ever since moving to it, even though I’ve been using it for over 2 years now.
I miss the seamlessness in my life of old Evernote, and constantly wish that there was an alternate that filled the same role in the same way.
I have liked Bear from the time I first saw it, and wish that I could convince myself that it fills all of my use cases.

What Do I Miss From Evernote?

I started using Evernote back in the early 2010s (I think 2014; I’ve not checked the exact date while writing this post), both as a way to store personal notes and documents, and for some work-related project notes.

The things I miss from Evernote boil down to a few key capabilities that other apps can do, but not as well in my experience:

Evernote was very good at parsing forwarded emails, PDFs, hand-written notes, and regular text, and quickly surfacing what I needed based on a search with a few tags. It was my single external brain, in many ways.
Evernote had a cloud, desktop, and mobile component, and for me they always stayed almost perfectly in sync until right towards the end. I was able to reliably switch between devices and pick up where I left off, with only a few seconds of syncing required (at least, that’s my recollection). Because of the cloud component, I could actually work from basically any web browser if I had to (combined with Todoist for task management).
I honestly didn’t normally feel the need to use things like backlinks, even when they became available, because a series of tags were able to succinctly tie notes together.
When I moved away from Evernote I felt a little like I split my brain into multiple locations. I’ve mostly gotten used to a system with multiple tools now, but it feels less natural.

Why Not Use Bear?

When I was originally looking for Evernote alternates, one of the options I ran into was Bear, and I immediately loved how capable but simplistic it was, and the amazing mobile and desktop experience. Bear is one of the most aesthetically-pleasing apps I’ve ever used, and the iCloud sync seems to “just work” every time I’ve used it.

So if I like Bear so much, why don’t I just move to using it full time? I’ve actually tried this multiple times (and did live in it exclusively for a few months a couple years ago), and during this last bout of indecision I actually tried using Bear almost exclusively for a day full of meetings. And it honestly worked well, but when I tried to move a few pieces of my knowledgebase to it I was reminded of the hangups I always run into (and I’ll document them for future-me to review):

Bear has no concept of a difference between a note’s title and a header, and therefore, the way my brain works, I basically can’t use H1 anywhere other than for the title. This eventually leads to me using more header levels than actually look good throughout the rest of the note.
Bear has a web app on the way, but no Linux app, and therefore for now all of my work has to occur on either my MacBook or iPad. I like both, but sometimes I want access on my Linux computers.
Bear’s tag structure is both amazing and annoying. I like being able to file a note in multiple categories, but I miss the way that notes in Obsidian (and in Evernote previously) kept the filing largely out of my way, not as part of the body of the note.
I wish that the note navigation (header levels, etc) were always visible while working on notes. I use that and backlinks quite often currently, and having them hidden away in a pop-up menu doesn’t work well for me.
Bear has decent backlink support overall, but I wish it had recommendations like Obsidian does where it surfaces recent documents you’ve been working on. Almost all of the time that I’m creating backlinks I’m referring to a note I was just editing, but I may not recall the exact name of that note (I create a lot of meeting notes for work).

What’s Wrong with Obsidian?

So why am I constantly tempted to move away from Obsidian? I think my primary problems with Obsidian are two-fold:

Using Obsidian Sync, I cannot access my notes from a device that isn’t syncing my notes.
I still do not enjoy parts of the Obsidian UI/UX, and this is exacerbated on iOS (iPadOS is in between).

Let’s dig into those further.

Local Notes + Sync

In general, I actually like having my notes stored locally. There have been a number of times over the years where I’ve lost network access during a meeting, or I’m in an area without network access (plane, rural area, etc), and having my notes stored locally and synced between devices has actually been fantastic. There’s nothing that prevents me from continuing about my business, and then syncing when I again have network access.

However, there are a few downsides to this too.

When I first go to set up a new device, I have minutes worth of syncing that must occur before I’m able to use my notes. This is a minor use case, but it’s still annoying. This also impacts my workflow slightly when I jump between devices (between computer and mobile, or computer to computer); there is always some amount of a sync required before I can begin taking or modifying notes.

Also, I have no way to access notes without syncing my notes to that device. This is very rarely an issue, but occasionally I wish I could log into a website to access my notes, instead of having to sync my notes to a computer before accessing them. Normally I work around this my only using my mobile device in such a scenario, and copy/pasting what I need to a chat app or website temporarily that I can access both places.

Now, yes, there are ways to sync between devices using something other than Obsidian Sync, and I’ve considered them, especially iCloud sync. However, from both my brief testing and what I’ve read online, Obsidian Sync is by far the best and most robust option, and neither of the above issues has been large enough that I’ve wanted to find a workaround yet.

UI/UX + Non-Native App

Over time, the Obsidian UI/UX has grown on me, but I still find it inferior to Bear in a few regards. Specifically, multi-level bulleted lists don’t render as nicely in Obsidian as Bear, and the UI has a tendency to feel more cluttered than I would prefer. Some of the clutter is entirely my fault, as I’ve chosen to use two plugins that add content to the side panels (Recent Files and Calendar), but I would argue that some of it is inherent to the design of Obsidian as well.

I’ve looked multiple times at using a different theme, and for a while I stuck with the Minimal Theme by Steph Ango (kepano), but none have to this point stuck quite as well as the default Obsidian theme. I probably could go about creating my own theme, but I have yet to be able to identify exactly what I’m looking for; I can tell that I don’t like a look and feel, but determining the why often escapes me.

Additionally, I think part of me still really likes having a native app look and feel, specifically on Apple platforms. Even though I’m typing this on my Linux desktop currently, my primary use case for a notes app is on an Apple-based device: my MacBook Pro, or my iPad or iPhone when on the go. Obsidian works well overall, but does not have the feel of a native app. Or maybe it’s the UI of a native app that I’m missing. To my point earlier, I struggle to identify exactly what bothers me at times.

Conclusion

So what is my conclusion? Honestly, I barely have one. For the time-being, I’m going to stick with Obsidian, as I have thousands of notes that would need migrated if chose a different solution, and I have yet to find anything that is a clear winner.

I will probably continue to look for ways to customize the look and feel of Obsidian to make my experience more enjoyable, and I’ll also spend some time reconsidering how I take notes. I do think that consolidating some notes into larger long-running documents will work better and help me keep from feeling like something is falling through the cracks.

And maybe I need to re-evaluate my move away from Evernote… I migrated due to some concerns of vendor lock-in and pricing, but if it solves all of my problems and the team that acquired it didn’t negatively change UI too much (which I’ve seen some online comments on), perhaps that’s the right call.

Weekly Notes 2025.22

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 16:45:00 -0500

The first part of this week I spent working remotely while visiting family (meetings during the main part of the day, helping on the farm in the morning and afternoon/evenings).
Monday was my sister’s birthday (Happy Birthday Hannah!, and so in the evening I spent some time after farming celebrating with family and friends.
Tuesday was largely a repeat of Monday from a work + farming perspective.
Wednesday morning I started out the day helping do a final fill on the air seeder, and then preparing to travel home, along with a few meetings. For lunch my sister made cocktail meatballs (delicious!), and then all to soon it was time to get in my truck and start driving.
I drove into rain on the way home, and ended up spending about half of the trip with some level of downpour occurring. Thankfully it didn’t slow me down too much, and the fields definitely needed the water!
Thursday and Friday I was back in the office. Both days were spent catching up on some meetings and email from being gone, and then for lunch on Friday we went to a local town festival for some turkey sandwiches.
Saturday and Sunday were largely spent working around the house, catching up from being gone for nearly a week. I also ran into an issue with one of my photo backup solutions, and so I spent a non-trivial amount of time putting a workaround in place.

Weekly Notes 2025.21

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 21:00:00 -0500

Monday was Memorial Day for the US, and I mostly spent the day relaxing at home, not really working on anything in particular.
Tuesday through Thursday noon I was in office, with largely a normal schedule/workload. However…
On Thursday afternoon I headed to Ohio to visit family, and work remote for a few days while also helping out on the farm. Northwest Ohio was running slightly slower on getting crops in due to weather delays than is normally preferable, and the timing worked for me to be in the area for planting.
Friday and Saturday were spent mostly helping prepare the planter and seeder to run, and starting a few fields that had already dried to an acceptable level.
On Sunday I went to Divine Service with family, and then visited a local Mexican restaurant for lunch, after which it was (you guessed it) back to farming!

Weekly Notes 2025.20

Sun, 25 May 2025 21:00:00 -0500

I was once again in-office the entirety of this week, and it was a pretty standard schedule for me. Over the summer I’ll probably move back to remote on Fridays, but it hasn’t worked out yet.
Friday I started out the day with breakfast with coworkers at a local diner. The food was good, but honestly… I think my homemade breakfasts might be tastier!
I spent a large portion of the weekend rethinking my personal document management system. I’ve been scanning and storing digital copies of most paper documents in my life for over a decade now, but have not been completely happy with my setup for over a year.
- Initially I used Evernote for this purpose, and was fairly happy with the system, until I decided to migrate away from Evernote.
- I experimented with multiple options for the next couple of years, but never found one I liked, including Joplin (which worked ok, but felt like the wrong approach), DEVONthink (which was nice, but was iOS/macOS only, and rather expensive), and just the file system (which was not as searchable and ubiquitous as I wanted).
- Finally this weekend I settled on Paperless-ngx, running on my own server, accessed via Tailscale. I wish there was an offline/native app option, but for now it meets the easy search, ubiquitous, and easy maintenance requirements, so I’ll give it a shot.
When not migrating and filing documents, I also spent some time working on editing and restoring some older family photos. My current workflow is VueScan for scanning/ingest, a markdown file for keeping notes about each image, Affinity Photo for cropping + setting the created date, and Photoshop for final edits, and cleaning up the image. I’m not entirely happy with all of the tools, and have been looking for an alternate to Photoshop (including GIMP, which is how I normally process slide & negative scans), but I haven’t yet found anything that I like better.

Weekly Notes 2025.19

Sun, 18 May 2025 21:00:00 -0500

This week, I was in the office all five days, though I headed home after lunch on Friday to work remotely in the afternoon. I was fairly busy all week, but nothing specific stands out as something to write about…
…Until Friday, that is! I was slightly surprised (and then both humbled and grateful) to get mentioned by Shellsharks on Mastodon, in the announcement of Volume Sixteen of the weekly IndieWeb, Fediverse, and Cybersecurity Scroll! I’ve been following Shellsharks’ blog ever since I first found it a few months ago, and I’m honored to have been one of the posts linked to this week!
Also, Friday for lunch, in a first for me, I tried Chicken & Waffles at Dac’s Smokehouse. I’ve been to Dac’s many times, but as I’ve never had Chicken & Waffles before, I always ignored it and selected a burger or meat plate. However, for whatever reason it sounded interesting this week, and I must say, I’m glad I tried it! It’s not a dish I’ll probably order often, as it’s a little heavy, but the flavor was fantastic!
Saturday morning was spent doing yard work, followed mostly by relaxing in the afternoon/evening.
One way I spent some of my time was playing Voxel Tycoon again. It’s been almost a year since I really spent much time playing it, and I had fun starting a new game from scratch, and then slowly expanding tech trees, into new zones, and improving delivery throughput.
I also spent time Saturday working on scanning and editing some old photographs. I’m still not entirely happy with my workflow - it seems to me that it takes me more time to edit the photos than I’d like, but I’m too picky to just upload the scans directly to my server.
And on top of photographs, I also worked on some more of my genealogy on Saturday afternoon. Every couple of weeks I try to either add some new data that I haven’t gotten around to yet, or do general maintenance (add supporting documents, clean up locations, etc).
This weekend I also took a hard look at some of the projects in my Todoist lists, and spent time cleaning up tasks that were completed but that I’d missed checking off, adding plans where needed to move other projects forward, etc.
On Sunday, my pastor made a reference to Touchstone Magazine in his sermon, which caught my attention, as I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles and magazines. I haven’t chosen to subscribe yet, but I’ll probably pull the trigger soon.
Sunday has also been a day to do some laundry, and to do some cooking for the week ahead, including a tasty stir-fry that should last me until mid-week.

Weekly Notes 2025.18

Sun, 11 May 2025 14:00:00 -0500

First off: Happy Mother’s Day to both my amazing mother, and all of the other mothers around the world!
This week’s notes will be a little on the lighter side. It’s a tad out-of-order, but as I type this, I’m working at my home Linux workstation (Arch, btw), which rarely sees much use these days. I should correct that…
A majority of the week at work was consumed by meetings, preparing for some data migrations, and resolving how various integrations would work.
Tuesday evening I enjoyed a dinner at Jonah’s Oyster Bar with some colleagues. As is becoming my normal when I visited, I enjoyed blackened salmon, and a nice Old Fashioned. If ever visiting the Peoria, IL area, I strongly recommend checking it out.
Friday I had flowers delivered to my mother for Mother’s Day. I’m not in person this year (which is not entirely abnormal), but thankfully it is quite possible to coordinate and have flowers delivered to surprise my mom!
Saturday morning was consumed largely by yard-work, mostly mowing and trimming.
Saturday afternoon & evening I focused heavily on chores around the house; laundry, dishes, planning the next week of meals, etc.
I attempted to watch a tv show or two over the weekend as well, but so far my mind hasn’t been in it.
And that brings us to Sunday (today)! So far today I’ve mostly been relaxing, working on odds and ends after I got home from church + grocery shopping.

Weekly Notes 2025.17

Sun, 04 May 2025 19:00:00 -0500

To get it out of the way… May the Fourth Be With You! (Happy Star Wars Day!) And now, on to the rest of my week!
Monday I started out the week in the office, mostly with some standard meetings. In the evening I started digging into a software-related issue for work, which I knew would consume most of my time Tuesday as well.
And I was right! Tuesday I ended up working remote, as that is one of the best ways to focus on a problem for me. I actually woke up early and spend a lot of the day focusing on the issue, since it was top of mind, and fairly urgent.
Wednesday I was back in the office, though still spending some time in software development, attempting to wrap up my work from Monday/Tuesday. I ran into an interesting issue where two peripherals are sharing a FIFO, and though I’ve read the datasheet and understand what’s occurring, I’ve yet to figure out how to remedy the situation. However, I finished the rest of the work, shelved everything on a branch, and moved on.
Thursday morning I had a planned meeting with a colleague from Germany that was onsite, which ended up blowing past the original time and extended nearly to two hours. All in all it was good to meet someone from a different part of the org though, and I think it was time well spent.
Friday I debated whether to work in-office or remote, and ultimately decided to go in. Most of the day ended up spent on small tasks, and I headed home slightly early (well, early for me, not by normal standards), as my brain was running out of steam it seemed.
However, Friday was also yard work day, and so after I got home I promptly mowed my yard before I was able to actually relax! 😂
Since my mowing was done, Saturday I spent the day working almost exclusively on side projects. I did quite a bit of work throughout the day scanning and editing old photos, and in between added in a little gaming (once again trying RuneScape: Dragonwilds, though it hasn’t really stuck yet), as well as began the effort of porting my Mastodon and Instagram posts to my website.
Speaking of data migration to my website: on Saturday, my obsession with consolidating old posts from social media to my website hit a critical point, and so I started out the day by migrating a majority of my old Mastodon posts as status updates. I then followed suit in the afternoon/evening by beginning to migrate my old Instagram posts as well (in the same fashion), and by the end of the day I had most of them ported over.
Sunday, after Divine Service and grocery shopping, I continued the work of migrating my Instagram posts, and by lunch the work was done. But of course, I couldn’t stop there…
Sunday afternoon I realized that I could also post the show notes, along with links to the Archive.org archived audio, of my now-defunct podcast that I did with my sister to my website. After about 30 minutes, I had that done, and now almost everything that I posted online since 2014 is hosted here. The only things missing are my videos (maybe I’ll post them, we’ll see), Facebook posts (I no longer have my archive), and Twitter posts (same - I didn’t keep the archive, unfortunately).
On Sunday I also started listening to a new (to me) audiobook: We are Legion (We are Bob), Book 1 of the Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor. It’s proving to be interesting so far, and I kind of wish I would have started it sooner!
And with that, my update for the week is done! 🙂

Weekly Notes 2025.16

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0500

This week was my first week back in the office after spending the last week and a half visiting family.
Monday was mostly spent either in airports, in the air, or preparing to fly… for the first time ever, I flew home from visiting family in Ohio instead of driving, which meant I had to go through ORD on my way back to central Illinois. Overall the flights went well, but I definitely don’t enjoy sitting in airports. I was ready to be home.
Wednesday morning I had the pleasure of giving a tour of our ops center to our AWS reps while they were onsite for a visit. I’ve given tours off and on to various vendors over the past year, and was requested to step in once again. I find it fun and engaging to explain what our products do, and how they are manufactured.
Thursday and Friday I primarily spent helping a team at work track down a customer issue. I think by Friday evening/Saturday morning we came up with a good solution, and I spent part of the day Saturday doing testing from my work-from-home setup (I never fully tore down my test equipment from during 2020-2022).
Saturday morning, after coffee, it was time to start catching up on yard work, followed by work around the house. A downside of travel is definitely the number of things that pile up!
Over the weekend I also decided that I need to watch my diet more closely again. I noticed myself gaining a few extra pounds over the past two months, and I want to get back to what I consider a healthy, comfortable weight.
Sunday, after church and shopping, I decided to try out RuneScape: Dragonwilds. I’ve been an on-again/off-again player of RuneScape (now RS3) for years, and whenever Jagex offers a new game I normally at least try it out. I can see how Dragonwilds could be fun, but I’m not sure if it’s a game I’ll keep playing longterm. It seems to me to take longer to progress than I really have time for with my current workload.
Inadvertently, Sunday afternoon I also found a useful new piece of software. I was planning to use my trusty ScanSnap to scan and file mail from while I was gone, but the scanner refused to work right on my Mac. I could have attempted to use my Windows machine, but let’s face it, I try to use that as little as possible, and primarily for gaming if anything. So I did some research, and after a little experimentation, landed on using NAPS2 on Arch LInux, which worked like a charm. I may actually move to using my Linux laptop for this work going forward, as I’ve been unhappy with my macOS-based workflow for a while (ScanSnap -> File System -> DEVONThink).
… And, it looks like we might be getting some bad weather this week (hello Spring storms)… 😞

11 Years with Todoist

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 19:30:00 -0500

Today is an interesting anniversary for me, one that I never thought to keep track of until about a year ago. You see, on a fateful (but otherwise mostly forgotten) day 11 years ago, I began subscribing to Todoist Pro.

I don’t entirely recall at this point how I stumbled upon Todoist, though I do generally remember why. At the time, I was working for InSource Technologies as an embedded software developer, and I was finding that the amount of tasks & projects that I was keeping track of at work, along with those at home and at church (where I was heavily involved as a volunteer), were making me feel like I was constantly forgetting things.

Somehow, I both began learning about the GTD methodology (though it would be years before I actually attempted to implement it well), and the Todoist app. I’m guessing I tried a few other apps too, although I only really remember Wunderlist. Maybe I actually started out using Wunderlist? Who knows. Regardless, once I started using Todoist, I very quickly purchased Pro, and really didn’t look back.

Todoist has lasted me through two jobs (InSource + my current position at Precision Planting), helped me move to a new state, handle multiple professional and personal projects, take multiple trips (including international!), assist my church as a volunteer, and ensure that I don’t miss important dates and deadlines (including birthdays - my sister will never let me live down that I missed wishing her a Happy Birthday once, and ever since it has been a recurring task in Todoist for me!), and countless other tasks both big and large. I also use it for my shopping list, and sometimes even for taking quick notes to be transferred later to a notes app!

Over the years, I’ve been tempted by other task management applications, which I’ve documented on my blog. However, I’ve always come back to Todoist, probably due to its inherent cross-platform nature, ease of use, and reliability. I’ve had remarkably few issues with it over the years, and don’t recall any actual issues in probably the last 5 that rose to the level of causing me problems or that I reported.

And thinking back, I’m honestly not sure that I’ve ever relied heavily on any of the changes that the Todoist team has introduced along the way. Most of the functionality I rely on today is the same core functionality that brought me to the platform years ago: ease of use, natural language processing + task creation, cross-platform syncing, good design, simplicity with extra features when needed.

If you’ve never given Todoist a try, and you’re in search of a good, robust, but simple to use task management app, I strongly recommend checking it out!

Note: This is not an ad or sponsored content, simply a post from a happy user!

Weekly Notes 2025.15

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 18:00:00 -0500

Monday morning was spent hiking with my sister and second cousin, followed by some meetings, and then some afternoon canoeing! I definitely did not pack appropriately for warm weather and canoeing, which means I was definitely wearing a polo and jeans. I’m sure I was a sight to behold!
Tuesday morning, my brother, sister, and I flew out of Charlotte to Fort Wayne, so that I could spend the rest of Holy Week with my family. Tuesday afternoon involved a little work, but mostly shopping for groceries for the remainder of my stay, and unloading my suitcase. My sister is (thankfully) kind enough to let me stay at her house when in the area, which is much nicer than a hotel (and more cost effective!).
Wednesday was pretty standard; remote work, combined with laundry. I normally prefer to not do laundry while traveling, but since I only used a carry-on for the trip, I had to make an exception.
Thursday and Friday included additional remote work during the day, combined with services in the evening.
Saturday was overall fairly chill for me. I went with my sister to color eggs with some family friends in the morning, and in the afternoon my dad and I worked to troubleshoot a computer at my sister’s business. It took us a while to find the issue, though eventually we realized that somehow a RAM stick had come unseated. Problem solved!
Saturday evening I also started showing my brother how to use Hugo to create a basic website. So far it’s mostly just a landing page, but I’m hopeful that he’ll eventually come to enjoy working on his site as much as I do mine!
Sunday was Easter, which meant being up very early for sunrise service! My sister (and mother) convinced me to sing in the choir, which my sister is the director of, which meant I had to be to the church even earlier than normal… but, it was fun! And afterwards, we got to enjoy an Easter breakfast!
Sunday for lunch we had smoked chicken, which was delicious (thanks mom & dad!), and then followed up with a fairly relaxed afternoon. I spent some time assisting with IT-related efforts at my parents’ and sister’s house, as I normally volunteer to do when visiting.
And that brings me to Sunday evening (now) as I’m writing this! I think we’re going to play a few games this evening, but otherwise we don’t have much planned.

2025 Easter Sunday Hymn: I Know That My Redeemer Lives (LSB 461)

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 04:30:00 -0500

This post is the fourth and final of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Easter Sunday:

I Know That My Redeemer Lives (LSB 461)

1 I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living head.

2 He lives triumphant from the grave;
He lives eternally to save;
He lives all-glorious in the sky;
He lives exalted there on high.

3 He lives to bless me with His love;
He lives to plead for me above;
He lives my hungry soul to feed;
He lives to help in time of need.

4 He lives to grant me rich supply;
He lives to guide me with His eye;
He lives to comfort me when faint;
He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

5 He lives to silence all my fears;
He lives to wipe away my tears;
He lives to calm my troubled heart;
He lives all blessings to impart.

6 He lives, my kind, wise, heav’nly Friend;
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while He lives, I’ll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

7 He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.

8 He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same;
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives;
I know that my Redeemer lives!

A Digital Home

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0500

Yesterday, in my post on Blogging Expectations, I mentioned the concept of a website as a virtual home, and wanted to expand on it.

I like having a singular place on the internet that I can point people to and say “This is Justin’s virtual home. You want to know what Justin is thinking, or what’s going on? Start here!” And I hope that’s been reflected in my blogging and my site design…

Justin Vollmer

As I’m sure any longtime reader of this site could have guessed by now, the concept of a blog or website as a virtual home is not a new idea, and I’m definitely not the first to use that phrasing. I’ve seen it in multiple places over the years, but in recent weeks it showed up on a few different blogs I follow, and I wanted to elaborate on the topic a bit more.

When I was first introduced to the internet in the early 2000s, none of the current social media platforms existed, and the primary way people communicated online was via email and instant messaging. A few people I knew used message boards or websites via the likes of Geocities, but having your own website was an anomaly. However, fairly early on my cousin began explaining basic HTML and CSS to me, and I quickly put together a simple site (which I was very proud of, though in retrospect it was nothing spectacular).

Fast forward to my high school and college years, and Myspace and (later) Facebook were becoming popular. I had accounts on both over the years, but looking back, neither ever felt quite right to me. Sure, I enjoyed being able to communicate with friends and share status updates, but the pages were never mine. They were someone else’s space that I was renting, or occupying, like a town square, which matches Naz’s interpretation:

A platform or network doesn’t allow for much configuration. The town square isn’t owned by you.

Naz Hamid

By the mid-2010s I was beginning to tire of social media platforms as my primary online presence, and once again began working on hosting my own site (through various platforms - if you want to see the full history, check out my 10-Year Anniversary post). But it honestly wasn’t until about 6 years into having my own website that I started to make it mine, and another couple of years after that before I started really using my website as my home base. As Shellsharks put it:

A website, your own personal website, is … a digital home, on the web. … You can design it how you want, add rooms (pages), invite friends over, paint the walls, hang some art, share your recipes, get some much-needed peace and quiet, anything!

Shellsharks

And if I’m being honest… I’m still learning what all I can choose to do with a personal website! I’m slowly figuring out blogging, and I’m also getting better about my website being the place from which I publish my thoughts and ideas (see my POSSE page for more on this concept). But, just like with a physical house, I can always continue to improve it. I can build new rooms (pages, subdomains), I can create more posts (books in this analogy?), and I can change the design (wallpaper? art? paint?). My own imagination is really my only limit!

So… final thoughts? Go create your own home on the internet! Buy a domain name (a plot of land), and start small, and make your site whatever you want it to be!

2025 Good Friday Hymn: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (LSB 451)

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0500

This post is the third of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Good Friday:

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (LSB 451)

1 Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ, by man rejected; Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
‘Tis the true and faithful Word.

2 Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting His distress;
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

3 Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.

4 Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost;
Christ, the Rock of our salvation,
His the name of which we boast:
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

Blogging Expectations

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0500

A few days ago I ran across the post Blogging Expectations by Kev Quirk, and a quick read told me that it was something I wanted to add my commentary to.

…Okay, I just glanced at the date on Kev’s post. “A few days ago” was over a week ago. Apparently my backlog of post ideas is taking longer to review than I anticipated.

Anyhow, today I re-read Kev’s post, and (of course) followed the links to the posts his thoughts were based on, and a few thoughts stuck out to me.

I’m haunted by a feeling that it’s all about attention and that I’m doing everything in my power to hide that reason from myself. That thought leaves a bitter aftertaste, and I’m not comfortable with it.

Robert Birming

I like attention, I want my blog posts to sometimes show up in Hacker News or get shared on big social media sites … I want people to send me an email sharing their thoughts or opinion on it …

Joel Chrono

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to have engagement from your writing. Similarly to Joel, I love it when I get engagement from my posts - I enjoy the discourse that comes from them. The recommendations. The friendships. It’s great.

Sure, I write for myself, but I also write for you guys too. Does that make me an attention seeker, or an narcissist? Maybe, but so what. 🤷‍♂️

Kev Quirk

Sometimes I ponder why I write blog posts. Is it for myself, as a way to process things? As a way to attempt to get engagement, and seek attention? As a way for friends and family (and future Justin) to see what is/was going on at any given date?

I think for me, it’s a little of all of the above. I like having a singular place on the internet that I can point people to and say “This is Justin’s virtual home. You want to know what Justin is thinking, or what’s going on? Start here!” And I hope that’s been reflected in my blogging and my site design, although I know I could do a better job of it if I’d focus on it.

I also like feedback and interactions with others on the internet. Does a lack of interaction cause me to stop posting? No, but an increase in interactions does cause me to increase my posting. Is that a problem? Similar to Kev, I don’t think it is, as long as I don’t let attention seeking become the driving force for my blogging. 🤷‍♂️

Operating Rules for Email Collaboration

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 16:00:00 -0500

Today, while following a blogger/IndieWeb rabbit rail (when I click on a link from someone I follow, and then promptly begin following other links to other sites that interest me), I ran across an excellent post by Naz Hamid on Operating Rules for Email Collaboration, and promptly decided I needed to link to it with light commentary on my site.

I’ve slowly been improving my email usage over time, since my tendency left unchecked is to be verbose. However, I’ve learned that verboseness should not be the norm when communicating via email, as it can cause your thoughts to be lost in the weeds. And now that I am using email much more than earlier in my career, learning to use it well is important.

A few of Naz’s points stuck out to me:

Clarity and conciseness are your friends.
Use headers. Or bold them. And even use italics.
Lists are your best friend.
Order your asks or feedback in lists by order of importance.
Read your email before you send it.

I do some of these today (specifically headers, bolding, and italics, and proof-reading of my email before sending… this is where I make heavy use of delayed Send options). But I definitely have room to improve, and I’ll be reviewing his recommendations when authoring emails in the future.

If email is a form of communication you use often, I strongly recommend reading through his whole post (with an example!). And even if it’s not, there is probably some concept that is worth applying to whatever text-based form of communication you do use! 🙂

2025 Maundy Thursday Hymn: Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord (LSB 637)

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0500

This post is the second of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Maundy Thursday:

Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord (LSB 637)

1 Draw near and take the body of the Lord,
And drink the holy blood for you outpoured;
Offered was He for greatest and for least,
Himself the victim and Himself the priest.

2 He who His saints in this world rules and shields,
To all believers life eternal yields;
With heav’nly bread He makes the hungry whole,
Gives living waters to the thirsting soul.

3 Come forward then with faithful hearts sincere,
And take the pledges of salvation here.
O Lord, our hearts with grateful thanks endow
As in this feast of love You bless us now.

Weekly Notes 2025.14

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 18:00:00 -0500

Sunday and Monday I had a chance to once again delve back into embedded software development. Nothing overly complicated, mostly data piping, but it was nice to have an opportunity to code again.
Wednesday morning was spent with two coworkers preparing for our summer offsite. I haven’t been heavily involved before, but it’s the same team that I’ve worked on Christmas events with in the past, so we are used to working together.
Wednesday evening and early Thursday were spent finalizing preparations for some upcoming travel. Thursday afternoon I hopped on a plane and headed south for a few days to visit family!
The final few days this week were spent visiting my extended family in the Carolinas. Some of my extended family lives in the Charlotte area, and so my entire immediate family headed down to visit over the weekend.
Friday was mostly spent working remotely, and in the evening I went with my uncle to pick up my sister at the airport.
Saturday, we spent the morning helping to prepare for one of my second cousin’s graduation party, and then went to her senior violin & viola recital in the afternoon, followed by the party at their house in the evening.

This morning (Palm Sunday), most of my immediate family visited a Lutheran Church in the Charlotte area that is much more high church/traditional than what I’ve been to before. It was definitely a very interesting experience!
And finally, this afternoon my immediate and extended families visited the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, only some portions were blooming since it’s still early in the year, but the parts that were blooming were beautiful, and it was a great excuse to walk around and enjoy the outdoors!

2025 Palm Sunday Hymn: No Tramp of Soldiers‘ Marching Feet (LSB 444)

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0500

For Holy Week this year, I had the idea of posting some of my favorite Lenten/Holy Week/Easter hymns. My plan is to post for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, though we’ll see how that goes. And so, without further ado…

No Tramp of Soldiers’ Marching Feet (LSB 444)

1 No tramp of soldiers’ marching feet
With banners and with drums,
No sound of music’s martial beat:
“The King of glory comes!”
To greet what pomp of kingly pride
No bells in triumph ring,
No city gates swing open wide:
“Behold, behold your King!”

2 And yet He comes. The children cheer;
With palms His path is strown.
With ev’ry step the cross draws near:
The King of glory’s throne.
Astride a colt He passes by
As loud hosannas ring,
Or else the very stones would cry
“Behold, behold your King!”

3 What fading flow’rs His road adorn;
The palms, how soon laid down!
No bloom or leaf but only thorn
The King of glory’s crown.
The soldiers mock, the rabble cries,
The streets with tumult ring,
As Pilate to the mob replies,
“Behold, behold your King!”

4 Now he who bore for mortals’ sake
The cross and all its pains
And chose a servant’s form to take,
The King of glory reigns.
Hosanna to the Savior’s name
Till heaven’s rafters ring,
And all the ransomed host proclaim
“Behold, behold your King!”

Weekly Notes 2025.13

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 11:00:00 -0500

Saturday night/Sunday morning I didn’t sleep well, and had a few odd health symptoms. I ended up going to prompt care on Sunday, and was put on antibiotics.
Monday, though I was feeling overall fine, I worked from home. It happened to be a day where I had a substantial number of meetings, and I can take them just as easily from my home video conferencing setup as I can in the office.
The rest of the work week was mostly uneventful, thankfully. The weather dipped again this week, and by mid- to late- week it was again on the cooler side for Spring.
Saturday I finished and submitted my taxes, to ensure that I had everything completed before the deadline. This was one of the easier years in recent memory, thankfully!
On Saturday afternoon I also played RuneScape for the first time in a while, including a little skilling, and playing through the Contact! quest line. I eventually want to finish all of the in-game quests so that I can follow new storylines when they are released, but I don’t spend much time playing, so it’s going to take me a while…
Saturday afternoon/evening I decided to watch The Imitation Game (movie) about Turing and the Enigma machine. I’ve seen clips online for years, and finally dedicated time to watch the entire movie. Overall, I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to others!
While watching the movie, I also spent a little time fixing links on my sister’s website. I converted it to a static site for her a few months ago, but had not done an exhaustive review of internal links, and earlier this week I realized that some pages didn’t navigate correctly (thanks to a 404 seen on GoatCounter!).
I spent a little time looking for my old Facebook and Instagram posts today, with the hopes of adding them to my website. Alas… I no longer have the exports that I downloaded when I shuttered my accounts.
This afternoon I will probably mow my lawn, for the first time this season. The grass is getting just tall enough that it’s time to even everything out, and even though it’s still on the cool side, I’m ready for the lawn to look nicer.

Weekly Notes 2025.12

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 21:00:00 -0500

This week is even lighter (on content) than last week!
Early in the week, I finished reading Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Overall, very interesting read, and I’d definitely suggest it to others!
At work, we released a new product documentation website that I’ve been lightly involved in, based on Docusaurus, a FOSS project from Meta that I’ve been pretty impressed with.
- We built this in a very similar way to how I deploy my own website: markdown files in a git repo, with a build & deploy pipeline on push to AWS (S3 + CloudFront). I’ve been pretty happy with the overall design!
Personally, I’ve spent some more time playing piano again this week, and even started working on learning some new songs!

Weekly Notes 2025.11

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 21:00:00 -0500

I don’t have much to report on from work this week. I was in-office every day, and ended up doing some remote work on Saturday/Sunday too to catch up on an issue.
Part of my work for the week included getting back involved in a software project that I’ve worked on historically, but have not had as much time for in the past few months.
Over the weekend, when not working, I listened to this month’s ATP Member’s Special, which was all about both why the three hosts have websites, and how they create their respective sites.
- I won’t spoil it, as this podcast is intended to be a perk for members who support the show, but I did have two takeaways: I have a website for similar reasons to the hosts, and my posting setup is simplistic by comparison!
On Sunday, I became curious to see if I could get screenshots of not only what this website looked like over the years, but also what other websites I worked on looked like. This involved using the Internet Archive’s Wayback machine, and I was surprised to find just how far back their database ran!
- I added some of the screenshots for this website to my About page, for those interested.
- At some point, I’ll post images of how I got started in web development, but I haven’t decided the place or the format yet.

Weekly Notes 2025.10

Sun, 16 Mar 2025 14:45:00 -0500

Wow… it’s already been another week? 😮
On Monday, I was scheduled to help some friends at a local church with some minor electronic repair after work. It took a little longer than I initially expected, but it was good to catch up, and it’s a skill I enjoy using.
The middle of the week was pretty normal, and there’s not really much to report. I was in-office every day for a combination of meetings and catching up on some projects.
Friday I worked remotely. I wanted to enjoy the last very nice day (for at least a little while), and so used my breaks to take walks around my subdivision.
Friday evening saw some pretty strong storms come through the Midwest; thankfully, nothing more than rain and wind near me!
Saturday was a pretty relaxing day at home, where I didn’t do much outside of reading and going for a few walks. The weather started cooling off, though it was still nice enough to be outside in a short-sleeve shirt.
- My book of choice on Saturday was Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. I heard about it earlier in the week, specifically because of Meta’s attempt to limit its promotion, which of course had the effect of making me curious about the book. I’m about half-way through, and so far it’s a captivating read.
On Sunday, by the time I left for church, there was snow on the ground! It’s amazing how fast weather can change in the Midwest this time of year.
For the first time in a long time, I decided to make stir fry on Sunday. I think it was a success… I enjoyed the taste, though I definitely wasn’t as fast at preparing the food as I thought I would be.
Over the weekend I also played piano for a little while at home. It’s been quite a while since I really did that either, outside of a few times when visiting family.

Weekly Notes 2025.09

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 16:40:00 -0500

Another week, another weekly notes update!
This week I ended up working from home for 4 days. When I returned from my trip last week, I ended up catching Covid, and so stayed home until symptoms had resolved.
Ultimately, working from home worked out well anyhow, as many of the days I was in remote meetings. My home video conferencing setup is at least as good as in the office, and it’s more comfortable!
Late this week, the weather started getting nicer, and it looks like the trend will continue into the coming week, with highs potentially reaching 70F, which is almost shocking for early March.
Over the course of the week, and finishing on Saturday, I re-listened to Team: Getting Things Done with Others by David Allen and Edward Lamont. I am definitely not an expert when it comes to GTD, but I’ve found that as my roles and responsibilities continue to change, the concepts taught in the original Getting Things Done book, along with the team-based corollaries discussed by David and Edward in Team, are a valuable way to keep myself sane, and keep projects on track.
- At some point, I would like to do more official training. I feel like my self-training has kept me afloat, but that there are practices I’ve struggled to put into use that an official training or seminar might help with. I also may just be idealizing the concept of training in this case, so… 🤷‍♂️
A good portion of Friday, and this weekend, was spent catching up on emails that from when I was traveling, and that I was unable to finish dealing with over the past week due to meetings.
The weekend has also included a lot of work around the house, cleaning, and getting back into the swing of things here at home.
I briefly looked at the app Tapestry this weekend, from the team at IconFactory. I like the concept, but haven’t decided where it fits into my workflow. For Mastodon I prefer using Ivory (I think), and I already have an RSS reader, though I do like the timeline-based approach. 🤔
Today was also the switch to daylight saves time, which means I’m running on slightly less sleep than I prefer…

Weekly Notes 2025.07 & 2025.08

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 18:00:00 -0600

I originally had this written up as two separate posts, but ultimately opted to combine it into a single update (you’ll see why shortly - I think it works better as one large update).
Monday I spent mostly in airports, and flying… I decided a few months ago to take a week-long trip to Brazil to visit some friends. The trip was supposed to start on Sunday, but inclement weather caused my flights to be delayed enough that I didn’t make the flight to Brazil. So, I went 24 hours later!
Tuesday through Saturday morning were spent at Maresias, a lovely city and beach a few hours away from São Paulo. My time was largely spent enjoying the wonderful environment, amazing beaches, delicious food, and fantastic company! For the first time in a while, I almost completely checked out of work (including email/Slack).
On Saturday, we returned to São Paulo, and spent time visiting my friends’ family, and the local community.
Sunday and most of Monday were spent in central São Paulo, which included shopping, more amazing food, lots of traffic, and even a Tchaikovsky concert!
And then, all too soon, it was time to return to the US. My flight left around 10p local time, and I arrived back in the States early Tuesday morning, then flew back home in the later morning, arriving at my house by ~11:30a.
Tuesday afternoon I spent attempting to get back into the swing of work, and catching up on emails and conversations.
Wednesday and Thursday were spent in the office, with a combination of meetings, work, and continuing to catch up on things from my time away.
On Friday, I only had one meeting, and so I opted to stay home. I also had some work that required dedicated time and thought to complete, and working remotely has been the best way for me to actually make time for such an effort.
Saturday and Sunday were spent almost entirely at home (with a quick walk as weather allowed), mostly relaxing, with some light housework included.
- I rewatched Black Blood Brothers on Saturday. I’m not really into anime, but this show I enjoy for some reason.
- On Sunday I was debating what to watch, and recalled that Beast Games was on Amazon Prime. I’m not a huge MrBeast fan, but I was curious to see what the show was like, and ended up watching the entire season.

