A week ago I did that thing where I blow up my system because I noticed I’d been doing that other thing where I spend all my time tweaking everything.

I’m calling it an experiment, and I’m naming it “Reset to Defaults”.

The idea is to revert to stock macOS apps where feasible, or simple and established apps otherwise, and avoid tools that lend themselves to constant tweaking. This hurts because tweaking is what I spend much of my time doing. I enjoy it! But, it’s a distraction and I should do less of it. To this end, I’ve restructured task management, blogging, journaling, note-taking, photo editing, file management, etc.

Yesterday I wrote that I no longer wanted to talk about my process. Yet, here I am talking about my process. I’m doing it because this is what helps me sort things out and remember how they were sorted. So, what the hell, let’s make it a blog post.

Here’s what I’m trying.

Apple Reminders for task management. Reminders has gotten much better recently. There’s smart lists, tags, the works. It’s a very capable app and integrates with everything, so I’m trying it. This change has the highest chance of failure, because I don’t like Reminders. I don’t like how it feels or how it handles notes or how I need to click in a certain area to select things or that it adds a new reminder every time I simply click in an empty space below the list. Anyway, we’ll see. There’s a 50% chance I’ll be back in Things and a 25% chance I’ll be back in Org mode for my tasks.

Apple Notes for notes. What?! That’s right, I’m writing all my “evergreen” notes in Apple’s venerable Notes app. I have to say, Notes is really nice, once one lets go of “IT MUST BE MARKDOWN” or whatever. It doesn’t have to be Markdown, btw, if you’re not converting your writing to HTML or some other format. I have zero fear of lock-in and there are various methods of saving notes as text or other formats. I’m trying to get over wringing my hands about all that.

Day One for personal journaling. I have 3,671 entries in Day One going back to 2011. Each of them has location and weather info, along with date and time. Many have photos or other images. I can filter and export them any way I see fit, to text, Markdown, PDF, or HTML. I can order a nice printed book from any selection of entries. I can journal on my iPhone or iPad. I can hook it into other tools using the CLI if I want. And I spend almost no time tweaking it. I just type and save. Day One was my default journaling app for years and I’m going to try it again for a while.

WordPress for blogging. I know, I know, we’ve all been around this block before. But using a CMS that does everything, pretty easily, and without much fuss is what I’m looking for right now, so WordPress it is.

Of course there are always a bunch of supporting players, and I’m evaluating how I use those too. For now, this feels like I’m using the tools that I would use if I didn’t think too hard about tooling. Let’s see what happens this time.

May 20, 2022 Workflow Reply by email

I’ve been using the Happy Hacking Professional 2 Keyboard since 2018 . After a long search and many different dead ends , I’d found the keyboard for me. I still think the HHKB is nearly perfect, but there’s one problem.

The problem is that having to access the Function layer (for arrow keys, etc.) using my pinky is causing discomfort in my hand. On the one hand (pun!), I’m good at using the function key to access the arrow keys. They are close by so it’s actually faster and easier than on keyboards with dedicated arrow keys. This took me a long time to realize, but now that I’m used to it, other keyboards feel less efficient. But, on the other hand (again!), I don’t enjoy the pain in my hand.

I’m going to reset for a bit and give the pinky a break. I’m taking the lazy way out and just using the Apple Magic Keyboard. The Apple keyboards are fine, and as a bonus, the layout matches the MacBook Pro keyboard so switching is less jarring. Still, it’s a shame.

Here’s my setup today. (Notice my poor HHKB cowering in the shadows.)

May 14, 2022 Reply by email

I’ve had a pair of Apple’s AirPods Max for almost exactly one year. The headphones (please don’t call them “cans”. That’s unnecessary insider hoohah) look nice and sound very good, but I don’t enjoy using them. I’ve been thinking about why that is, and came up with the following list.

There’s no Off button. I hate this. I don’t use them every day, and if I don’t remember to either plug them in or put them in the case (for “low power mode” or whatever it is), the batteries are often dead when I go to use them.

They feel unstable on my head. I can’t figure out what it is about the way the AirPods Max fit, but I find that I’m always aware of them on my head and am constantly adjusting them. Maybe it’s because of my giant head, but they aren’t as comfortable as they should be.

They steal audio from the AppleTV. Occasionally, when my wife is doing a workout using the AppleTV in the next room, I’ll put on the AirPods, and they steal audio from the TV instead of connecting to my Mac, which is right in front of me. I haven’t been able to figure out why this happens, but it bugs both of us.

