Explore Posts

Jag sprang på denna flashmob i mina kvarter. 64 statister totalt gjorde PR för nästa säsong av serien. 

🕖 Now — To Wind Down

• We're close to the end of 2024. Most of my creative projects that I had in mind to complete are... complete. I still have a video to produce (tomorrow), my personal year in review to share and the last edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter, after these, that's it, it is a wrap for 2024. • My wife just ordered an iPhone 16 Pro, upgrading from the iPhone 14 Pro. I'm a bit jealous. She will get it tomorrow. What she doesn't know is that she will get an Apple Watch Series 10 for Christmas, upgrading from an old...

⚒️ Default Apps for 2024

I’ve been wanting to write about my most used apps for so long but didn’t have enough motivation to do so, until I came across [this directory of apps people commonly use](https://defaults.rknight.me/ "this repo"). Inspired by this, I’ve decided to compile a list of my default apps. Prioritize Native Apps, then Fantastic Updates for New OS Support in AppsFor over ten years, I have enthusiastically tried thousands of apps. Throughout this time, I have learned that the best apps are the ones that withstand the test of time, receive frequent updates to support new operating system features, and, if necessary,...

📡✨ Christmas

I'm so not in the Christmas mood... I wonder if I'll ever be before Dec 25th. 

Flyleaf - An Elegant Read It Later Solution

There are lots of read it later apps and services available for Mac users. Some, like Instapaper and Pocket require you to create an account and in return give you web access to your saved articles. Others, like Goodlinks don't have web access but offer you more privacy by syncing your saved articles through iCloud. A relatively new and rather elegant addition to this space is Flyleaf by Max Melzer. Flyleaf strips everything from web pages except the text of the article and images. It provides an interface similar to the Kindle experience by paginating articles and letting you move...

Texas Winter Walks

Early winter in Texas is a unique thing filled with uncertainty. One day it will be in the 40'sº Fahrenheit (single digits in Celsius), and the next it will be in the 80'sºF (high 20'sº C). We don't usually get any meaningful time below freezing until January / February, and it's not uncommon to be in shorts and t-shirt on Christmas Day.  As a result, it can be hard for me to get in to the holiday spirit sometimes. I just don't feel the seasonality of it.  All that said, the most perceptible change beyond occasionally needing to wear a...

📝 A New Path to Self-Trust

I’ve realized that I never fully trust myself. It’s a feeling I’ve carried since childhood. I often find myself uncertain and indecisive, thinking too much and doubting my choices even more. As a result, I tend to hold back and take very little action. I constantly worry that I’ll mess everything up if I make the wrong move, so I end up not moving at all. Honestly, I feel like Chidi from The Good Place—always second-guessing myself! Deep down, I know I can do better, and I genuinely want to improve. Yet, at the same time, there’s a part of me...

Holiday Fruit Balls

1 lb. Graham cracker crumbs  1 lb. candied pineapple, chopped  1 lb. Candied cherries, chopped  1 lb. Raisins  1 lb. Marshmallows  3 lbs. English walnuts, chopped  1 stick butter or margarine  1 cup evaporated milk  2 cans coconut, flaked    1. In a saucepan, melt margarine and marshmallows in milk, over low heat, stirring constantly. 2. Mix together remaining ingredients except coconut and pour milk over it. Stir together until well mixed. 3. Form into 1.5 inch balls and roll into 1.5 inch balls and roll into coconut. Yield: approximately 200 balls.

Two Apps To Use if You Work in Markdown

I do almost all of my writing in Markdown, a lightweight and human-friendly markup language used for formatting plain text. Created in 2004, it uses simple punctuation and characters to denote headers, links, emphasis, code blocks, lists and other styles. Markdown is often used for writing README files, documentation, or content for websites. The language was designed for easy reading and writing. One issue with Markdown is that it must be rendered before it looks ready for mass consumption, including printing. Another issue is converting text into other formats, like .docx and .rtf. There are plenty of tools for those...

"Spoiler alert: AI answers are still wrong far too often for you to rely on. But, armed with the _research_ Perplexity used to come up with those answers, you can work out the real answers. " #perplexity #search #ai 🍜 Perplexity, not Google, is now the best search engine • The Register https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/16/opinion_column_perplexity_vs_google/

personal goals

Some times phrases like this seem so cliché but, in time of trouble and self analysis, I find them to be like a lighthouse. Simple and clear goals, without any second guessing or else. –– image via Lewis Howes

Lunch

I went out to get lunch on Monday and managed to sit with a few people i got to know through my previous work and it was really nice to actually get to talk and engage with others for a change. But i do think being isolated has lessened my willingness to socialize.  To an extent perhaps even my ability. 

Free Security Apps for Mac

Clyde is an app that sounds an alarm when someone shuts your laptop, so that when you walk away from it to order coffee or look for a book and it gets tampered with, everyone will know. The paid version will also send an alert to your watch and phone • • Reikey is free software from Objective-See that alerts you to any installed keyloggers on your computer. It's from the same suits of apps as Lulu, Knock-Knock, Task Explorer and Block-Block. • ReiKey and Task Explorer from Objective-See • BlockBlock and KnockKnock from Objective-See • Objective-See: OverSight - lets...