Weekly Notes 2025.06

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 13:15:00 -0600

Not too much to report on this week… my time at work was focused on two primary projects
Project #1: ensuring that a device intended for limited commercial release is successfully being manufactured. There were a few issues that I didn’t really have time to troubleshoot until within the past week, but by week’s end everything was up and running 🙂
Project #2: tool selection and working groups for the broader organization. We had a number of national and international colleagues in this week to kick off some tool selection and migration activities, which consumed a large portion of the week. I think we have a path forward though!
I also got to meet some colleagues that I’ve only worked with remotely before now, and go out to dinner with them on two separate occasions. Overall, it was a good experience, and it’s good to put a personality to a face on my computer!
This weekend has been fairly uneventful - the weather is turning colder this week, so I enjoyed a little time outside clearing off snow before everything freezes again.

Weekly Notes 2025.05

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 21:00:00 -0600

The weather continues to shift in Central Illinois, sometimes daily. Monday had highs in the 60s, followed by highs in the 30s-low 40s for the rest of the week. And next week looks to be even cooler, with highs in the 20s-30s. I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much, as it is still Winter. 😬
My schedule calmed down somewhat at work this week, which was good, because I had a few projects that I needed to be able to devote working hours to.
There have been a number of meetings and discussions at work over the past week (and extending back to early this year) regarding tool consolidation and/or selection for a number of disparate teams within the organization that will be working more closely together in the future. In my current role, I get the opportunity to speak into some of those decisions, which is interesting, but also somewhat time consuming.
I’ve been wanting to set up my iPad to be able to function as a light-weight computer replacement while traveling. After an hour or two of work over the weekend, I think I a) like most of the apps that I’ve set up with, and b) have a working solution (combined with a keyboard) for my use cases. I’ll be able to answer email + messaging questions, but that’s about it.
I really like using emojis as part of my pattern for written communications, and the fact that I don’t have Rocket on my iPad is kind of really bothering me. I have a dedicated emoji button on my keyboard, but it’s really not as seamless as just typing : and typing the name of the emoji I want.
I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned VueScan on my blog before… I primarily use it for scanning old photographs, but it also has come in handy for general purpose scanning with my flatbed scanner as well. Today (Sunday) I had a document to scan and submit to a website, and it was an awkward form factor which didn’t work with my ScanSnap, and the combination of VueScan plus my (very) old flatbed worked fantastically!

App Selection

This started out as just a set of bullet points, but quickly became too nested, and so I spun it out into a separate section…

My increased usage of my iPad for productivity has brought me back to my perennial debate between notes apps and productivity apps. 🤦‍♂️

Notes

On the note taking front, I’m overall very happy with Obsidian, and the iPad experience is actually very good. I was slightly surprised. However, I still have an affinity for Bear Notes (both in terms of ease of use on mobile platforms, and its overall design), and so I once again have both apps on my devices, and am examining the pros and cons of each.

The things that are really missing right now from Bear for me are a) a web app, or way to access my notes when not on an Apple device, and b) good version history. I have hardly ever needed a way to revert to an older version of a note, but I’m lightly paranoid about it.

Tasks

I haven’t looked as seriously yet at an alternate to Todoist, as historically I’ve always come back to it every time I’ve considered an alternate within the past decade. However, being on an iPad has once again made me debate if I should consider OmniFocus. I think it’s still more work to maintain than I really want, and slightly clunkier to use than Todoist, but the more native app has its appeal… 🤔

Weekly Notes 2025.04

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 20:00:00 -0600

The work week for me was very busy, but most of my time was spent planning for the part of the org/team I work with, so there’s not much to share.
We had some international colleagues in town this week, so in addition to my normal work, I had some meetings with them to work through issues that have come up in their territories.
Thankfully so far I’ve avoided any of the illnesses that seem to be floating around! I’ve had a LOT of coworkers out sick in the last week or two.
I apparently have nearly hit my GitHub storage limit (500MB?). I think that it’s due to the cache of my deployments being saved, but I’ve not spent much time investigating yet.
Friday I worked remotely, as I had a lunch scheduled with a friend in town that I don’t get to catch up with as often as I’d like. It was great sitting down for an extended meal, talking about each other’s lives, and the broader community that each of us are involved in.
The weekend involved a bit of work, which I’ve been trying to avoid. However, there is a project I needed to make headway on, and Saturday/Sunday were the best times to do it. I also got to spend some time soldering and debugging software, both of which I enjoy but have been doing less of recently.
On Sunday, I ran across Kev Quirk’s question on month in review posts, which got me thinking… does anyone find my weekly review posts interesting?
- My immediate thought is that a) I hope someone does, although if no one does, it’s not really something that bothers me, because b) the posts are only partially for others. They’re also a public journal of sorts for myself, so as long as I think they’re important, it’s worth me writing them!
- As I also told Kev in an email, I do genuinely find other’s posts interesting, not only to see what others are up to, but also because I enjoy seeing what tools they are using, etc. It’s another place for me to learn.
Sunday also marked my first full month with Kagi search. I was curious exactly how many searches I used in January, and was slightly surprised to see that for the month I was at 949 searches. I didn’t actually start using Kagi until a few days into 2025, but that’s an average of around 30 searches a day.
- I’m actually not sure if I’m surprised that it’s that high, or that it’s that low. I know I use search a lot, which is why I instantly went for Kagi’s unlimited plan. I should note, that does include searches from my computer(s) and my phone.

Weekly Notes 2025.03

Sun, 26 Jan 2025 20:15:00 -0600

This year was Precision Planting’s annual Winter Conference! I had very little to do this year, but attended a number of the sessions on Tuesday, and then met with colleagues from other offices + vendors & suppliers throughout the rest of the week!
Some of the meetings included dinners out, which means I had the opportunity to try a few restaurants I’ve not been to before: Joe’s Original Italian & Martini Bar in Peoria and the newly-opened 208 House in Morton, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed!
- Both restaurants had unique takes on Old Fashioned’s that I greatly enjoyed. I don’t recall the name of either, but Joe’s was some like “Rye Not Coffee Old Fashioned”, and I think The 208 House had an Apricot Old Fashioned? Either way, strongly recommend both, if those are flavors you might enjoy!
I attempted to switch a few coworkers to Kagi this week. I’ve been using it nearly exclusively for almost a month now, and I continue to be thoroughly impressed with it!
I spent the weekend largely relaxing, and taking some down time after a fairly hectic schedule during the week.
One of the topics I spent time on this weekend was game design - I’ve been hooked on a few different YouTube channels with game-design-specific content, and while I don’t think I’d ever devote much time to it (as it’s a very time-consuming project), some of the concepts are interesting to me!
I also managed to get distracted watching some more of The Office again… I’m now through Season 5.

An Amusing Incident at the Office

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 05:35:00 -0600

I’ve shared this story with a few coworkers and family members, and decided to write up a short post to share with y’all as well. I’ve left out the names of those involved, purely out of a respect for their privacy, and used only titles as descriptions for the story.

As a part of my current job, it is fairly common for me to have meetings with various vendors, and this past Thursday was no exception. As I was walking between buildings to get to a meeting with a vendor that had stopped by our offices while in town, I met one of my coworkers, the IT manager, and we stopped to chat briefly.

Now, a little backstory here - I’ve worked with this individual for a few years, and in general we get along fairly well, and have had a number of wide-ranging conversations throughout our time working together. Our topic of conversation today veered towards individuals in the office coming in when they were feeling under the weather, and we were both a bit animated on the topic. (In case you’re curious, we both strongly prefer that if an individual is not feeling well, they take extra precautions and work remotely, and not spread whatever they have to the rest of the office.)

As we’re standing in the hallway talking, another coworker, the head of events for our company, walks up, and asks me if I’m okay, or if the pressure of my job is getting to me, and I’m losing it?

… What? I was confused.

It’s only then that we find out that from the perspective of those in outside of the hallway, the IT manager is just out of view behind a door, and so it appears that I’m standing in the hall talking animatedly to… myself!

All involved had a good laugh, and I assured everyone that I was not losing my mind and talking to the wall, at least not yet!

Weekly Notes 2025.02

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 14:45:00 -0600

I enjoyed reading Manu’s On the importance of friction this week. I don’t really intentionally create friction anywhere in my personal life, but I am somewhat intentional with where I introduce automation.
I’ve been working on restarting my daily notes habit in Obsidian. I slacked off some during the holidays, and it’s taking effort to remember to jot down my thoughts. I mainly do it for the ability to review what was occurring at a later date, as life can get insanely busy at times.
This weekend, and into early next week, are very cold. Not the coldest I’ve ever seen, but with windchills that definitely make me appreciate the indoors!
I spent some time Saturday working on distant portions of my family tree. I enjoy continuing to make progress as I have time, and it’s a project that’s easy to pick up for an hour at a time.
I keep thinking that the idea of doing a simple Roguelike game for fun & learning sounds interesting, and I spent some more time poking at the idea on Saturday. But I didn’t make much progress…
Since I’m spending time indoors, I spent a bit of time this weekend looking into markdown-based documentation solutions (web-based). No idea where I’ll land, but the top three contenders currently are:
- Hugo with the Hextra theme, which I’m quite familiar with, and have been playing around with for over a month now.
- Docusaurus, which is completely new to me. It takes the static site approach as well, but has some added niceties over Hugo, though with some added complexity in design.
- Quartz, which looks very similar in many ways to Obsidian Publish (and, to be fair, that’s how I found them - I was looking for a similar offering).
I very briefly played with adding link posts to my website, and promptly deleted them. The concept didn’t work as well as I thought it might. 😂

Weekly Notes 2025.01

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 18:30:00 -0600

I decided to try out weekly notes again this year, and attempt to find a happy balance between whatever caused me to avoid them by mid-ways through last year, and the alternative, which is going for months at a time without posting, if I’m not careful. 😂

This was the first full week back at work after the holidays. I worked Jan 2/3 as well, but neither day felt particularly productive, as it was the first time seeing coworkers since before the break.
Jan 6 marked the 11 year anniversary of my website. I have some ideas for a blog post around recent changes, but it’s still on the back-burner.
Jan 7 marked my 20 year in-game anniversary for my oldest RuneScape 3 account. I don’t play very often anymore, but I logged in long enough to pick up my 20 year cape. 🎉
I got obsessed with planning out how to manage my photo library. I think I’ve settled on Immich as my primary location, with Backblaze backups, as it gives me better overall control than Synology, and allows me to store files locally. I like iCloud Photos in general, but I get annoyed at some of the behavior (especially around uploads), and I like having multiple copies of things I find important.
It’s snowed a few times, so I’ve added “shovel driveway” to my workout routine. 😂

2024 Year in Review

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 21:50:00 -0600

I know that they say time flies by faster as we age, but this year I’ve noticed it to be true more than in recent memory! For my yearly review, I’m once again attempting to highlight major changes or areas of focus in my life, instead of doing a chronological review of the past year.

As was true last year, very little has changed in my personal life this year. I am continuing to attend the same LCMS church, and have begun to get more involved as time goes on. I have picked up a couple of new personal projects that give me a fun diversion on occasion, which includes expanding my work on my family history, and beginning to digitize old family photos and videos. Both will continue throughout 2025, with the digitization process being one of my biggest goals to spend time on in the coming year.

In my professional life, my job has largely remained the same, though I would say my workload has increased some. I’m still in the office 4-5 days a week, though I could dial that back to 3-4 if I really wanted to. A lot of my job continues to include interacting with team members across multiple departments, which is often made easier by being in person, instead of relying solely on Slack conversations or Zoom meetings.

Over the course of 2024 there have also been a number of personnel changes at work that have affected me to various degrees, with two of the departures being individuals whom I’ve worked with for years. It has taken some adjustments on my part to get used to them no longer being present in the office, and along the way I’ve also had the opportunity to take on some roles that are continuing to challenge me!

Throughout 2024 I’ve stuck with my primary laptop being a Mac, although I’ve used my Linux laptop and desktop a little more in the past few months as well. I continue to try to choose cross-platform tools when possible that allow me to work seamlessly on whichever computer I feel like using, and I’ve been looking at a few alternatives to Apple-based tools, specifically photos. I’ve been using Immich for a while now as a backup solution, and have begun experimenting with it being my primary photo repository, instead of relying on Apple Photos for everything. The jury is still out on if I’ll fully embrace Immich, but so far I’m really liking it.

My note-taking/PKM and task management setup have largely stayed the same throughout 2024. I’ve tried OmniFocus 4 a few times, but have always come back to Todoist for tasks, which I think boils down to ease of use and cross-platform ability. For notes, I’m still using Obsidian, and I honestly haven’t looked closely at alternate options much. I’m fairly happy with the overall abilities, and for the same reasoning as why I’ve stuck with Todoist… Obsidian is insanely powerful, and works well across multiple platforms. I do wish it was a little nicer on my phone, but I normally only glance at notes there, and don’t do heavy editing.

My reading took an even bigger hit this year than last, though I’ve yet to put my finger on exactly what the reason was. I had at least one two-month period where I didn’t complete any books, and a few other near-month-long stints. What I was doing, I honestly don’t recall… I know that I’ve struggled to spend as much time reading in the mornings as normal, largely due to being distracted with other projects and ideas. My goal is to once again increase my reading rate in the year to come.

In website news, I’ve stuck with Hugo, though over the past few months I’ve made a fairly large number of changes, starting with the overall design. By early November I was tiring of the theme that I’ve been using, and so I made the switch to my own fork of the Bilberry theme. The change in themes also gave me an opportunity to add a new status update content type to the site, which in conjunction with Robb Knight’s Echofeed is allowing me to attempt POSSE, where I post updates to my own site, then syndicate them elsewhere (currently only Mastodon, but I’m experimenting with Bluesky as well).

I also migrated my website’s hosting from DigitalOcean to AWS (more on this at a later point, I think), and have successfully run that setup for over a month. DigitalOcean was a great way to start out, but I was running into some limitations in their app platform approach based on what I wanted to do with this site, and it gave me the perfect excuse to play with AWS a bit more as well.

I originally intended to post weekly on my website throughout 2024, though by mid-Spring I had fallen off the bandwagon, and my approach just wasn’t working. This caused me to pause posting for a while, though I began adding new posts again in the fall as I began spending more time with the site overall. I haven’t decided if I want to attempt a post a week in 2025, though I definitely do want to continue to increase my writing output.

And thus concludes my 2024 year in review! I continue to thank God for all the blessings of the past year, and I look forward to finding out what is in store for 2025!

Happy New Year!

You’re a Blogger, Not an Essayist

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 07:00:00 -0600

While I don’t recall how I found it, earlier this week I ran across You’re a Blogger, Not an Essayist by Barry Hess, and a couple of points stuck out to me.

First off - go read Barry’s blog post, it’s worth it. I’ll wait.

⏱️

You’re back? Good, on to my thoughts!

You don’t need to labor over your posts. You don’t need to have perfect grammar or spelling. You don’t need to leave a post in draft for seven months, pouring over research. (Though you can if you want!) You don’t really need to have an idea.

Just write. Then share.

As I’ve noted in other recent blog posts, learning to just spend a short time putting my thoughts down in a blog post and then publishing is something I’m intentionally working on. My perfectionism streak causes me to often a) doubt that my thoughts are worth posting, and b) spend a lot of time debating phrasing, honing my points, etc.

But you know what?

You don’t have to be an essayist. … Don’t let those essayists discourage you from blogging.

Barry’s right. There are essayists, some of whom write amazing essays for their blog, and I greatly appreciate reading them. But that’s not me. It could be if I really wanted to spend all of my time writing, but that’s not the path I chose in life. My blog is a way to share my thoughts and interests with others, and sometimes my future self, and a way to start conversations.

And so, with that, I’ll thank Barry for blogging and giving me something to think on and blog about (thanks Barry!), and conclude this short post with Barry’s closing thoughts:

Just write. Just blog.

The Colbert Questionert

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0600

I enjoyed reading Hyde/Lazybear’s answers to the Colbert Questionert in my RSS feeds earlier this week, and thought it would be a fun little exercise + post for my Saturday morning.

And so, without further ado…

Best sandwich? A burger of some form
What’s one thing you own that you really should throw out? CDs/DVDs containing old video effects (lower thirds, transitions, etc)
What is the scariest animal? The Anglerfish
Apples or oranges? Oranges
Have you ever asked someone for their autograph? Yes, after a concert at a signing table; never at random
What do you think happens when we die? As a Christian, I believe our bodies will rest in the grave awaiting the final day when soul and body are reunited, and the souls of all who die in faith are immediately in the presence of Christ.
Favorite action movie? I have a few, but currently Edge of Tomorrow
Favorite smell? A spring rain, or freshly cleaned clothes. Or coffee…
Least favorite smell? Rotten chicken or eggs
Exercise: worth it? Definitely!
Flat or sparkling? Sparkling
Most used app on your phone? It’s either Slack or Safari
You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life: what is it? Jupiter by Holst, or Riverdance by Bill Whelan
What number am I thinking of? 43
Describe the rest of your life in 5 words? Family, Learning, Tech, Work, Food

On Blogging and Substack

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 19:15:00 -0600

Last week, Manu’s post on blogging, substacking (?), and owning digital real estate crossed my feed, and caught my attention for a few reasons: a) I read a lot of Manu’s posts, because I find his thoughts interesting, and b) because blogging and owning digital real estate is high on my priority list/topics of interest currently, for reasons that I don’t fully understand yet.

For myself, I looked briefly at Substack a few years ago, but didn’t feel like it offered anything for me based on the way that I run this website. I’m not a prolific enough writer that I need a newsletter, and I definitely have no plans to request compensation for anything I write (unless I choose to change careers, and that isn’t something I’m considering). Also, I’ve held the opinion for a while that if someone is going to go to all of the work to write a newsletter, they should ideally be in control of the domain and infrastructure it’s posted on, since platforms come and go. I will say that I followed Moly White’s migration from Substack to self-hosted Ghost with interest though, and on the off-chance I ever need a guide, I’ve bookmarked her post detailing her journey.

A few hours after I saw Manu’s post, Kev followed up with a post agreeing with Manu’s sentiments, and recommending that his readers go and read Manu’s post, which I will whole-heartedly second. And like Kev, I wanted to highlight one of Manu’s final comments:

[I]f you care about the web, get off social media platforms and get yourself your own piece of digital real estate. And if you don’t know where or how to start, reach out. There are plenty of people out there—including myself—who are more than happy to help you.

Kev and Manu are infinitely more capable than myself when it comes to web design, blogging, etc. But if I can in any way provide insight on how to get started, perhaps from a different perspective than theirs, please reach out!

You Should Have a Website

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 20:45:00 -0600

I’ve championed owning your own website for a while now, and have been posting more heavily about it over the past year or so. My own journey to running my own website was born out of a combination of desiring the challenge of maintaining my own site, wanting a place where I could control what I post and how it looks, and wanting some longevity and permanence for my web presence. And over time, I’ve begun to believe that it would be beneficial both for the individual and for society at large if more people followed suit.

I’ve also been keeping an eye out for other bloggers with a similar ethos, which is how I ran across The Website Manifesto by Nora Reed yesterday, and thought they made enough good points that it was worth rebroadcasting. I won’t rehash the post here, as there are too many good points. You should read it yourself.

I’ll leave you with the final thought from Nora’s manifesto:

My hope is that dipping your toe into making a website will be a first step toward having agency over your web presence and, ultimately, your relationship with technology in general. So much of the web as it is right now is social media websites that try to maximize how much time you spend looking at their ads, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Making a website is a tiny way to get a little bit of that agency back. I hope yours serves you well.

Seconding the Call to Blog More Often

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 19:55:00 -0600

Consistency is a common challenge for bloggers.

Blog consistently and your followers will look forward to reading your posts. Blog infrequently and your readers will forget about you.

This evening while browsing my RSS reader (Fiery Feeds, for those interested), I ran across A Call to Blog More Often by Cole, which is quoted above, and wanted to second his call, and add my two cents to the conversation.

Outside of a few news sites, blogs are one of the primary forms of written content that I follow online. Bloggers are often where I get ideas for new personal projects, books to read, places to visit, or interesting ideas to consider. I’ve constantly grown the number of blog feeds I subscribe to over the years, and there are certain individuals whose content I’m excited to read every time I see a new post in feed reader.

Personally, I’ve attempted to write more often, but consistency is still a struggle. Much of my recent work on this site has been with the express purpose of making my interactions with the site and its content more engaging for me, to increase my desire to post more consistently.

So, I second Cole’s call. Blog more often, and with consistency. Your readers, such as myself, will greatly enjoy and appreciate it!

Note: I’ve written about my love of RSS feeds here, and if you’re new to the concept, I highly recommend taking a look. RSS feeds aren’t new tech, but are still an amazing way to consume content at your own pace, and without the distractions much of the modern web seems to contain.

App Defaults 2024

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 18:40:00 -0600

It’s been just shy of a year since I posted my default apps of 2023, and after seeing a few other bloggers post updates to theirs, I decided to do the same!

Overall, not much has changed, it turns out. I’ve sampled multiple alternates in the past 12 months to almost all of the apps and services I use, but I’ve only actually migrated two:

📰 RSS Service: Newsblur
- I got tired of maintaining my self-hosted FreshRSS instance, and settled on Newsblur as a viable (paid) alternative. I’m mostly happy with it so far after multiple months, though I’m keeping an eye on self-hosted options still.
🔑 Password Management: 1Password
- I switched off of Bitwarden early in 2024, due to an interest in trying out some of the developer-focused options built into 1Password. So far, I’m a happy customer, and have recommended it to multiple friends and colleagues.

Truth Is, I Don't Need an Excuse

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 19:40:00 -0600

When traveling by car, I normally split my time between listening to audiobooks, podcasts, and music. However, on my way home from visiting family for Thanksgiving, I wanted a break from the podcasts I was listening to, and so decided to have some blogs I subscribe to read to me by (I think?) Siri.

Now, the fact that a blog post was read to me by a voice assistant is NOT the point of this post. That in and of itself is not groundbreaking, although I did find that listening to my current Siri settings (an Australian sounding voice) narrate a blog post was an experience.

No, the point of this post is to add my own commentary to one of the posts I listened to: I’m Switching Back to Android by Kev Quirk.

Kev’s post initially caught my attention because I was curious what was driving him back to Android, as it’s a move I’ve considered in the past but never acted on. I’ve always come up with good reasons for not switching away from the Apple ecosystem, though I still keep an eye on the Android world, and attempt to make tool choices that allow me to migrate between platforms if needed.

But the part of his post that I really wanted to comment on was this line towards the end of the post, under the heading “Why Switch?”:

But in all honestly, I think it just boils down to the fact that I’ve been on iOS for quite some time now and I fancy a change. I think I was looking for an excuse to switch in my last post. Truth is, I don’t need an excuse, so I’m switching just because I want to. 🤷‍♂️

That’s a way of thinking that I need to consider more often. There are many times, both in technical decisions and in the general choices of everyday life, where I attempt to come up with an excuse for why I’m making the decision, and in some cases (or, let’s be honest, in a lot of cases) I don’t ultimately make a change, because the main reason I could come up with is “because I want to”. Is having a reason for my choices good? Yes, most definitely. But from time to time, the reasoning or excuse may be “because I want to”, and so long as my choice isn’t hurting someone else, that’s a completely acceptable approach!

So thanks, Kev, for switching to Android, and blogging about it, and giving me something to think on. I don’t intend to make the same change when it comes to my smartphone (at least, not yet), but I fully intend to more often consider the last line of that paragraph:

I fancy a change… Truth is, I don’t need an excuse: I’m switching just because I want to.

Bluesky and Enshittification

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:00:00 -0600

Two days ago, Cory Doctorow’s daily Pluralistic post showed up in my RSS reader, and the title caught my attention: Bluesky and enshittification. I’ve read a number of his previous posts regarding “enshittification”, a term he coined to refer to a pattern in which online products and services decline in quality, and so I started skimming this article to see what Bluesky had done to catch his attention.

The details are probably not ultimately important for this blog post, but the short version is that Bluesky raised $15M in a series A funding round, led by venture capital fund Blockchain Capital. Many in the fediverse are concerned by the effects venture capital can have on platforms, and are especially skeptical of anyone involved with blockchains (see this article on The Fediverse Report for more details).

A few hours later, Molly White’s thoughts on the topic crossed my Mastodon feed, and I decided that I wanted to add to the conversation in my own little way, though it took me a couple of days to get around to it.

While I tend to not be quite as dogmatic as many in the fediverse when it comes to these topics, I too have begun to think more critically about where I post content, and how to have more control over the platforms on which I share my thoughts. That is one of the underlying reasons I started this website a decade ago, and is also one of the driving forces behind recent changes to eventually allow me to become a POSSE-er, joining individuals like Cory Doctorow, Molly White, and others on the IndieWeb whose voices I respect.

I like the idea of this website being my home on the internet, my little corner of the web, and being able to syndicate from here to the world. I like being able to point friends, family, coworkers, and anyone who is curious to a single location, from which they can read my thoughts, and learn about who I am, and what I value.

I’ll close with this quote from Doctorow. It’s a little more direct that my current views, but I more or less agree with the underlying sentiment:

“I will never again devote my energies to building up an audience on a platform whose management can sever my relationship to that audience at will.”

Site Redesign

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 13:46:02 -0600

After weeks (or maybe even months) of considerations and playing around with various themes, I’ve decided to migrate from the venerable Hugo-Coder theme to a custom fork of the Bilberry Hugo Theme.

Why? For a couple of reasons.

First off all, every time I work on my website, I’ve felt that the design was getting a bit long in the tooth, and that it was time for either a platform change (migrating to a different static site generator), or at least a theme change. I’ve yet to find a different SSG that I’m ready to dive into yet, and so investigating alternate themes has been my primary focus.

I ran across the Bilberry theme about two weeks ago, but at the time, I wasn’t quite ready to take the plunge. There were a handful of design choices I wasn’t happy with, and so I kept looking for other options. However, none came, and so I began looking at the theme more closely, and considering a fork with the changes made that I care about.

Saturday, Nov 2nd, I finally decided to strike out and begin migrating my site.

The content was by and large trivial to migrate. Most of my work was replicating the features I liked out of Coder in Bilberry, and customizing its behavior. While I’m at it, I’m also beginning to make my website IndieWeb-compliant. I really like the POSSE (Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere) design theory, and so I’m beginning to take steps to make my website capable of that.

As of today, Sunday, Nov 3rd, I’m happy enough with the overall design and behavior locally that I’m going to merge the branch I’ve been working on into my main branch, and this change will go live.

A few notes:

There is a high probability that a bunch of old posts will show up in the RSS feed - my apologies. This is because I removed my old “archived” post section and am only keeping a single set of blog posts now.
If you want to see my long-form posts and my short statuses, etc, I recommend you follow my main RSS feed.

Removing giscus Comments

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 10:30:00 -0500

Back in January, I added giscus comments to my blog, as a potential way for readers to comment and react to my posts. At the time, I didn’t necessarily have expectations that anyone would, and that has borne out over the past few months.

And so, I’ve decided to bring the giscus experiment to an end. It’s one extra thing my website doesn’t need, and as I continue to reconsider how I use my website, removing cruft and visual clutter is high on the list of potential improvements.

That being said, comments and reactions are still welcome! I may add an email address or other additional contact mechanism in the future to encourage such interactions, but in the meantime, the easiest means of reaching me will be via my Mastodon account.

Quiet Weekends

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 16:30:00 -0500

As I’m typing out this blog post (in Obsidian, if you want to know), I’m sitting quietly in my living room, listening to the occasional sounds of vehicles passing by, and sipping on my final mug of coffee for the day. It’s Saturday, and while that has meant a day off from work for years, and often a day to relax, I’ve increasingly turned it into a day where my only interaction with others is virtually, and even that is limited.

My current approach started a little over two years ago, when my career took a turn from being largely an individual contributor who spent most days developing code, to a position in which a large portion of my time involves communication of some form, whether that’s via Slack, email, or verbal communications (meetings and video calls). It’s something I’ve slowly adapted to, and have honestly come to enjoy, but it does require some re-calibration of my personal life.

The more of my time that I spend in communication with others for work, the more I find that spending the weekend engaged in much more limited conversation is required for me to feel rejuvenated, which should come as no surprise for those familiar with introverted personalities. It is not uncommon for me to effectively not talk verbally to anyone for nearly 48 hours straight, and only do some light texting with friends and family.

Weekends have also become a time when I try to capture any outstanding ideas related to work or my personal life that have been bouncing around my head, but I’ve neglected to write down, either in a note or in my task manager. It’s a time for an occasional game, or perhaps a creative endeavor. Last week, for instance, I spent part of a day reorganizing my website, which had no tangible benefits, but I found it cathartic. This afternoon I spent some time investigating possible new themes for my website, though I’m opting to stick with Coder for the time being.

I’m not sure that there is an ultimate point to this post. Instead, I think I just wanted to get some of my thoughts out, and in a manner that differs from the rest of my week. And after all, the point of of having a blog is to use it in any way I see fit, right? :-)

Bad Days in History

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 19:05:00 -0500

A couple of weeks ago, while browsing through the book selection at my local Barnes & Noble (yes, they still exist!), I ran across a type of daily reading that I’ve never considered before: Bad Days in History: A Gleefully Grim Chronicle of Misfortune, Mayhem, and Misery for Every Day of the Year. My normal choice for daily reading is generally either a devotional, or some kind of thought-provoking or inspirational reading, so I picked the book up with the intent of a quick glance… but definitely not a purchase.

However, by the very fact that I’m writing a blog post about it, you can probably guess what happened next. I flipped to the reading of the day, and found it amusing enough that I kept skimming. A few minutes later, the book was on my pile to purchase, and ever since it’s been part of my daily reading regimen.

But why is it so interesting, and why would I recommend it to others? It boils down to the combination of history and (grim) humor. I’ve always been someone who enjoys history and interesting facts, and so far this book is scratching that itch well. Plus, it adds a bit of randomness to my day right at the start!

My Software Stack is (Mostly) Old Too

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 05:45:00 -0500

After reading My software stack is old by Manu (Manuel Moreale), I became curious about the age of the software I use day in and day out as well. So, I spent a few minutes making a note of what tools I use daily, and found that I have an interesting mix of tools from basically two distinct time periods.

I’m writing this post presently in Obsidian (2020), which replaced Evernote (2000) a few years ago, and is the newest software I use daily. I’ll then be publishing to my website via Hugo (2013).

For work, I use Sublime Text (2008) and Sublime Merge (2018) on the software development side, and Altium (2005) for hardware development.

On the less technical side, I’m split between Apple Mail (2003) and Outlook (1997) for email (personal vs work), manage my tasks in Todoist (2007), communicate with coworkers via Slack (2013), and browse the web with Firefox (2004).

I think my summary after pondering that usage a little bit is that while I’m quite easily distracted by new tools, and enjoy investigating them, I rarely find a reason to move on from the older tools I already know and can rely on.

Monthly Notes 2024.05

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 18:00:00 -0600

Wow, it’s already been a month since I last posted here (or, well, nearly a month - I’m rounding up slightly).

As you’ll notice if you’ve followed my blog within the past half-year, previously I was attempting to do one post a week, my “Weekly Notes” series. That started to fall apart in April, and in May completely collapsed. Why? Probably for a few reasons. First of all, I realized that I often only have one or two really interesting things to mention a week, and that doesn’t feel like a good post at times. Secondly, there are weeks when I’ve been busy enough with work that I really don’t want to write on the weekends about what I’ve been up to, as it boils down to “work, and related topics I won’t discuss publicly”. And third, if I’m going to write, I want something interesting for at least friends and family to skim, if not the broader internet.

So, I’m going to pivot to a monthly note for a little while, and see how that holds up!

May was an overall busy month, mostly centered around work, but also bookended with a family wedding at the start of the month, and a camping trip with friends to close it out (which I just got back from yesterday).

During the first weekend in May, I visited family for a few days, and attended a joint wedding ceremony of two of my cousins (brothers) to their respective significant others, now spouses (sisters). The event was a joyous occasion, and it was also the first time in recent memory that I attended a Catholic wedding (or service at all), which was an interesting experience for me.

The week after I returned home, I learned that a coworker and the (now former) head of our R&D team was choosing to take a leave of absence to spend time with family, and to focus on areas of his life that had been neglected in some ways due to the schedule his job required. This gentleman has had a large impact on me from a leadership perspective, and so finding out that he would not be present in that capacity anymore caught me by surprise, and I had a more emotional reaction to it than I expected. I’m doing okay with it now, but it’s taken time to process.

About a week ago, towards the end of May, I began wrestling with my choice of task manager again. I was feeling very overwhelmed at the time, and decided that the best way to attempt to gain perspective was to migrate from Todoist to OmniFocus (again), with a bit more intentionality this time. I have learned that while I vastly prefer certain aspects of Todoist’s interface and behaviors, at a certain project quantity it tends to fall apart. So far, I’m managing to keep OmniFocus in a better place, but we’ll see how long that lasts. I’ve done a decent amount of research into tools to try to rectify the holes I’m seeing in my processes, and I’m beginning to thing the issue isn’t entirely tooling, but is largely around habits I need to form or improve.

And that brings me to the past few days, when I was camping with friends near the Wisconsin border! For the past few years, a group of guys have been heading up to a family farm in Northern Illinois for a few days of camping out, just relaxing in nature and getting away from the grind of daily life. This year I was really looking forward to the time away, and I definitely feel slightly refreshed!

Weekly Notes 2024.17 & 2024.18

Sun, 05 May 2024 12:00:00 -0600

Once again, this is a combined post! I didn’t have much occurring during the week of 2024.17 noteworthy, outside of work.
This past weekend, when I would have normally posted my weekly notes, I was busy working to finish off some projects that were piling up both at home and in the office. So I held off, instead of forcing myself to write.
This week was shortened for me; the first 3 days were in-office, then I was traveling to visit family (more on that ahead). The trip itself was long, but I finished off a re-listen to a book I was working on, so the time flew by relatively quickly.
My primary reason for traveling? This weekend, I had the joyful privilege of attending the wedding of two of my cousins! My cousins (brothers), Seth & Josh, married sisters (Katie & Gloria), on the same day, in a joint ceremony. It was great to be able to celebrate with them, and congratulate them as each couple begins their new journeys in life together!
Today (Sunday) also included a special event: Lori, the director of the choir at the church I was raised in, retired after 33 years, and many former choir members (including myself), joined in to surprise her, and celebrate her service in song during the Divine Service, and again afterwards at a potluck. 🙂

Read

Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock

Listened To

The Talk Show With John Gruber: 399: ‘I decapitated the MacBook Air’, With Federico Viticci

Weekly Notes 2024.16

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0600

At this point, I should just summarize every week this Spring with “work is very busy, and I haven’t done much besides that of note.” 😂 (Of course, that’s boring reading though, so I won’t do that.)
I continued my meal planning this week, which included running across a tasty and easy Chili recipe. I was tempted to make it again next week, but I probably should have some diversity in my meals.
As you’ll see in my Read section (below), I went on a kick reading how others use OmniFocus, and I pulled a few ideas from Scotty Jackson’s article that I’ve implemented into my own system.
This weekend, I removed my /now page from my website. It was a fun idea, but I found updating it tedious, especially when I’m busy. And a /now page that doesn’t get updated isn’t particularly useful…
I also spent some time playing Voxel Tycoon, a game that I’ve played on and off for a few months. Something about this type of strategy game can be very fun for me.

Read

Listened To

ATP Insider: Computing Origin Stories
Mac Power Users: 740: “From The Beatles to The Libertines,” with Lee Garrett

Watched

The Beekeeper (2024)

Weekly Notes 2024.15

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0600

The past week was pretty busy at work, with a combination of meetings, project kickoffs, and Spring beta testing/troubleshooting. And this weekend, as I publish this update, I’ve been crunching on a project as well, so I don’t feel like taking much time to write…
I did, however, make a bit of a change to something personally though… For the first time in years, I designed a weekly menu, and actually roughly stuck with it. This got me both purchasing a few foods I am not used to at the store, and also being a bit more conscious of exactly what I was eating day to day.
Speaking of changes… During the week, for some reason, I got very annoyed at Todoist and am back on OmniFocus. I’m not sure if it’s a coping mechanism for when I feel overwhelmed, or if there are features of OmniFocus I was missing in Todoist… 🤷‍♂️
I’m also strongly considering changing the format/content of these posts. I enjoy having a short outline of what I’ve done, interesting things, etc, but the time commitment to write it up discourages me if I’m at all busy. And there are times of my life when I am, in fact, pretty busy. Perhaps I’ll switch to just notable podcasts vs every podcast I listened to?

Listened To

Issues, Etc.: 1033: The Teaching of Limited Atonement - Dr. Jordan Cooper
Mac Power Users: 739: Checking in on Freeform

Watched

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Weekly Notes 2024.13 & 2024.14

Sun, 07 Apr 2024 20:00:00 -0600

The last week in March (Holy Week), I was traveling for both work and to visit family, and didn’t take the time to write up my weekly notes. So this post is going to include two weeks.
On the Wednesday of Holy Week, I was in the office for a few hours, then headed to Ohio to visit family, and to do some heads-down remote work. I’ve found that for certain projects, I really need to have dedicated time away from the office to focus if I want to complete the work in a reasonable amount of time…
Thursday through Sunday were a mix of church services for Holy Week (which included some of my absolute favorite hymns), along with a fair amount of remote work, in an attempt to finish the aforementioned project.
Monday started early with some travel for work, followed by a late afternoon/early evening trip back to Illinois. Then, Tuesday through Friday were back in the office for a fairly busy week of work.
Thankfully, this weekend I’ve had some downtime, which have included some reading, some catching up on chores and projects around the house, and a little gaming.
Speaking of gaming… I’ve enjoyed playing RuneScape over the years, and on Saturday (4/6) I finished the 2024 April Fools event, which brought Benchsitting as a new skill to the game.

