I was defeated by the combination of Hugo, git and Netlify. C’est la vie.

I’ve discovered this site by Bryce Wray. I have no idea if it’s already widely known, but it’s new to me. I like the writing.

I succumbed and bought iA Writer for macOS.

So Many Markdown Editor Options

The search for the right Mac Markdown editor is like a quest for the Holy Grail. There are many options, but finding the ideal fit is a challenge.

It got to the point where I had to do an audit of the options that exist on my computer, and consider which one might be best for my needs.

The list I came up with is, in potential order of preference:

A special mention:

Picking a Winner

I thought I would end up choosing BBEdit. That’s why I typed this post in the app. But in usage, I think the winner might be MultiMarkdown Composer.

Hey micro.blog friends, you’re a coercive bunch! I think I’m going to have to run with iA Writer! Is there a way to get x-callback URLs to render as tapable links though?

I’m getting the hang of using git from the terminal now.

I’m really in the mood for shaking up my apps. Now I’m looking at Mailmate for email. It’s an app I’ve known about for years, but now I’m genuinely interested.

42: The Meaning of Life

“The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.”

– Douglas Adams

In that case, I’m looking forward to true enlightenment because today is my 42nd birthday.

I was fortunate to be born in Australia. We didn’t have much growing up. Raised by a mother whose husband returned to the USA without his wife and four children, we benefited from the generosity of the country’s social safety net to keep our heads just above water.

Life went on, I enjoyed my education and saw it as a pathway to something bigger. The nation helped me once again with its low-cost loan system to support students in the costs of attending university. Without the ability to defer these subsidised university fees until I was employed, I would not have gained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Law.

At 22 I met my wife, Hannah, through a random chance encounter during a night out. We hit it off and things grew from there. As it turned out, my wife is the daughter of the man who at the time was Leader of the Federal Opposition party, and who had served with distinction as a Minister in the famous Hawke government.

The fact that I, a boy who grew up with not much, should be thrust into this very different world, is a measure of the egalitarian potential of our nation. It has led to a whole range of circumstances that seem unimaginable from my perspective of a boy from a low-income family.

In 2005 we married. Since then we have owned and operated a small business and had two wonderful children. Over the years we have had had medical emergencies and fun and sadness. We exist most happily when we have a project to focus upon.

I played basketball until I was 40, at which point my knees and hips said, “enough”, and I was forced to give up my favourite sport.

I’ve always been interested in computing and technology. This interest persists even as I’m no longer the young whipper-snapper.

My hair is greying, my wrinkles are deepening, my belly is expanding. I am a family man who values his wife and children over and above his job, a career, or professional reputation.

I see the potential in Hannah to participate in the body politic of our nation. The country that held me close, lifted me up, and gave me the chance to build resilience in my youth and explore my potential in adulthood.

So here I sit in the foyer of middle age, full of interest for the future.

This is my 42.

1Writer & Working Copy

This is a post written in 1Writer and to be published via Working Copy on iOS.

Files Integration Is Great!

Now I’m editing this file in iA Writer as it is linked with Working Copy’s instance of my file through iCloud and Files app.

I wish iA Writer supported TextExpander.

Will I End up Buying BBEdit?

I’ve always had a version of BBEdit on my Mac. For a while it was TextWrangler, but now it’s back to BBEdit (unregistered). It’s one of those apps I don’t use very often, but when I want a pure Mac text editing experience, I know I can rely on it.

BBEdit can do a whole bunch of things that I don’t understand and have no need for.

But it is working very nicely as an integrated text editor for GitHub Desktop, and I feel like I might now benefit from the ‘unlocked’ version of BBEdit.

Cloned to GitHub

So now I have cloned my Blot repository into Github and am using Github desktop on the Mac. As this is editing via Github I have no idea how or if my edits here will make it to my site.

The nice thing about Github Desktop is it allowed me to easily open this whole project/site into BBEdit.

Update

At first this didn’t work, but it was simply because I’d forgotten to add the .md suffix to the file in BBEdit. So this stopped Blot’s renderer from creating the HTML version. At first I thought the file hadn’t uploaded. It had, but it was not showing on the web.

So this section has been added as an edit, which I should be able to push and commit as a new version of the same file.

Git Test 2

I’m going to try to share it over to Working Copy for publishing via Git.

Wish me luck.

iOS Integration

I’ve opened this file in iA Writer from the Working Copy files provider for the version stored on Blot.

What happens now?

Dropbox Is Bloating, So Move to Git

This is literally a test post using Git instead of Dropbox. I have no idea what I’m doing with Git, but what could go wrong?

Some time ago I purchased a license for Resilio Sync. I use it only occasionally but it also could make a fine replacement for Dropbox.

I ain’t got no time for this new bloated Dropbox garbage. I don’t use Dropbox for that much already - might be time to let it go. The one thing I will need to figure out though is how to publish to @blot with Github.

I feel emotionally drained after watching Bob Hawke’s memorial service. What a magnificent Prime Minister he was for our nation. I’m honoured to at least say that I met him a number of times.

I’ve borrowed a book from the public library, this copy of which has not been borrowed by anybody before me. It feels wonderfully decadent to have access to a brand new book for free. 📚

Hanging out with the kid.

I’m trialling DevonThink 3 beta, and the side bar workflow is weird. I know what they were trying to do in terms of making it more like Mail, but the new structure has made me much less efficient.

Getting SSL encryption on micro.blog was a heck of lot easier than with my previous hosting provider. I’m feeling pretty good about this transition.