Tozo NC9 Earbuds

Santa came early! I purchase a new pair of Tozo NC9 Earbuds. The sound quality and noise cancellation are excellent for the price ($32 on Amazon). I've had them for less than 24 hours, so I'm still learning the various functions. I also downloaded the Tozo app, which allows you to set different sound profiles. I'll provide a more comprehensive review in a week or so once I have more hands-on experience using them.

Ya Shaikh Khaled Nabhan, we look forward to seeing you in Jannat Al Firdouz. May Allah SWT accept your martyrdom and crumble the apartheid regime like the demolished buildings in Gaza. Ameen. 🍉

I'm thinking of resurrecting this blog. It's nothing fancy, but it will be my small corner on the Internet where I share my thoughts and opinions. So, take it easy and with a pinch of salt. 

Sushi Night

After a particularly rough day for me at work this week, my very sweet wife took me out to try a new (to us) Sushi place in town. She always seems to know exactly how to cheer me up! It was honestly probably a little too fancy of a place to bring the kiddos, but we did, and they were remarkably well behaved and adventurous with trying new things.  Great night out. Leica M-10P + Thypoch 28mm 1.4 Simera

"According to TBS News Dig, Japan sees over 20,000 bath-related deaths every year. In 2011, 3.7 times more people died in their baths in Japan than died in traffic accidents." #japan #oldData? #heatShock #bath 🍜 Warnings Over “Heat Shock” After Japanese Actress’s Tragic Death https://unseen-japan.com/nakayama-miho-heat-shock/

Drafts Pro 50% Off for New Users

For new users, Drafts Pro is 50% off the first year. Drafts was the first app I installed when I became interested in iOS and Mac automation. The power users of the world explained it to me as the universal quick capture app for my phone. I was advised to always enter text into Drafts no matter where I eventually wanted it to end up. I dutifully put it into my dock, and it's been there ever since. In this post, I'm going to go over eight different ways I use Drafts. It's important to note that it pays off...

Urban Sketching for Beginners

Going into the new year, I'm eager to try urban sketching. “An urban sketch is a drawing created on location, indoors or out, capturing what the sketcher sees from direct observation. Urban sketchers use any kind of media to tell the story of their surroundings, the places they live, and where they travel.” If you haven't done any observational drawing, it can be overwhelming. There's so much detail in the world around us. How do you capture it? This tutorial by Sketching Scottie provides a simple technique to sketch anything you see. [YouTube Video]

How grape-entity works

Someone asked on Reddit a question like: > Can anyone provide me an informative article on how grape-entity works? I don't know or not able to find an article that describes how it works. Whenever I use it, and I have some doubts, I try to read the source code.  You can start from here: https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape-entity/blob/master/lib/grape_entity/entity.rb But all the files in this folder https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape-entity/tree/master/lib/grape_entity are relatively easy to read. In case you feel like having questions like "How did the entity got that value or what is the source of that value" I would recommend looking into the delegators https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape-entity/tree/master/lib/grape_entity/delegator

My most used and favorite app, Drafts has a great New Year's deal: 50% off for the first year of Drafts Pro!

Access: Secure Passwords Companion

One big feature missing from Apple's new Passwords App is secure notes to store data besides passwords. While you can make notes within the app, it isn't designed to store that kind of info. You could opt for the Apple Notes app since it's secured by the same security and allows you to password protect individual items with a password. It even supports templates, but you would have to build them yourself. If you want a secure, ready-made solution you can use on iOS and macOS, Access may be right for you. Access has templates for the following kinds of...

• 🚀🔥 Speed improvements all around! Yes, that's right. No more waiting 10 years (not actual 10 years) to get your current data back when you just want to see your 30 day snapshot. For sites that have a lot of lifetime hits, or just a lot of data in general, there is a non-scientific, nor tested, 10x improvement when loading your normal dashboard. Filtering is also super quick for any pre-defined range. If you have a custom range from the beginning of time... well, that might just be a little slower — although quicker than what it was. •...

• 🐛👾 Fixed an issue where feeds that report back as a normal "HTML" page, but actually contained an RSS feed, didn't get recognised (which should be the correct behaviour). Well, no more — now even those devious hidden feeds should make their way. • 🐛👾 Fixed an issue where posts on some feeds that didn't have "date_published" data wouldn't show any date and would all show at once at the top of your feed. It'll now fallback to using the date the post was added on the server if it can't find the data.

"Fifty percent of species could be lost by 2080 if humans do not curb greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation" #climate #extinction #science 🍜 If Humans Die Out, Octopuses Already Have the Chops to Build the Next Civilization, Scientist Claims https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a63184424/octopus-civilization/

Christmas Lights

Abstract pattern of blurry Christmas lights.

Batman

Quick sketch of Batman to begin the week.

Open Sign

Neon sign in the window of Tokyo Alley in downtown Macon.