Read

Owning My Own Social
- I’ve long considered spinning up my own Mastodon instance, and find it interesting to follow the exploits of others who have tried it.
Get Started with Embedded Swift on ARM and RISC-V Microcontrollers
- I’m not sure I’ll ever actually try this, but seeing that Swift is supported on ARM and RISC-V microcontrollers was interesting.
North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 580: Socks in the Knob-Hole
Accidental Tech Podcast: 581: A Different Way to Be Evil
Accidental Tech Podcast: Specials: ATP Diamond Dogs: Talk Me Out of It
Accidental Tech Podcast: Specials: ATP Dev: Other People’s Code
Accidental Tech Podcast: Specials: ATP Tier List: Connectors
Accidental Tech Podcast: Specials: ATP Insider: John’s Windows
Connected: 495: The Boy Who Cried iPad
Connected: 496: I Tried to Put My Finger in Myke’s Mouth
Darknet Diaries: 144: Rachel
DTNS/Good Day Internet: Tech Topics We Hate - Bonus Show
Focused: 200: Favorite Productivity Hacks
Issues, Etc.: 0861: The Deconstruction of Christianity Movement - Alisa Childers & Tim Barnett
Issues, Etc.: 0953: This Week in Pop-Christianity: Evangelical Prophecies about the Solar Eclipse - Pr. Chris Rosebrough
It’s A Thing: 310: All Aboard the Skinship
It’s A Thing: 311: WHOOP, There’s Your Score
Just and Sinner: Sola Gratia: Grace Alone
Late Night Linux: 274
Late Night Linux: 275
Linux Matters: Snappy Snap Snapshots
Mac Power Users: 737: Scoring a Movie, with David Metzger
Mac Power Users: 738: Apple Collecting 101
The Omni Show: How Pete Edstrom Uses OmniFocus
The Rebound: 488: I’ve Already Forgotten What We Were Talking About
The Rebound: 489: What Did I Miss
Smarter Every Season: 100: Spring Updates for April 4, 2024
The Talk Show With John Gruber: 397: ‘Less Space Than a Nomad? Lame’, With Jason Snell
The Talk Show With John Gruber: 398: ‘You’ve Never Seen Email Like This Before’, with John Moltz
Under the Radar: 289: Vision Pro Numbers
Upgrade: 505: Abolish Drafts: The 2024 iPad Draft
Upgrade: 506: Legacy When? Legacy Now?
We’re Not Wrong: About RFK Jr.’s VP and Ronna McDaniel’s short television career
We’re Not Wrong: About the World Central Kitchen bombing in Gaza

Watched

Friends, S02E02 - S02E19

Weekly Notes 2024.12

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0600

The past week was once again relatively uneventful, with work consuming a lot of my time.
I found out mid-week that you can right click on a contact’s name in Slack, and copy the link to a Slack Huddle with them, then paste that to a meeting invite, so that scheduled meetings can take place directly in Slack. I won’t have a use for that often, but I may use it for scheduled lightweight meetings on occasion.
Over the weekend I worked on setting up a computer I need for a work project with Ubuntu, and decided to go ahead and pay for/set up Ubuntu Pro on it as well. I’ve gone back and forth on whether I like the idea of a paid subscription, but live Kernel updates and 10 years of ESM seems worthwhile for a system that I’m not touching on a day to day basis.

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 579: Use Your Words
Clockwise: 546: Taco iPad
Congressional Dish: CD289: The Not A TikTok Ban Bill
Connected: 494: Esse Tiere
Cortex: 153: What Even Is an Office?
DTNS/Good Day Internet: How Do You Keep Listener’s Interested? - Editor’s Desk
Getting Things Done: 250: Projects and Someday Maybe Lists
Issues, Etc.: 0782: The Bible and Gender Ideology - Dr. Mark Rockenbach
Issues, Etc.: 0802: Dealing with Pornography’s Temptation - Daniel Weiss
Just and Sinner: Is the Christian Forgiven of Past, Present, and Future Sins at the Moment of Conversion?
Just and Sinner: Sola Fide: Justification by Faith
Just and Sinner: What’s Wrong with the Modern Conception of Rights?
Just and Sinner: Sola Scriptura: Scripture Alone
Just and Sinner: From Reformed to Lutheran
Late Night Linux: 273
Linux Matters: the Joy of Linux Torture
Mac Power Users: 736: Maintaining & Caring For Your Apple Hardware
The Rebound: 487: Have You Tried NOT Going Viral
Upgrade: 504: Tone 47
We’re Not Wrong: About Sonia Sotomayor retiring and the death of Electric Vehicles

Watched

Friends, S01E05 - S02E01

Weekly Notes 2024.11

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 18:00:00 -0600

This past week was pretty uneventful. Work has been busy enough that I haven’t devoted much time to personal projects.
Over the weekend I replaced a failing drive on my media/backup server, which required a pretty small amount of my direct time to get resolved, but took well over 12 hours to rebuild the array.
Over the weekend I also watched the first part of Dune. I quite enjoyed it, and am looking forward to seeing the sequel sometime soon (probably when it’s out on BluRay).

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 578: Weird Can Be Beautiful
Ask Noah Show: 380: Open Source Task Management
Clockwise: 545: Cake and Cookies
Connected: 493: Ends in Potify
Dot Social: Moving the Fediverse Forward at FedifForum and Beyond, with Johannes Ernst of Dazzle Labs
DTNS/Good Day Internet: Why is DTN’s Twitch Channel called GDI? - Editor’s Desk
DTNS/Good Day Internet: About ByteDance (Narrative)
Issues, Etc.: 0743: The Book of Mormon - Dr. Jordan Cooper
Issues, Etc.: 0753: This Week in Pop-Christianity: A Jesse Duplantis Easter Sermon - Pr. Chris Rosebrough
It’s a Thing: 308: Living in a World of Fandom
Late Night Linux: 272
Mac Power Users: 735: Catching up with Ryan JA Murphy
The Rebound: 486: I’m Eating a Turtleneck
Upgrade: 503: We Own the Refs, the Stadium, and the Field
We’re Not Wrong: About the TikTok ban and Boeing

Watched

Dune (2021)
Friends, S01E01 - S01E04

Weekly Notes 2024.10

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 16:00:00 -0600

This week was, for some reason, slightly exhausting for me, though I can’t point to any one specific event or series of events that caused the exhaustion. I had a fairly standard work week, and then enjoyed a visit from my sister this weekend.
While she was visiting, we played World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - A Pandemic System Board game and Small World of Warcraft, two games I picked up a few years ago but hadn’t had time to play. Both proved fun, and I hope to play them again sometime soon!
Also this weekend, I had the pleasure of watching an amazing performance by the Concordia University - Chicago Wind Symphony. It’s been many years since I attended an event of this nature, and I didn’t realize until afterwards how much I’ve missed it. All of the performers did a fantastic job, and it was a delightful way to spend an evening.
In the generally-interesting category, I ran across DropDMG when reading through a blog earlier this week. While I don’t have an immediate need to distribute macOS applications, knowing that such a tool exists could be useful in the future.

Read

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 577: Colorful Criticism
Clockwise: 543: I Hear The Boxes Are Much Bigger
Clockwise: 544: I Would Like It To Actually Be Good
Congressional Dish: CD288: Government Funding 101
Connected: 492: What is the But For?
Darknet Diaries: 143: Jim Hates Scams
DTNS/Good Day Internet: Tom Has a New Book - Editor’s Desk
Getting Things Done: 249: GTD and Personality
Late Night Linux: 271
Linux Matters: A Mini Swap Adventure
The Omni Show: How Michael Darius Uses Omni Software
The Rebound: 485: EeeeeeeUuuuuuuu
Upgrade: 502: It’s the Way Towards Colour
We’re Not Wrong: About Nancy Pelosi’s Stock Portfolio and California’s Minimum Wage Law

Watched

The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, S01E01-S01E03

Weekly Notes 2024.09

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 20:00:00 -0600

Last week I referenced to trippy, a handy networking tool that I had run across but hadn’t had a use for yet. This week I ended up having a use case… and I can definitely report that it’s handy for tracking down routing issues!
Mid-week, I got annoyed at the amount of effort that I was putting into OmniFocus, and reverted to using Todoist. In general I like a lot of features of OmniFocus more, but it has a few extra steps required for virtually every action I want to do, and it doesn’t feel fast on my iPhone. Todoist both has features I don’t want, and is missing features I’d like, but it works at the speed I think, and more often gets out of my way. We’ll see how long this lasts before I’m tempted by another tool again. 😂
On Saturday, I decided to quit using a self-hosted FreshRSS instance for my RSS aggregator, and migrate to Newsblur. It costs about half as much as what my DigitalOcean droplet was costing me to run FreshRSS, works at least as well (if not better), and reduces the number of computers that I’m managing. And in the grand scheme of things, I’m not sure that I care if I self-host my RSS aggregator. It’s a cool thing to say “I did it”, but I don’t think it provides me many benefits presently.

Read

Super-Resolution iPhone Panoramas for Vision Pro
- I haven’t actually tried this yet, but after trying the Vision Pro a few weeks ago, I am convinced that capturing photos & video for a future where I use one is a worthwhile endeavor.

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 576: Quiet Little Leech
Bad Voltage: 3x65: Not Evenly Distributed
Congressional Dish: CD287: War Money
Connected: 491: Improper Work Attire
DTNS/Good Day Internet: Are We in A Dot-Com Bust? - Editor’s Desk
Focused: 198: Revisiting Journaling
Getting Things Done: 248: Workplace Challenges - Improvements
Issues, Etc.: 0584: Worshipping with the Church Triumphant – Pr. Andrew Packer
Issues, Etc.: 0612: This Week in Pop-Christianity: Joel Osteen on the Whispers of God – Pr. Chris Rosebrough
Just & Sinner: Luther’s Contribution of the Two Kinds of Righteousness
Late Night Linux: 270
Mac Power Users: 733: Our Favorite iPhone Apps
Mac Power Users: 734: I Got to Be the Hero
The Rebound: 484: What Breed Of Dog Is Biting Me?
The Talk Show With John Gruber: 396: ‘The Essence of Stealing’, With David Barnard
Upgrade: 501: The Perfect Noodling Computer
We’re Not Wrong: About IVF and Fani Willis

Weekly Notes 2024.08

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 17:00:00 -0600

This week I ran across trippy, an interesting little networking tool that combines the functionality of traceroute and ping. I don’t have a current use, but am filing it away for when I need it.
Much of my in-office time this week was focused on troubleshooting new products. I experimented some with using SSH from a Java app, which I’d not done previously. Once I figured out the basic requirements, it was pretty seamless!
This weekend once again included ripping some new-to-me Jazz & Swing CDs to my Plex server, along with some albums of hymns from CPH. I continue to enjoy using Plexamp, combined with my own library, to stream music, instead of one of the major streaming services.

Read

JavaScript Bloat in 2024
- And interesting look at the amount of bloat in current (popular) JavaScript-based pages…
iMessage with PQ3: The new state of the art in quantum-secure messaging at scale
- As someone who is both privacy- & security-conscious, and an iMessage user, enhancements to the security of the iMessage platform are always welcome!

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 575: Walk a Little Faster
Ask Noah Show: 377
Clockwise: 542: You Should Not Toss Leprechauns
Connected: 490: Ivy League Ferret
DTNS/Good Day Internet: Are We in A Dot-Com Bust? - Editor’s Desk
Focused: 197: Feel Good Productivity
Getting Things Done: 247: David Allen talks with Keven Kelly
It’s A Thing: 305: This Thing Literally Slaps
Late Night Linux: 269
Linux Matters: An Exodus of Bitcoin
Mac Power Users: 732: Catching up with Mike Vardy
The Omni Show: Omni Group’s 2024 Roadmap
The Rebound: 483: Dial the 9 and the 1
Upgrade: 500: Core Face/Peripheral Face
We’re Not Wrong: About the Border and Trump’s NY Business Trial Penalty

Watched

Wonka (2023)

Weekly Notes 2024.07

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 19:30:00 -0600

A large portion of this week in the office was spent working through some interesting networking configuration to allow test devices at remote sites to securely access a cloud database… thankfully people much smarter than I were able to assist!
Precision Planting’s 20|20 Display was featured this week in a story on the Qt website, which included an interview with my coworker Dave. It’s a nice view into some of the products we work on, along with some of the technical decisions we’ve made over the years.
While working on a project in the office, I was reminded that, sometimes, slightly over-engineering is not a bad thing. I had forgotten that I built a safe-guard into a product’s software so that it wouldn’t install updates that didn’t explicitly include support for its hardware revision. While it was an annoyance this time, it also has saved many headaches in the past.
This weekend was spent ripping some new (to me) Jazz CDs to my Plex server. I’m really enjoying some of the new albums, and am currently listening to The Best of Miles Davis: The Capitol/Blue Note Years while writing this post.

Read

The Missing Semester of Your CS Education
- There are a number of useful courses here for developers, covering all of the tools that we use daily but that don’t get taught.
Firehouse Five and the Cinderella Surprise
- Very interesting blog post by Cabel Sasser about a Dixieland jazz band that I’d never heard of before.
Mozilla downsizes as it refocuses on Firefox and AI: Read the memo
- I hope this is a net positive for Mozilla. I love using Firefox, and want it to thrive, and continue to grow in market share.
Backdoors that let cops decrypt messages violate human rights, EU court says

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 574: Weird Forking Scenario
Clockwise: 541: Peripherereral Free
Connected: 489: The Birds Chirp in the Black Void
Darknet Dairies: 142: Axact
DTNS/Good Day Internet: Where Do You Draw the Line? - Editor’s Desk
DTNS/Good Day Internet: 4708 Extended: Don’t Pass on Passkeys
Getting Things Done: 246: Slice of GTD Life with Rene Lie
Issues, Etc.: 443: Dechurching in America, Part 2 - Michael Graham
Issues, Etc.: 472: The Presence of Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Sacrament - Dr. Jordan Cooper
It’s A Thing: 303: Tom fought in the Rumi Wars
It’s A Thing: 304: Men Are Welcome Until They Die
Late Night Linux: 268
Mac Power Users: 731: “Tears Rolled Down My Light Seal”
The Rebound: 482: Two Out of Three Hosts Say Yes
The Talk Show With John Gruber: 95: ‘I’m a Real-World Man’, with Adam Lisagor
Upgrade: 499: We Have All the Cushions
We’re Not Wrong: About Libertarian RFK Jr. and the Monoculture

Watched

So You Think You Know Git - FOSDEM 2024

Weekly Notes 2024.06

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 12:30:00 -0600

Early this week I set up an old Lenovo ThinkCentre to run a headless install of Ubuntu, and started playing around with some projects I’ve heard of from others, but never used myself. First up: Pi-hole, a network-wide ad blocking option. It took a little while to get everything configured the way I wanted, and I’m still working through some odd behavior, but overall I like it. Most of my browsers already have some form of ad-blocking enabled, but this works even with devices I don’t have as many options on (phone, iPad, etc).
I’m still sticking with OmniFocus, and actually started using one of their slightly more advanced features, Mail Drop. I’ve used similar functionality on Todoist to auto-forward certain types of emails as tasks to my inbox, and I’m happy to now have the same workflow set up with OmniFocus.
I spent some time digging into Tailscale’s permissions management options, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to configure. I wanted to start limiting certain connections on my tailnet, instead of leaving settings wide-open, and within minutes I was able to set up a few simple rules that put things in a much better (and arguably more secure) state.
A few weeks ago I heard about LocalSend, an app that gives you an AirDrop-like experience between virtually any two machines, on the Linux Matters podcast, but didn’t have a reason to use it at the time. Fast-forward to this weekend, and I needed to transfer some large files between two machines on the same network, but didn’t have another mechanism set up. In almost no time at all, I was able to download the app on both machines, and send the files… it was one of the most “it just works” experiences I’ve had in a while. I highly recommend checking it out.

Read

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 573: Look at It Harder
Clockwise: 540: I Did Something Bad
Connected: 488: hot guy, incredible actor, hot dude
Cortex: 152: Apple Vision Pro: The Future is Here
Issues, Etc.: 363: Women’s Ordination, Empathy and Feminism - Dr. Joseph Rigney
Issues, Etc.: 393: Baptism and the Giving of the Holy Spirit - Pr. Mark Surburg
Late Night Linux: 266
Late Night Linux: 267
Linux Matters: Magazines Reloaded
Mac Power Users: 730: “Treat it as an Intern,” with Jeff Richardson
The Rebound: 481: You’re Doing A Great Job (Abridged)
Upgrade: 498: Leap the Uncanny Valley
We’re Not Wrong: About the Tucker/Putin Interview and the Arizona GOP

Weekly Notes 2024.05

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 14:00:00 -0600

News articles are continuing to be published regarding Precision Planting’s 2024 announcements. This post from AgriNews had a good overview, and (in my opinion) nicely combined comments from yours truly with those of Justin McMenamy, Vice President - Disruptive Products.
Friday was the release of Apple Vision Pro, so I’ve been watching and reading reviews of it all week. I’ve linked some of my favorites below in the Read and Watched sections. I’m not yet convinced to drop $3500 on it, but I’m also still considering it…
I’m still actively using OmniFocus 4, and did my first (abbreviated) weekly review with it today. While I still wish there was some more natural language processing built in, similar to Todoist, the overall experience is growing on me.
A project at work has me dusting off my Python skills (meager though they are), and also relearning how documents in MongoDB work. It also gave me an excuse to play with Python packages in Nix, which I’m still finding extremely useful for software development.

Read

Why Tim Cook Is Going All In on the Apple Vision Pro

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 572: Cryptofarts and Copyright Infringement
Clockwise: 539: You Folks Need Some Help
Connected: 487: Mr. Fake John Voorhees Goes to Europe
Focused: 196: Focus & The Reading Life, with Maryanne Wolf
Getting Things Done: 242: Slice of GTD Life with Richards and Spurgeon
Issues, Etc.: 293: Countering Technological Liturgies - Joshua Pauling
Issues, Etc.: 311: Responding to Roman Catholic Proof Texts: Protestants Deny the Real Presence - Dr. Steven Parks
Issues, Etc.: 332: Evangelical Cliches - Bryan Wolfmueller
It’s a Thing: 301: Little Treats Mission Creep
It’s a Thing: 302: Spray Candy Is My Roman Empire
Mac Power Users: 729: Don’t Hear What We Aren’t Saying
The Rebound: 480: You Like Developers? Name Three
The Talk Show With John Gruber: 394: ‘An Impossible Balcony’, With Matthew Panzarino
Upgrade: 497: The Poison Pill
We’re Not Wrong: About the Border and Gen Z’s Gender Split

Watched

Weekly Notes 2024.04

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 14:30:00 -0600

Overall, this week was relatively uneventful (outside of some stuff at work). I didn’t focus much on personal projects, except for…
Only a few weeks after claiming that I was sticking with Todoist for the foreseeable future for as my task manager, I once again got curious about OmniFocus, and ended up switching my entire task list over mid-week. Todoist has been implementing more team-based features recently, which I don’t need. And something about OmniFocus keeps drawing my attention… We’ll see how long it lasts.
On Saturday, I spent a substantial amount of time becoming familiar with the Nix package manager, which I am interested in using for reproducible builds of a project at work. The basic premise was easy to learn, though it took most of the day to get a fully functional solution.
Sunday so far has consisted of Divine Service in the morning, some cooking over lunch (which included prep for the week ahead), and some small amount of time focusing on a work project.

Read

Using nix-shell to create and share reproducible embedded development environments

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 571: Adding Some Carrot
Clockwise: 538: If I Lose It, I’ll Die
Connected: 486: Elden Widge
Getting Things Done: 242: Slice of GTD Life with Richards and Spurgeon
Late Night Linux: 265
Linux Matters: Fetch Is Going to Happen
Mac Power Users: 728: All About AppleCare
The Omni Show: How Kaitlin Salzke uses OmniFocus - Part 2
The Rebound: 479: $3500 Worth of FOMO
The Talk Show With John Gruber: 393: ‘An Asterisk on the Bento Box’, With Marco Arment
Upgrade: 496: 40th Anniversary of the Mac Draft
We’re Not Wrong: About the New Hampshire Primary (Live from Manchester)

Watched

Reacher (2022), S2, E05-08

Weekly Notes 2024.03

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 14:30:00 -0600

Even though it’s technically a holiday, I had work on Monday, preparing for our conference, and will instead use it as a floating holiday sometime later this year.
Tuesday through Friday of this week was Winter Conference 2024 for Precision Planting. The following links include coverage from various agriculture-focused outlets, a few of which quote yours truly, and I’ve thrown in a picture of one of the show stands as well:
Over the weekend I spent some time improving my Obsidian daily note setup, mostly adjusting the file location(s)
To automate some of the work, I used zmv, which was a new tool to me… it’s shockingly powerful

Read

Author Clock
- I’m very tempted to either buy one of these, or set up a screen at my home showing off the web version 🤔
Long Live Webpages
What Even is a Webmention?
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (finished)

Listened To

Accidental Tech Podcast: 570: The Local Mooching Situation
Clockwise: 537: All I Found Were Three Apple TV Remotes
Connected: 485: A Mobile Hamburger Menu Three Feet Wide
Cortex: 151: The Second Best Time is Now
Dot Social: Pivoting Out of the Attention Economoy, with medium’s Tony Stubblebine
Focused: 195: The Productivity Field Guide
Late Night Linux: 264
Mac Power Users: 727: The Productivity Field Guide
The Rebound: 478: Skizzy
Under the Radar: 285: Recreational Computing
Upgrade: 495: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
We’re Not Wrong: About the Iowa Caucus

Watched

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023), S1, E10
Reacher (2022), S2, E01-04

Weekly Notes 2024.02

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 14:30:00 -0600

Early in the week, I spent a little time to make my Mastodon account discoverable by searching for this domain.
This week’s office time was primarily devoted to preparation for our annual Winter Conference.
On Thursday, I cleaned up the post structure on this website, which accidentally led to me spamming my RSS feed with old posts.
Friday morning I woke up to the sounds of my battery backups all going off at 3a, due to the loss of power in my neighborhood (really the first time this has happened since I moved here). Thankfully, the local power company was able to find the issue and restore power by about 5:30a, and so I was able to go about the rest of my day as planned.
This weekend, in my free time, I’ve been playing some of Tavern Master and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, both on PC via the Steam store.
- Tavern Master is a style of strategy game that I normally enjoy, though I’m currently finding it a bit tedious. We’ll see if I continue to play it or not…
- Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is an action game that is definitely outside of my normal gaming style, but it’s proving to be interesting so far. I expect that I’ll keep playing it occasionally.
This weekend also saw a cold snap to negative temperatures in the Midwest, along with some of the first real snow I’ve had to shovel this season. I’m happily staying indoors as much as I can.

Read

Listened To

Mac Power Users: 726: Journaling Update: Apple’s New App, Day One Updates & More
Focused: 194: I’d Like to Take a Mulligan
Upgrade: 494: Copyright Violation Machine
The Omni Show: How Kourosh Dini Uses OmniFocus - Part 2
Dot Social: Moderation and Migration for a Better Social Web, with Fediverse Leader Tim Chambers
Linux Matters: 20: Unfold Your Coding Potential
Late Night Linux: 263
Connected: 484: The Rickies (January 2024)
The Rebound: 477: Brrreeeeoooooouuuuuuuggghhh
Clockwise: 536: Spay and Neuter Your Pets
We’re Not Wrong: About the Secretary of Defense Going Missing and DEI
It’s a Thing: 299: Smut Rising
Accidental Tech Podcast: 569: Do Grasshoppers Have Tongues?

Watched

January 13th: A Somber Day In Lithuania
xXx (2002)

Sorry for the Spam in the RSS Feed This Morning

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 08:39:02 -0600

This morning I made some changes to the permalink structure of my blog posts, which inadvertently caused a number of my older posts to reappear in the RSS feeds. Sorry for the spam!

Enable Mastodon Discovery by Domain

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 15:15:00 -0600

While doing some reading on integrating Mastodon and Hugo this afternoon, I ran across a handy little project by Francesco Maida.

In the past, I’ve considered running my own Mastodon server, but that’s not yet an endeavor I’m ready to take on. However, being discoverable by anyone looking for me on Mastodon using my own domain? Thanks to this python script, that’s easy! Sweet!

For more information on how this all works, see either the README in the GitHub link above, or this blog post by Maarten Balliauw.

Weekly Notes 2024.01

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 12:30:00 -0600

I decided to try something a little different this year. I’ve seen other bloggers (for example, Jamie Tanna) implement a weekly review of sorts on their blogs, and thought it might strike an interesting balance between daily, monthly, and yearly posting, all of which I’ve tried at one point or another. I’ve also attempted weekly posts in the past, but often with some specific topic in mind. These notes will be simple recaps of my week.

New Year’s Day 🎆

Nice relaxing holiday on Monday (New Year’s Day)
I decided that migrating away from Todoist is a nonstarter currently, and so cleaned up and closed my OmniFocus account.
While in cleaning mode, I also did some general upkeep on my Obsidian vault.
Tuesday marked my return to the office.
Most of Tuesday through Friday was consumed by preparing for our annual Winter Conference at work.
Saturday was spent working on my 10 Year Anniversary post, followed by some research into comment platforms while I watched some TV and movies (below).
Sunday (today) started with Divine Service in the morning, followed by implementing giscus on my website.
After I’m done writing this, I have a small project to do for work, then it will be time to prepare for the week ahead.

Read

2024: The Year of the Personal Website by Matthias Ott
Minimize Your Circus Factor by Mercedes Bernard
Defiant by Brandon Sanderson (finished)

Listened To

The Talk Show with John Gruber: 392: ‘Halos and Harps’, with Casey Liss
Late Night Linux: 262
Upgrade: 493: Upgradies Hall of Fame
Darknet Diaries: 141: The Pig Butcher
Connected: 483: Send John Your Face
The Rebound: 476: Vision Pro No Show
We’re Not Wrong about The Epstein List and Texas Power
Accidental Tech Podcast: 568: The Year of Romance
It’s a Thing: 298: Let’s All go To The Bullpen
Clockwise: 535: It’s Even Embarrassing in Metric
Getting Things Done: 240: David Allen talks with Justin Hale
Dot Social: The State of Federation, with Mastodon’s Eugen Rochko

Watched

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023), S1, E8-E9
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts (2022)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Adding giscus Comments

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0600

One day after the tenth anniversary of this blog, and I’m already making changes?!?

Yes, you read that right.

In both of the original incarnations of this website, via Squarespace and WordPress, I had a commenting system available and enabled, although I never received much feedback from it. If I’m honest, it was mostly spam, actually. And so, when I migrated to Hugo, I didn’t make finding a comment solution a high priority.

However, that’s not to say that I didn’t keep considering the options though. I glanced at some of the standard solutions (such as Discus & Commento), but as this site does not generate any income and only has a small number of monthly page views, I wasn’t ready to spend money just for comments.

Then, about a year ago, I got the idea to try out giscus, after reading Alan Pope’s blog post on the topic. Giscus looked interesting, but at the time I was unsure of exactly how involved I wanted to be in my blog, and so I simply filed the idea in in my Someday/Maybe list as a future possibility.

That all brings us to the past 24 hours, when, after writing my 10-year anniversary post, I began wondering what I could do to expand on my existing site. The idea of a way for readers to interact with me outside of Mastodon came to mind, and I once again began researching comment solutions. And, after reading many blog posts, Reddit threads, and examining features and pricing structures, I settled on giscus as a simple method for adding comments and reactions to my posts.

So what now? For my part, I’ll continue to post, and attempt to increase the frequency of my writing, as it’s good for me to push myself some creatively. And for you, dear reader: comments and reactions are now welcome!

10 Years of JustinVollmer.com

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 12:30:00 -0600

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of this website. It’s really, really hard to believe that I’ve been posting to and updating the site for a full decade already, and even crazier when I look back at how things have changed over the years, both in terms of the website, and in terms of me as a human as well.

Reflections on JustinVollmer.com

January 6, 2014, was supposed to be a work day for me. However, where I was living at the time was under a Level 3 snow emergency that day, and so instead of driving to the office, I stayed home. Back then, I was much less equipped to work remotely than I am now, and so I didn’t have anything pressing to work on, and decided to set up a website. I had heard of Squarespace, and after taking a quick look at its features, decided it was probably the easiest way to start out. And so, with that, JustinVollmer.com was born! 🎉 If you want to get an idea of my thought process at the time, check out my Welcome blog post, left up for posterity.

Now, granted, at the time it was fairly humble, and looked quite different than today. My intent at the time was to use my website as a combination blog, social media hub, and place to feature videos I was shooting for the church I attended at the time. Over the next few years I would tweak various pieces of the site, but I kept the same general theme, and always hosted some creative work, some blog posts, links to my social media, and even my resume for a while when I was changing jobs.

Over my holiday break in 2017, I decided to move away from Squarespace, and instead migrated my content to a WordPress site, hosted on Amazon Lightsail. I also took the opportunity to prune some of the content that I was no longer actively working on (specifically videos), and went with a more simple design. Unfortunately, I don’t have any screenshots from this period, but if you are familiar with any of the default WordPress themes from that time, it probably had a similar look and feel. I dabbled with blogging for the next few years, mostly posting about my tech decisions and thoughts, and also introduced my Year in Review posts, which I have continued to this day.

Nothing much else changed however until mid-Spring of 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when I decided to participate in the 100 Days to Offload challenge. I decided to focus my website even heavier on my blog during those 100 days, and actually managed to post something for 100 days straight, even though I would struggle to call some of the content a blog post in retrospect.

Unfortunately, the 100 days experience left me burned out to such an extent that I really didn’t touch my website until right before Thanksgiving, 2020, when I made the decision to both migrate my website from WordPress to Hugo, and also to switch my analytics platform. I spent a lot of time manually migrating all of my posts, ensuring that as many previous links worked as possible, and tweaking the config until I was happy with the end result.

And, really, my website hasn’t changed since the end of 2020. Of course, I’ve added a few pages here and there, and I’ve continued to post to my blog, somewhat sporadically. But I’ve left the overall design alone, and haven’t even replaced the theme. That’s not to say that I haven’t considered other options - I have. I just haven’t found a specific feature set that blends the easy support of Hugo with other features that are appealing enough to make me devote the time and energy required to migrate.

What will the future hold? I have no idea, honestly. I will continue to look at other options, I suspect, especially some of the CMS solutions that other bloggers use. Or perhaps I’ll look further into something like Eleventy (11ty), another static site generator, which has been on my radar for a while. I’m sure if and when I make a change, I’ll announce it with a post!

Reflections on Justin Vollmer

Ten years has also led to many changes for me, as a person. As I begin writing this section, I expect it will be less wordy than the writing about my blog, but we’ll see.

In 2014, I was working at my first full-time job after college. I was still living near where I grew up, and was not really sure what I wanted to do with my life. I enjoyed the engineering work I was doing, which was in my field, but I was also dabbling enough with video work for the church I was attending (a non-denominational church associated loosely with the Word of Faith movement) that I was considering what full-time ministry would look like.

That changed in 2015, when I accepted my current position at Precision Planting, and moved to Illinois. I also began attending a non-denominational church with a different theology, with a much more Reformed bent (though I didn’t understand that at the time). I began to volunteer at church in other ways, not necessarily as creative, and spent a majority of my time focused on my work, while also making time for friends and small group.

2020 was really a shock to me, although in retrospect it was very good in a lot of ways. Prior to the COVID-19 lockdowns, I was becoming extremely burned out, and was about to take a step back from volunteering. The pandemic caused me to have to stay home, and gave me time to begin re-evaluating how I was spending my time, and to just decompress a bit. I have told people in my life, in all honesty, the 2020 to 2022 timeframe was one of the best for me personally, as it gave me time to work on myself as a person, to create some habits that have held to this day, and to just put my head down and do work in the comfort of my home, which helped me to feel extremely productive.

Mid-2022 saw a number of shifts though, in fairly rapid succession. First off, in the Spring, some theological study and re-evaluation that had been brewing for the past 9-12 months came to a head, and I made the decision to leave the church I had been at since moving to Illinois, and attend a church that matched what I now believe. Second, in the Summer, my career path at work took a turn, leading to my work now that is much less heads-down coding, and more project management focused, which includes what would have previously seemed to me an extreme amount of communication, but which I am now settling into with some degree of comfort.

And now, it’s 2024! What will the future hold for me? I also, of course, don’t know that. Or, rather, the parts I do know, I am not comfortable putting into writing yet. I have a few habits that I am working to rebuild this year, mostly from a health (physical and mental) perspective. I also have a few tech-related ideas that have been nagging at the back of my mind for a while that I may act on, mostly centered around how I accomplish certain tasks.

Conclusion

Okay, yeah, this probably didn’t need a header. But I’m going to create one anyways!

Like I said at the start, in many ways, it’s hard for me to believe that it’s already been 10 years since I began this website, and even harder to fathom everything that’s changed since then. But also, I appreciate this opportunity to reflect, and to be thankful for the blessings I’ve been given, and the way I’ve grown, and the things I’ve learned, in that timespan.

Here’s to another ten years! 🥂

2023 Year in Review

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 13:50:00 -0600

Wow, this year has seemingly flown by! Somehow, it’s already December 31st, which means, it’s time for me to publish my year in review! I’ve decided once again this year to focus on major changes (or how things have stayed the same) in the last 12 months, instead of writing a sequential highlight reel.

Not a lot has changed in my personal life over the past 12 months, which is largely fine with me (I’m sure that will come as a shock to those who know me well… sarcasm). I am still attending the same LCMS church that I referenced in last year’s review, and continuing my study of theology, though at a slower rate than in 2022.

I’m also still working in the office 4-5 days a week, and therefore make much less use of my home workstation than I did in 2020-2022. And, as I alluded to last year, my workload has continued to shift from largely siloed work as a programmer, to more day to day interaction with engineers across our R&D department. This even led to me presenting to our dealer network on an impending new product offering by the beginning of December, a large change for someone who is an avowed introvert! I am very much enjoying my work though, and am happy to be continually challenged with a variety of projects and task that push me to grow my skillset.

2023 has seen me continuing to move to a more Mac-centric tech life. I still run Linux on a number of systems at work and at home (and in the cloud), but my daily driver is my MacBook Pro at this point, as MacOS on Apple Silicon has proven to be an extremely reliable platform when at my desk, in meetings, and on the go. I still tend to choose cross-platform tooling where I can, but am less afraid of choosing a Mac-only tool if it fits my needs.

In last year’s review, I mentioned that I had returned to using Evernote, and to the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. Unfortunately, both of those changed some in 2023. I stuck with GTD through mid-Spring, one of the longest stints I have ever been able to keep the practice up. Around that time, however, I began to fall off the wagon, which also coincided with my continued concern with changes that Evernote’s new owner, Bending Spoons, was making to the tool.

Over the summer I made the decision to migrate away from Evernote, to two separate tools: DEVONthink 3 for document management, and Obsidian for note taking. I am not sure if I will continue with them both long term, but so far they seem to be sticking (or have for the past 6 months, give or take). DEVONthink is where I drop all of the PDFs I may need to access later (largely scans of physical documents so that I don’t have to rely on a filing cabinet), and Obsidian handles my day to day note taking, meeting notes, etc. I also happen to be writing this blog post in Obsidian. 🙂 I am still keeping my eye on Bear, and I may give it another try in 2024, as it is still one of the most beautiful note taking apps I’ve ever found, and I find it very pleasing to use. However, Obsidian’s cross-platform and open nature (a simple folder of files, ultimately), combined with some improvements to the UI, have kept me using it on a daily/weekly basis so far though.

I have continued to use Todoist for most of 2023 as well, although I have looked at a few alternatives throughout the year. The most appealing option I have considered is OmniFocus, especially with their latest major update (OmniFocus 4). It is much more full-featured than Todoist, and has a few options, such as defer dates, that Todoist doesn’t really handle yet. However, Todoist has literally a decade of momentum already in my life, and so any migration to another tool is a large ordeal, and one I won’t make unless I’m positive it will provide some improvement. We’ll see what happens in 2024…

Unfortunately, my reading took a bit of a hit this year, although I still read more in 2023 than in many years in recent memory. I knew going into this year that I finished an abnormally high number of books in 2022, and that this year was likely to be slightly lower. I’m finishing out the year with an average of two books per month, or a total of 25 books completed. I ended up starting multiple series this year, and intend to continue reading a few of them, especially Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and Naomi Novik’s The Scholomance trilogy. And, continuing on from last year, I once again used Prologue for all of my audiobook listening, with Plex as the backend library provider.

Speaking of Plex, I have continued to use Plexamp for virtually all of my music listening this year. I have continued to build my personal library of music, both by acquiring CDs (largely via eBay), as well as purchasing digital files when that is the more expedient (or only available) option. I have become accustomed enough to this style that of music consumption that I have a hard time even considering using a streaming service anymore.

In very brief JustinVollmer.com news, I have continued to use Hugo as my website framework, with GoatCounter as the only analytics on the site. I have continued to keep my blogroll and /uses page up to date, and recently added a /now page, inspired by Robb Knight’s recent The Web is Fantastic post.

And that concludes my 2023 year in review! I’m continually thankful for all the blessings of the past year, and I look forward to finding out what is in store for 2024!

Happy New Year!

Update 1 (2024-04-20): I decided that keeping my /now page updated is not something I currently enjoy, and so as of today it has been removed.

My Default Apps at the End of 2023

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 14:20:40 -0600

I first saw this trend a little over a month ago from Kev Quirk, and soon after, most of my favorite bloggers had joined in. Robb Knight has even been compiling a list, and I really wanted to jump on the bandwagon. But, unfortunately, I was busy enough that I didn’t have the time to write up my own post. That is, until now…

And so, without further ado, here’s a list of my default apps at the end of 2023:

✉️ Mail Service: Zoho, Fastmail
📬 Mail Client: Apple Mail, Thunderbird
☑️ Tasks: Todoist
📓 Notes: Obsidian
📰 RSS Service: FreshRSS
🗞️ RSS Client: Fiery Feeds
⌨️ Launcher: Alfred
☁️ Cloud Storage: iCloud, Nextcloud
🖼️ Photo Library: iCloud
📷 Photo Editing: Pixelmator Pro
📹 Video Editing: Final Cut Pro
💻 Screenshots: CleanShot X
🌐 Web Browser: Safari, Firefox
💬 Chat: iMessage, Matrix, Telegram
📆 Calendar: Fantastical
🌧️ Weather: Mercury Weather, Radarscope
🎙️ Podcasts: Overcast
📚 Audiobooks: Prologue
🎵 Music: Plexamp
📜 Word Processing: Pages
📈 Spreadsheets: Numbers
📊 Presentations: Keynote
🔑 Password Management: Bitwarden
💁‍♂️ Social Media: Mastodon
🐘 Mastodon: Ivory
🧮 Code Editor: Sublime Text
👨‍💻 Git Client: Sublime Merge

Linux Kernel Security Demystified

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 18:30:00 -0500

Almost all bugs can be a “security” issue.