I can’t stand the clicking sound they make when moving them around. If the AirPods are folded flat, they bang together when I pick them up and move them around. The sound is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Why is nobody talking about this?

The “case” is stupid. Who approved that thing?

I wish I enjoyed them more. Spatial audio is nice, and the noise canceling works great. They sound really good, too. However, and as much as I hate wires, I find myself plugging in the Sennheiser HD 650s most of the time instead. The 650s fit perfectly, sound even better, don’t need charging, and never do anything wrong.

May 10, 2022 Gear Apple Reply by email

I’ve used Zengobi Curio for many years when I needed a visual system for managing projects and associated files. In a recent version, Curio gained a Journal feature. It’s fairly rudimentary compared to dedicated journal apps, but I recently started testing it as a way to create a sort of scrapbook each day. It works pretty well for that. I export a PDF of the day’s entry, print it, and put it in a binder.

While farting around with Curio exports, I tried exporting a few entries as HTML and was surprised how much fidelity is maintained when exporting. For giggles, I uploaded a few days’ exports to a web server. I had a crazy idea that this could be a daily blog. Here is my test site.

It’s neat, right? I slap images, notes, cards, mindmaps, lists, anything on the day’s entry, and it ends up as a web page.

While a fun experiment, I don’t think it makes sense long-term, since the resulting web pages are a mess on mobile, offer no accessibility, and managing navigation, etc. is a pain. Still, it’s a neat trick and I may throw pages out there every once in a while, just for fun.

May 9, 2022 Blogging Curio Reply by email

I have some pretty nice things. I’m fortunate enough to have more “stuff” than I could ever need. And yet, it seems as if I’m always buying something new. It’s just that I like to try new things, whether it’s tools, software, gadgets, or what have you. I want to see what different things feel like to have and use.

The photo above is from my dad’s garage, taken this year. I took it because I’m always amazed at how little it changes. My dad rarely buys anything new. He just uses what he has.

Recently, I have been striving to be more like my dad. Whenever I start looking for some new thing to help me do some old thing, I say to myself, “Use what you have!” It’s working pretty well. I have not purchased anything new if I already have something similar that will do the job. No gadgets, cameras, pens, notebooks, computers, etc. I already have all those things, and they work great.

May 2, 2022 Misc Reply by email

I’ve kept a list of books I’ve read as a plain text (well, technically, Markdown) file for years. I wrote about it here . The public version is rendered using Github Pages at books.baty.net . This is fine, but at some point last year I also started logging books in an Org mode file, just to see how it felt. It felt pretty good!

My books.org file is just an outline with some custom properties. An entry looks like this:

** DONE Leonardo da Vinci
CLOSED: [2022-04-11 Mon 11:10]
:PROPERTIES:
:author:  Walter Isaacson
:year:    2017
:name:    Leonardo da Vinci
:url:     https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34684622-leonardo-da-vinci
:pages:   600
:rating:  *****
:END:

The outline looks like this:

That’s fine, but doesn’t show much information other than a short title. That’s where Org’s Column View comes in. Column view shows a summary of a set of headings in a customizable view. The setup for mine is this:

#+columns: %50ITEM(Title) %author(Author) %pages(Pages){+} %8rating

This sets columns, widths, titles, and even a total of the number of pages (via the {+} flag). Then, I have a block which generates and saves the column view for me. Here’s that block.

#+BEGIN: columnview :hlines 1 :id global :skip-empty-rows t :indent t :match "-noexport"
#+END

My books.org file

I like it. It’s like a little plain-text database.

I probably won’t bother backfilling it with earlier entries, but I plan to keep it updated from now on. I haven’t yet created any fancy org-mode “Capture templates” because let’s be honest, I don’t finish enough books to benefit from that kind of automation. I simply copy and paste an earlier entry and modify that. Maybe I’ll do something smarter at some point, just for fun.

Org mode is pretty great and can do just about anything.

April 29, 2022 Emacs Orgmode Reply by email

My Epson V750 Pro, purchased in 2009, has scanned thousands of rolls of film, slides, and prints. After making strange grinding noises recently, it has finally ground to a halt.

Here are the last images it was able to scan from the most recent roll (2022-Roll-066)…

Alice, 2022

Self-portrait, 2022

So now what? I guess I need a new scanner. I have a PrimeFilm XAs but it’s 35mm only and can be quite fidgety to use. And it only does 35mm. I need to scan 35mm, 120, and 4x5 negatives.

