Blogs

A workflow dedicated to reading web content

Over the last 15-20 years I’ve kept up a reading habit that is driven by only content I find online. I read an average of 10-20 “articles” per day and they range from single panel comics to forum threads to blog posts to mainstream news. If it looks interesting, I’m likely going to read it at some point.

If that seems like an absurd amount of reading day to day: it is! But! I do not consume much television, movie or other video content. It’s incredibly rare for me to sit and watch video of my own volition. I’ll go as far as skipping video content when I come across it. Yes, I’m “different” and “weird” about video and I genuinely don’t give a shit ; video isn’t for me.

TLDR

The Mi Band 7 should be a top consideration for anyone considering a smart watch or a fitness tracker. The only potential ‘problem’ is the software can be fiddly to setup but works incredibly well despite setup hassles.

For full details and thoughts, continue reading.

The Hardware

The device itself is setup to look more like a bracelet than watch when worn. It has a similar look to the bracelet styled fitness trackers. The screen takes up the whole device face and is very ‘smart watch’ in style for the UI. It’s also got a few built in apps and tiles that make using the device feel more like a basic smart watch than simple fitness or health tracker. It’s a wonderful midpoint between a simple bracelet fitness tracker and full smart watch.

Prelude

Awhile ago I spent some time reviewing how I read books, news and random internet articles day to day. My goal was to bring a Kobo Clara HD back into regular use as I greatly prefer e-ink displays for reading. As with most things in my life, a “straight forward tech rework” was just the beginning of something far bigger.

I read a lot: an average of one hour plus per day with some days being over four hours of reading. I also cannot listen to audio books due to some speech processing and memory issues. Nor do I watch much video as it can cause me to turn into “a lump” that’s borderline catatonic. Video also does not relax me or help me unwind, recenter, or similar. It’s a pure time killer that has zero benefit for my physical or mental well being on the whole.

The Chargie

The Chargie is a small piece of hardware that’ll allow you to tune the way electronic devices are charged. It’s designed to let you only charge a device to a specific percentage as well as block data during charging. It’s basically a hardware ‘battery life saver’ for your phone, tablet and other devices that can run their app (Android and iOS, click the above thumbnail for what the app looks like).

For a few years now I’ve been trying to make mobile and cloud gaming an option for me…. I started writing this post with examples, information and more.

Instead I’m going to put it quite simply: the game industry needs a clue bat to the head, a complete gutting of leadership and massive studios broken up (lol @ that thought given the Microsoft/Activision/Blizzard deal being approved).

I’ve spent years fighting the inaccessible nature of mobile, cloud and PC gaming. I went deep enough down this rabbit hole to deploy my own cloud based compute environment, I sorted workarounds for all the things so I could continue to use strong passwords and I’ve found bugs with controllers that claim mobile support. I even put up with the random UI overhauls that broke every one of my workarounds that allowed me to actually use the software being pushed by studios and others.

The pacsave Vibe 150 (product page) is a sling bag setup similar to a messenger bag but very small, only 2.5L in usable storage.

I’ve had it for awhile and it has proven to be the best shoulder bag I’ve used to date as an EDC. When I’m headed out for the day I can carry all my essentials in the bag without any real hassles or worries. It’s displaced my Timbuk2 bag as well as a ThinkTank belt pouch I’ve used heavily in the past.

I have a ton of notes about the Henson DE safety razor (Product Page). Enough to make this a very long blog post. As much as I’d probably enjoy writing a longer, word vomit adjacent post about this razor, I’m not going to do that to my time or yours. This will be more mini review.

The website for the Henson DE, linked above, has all the fun information and details. It’s also accurate and not pure marketing or advertising speak. It’s definitely worth reviewing. Strange, I know.

For the last 18 months or so I’ve been using a OnePlus 8T and Microsoft Surface Duo. As of this writing, I’m now using a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 as my only device. Why?

Because Samsung got it right when it comes to an adaptable device.

This quote, unquote phone is a phone, tablet and laptop for me. It is a converged form of every mobile device I’ve used to date, including a laptop.

Preface

I’ve written in the past about my Digital Bullet Journal setup (link) and how I’ve come to use it as my primary organizational system. Unfortunately, until very recently, I always had a disconnect between my phone and org-mode.

Historically I’ve kept a ‘churning’ area of my to do list on my phone that sync’s to my desktop. It was a daily list of stuff I wanted to get done as well as things I thought of over the course of a day. Kind of like a slip box that was disconnected from all of my org-mode data, including my daily habit tracking. The setup was great for the daily churn but really hard to tie into org in a low friction way for me.

Preamble

This post is a narrative of my journey away from Adobe Lightroom Classic and CC to other applications and photography workflows. There will be no specific details given, just the ‘big picture’. The specifics of my workflows are tuned for the way I think, I strongly urge you to tune things laid out below to your specific needs, not mine.

Background

In October 2015… I became an amateur photographer. My Significant Other had talked me into visiting an abandoned golf course that was slowly rebuilt as housing and the course itself wasn’t fully gone, just left with minimal upkeep where they didn’t build housing. I took a jpeg only (dang you past self!) of a squirrel and ’the rest is history’ as some would say.