As both a Linux user and a software developer, I’ve followed the Linux Kernel development process and talks over the years. Recently, Greg Kroah-Hartman gave a talk on security at Kernel Recipes 2023 which I think is worth checking out. Most of the information is not new to me, but their approach to handling “security” bugs is somewhat novel in the industry, and I would argue is a good model to consider using across the board.

If you would prefer to browse the slides instead of (or in addition to) the video, check out Greg’s security-stuff slide deck.

Experimenting with Immich

Sun, 24 Sep 2023 16:00:27 -0500

Something that’s been on my tech to-do list for a number of years is to set up a self-hosted photo/video storage solution for myself that utilizes my home server, and can be easily backed up to an external storage solution if/as needed. My plans have been for this to initially not be a replacement for something like iCloud Photos, but rather a complimentary solution, archiving photos in case something ever happens to my iCloud Photo library. This weekend, I took the first step in implementing such a solution.

Background

First, I should probably back up a little bit. Why do I want something external to iCloud Photos? Don’t I trust Apple? Of course I do, at least to some extent, or I wouldn’t be using their ecosystem! However, I long ago learned that keeping all of my (tech) eggs in one basket is dangerous. There are reasons that can cause an account to be shut down, and numerous news stories over the past few years have chronicled issues with relying on any one tech company as the repository of all of your data.

“But then, Justin, why not move to a self-hosted solution entirely?” That thought has crossed my mind too, but there are two reasons why I don’t think that’s the right option for me at this time. A) I am a very happy user of the Apple ecosystem, and having experimented with keeping all media outside of their system, I don’t really like it. And B) see the paragraph above about all of my eggs in one basket. Something could happen to my server as well, and so parallel pathing seems like the best option currently.

Almost two years ago I set my parents up with a self-hosted backup solution, Synology Photos, and was planning to eventually implement the same for myself. It has worked relatively well for them, but there were a few pain points when outside of their network that I wasn’t fond of, and I also don’t yet have a Synology of my own to install it on. However, I do have a Linux-based home server with plenty of storage on it, and so I started looking through other options. There are a number of great web-based solutions, but not many that include a mobile app, which I strongly preferred. And then I remembered Immich…

Enter Immich

I first heard about Immich a few months ago on the Ask Noah Show. At the time, I glanced through the webpage, thought it looked interesting, but didn’t make plans to use it since I don’t have Docker installed on my home server. Or, well… I didn’t have Docker installed. After looking Immich over again, I decided that I would set up Docker and give it a try.

My home server is running Ubuntu 22.04, and so installing Docker was pretty straight forward. I also set up Docker Compose at the same time, and then followed Immich’s documentation to get a local install up and running. A few minutes later, I was ready to try it out.

For the time being, I set Immich up to only be accessible inside my network. Especially since I’m not planning to use it yet as my only photo solution, it didn’t seem necessary to set up external means of access. After install, I logged into the web interface, created the admin account, and glanced through the settings, before moving on to the real test… the mobile experience.

First Impressions

I installed the app on my phone, pointed it at my server’s IP address, and held my breath… would it be that easy? The answer was yes, with a caveat. I had to adjust the backup settings, which were trivial, to tell it which of my photo albums to back up. I selected “Recent”, which ends up backing up my entire iCloud Photo library to Immich. Perfect! Or… not. Apparently there are some issues with RW2 images currently, which are the raw files M4/3 camera outputs. Also, it takes a long time to upload 100s of gigabytes of photos (shocker, I know). But, slowly, data began showing up in the web interface, and the face detection included went to work identifying faces for me to label.

My first impressions are that the app could use some UI improvements, but overall it’s slightly easier to make sense of than Synology Photos. The web interface is even better… the overall design is very clean and simple to understand, with most of the complexity hidden behind the Administration panel. The only thing I’m really missing currently is a way to do light photo editing (mostly rotation) on the images.

Conclusion

As of the writing of this post, I don’t yet have all of my library backed up, but I do have a large enough sample set to get a feel for how Immich works. Overall, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s not flawless, but that’s the first thing you see when you go to Immich’s website…

The project is under very active development. Expect bugs and changes. Do not use it as the only way to store your photos and videos!

The face identification works well enough, and the experience is at least as good as, if not better than, Synology Photos in my mind, though definitely slightly more complicated to set up for the layperson. For the time being, I expect that I will continue to use it as my means of off-iCloud backup, and will make further decisions if/when when I upgrade my home server.

Mercury Weather

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 21:26:49 -0500

There is something special about using an app that the developer has clearly put a lot of time and effort into, and it shows in the small details, the little finishing touches that make the app a delight to use.

A few weeks ago I ran across a post on Mastodon by the developers of Mercury Weather showing off screenshots of their upcoming (now available) macOS version. I liked what I saw, and went and downloaded the iOS app to play with.

Mercury Weather is a pretty simple app on the surface. It shows the current weather conditions, an hourly forecast graph for the next 10 hours, and a daily forecast for the next 10 days. In general, it’s the same data that is available in many other apps, but with a very nice, distinctly iOS-like UI.

That same afternoon I went ahead and purchased the premium subscription, mostly just because I like to support developers whose work I appreciate, added a widget to my home screen, and didn’t think much more of the app…

… Until this evening, that is. I was listening to an episode of Mac Power Users yesterday while working around the house, where the hosts happened to be talking to one of the developers, Malin Sundberg, and I looked up the episode notes this evening to find a link to something they were discussing. While doing so, I remembered that the macOS app was out, downloaded it, and began playing around with it a little.

The first thing that slightly surprised me was that my iOS subscription not only includes the macOS app as well, but that there was nothing to do on my end to set the subscription up in the macOS app. It just worked. You’d be surprised how often there is some extra step to get such a thing to sync, though it tends to work seamlessly more often in the Apple ecosystem than any other I’ve encountered.

Second, the UI was just as beautiful on my Mac as on my iPhone. Again, I shouldn’t be surprised, given that the developers specialize in Apple platforms, but it was somewhat unexpected.

And then the real surprise came. I started looking at the “trip” feature, which I’d read about, but never tried personally. This feature, which is (I believe) part of the premium subscription, allows you to add an upcoming trip (with destination and dates) to the app, and it will auto-adjust the upcoming forecast to include the trip in it, so that your 10-day forecast matches where you’ll be, and syncs it with your other devices!

So, are any of these features groundbreaking? Maybe not. But the finesse and attention to detail that is obvious in the design of Mercury Weather makes it a delight to use, and going forward it is going to be one of my go-to apps, especially when I have upcoming trips!

Use a Custom Domain Name

Sun, 10 Sep 2023 19:38:50 -0500

From a blog post by Manuel Moreale:

Please, for the love of all things web-related, if you decide to do anything online, get yourself a domain name. Don’t rely on the 3rd party domain provided by services like Blogger, Substack, Tumblr, whatever. Yes, it’s an extra cost but owning your URLs is important. If Substack dies tomorrow, all your fancy-cool-name.substack.com URLs are gone. And all the links scattered across the web that were pointing to them are now broken.

I wholeheartedly agree with Manu’s thoughts on the matter - for anything you do online, especially something that you want to both last and be semi-easily found by you and others later, please use your own custom domain name!

This is something I put into practice years ago, and while I’m not the most prolific blogger, nor the best web designer, having a domain of my own on the web to point people to for both information about me (and ways to get in contact), as well as blog posts going back almost a decade, has been one of the better time investments I think I’ve made online.

As I quoted Monique Judge in a post at the beginning of this year:

We should all be in control of our own platforms. Owning your content and controlling your platform is essential, and having a personal blog is a great way to do that.

(So) buy that domain name. Carve your space out on the web. Tell your stories, build your community, and talk to your people. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t need to duplicate any space that already exists on the web — in fact, it shouldn’t. This is your creation. It’s your expression. It should reflect you.

Asus ZenBook 14: One Year Later

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 19:04:44 -0500

A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog post on a new laptop I had recently acquired to use for embedded development. At the time I was preparing to travel for work, and wanted a machine that would be able to handle my normal workload, even if it was a bit slower than my desktop(s). I’ve used it on and off since then, and decided to write up a quick follow-up post to detail some of my thoughts.

First off, if I were making the decision again, is this the machine I would buy? Yes and no. I would probably pick up a similar model from Asus, but I would definitely not go with 16GB of RAM. There was a 32GB option that in retrospect I should have gone with, but by the time I came to that realization I was already weeks into using this laptop.

Overall, the ZenBook 14 is a form factor that I really like, with a great screen size that works well for traveling, on a desk, and as a literal “laptop”, and I’ve quite enjoyed owning it. The trackpad is decent, though not as great as my MacBook (but that’s hard to beat). The keyboard is an entirely different story though. I really like the keyboard… it’s perhaps the most comfortable keyboard I’ve ever used on a laptop, and I love almost everything about it. My only real complaint with the overall design is the slightly cheap/plastic feeling of the overall laptop chassis. All of my other/recent laptops have been primarily metal bodies, and so having a laptop that flexes is a bit off-putting, though it’s not yet caused me an issue.

Now when it comes to the battery life, as someone who uses an M1 MacBook as a primary driver, I’m a little spoiled. However, I still recall what “normal” laptops were/are like, and the ZenBook holds it’s own relatively well. I’ve reliably gotten 4-5 hours per charge when doing light work, or around 3-4 with some heavier workloads (though normally I’m near a charger for those as well). It’s not amazing, but I can’t complain too much.

As far as the software goes, Arch Linux with the KDE desktop environment has been nearly flawless. I think I’ve had one or two noticeable glitches, mostly when shutting down the computer if at all, and the user experience as been fantastic (as expected). I’ve slowly installed a few of the tools I use on a daily basis to the install so that even when traveling, I don’t need two machines on at a given time to access important information, respond to emails, or update my task list(s). Normally the night before I know I’ll be using the ZenBook, I start it up, run updates to make sure I’m caught up, and then I’m good to go.

The primary place where this laptop has failed me has mostly been due to a lack of planning on my part. A few of the codebases I compile for work are relatively large C++ and/or Qt-based projects, and the 16GB of RAM really hampers the compile times. I can still compile the projects, but it’s more of a case of starting a build and taking a coffee break, whereas on my desktops or MacBook I normally just have time to respond to some Slack messages (ie, on the order of single-digit minutes, normally sub-5). On this laptop… I don’t recall the last build time, but it was nowhere nearly that fast. It has worked great for embedded projects and/or smaller codebases though, which are a majority of the things I build.

Oddly enough, I realized as I’m typing this up that I’ve ended up using the laptop more just for personal projects and fun than I’ve used it for work. Since last August, my workload has changed semi-drastically, and I do much less software authoring than I once did (largely by choice). I end up working a lot more in schematic-capture tools and in email, both of which I tend to do on my Mac or at one of my desktops. I also am in substantially more meetings than I was a year ago, which I normally take my MacBook to as well, due to its all-day battery life and ability to sleep/wake effectively instantaneously, as well as the ability to run whatever meeting software is needed at the time. Arguably I could get that all done on the ZenBook as well, but as I only want to carry one machine with me to and from work, I tend to grab my Mac.

And, that’s a wrap! At this point, I have no immediate plans to upgrade the ZenBook to something with better specs. It has more or less worked for all of the reasons I initially chose it, and I expect I’ll keep it (and keep using it) for the next year or two at a least.

An Update to My Reading List

Sun, 27 Aug 2023 16:01:47 -0500

This afternoon I updated the format of my reading list. For those who haven’t looked at it before, I’ve kept a public list of the books that I’ve completed reading since around 2016. Originally, I modeled it heavily on a similar concept from essayist Jamie Todd Rubin, and included notations for the format I the book was in (e-book, physical book, or audiobook), if it was a reread, and whether I recommended the book or not.

However, over the last year or so I’ve become increasingly annoyed at the layout I was using. It wasn’t that it worked poorly, but I didn’t necessarily enjoy determining whether or not I would “recommend” the book (since I would rarely recommend any book I’ve ready to everyone at large… I tend to recommend specific books to specific people). Additionally, I didn’t really like showing audiobook length by page count, and sometimes a book was technically a reread, but it was the first time it was making it on the official list.

And so, yesterday I started tweaking the list. I first looked at what Jamie was currently doing, and I noticed that he also had removed some of the extra formatting. (He’s actually using Obsidian Publish now to create his list, which I really like, but feels like overkill for what I’m doing currently). So, I borrowed a few ideas from his current list, added a little of my own spin, and as of this afternoon my updated reading list has been published!

I now show every book in roughly the same format, with a running count assigned based on books read since mid-2016 (when I started keeping track), a bold title, the authors name, and the length of the book in the format I read it in. That means that an audiobook now shows listened-to length, not page count.

I’m still not 100% happy with the layout, but it’s closer to what I want (I think). I’ll run with it for a while, and see how it works. At some point perhaps I’ll add back in some form of recommendation, if I can come up with a more nuanced way to show it.

Bring Back Personal Blogging

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 12:30:00 -0600

From Monique Judge, writing for The Verge:

In the beginning, there were blogs, and they were the original social web. We built community. We found our people. We wrote personally. We wrote frequently. We self-policed, and we linked to each other so that newbies could discover new and good blogs.

The best blogs gave us a glimpse into the life of someone we “knew” online. Good storytelling, coupled with a lively discussion afterward, kept us coming back for more day after day.

I want to go back there.

We should all be in control of our own platforms. Owning your content and controlling your platform is essential, and having a personal blog is a great way to do that.

(So) buy that domain name. Carve your space out on the web. Tell your stories, build your community, and talk to your people. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t need to duplicate any space that already exists on the web — in fact, it shouldn’t. This is your creation. It’s your expression. It should reflect you.

Bring back personal blogging in 2023. We, as a web community, will be all that much better for it.

One of the best side-effects I’ve observed from the chaos surrounding various social media platforms in recent years is the return to personal blogging. Or, perhaps, it’s simply that I have been outside of mainstream social media’s orbit long enough to begin finding the excellent blogging community that has (in reality) been here all along. Regardless, I will continue to carve out my space on the web, and I encourage others to do so as well!

2022 Year in Review

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 14:52:08 -0600

It’s December 31st again! Every year, it seems like things move faster and faster. I could have sworn that it was just summer, but Christmas has already come and gone, and we’re almost to a new year! And that means, following a tradition I started in 2017, it’s time for my yearly review!

A brief note before I begin: instead of walking through the highlights of my year in sequence (as if on a timeline), I’ve decided this year to talk about some major changes I’ve made/implemented over the past year.

And, for those keeping track: yes, I did (intentionally) skip my 2021 year in review post, for a handful of reasons. Primarily, I took a year off because I was slightly burnt out, and didn’t really feel like writing a post. Additionally, I was in the middle of some research on online privacy, and so posting anything personal online was not high on my priority list. On top of all of that, I was doing a lot of self-evaluation on a number of topics, and was not prepared yet to mention any of them outside of my immediate family.

Now that 2021 is out of the way, what did 2022 look like for me?

Probably the largest change in my personal life in 2022 is that I left the church I had been attending for the past 6+ years of my life, and returned to the Lutheran church (Missouri synod). I had begun questioning certain teachings and hermeneutical approaches that were present in my (now) former church home, and my study of the Bible and theology (which eagle-eyed observers may have gotten wind of due to the books I was adding to my reading list) led me to realize that I did not agree with that church. By mid-March of this year I had decided that the disagreements were too great for me to continue attending, serving, and leading in that church, and so (with some sadness on my part) I left. Thankfully, I was able to find a church in the area that aligns theologically with my understanding of scripture, and that’s how I ended up in a Lutheran church by Easter.

The second largest change in my life has probably been an almost-complete return to in-office work. This shift was not forced on me by my employer, but rather occurred as a side-effect of some changes in my workload: I found it easier to coordinate with other engineers by being present in the office four days a week, and reserving Friday’s for working remotely.

A third, and fairly recent, change in my life is a return to both Evernote and the Getting Things Done methodology. I’ve known about GTD for years, and have previously implemented some of its techniques in both my personal and professional life. However, some of the changes in my professional workload made me realize that my pieced-together system was falling apart, and so I took the time a month ago to fully implement GTD, using Todoist for my list manager, and Evernote as my project support/reference tool. The thing that finally made GTD click for me was forcing myself to do a weekly review, which I’d always avoided before. That one to two hour block on Friday afternoons does wonders in keeping everything up to date!

In less life-changing news, I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing a number of people whose work I follow, mostly in the tech and journalism sectors, migrate from Twitter to Mastodon. While I’m not cheering for Twitter to fail, I greatly appreciate the influx of new users with a variety of interests and unique thoughts and opinions on topics I care about.

This year has also seen me read or listen to more books, by a sizable number, than in years past. Early in the year I began experimenting with different audiobook apps (due to my annoyance with some first-party apps and stores), and I finally settled on Prologue, a very impressive iOS app for Plex audiobook libraries. It worked well enough in testing that I migrated my 150+-book audiobook collection to my Plex server, and have been happily using it ever since. The new app also got me back into listening to audiobooks more often, which helped with the higher book-completion count this year.

And that wraps up my year in review! I’m thankful for the year past, and look forward to seeing what is in store for me in 2023!

Happy New Year!

My Search for the Perfect Note-Taking Solution

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 20:30:00 -0500

Warning: I have no conclusions in this blog post. These are just my somewhat-rambling thoughts on a topic that I spend way too much time thinking about.

Introduction

I have a love/hate relationship with note-taking apps. I’ve been trying out different solutions for over a decade at this point, but have yet to ever feel perfectly at home with any system I’ve tried, which leaves me constantly looking for improvements instead of just settling in and using my system.

I feel like I don’t have particularly complex requirements, at least conceptually. However, unless I’ve completely missed a solution somewhere (in which case, PLEASE let me know!), no single solution is capable of everything I want.

My (Ideal) Requirements

Cross-platform support (can be native apps or Electron, I don’t care, as long as they are responsive), for desktop and mobile
Website access, for cases where I don’t want to sync my entire notes database to the machine
Reasonable backup options, preferably in a format that is readable by other tools if needed (such as Markdown)
Good export/share options (at least Markdown and PDF)
Inline image support
File attachment support, preferably with inline previews
OCR of images/files (for search ability)
Markdown support
Code block support with syntax highlighting
Offline access
Web clipper option
End to end encrypted

Options I’ve Tried

Evernote

There is really only one app that comes close to meeting most of those requirements: Evernote. But, it’s an app that I don’t enjoy using, has a whole host of privacy concerns, and as of late has some reliability issues. And I’ve used it off and on for nearly a decade (being somewhat pragmatic), but I really want a better solution. I’ve spent the last few weeks doing in depth testing, and still haven’t found anything that checks all of the boxes.

Bear

Bear is by far my favorite note taking app in recent years. In fact, I’m using it to author this blog post, because it supports Markdown natively, and is legitimately an overall great experience. It’s free to use on a single device, or it can sync seamlessly across Apple devices using iCloud (with a Pro subscription, but that’s $15/year, which is totally worth it for good software).

But therein lies the problem: I don’t use only Apple devices. I’ve very seriously considered sacrificing using notes on every other platform because I enjoy using Bear so much, especially since the creators are working on a web version, along with improved search/OCR. With those two features, it would be almost a no-brainer for my purposes, lacking only in E2E encryption.

Joplin

Joplin is a pretty close competitor to Bear in my rankings, and actually has some features already that Bear does not. However, it has two fatal flaws for me presently: no web app (and no plans to add one), and I don’t like it. I find the app clunky to use. I strongly prefer Markdown editors that include a live preview mode, which Bear and other apps have. Split-pane editing annoys me.

Obsidian

Obsidian is also a semi-close competitor to Bear and Joplin, and has some things I like over Joplin, namely the editor options. It also has a better mobile client than Joplin, but falls flat when it comes to how enjoyable it is to use, and it also lacks a web client. Obsidian is really, really popular right now in the linked-notes community, and I understand most of the reasons, but to me it feels too much like an IDE. I don’t want to keep notes inside of a developer tool.

Standard Notes

Standard Notes is actually the only option on this list that has both E2E encryption and a web app. Perfect, right?

Unfortunately, no. I highly dislike the app itself, it’s glitchy, lacks inline image support, exports Markdown files that are weirdly formatted, and in general feels like a tool that isn’t quite ready for production yet. Of all of the solutions I’ve looked at, outside of Bear, I think Standard Notes is most likely reach a stage where it would be a good option for me.

Notion

I tried to love Notion. Really I did. Notion is very popular in the productivity community, but I just don’t get the database concepts its built upon. I end up spending all of my time trying to figure out how to store and arrange my data. Additionally, it lacks offline support, end to end encryption, and has very weird image/attachment support. It does actually have good Markdown support, as well as good export and backup options, but I can’t get past my issues with it.

NextCloud Notes

NextCloud has support for Markdown notes, and on the desktop I could use QOwnNotes for a client. If I could get a good mobile app, this might be reasonable, but I very much dislike the entire user experience presently (outside of the cross-device syncing - that’s stellar). I spent very little time investigating this option.

TiddlyWiki

I actually thought for a few moments that TiddlyWiki might do what I needed. I could sync my notes in a single file, work online or offline, and be reasonably sure my notes would be accessible for years to come. And in my time testing TiddlyWiki, I very quickly began to enjoy the design ideas the creator has. Unfortunately, inline images and attachments are virtually impossible in the single-file approach, so I somewhat quickly gave up on it as well.

Craft

Craft is gorgeous. And I hate it. The UI is just not something I enjoy using - not when dealing with 100s of notes. I quit testing Craft within an hour.

Notesnook

Notesnook looked interesting, but again, I couldn’t work with the UI. Note filing was unintuitive to me, and I very quickly gave up. Since it’s fairly young, it is on my list to check back in on though.

Nota

Nota is the last option I ran across in my recent testing. It shows a lot of promise, as it borrows the Obsidian “just a collection of files” concept, but has a better UI, and is much more pleasing to use. However, it’s still in beta, has some weird behavior when adding attachments, and is Mac only, with no great mobile app recommendations. Because it can sync to any cloud storage, Nota would actually have a web view available (either through iCloud or NextCloud for me, I think).

Others

And there are a whole host of other apps that I have looked at, but never actually tried: OneNote (I don’t want a Microsoft app, sorry, and I hate their UI too), Google Keep (doesn’t work for the number of notes I want, don’t like the UI), Apple Notes (pretty good, but again, not great for the number of notes I want), etc.

(Lack of) Conclusion

And so right now, I’m writing this blog post in Bear. Earlier this week, I just finished exporting my notes for the umpteenth time from Evernote and importing them into Bear, but did not delete anything, because I’m afraid I’ll be back.

Is there a solution you know of that meets all of my requirements? If so, please let me know! I can be reached most easily on Mastodon.

A New Linux Laptop...

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 19:07:11 -0500

I told myself this day would never come. There was no reason for me to own a Linux laptop. My M1 MacBook Pro was the perfect mobile computing option: fast, nearly-infinite battery life, and extremely capable. Linux laptops always need babied, and never seem to work when you need them to. My MacBook was always functional whenever I needed it…

…And I’m writing this post from a laptop running Linux that I’ve now owned for a little over 24 hours. Why?

First of all, this wasn’t an impulse buy. I didn’t want to own another laptop, but it was the simplest option I could come up with. I realized that, as much as I absolutely adore my MacBook in many ways, there is one substantial area it falls flat in: embedded software development, which is kind of what I do for a living. A majority of my day for work is spent on a Linux desktop (either my personal machine when working remotely, or a machine my company supplied when in the office). Whether I am simply writing code, or debugging hardware or software (using tools like Wireshark, CAN analyzers, or logic analyzers), Linux has proven to be both the most reliable OS in the last 7+ years for me, and also the simplest most of the time to get working. Additionally, because some of the non-embedded software that I develop or use for work tends to require the latest compilers, being on a bleeding edge distro (in my case Arch Linux) is by far the easiest way to avoid frequent manual tool installation. And, simultaneously, Linux is able to support the very old embedded compilers required for a few of the projects I work on.

Secondly, now that I’m messing around with Linux on a laptop again, I’m finding that I am enjoying it. It’s not nearly as polished as macOS, of course. But Arch Linux + KDE is so far working much better than I expected, and the whole user experience has been very good so far. It took me about an hour to go from pulling the laptop out of the box to having a fully functional desktop environment up and running, and most of my tools installed. Since then, virtually everything has worked the way I expected. (For reference, I normally run XFCE, but in the past it has not been as pleasant on a laptop, hence my choice to try out KDE). And to top it all off, I’m actually doing this under Wayland instead of X11, which is something I thought would never happen.

So why couldn’t I make this all work on my Mac?

Some of the compilers I need to use are not M1 native. They work under Rosetta2, but feel (and are) incredibly slow. And because I’m stuck on an older version of the toolchain, there is no chance that this will improve in the near future.
CAN analysis, at least using the adapters we use at work, is not currently functional on the Mac. I could attempt to do some sort of passthru, but SocketCAN on Linux just works. It’s tools that I already know, and the barrier to entry is low.
I find network debugging on my Mac to be highly annoying (and I work with ethernet stacks as part of my job). Wireshark is available on a Mac, sure, but there have been times when I have been unable to get something that I know works fine on Linux (with virtually no effort) functional on a Mac. That may be because of a lack of knowledge on my part, but I’d rather be solving problems and developing new products, not troubleshooting/learning new things about my system.

And why did I buy myself a new laptop, vs requesting one through work? Mostly because, by acquiring it myself, I have more freedom to tweak the operating system and test things (for instance, gaming performance) that I would not feel comfortable doing with a company owned asset.

So what did I buy? I chose to pick up an Asus ZenBook 14, with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU with built-in Radeon Vega 7 Graphics, and 16G of RAM. I strongly considered upgrading the RAM, but most options with 32G of RAM cost distinctly more than I was interested in spending, and I don’t want this machine to function as a desktop replacement. Rather, I primarily want to use it when I’m working remotely (and not at home), and as an additional system that will probably normally sit on my benchtop at home, running various analyzers.

For additional details on this laptop and other hardware & software I use, see my Uses page.

Thoughts on Hugo after 21 Months

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 11:09:54 -0500

A little over 21 months ago, I finally scratched the itch that I’d had off and on for years to migrate my website to a static site generator (SSG). I wrote about migrating from Wordpress to Hugo when I made the change, and overall, I’ve been pretty happy with the results. My website and blog feel more responsive than they have in years, everything has been very reliable, and I know that all of my content is safely stored in a version control system I trust (Git), and in a format that is relatively portable (Markdown).

However, I have noticed a few small side-effects to using an SSG over something like WordPress:

I don’t write posts nearly as often. I’ve never been one to post a lot on my website, but the small extra hurdle of writing in Markdown and pushing changes, triggering the rebuild, has caused me to resort to primarily updating my reading list and uses pages. Additionally, I basically only write posts when on my primary computer now (as opposed to whenever I have a web browser and an idea), as I prefer to work on posts locally before pushing them to my live site.
I don’t spend much time looking at, or improving, the design of my site. I used to, once a year or so, change up the theme I was using (when on SquareSpace/Wordpress), and in between I was often testing others in the background. Now I virtually never even get to the testing phase. That’s good in some respects, because it means I’m in general happy with the look of my site, but simultaneously it makes me a little sad that I don’t enjoy changing up themes in Hugo, and maybe finding something I like even better.

I haven’t reached the point where the side-effects are bothering me enough to cause me to begin evaluating other options, but I do see that day coming somewhere down the road. Ideally, I would like to find a platform that maintains what I like about Hugo (Markdown content, backed up to/stored in a Git repo, and very responsive), while also providing a web front end for management/content creation. I’ve looked into Grav a few times, among other options, but have yet to actually spin up an instance for testing.

If you’re reading this and have a recommendation I should consider, feel free to reach out to me on Mastodon!

The Apple Store Time Machine

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 16:00:56 -0500

Michael Steeber:

The Apple Store Time Machine is a celebration of the places and products that have shaped our lives for more than twenty years. This interactive experience recreates memorable moments in Apple history with painstaking detail and historical accuracy.

I spent some time exploring the Time Machine Michael created this afternoon, and the level of detail is absolutely astonishing. I highly recommend downloading this and reliving some of Apple’s history.

🔗

Tag Update

Sat, 30 Apr 2022 13:49:44 -0500

For a while now I’ve been considering splitting posts on my site into different categories, primarily to allow myself more freedom in the type of content I author, while also allowing readers to filter out only the posts they are interested in seeing. To that end, moving forward, I will be attaching one or more tags to each of my posts.

If you are interested in only following a specific type of content, you can navigate to the tags page (also now located in the site menu), where you will find posts separated by the tags I’ve assigned. For those who use RSS, you can navigate to the tag you are interested in, and then add /index.xml to the end of the URL to get the feed for only that tag.

Enjoy!

Preserve and Play the Original Wordle for Decades with WordleForever

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 19:32:02 -0600

Federico Vittici, writing for MacStories:

With WordleForever, you can put the original Wordle on your iPhone or iPad Home Screen and play the original game (with the same words as everyone else) for years to come.

WordleForever is made possible by the fact that the original Wordle consists of an HTML page and a JavaScript file containing thousands of words the game will use in the future. That’s all there is to it.

Like many others, I became hooked on Wordle. While this shortcut doesn’t presently work in iOS 15.3, you can bet I will be trying it out once iOS 15.4 drops.

🔗

Brief Thoughts on the First Article of the Apostles' Creed

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 05:20:33 -0500

Author’s note: This post is a deviation from my standard posts which have historically been mostly technology-related. I have been a Christian for effectively my entire life, though I rarely talk about it in depth on my website. However, I like to use my website as a way to link others to my thoughts on various topics, and this post felt like one I both needed to write, and that I may want to share.

Over the past few days I’ve been reading, and digesting, the book A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther, as translated by Matthew C. Harrison. It’s a short and fairly simple book to read, at only 32 pages in length, but has caused me to pause and think a number of times. This morning I read through a portion on praying through the Apostles’ Creed, and the following thoughts on the First Article caught my attention.

First off, here is the First Article:

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”

And now, Martin Luther’s commentary:

You are God’s creation, workmanship, creature, and work. In and by yourself, you are nothing. You know nothing and you cannot do anything. What were you 1000 years ago? Where were you 1000 years ago? … What you are, what you know, and what you are capable of, that is God’s creation. … And so before God you have absolutely nothing to boast about. For you were nothing at all. He is your Creator and in the blink of an eye can render you nothing again.

Wow. I mean, as a confessing Christian I would say that I fully agree with Luther’s commentary, and have known that probably my entire life. But is that how I act when I come before my Lord? Do I give thanks to Him as His creation? Or do I view Him as just a being who is perhaps greater than I, but ultimately on the same playing field? Do I come before Him in reverence, as creation to Creator? Do I worship Him as Lord of all?

Far too often I fear that I forget both my place in creation, and my position in regards to God. It is true that I am an adopted child of God, but I am also His creation, and not only pale in comparison to Him, but am nothing. It is only by His grace and mercy that I exist.

May '21 in Review

Mon, 31 May 2021 12:00:00 -0600

Happy Memorial Day!

Wow, the month of May (and 2021 in general) has flown by! It’s really hard to believe that tomorrow is already the first day of June.

First of all, website updates! I’ve not taken time to do any major work on my website as of late, but over the past few months I’ve made the following small enhancements and/or changes:

Updated my Blogroll with a few new blogs I follow
Added a podcasts section to my Blogroll
Pulled the Hugo theme I use forward (mostly minor visual enhancements)

My reading time has also been somewhat limited, but in May I also managed to complete the book The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Waltar Isaacson, which turned out to be a fascinating look on RNA, CRISPR, and the use of mRNA technologies in SARS-CoV-2 testing and vaccines.

And to wrap up the month, I took a little vacation time to relax, visited family, and helped my sister start and/or wrap up a bunch of tech projects, including:

Migrating her personal website from Blogger to Wordpress
Setting up a secondary Wordpress site for a business she and a friend are starting
Setting up secured email for said business, with Tutanota (selected due to competitive price and feature set, plus my positive experience with them for the past 2 years)

And, that will wrap up this month’s recap. Next up: June!

iOS 14.5 with App Tracking Transparency + Apple Watch Unlock

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 20:18:59 -0500

iOS 14.5 was released yesterday (2021/04/26), bringing a whole host of changes that have been heavily covered on all of the major tech news outlets. Two of the changes, App Tracking Transparency and Apple Watch unlock for iPhone, caught my eye.

I’ve read the details on App Tracking Transparency, and I like what Apple is doing, though I’ve not actually experienced any of the changes myself yet. The TL;DR version is that companies are now blocked from tracking you across other apps by default, and you have to explicitly give them permission to do so, whereas before it was enabled by default, and you had to manually disable tracking. I don’t use many apps that this would apply to personally (from what I’ve seen at least), but I think this is a win for privacy-conscious individuals everywhere. For more details of the changes, see Why Apple’s new privacy feature is such a big deal by The Verge.

The feature that I have actively been using for the last 24 hours is the unlocking of your iPhone with Apple Watch while wearing a face mask. Basically, if you have an unlocked Apple Watch on your arm and near your iPhone when you attempt to unlock via Face ID, your iPhone will… unlock! No more having to remove your mask briefly, or use your passcode! While using my passcode has not been a huge deal for me, it can be an annoyance when trying to check my shopping list, reply to a message quickly, etc.. And, as with most things Apple, the new unlocking process is simple and flawless so far, and while it reduces security slightly.

A few notes: Apple Watch unlock is not enabled by default, so the user has to manually enable it in settings. Also, when this unlock method is used, a button comes up instantly on your Apple Watch, allowing to you re-lock your iPhone, and then requiring your full PIN/password to unlock.

While this option does reduce the security of your iPhone slightly, the convenience is worth it in my opinion, and Apple has taken some concerns into account when designing the feature.

For more technical details on Apple Watch unlock, see the Apple’s support page on the topic: Unlock your iPhone with Apple Watch when you’re wearing a face mask.

My Typical Day

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 15:00:00 -0600

I first got the idea for this blog post from Kev Quirk, and have since sought out other examples online to satiate my own curiosity on how people spend their days. While the following shift some, this is my mental plan for each weekday, and (with some minor exceptions) is also how I design my weekends as well. As you can see, I’m definitely a creature of habit, and like my daily routines.

04:00 - My alarm goes off (though I’m occasionally awake beforehand), and my daily coffee prep begins. I make 3 mugs worth of Storyville Coffee’s Prologue blend daily in a large French press: one mug to drink now, and the other two (in travel mugs) for later in the morning.

04:30 - With a mug of coffee in hand, I sit down for my daily devotionals, and to spend time reading whatever book I’m currently in middle of. I view this as (part of) my spiritual and mental “exercise” for the day.

05:30 - Time for some physical exercise! I have a simple basement gym (which I pictured in my 2019 Year in Review), so I can design different workouts daily based on how I’m feeling. My goal is normally at least 30 minutes a day, plus time for stretching.

06:30 - If I’m not intermittent fasting, I cook a quick breakfast (normally eggs of some form). Then it’s time for a shower, which wraps up my morning routine.

07:30 - 11:30 - The workday begins. For the past year this means heading to my basement, where I’ve set up a work-from-home workstation. In pre-COVID times, I’d be heading to the office. I rarely have many meetings, so from the time I begin work until lunch I can focus on projects, with occasional interruptions for Slack conversations with coworkers.

11:30 - 12:30 - Lunch time! I’m a creature of habit, and always have some form of a salad with varying types of protein. When in the office I would often eat at my desk, but at home I manage to take a short break and either listen to a podcast or read while preparing and eating my meal.

12:30 - 17:30 - I make a quick cup of tea, then it’s back to work. I again normally have the full block of time to focus on work, with a few Slack conversations interspersed.

17:30 - Dinner prep begins. For the past year I’ve been ordering meals from Trifecta Nutrition, so this time normally consists of heating up a meal, along with a short call to chat with family. Then I wash dishes, and set the kitchen in order for the next morning.

18:30 - The time after dinner is somewhat flexible, depending on what part of the year I’m in. During crunch time at work I will often put in another hour or two on the computer, then read a book for a while before bed. When I have time to relax, this time may be spent watching a movie or TV show, playing a video game, reading a book, or pursuing one of my other hobbies.

21:00 - I begin to prepare for bed. My goal is to get 6+ hours of sleep a night, and so this gives me time to read a book or listen to music before I finally go to sleep.

And, that’s my day! As noted above, I will sometimes shift things up slightly on the weekends, especially if I’m volunteering. I also occasionally have a commitment in the evening, though that really only affects my evening routines, and I still aim for a 22:00 bedtime.

Is it a bit boring? Perhaps. I can definitely imagine that some would view it that way. However, I have found that I function my best when I keep a semi-rigid routine, and that keeping these aspects of my life on the same plan day in and day out allows me to put some parts of my life on autopilot, and direct my focus and attention elsewhere.

Author’s Note: I do not receive any financial benefits from the links in this article. They are provided solely to improve the reader’s understanding of topics and/or products referenced in the article.

Experimenting with Fitness Tracking

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 18:00:00 -0600

Over the last few years, the general population has become increasingly more interested in fitness tracking, health metrics, and other associated smart wearables. Whereas heart rate monitors were once the realm only of fitness enthusiasts and professional athletes, it is now common to see the average individual tracking their heart rate, blood oxygen, and daily steps.

My Early Experience with Fitness Metrics

I first started counting my steps back when it was added to the iPhone 5s, around 2013, mostly as a curiosity. I didn’t pay attention on a day to day basis, but would occasionally look to see how many steps it estimated I had taken on particularly busy days. I continued to track steps through my switch to Android in 2015 (mostly in the background), and I would occasionally check my heart rate and blood pressure using a wrist cuff at home, but never really paid much attention to the results. I also picked up a smartwatch (Android Wear) in the 2017-2018 timeframe, but again, I never really paid attention to the information it could collect other than to note it when I was bored and looking at health information on my phone.

That would probably be the end of the story, had I not taken up cycling in the summer of 2018. Cyclists frequently track their heart rate, VO2 Max, and cadence (in RPMs), and so I began to track the same metrics using a Garmin bike computer and chest strap. However, I still rarely used the information beyond the initial logging step, and to compare to friends who I was cycling with. I did do some studying to understand what I was looking at, but it really didn’t change how I rode.

Enter the Apple Watch

In September of 2019, I once again switched phone OSes, and returned to Apple’s ecosystem with the iPhone 11 Pro Max (see this blog post for more information). At the same time I picked up the latest Apple Watch, partially out of curiosity (to see how it performed compared to the WearOS/Android watches I had used before), and partially because I like the ability to check messages, notifications, time and date, and other bits of info without pulling out my phone. I was moderately blown away by how well the Apple Watch performed when compared (it was nearly flawless), and as I continued to experiment with what the watch could do, I began to pay more attention to the health and fitness metrics it could collect in conjunction with Apple Health. While the heart rate monitor was perhaps not quite as accurate as a chest strap or the medical devices found in doctor’s offices, it was pretty good, and much more convenient (I mean, have you ever worn a chest strap?). I began to notice when I was nervous that my heart rate would spike (obvious, but I had never paid attention before), and I could easily keep an eye on how hard I was pushing myself during the occasional workout. However, I never really got into the gamification that Apple has built in (comparing yourself to your friends, and trying to “close all your rings”).