I am trying to decide between two options: A new flatbed Epson V850, or a digital camera scanning setup. I already have most of the doo-dads needed for digital camera scanning. I just don’t have a feasible digital camera and macro lens up to the task.

I’m leaning toward the Epson V850 flatbed because I’m used to the workflow and, although expensive, it would be cheaper than buying a new camera setup. On the other hand, I can use the new camera as, you know, a camera too, which would be nice.

It’s just that I tried scanning with a digital camera before (Fuji X-T3) and didn’t like what it did to the grain. I don’t know that a higher-resolution camera and better macro lens would fix it.

What I might do is rent something like a Nikon Z7 and one of their macro lenses for a week and see if I like the results. The Nikon Z is probably what I’d look at if I were interested in a new mirrorless kit for general photography anyway.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

April 23, 2022 Film Photography Reply by email

Org-roam is “A plain-text personal knowledge management system” using Emacs and Org-mode and I put nearly all my notes in there. While it’s easy to find notes in org-roam based on filename, there’s no obvious way to search the contents of notes. Weird, right?

I could use the default projectile search, but my org-roam files live within my main ~/org directory, so the results are littered with all my other org documents. I’d prefer to only search in ~/org/roam

I use a simple lisp function to help with this. It uses consult-ripgrep:

    (defun jab/search-roam ()
     "Run consult-ripgrep on the org roam directory"
     (interactive)
     (consult-ripgrep org-roam-directory nil))

I added a keybinding for it to my other org-roam bindings:

    (map!
     "C-c n f" 'org-roam-node-find
     "s-u" 'org-roam-node-find
     "C-c n i" 'org-roam-node-insert
     "C-c n t" 'org-roam-dailies-goto-today
     "C-c n d" 'org-roam-dailies-capture-today
     "C-c n c" 'org-roam-capture
     "C-c n s" 'jab/search-roam               ;; <-- my new keybinding
     "C-c n l" 'org-roam-buffer-toggle)

Now, with a quick C-s n s I can search my org-roam files using the blazingly fast ripgrep .

If there’s a better way to do this, I’m all ears.

April 21, 2022 Emacs Orgmode Reply by email

The last time I rewatched “The West Wing” I was once again impressed by how good people were at their jobs. How productive everyone was. I wondered how I could be that productive.

I noticed that the entire process used by the staff seemed to be carrying around folders full of paper and barking things like “Get me the file on senator Jones and the notes from our briefing!” Within minutes they would be perusing a bunch of photos and papers scattered about a desk and they’d develop a plan right then and there. Awesome!

So, I started organizing all of my projects in manilla folders. One folder per project. I called it the “West Wing Productivity System”. I’d print meeting notes, mindmaps, emails, etc and put them in the appropriate folder. I kept a single summary sheet clipped to the inside with contact information, summary info, budgets, etc.

Whenever I needed to work on a project, I’d grab the folder, spread its contents across my desk, and get to work. It was nice knowing where everything was. It was nice being able to see everything at once, if necessary. (I had a big desk).

On the other hand, it was a pain when I needed to share something with colleagues. Search kind of sucked. And if I happened to be at home without the proper folder in my bag I was screwed.

It was fun for a while, but this was nearly 10 years ago. I still use folders, just not quite so deliberately. Just for the hell of it, I’ve brought back the system for some of my home projects. There’s not a lot of risk and I get to shuffle papers around again like I’m Josh’s assistant or something.

April 12, 2022 Analog Workflow Reply by email

Photo by Judith Joy Ross

I recently read Joe McNally’s book, The Real Deal: Field Notes from the Life of a Working Photographer . While I found his anecdotes occasionally interesting, I didn’t really enjoy the book. I think this was because I don’t much care for McNally’s photographs. Here’s one of his portraits.

Photo by Joe McNally

There’s no question that McNally is a talented photographer with a powerful work ethic and serious technical skills. His portraits, however, leave me uninspired. You know the style. Creatively lit with a handful of Speedlights, carefully arranged backgrounds or sets, wardrobe and makeup people, etc. The kinds of photos that get a shit ton of likes. This style is not for me.

Now, Judith Joy Ross , on the other hand, makes deeply moving, personal portraits while wandering around with an 8x10 view camera. I wasn’t familiar with her work until recently. I mean, just look at these…

Photo by Judith Joy Ross

Photo by Judith Joy Ross

Photo by Judith Joy Ross

Simply fantastic work. I just ordered her new book: Judith Joy Ross: Photographs 1978–2015 .

April 10, 2022 Photography Reply by email