And then came 2020, and SARS-CoV-2. As is my usual, I occasionally did my own research (beyond what was found in the media) on early symptoms, along with related complications, and came to the conclusion that monitoring my average heart rate was perhaps slightly more important now than it once was. I also wanted to keep an eye on my blood oxygen, and so in the Fall I upgraded from my Apple Watch Series 5 to a Series 6. I still didn’t really watch the metrics on a day to day basis, but I did begin to look at my weekly averages in Apple Health, just to get a baseline for what is normal for my body with the amount of exercise I normally get.

Around the same time that I picked up the Series 6, I began to try out the Apple Fitness sharing options with a few friends. I didn’t compete very much, but it did push me to do more exercise than I normally would. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. There’s a reason that many companies have tried to gamify things, from fitness to productivity, and everything in between.

And that takes me to this year: 2021! I set out at the beginning of the year to try to get in 30 minutes of exercise daily. Using my Apple Watch to track the workouts is a good way to push myself to not shorten the workout arbitrarily because I got tired or bored, and the friendly competition with friends helps too. I am paying closer attention to metrics during my workout too, and increasing or decreasing the intensity of the workout based on what I’m seeing. And I haven’t stopped there.

Along Came Whoop

Earlier this week I ordered a wrist strap from Whoop, which arrived Thursday. Why Whoop? The Apple Watch tracks many metrics, but it doesn’t necessarily give me feedback on if I should increase or decrease the intensity, or what state my body is really in. Whoop, on the other hand, is more aimed at athletes, and so it is designed to estimate your daily strain, recovery, and sleep (based on heart rate). I’ve heard many athletes rave about how much they like their Whoop straps, and so I decided to give it a try. I’m nowhere near begin even an amateur athlete, but I was curious to see what information it could provide, and if I could use it to improve my workouts and my health in general.

And so, for at least the next month, I’m wearing two wristbands: my Apple Watch, and my Whoop strap, one on either arm. I plan to report back on my experience, and potentially compare the information, to see what I think. So far I’m very impressed with the data it provides, though it’s still early enough in my trial that I can’t utilize all of the information yet (it needs time to learn my normal routines).

But What About Privacy?

I’m sure this question will have arisen in some readers’ minds (it would have mine): what about privacy? Isn’t that a lot of data to give to share with a company? In a word, yes, it is. However, I have not found a good alternative that still allows me to collect the information I currently want, without adding a lot of extra work on my end. Also, Apple’s privacy statement at least claims that they back up the data in such a way that even they cannot read it. Whoop’s privacy principles are a bit more concerning, and I still haven’t decided for sure if I’m comfortable with them (hence why I’m currently only on a one month trial, and have not invested heavily in the system yet).

Also, while my Apple Watch has access to location data, that is not data that I haven’t already decided to share with Apple (I do use their phone + their Maps app). Whoop, on the other hand, can only track location data if I intentionally open their app and share it while recording an activity, which is optional. From my understanding there is nothing to be gained by doing that, and the strap itself cannot track location.

But What About FOSS?

I am, in general, a Free and Open Source Software advocate. So why not use a FOSS solution? First of all I’ve yet to even find a good FOSS solution for fitness metric tracking, especially if I don’t want to either build it myself, or do a lot of set up and maintenance. In an ideal world I would rather host my own server to collect and store my data on, but at this time that doesn’t seem like a realistic option. On top of that, I do kind of like the sharing and competition abilities with friends, and it is highly unlikely that I could convince them to move to a homebrew or self-hosted solution that they would have to do some amount of upkeep on.

Is Fitness Tracking Worth It?

Is tracking a bunch of health and fitness metrics ultimately worthwhile? I don’t have a good answer for that. For me personally, currently, yes. Tracking metrics provides me with some peace of mind (I know if things are out of the ordinary), and it encourages me to pursue fitness more, where my normal inclinations are to be sedentary. Will my mind change in the future? If the past is any indicator, probably. But for now, I’ll keep going with this experiment, and see what I can learn from both the Apple Watch and the Whoop strap. If it helps me to continue to improve my life, then I think it has been worthwhile.

2021 New Year's Resolutions

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 15:30:00 -0600

January 1st. The first day of the new year. Normally a cool, snowy (or icy) day where I live. And also, the day when people traditionally plan out or begin to implement their New Year’s resolutions.

My Thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions

I have an interesting relationship with New Year’s resolutions. I vaguely recall that, during my childhood, I somewhat embraced the idea of setting goals for myself: things that I would quit doing, start doing, improve, etc over the course of the next year. However, try as I might, rarely did a resolution stick. I would perhaps start out strong, but slowly, over the next few weeks and months, I would eventually give up, and settle back into my normal routine.

As I moved into my teens and early twenties, my outlook on resolutions changed. I began to view New Year’s resolutions a cultural norm that, while good-intentioned, ultimately failed to achieve anything worthwhile. I saw too many people excitedly planning out New Year’s resolutions, only to fail time and time again. My axiom became “Why make resolutions at a specific time every year? If you want to make a change, just do it. It doesn’t matter what the day is.” And in general, that worked well for me for many years.

But, as I continue to grow older, my opinions continue to grow along with me. While I still whole-heartedly believe that an individual shouldn’t only attempt to make life-changing improvements on January 1st, I’ve found that there is definitely something to creating a habit on the first of the year, with the planned goal to keep at it for a full 365 days. At least for myself, designing achievable goals that I begin working towards at the beginning of the year actually works.

Along with my opinions on resolutions, over time I’ve also changed my views on how to design said New Year’s resolutions. Historically I had always viewed resolutions as intentionally ambitious goals that I was setting for myself. And don’t get me wrong, those are still sometimes a good idea. But what often has been working better for me is to define a specific behavior I want to change, and then break it down into a daily habit. You see, I can achieve a daily habit. I’m a completionist. I will try to finish everything on my daily to-do list. Therefore, if I can break things down into manageable daily tasks, I can almost always make progress.

My 2021 Resolutions

So, what do my resolutions (or goals, as I refer to them) look like this year? My focus for 2021 is largely on fixing up some habits that I’ve let slip over the course of the past year, and also beginning to work on some problem areas that I’ve been ignoring for far too long. I do have a few more ambitious goals as well, though I will hold off discussing them for the time being, until I have a more concrete plan in place.

My first goal is building on a habit that I initially focused on heavily last year. I’ve always attempted to have a devotional time in the morning, followed by general reading time. For years I’ve said that I want to focus on my walk with Christ, and in 2020 I finally began pushing myself on that front. I maintained a devotional time throughout the entirety of last year, and this year I intend to continue that, though I’m switching up the format slightly. Unfortunately, my general reading time post-devotional suffered in the later half of 2020 though, so for 2021 I’m refocusing on reading at minimum 1 chapter a morning of whatever book I’m currently working on. I place a high value on continuing to expand my knowledge on a variety of topics, and spending thoughtful time reading daily seems like an appropriate way to make progress on that goal.

My second main goal is to exercise for at least 30 minutes daily throughout all of 2021. Once again, I started out fairly strong in 2020 with morning workouts, but shifting to working at home caused me to become lax in some of my routines. I’m still building out a plan of exactly what the morning routine will look like, but 30 minutes a day (minimum) seems to me to be a good target. It’s short enough that I should be able to keep myself engaged, but long enough that I can always get at least some movement in, and continue to improve my fitness level.

My final major goal will actually be the hardest, I think. I’ve attempted for the past few years to build a daily or weekly writing habit, and time after time that’s failed. So, for 2021, my goal is to write a single, quality blog post per week. That’s a rate that is slow enough I can spend a good amount of time working on the content, but fast enough that I have to keep at it. And to top it off, writing makes me think and process things in new ways, which is another growth opportunity.

Will I accomplish all of my goals for 2021? With the Lord’s help, yes. But even if I don’t, so long as I don’t stagnate, the effort to constantly improve myself will have been well worth it.

2020 Year in Review

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 10:51:23 -0600

December 31st, 2020. In some ways, it’s hard to believe that I’ve already reached the end of this year. In others, it seemed like this year would never end. Although 2020 definitely didn’t end up looking anything like what I had planned, there have been so memorable moments. And so, as is my tradition, here’s a look back at the last 12 months of my life.

The first few months of the year looked pretty standard, for those that have read previous iterations of these posts. I kept busy with work throughout most of January and February, along with my usual volunteering at church, and hanging out with friends for birthday parties, SuperBowl parties, and various small-group-related activities.

To keep things interesting, in mid-February my sister and I also started a podcast: Sibling Summit. We had kicked around the idea of a podcast off and on for years, but never actually moved on the idea until this year. Due to our schedules, we opted to only record twice a month, and intentionally recorded a week or more in advance of each post so that I would have time to edit the show down to the published form at my leisure. It provided a fun, creative outlet for both of us, and while it was time-consuming, we enjoyed it.

In early March, I was preparing to visit my sister for a weekend of hiking, when the entire world came to a standstill. I still recall some of my thought processes during that time, debating whether to go ahead with the trip or not. I made the decision to postpone the trip and remain at home, figuring that there would be a better time over the summer. Then came the news that my state, like many other states and countries around the world, was taking precautions to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and everything changed.

Okay, that’s perhaps a bit overly dramatic. While it’s true that many things changed, my actual schedule was perhaps not changed nearly as much as some, for which I’m grateful. In mid-March my workplace moved (like many others) to limit the number of individuals in the building, and I switched to working predominantly from home, with the occasional trip to the office when I needed something not already at home, or to assist in testing that could not be done remotely. Meetings transitioned to Zoom (both work and church-related), and much of my time was now spent in my home office, which thankfully was already somewhat set up for work and video conferencing.

Since we wouldn’t be traveling to see each other as much as we would under normal circumstances, and to keep in touch while maintaining a fun atmosphere, my family and I began playing Name That Tune remotely over Zoom on a weekly basis. I detailed my setup in a blog post, for those that are interested in a deep-dive on the game and how we play.

Another thing that both my sister and I started during the initial lockdown period was a blogging challenge: 100 Days To Offload. We both opted to post for 100 days in a row, and while the quality of the posts began to suffer after awhile, it was fun, and gave me a constant challenge. You can find an archive of my posts here.

And that was pretty much the story until June. During those three months at home I essentially only left my house for the occasional work or shopping-related activity, as needed. I occasionally augmented my work from home setup with new computer peripherals, and also probably more books than I will have time to read. My sister and I continued to record our podcast, which began to include an update on how the pandemic was affecting each of our lives.

In early June we began to work some more from the office. And so, whereas before my work was probably 80% at home, 20% in the office, things gradually shifted until it was probably the inverse, or close to it. That would continue on until early August, when a local spike in cases sent most of us back to a predominantly work-from-home plan.

June also saw the indefinite hiatus of my sister and I’s podcast. She was traveling back and forth to our hometown more, in preparation for an eventual move back, and so our schedules did not allow as much time for recording. We have talked about revisiting the podcast in 2021, but only time will tell if that works out.

In early July, I finally took time off to visit my family. After spending so much time at home, and not really driving anywhere except to the local supermarket and to work when needed, it felt very odd to travel a few hours away to visit family. I was very thankful for the opportunity to visit though.

After returning to work-from-home in August, not much has changed on the work front. Since it looked like that setup would not be changing in the foreseeable future, in early September I purchased a standing desk from VariDesk, and set up a more permanent home workstation in my basement. I’ve continued to occasionally augment my home setup with more peripherals as needed, though by this point not much is changing.

In August I also returned to volunteering at church (which had been limited due to lockdowns). Whereas in the pre-pandemic world I was volunteering on a weekly or every-other-week schedule, I backed off some to once or twice a month max for a period of time. I was (and am) still getting accustomed to my new schedule, and I’ve found that I am more mentally relaxed when I am able to take a majority of weekends off and just work around my house.

That brings me all the way to October. In mid-October, as I often do, I headed back to my hometown to visit family, and help out some with farming. This year I took along my GH5, and got a couple of nice shots of the harvest experience while I was there (below). I also got an opportunity to see some extended family that was visiting at the same time, and good food and fellowship were enjoyed by all.

After returning home, I refocused on work pretty heavily leading up to Thanksgiving. The end of October/early November saw a rise in local COVID-19 cases once again, which gave me an excuse to spend a large amount of time catching up on projects that had gotten behind. I also took some time over a free weekend in November to migrate my blog from Wordpress to Hugo, and remove Google analytics from my website.

At the end of November I spent a week visiting family for Thanksgiving, and enjoying some time off, and the change of scenery. We spent the time working on projects at my parents’ house, playing games, and (as always) enjoying food. While there, we also had family pictures taken by my cousin Rachel (Kharis Photography), who was also visiting her family for the holidays.

In the intervening three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas I once again kept busy with work (from my basement setup), with the occasional break to shop for Christmas gifts for family. Then it was once again back to visit family for Christmas, and to celebrate my parents’ 34th wedding anniversary! Thankfully the weather was relatively nice for the trip, and I even had a chance to go for a walk outside on the 27th without feeling overly cold.

And that brings me to the end of the year! As the final hours of 2020 wind to an end, I can look back at this year, and be grateful to God for the opportunities I had to spend time with my family. The year may not have looked like anything I would have expected, but I can be thankful that I still have a job, and that my family and I are still healthy!

Happy New Year!

Removing Google Analytics

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 13:04:19 -0600

Now that I’ve migrated from WordPress to Hugo, it’s time for Stage 2 of my website redesign. I’ve been wanting to move away from Google Analytics for a while due to the invasive nature of the data they collect, but I’ve never taken the time to set up an alternative. I’ve looked into Matomo in the past, and while it looks promising, at this stage I’d rather not set up a server to host it myself, nor am I prepared to pay for their hosted option. So, after checking that off the list, what other alternatives are left?

While setting up my Hugo website, I noticed that the theme I’m currently using, Hugo-Coder, includes support for Google Analytics, Fathom Analytics, Plausible Analytics, and GoatCounter. Both Fathom Analytics and Plausible Analytics look amazing, and both are privacy-protecting, but neither have a free tier, only a free trial (unless I choose to self-host, which is again, not a priority for me at this time). At some point I may move to a paid service, but for now, I just want some generic stats about my website: which pages are visited the most, and some generics visitor numbers and stats (browser, etc). And so, hoping to find a simpler and less costly option, I moved on to GoatCounter.

Now let me be the first to say, GoatCounter’s website is not flashy when compared to the other two options, nor do they have especially beautiful graphs to display the collected data (see the preceding image). However, there are a couple of things in their favor: 1) they are very privacy respecting (see their FAQ page), and 2) they have a free tier for non-commercial uses, with up to 100k pageviews per month. At this point, I meet both of those qualifications. I guess it’s time to regiser for the service and try it out!

Signing up for GoatCounter is very simple, and only requires a few pieces of information (email, password, and the domain you intend to use it with). You are asked to verify your email address, and then you’re presented with a code, which needs added to your Hugo config. Once those changes are complete, all that’s left is to commit and push the config changes, and everything is set up.

So, what’s next? At this point, I just sit back and wait. I’ve done some simple testing, and it appears that the analytics are working as expected. Only time will tell how happy I am with this new solution, but for now it provides me general information without being overly heavy-handed, and without being too invasive to my visitor’s privacy.

Migrating from WordPress to Hugo

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 19:52:41 -0600

A little under 3 years ago I wrote a post entitled Site Redesign and Migration, where I unveiled a full redesign of my website after having moved it off of the Squarespace. Three years before that I started my website on Squarespace, after considering a host of other alternatives. And now, after many months of consideration, and after reading many blogs about why one should or shouldn’t use a Static Site Generator (ex: “Why I Don’t Use a Static Site Generator” by Kev Quirk), I’ve opted to migrate my website from WordPress to Hugo.

So, why am I making the change?

In some ways, Hugo is actually more complex than Wordpress. I can spin up a WordPress website on almost any hosting platform out there. I’ve been using Amazon LightSail, but I could have just as easily used DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, or WordPress.com.

Hugo is a Static Site Generator (SSG), which means that I design the website in Markdown, and then Hugo generates a static HTML website from that. It’s not as simple as WordPress, where I could simply go into the web interface, type up a post, hit “Publish”, and it appeared on my website. I have to open a Markdown editor on my computer, write the post, render it locally to ensure I’m happy with the content and design, then commit it to a Git repository. Once committed, my website has to be rebuilt and redeployed to the server.

But that last paragraph actually hit on one of the largest reasons for switching to Hugo: my website is a Git repository. Even if I choose to migrate from Hugo to some other SSG in the future, my posts are all already in Markdown format. As long as whatever I choose uses Markdown (which many SSGs do), I just have to rearrange the directory structure, and then publish. And even if I choose to return to a full CMS, there are some that support Markdown, so in many ways I’m future-proofing my content.

Another reason for leaving Wordpress is actually the requirements for running a full-blow Content Management System (CMS). I find as I grow older, I no longer am interested in keeping servers up to date to protect them from the latest vulnerabilities. And so, the fewer requirements my website has to operate, the better.

And finally, I simply don’t use most of the features of WordPress, nor do I care to at this time. I don’t currently enable comments on my posts. I’ve used analytics in the past, but that is possible on Hugo as well.

What all did this migration entail?

First of all, I actually manually went through every page and post on my existing website, and copied them into Markdown format on my computer, verifying that links worked correctly, pictures and videos inlined in a post looked right, and selecting where they would reside on my website. Most pages on my WordPress website were directly copied to top-level pages on my Hugo website, as were some of my blog posts. However, I chose to move a majority of the posts that I wrote for my 100 Days to Offload experiment into an Archives section, unless I felt that they would be useful to others in the future.

Next, I selected a theme that I liked the look of, and then tested the settings on my local computer. I also initialized a Git repository for all of the files I had created, and pushed the changes to GitHub. (I looked at using GitLab or another alternative, but for now the easiest way to deploy seemed to be with GitHub)

Finally, I spun up a new app on the DigitalOcean App Platform, tied both my Git repository and my domain name to the app, and published my website.

And so, thus begins the latest stage of the story of my website. Hopefully, I will continue using Hugo for many years to come. Although, if history is any indicator, in approximately three years I will be considering something else…

Edit 1: Due to the design of Hugo, my RSS feed now is located at https://www.justinvollmer.com/posts/index.xml. I will try to get a redirect working, but I am not confident that will occur.

For more information on deploying a Hugo website to the DigitalOcean App Platform, see this guide.

100 Posts in 100 Days

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 19:19:59 -0600

Well, I did it. 100 blog posts in 100 days. Were they of much quality? Most of them, no. There were a few that I think turned out okay.

Did I learn anything? Perhaps. Quality blogging takes a time commitment. And that is a time commitment that I am not prepared to make to turn this into a daily blog. However, I do think that I will aim for writing a single quality blog entry weekly from here on out.

I will probably also move a lot of these posts to an archive of some sort. I am considering a full re-vamp of the website in the near future, at which point I will move anything of quality to the new site, and archive the old. At least, that’s the theory. I still have some work to do to pull it off.

And thus ends my #100DaysToOffload. Thanks for taking the journey with me!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 100/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

The Making Of...

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 19:18:14 -0600

Every once in a while, I get distracted watching a video that goes into detail on how something was made. Sometimes it’s a movie. At other times, it may be a piece of art, or maybe a video game.

Today was the former: the making of Frozen 2. Was I a huge fan of the movie itself? No. It had some good parts, but overall I was underwhelmed. However, I very much enjoyed the first part of the behind the scenes video that I watched, and I look forward to finishing out that set of videos when I have a chance.

Why watch it? For inspiration. For perspective. To see what goes into the things that I enjoy. I remember watching and re-watching the Lord of the Rings extras many years ago, and it had roughly the same effect on me: it caused me to look at the movie as not just entertainment, but as a grand work of art, and as a marvel to behold.

And you know what? Sometimes, in this world, I think that can be a good thing… to gain a new perspective, a new outlook on something.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 98/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Haircut by a Robot?

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 19:17:28 -0600

Long day, so not many personal thoughts. Rather, since I ran across this article + video earlier today while on a break, I decided to share it. While I can’t say that I would want a robot anywhere near my head anytime soon… it’s definitely interesting!

https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/video-friday-haircut-robot

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 97/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Congress and Tech

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 19:16:34 -0600

I followed some of the congressional hearings today involving Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. And I must say… I get very worried about the lack of technical understanding by the people that are making the laws. Like, they can’t even keep two different services straight in their head (apparently)!

I didn’t watch enough to have any other immediate feedback, though I’ll probably try to catch up more over the weekend.

For a quick summary of what occurred today: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21335706/antitrust-hearing-highlights-facebook-google-amazon-apple-congress-testimony

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 96/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Everything Is an Experiment

Sun, 26 Jul 2020 19:14:02 -0600

I realized today that literally everything in life is an experiment. Or rather, I am constantly experimenting with different aspects of my daily life. Whether it’s tweaking my diet to see if I feel more alert, changing up the type of exercise I do, or trying to build new habits, everything is constantly open to experimentation. That even includes things that are, at this point, habit.

Why experiment? Because I’m sure there’s a better way. I don’t for a moment believe that I’ve “arrived” in any aspect of my life. That is part of what keeps me moving forward, a desire to constantly learn, grow, and improve.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 93/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Applying Self-Limits

Sat, 25 Jul 2020 19:13:19 -0600

I’ve talked about this before, but one thing I occasionally find tricky is following through plans or limits that I have given myself. For instance, I try to eat both a balanced diet (in my case, keto, but balanced based on that premise), and to also limit the number of calories I eat per day. Why? Because it’s easy for me to idly just sit and eat, or snack on something. And I don’t like the path that leads me down.

I’m still trying to figure out how to limit myself well without any form of cravings, but today I made it further than I planned on. I wasn’t overly hungry for lunch, so instead of a larger meal, I had around 300 calories worth of food. Dinner was a bit larger, and I even had a few snacks, but I kept myself from going completely wild, and therefore ended the day well below my max caloric allotment.

Will I do the same tomorrow? Hopefully. Like I said, I’m still trying to figure out a good balance of eating enough that I’m not hungry, and I can achieve my goals, while not just downing food any time I’m near the kitchen, and without having cravings. But, I’m slowly making progress in the right direction.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 92/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Living in Response

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 19:10:41 -0600

Note: I no longer recommend listening to Bill Johnson, as I have strong disagreements with his theology, but I’m leaving this up for historical purposes. (2024-11-03)

“I can’t afford to live in reaction to darkness. If I do, darkness has had a role in setting the agenda for my life. The devil is not worthy of such influence, even in the negative. Jesus lived in response to the Father. I must learn to do the same.” Bill Johnson

I was reminded of the opening quote earlier today. It’s something that I ran across years ago, and has stuck with me ever since.

Does that mean I’m there yet? No. I still struggle with reacting to events in the world, things going on around me, and in general, darkness. This is a reminder to myself that I need to live in response to the Father, and focus on His words, His plans, and His timing.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 89/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Choose Your VPN Wisely

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:09:12 -0600

One of the podcasts I listen to daily brought up a recent news article about several Hong Kong based VPNs that were found to expose private user data, even though they claimed that they didn’t.

Frankly, stories like this don’t surprise me anymore. As the saying goes, if you aren’t paying for the product, then you are the product (in most cases). “Free” is often too good to be true. Choose wisely!

Seven Hong Kong VPN providers accused of exposing private user data

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 87/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Bison Biltong

Sat, 18 Jul 2020 19:07:57 -0600

Yesterday, I got a delivery of bison snacks, including some Bison Biltong, with Southwest Verde flavoring. And let me tell you, it is delicious!

For those that don’t know, biltong is a form of dried, cured meat that originated in Southern African countries. Think of it as a jerky-type food.

I’ve been considering buying some bison-based snacks for a while, as I’ve heard good things about them, and they’re very high protein, low carb, low/moderate fat, which would work well for me when I need something healthy to munch on after a workout.

The trick, it seems, will be to not eat them too quickly this weekend…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 85/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Politics Politics Politics

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 19:06:04 -0600

Today has been another long day, and I don’t have a lot to talk about personally.

However, I would like to take this time to recommend a political podcast that I listen to: Politics Politics Politics (Px3) by Justin Robert Young (JRY).

Why listen to a political podcast? I like to keep up with what’s going on in the US politically, along with some commentary, but I don’t particularly care for either major side’s opinions. JRY is good at covering the important topics with interesting commentary, and doesn’t take any overly extreme positions on most topics.

By catching the Px3 podcast I can find out the major headlines, and not have to spend much of my time looking at (and potentially being upset by) the political news of the day. It helps keep me informed, but also even-keeled.

So, if you’re in the United States, or interesting in US politics, I’d highly recommend checking it out! It’s fun, informative, and definitely a podcast worth adding to your feed.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 82/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Long Tuesday

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 19:05:23 -0600

Today was another day where, for some reason that I don’t fully understand, I woke up an hour earlier than I intended to and was unable to fall back asleep. That, combined with doing a slightly harder workout than normal this morning, has left me tired.

Which means, that’s the end of today’s post!

Well, almost. Parting thought: I’ve been quite enjoying Cal Newport’s new podcast (I’m almost up to date with the latest episode). Check it out!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 81/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Monday, Once Again

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 19:04:11 -0600

Today wasn’t a particularly bad day. In fact, overall things went quite well. However, as seems to happen to me frequently on Mondays… I’m struggling with coming up with anything useful to write about. I considered a post of a music video, but I’d rather not. I considered some kind of length post, but… once again, I’d rather not.

I’ve read a bunch of things that I think are interesting today, but I’m not sure how much anyone else would care. And they weren’t so impactful that I need to reference them again.

And so… today’s post is just this. I’m keeping the chain from breaking, because I don’t want to be a quitter. But once 100 days are done, I do intend to reduce to 2-3 posts a week, with topics that actually matter.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 80/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Work/Life Balance

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 19:03:24 -0600

I frequently ponder the same question: if I’m doing what I’m enjoying, does it matter that I’m putting way more time into than is, perhaps, “healthy”? My question is generally specifically around the area of work. I’ve heard a number of arguments for why you should aim to achieve a “balance”, and why thinking about or focusing on work too much is a bad thing.

And yet, my question remains: what if I am actually enjoying what I’m doing? Am I getting paid extra? No. Am I putting in more hours than is perhaps “expected” of me? Yes.

But I’m enjoying it. And especially in times when I am actively thinking on a particular issue, or wanting to improve something specific with a project I am working on, I can’t necessarily turn it off easily for hours/days on end. In those cases, it can consume my waking thoughts.

I have heard one single, solitary argument for working more, and it went something like this: those who are truly great in there field didn’t get there by being balanced. Those that changed the world (or are changing the world) eat, sleep, live, and breathe the things they are passionate about.

Which leads me to my current conclusion, even though I will still question myself, I’m sure: for me, at this time, the balance is less important than doing what I’m enjoying. It’s not harming me. It’s not harming anyone else. If anything, it’s making improvements. And so, there’s no urgent reason for me to modify my routine.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 79/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Rain!

Sat, 11 Jul 2020 19:02:48 -0600

It’s raining! Again! We probably won’t get much, based on the radar. But it’s definitely welcome!

I mowed my yard again for the first time in 2 weeks. Parts of it needed a little trimming, while the rest of it is brown. Like… really brown. I’ve considered watering my yard, in an effort to keep everything looking nice, but I decided that the outcome isn’t worth the extra cost, at least at this point.

Anyhow. Other than mowing my yard, today was a relatively relaxed day. I played some 0 A.D., did a little work around the house, and spent 2-3 hours on a work project. All in all, a nice Saturday.

And… now I hear some hail. Hopefully that portion will be over soon.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 78/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Too Many Interests

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 19:02:17 -0600

I realized once again today that I have so many interests that I rarely have time to pursue them all. I can choose one to pursue for a period of time, but that unfortunately lets the others stagnate.

And to add to that issue, I constantly add to my interests. I find something new that looks or sounds interesting, and want to study up on it, or buy it (if it’s a gadget), or download it (in the case of apps). And so I frequently have large collections of things that I intend to get to, but in reality probably never will.

So what’s the solution? I don’t know. I’m getting a little better at slowing down my impulsiveness to try new things. But at the same time, I think that trait is also a strength… I constantly want to learn and do more.

And so, I guess I’ll keep pondering it…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 77/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

App Explorer: Notion

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 19:00:30 -0600

This is my first stab at another new concept post. Basically, my goal is to jot down my first reactions/thoughts on using a new app or tool.

A few weeks ago, I decided to download Notion. I’ve heard a lot about it over the years, and it seemed like an interesting alternative to Evernote/Onenote, with some added Trello/Todoist features as well.

So far, I’ve only used Notion minimally. It is a very good Markdown-based editor, although it hides the Markdown from you. You can use standard Markdown commands though, and export notes to Markdown.

It seems to be very good for taking notes, both on the desktop and on the go (mobile). I’ve never been happy with other Markdown-based tools on mobile, but this feels more like Evernote or Google Docs, not a standard Markdown editing interface.

Syncing works great. I don’t like using a 3rd party service, but I do like the ease of use.

I have yet to use anything beyond basic notes features, and some page-linking. Whenever I do, I’ll try to post another update.

Oh, and a bonus: there’s a nice Linux wrapper (AUR) for it as well!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 75/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Surprise Storm

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:59:45 -0600

I was outside at a friend’s house for the last hour, just standing around and talking. When we started, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. About 15 minutes before I left, there were a few sprinkles. But everything was still sunny.

Then, as I headed to my car, it started to lightly drizzle. A quick glance at the radar showed a few showers building to the west, and heading this way.

By the time I reached my house, 5 minutes later, there was a full-on storm in progress. And it’s still going on… The rain is coming down in sheets, there’s thunder and lightning, and there’s a possibility of hail even for the next 30 minutes.

In short… I was surprised! There was no forecast for rain today, and in minutes we went from hot summer day to summer thunderstorm. I won’t complain too much though, as we can definitely use the rain!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 74/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Distractions Are Easy

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 18:58:31 -0600

It’s easy to be distracted. It’s easy to sit down at the end of the day, turn on television, and turn off your mind. It’s easy to idly scroll through Facebook, Instagram, and other apps and news feeds on your phone.

You know what’s hard? Choosing to do something that makes a difference in your life and the lives of others. Getting up early to train, knowing you’ll like how you look better if you do. Choosing to read after dinner, because you want to continue learning and growing. Removing distracting apps from your cell phone, because in 20 years time you don’t want to look back at a life wasted.

Distractions are easy. Doing things that matter… it’s hard. But it’s worth it.

… And that ends Justin’s pep talk to himself for the day. 🙂

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 73/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

A Relaxing Weekend With Family

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 18:57:21 -0600

For the first time in many months (due to COVID-19), I finally got to spend a few days with my immediate family! I headed to my parents’ house on Thursday, spent the rest of the extended weekend there just relaxing, and then headed back home today (Sunday).

Honestly, this is probably the first time I really slowed down and relaxed in the last few months. When I’m at home, I am very good a keeping myself busy. I intentionally limited my options for things to do (from my normal routine) when I visited family, and so I spent an entire weekend without doing anything work-related (it’s hard to stop thinking about work entirely).

Anyhow. Now it’s time to get back into the swing of things with work, which means it’s time for me to wrap up this blog post and prepare for the week ahead!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 72/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Happy Independence Day!

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 18:56:03 -0600

It’s the 4th of July, the day that Americans celebrate Independence Day. Historically, in my family at least, it’s a day spent with family, normally with some good food (grilled, preferably), and maybe watching some fireworks in the evening.

That being said, every topic I’ve come up with to write about is much longer than I’m willing to work on tonight. And so, as I have a habit of doing… here’s a video to enjoy!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 71/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Initial Thoughts on Google Stadia

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 17:55:06 -0600

I have occasionally described myself as a technophile, due to my tendency to enjoy reading about, buying, playing with, and testing out the latest technology.

For years I was in the Google ecosystem. Name a hardware device, and I probably had it. And even though I am no longer as heavily vested in that world, I still pay attention to new products. And therefore, when Google Stadia was announced (nearly a year ago at this point), I quickly signed up, and purchased a Founder’s Edition kit (1 Chromecast Ultra + 2 controllers). I received it last November, but I’ve honestly only played with it a total of… 2-3 hours since then.

Until today. I decided to set up everything, charge the controllers, and see how things were looking after nearly 8 months of development. And you know what? It’s not bad! Most of my testing today has been 2-player “versus” battles in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (against another human sitting next to me). And it performed at least as well as an Xbox or Playstation does, in my experience. Gameplay and loading was essentially flawless. The graphics looked decent (mid-tier gaming PC level, I would say). And… there’s not much else to say! It just worked. No installations. Very little setup.

Now, yes, you do need a Stadia subscription currently, which I think is like $10 USD/month. But they’ve also been giving subscribers 2-3 games to add to their library a month, so for the ability to play literally anywhere with a good internet connection… it’s kind of a steal, in my opinion.

Do I still maintain a gaming PC? Yes. Will I get rid of it anytime soon? Probably not. But I do think that Stadia and similar services are the future of gaming. Being able to play a whole list of games with only a controller (or your browser + mouse/keyboard) is amazing, and for the average consumer, it opens up a whole host of new games to play without requiring a high-end gaming machine.

Some closing thoughts: doesn’t it bother me that this is from Google? Yes. I don’t like their privacy-invasive tendencies. However, I also only have this connected to my network when I’m gaming. When I’m not, it’s disconnected. And what about if they kill it off? So far I’ve only invested in the initial hardware plus the aforementioned monthly subscription. I’m not yet comfortable purchasing any additional games through it, since they’re locked to the Stadia service. If there were some kind of sync between my Steam library and Stadia, I’d be a lot more likely to make such a purchase.

In short, if you are into gaming (especially if you’re on Linux), and don’t have a high-end gaming rig already, check it out! I’ve tinkered with Stadia using Google Chrome, and it also worked extremely well. And even if you do have a gaming rig, I’d still recommend glancing at Stadia. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Final note: You do need a good internet connection for Stadia. I’ve had good success with anything higher than 50 Mbps. At 100 Mbps+, no issues whatsoever. But to perform well, you’ll need that connection. Hopefully companies figure out a better solution for lower-end connections in the future.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 70/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

The Upside

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 17:53:31 -0600

Wow. Two days in a row where I don’t know what I want to talk about…

Yesterday I picked up the first 2 comic books from Lindsey Stirling that go along with her latest album, Artemis. After reading through them, I decided to re-listen to the album today. And now I have The Upside stuck in my head. Which, I’m sure, means it’s my duty to get it stuck in everyone else’s head as well.

Enjoy!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 69/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:50:40 -0600

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Benjamin Franklin

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” Aristotle

For some reason, both of the above quotes have been cycling through my head this evening. I’m not sure what reminded me of them, but as I have mentioned before, I tend to practice the habit of both rising early (around 4 a.m.), and going to bed early (by 9:30 p.m.).

Do those habits make me healthy, wealthy, and wise? That’s debatable. I do know that my mental performance seems to be increased when I go to bed early, and get up early. I also tend to feel better on those days than on days when I sleep in, or stay up late. However, I’m not 100% convinced that it’s not all in my head (ie, I’m convinced early to bed, early to rise is better, therefore I perform better when I follow those maxims).

Regardless, for me, it works. And it tends to be even better when I both avoid electronics for the first hour that I’m awake in the morning, and the last hour I’m awake in the evening. Therefore, it’s time to end my post for today. 🙂

Side thought for today: I may need to switch blogging platforms soon. I would like to be able to post snippets of code, and I’m not happy with the formatting options available in WordPress.I’m currently considering Hugo, or possibly using Wiki.js to create a wiki/blog/everything website. So if anyone has a good suggestion, let me know!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 67/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Movie of the Weekend: 21

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 17:48:48 -0600

I don’t tend to watch a ton of movies. In all honesty, it’s because I have a hard time sitting still and just watching something. But, this weekend, I was struggling to concentrate on other projects, and so… I watched a movie.

Which movie? 21. It’s the story of a group of card counters from MIT. I recall reading about the story it’s based on in the news years ago, and while I’ve been aware of this movie, I never got around to watching it till now.

Is it worth watching? I think so. It’s not 100% accurate, but it is interesting.

And with that, it’s time for me to start prepping for the week ahead. Happy Sunday!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 65/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

It's Friday

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 17:47:22 -0600

Short blog today. For some reason, I’ve had very little motivation. Not entirely sure why. I’ve tried a few things to get myself “in gear” to work on projects, and nothing has worked well yet. So, basically doing the minimum today, and planning to push again tomorrow.

Until then, here’s a song that’s currently on repeat in my head. Enjoy!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 63/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Haircut #2 Post-Isolation

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 17:46:39 -0600

Anyone who knows me knows that I like routine. And one of those routines, for many years now, has been a haircut every 2 weeks (occasionally slips to 3 around a holiday). Today was my second haircut post-isolation, meaning that I’m back to my normal schedule.

Why so often? Simple: it’s one less thing for me to think about.

I’ve learned (slowly) that the more things I can put on “default”, and not have to think about, the more I can focus on work, and other things in life. And for me, having my hair at virtually the same length at all times is one of those things. Is it minor? Sure. But I like never having to think about what my hair is going to look like. It’s always the same length, and I always do the same thing to it every morning.

Could I just shave it off? Again, sure. But I’m not ready for that yet. So until then… the routine continues!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 62/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Know a Little More

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 17:45:41 -0600

There’s a new podcast out from Tom Merritt, one of the hosts of Daily Tech News Show, entitled “Know a Little More“. Each episode is a short deep-dive into a specific topic (ex: 5G). I’ve been quite enjoying it, even as someone in the tech industry who has a general knowledge of most topics (or so I like to think).

Due in part to the recent announcements by Apple, there will be an ARM episode in the public feed in the next few days, which I highly recommend listening to as a quick overview. So… check it out!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 61/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Philosophy: Who Needs It

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 17:41:59 -0600

I have a habit of reading before bed. Sometimes I pick up a fantasy novel. Other times I read a cartoon, or something else that requires very little concentration. And sometimes, I challenge myself… as I did last night, when I started reading “Philosophy: Who Needs It” by Ayn Rand.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but after the first chapter, I already had a lot to think on. Favorite quotes/thoughts so far:

Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation – or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind’s wings should have grown. (Philosophy: Who Needs It, pg 7)

“Why should I study that stuff when I know it’s nonsense?” It is nonsense, but you don’t know it – not so long as you go on accepting all their conclusions, all the vicious catchphrases generated by those philosophers. And not as long as you are unable to refute them.

The battle of philosophers is a battle for man’s mind. If you do not understand their theories, you are vulnerable to the worst among them.

You have to understand the enemy’s ideas and be prepared to refute them, you have to know his basic arguments and be able to blast them. (Philosophy: Who Needs It, pg 10-11)

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 59/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Things That Work: Firefox

Sun, 21 Jun 2020 16:55:19 -0600

I’ve used a number of different browsers over the years. In fact, I’ve used more browsers than I realized, once I started compiling idea for this post.

When I first started using computers, my primary browser was Internet Explorer. I don’t recall exactly what year this was, but it was prior to the advent of Firefox and Chrome. And for years, that’s what I used. I vaguely recall using Netscape Navigator, actually, at one point, but I don’t think it ever stuck.

In the early to mid-2000s, I found out about Firefox, and switched to it as my primary browser. My reasoning, as I recall, was better support of web standards. At the time I was playing around with designing websites, and it just worked better.

Around 2005, I got my first Mac, which introduced me to Safari. I used it some, but I’ve always had weird issues with Safari, even to this day, and so it’s always a backup option, not my primary. I stuck with Firefox during that time (I think). Until…

The year I graduated from college was the year that Google Chrome came out, and I pretty quickly switched to using that full time. In fact, I would go on to use Chrome, or a Chrome-based browser, until about 3 years ago. I was heavy into the Google ecosystem, and overall I liked the performance.

Sometime during 2017 I gave Firefox another chance. I don’t recall exactly what made me try it, honestly. It may have been a podcast I was listening to. Or perhaps I was looking at ways to move away from the Google suite of products. In any case, slightly before Firefox 57 (Quantum), I switched back to Firefox, and haven’t really looked back since.

So why am I on Firefox? Is it the amazing performance? Not really. Firefox is good, but Chrome is often still faster. Is it the most beautiful browser? By no means. It’s good, but still not as good as Chrome, or one of the Chrome derivatives. My main reasons for using Firefox are two-fold: it’s a FOSS product (that actually works), and the extension ecosystem is amazing.

A few months ago I created a page on this site that listed all of the extensions I use, and why I use them. Of all of those, my absolute favorite is Multi-Account Containers. The ability to be logged into the same website with different accounts, and to keep history/tracking separate, has proven useful time and time again.

Anyhow. There’s a short trip down memory lane for me, and a very brief explanation of why I use Firefox.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 58/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

A Lazy Saturday

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 17:37:15 -0600

Okay, so maybe the title isn’t 100% accurate… But I honestly don’t feel like I’ve accomplished that much today (so far). I’m ready to blog though, so… here it goes.

I started out this morning at 4a. After some coffee and reading, it was time for a short workout. I’ve been neglecting doing any substantial training recently, which annoys me, so I’m trying to get back into the habit. After that, time for breakfast, then getting ready for the day ahead.

I had some work I wanted to knock out today (if possible), so by 7:30a I was in front of my computer, working my way through some datasheets. I managed to maintain my focus for about ninety minutes, then I broke to do some housework and talk to family on the phone. Once I was done with that, back to datasheets… I finally figured out what I was working on around 12:30p, and broke for lunch.

After a short lunch, I was back at my computer, finishing off a Name That Tune playlist for family on Spotify. I just finished that (got distracted a few times), and now it’s almost 3:30p, and I need to figure out what else I want to do with my day.

I (thankfully) have very few pressing things that I need to do right now, so I kind of have my choice. I’m leaning towards finishing a book or two that I’ve been working on. Once I get to the last 20-50 pages of a book, I kind of just want to sit down and finish it all so I can move on to the next book in my TBR stack (or, in my case… my TBR shelves…).

Anyhow. Happy Saturday!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 57/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Does the Mind Need a Break?

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 17:36:39 -0600

I’ve read many articles over the years emphasizing the importance of downtime, of relaxing, and sometimes “turning off your brain” (possibly my translation, but either way, definitely a phrase I’ve heard).

However, I ran across the following in the book “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day” by Arnold Bennett: “One of the chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental faculties are capable of continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change – not rest, except in sleep.”

And personally, I’m beginning to believe that is true. While there are times when I just stop and watch something, I normally feel worse afterwards. Do I need a break from work? Certainly. But I should pivot to doing something else that exercises my mind and keeps me learning and growing, not stagnating.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 56/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Audio Tweets

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 17:35:57 -0600

I first heard this story yesterday, but didn’t read any of the details until today. Apparently, Twitter is going to allow users to record audio and then… tweet it. And in a throwback to the original 140 character limit, these can be 140 seconds long.

I checked, and I don’t have the feature yet. Which is fine, as I barely use Twitter at all, logging in only once every few weeks.

It will be interesting to see if this takes off, and what the overall reaction to the feature is in the coming weeks.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/17/21294481/twitter-audio-tweets-now-available-iphone-ios

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 55/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

So NOT a Massive DDOS Attack

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:33:41 -0600

Here’s an interesting Twitter thread I ran across today from Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare. Apparently the “massive DDOS attack” that I heard about yesterday was actually another series of events. It’s a fairly quick read, but definitely worth it for the tech-inclined, in my opinion.

There’s a lot of buzz right now about a “massive DDoS attack” targeting the US, complete with scary-looking graphs (see Tweet below). While it makes for a good headline in these already dramatic times, it’s not accurate. The reality is far more boring. 1/X https://t.co/4wDIlKnfQg — Matthew Prince 🌥 (@eastdakota) June 15, 2020

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 53/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Sibling Summit: Episode 9: Welcome to Linux!

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

What caused Hannah to purchase a new computer? Why did she choose a desktop, and what are her first thoughts on Linux? Do people who are blind also experience aphantasia, and what all does blindness actually encompass ? Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Discoveries

Hannah: Various computer-related discoveries
Justin: VirtualBox

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Kdenlive for the Win

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:32:53 -0600

Earlier this evening I was attempting to open a 25+ GB mp4 file to edit (1920×1980 resolution, 35 mins long). I tried using Premiere Pro on my Gaming rig (Windows), as I figured that I would get the best performance on that machine, and I’m the most familiar with Premiere Pro out of all of the Non-Linear Editors. However, the program locked up for almost 10 minutes on the initial import, and was pretty much unusable once the video was imported. I could attempt a proxy setup, but I didn’t think that the video should be that hard to import.

On to Premiere Pro on my Mac… which refused to even load. Crashed or hung every time I tried to open it.

So, what options were left? Well, I could go back to Premiere Pro on my PC, and I would have to use proxies, which would probably work. But it’s been a few years since I used proxies in Premiere, and I wasn’t looking forward to using them again.

As a last ditch effort, I decided to try using Kdenlive on my Linux PC. I’ve used it before, and have always been rather underwhelmed. But, since I had already failed a few times, I figured it was worth the quick test. I did a little reading ahead of time, and found out that proxies are also recommended for Kdenlive when using large files. So, I enabled them, and then tried to import my footage.

And… it worked! Kdenlive happily ingested my video, created the proxy on the fly, and I was able to start editing immediately! Was it as nice as editing in Premiere Pro? Absolutely not. Kdenlive has more lag, and feels less powerful than Premiere. However, since it’s currently working, I’ll try to finish out this project in it, and see how well it performs, especially after hours of use…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 52/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Things That Work: Soundiiz

Sun, 14 Jun 2020 17:29:51 -0600

A few months ago, around the time that the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect the Untied States, I began playing a weekly round of Name That Tune with my family. The premise is simple: I create a playlist with a variety of songs, and then the rest of the family attempts to guess, within the first 90 seconds of the song, the song’s title and artist.

Prior to the start of these games, I was primarily using Apple Music for all of my music-streaming needs. It wasn’t perfect, but in general everything I was looking for was present in that ecosystem. However, as I began to put playlists together for the NTT games, I quickly decided that I was going to need an alternative to improve the workflow. Apple Music doesn’t have a good web or Linux client, and I didn’t feel like using my old MacBook Pro for all of the work. Plus, I was getting fed up with Apple Music’s playlist system. I briefly looked at YouTube Music/Google Music, but quickly decided that was also not going to work, and so I switched to Spotify.

Now that I was relatively happy with the app and workflow, I began creating 1-2 playlists a week. However, I quickly found that keeping track of all of the songs that I had already used was painful. I had to either rely solely on memory, or switch between all of the previous playlists to check if a song had been used previously. There had to be a better solution. Ideally, I wanted a way to export CSV files from Spotify, compile them into a single LibreOffice spreadsheet, and then have an easy lookup table on my side monitor while I worked on playlists. Of course, that couldn’t have just been built into the Spotify UI. That would have been too easy. So, I began searching for a solution, assuming that I was not the first person to want to do this. And I was right…

Enter Soundiiz. Weird name, I know. I had actually ran across the service a few months prior, but completely forgot about it. Soundiiz advertises that they have the ability to sync playlists and favorites between platforms, and at the time, I didn’t need that functionality (I’ve since tested it out briefly, and I was underwhelmed by the performance). However, they also offer playlist export in, you guessed it… CSV! Which is exactly what I needed. And so, I signed up for an account, synced my Spotify playlists, and the rest is history.

Now, my procedure for creating NTT playlists is pretty simple. I first visit Soundiiz, and export the previous game’s playlist, which I then import into a master spreadsheet that contains all of the songs that I’ve previously used, along with the date used, artist, album, etc. It’s still a little time-intensive, but now I only ever have a single list to compare against, instead of switching between all of the previous playlists (currently at 12 and counting).

There are a host of other features that Soundiiz claims, though I’ve never actually tried any of the others out (other than what I discussed above). If you listen to a lot of music, or switch between multiple platforms, it’s worth quickly browsing through their feature list. I personally could see the playlist sync being useful in the future, especially if it becomes more robust.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 51/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

The Work Week Ends

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 17:25:22 -0600

As has happened many times in the past few weeks, I had elaborate plans for what to write about today. And… I don’t feel like writing any of them. So instead, I’ll just summarize my day.

Today I worked from home. I had a couple of Zoom meetings, then spent time debugging a few different issues, reading documentation in preparation for another project, and spinning up an EndeavourOS VM to run a test on for a coworker (thanks VirtualBox!). In the late afternoon I went grocery shopping, then I’ve just been relaxing at home. Friday afternoons/evenings seem to be the worst time for me to have motivation.

And… now it’s 9:30p, I’m wrapping up a few last minute tasks for tonight, then heading to bed. I’m attempting to stick to my normal schedule even on the weekend, as I find myself more productive and happier when I do. We’ll see how that goes…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 49/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Just Use the Website

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 17:24:41 -0600

For many years, I’ve heard recommendations from privacy-conscious individuals that if you choose to be on a social media platform, it’s best to just use the web interface, and not an app. That limits the ability of the company that runs the service to track and log data about you. Sometimes I’ve followed this advice, and sometimes I haven’t, depending on my perceived convenience of the app over the website.

However, recently I’ve begun limiting my app usage more and more, but not necessarily for privacy reasons. Rather, I’ve found that it’s easier to avoid mindless swiping or the nervous tick of looking for something to do on my phone if I limit those types of interactions to only the respective website. My (phone) screen time has dropped, and I don’t catch myself wasting as much time on my mobile device as I once did. I’ve actually gone so far as to not even use the mobile website, but only check certain things when in front of my home desktop, which has further helped to reduce the amount of time I waste during the day.

Anyhow. Hopefully that idea is useful to someone else, or to my future self when I’m reviewing this. I’m sure there are more ways to improve what I focus on and spend my time doing. If I find another that seems to stick for me, I’ll pass it along.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 48/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Avoiding Temptations

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 17:23:56 -0600

This is a short post that I will probably revisit later. The topic? Avoiding temptations in life. Why today? Because I once again failed, and need the reminder…

I have learned, over the course of many years, that especially at certain points in the day I have very little willpower to avoid temptations. This could be something as simple as avoiding overeating desserts (which I like), to limiting my exposure to social media, to reducing the amount of time I spend watching movies/TV shows/YouTube. To actually achieve my goal in whatever area that is, I often have to completely remove the temptation from my life, or put such severe limitations on it that I cannot easily slip up when I’m tired after work, and I no longer have the willpower to easily keep myself away from whatever the temptation is.

This has taken many extremes over the years. When it comes to food, the only sure-fire way to keep myself from overeating is to intentionally portion control my food as soon as it enters my house, and to avoid anything I can easily snack on. For video content, it has meant removing TVs from my kitchen so I don’t get distracted watching show after show (which leads to more eating too). For social media, it means not keeping anything other than Fosstodon on my phone, and even that is only web-based.

So what triggered this today? I ordered low-carb/keto desserts, because I enjoy them. The problem is, I tend to eat more than a single serving at a time. And when I eat multiple servings, I dislike how I feel afterwards. Yet that never stops me in the moment, nor does that cross my mind. What’s the solution?

I’ve been known in the past to actually throw away whatever is tempting me in the food arena. I may have to do that again tonight. And to keep myself from going there in the first place, I suspect I need to add a safeguard to my Amazon account so that I don’t simply order snacks whenever I feel like it.

Anyhow. That’s where I’m at today. And I’m rather tired due to waking up at 2:30a, so… that’s it till tomorrow.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 47/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Raspberry Pi 4

Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:20:46 -0600

I got my first Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) today, and took a short amount of time to begin migrating my Home Assistant setup to it. Thoughts so far:

I like the increased RAM
I’m a huge fan of the case I bought, which is black metal (like a computer case), and includes a small fan

I have yet to really tax the machine, so I haven’t seen how hot it gets, nor have I seen its full capabilities. I’m hoping to finish the migration from my Raspberry Pi 3 either tomorrow or next weekend, at which point I’ll re-purpose the RPi 3 for another home project.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 43/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Finish Work Week: Check

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 17:19:18 -0600

Well, I’ve officially finished my first full week back at work after 2 months of working from home. Overall, not bad. It will take some getting used to again, but I quickly found myself settling into old methods and habits.

Things that I still need to improve:

Re-enforce strict wake time. I was still struggling to be happy about getting up exactly at 4a.
Tighten up morning schedule so I arrive at work at my intended time. Throughout the week this slipped from 15m later than I wanted to 30m. My ideal is 7a.
Reduce television time post-work. I’ve caught myself watching more than one episode of something in the evening, which offsets the rest of my evening plans, or causes things to get missed.
Re-enforce strict phone-down and bedtime. I did pretty good on this overall, but I need to get back to turning off electronics at least 1 hr before bed, and then ensuring I am in bed by my set time for optimum sleep.

Do any of my readers really need to know all of that? No, not really. But it’s good for me to think through this on paper (or the e-equivalent of paper, my blog). And it’s a good way to pressure myself into actually doing it!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 42/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Things That Work: Zowie FK1

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 17:16:25 -0600

Inspired by Things that work! by Cliff Brake.

As someone who spends a very large amount of time in front of a computer, over the years I have built up a list of a number of preferences. Today’s post is about the Zowie FK1+, which is my default mouse choice.

I first learned of the FK1+ (and other similar models from Zowie) in 2015 when I took my current position at work. I was looking for a mouse that was comfortable, worked with all operating systems, and gave me the option of different DPI settings in the mouse itself, instead of having to use software. Somehow, during the research, I ran across the FK1+, and I haven’t looked back. It is now in use both at work and at home.

So, why use the FK1+ (or, again, a similar model)? It’s ambidextrous. It’s comfortable, in my opinion at least, for extended use. The DPI settings are amazing. And the mouse holds up well. Also, it is available in different sizes for different hands, so you can choose whatever size is appropriate.

Bonus: Along with the FK1+, I always use a SteelSeries QcK Gaming Mousepad. I’ve tried using desks without a mousepad, and the experience just isn’t the same. Lack of a good mousepad makes the entire computer experience lousy. Again, years ago I found the SteelSeries line of mousepads, and ever since I’ve used them in one form or another. I vary the size or design based on use case, but you can find one of these under every mouse I use.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 41/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Too Many Topics

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 17:15:44 -0600

Day 40!

Once again, as I sat down to write this evening, I was struggling with what I wanted to write about. I have a host of topics that I have opinions on, and I wouldn’t mind writing about. Anything from the case for owning physical books, movies, etc, to technical discussions on tools I use, to software, hardware, book, and other reviews. But I’m struggling to focus on any one to write about, especially after a day at work.

So, I will open that up as my question of the day: what topics would you find interesting? What would you like to see me write about, if anything?

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 40/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Back to the Office

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:14:10 -0600

Today marks the beginning of working from the office primarily again for me, instead of at home. I’ll still be working from home some, especially if/when I need to concentrate hard. But I expect that over the coming weeks the amount of time I spend at home will continue to decrease.

Somethings felt relatively natural in the office. Others, however, will take some getting used to. I was very much used to my normal routine at home, and lack of talking throughout the day… transitioning back to frequent conversations will be, shall we say, interesting.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 38/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Sibling Summit: Episode 8: Introverts in a Post-Quarantine World

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

How do you determine when it’s time to quit a hobby? Do you think of large purchases in terms of cost-per-month? What does life look like for introverts in a post-quarantine world? Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Discoveries

Hannah: No-Carb Bread from Aldi
Justin: Alienating the Audience, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Revival’s In The Air

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Update on the New PC

Sun, 31 May 2020 17:10:30 -0600

Yesterday I wrote a brief blog post announcing that I had completed my new gaming PC build. Today… an update.

This morning I decided to run a few benchmarks against the machine (I literally only did initial OS installs yesterday). I very quickly noted during the tests that the CPU was getting much warmer than it should, and so I decided to take the machine apart and replace the CPU fan. I was using the stock cooler that came with the AMD Ryzen 5, but I had a spare CoolerMaster CPU fan that I didn’t end up using in a previous build, so I installed that. In all, it took me about an hour to remove the old fan and install the new one.

Now, with the much larger fan, the benchmarks run at distinctly cooler temperatures. They’re still a bit warmer than I am really happy with, but within safe specs, and comparable to my other Ryzen build.

I still have more testing to do to see if everything works as expected, but at this point I’ve played about 60m of WoW at “recommended settings” with no issues.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 37/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

It's Been a Day

Thu, 28 May 2020 17:08:11 -0600

I was originally hoping to post a more thought-out blog post today. However, after my normal morning routine, around 10 hrs at work, and just finishing dinner, I’m rather tired, and don’t have anything particularly insightful to talk about.

So instead, here’s a podcast recommendation: if you’ve never listened to Daily Tech News Show from Tom Merritt (and friends), I’d strongly recommend checking it now. It’s a nice daily tech news summary that I utilize to keep up to date with what’s going on without having to read a lot of news stories myself, unless I choose to.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 34/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Early Mornings

Wed, 27 May 2020 17:07:19 -0600

Every once in a while, I wake up super early, and can’t fall back to sleep. Today was one of those days. I awoke around 3a, and have been up ever since.

Oddly enough, I don’t mind it that much, other than it messes my schedule up some. I’m normally up at 4a anyhow. I have a rather lengthy morning routine, due in part to the fact that I attempt to fit so much into my mornings before work:

I make & drink coffee.
I do some reading.
I do a workout.
I eat breakfast.
I get around for the day in a leisurely manner.

And even after that, I’m still walking out the door (or in the current case, to my home office) around 7a.

So what do I do when I’m up an hour or more earlier than intended? Well… more of the same, normally. I may throw in some extra reading. Maybe I work out a tad longer, or start my work earlier. Sometimes I add in some brainstorming, or (as was the case today) I bring my task list up to date.

Anyhow. That was today. The one downside is, I’m a tad more tired than usual, so it will be an early evening for me…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 33/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Still Failing

Mon, 25 May 2020 17:05:05 -0600

Yesterday I blogged briefly about reinstalling Windows on my gaming PC. Unfortunately, even after doing so, I’m still having random BSODs and other crashes on the system. Therefore, last night I made the executive decision to replace the system (almost) entirely.

This morning I did a little planning (using the excellent pcpartpicker tool), spec’d out a new machine, and placed an order for the components. I believe that my graphics card (a GTX 1070) is still good, so I only needed the rest of the system. It wasn’t super cheap, unfortunately. But I want to be able to play the occasional game that isn’t supported on Linux with good performance, and maintaining a functional Windows machine appears to be my best solution for that.

If all goes well, the parts will arrive late this week, so I’ll be able to do the build over the weekend. And, hopefully, that will solve my computer issues…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 31/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Windows 10 Updates

Fri, 22 May 2020 17:02:28 -0600

Every once in a while I fire up an older Windows 10 PC, mostly to play games. Unfortunately, because it doesn’t get used much, it normally needs to run updates. And I officially hate running updates on Windows machines.

At this point in my life, most of my work is done on Linux. I understand the operating system relatively well, and I generally understand what an update will do to my computer.

Windows updates are too opaque. I can read what Microsoft tells me about them. But I can only delay installation. I can’t choose to never update (and expect things to work right).

I’m currently attempting to get my system functional again, so that I can play a game with a friend. And at this point I’m a whole freaking 75 minutes into troubleshooting and updating…

Anyhow. Rant complete. For now.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 28/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Timing Matters

Tue, 19 May 2020 16:58:47 -0600

Short post today. Been a busy day, with more to come…

Professionally, I do a lot of work with microcontrollers and real-time systems. I don’t normally need to focus much on the timing aspect, as the frameworks in place generally have been ironed out, and timing just works.

However, there are times, like today, when I find out that a system is failing to perform correctly because we are missing timing deadlines. When something like that occurs, it’s time to start digging through the code, looking for the point of failure. Sometimes it’s an easy fix; sometimes it’s a design flaw that requires a substantial amount of work to fix.

So which one is this? I’m not sure yet. I’ve found a handful of easy fixes. If those don’t work, it will be on to the more complex debugging and re-designing…

Kind of applies to life too, don’t you think? Timing is everything…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 25/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Musings on Life Habits

Mon, 18 May 2020 16:57:23 -0600

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15 (ESV)

Romans 7:15 has been on my mind a lot recently, though not necessarily for spiritual or religious reasons. Rather, it’s because I constantly find myself slacking in my habits and disciplines, and I want to know why.

I mean, I guess I know the general reasons. The human body and mind tend to shy away from discipline. It’s something one has to work on, constantly. And I know that, and have proven it over and over to myself.

Yet, despite my best intentions, especially over the last 2 months while I’ve been primarily at home, I’ve noticed certain practices slipping. Is it anything major? To me, yes, though it might not be to others. A few examples…

I pride myself on reading. I generally spend 30-60m each morning reading both my Bible readings of the day, and one or more chapters of whatever book I’m working on currently. That is part of why I get up early, so that I always have time. Because I’m now fully enforcing my own schedule, and no longer am expected to be at work at a specific time, I am more likely to sleep in, and my reading time suffers.

Another habit that has slipped some is my workout time. I’ve slowly built up to the point that, pre-lockdown, I was doing aroudn 30m of exercise 5 days a week (again, in the morning). Once again, that habit is has slipped due to my sleep schedule.

So maybe the issue is actually the fact that I am not bouncing out of bed on my normal schedule. Why is that? Well, I suppose one aspect of it is that I am working mostly remotely, so I can do certain things throughout the day, and don’t have to cram everything into the 3 hours pre-work, or the 4 hours post-work. I can handle bits and pieces on breaks during the day.

But even then, that’s not an excuse, is it? I still want to do all of my old routines, and I’m still getting roughly the same amount of rest. Do I need to simply force myself into action? Maybe. It’s definitely worked before.

Anyhow. Those are my current thoughts on the matter. Possibly incoherent. But I think it helped me to write them down and process them, at least.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 24/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Name That Tune

Sun, 17 May 2020 16:55:19 -0600

I wasn’t sure what to write about today. I didn’t want anything long, but I wanted an actual post as well. So, I decided to write up a little explanation of a game my family and I have been playing remotely!

For the past few weeks, at least once per week, my family and I have been playing Name That Tune via Zoom. The general setup and rules are simple:

I create a playlist with ~100 songs my family is likely to know ahead of time.
One by one I play through the songs (using the Random function to randomize the order).
Those playing have until the end of the chorus (ie, song intro + verse 1 + chorus on most songs) to tell me who the artist is (1 point), and what the song is (1 point). First person to shout out the answer gets the point.
There is a potential bonus point for anyone who also knows the album.
If no one guesses the correct artist/title, I get the points. I don’t get a point for the album.
Highest score wins. The goal is for me to be the lowest score, which means I chose songs well for my target audience.

It normally takes us 2 hours to play, but from what I’ve been told, everyone enjoys it (so far at least). My family is also getting competitive, and starting to intentionally try to listen to music they think I might incorporate into the game to get a leg up on the rest of the family.

Also, to keep track of what songs I’ve already used, and as a way for my family to look up the information at a later date, I’ve created a git repository with all of the playlists in CSV format. Obviously, what works for my family may not work well for others, but it gives you an idea of the songs we’ve used.

And a few notes on the technical side:

Every user needs to use headphones. Otherwise it’s VERY hard to play, in our experience.
I use loopback software on my computer to pipe the music to Zoom, while still monitoring it on my end. I can go into more detail on this at a later date.
While I like local media, for this I am using Spotify, as I simply do not have access to the sheer amount of music needed to keep this interesting. At this point we’ve covered over 800 songs since we began playing.

And that’s the game! If anyone tries this out for themselves, let me know what you think of it, and how it goes!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 23/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Sibling Summit: Episode 7: The Mom Show

Sun, 17 May 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

In a special (belated) Mother’s Day episode, we talk with our mom about her experiences with blogging, her thoughts on technology, and her first impressions of the new iPad Pro! Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Discoveries

Hannah: Nutritional Yeast
Justin: Wiki.js
Blogging Challenge: 100 Days to Offload
Procreate for iPad

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

A Quiet Night In

Fri, 15 May 2020 16:53:01 -0600

It’s Friday. Pre-COVID-19 that would normally mean a normal to slightly-longer than normal workday, followed by grocery shopping, and some down time. So what does it mean in a post-COVID-19 world?

Well, pretty much the same, just with a few tweaks. It’s still work most of the day, just from home instead of the office (most weeks). Then, mid- to late-afternoon, I head to the other side of town to do grocery shopping. And finally, down time at home, by myself.

So why down time? Am I not itching to be around people? No, not really. By the end of the week, I’m normally tired, and need a quiet night to myself. Time to recharge so that I’m not completely worn out on the weekend, and honestly, time to get some extra rest. Even when I’m only communicating remotely and working from home, I still get worn out and need a quiet night in. 🙂

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 21/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Moving a Git Submodule

Thu, 14 May 2020 16:49:25 -0600

A coworker asked me a question this evening about how to move a Git submodule to a sub-directory, and as it’s something I’ve had to look up multiple times in the past, I decided it would be good to post it here for easy lookup in the future.

How to move a Git submodule to a sub-directory

Delete the submodule reference from .gitmodules (normally 3 lines)
Check .git/config for references to the submodule and remove them, if they exist
Run git rm --cached <submodule name> to remove the submodule reference from the repository
Remove the old submodule folder
Recreate your submodule reference with git submodule add <git repo url> <local path>

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 20/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

100 Days and Over-Saturation

Wed, 13 May 2020 16:47:35 -0600

Earlier today, Kev posted an update to the #100DaysToOffload challenge on his blog. The TL;DR version is that, for reasons that make sense to me, and I generally agree with, instead of 100 posts in 100 days, the challenge will now be 100 posts in a year.

So, what does that mean for my own blog?

My current plan is to continue with the challenge, and specifically with the 100 days/100 posts version. While it is true that only a handful of the posts end up being of much quality, I’ve noticed that I am thinking about blogging more throughout my day, and I think that in general the habit that I’m forming of at least attempting to write a post a day is good for me.

However, that being said, I will only be posting 2-3 of my blog posts per week to social media, specifically the ones that I think are of higher quality and would be interesting to people outside of friends and family. If you’re interested in seeing EVERYTHING that I post, I recommend subscribing to my RSS feed. Otherwise, keep an eye on my Fosstodon page, where I typically link to blog posts that I feel the community will be interested in.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 19/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Thoughts from Antigone

Mon, 11 May 2020 16:44:28 -0600

I had grand plans today on what I wanted to write about. It was going to be an impressive post all about the power of clarifying what it is you’re trying to accomplish, and the tools I personally use. However, while I’ve started work on that, I simply do not have the energy to write that post this evening.

So… what am I posting instead? How about a few of my favorite quotes from Antigone by Sophocles that I just re-discovered earlier today while transferring my notes on the play to my personal wiki?

“Show me the man who rules his household well: I’ll show you someone fit to rule the state. That good man, my son, I have every confidence he and he alone can give commands and take them too. Staunch in the storm of spears he’ll stand his ground, a loyal, unflinching comrade at your side.” Creon

“Whoever thinks that he alone possesses intelligence, the gift of eloquence, he and no one else, and character too… such men, I tell you, spread them open – you will find them empty.” Haemon

“It would be best by far, I admit, if a man were born infallible, right by nature. If not – and things don’t often go that way, it’s best to learn from those who give good advice.” Haemon

“All men make mistakes, it is only human. But once the wrong is done, a man can turn his back on folly, misfortune too, if he tries to make amends, however low he’s fallen, and stops his bull-necked ways. Stubbornness brands you for stupidity – pride is a crime.” Tiresias

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 17/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Initial Thoughts on a Personal Wiki

Sun, 10 May 2020 16:39:35 -0600

Approximately two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post where I mentioned that I was interested in setting up a personal wiki, or something similar, as a way to keep an online commonplace book. I’ve been taking notes on the idea ever since, and today, I finally decided to give it a try.

Requirements

I had a few different requirements.

Easy to maintain & use
Markdown support
Accessible and editable on all devices
Web-based, so that I’m not handling syncing between devices
FOSS

Enter Wiki.js

After a decent amount of research, where I looked at pretty much every FOSS solution for a personal wiki, I settled on Wiki.js. There were a couple of features that lured me in.

First off, Wiki.js can be installed and maintained easily. While I’m technically capable of doing complex installs and maintenance of software, I very much prefer options that don’t require a lot of extra time to set up and maintain.. Wiki.js has install guides for pretty much every platform, including Docker.

Second, Wiki.js is designed to be both public facing, while still have private pages. I wanted a solution that I could post notes on and point others to, instead of having to copy files around (I historically have kept my own notes in Markdown, but they are not publicly accessible). Wiki.js allows me to do that, and store notes of my own behind a login (if I choose).

Third, Wiki.js has a number of page format options, one of which is Markdown. As mentioned above, I already use Markdown, and I prefer it for the portability and future-proofing it offers. So, I can simply copy my existing files to my wiki, and really the only extra work I need to do is choose the page hierarchy.

Fourth, Wiki.js, while being a web app, can sync all changes to a Git repository. In my mind, this is one of the killer features of the software. I can write notes on my wiki site, and they will be automatically synced with a private Git repo. So even if I choose to use another tool in the future, my notes are all in a Git repo that I can simply clone, and then import into whatever that tool is.

My Setup

I started setting up my wiki this morning around 11:30a.

My first step was to choose hosting. I use DigitalOcean fairly heavily, and Wiki.js has a one-click app in the Marketplace, so that’s what I went with. I chose a 5 dollar per month droplet (the smallest), and within a few minutes, the site was up.

Next up, initial login and setup. There’s seriously not much to talk about here. Everything was very straight-forward, and within another few minutes, I had my own wiki started!

The final step of setup was linking a domain name and setting up HTTPS. As I mentioned above, I started this journey a few weeks ago, and so I already had a domain purchased via porkbun.com. I once again followed the setup instructions on the Wiki.js website, and had no trouble completing the setup!

Total time from start to finish, including adding some pages, setting up a Git sync, HTTPS, and exploring the Admin area: ~ 60 minutes.

Current State

I’ve spent another hour or so creating and playing with pages since then. I’m very happy with how everything looks so far, and can’t wait to continue expanding the site. At some point, I will probably link to it here on my blog so that others can explore (it is primarily public-facing).

I’m also considering moving a few things that are hosted on Gitlab, or here on my personal website, to my wiki, especially the lists of the books I’ve read, and the books that I want to read.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 16/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Distractions and Time Tracking

Sat, 09 May 2020 16:37:07 -0600

Do you ever that weird feeling at the end of the day, when you know you were extremely busy, but you can’t point to any one thing you accomplished? Or do you occasionally wonder where all of your time has gone, and what the distractions were that kept you from accomplishing your tasks & goals?

As someone who loves studying productivity and ways to improve myself, those thoughts come up frequently. As in, on a more-than-once-a-week basis. When the thoughts reach a critical peak I generally try to do something about it, and improve my productivity. Sometimes my changes stick; sometimes they don’t.

Enter Time Tracking

Something that I read earlier this week triggered me to start thinking about time tracking again. In This 3-Minute Habit Changed My Life by Laura Vanderkam (found via Pocket), the author talks about how she has been logging her weeks in 30 minute increments for the past few years, and some of the thing she’s learned from it (how many hours a year she’s reading, amount of time spent in the car, etc). It sounds interesting, and useful, but also like a LOT of extra work.

Then I remembered Emergent Task Timing by Dave Seah, something I ran across back in (I think) 2013. At the time I was working for a company where it was useful for me to know the approximate number of hours I was working on a project for each of our customers. I started using the ETT, and logging my work day in 15 minute increments. Was it annoying at times? Yes, definitely. But it also let me see the amount of time I was having conversations with coworkers, handling administrative work, and being distracted by the internet, vs how much time I was actually working.

Farewell Time Tracking

Unfortunately, when I started at my current position a few years ago, that habit fell by the wayside. And it kind of makes sense that it did: I was no longer doing contract work, but was instead working for only a single company. Keeping extremely close track of my time was no longer overly important (or at least, that’s what I thought). And that brings us to today.

Today’s a Saturday, so while I was planning to do some work, I mostly intended to take time off and relax. Except, I also intended to relax by getting somethings done around the house. I’ve accomplished a few things, but not as much as I wanted to. And so, I’m seriously considering either using the ETT method again, or attempting to use the 30 minute spreadsheet. I would like to have a general idea of where I’m spending my time, and especially my idle time. I haven’t completely made up my mind yet, though when I do, I’m sure I’ll blog about it!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 15/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

VSCode for Markdown

Fri, 08 May 2020 16:34:42 -0600

Short post again today, unfortunately. Today, and this week in general, have been super busy. But a few quick thoughts today.

For most of my software development (C/C++) I prefer to use Sublime Text. I know it’s not FOSS, but it’s one of the better text editors I’ve ever found, and at this point I’m so used to it that it would be a pain to change (not that I don’t still consider it from time to time). And it works equally well on every platform I’ve ever tried.

However, when it comes to Markdown, I am finding that Code – OSS (VSCode, Open Source edition) is remarkably good. I have been using QOwnNotes on desktop, or Dillinger.io online, and both work well. But VSCode does better with previews than QOwnNotes (from what I’ve seen), and it handles folders of files better than an online tool like Dillinger.io can. Not a huge fan of the fact that it’s a Microsoft product, but it is fully opensource, so I’m not opposed to using it either.

And so, unless another tool shows up soon that is equally as good (or better), I will be using VSCode for Markdown editing. And who knows… perhaps at some point I’ll move to it for my other work as well.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 14/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Refactoring

Wed, 06 May 2020 16:32:32 -0600

Another short post today.

I’ve spent a large portion of the last few weeks refactoring code at work. For those not in the software industry, refactoring basically means cleaning up/reworking how a piece of software works, without changing the external behavior. Sometimes it’s simplifying the logic. Sometimes it’s renaming things to make comprehension easier. Sometimes it’s removing unused features. Sometimes it’s moving duplicate code to a common implementation.

I’ve been doing all of the above. It’s tedious at times. It’s fun at times. And it normally makes me feel good once it’s done. But it got me wondering… why don’t we use the same word in real life? For instance: if I’m reorganizing stuff in a room to make it easier to access? Sounds like refactoring to me. Or how about migrating from a few different note taking tools/methods to a single format? In other words, all of the small modifications/improvements that I make to my daily life that don’t change the end result, but improve the workflow… is kind of refactoring.

In short: I think I’m going to start referring to some real-life changes as refactoring as well.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 12/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Motivation

Tue, 05 May 2020 16:31:27 -0600

Author’s Note: I want to apologize ahead of time to the reader if this is incoherent. I have a ton of thoughts today on this topic, and they may not translate well to the written page.

Today is one of those days where I’m struggling with motivation. That’s not to say I’m not motivated. I have a number of things that are on my mind that I could happily work on. Unfortunately, none of those include a few projects for work that I really need to work on.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I like to study productivity. I frequently read blogs, articles, and books on being more productive, organization techniques, etc. And I frequently gain something from them. But even with all of that study, the one thing that I’m still struggling with is how to refocus my mind on a project when my mind is anywhere but there.

It doesn’t help that I’m struggling to sit still today too. My home office has a sitting desk, unlike my desk at work which is a standing desk. So I can’t easily do work while standing, walking in place, etc. I may need to figure out a way to change my setup here at home… it looks like I have at least another month of this to go.

The weird thing is, I was highly motivated yesterday. I got a fair amount done. And even this morning I was doing pretty good overall. But this afternoon my concentration started to slip, and the last hour or two have been brutal.

Perhaps I’ll take the rest of today off, do stuff around the house, and try to relax/reset for tomorrow. I have no idea if that will actually work, but it’s worth a shot.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 11/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Sibling Summit: Episode 6: Social Distancing as Introverts

Tue, 05 May 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

What is the #100DaysToOffload Challenge? How are each of us doing at it? And what is life like for us as introverts during this time of social distancing? Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Discoveries

Hannah: Chuck
Justin: 0 A.D.
Blogging Challenge: 100 Days to Offload

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Leadership Talks with Banning: Bill Johnson

Sun, 03 May 2020 16:26:31 -0600

Note: I no longer recommend listening to Bill Johnson, as I have strong disagreements with his theology, but I’m leaving this up for both historical purposes, and because the quotes I listed are mostly still applicable. (2024-11-03)

I have been listening to the Jesus Culture Podcast for years. Originally called the Jesus Culture Leadership Podcast, it has evolved over time to include not only leadership talks, but also discussions about topics that apply to the church at large. I’ve been listening/re-listening to a number of them today, and one with Bill Johnson from last year really stuck out to me. Below are a few notes/quotes from the podcast that I found especially profound.

Quotes

“Self-promotion is to obtain an identity that you rejected in your relationship with the Lord. It’s to obtain something through your own voice that you missed from His voice.” Bill Johnson

“Self-promotion is actually competing with the promotion of the Gospel. You have to sacrifice something to promote yourself, and at some point you’re going to compromise the Gospel. At some point you’re going to compromise your effectiveness on the world around you.” Bill Johnson

“If I cannot handle being overlooked, I cannot handle being looked at. If I can’t handle criticism, I can’t handle praise. If I can’t handle disappointment, I can’t handle success. Those are the things that He takes us through to build Christ-like character in us.” Bill Johnson

“The fear of man will take you places; the fear of God will take you another.” Bill Johnson

“I try to make it a policy to never talk to a person about a problem unless they are involved in the solution.” Bill Johnson

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 9/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Day 8 Recap

Sat, 02 May 2020 16:24:50 -0600

I had a bunch of ideas for blog posts today. And then I got busy doing other things. So this will just be a short recap of my day.

This morning started with me playing 0 A.D. for a few hours, until I finally won a skirmish on “Very Easy”. Then, off to the store for the week’s groceries. On the way I stopped and chatted w/a friend (while staying 6 feet apart); good to catch up a little.

Late morning/early afternoon consisted of podcasting w/my sister (hopefully that episode will be released in a day or two). And after that was done, I had a late lunch (cheesy scrambled eggs), then did some work on projects around the house that needed attention. Around 4p I got a call from a coworker that propelled me into trying to solve a field issue, which I’ve been working on off and on ever since.

Post-dinner, I also had a family Re-Zoom-ion, as my sister and I have started to call it. Just a fun time w/my immediate family to play Name That Tune. We had fun, as usual, and now it’s time for me to wrap up this blog post, and wind down for the evening!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 8/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

0 A.D.

Fri, 01 May 2020 13:43:58 -0600

Today’s post will be fairly short, for a few reasons. First, I’ve been busy, and don’t feel like writing a lengthy post. And second, I have been distracted playing 0 A.D., a free and open-source game of ancient warfare, akin to Age of Empires.

I’ve heard of the game prior to today, but it was brought back to my attention via a post by Kev on Fosstodon. And so, after work, I downloaded it and started to play.

Initial impressions: 0 A.D. brings back the nostalgia of playing Age of Empires for me, which was one of my favorite games growing up. The graphics are decent, though there is some noticeable lag and screen tearing at times (to be fair, this game is in alpha, so I can’t complain too much). The soundtrack/audio are great. And the gameplay is fun, although in all honesty, I have yet to win a game (played at Normal difficulty).

Now, back to trying to win a simple skirmish…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 7/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

RSS For The Win!

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 13:39:36 -0600

I love reading. I have read ever since I can remember. Before I was around computers, I read physical books. When our family got a computer in the early 2000s I continued reading books, but also began reading news online.

Fast forward to the early 2010s. My reading habits had not changed much, although I added some digital books and magazines to my reading collection. But then, I discovered blogs.

Blogs were amazing! It was a way for me to get inside the minds of other people, and get their perspectives on life. I read all sorts of things: personal blogs, self-help, productivity, tech, you name it. But I quickly found a problem: it can be very painful to keep up with multiple blogs on multiple websites. If only there was a way to collect all of that to a single location for me to read…

The RSS Aggregator

Enter Google Reader! Perhaps a year or so before it would be sent to the graveyard, I somehow found out about Google Reader (an RSS aggregator), and quickly became a fan. It was a little clunky at times, but I was able to use it to aggregate everything in one location. I quickly added all of the blogs I followed to the site, and then just kept adding more as I found new topics I wanted to follow.

Of course, as I alluded to earlier, Google Reader was eventually killed off. In 2013, Google announced that it would be shuttering the program, and so I began looking for another RSS feed aggregator. I quickly found Feedly, imported all of my feeds, and life was good!

Fast forward to early 2019. Feedly was still working well, but I occasionally get the urge to move to using self-hosted solutions, and so I decided to look for ways to host my own RSS aggregator. I found a number of options that looked intriguing, but I really wanted one that was both FOSS, and would integrate with Nextcloud (a self-hosted cloud alternative), since I was already hosting an instance on a DigitalOcean droplet for personal use. And that was when I found Nextcloud News.

My Current Setup

Nextcloud News was amazingly simple to setup. As with most apps on Nextcloud, it can simply be installed via the Nextcloud App Store. You also need to enable a cron job or use an updater to queue the background tasks, but the guides on how to do that are very easy as well. And so, I had my own self-hosted feed aggregator! Great!

Next up: find a mobile app, as I do a large amount of my blog reading from my phone. At the time, I was using Android, and so I tried the Nextcloud News app. It worked, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. But I stuck with it for a few months, until I ultimately switched from Android to an iPhone back in September 2019.

One of my first tasks after switching to iOS was finding a good RSS reader. I tried multiple over the course of a few months, but finally settled on Fiery Feeds. Unfortunately, it is closed source, but looks amazing, and so far has worked very well for me!

And that’s my setup! It has worked well for months now, and as you may have guessed, I am now using it to actively follow all of the #100DaysToOffload blogs! Huge thanks to Amolith for putting a single mega-RSS feed together!

Finally, for those of you who are interested in following my blog using a similar setup, you can find my RSS feed here.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 6/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Improving My Zoom Audio Qualtiy

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 13:05:03 -0600

Zoom: The New Normal

In mid-March, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect daily life, many companies (including the one I work for) began having all employees work from home that could with reasonable efficiency. For me, this meant taking what is a fairly social job (of the 8-9 hours I’m at work a day, 1-2 hours tend to be impromptu or scheduled conversations) and moving it almost 100% online. Fun…

Thankfully, we already use Slack at work heavily in the software department, and so transitioning to using it almost exclusively wasn’t much of a problem. What did take some getting used to, for me at least, was using Zoom. Prior to mid-March I had used Zoom all of 2-3 times. Now, I have 2-3 work Zoom chats a week, 1 church-related Zoom chat, and 2-3 family Zoom chats. I quickly adapted to using the tool itself, but about a week into it I realized that the audio quality of the built-in mic I was using was a bit rubbish (I’ve chosen to use my old MacBook Pro for conferencing, as it has the best web cam of any computer I own, even though it’s 8 years old).

Initial Mic Improvements

Now, I’ve dabbled in audio and video production off and on for about 12 years at this point, so I had some equipment lying around the house that I could use to improve things. My first attempt was using a gen 1 Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 as the input to my MBP, and a Blue enCore 100 dynamic mic (SM58 equivalent) that I had lying around. That worked in that I could hear myself, but it wasn’t great, and my mic stands didn’t accommodate using that comfortably while in a video conference.

My next try was replacing the enCore 100 with a Blue Bluebird SL condenser mic. This microphone is (frankly) gorgeous to look at, and has a nice sound. However, I ran into the same issue with it as I did with the enCore: none of my mic stands worked well with it when video conferencing (my setup was geared around voice-over work for that mic). And so, it was time to get creative.

I happened to remember that I had a Rode NTG2 shotgun mic in a drawer that was from the time period when I was shooting videos for the church I was attending previously. It sounds relatively good, but being a shotgun mic, has specific positioning that makes it work well. Luckily, I also happened to still have the (freakishly) large stand that I bought at the same time, which allowed me position the mic above the frame of the shot I was capturing. And so, as ridiculous as it looked, I set up the full boom stand + NTG2 in my home office. At last, I had decent audio! Except…

The Next Step

I have a few computers in my home office, and between them and the desktop power supplies I am often working with when bringing up/testing embedded projects, there is a lot of background noise. So I spent a few hours (very) early one morning figuring out how to do post-processing on the audio before sending it to Zoom (via Software). The whole setup I was and am using is an entire blog post in and of itself, so I won’t go into the details here.

And with that, I finally had what I was striving for: non-rubbish audio for my Zoom chats! And that’s what I ran with for about a month. But in the back of my mind, I knew that I could still improve on my setup, and the boom stand was taking up WAY too much space…

The Final Solution

So, two weeks ago, I ordered a Rode PSA1 (professional studio boom arm), plus a Rode PodMic (cardioid dynamic broadcast microphone). And, at last, I have a setup that I’m relatively happy with. The boom arm slides out of the way when I don’t need it. The mic sounds great, almost as good as my Bluebird (though not quite) from extremely basic tests (I’m sure the Bluebird would prove much better with additional testing; I haven’t done much of a comparison personally). Yes, it does look a little over-the-top. But that doesn’t bother me, frankly. I sound good to others, and to myself when I care to check on it.

And thus ends my Zoom audio improvement saga… that is, until I get around to replacing the Focusrite…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 5/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Author’s Note: The links in this article are provided solely to improve the reader’s ability to see what I’m discussing and to look at the specs. I do not receive any financial benefit from them.

Unwinding

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:04:21 -0600

As I start writing this blog post, it’s already 8:50p. Normally I try to at least come up with what I’m going to write about earlier in the day. But today I kept busy enough that I only thought about blogging once or twice.

I started out working from home this morning, but then something came up with work that required me to head in to the office for the afternoon (first time in around 2 weeks). After a few hours of beating my head against a wall, I managed to find the issue, and push a fix. By that time it was already after 5p, and so I headed home, while keeping up with Slack chats along the way (and throughout dinner).

Post-dinner I did some more testing at home, then tried to unwind slightly while installing Ubuntu 20.04 on a small PC I am putting in my kitchen (I’ll post more on that at a later date). And yes, I do generally find tinkering with hardware/software somewhat relaxing. However, that’s up and running, but I still feel like I haven’t really relaxed, as I’m still thinking about work.

Which leads to my conundrums/musings: how do I safely unwind at the end of the day, and stretch (or relax) my mind so that I am ready for what the next day will bring, without feeling like I’m putting off doing work that I should be doing?

I don’t have any good answers for that, and therefore, I’ll continue to ponder…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 4/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Monday Miscellany

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 13:02:11 -0600

I was struggling a little today with deciding what to write about. So instead of one large topic, I have 4 mini-topics!

Into The Storm

First up, a podcast I’ve really been enjoying recently: Into the Storm. Technically part of the Froning and Friends podcast (made up of Rich Froning and others in the Crossfit community), Into the Storm is currently a weekly podcast where the hosts take a passage/chapter from the Bible, read through it, and discuss it. It’s not highly structured, nor is it deeply theological. Rather, it’s just a good discussion, and is something I am looking forward to listening to every week.

Introvert Retreat

Next up, a website that I just discovered today: Introvert Retreat, which contains both articles and discussion groups for introverts (yes, you guessed correctly). Over the past few days I’ve become interested in studying more about how introverts operate, and how to balance that personality type in a largely extroverted society. This site has some good ideas on both of those topics (at least, from what I’ve seen so far).

Chris Wiegman’s Blog

Oddly enough, I ran across Chris Wiegman’s blog as part of the #100DaysToOffload challenge. I try to glance through the archives of all of the various blogs taking part in the challenge, and when it came to Chris’s blog, I quickly started saving off links to older posts where I either want to do more research on the topic he talked about, or try some of the projects that he’s done (especially moving from WordPress to Hugo, something I’ve considered many times before but never actually done).

Readwise Alternative

And finally, another website that I just ran across today: Readwise. I don’t recall where I found this at (probably Twitter), but the premise is that Readwise makes it easy to revisit and learn from your book & article highlights. The design is that you sync your highlights & notes from Kindle/Instapaper/iBooks/Pocket, and then their service helps you review the best parts easily through a daily email and app while building a database of your knowledge over time. Sounds nifty, right?

Two problems. First off, no support for physical books, which is my preferred way to read (I take somewhat heavy notes in books as I read, or on a pad of paper next to me). Also, it’s a closed system, and if I’m going to put time into anything like this, I want to control my data and host it myself.

In the past I’ve wanted to build a digital commonplace book for myself. I’ve looked at using Evernote (or a similar tool), but I’ve never been happy with their implementations. I’ve heard of personal wikis before, and while I’ve previously skipped over them, this specific application seems like perhaps the ideal use for a wiki. And so, that led me down the rabbit trail of researching personal wiki systems, which is still ongoing. If anyone has a recommendation for me to check out, please let me know (easiest way to contact me is via social media). Ideally, I would like something that I can host myself, and that is available cross-platform (desktop/mobile, and maybe web).

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 3/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Book Review: Console Wars

Sun, 26 Apr 2020 12:58:43 -0600

Earlier this year I began to renew my interest in video games, the culture surrounding them, and the all of the work that goes into their creation. One of the books that I heard about while listening to a gaming-related podcast was Console Wars by Blake J. Harris. And so, as I have a habit of doing, I immediately pulled out my phone, opened the Amazon app, and ordered a paperback copy of the book.

I started reading Console Wars soon after it arrived, but as this is a busy time of year for me, it took me a while to finish. But let me tell you, it was completely worth it. Throughout the book, Mr. Harris tells the story of the video game console battles of the early 90s, from multiple sides. It’s the story of the underdog, Sega, taking on the biggest name in consoles at that time, Nintendo.

Probably my favorite thing about the book was the great storyline that made me feel like I was living in that time period, watching events occur in near-real time. I’ve heard friends and coworkers, slightly older than me, talking about the days of the Sega Genesis with nostalgia. Or, perhaps they were a Nintendo family, and they were talking about the Genesis with disdain. And after reading this book, I finally get it (both sides)!

I don’t want to spoil too much that happens in the book, and there are many better reviews than mine that you can find online. However, I strongly recommend checking it out if you have the time, especially if you’re into technology and/or video games!

Turns Out, I’m an Introvert!

Sun, 26 Apr 2020 12:56:49 -0600

I consider myself an introvert. There’s never been a time in my 30 years on this planet where I didn’t think of myself as an introvert. But over the past few years, as I became more and more involved in both work and church, I started to believe that maybe I was some kind of introvert/extrovert hybrid, or that I was evolving into an extrovert. I still enjoyed time by myself, but I was constantly going places with people, chatting with friends (in person and online), etc. And then the COVID-19 pandemic happened.

When the news first came (around March 15) that people should start working from home, I’ll be honest: at first I was a little concerned with how I would handle being “on lock-down”. Would I begin to go crazy? How hard would it be for me to only be at home, by myself, and not interacting with other people (except online)?

It turns out: I’m still an introvert! As I write this, I’m now well over a month into working from home, and overall, I’m loving it. On most days I don’t talk to anyone verbally (I am still in contact with family and coworkers via various instant messaging platforms), and I frankly don’t miss it that much! I’ve been able to get more accomplished working from home, at least by my own measurement, than I normally would in the office. Interruptions only really exist if I let them, so if I really need to focus, I can put my phone on silent, close down my chat clients, and just work. It’s amazing. I think I’m actually spending more time working at home than I normally would in the office, but it doesn’t feel nearly as draining.

However, I have noticed something odd while working entirely from home. Even though I technically should have more time for personal projects, reading, exercise, and gaming, I don’t seem to be spending much additional time on those pursuits. I’m not entirely sure where my time is going, other than to work (as mentioned above). That’s in no way a complaint, more just a commentary on a lack of mindfulness on my part that I want to correct. Perhaps this week I will keep a journal of exactly how I’m spending my time…

Now, I said that I don’t miss talking to people. That is mostly true, but it’s also a slight stretch. I do, after all, still participate in Zoom chats, which keep me in some semblance of face to face communication with family, coworkers, and friends. And while I don’t necessarily want to go anywhere and hang out with people, I do miss the freedom to choose to do so. I’m not particularly a fan of being told that I can’t travel to see family & friends, go to church, concert, etc.

So, what do I think the next month of continued shelter-in-place looks like for me? I’m kind of looking forward to it, to be honest. I’ve started to get into a good groove with working from home. I want to make time to work on a few more personal projects, but I hope that my time tracking experiment will help me figure that out. I also want to take a few more workout breaks throughout the day, to counter the extra sitting that I’m doing (I have been using a standing desk at work). Stay tuned for an update!

Now, back to my morning coffee and catching up on my RSS feeds…

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 2/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

100 Days to Offload: Day 1

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 12:48:17 -0600

I sat down approximately 5 hours ago to start writing this post. And then, as often happens anytime I write a blog post, I promptly got distracted making completely unrelated tweaks to how my website works. Therefore, I now have a new theme installed, updated my plugins, and cleaned up my blog post categories. And with that, I am finally starting in on the new post!

I have found over the years that some of the best changes in my life happen when I choose to do something somewhat at random, and don’t put a lot of extra research and planning into it. My switch to the keto diet a few years ago is one good example. Another was the choice a little over a week ago to join challenge to do 2000 lunges in 10 days (1000/leg) with my sister, which turned out to improve my workout habits some while working from home. And that brings us to last night…

100 Days to Offload

Yesterday evening, while scrolling through my Fosstodon timeline, I ran across this post from Kev Quirk:

So what’s the purpose of the challenge? Put simply: Just. Write. For 100 (ideally consecutive) days, write a new post for your blog. It doesn’t matter what you write about, or how great the content is. The goal is simply to write daily.

I thought this all sounded like a fun idea, and so I mentioned it to my sister, who immediately wanted to join in (you can check out her blog here. And so, with very little thought or planning (other than to make a note to start today on my to-do list), I decided that I would give it a try!

Day 1

With all of the introduction and explanation complete, here are my actual thoughts for today.

It’s a dreary, rainy day where I live. I won’t complain much though, because I needed a day off to relax. I work in the agriculture industry, and this is one of our busiest times of the year. Even while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been staying at least as busy as normal, and perhaps busier. Most weekdays I’ve been working on projects in my home office for 10+ hours a day, and some on the weekends. Rainy days tend to bring a slight respite to that schedule.

So today I took a relaxing morning, enjoyed my daily dose of coffee, continued reading Console Wars, which I hope to complete this weekend (it’s really interesting, just rather long), and then began working on my website, and this blog post. Once this is complete, I will probably perform some tech maintenance around my house (updates need ran on multiple machines), and work on creating a playlist for my family’s next remote game of “Name That Tune”. We’ve been playing together using Zoom (my sister and I already had it for work, so it was the most natural choice), and so far it’s been a ton of fun, although it takes some preparation on my part.

I’m unsure of what the rest of the posts in this series/challenge will look like. Some days will probably just be passing on an interesting article I read. Other days may include musings on life, home projects, the news, or anything else that is on my mind.

To that end, if you have any recommendations on topics for me to write about throughout this challenge, please reach out and let me know! I have contact via email disabled currently, but you can reach me on social media (yes, I’m back on social media, I’ll explain that another time) using the links at the bottom of my website.

And if you’re super bored, check out the podcast that my sister and I host, Sibling Summit! We post new episodes twice a month, and discuss pretty much any topic that crosses our minds!

Final Thoughts

As I was reading through my RSS feed over lunch, I saw a post by Cal Newport (from today) entitled “Bring Back Blogs?“, which advocates for the use of blogs over Twitter for experts to publish long-form information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interesting timing, and I completely agree his assessment:

When confined to Twitter, pandemic experts mainly express themselves through 15- or 20-tweet long threads. Not only is this format cumbersome to consume, it also can’t easily be updated. To make matters worse, these threads are quickly pushed out of view by the downward pressure of the growing user timeline. A page or post on a blog, on the other hand, allows the expert to more easily write long-form content, including links to their articles and rich graphics, they can easily update as new information arises. In addition, a stable section of core articles can be maintained at the top of the site where they will be immediately visible and not pushed out of view by new content.

In this proposal, these experts wouldn’t abandon social media. On the contrary, they would continue to actively engage with these platforms to summarize their ideas and comment on events, while the platforms would continue to work their algorithmic magic to amplify the more impactful content. The big change, however, is that this short-form content can now be pointing back to their longer, more stable elaborations.

I’m definitely not an expert on anything health related, but I would strongly advocate for experts (and amateurs) in a variety of fields to return to blogging for long-form content!

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload. You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.

Sibling Summit: Episode 5: Slacking or Relaxing

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

What tech do each of us use in our daily lives? Is social media a blessing or a curse, and how do we each deal with it? Is there a way to tell the difference between slacking and relaxing? And what do we each do to relax? Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Discoveries

Justin: Still Rolling Stones (Social Distancing Version) by Lauren Daigle
Hannah: SomeGoodNews
Justin: Procreate
Hannah: Online Optometry Conference

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Micro-Update: KDE Konsole and tmux

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:33:28 -0600

I ran into an interesting issue this morning after running system updates on my main desktop computer (running Arch Linux with the KDE Plasma desktop). For some reason, although I don’t think any behavior was intentionally changed by the developers (and I’m not blaming anyone), Konsole (a KDE terminal app) started intercepting the CTRL+B key combo that is used by tmux. It turns out that this is a standard “Add Bookmark” shortcut in the Plasma desktop environment.

My solution was a bit of a hack, but works for now: I went to System Settings – Shortcuts – Standard Shortcuts, and disabled the “Add Bookmark” shortcut entirely, as I don’t really use it. Problem solved! Now, back to software development…

Micro-Update: Happy Easter!

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 12:34:32 -0600

Sibling Summit: Episode 4: The Teleworking Life

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

What does teleworking due to the COVID-19 outbreak look like for the two of us? How do we stay focused day in and day out? And how do we each deal with anxiety and depression when it hits? Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Plus, Hannah talks about the music group 21 Pilots, and Justin expounds on new software he recently picked up from Rogue Amoeba!

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Sibling Summit: Episode 3: The Corona Effect

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

What does life look like in 3 different parts of the US with the COVID-19 outbreak and precautions? Why did we name the podcast Sibling Summit? What does “under the weather” really mean? Join us for disucussions on all this and more!

Plus, Hannah talks about the music group Black Violin, Jonah attempts to explain why we should watch Supernatural, and Justin geeks out about a new tea he discovered!

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Sibling Summit: Episode 2: All in the Mind's Eye

Sun, 01 Mar 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

What does it take to start a podcast, and what did we learn in the process? What is aphantasia, and how do each of us view things in our mind’s eye? And with all of the cool things to learn and do, how do you choose? Join us as we discuss all three!

Plus, Hannah talks about ambient-mixer.com, and Justin explains what RSS is, and the new setup he is using for an RSS feed reader!

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Sibling Summit: Episode 1: Hello World

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Click here for the audio on Archive.org

If content is free, but you have the option to donate, should you? How much is time really worth? And can openness be a facade? Justin and Hannah discuss all three, plus introduce themselves to the world, and discuss what they’ve been up to.

Plus, Justin talks about autonomus robots, and Hannah reviews the SinglesSwag Box.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Context: Originally posted as part of the now-defunct Sibling Summit podcast

Micro-Update: Recommended Firefox Extensions

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 12:35:54 -0600

I realized this morning that I frequently give recommendations to friends and family on apps and tools to use, books and blogs to read, podcasts to listen to, etc. And so, instead of constantly pulling up my notes and then sending a list individually to each person, I decided to begin creating pages here on my website briefly listing my recommendations, and why I recommend them.

The first (and only) page so far is my recommendations for Firefox Extensions. However, I expect to add more in short order, at which time I’ll add a blog post announcing them as well. My goal is to keep these pages updated and current, as I personally hate it when I come across recommendations that I think sound useful, and then find out that they are years out of date.

Enjoy!

2019 Year in Review

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 12:37:47 -0600

It’s hard to believe, but another year has come and gone. And so, to keep with my tradition (is 3 years enough to call it a tradition?), here’s a look back at the last 12 months of my life.

The beginning of 2019 was relatively bland for me. I was active at work, and volunteering at church, but not many noteworthy events occurred during that time. I did, however, make a small change in one of my habits: I quit listening to audiobooks on Audible. I wrote up a blog post about it in early March, so I won’t rehash the details here. But that change did see me begin to purchase and read more physical books than I did in previous years.

Then, towards the end of March, I took a week-long trip to the southern United States to see my sister, who was there for 3 months on an optometry externship. I should note, at this point, that traveling is highly unusual for me. I tend to stay home and just read or spend time by myself when I take time off of work, instead of traveling. But this seemed like a good opportunity to visit the area and do some hiking, so off I went. While there, my sister and I went hiking pretty much every day, and also visited a number of local restaurants (all of which were amazing). Below are some select photos from that trip.

And a few short months later, my sister graduated from optometry school! I traveled back to my hometown, where I met up with the rest of my family, and together we headed to the university for her hooding ceremony.

And to wrap out May, a group of production team members from the church I attend headed to Chicago for FILO 2019 (First In, Last Out), a 2-day conference for church production leaders, staff members, and volunteers. It was a great time of worship, learning, and growing in technical skills, as well as a great time to spend with friends from the team. You can see a recap of the event here (I couldn’t embed it in this post due to restrictions by the content creators).

Early June means the first of the local small-town festivals, and once again this year I went one evening with friends from church. While there, 2 of my friends competed in a competition to see who could hang from a bar the longest. Watching them compete got me thinking about my own lack of muscle, and so I began debating what to do about it. I have never liked exercise, but I know that physique does not improve by sitting on a couch. And so, a few weeks later, I began to build a home gym in my basement, working under the assumption that I would be more likely to use equipment if it was readily available than I would be to visit a gym. At that time I bought and installed a power rack, a bench, a bar, and a 165 lb plate set. Needless to say, I wouldn’t be outgrowing that anytime soon.

In midsummer (late June/early July), I took another step in leaving what I refer to as “traditional social media”. In last year’s retrospective I mentioned that I had left Facebook & Instagram. Now I shuttered my Twitter account, and chose to join Fosstodon, a FOSS-centric Mastodon instance (for the uninitiated, Mastodon can be thought of, in super-simplistic terms, as a federated Twitter alternative). I blogged about my experiences after leaving social media back in October (see this post), so once again I won’t go into too many details here.

Now, on to August! Ever since I’ve worked at Precision Planting, my coworkers have been trying to get me to attend the annual Farm Progress Show. Pretty much every agriculture company attends the event, showing off their latest and greatest, and it’s a good opportunity to see what’s going on in the industry all in one place. The show is hosted at two alternating sites, and this year it was in Decatur, which is around an hour away. I finally agreed to go, since it was close, and so on August 28th, 3 coworkers and I drove down early in the morning and spent the day touring the show.

Then, in early September, I made both a somewhat substantial purchase, and a very substantial change in my daily tech. After 4 years of using Android phones, I made the switch back to iOS with the release of the iPhone 11. I once again blogged about my decision (see this post), so I won’t cover my reasoning for switching here. I will say, however, that I have overall been happy with my decision to switch to a different mobile OS, and while I don’t believe that Apple is perfect, I’m more comfortable with them than with Google from a performance and privacy position, and there are no other options that I am ready to consider at this time (although I’m definitely keeping an eye on the PinePhone).

At around the same time, I decided to build out my home gym a little more, and add a trap bar and a dumbbell set. I had not outgrown what I had installed a few months before, but I was finding the limits of what I could do with the equipment I had, and a friend had suggested that I pick up some dumbbells due to their versatility. And so, after weeks of planning and pricing options, I went ahead and purchased some additional equipment. It took a week for it to arrive, and when it did, I was slightly shocked by the number of boxes that I would have to carry to my basement. Thankfully, the same friend was willing to come over and assist, and so between the two of us we got everything moved from my garage to the basement, and the dumbbells and trap bar unboxed. I spent the following day putting the dumbbell rack together and moving equipment around.

On to October! Every year, the young adult ministry I’m a part of holds a Fall Festival at one of the leader’s houses, complete with a bonfire, games, and food. This year it was held in early October due to scheduling, and one of the team-based competitions was pumpkin carving. My team, made up primarily of other leaders, struggled briefly on what to carve, but quickly settled on Bob & Larry from VeggieTales. We didn’t win, but we did come in second place! Below is a picture of our creation.

This brings me to November. In mid-November, I was invited to attend a men’s conference at a church in Indianapolis by my pastor (who was also one of the speakers), along with the other male leaders of my small group. We traveled there on Friday, spent Saturday morning at the conference, then returned home Saturday evening. It was a fun time with friends, and it was also great to just participate in the event, learn from those speaking, and enjoy a time of worship. The picture below was taken between sessions, when I (being the geek that I am) went up to look at their tech booth.

The following week, I made a short trip for work out to Los Angeles. I won’t lie, I was a little nervous about the trip, primarily because I didn’t know what to expect when it came to traversing such a large city. And while I definitely wasn’t as comfortable there as I am in rural communities, I’m glad I had the opportunity to go. Below is a picture I took from the window in my hotel room.

And the week after that was Thanksgiving! This year I traveled home for Thanksgiving to spend time with family for a few days. I had caught a cold about a week earlier (right after returning from LA), and so was unfortunately still a bit under the weather while visiting family. But thankfully I was able to rest and recuperate while there, take it easy, and overall it was a relaxing few days.

Then, it was back to my home for a few weeks! The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was busy with Christmas parties, church events, and shopping. And somehow, in the midst of that, I managed to find time for some mischief too! A week before our R&D Christmas party, some coworkers and I decided to wrap another coworker’s desk in wrapping paper, and then built an entire “gift box” around it. And to top it off, we blamed it on the elves (see below). Thankfully, the coworker we played the prank on took it well, and his desk became the talk of the company for the next week!

The following week was our R&D Christmas, which is always a fun time with coworkers. This year the event was held at a large venue nearby, and I was asked to take photos at the event, to be shared in the following days with the entire team.

That takes us to my family’s Christmas, which this year was held at my parent’s house. Just like Thanksgiving, it was once again a relaxing time, and also a fun time to spend with my parents and siblings.

And with that, 2019 comes to a close! I’ve spent the time since returning from visiting family catching up on projects around the house, and doing an excessive amount of reading (although, because I keep bouncing between books, I’ve only completed one during that time). As to what 2020 will look like for me? I have no idea. But I look forward to whatever God has in store!

Happy New Year!

Micro-Update: Quotes and Passages Page

Sun, 29 Dec 2019 12:16:42 -0600

I spend what is probably an excessive amount of time researching the art of studying, reading, and researching, driven by a desire to constantly improve not only myself, my skills, and my knowledge, but to also improve how I learn. Earlier today I came across the idea of publishing a “Quotes and Passages” page to my website while reading an article by Ryan Holiday. I skimmed through his implementation, and decided to begin implementing the same type of page here. My plan is for it to contain quotes from books, podcasts, etc than I find particularly interesting, inspiring, or noteworthy.

Update: After realizing that I was not utilizing the quotes and passages page on my site, it was removed. This post was left for historical purposes.

Micro-Update: User-Friendly Linux Mug

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 12:25:29 -0600

This is the first of what I’m referring to as “micro-updates”, based on the concept of micro-blogging. I occasionally have a short thought, or something I would like to share, but there isn’t enough content to create a standard-length blog post. So I decided to give this format a try.

Earlier this week, a co-worker sent me a link to an amusing mug on Amazon. I’m a sucker for things like that, and so it was added to my cart, purchased, and arrived on my doorstep in short order. While it’s not “accurate”, per-say, I can at times agree with the sentiment. As much as I love Linux, occasionally when troubleshooting something, it can be a tad annoying…

Asocial? A Life Without Social Media

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 12:27:34 -0600

In November of 2018, I logged out of Facebook and Instagram for the last time, deleted my Snapchat account, and removed the Twitter app from my phone. A few months later, I also shuttered my Twitter account. After debating it for many years, and attempting (and failing) multiple times, I was finally done with social media.

It’s been almost a year since that time, and so I decided to do a quick retrospective to answer the following question, something I wish I would have had to read before making my choice: what’s it like to be 30, in the tech sector, and not on any traditional social media platforms? In short, it’s both amazing, and also sometimes slightly annoying.

Background

Before I go into the pros and cons of not being on any of the major social media platforms, allow me to give a little bit of background on my decision, and the steps I took before and after deleting my accounts. I had considered deleting my social media accounts for a long time, for a few different reasons. First off, I knew that I was spending too much time scrolling through my various news feeds. Also, I was not particularly comfortable with any of the companies that ran the platforms knowing as much about me as they did. Facebook in particular had a much more detailed profile on me than I cared for them to have, and I had already begun to only use their website from inside a container on Firefox so that they could not track me around the web.

I made my final decision to begin removing myself from social media in early November, a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I deleted Instagram and Snapchat almost immediately. I had never used Snapchat heavily, and so removing it was a simple choice. When it came to Instagram, most of those I followed were also on Facebook, and while I enjoyed seeing the pictures that friends and family posted, I knew that I still had other means of communicating with everyone.

Then came Stage 2: Facebook. I had been on Facebook for many years (since high school), and it was how I kept in touch with most family, friends, high school and college classmates, and various people from other stages of my life. In fact, I had convinced myself on numerous occasions that I could not leave Facebook because of the sheer number of people I would no longer have an easy connection to. However, I decided that I was spending too much time on the platform, and so I began sending messages to a handful of people, requesting contact information to use once I closed my account. I also alerted family and close friends, but to make my decision easier and not feel pressure to stay, I did not broadcast to many people that I was leaving. A week before Thanksgiving, I closed and deleted my Facebook account.

That left Twitter. I kept Twitter initially because I was not spending as much time using the app/website, and I was occasionally using it for professional reasons (to follow Precision Planting dealers, other Ag companies, etc). However, in early Spring 2019 I decided that the few uses I had for it were not worth keeping a presence on the platform. And so, like Facebook and Instagram before it, I went into my Twitter account options, and shut it down.

And now, I’m a pariah, right? I’m still (somewhat) young, living life in 2019, and not existing on any of the traditional social media platforms. In some ways… yes, I am. There are both pros and cons to my decision. And I would do the same thing again if I had to choose, although I would probably go about it in a slightly different fashion.

I have distinctly more time on my hands. I was spending easily an hour or more a day idly scrolling through my various feeds, liking posts, keeping up with what my family and friends were up to, and keeping myself distracted from the real world. That’s not to say that social media isn’t real, but it’s often an idealized reality.

I also no longer try to create the perfect post for social media, in an attempt to see how many likes I can get, and to get that extra bit of validation from others. Don’t get me wrong: I still have those desires at times. But by limiting my ability to get easy social validation, I am forcing myself to learn to look to God, not those around me, for my self-worth.

I’ve also found that I am less distracted when I am spending time with people I care about. There are fewer things on my phone to send me notifications, and at this point most are work-related. The lack of constant interruptions makes it easier for me to spend time completely focused on who I’m with and what I’m doing.

There are often events that I don’t get invited to, because I’m not on social media. This is less of an issue now than it used to be, as people have slowly internalized that they need to contact me directly to invite me to things, but it still happens. And I’ve had to learn to be okay with it, which is hard for someone who deals with the fear of missing out (FOMO) frequently. It does mean, however, that the events I’m invited to are generally because the host is actually interested in me being there, and not because they invited a large portion of their friend list.

I also miss out on social gossip (which is probably both a positive and a negative). I have missed many people’s birthdays, because I forgot to find out when they were ahead of time, and I no longer get a notification. I also am not the first to know when relationship statuses change (single -> dating, dating -> engaged, dating -> single, etc). And I don’t always hear about major life changes either (pregnancy, moving to a new job, new state, etc). These are often small prices to pay, but they do affect me nonetheless.

What would I have done differently?

Plan my exit slightly better. There are a few people I wish I would have requested contact info from, which I no longer have the opportunity to do.
Write down birthdays and anniversaries. I would have added these as reminders to my calendar. It’s something small, but I enjoy receiving birthday wishes from others, and I would like the opportunity to do the same.

Final Thoughts

As stated earlier, if I could make the choice again, I would still get rid of social media. I have still continued to maintain my LinkedIn profile, for professional reasons, although I am becoming less and less convinced that it is necessary. Also, since getting rid of Twitter, I have created a Mastodon account (on the Fosstodon instance), which I occasionally use for keeping up with the FOSS community. It has proven to be much less distracting than traditional social media, and it’s also operated by a small community, not a large company, so I trust that they are not attempting to sell my data.

Leaving Android Behind

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 12:29:43 -0600

If someone were to have told me that I’d be leaving Android at the start of 2019, I’d have told them they were crazy. After all, when I switched to Android from iOS in 2015, I decided that I would be staying with the platform for the foreseeable future. And the further I got into that future, the more entrenched I became in the Android ecosystem, to the point that switching would be painful on both my pocketbook, and on my daily life. But here we are: it’s September, and I’m officially leaving Android behind, and switching to an iPhone. So… why an iPhone? After all, I’m a Linux user, right? Wouldn’t it make more sense to move to another Android-based system, or a Linux phone?

First up, a bit of background: I used iPhones for a number of years, from sometime in the 2010-2011 timeframe (I don’t recall exactly when I switched from my trusty BlackBerry to an iPhone), until July of 2015. They worked fine, but I was never particularly happy with Apple’s iCloud services, and found myself using Google and its services (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, etc) much more frequently. And when Project Fi was announced, I was one of the first to sign up on the waiting list. As soon as I got my invite to join the beta (it was still Project Fi at that point), I ordered my Nexus 6, and plunged headlong into the world of Android phones.

For the next few years, I continued to use Project Fi (which became Google Fi a few years ago), and I also continued to use Android phones, as they worked best with the service. Also, the Google/Android integration was great, as much of my life revolved around Google services. I went from the Nexus 6 to the Nexus 5x, followed by the Pixel 1, Pixel 2 XL, and finally the Pixel 3 XL. All of the phones (minus the 5x) were great devices, and I had no complaints with their performance. I did have some annoyances dealing with messaging friends and family who still had iPhones, and occasionally I ran into situations where being on Android meant I didn’t have the app selection I would have had on iOS, but by and large the experience was pretty good. Which leads to the obvious question: why change? Why shift my life from the Android ecosystem back to iOS?

I’ve been debating whether I would stay with Android phones for about 2 years now. I occasionally read blog posts from others who have “de-Googled” their lives (such as “Why I’m Ditching Android” by Kev Quirk), and found their stories and opinions both intriguing and thought-provoking. I have also been getting more and more concerned about the sheer amount of information that Google has on me, as well the lack of privacy when using their tools, especially from a Google-branded phone. Don’t get me wrong: I really like some of the perks that come from all of the data Google has collected. But it is also unnerving, from a privacy standpoint. Two things had always kept me with Google phones though: perceived-superior services, and Google Fi (since using a non-Google phone on Google Fi is not a worthwhile endeavor in my opinion based on reviews, and Google Fi is a legitimately good cell phone service). But then, around the beginning of summer, I began in earnest looking at other options.

My first reason for looking at switching to iOS is perhaps not a particularly good reason, but it is one of the top reasons for my switch: iMessage. It simply works better than SMS/MMS, in my experience, especially better than SMS/MMS between Android and iPhone. I have been annoyed at photo and video quality when sent cross-platform for years, and recently it reached the breaking point. I wish that RCS or another SMS replacement were ready, but they simply aren’t. And I can’t convince friends and family to all switch to Telegram or some other platform when iMessage is installed on most of their phones by default, and it just works. And on top of that, it’s encrypted, out of the box.

My second reason is closely tied to the first: AirDrop. A few times a year, I have found myself in a situation where someone wants to share a large number of pictures with me, and AirDrop, once again, just works. Unless, of course, the person on the receiving end doesn’t use an iPhone, in which case there are no simple solutions for sharing files, other than using Google Drive. Google Drive, or Dropbox, or another similar service all work, but invariably the person I am trying to send to or receive from doesn’t use whichever service I happen to use. And in the moment, it’s not easy to convince them to sign up for a new service, download an app, and then send me files via the app.

The third reason is a bit more philosophical: I’m getting tired of Google’s ads, and Google’s lack of privacy. I know they are claiming that they are working on improving customer privacy, but the fact is, they are predominantly an advertising company. They make money by collecting and selling my data, and by showing me ads. The newer versions of their apps seem to be even worse about this than in years past, and that, combined with my other reasons for considering an iPhone, made it a pretty easy decision to leave. Apple devices do cost substantially more than Android phones in general, but from what I can tell it’s because Apple makes their money on me buying the device, not on the data they collect from me as I use their device. I did consider either running an Android alternative on a phone, or else using a Linux phone (such as the PinePhone), but while those options look interesting, none are in a state where I am willing to rely on them in my day to day life. Therefore, switching to an iPhone was the best option for me, as far as I could see. I will continue to watch the Android alternatives and the Linux-based mobile operating systems (especially Plasma Mobile), and perhaps at some point there will be a solid, FOSS option. I hope there will be.

So, in a few short days, my new iPhone will arrive. And honestly, I can hardly wait. I picked up one of the new iPhone 11 models that was announced earlier this month by Apple, and I will be moving from my Pixel 3 XL to the iPhone this Friday, if all goes as planned. I already switched from Google Fi to Verizon at the beginning of the month, intentionally making the change pre-platform switch, in case there were any hiccups (which there were, but nothing substantial). I love playing with new gadgets, and I plan to write another blog post in the coming weeks detailing my thoughts on iOS after years away from it, along with general impressions of the new phone, and if there are things I miss from my Android days. And yes, I’m sure I’ll take a few Slofies. I may even post one.

Abandoning Audible

Sun, 10 Mar 2019 12:30:58 -0600

Every year, when it comes time to renew memberships and subscriptions to various online services, I sit down and re-evaluate if they are still worth the amount of money that I am spending. It is relatively rare that something gets added to the yearly subscription list, and even rarer when a service gets removed. I’ve also found that, year after year, there have been a collection of services that I haven’t even considered removing. And up until this year, Audible was one of those services…

Let me begin by stating for the record that I was a fairly active Audible user. I’ve been a subscriber since August 2012, and a quick perusal of my purchase history shows that I was buying well over 12 books a year on the site. In both 2017 and 2018 I listened to 15 books on Audible, and while I don’t have good records from the years prior, it is safe to estimate that the trend continues. In fact, I’ve already completed 4 Audible books in 2019 alone. Clearly it is a beneficial service for me, right? So why would I consider cancelling my subscription?

#1: I don’t actually own the books I’m buying on Audible

This singular point has been bothering me for a number of years. The books that I purchase through Audible are protected by DRM, and therefore are not available for me to download and store on my own servers, or listen to without using Amazon’s apps and/or website. I don’t actually “own” any of the audiobooks I’ve purchased. It’s more like a per-book rental. I can listen to them as much as I want, but if Audible ever goes away, so do my purchases. This is the same problem I have with purchasing e-books, movies or music on services like iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon: you don’t actually own what you’ve bought. It’s not the same as purchasing a physical book, a CD, or a Blu-ray Disk. There is a part of me that prefers to actually own what I’m purchasing, if possible. There are, of course, ways to strip the DRM from an Audible book (which is illegal, and therefore not an option for me), and there are also stores that sell DRM-free audiobooks, but at a much higher premium (which I am unwilling to pay).

#2: I don’t get as much out of audiobooks as I do physical books

I’ve read articles commenting on the downsides of audiobooks, but until recently I ignored them. Some of the arguments I’ve seen are that you can’t take notes or mark passages that you really like, which always seemed bizarre to me: why would I mark up a perfectly good book? The book won’t look as nice if I write in it! But you know what? The authors of those articles had a point. Recently, I’ve started to read more physical books again, and when I come across something interesting, or a point I want to be able to easily find again, I mark it. Not only is it useful (I’ve already found myself thumbing through a book to find a section I underlined, which would have taken much more time had I left the book pristine), but why worry about keeping the book in perfect condition? I bought it. I own it. Why not use it to meet my needs?

#3: Audiobooks have limited re-readability (or re-listenability)

In some ways, this goes along with Reason #2. Audiobooks are great for listening to as entertainment, but sometimes I want to go back and re-read a passage. It’s VERY hard to go back and listen to a specific part of an audiobook. I’ve done it, but it’s not nearly as easy as walking to my bookshelf, grabbing the book, and quickly flipping to the section I want to re-read. There are ways to add bookmarks to an Audible audiobook, but even then, it’s not nearly as easy in my opinion.

#4: It’s too easy to multi-task with audiobooks

A lot of my recent reading has been devoted to the study of deep work (a term coined by Cal Newport, who also wrote a book by the same title), and minimizing the amount of time I spend idly and distractedly doing things in my life. In this, I noticed that listening to audiobooks was something that I almost always did while multi-tasking. I never just sat and listened to a book. Instead, I worked around the house, or drove (I used audiobooks a lot while traveling), or even sometimes began working on small tasks at my computer. I was never fully focused on what I was listening to, nor was I fully focused on what I was doing. This often meant that I only gleaned some of the information from the audiobook, or could recall only parts of the stories I was listening to. In direct contrast, reading a physical book requires concentration, and it is much harder to multi-task while reading. And by marking passages that stand out to me, and taking my time reading through the book, I tend to learn more.

So, where does all of that leave me? For now, I’ve opted not to renew my Audible subscription. I can still listen to the audiobooks I’ve purchased previously, if I choose. But for now, I am devoting my reading time primarily to physical books. I will definitely re-examine my choice the next time I take a longer trip, and may find that it makes sense to listen to audiobooks then. However, I have a large collection of audiobooks that I have not yet started, and I suspect I may find other things to fill my time and thoughts with as well.

2018 Year in Review

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 12:04:26 -0600

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Gandalf

Well, it’s hard to believe, but another year has come and gone! I was told growing up that time flies the older you get, and I’ve generally noticed each year seeming to go by slightly faster than the one before. However, this year seemed to go especially fast for me. In a recent sermon from my pastor, I was challenged to look back at 2018 and what God has done in my life. And so, with that goal, here’s a brief recap of what I decided to do with the last 365 days!

First up: Precision Planting’s 2018 Winter Conference! As I’ve mentioned before, every year in January we have a conference where we announce our newest products and upcoming concepts we’re working on. This year saw the release of two products that I’ve been actively involved in developing: the new 20|20 Display (release video below), and the mSet multi-hybrid system. After having worked on both projects for the past two years, it was extremely rewarding to finally release them into the marketplace! As an added bonus, my family came out to visit, and got to attend the conference as well.

Of course, just because the products were announced and released doesn’t mean that my work was done – far from it! I actually spent roughly the first four months of 2018 continuing to work towards a successful release for both products, and so there is not much else exciting that occurred for me during the winter.

And that brings us to Easter! Once again, my family came out to visit me, and we got to spend the Easter weekend together, including Good Friday and Easter Sunday services at the church I attend.

Halfway through April, I got a rather unique phone call that altered my plans for my life, though I would argue it was for the best! For the past 18 months or so I had been attending the Amplify impact group at Harvest, a small group for singles in their 20s-30s. There is a core leadership team made up of a couple of pastors and their wives, and also a handful of young men and women in Amplify. A number of the current leaders were getting married and moving on to other impact groups over the summer, and I was one of the candidates for joining the leadership team as their replacement. After some prayerful consideration and discussions with people I trust for perspective, I accepted, and began getting more active in Amplify. The first major activity I helped with after joining the leadership team was our Compassion Day 2018 project in early May.

In late May I returned to Ohio to visit with family, and took the opportunity to fly my drone. While Spring planting occurred fairly late everywhere this year, in Ohio it was extremely late (late-May to early-June), which is why the photos did not show many crops growing yet.

In late-May/early-June, I also took up cycling, after much pressure from coworkers. I spent a Friday morning and afternoon at Bushwhacker, a local bike shop, trying out various makes and models until I settled on a bike that I liked. I settled on a cyclocross style bike by Giant. Consequently, I spent most of June riding around the town I live in and the nearby countryside, and then decided on a whim to do a 22 mile ride with a friend on June 30th. The morning was very hot and muggy, and I was very sore afterwards (that was the longest ride I had done up to that point), but I’m glad I did it!

And that brings us to July! Of course, July means fireworks, and so this year I went with a group of friends to the larger local firework shows. It was definitely an experience, and while I absolutely enjoyed it, I very much did not enjoy the traffic afterwards. Thankfully I wasn’t the one driving!

Later in July was Vacation Bible School at the church I attend. In previous years I had meant to volunteer, but I always forgot until the week before, and then my schedule ended up filling up. This year, I blocked out the days ahead of time, and made sure that I was free! I helped out with the tech team during the opening and closing segments (which included some absolutely amazing worship), and then helped shoot extra video that was cut together for the recap video. While it was a very tiring week, it was also completely worth it, and I hope to volunteer again next year!

At end of July, I headed back to Ohio once again, this time for the annual Vollmer Family Reunion. It was great seeing extended family, catching up on what is going on in everyone’s lives, and just relaxing at the lake! This year saw a smaller attendance than in years past, but it was still a fun time! Before everyone left we took a group photo. My immediate family, first cousins, and aunt/uncle wore “Bob’s Bunch” t-shirts, in honor of our grandfather Bob, who passed away a few years ago. His two surviving brothers were seated in the second row, along with their wives.

August didn’t include too many events, though it did see me participating in two longer group bicycle rides. The first was the Triangle of Opportunity, a smaller ride that went from small town to small town in Tazewell County.

The second, longer ride (a week later) was No Baloney, a much larger group ride that once again tours all throughout Tazewell County (though not the same exact path, thankfully)! After the second ride, in the afternoon, I went on an “ice cream crawl” with a small group from Amplify. I’ll let you, dear reader, figure out what all that entailed!

To wrap up the summer, my family came out to visit me over Labor Day. It was, once again, a fun weekend spending time with family, and enjoying good food at local restaurants.

September through November saw a lot of time spent volunteering at church and spending time with friends (at movies, small parties, and larger group events). As a part of various groups, I attended my town’s annual fall festival, visited a local orchard (where I completed two corn mazes), attended a baseball game, had a going away party for a friend and a housewarming party for another, and carved some pumpkins (seen below)!

And that brings me to Thanksgiving! My family ended up celebrating Thanksgiving in South Carolina this year, due in part to the proximity to where my sister was currently externing, and also because I have extended family in that area. I drove down early in the week, and stayed with my aunt and uncle, helping to prepare food for the family while I was there. I also got to see my cousins and their families while in town, and went bowling with them on Black Friday. While it was a bit of a trip, I had a blast, and am glad that it worked out to spend time with everyone!

Around the same time, I made the final decision to leave most social media platforms, which is why they are no longer linked on my website. I had been considering the move for quite some time, partially because of privacy concerns, and partially because I was finding myself spending an excessive amount of time on social media, and I found that simply attempting to limit my time wasn’t working. And so, I pulled the plug. I kept Twitter for the time being, as it (thus far) has not been as addicting to me, but got rid of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

Finally, on to December! For me, December involved taking a lot of vacation days (I had too many unused during the year), and also a number of Christmas events! First up: the Amplify Christmas Party. We wrapped up the year with Amplify with a nice group dinner, a trivia game, and a white elephant gift exchange. It was quite a fun time with friends!

The following weekend was Harvest’s Christmas service, which I helped with as part of the tech team. Our main Christmas service includes choirs (both young and old), and this year saw around 120 people on stage, if I recall correctly. You can see more pictures on the Harvest Bible Chapel Facebook page.

A few days later was the Precision Planting R&D Christmas party. Each year we get together as an R&D team (along with significant others, if they exist), and do something to celebrate Christmas. This year we had a nice evening meal, and a fun, competitive small group event afterwards.

Now, on to Christmas! This year was my first time hosting Christmas at my house, which meant decorating more than I normally do (since I’m generally traveling back home during the holidays). It worked out best for everyone to come to visit me this year, and so a few days before Christmas my family traveled out to my house. We spent the days leading up to Christmas doing some last minute shopping, cooking tasty food (and eating at some local restaurants as well), playing games, and enjoying spending time together. Our official Christmas dinner was actually on the 24th, as my sister had to fly out on Christmas Day. Everything worked well though, and while it felt different than most Christmases past due to the logistical change, I enjoyed it.

And that wraps up my look back at 2018! As usual, I’m sure that I’ve missed a few things here and there, but I think I hit most of the highlights of my year. Also, I did not mention it at any point earlier, but I have continued with the keto diet this year, and have lost some additional weight, bringing my total weight loss to ~95 lbs (current weight is around 193). And as I stated last year, I could have never predicted where this year would take me, and I look forward to seeing where God takes me in the year to come!

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Mycroft Mark 1

Sat, 12 May 2018 12:02:54 -0600

I have been dabbling in smart home technology and voice assistants for several years now. I was one of the first people I know to own an Amazon Echo (the original black tube), and used it until November 2016, when the Google Home first came out. Since I am an Android user, and I use Google’s services heavily in multiple areas of my life, I made the switch to the Google Home and never looked back. That is, until mid-2017, when the Mycroft Mark 1 Kickstarter was first announced.

Mycroft is an open source voice assistant, and the Mark 1 was the first hardware kit designed to run the Mycroft software. It consists of a Raspberry Pi 3, a speaker, a microphone, and a small LED display, all in a friendly white case. I chose not to back the project when it first came out since I was somewhat skeptical of the developers’ ability to deliver on their goals, but I continued to follow the project with interest.

Fast forward to early 2018, and the Mycroft team once again ran a Kickstarter campaign to finance a new hardware project. This time, the device was the Mycroft Mark II, and the system had matured to the point where I was comfortable backing it. I opted to back at the level where I would get both a Mark II when it comes out (est. December 2018), and a Mark 1 earlier in the year (est. April 2018).

All of that leads me to this week, when my Mycroft Mark 1 device finally arrived. Unfortunately, on the day that it showed up on my doorstep, I had to leave for a quick business trip, and so I didn’t have time to actually open anything until Saturday morning (today).

My first impressions are that, as expected, the Mark 1 is at best a reference device, good for developers and early adopters. That is, after all, what the Mark 1 was marketed as. It is nowhere near as polished as the Google Home, nor is it as useful to me currently. However, I don’t plan to let that stop me from continuing to use it. My current plans are to set it up in my home office, and tinker with various skills and integrations as they become available. One interesting integration already available is with Home Assistant, which is what I am currently using as the hub for all of my smart home gadgets. Also, if I have time over the summer, I may experiment with writing my own skills for Mycroft.

So, why spend time and money on a device that I knew from the start wouldn’t be as good as Google or Amazon’s offerings? Simple. While I am heavily invested in both the Google and Amazon ecosystems, I don’t actually like the idea of either one of those companies having microphones in every room of my house. I am continuing to use their products for now, since I am curious enough about new advances in the smart home and voice assistant spaces that I am willing to sacrifice some privacy. But, I want to foster competition in the marketplace, and the best option from a privacy standpoint is an opensource, self-hosted solution. Hopefully, given time and support, Mycroft will become that solution.

Reflections on a Year With Linux

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 12:01:37 -0600

A little over a year ago (Nov. 2016), I made the switch to using Linux pretty much full time. I wrote a few blog posts about it during the first month, but I have been relatively quiet since then. So, I thought it was about time that I gave a public update.

First of all, am I still using Linux as my daily driver? For the most part, yes. In fact, I’m writing this blog post on one of my Linux machines. Both my main laptop (the Asus ZenBook) and my main desktop computer (an old Dell Precision T3600) run Arch Linux as the OS, with KDE Plasma 5 for the desktop, and I have had very few issues with them overall. Arch gives me the latest version of pretty much any Linux software I want to run, and KDE gives me a nice, fluid desktop experience that doesn’t feel stuck in the 90s/early 2000s like some other desktop environments do (not to disparage them – just not my preference if I have the option).

Also, during 2017 I switched from using Chrome to primarily using Mozilla’s Firefox as my web browser, across all platforms. While I sometimes have qualms about how the Mozilla Foundation operates, Firefox does everything I need, and provides a nice user experience with some cross-platform syncing, which is important for me. I also use Thunderbird on my ZenBook for a desktop email client when I want one, although I typically rely on web mail (I’m still a heavy Gmail user for both work and home).

I said that I use Linux as my daily driver “for the most part”. So where do I not use Linux? Unfortunately, there are a few places where I still rely on Mac OS X and Windows 10, sometimes much to my annoyance.

Mac OS X still works best for me when it comes to photo/video editing (I prefer Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Lightroom Classic), and also when I’m working on notes in Evernote, and tasks in Todoist. While the latter two have web clients, the Mac desktop clients are much easier to use, and I can get my work done quicker there than in the web interface. I have explored using Kdenlive for video editing, but Premiere Pro still feels like the better option for me at this point. Also, yes, there are options like Darktable for photo editing, but since I am already purchasing the Adobe Creative Cloud for the time being, I decided to continue using Lightroom, which I was already familiar with.

Windows 10 gets used for certain development applications at work (where there are often no Linux alternatives), and gaming (primarily Blizzard games). I have investigated using some Windows tools under Wine, but since it is not an option for every tool that I need, I will continue running Windows 10 on one machine at home, and one at work.

In the fall of 2017 I also deployed a server running Linux at my house (ZoneMinder + Emby), and a Raspberry Pi (Home Assistant). The server is currently running Ubuntu 16.04, since that was the easiest way to get started with ZoneMinder (Emby was an afterthought since I already had the server set up). At some point I may move that machine to Arch, or else another server distro, but since it is working for now I have no reason to change it. The Raspberry Pi is running a custom build specifically for Home Assistant (based on ResinOS + Docker), and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, since it is completely dedicated to being my smart home hub.

So, what changes do I have planned for 2018? In no particular order:

Set up a Raspberry Pi with Kodi: I’ve read about Kodi a number of times, but I have never tried it out. The barrier to entry is pretty low, so this seems like a good project for a long weekend sometime this year.
Install Gentoo: I have a coworker that uses primarily Gentoo, and I have never done a Gentoo install. I know it will take some time, but it seems like it might be a good experience for me.
Set up a system with ZFS: I have read quite a bit about ZFS, and was originally going to use it on my server this past Fall. However, I ultimately did an EXT4 RAID-6 array, so ZFS got pushed to a later date.
Set up a FreeBSD system: This may go along with my ZFS experimentation. Earlier this year I actually did a FreeBSD install on one of my laptops, but I had enough issues with it that I re-installed Linux, and put of FreeBSD for another time. I’d like to purchase a small desktop system to use for BSD experimentation.

That pretty much wraps up my experience and current thoughts about Linux after a year of using it full time. At this point I do not foresee any reason for me to not use Linux primarily, although I also do not see a path forward to it being my only operating system. Hopefully, throughout 2018, I will be able to move some additional tasks to Linux, and also get a chance to work on some of the projects listed above.

2017 Year in Review

Sun, 31 Dec 2017 11:32:40 -0600

Wow. It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of 2017 already. Since this has been a very busy year for me, I thought it would be good to look back at some the major events in my life. This is more for my own benefit than anyone else’s, if I’m honest. It’s always good to remind myself of what God has done in my life over the year, and what he’s helped me to accomplish throughout the year. So, as Ro (from Nerdy Nummies) would say… Let’s Get Started!

Every year, during the week of Martin Luther King Jr Day, Precision Planting hosts a Winter Conference where they announce their latest products, and also provide farmers with a lot of agronomic data from the past year’s test plots. Although I worked at Precision in 2016, it wasn’t until January 2017 that I attended a Winter Conference. I was not heavily involved this year, so I was able to attend the different sessions and just observe. Even though I have been around farming for most of my life, I always have more to learn, and there was a lot of new information I learned over the course of the week.

When February came around, it was time to travel to Georgia to do some testing for a project I was involved with at work. The weather had just dipped into the single digits in Illinois, so heading to a place where the highs were in the 60s sounded good to me. This also marked the first time that I a) traveled for work as a Precision Planting employee, and b) the first time that I ever flew in an airplane. As one would expect, I was much more nervous about it than I had reason to be, and the week went smoothly. I spent most of my time there either in the buddy seat of a tractor doing diagnostics, or else writing software (either in the tractor, in a gator, or in the back of a rental van, depending on the amount of concentration needed). The following picture was taken from the aforementioned buddy seat on my second day in Albany.

In late February, I got the news that my paternal grandmother had taken a turn for the worse. And a few days later, on February 21st, she went home to be with the Lord. While there were many tears, there was also joy in knowing that she is no longer suffering here on earth, and that she is in a better place. The funeral was held in early March near my hometown, and so I traveled back for the funeral and to visit family.

And that pretty much takes us to Spring. Working for an agricultural company, Spring is generally one of the busiest times of the year, and this year was no exception. From late-March through June my time was centered around field support, and included a few impromptu trips to debug issues. While not great for photo ops, it did keep me busy, and also gave me something out of the ordinary to work on. I can say without a doubt that there wasn’t a boring day at work during that time period. Although, to be fair, I have rarely had a “boring day at the office” since I started at Precision Planting. We’re not really that type of company!

The summer months were a bit less busy for me, and included a trip home to see family in early June and early August, and two visits from my family to see me, for July 4th and in mid-August for my birthday. My dad always marvels at the size of the crops that we grow in Central Illinois, and this year he had me take a picture of him on July 3rd with the corn across the street from my house. He enjoys sending it to friends back home and watching their reactions, I think.

Also during the summer, on a whim on July 7th, I decided to change my eating habits (I don’t recall exactly what triggered this – probably some article I was reading). And so, with less than a day’s planning, I started out on the ketogenic diet. I was 287 lbs at the time, and while I wasn’t having any particular issues, I was getting tired of the limitations that being overweight brings. I didn’t know if I would be able to stick with the diet, nor for how long I’d want to even if I could. Therefore, I did not take a “Before/After” photo, although at this point I really wish that I would have. I have stuck with the diet throughout the rest of the year, and as of today (December 31st), I’m weighing in at 232 lbs. I have a long ways to go before I get anywhere close to my target weight, but I am quite happy with how far I’ve come as well, and I fully intend to stick with the diet for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, at this point it has become more of a lifestyle than something I really need to put effort into.

The week of my birthday, I decided to splurge a little, and picked up a DJI Spark (a small drone that shoots 12 MP stills and 1080p video). So, while my family was in town, I grabbed some extra batteries and took my drone (and my family) to a local park to learn how to use it. It took me a while to learn to fly the drone properly, and so, unfortunately, I didn’t get much usable footage (or any particularly good photos) during that time. However, I did manage to take a family “dronie”. It turns out small drones are very good for taking family pictures!

August 21st, the Monday after my birthday, was the Solar Eclipse. I originally planned to work that day, but I ended up being given the day off. For those who don’t know, at that time Precision Planting was owned by Monsanto, which is headquartered in St. Louis. St. Louis was directly in the path of the solar eclipse, and so Monsanto chose to give all of their employees the day off. A number of my coworkers were driving down to a campground in Sparta, IL, to watch the eclipse, and so I decided to join them. Early Monday morning I met one of my coworkers, and we carpooled down to Sparta, about a 3 hour drive. We arrived a few hours before the eclipse started, and so I spent a while just chatting and waiting for the eclipse to occur. Below is a picture of the group of us that were there, taken with my DJI Spark.

Now, I’ve seen articles that give a much more accurate depiction of the “experience” of the eclipse than I can, so I will be intentionally brief. The solar eclipse was definitely a very interesting event to witness. The first thing we noticed was that shadows started to get very crisp, and lighting looked “off”. And then, gradually, it began to get darker, though you could see light on both horizons still. Almost as soon as it started, the eclipse ended, so we finished packing up, and began the trek back home (which took about an hour longer than normal due to all of the traffic).

As I mentioned above, in mid-August I picked up a DJI Spark. I played with it some over the next few months, but it wasn’t until October that I did anything substantial with it. My younger brother’s birthday is in late October, and every year I try to make it home to see him sometime around then. This year’s visit coincided with the fall soybean harvest on my family’s farm, and so while my dad and uncles harvested, I flew my drone. I got some cool pictures and videos, and in mid-November I sat down and edited them together into a video. This marked the first time since 2015 that I edited together a video, and since I’ve been using primarily Linux, I attempted the edit using Kdenlive. The results were okay, although I quickly came to the conclusion that if I’m going to do any more video production in the near future, I’m going to re-subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud and use Premiere Pro (which is what I was using before moving to Illinois).

I again traveled home to visit family at Thanksgiving, this time with another toy in tow. For a number of years I’ve really wanted to own a good camera for photography (all of my cameras are exclusively for video), and so I purchased a Panasonic GH5 the weekend before I left. That meant that most of my trip to visit family was spent playing with my camera and experimenting with different settings, when I wasn’t spending time with family (and occasionally even when I was). The picture below was taken with the GH5 on Thanksgiving, so that my mom had a nice family portrait to use on her Christmas cards. My other main focus while with family was setting up my dad with new computer. Well, a new-to-him computer. It was actually a Chuwi laptop that I had purchased to play with a few months prior, but found that I was not using it much. And so I took the computer with me, wiped it, and installed (you guessed it) Arch Linux, with the KDE Plasma 5 desktop, for him. The install went off pretty much without a hitch, and he’s been happily using it ever since. I also installed Arch Linux, this time with Mate as the desktop, on an old desktop computer he had in his office, so that he could experiment with using Linux for bookwork. That computer hasn’t been used very much yet, but he also hasn’t wiped it, so I’ll count it as a partial win.

And that brings us to December. For me, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas were very hectic this year. I had a number of projects at work that required my attention over this time, which led to longer hours than I originally planned on. December was also spent planning and purchasing Christmas presents for family members, and as usual, I probably went a bit overboard. However, I enjoy buying and giving gifts to others, so I’ll count it as a job well done. On December 23rd I headed back to my hometown for the holidays, and spent the next four days with family, celebrating Christ’s birth. While there, my sister and I took our parents out for their 31st anniversary to a local restaurant, which was also the last meal with the family before I headed back to my home.

And, that pretty much wraps up my year! As seems to always be the case, I could have never predicted where this year would take me, and I look forward to seeing where God takes me in the year to come!

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Edit #1 (2018-01-01): Added Solar Eclipse + photos + video (thanks Dave!)
Edit #2 (2018-11-15): Replace Instagram links w/photos

Site Redesign and Migration

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 11:31:15 -0600

Note: This blog post is outdated, but left in place for historical reasons.

As you may have noticed if you’re reading this on justinvollmer.com (instead of an RSS reader), my website has undergone some visual changes. This was due in part to my choice to migrate away from Squarespace, where my site had been hosted for the last few years.

So, why the change? Well, for a couple of reasons, the biggest of which was cost. I was paying close to 100 USD a year to Squarespace, and I felt that I could find a cheaper solution elsewhere. Also, while Squarespace is extremely easy to use, it was also beginning to feel a bit limiting. I’ve been looking at using Amazon Lightsail to host my own server for a few months anyhow, and my impending renewal on Squarespace gave me a good incentive to make the switch. And since I had a few days off from work, it felt like a good time to make the changes.

And… that’s it for now. Enjoy!

Three Weeks Into the Linux Experiment

Fri, 16 Dec 2016 11:29:29 -0600

Note: This is part 2 of my series on switching to Linux. To see my first blog post, click here.

In “The Long Road to Linux”, published in late November, I wrote a post stating that I was attempting to switch to using Linux full time as my operating system of choice. And so, after spending slightly over three weeks running Linux on my main laptop, I figured it was time to post an update on how things are going.

Thus far, everything has been going smoothly. I have used Linux at work long enough to know that there are often a few bumps in the road, and was therefore prepared to have some hurdles in using it daily, but my experiment with running Arch Linux on my Asus Zenbook has been one of my nicest user experiences in recent memory. That is not to say that there haven’t been some small issues. But nothing has been a showstopper, and I continue to use my Zenbook day in and day out.

So, what issues have I ran into? The first annoyance I had once my computer was set up was some tearing when watching full-screen video, and also when scrolling through websites in Chrome. After a bit of research on the Arch wiki, it turned out that there were a few simple settings I could tweak in the video driver .conf file. I made the changes, and after a reboot I have had no further problems with my graphics card. Easy fix.

The next problem I tackled was finding a replacement for Airmail. I’ve followed the Linux community long enough to know about most of the major email clients, and so I tried out almost all of the big-name applications: Nylas N1, Geary, Wmail, Evolution, and Thunderbird. Geary and Evolution were very quickly checked off the list. Neither felt comfortable to use in my opinion, and were lacking some features I was interested in. Next, I checked out N1. It looked nice, but I had no interest in having my email going through servers other than Google’s (which I’m not actually 100% comfortable with either, but I am living with for the time being). And though they have a self-hosted option, I was not ready to put that much work into my email. Which left me with Wmail and Thunderbird. Wmail is nice, but it is effectively just a wrapper for Gmail. And Thunderbird feels old and clunky, but it will get the job done, and will let me have a combined inbox (something I am very keen on having). After a few hours of testing, it was settled: I’m using Thunderbird for my email client.

The last major issue I have run into is using Evernote under Linux, or else replacing it entirely. I have tried a couple of the alternatives to Evernote, but so far, nothing has really impressed me. The tools were functional, but not nearly as handy as Evernote. And so, I have once again decided to punt on finding a replacement, and continue using Evernote. This does mean that I must use my Mac for the occasional document-scanning or database-backup task, but it is normally limited to around once per week.

As you would expect, there were some important decisions I made when I switched to Linux that have affected my experience so far (desktop of choice, web browser, etc), as well as some specific config settings that I have used to improve the performance of my ZenBook. But, that’s another post for another time!

The Long Road to Linux

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 11:28:33 -0600

In October of 2015, I transitioned to using Linux as my primary OS at work. At the time I was using Ubuntu 14.04, as it was the suggested distribution for compiling and testing one of the main software products my employer creates, and it was (for the most part) compatible with all of the other various toolchains that I needed to use as an Embedded Software Engineer. I got along with it for the most part, and continued to use Mac OS X and Windows 8 in my personal life.

Fast forward to this past April, and I decided to purchase a used computer similar to the desktop I have at work for my own personal use. When it arrived, I opted to install Arch Linux (a distro I had tinkered with a few years ago), and began using it a few times a week to determine whether switching to Arch as my main distro at work was a viable option. I decided it was, and so in mid-May I began running Arch professionally as well.

This brings us to last Saturday, November 19, 2016. I had been considering moving from using a 3-year-old MacBook Pro as my daily driver to using Linux full time. And so, to that end, I purchased an Asus ZenBook UX330, with the intention of installing Arch on it. The ZenBook arrived on Monday afternoon, and my experiment began. Could I use a light-weight laptop running Arch as my go-to computer for everything except gaming (which I use a dedicated Windows rig for)? I spent 3-4 hours on Monday setting up the OS, and then had to stop for the night so I could be prepared to leave for my parents’ house at 6a on Tuesday.

I spent all of Tuesday morning traveling, and after meeting with a friend for lunch, and spending time with family in the early afternoon, I met my first challenge in my new Arch-filled life: how to sign on to my parents’ WiFi network with my chosen network setup: systemd-networkd. Thankfully, I had already connected to one WiFi network with my ZenBook (my own home network), and so between what I remembered and the Arch wiki, I was soon up and running.

The rest of the day was uneventful, until I got to the hotel I was staying at in the evening. I had not connected to a WiFi network yet that used no password, but linked your device via a room/name-based sign-on. Thankfully, every room as an ethernet port, and so I opted to avoid WiFi for the time being and simply use my trusty Anker USB3/Ethernet adapter to set up a wired connection. I was quickly on the hotel’s network, and the day went back to being uneventful.

And that brings me to today! Nothing eventful has happened today, other than I ran across a fun tool that I will probably do a brief blog post on at a later date. I am still using a wired connection for internet access, mostly because until this evening I have not had enough down time that I have wanted to experiment with things.

I intend to make this a multi-part blog post, detailing steps that I have to take as I move from using my MacBook Pro as my daily driver to replacing it with Linux and opensource tools. I know that I will be looking for a mail client to replace Airmail, and also potentially a note-taking tool to replace Evernote. Alternately, I may need to look for a way to use Evernote efficiently under Linux. I currently scan a large number of physical documents into Evernote for easy access when I am traveling, and for an easy digital filing system, and I suspect that my current workflow will not translate well to Linux

But, that’s an adventure for another day. And so, here’s wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!

Change: The Only Constant

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 11:26:55 -0600

“Everything changes and nothing stands still.” Heraclitus of Ephesus

That quote could not be more accurate. Since the last time I wrote a blog post, I have gone through almost innumerable changes. I have changed jobs, moved to a new state, rented a house, and begun the process of finding a new church. You could safely say that pretty much every facet of my life has changed.

At the end of September, I accepted a new position as an Embedded Software Engineer with Precision Planting LLC. I summarily left my position as Lead Software Engineer at InSource Technologies, Inc, and moved from rural Northwest Ohio to Central Illinois. While not a drastic move, it was definitely a change of scenery, and is taking some getting used to.

Then, 2 weeks after I started my new job, it was announced that Precision Planting is being acquired by John Deere, in a deal they made with Monsanto and The Climate Corporation. More change, anyone?

So now, after a little less than a month in, I’m finally beginning to get used to my new schedule, new surroundings, new…everything. And while I’m not necessarily comfortable, I’m content. I know that God is working all things together for my good (Romans 8:28). His hand has been evident throughout the whole process. Everything has been perfectly timed, and I have not had any real concerns throughout the whole process. The few that I have had, turned out to be unfounded.

And finally, I can also, at long last, understand a quote that I’ve seen on one of my favorite blogger’s websites for years, but never fully understood. And you know what? It’s accurate. And it’s a perfect way to end this post.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Neale Donald Walsch

No Earthly Regrets

Sat, 02 Aug 2014 11:25:28 -0600

“What is at the top of your bucket list?”

“What is one thing you want to accomplish before you die?”

While I’ve often heard others talking about their life’s goals, their bucket list, etc, I’ve apparently never given it much thought myself. This became very obvious today when I was in an interview for our company newsletter. I came up with something rather blasé, but it made me wonder: what are my life’s goals?

Now, I should start off by pointing out that I’m actually a very goal-oriented individual. I used to keep track of everything primarily by memory, but early this spring I switched to using Todoist (https://todoist.com) for my day-to-day tasks. Everything that I need to remember to accomplish at work, at church, and in my personal life goes on there. Sometimes, I am even a bit over-zealous (in my own opinion, at least). But all of those goals are short-term (within the next 3 months). I don’t plan much farther ahead, unless it’s a special event.

I also work on my hobbies (shooting/editing videos, video games, coding projects that aren’t work related), but I don’t often make specific goals with those. I think about it, but I never follow through. And I’m beginning to think that my approach is unhealthy.

I often explain away my lack of long-term goals as being content with where I’m at. Which is true, I look for the best in my current situations (though it’s not always easy), and I genuinely enjoy where I’m at, and what I’m doing. But I have to ask myself: am I becoming stagnant? Am I choosing not to try new things, not to dream and set goals, because I am afraid of failure? Afraid of how others will view me?

After some introspection, I believe that the answer to many of those questions is at least a partial affirmative. I can rattle off a very long list of opportunities I have not pursued, risks I have not taken, because I did not want to jeopardize my safety and comfort. Not necessarily physical safety, but more often emotional safety, or else the safety I feel from knowing everything that is going on around me.

Which leads me to the quote from Kris Vallotton that I posted above. I don’t want to have regrets while I’m here on earth. And I also don’t want to let any fears on my part keep me from achieving what I was put on this earth to do.

Do I have anything to add to my bucket list right now? No, I don’t. I’ve thought and prayed about it off and on since the interview, and I haven’t come up with anything. But I’ve also decided that I am not going to stay complacent. So, it looks like I will be adding another task (and eventually project) to Todoist…

Philippians 3:12-14 (MSG) I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.

The Complexity of Vacation

Thu, 15 May 2014 11:23:59 -0600

Have you ever been in a place where you know you need to take time off work, but you just can’t bring yourself to, because you know that they need you to be there? Or you have a vacation day scheduled already, but you feel guilty about taking the time off? We’ve all been there at one time or another. And on this blustery Thursday in May, that’s the place where I find myself.

As I write this, I’m sitting in the sanctuary of Family Christian Center, listening to some jazz music from Andrew Allen, and taking some down time before the Secret Keeper Girl event here later this evening (which I took a planned vacation day for so I could help out). And trying to keep myself busy so I don’t focus on the tasks that I could be doing if I hadn’t taken the day off from work.

Anyone who has ever worked with me, be it in a volunteer situation, at work, or even just family and friends, will tell you that I am a perfectionist. Which, to some extent, is a good thing. The drive to perfection is often what keeps me going, and allows me to achieve the success that I have. However, it also causes me to constantly criticize my work (and others), feel guilty at taking any personal time away (even when I very much need it), and suffer from stress-induced headaches. All of which are problems, and are not what God created me to do and be.

Yesterday I had a lengthy chat with a good friend of mine from church on this very subject. As he is also a perfectionist, he has been in my situation, and can (and does) give superb advice when it comes to dealing with workplace stress. He immediately brought to my attention the fact that the issues I am having (which, last night, had me worked up to such an extent that I couldn’t focus properly on leading my team in the sound booth) are 90% self-induced. And that, even if taking a day off may mean more work later, that I need that time off to rejuvenate, so that I will be more effective when I return. Which is true, although it’s not easy to admit that I’m wrong. But that’s another topic.

Then, today during lunch with the SKG team, we were invited to join them in their devotions. The team devotion today was talking about gratitude, and something the leader said really caught me off guard. If you are not actively thinking about what you are grateful for, or are not thinking to thank God for things on a daily basis, you are living in a state of ungratefulness. Now, I thought I knew what ungratefulness looked like. We’ve all seen kids who are ungrateful, people who you do something nice for and they completely miss the point. But I never considered that not directly being grateful was being ungrateful. Oops.

At the end of the devotion, the leader asked us to thank God for something. And you know what? I had a very hard time thinking of anything to be thankful for! This coming from a young American, with a nice job, a loving family, wonderful and supportive friends, untold opportunities that many people wish they had, and a loving Father in Heaven who loves me, and sent His only Son to die for me. And I couldn’t think of anything to be thankful for!

I immediately put a few different things together at that point. For one, I am so wrapped up in the day to day stuff I’m working on that I have been completely missing the big picture. Secondly, I need to take a step back, and learn gratitude. Or rather, I need to re-learn how to show gratitude, to those around me, and to God. And third, as my friend pointed out, I need to learn how to let things go and relax. When I’m not at work, I shouldn’t still be focused on what I could or should be doing. It will be there for me when I get back. For today, I need to enjoy and be thankful for where I’m at, the people I get the honor of working with today, and my vacation day in general.

Welcome

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 11:22:35 -0600

First blog post of the New Year (and the first on this site)!

I’ve been meaning to develop a website for a while now, both to showcase the videos I have been producing, and to tie together the various forms of social media that I use. Having heard of Squarespace on the Sword and Laser Podcast, I decided to give it a try. And what better time than on a day when I’m stuck at home, due to a Level 3 Snow Emergency?

So, briefly, who am I, and what do I do?

I’m an Embedded Software Engineer by trade, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Trine University (Angola, IN). I work for a company in Northwest Ohio, and greatly enjoy the work that I do, and the challenges that come my way. I have a chance to work with a number of engineers with much greater knowledge (and much more experience) that myself, so most days continue to be a learning experience. Which is fine with me, since I believe that learning is one of the core things an individual should do every day that they are alive.

In my free time, I volunteer at Family Christian Center in Defiance, Ohio. There, I am involved with the tech team, and also help to produce various videos for the church (most of which are for use in services). I was asked to help restart the video team in the summer of 2012, and ever since have been learning the basics of video production (I have no formal training video/audio production). Thanks to a number of websites, tutorials, videos, forums, and books, I am slowly improving and honing my skills, and am no longer quite as embarrassed by the results of my labor as I once was.

My intent for this website will be mostly related to videos that I produce, both for FCC and for fun. Occasionally other interests may make their way to these digital pages, but I will plan to keep them to a minimum.

And with that, welcome to my site! I hope you enjoy your stay, and stop back for future updates.

God Bless!

– Justin