@martinfeld You’ve been fireballed!
My iPad Pro has developed a ‘lighter’ splotch on the screen, just a bit above the home button. I keep thinking it’s a smudge, but it’s definitely the screen. Now I can’t unsee it. Must be upgrade time. 😅
I think @martinfeld really knocked it out of the park with this post. Apple and the Craftsmen – Lounge Ruminator
RSS reader update: Reeder is too ancient, its panels don’t look nice on a portrait iPad and it has slow sync. Unread is pretty but there is so much swiping and long-tapping needed to do anything. I might be slinking back to Fiery Feeds.
@martinfeld i just saw that John Siracusa has faved your rumination in Instapaper. A brush with nerd fame!
After using Fiery Feeds for some time, I’m doing an audit and testing other RSS apps again. Fiery Feeds seemed to be using a lot of battery. So far, Unread is winning.
That was fun, spending $672 on car maintenance, with news of more expenses to come soon.
It was great to be out in the bush with our old girl Indi.
Monthly Review March 2019
The third entry in this series, reviewing my month that was.
What Went Well at Home?
- I started Long Service Leave, which is a benefit that becomes available after working for a single employer for 10 years. This time off has been wonderful so far. I have not at all missed work. I’ve disconnected my email accounts, am not answering calls, and am entirely disassociated from my normal work world. It’s extremely refreshing.
- Having time away from work has freed me up to knock off a bunch of items from my ‘to do’ list.
- I went to a retro musical bingo event. I, along with the others at my table, dressed up in suitable ’80’s retro gear’. I was wearing double-denim, high-top sneakers and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirt. We arrived to discover our group was the only one who went to the effort to dress up. We didn’t care though, still having a good time.
- I’ve been doing a lot more cooking, and trying to enjoy it.
What Went Well at Work?
- Not being there!
Highlights
- Going swimming at beach for many mornings, just before it becomes too cold to do so. I discovered that I really do enjoy a swim in the ocean, particularly at a beach that offers change room facilities, for changing before getting back in the car to head home.
- Attended a Town Hall session with the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. More importantly, my wife Hannah Beazley gave the introductory speech, and she was brilliant.
My Media Diet
- Continued watching Star Trek: Discovery, season 2.
- Read The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
- My NBL team won the championship, beating Melbourne United 3 games to 1. This was their 9th championship overall.
- I finally finished reading Toll.
My Passion Project
- This month has been about winding down my work mentality.
- It has also been about supporting my wife in the run-up to the Federal election campaign - vote Hannah Beazley for Swan!
Further investigations into my missing wedding ring are leading to the unfortunate conclusion that my 3-year old boy flushed it down the toilet. He will be hearing about this when he’s older.
I seem to have lost my wedding ring. Oh no.
World Autism Awareness Day
Today, 2 April, is World Autism Awareness Day.
Wear light blue to show your support and understanding.
@martinfeld Your latest rumination on travel as work resonated with me. Not that I do it, but that I also think it’s a trap. Wage growth is already anaemic, why provide additional labour at no charge?
As of today I’ve been off Twitter for one year. My life is better for it!
I shaved off the beard I had been growing for months and now have regrets.
OmniOutliner as a Daybook
I’ve recently taken to using OmniOutliner as a daybook/Bullet Journal. I don’t actively follow the bullet journal methodology, although the more I think about it, the more useful it seems.1
Traditionally, I’ve not been one to record daily events as they occur and make notes about all the little things. More recently, however, I’m finding that I want to recall something that happened earlier, or a decision that was made, or an event. Whether this is memory loss caused by ageing, or wisdom gained through experience, I’m not sure. Whatever the reason, I know I want to keep some sort of minimal journal.
This journal needs to be separate and different from my task list. Nor do I want it to be my knowledge archive/zettelkasten. Those are different things that need different treatment. How I take care of those things is a story for another day.
OmniOutliner
I’ve owned copies of OmniOutliner Professional for the longest time but haven’t ever made full use of it. It has always presented itself as too fiddly. The fact that it’s not that great at exporting has been a problem as well, in that I put a bunch of stuff in, but have trouble exporting it to a format that works for others.
For this purpose, however, OmniOutliner seems very well suited. This data doesn’t need to go any further than me.
Getting Started (With a Little Help From My Friends)
Steve Zeoli from Welcome to Sherwood was kind enough to kickstart my project by sending me a text file that has an outline of every day and date of the year. This was my starting point. Pasting this into OmniOutliner gave me a basic outline.
Now, within each day, I can nest commentary and notes. Just little tidbits and things I might need to know or refer back to. I can use it as a 43 Folders style bring-up system, nesting attachments or notes within the day they will be needed. I’ve done this with my tickets for EPW Goldrush2.
A sample entry from my OmniOutliner Daybook
OmniOutliner syncs across macOS and iOS using its own OmniPresence sync server. While I would prefer if it worked natively with iCloud Drive, in reality it doesn’t really matter.
OmniOutliner allows for multiple columns, so I have been able to create a few ‘metadata’ columns to support my notes. I’m still experimenting here, but at the time of writing, I’ve got pop-up selectors for Type (task, note, event), Activity (major project areas) and Context (action, waiting). While not wanting to replicate a task manager, having a few bits of extra data allows me to leverage the real power of OmniOutliner, which is filtering and focusing.
Filtering & Focusing
Using OmniOutliner, I can focus on just a single day, hiding all other 364 days. Or I can focus on the upcoming month. Or a selection of non-contiguous days.
Furthermore, I can filter based on the criteria of the columns. So if I just want to see the lines I have tagged the note to be an action, I can do that. Or I can combine the filtering and focusing to show me events in the next month. It’s all quite fun.
What’s more, all this filtering and focusing can be done on both platforms: iOS is an equal citizen with macOS.
Hot Tip: Change the File Format to a Bundle
If you are planning to keep a number of file attachments within your OmniOutliner document, and sync them efficiently, I highly recommend changing the default file save format. By default it saves as a ‘flat file’ which works better for non-OmniPresence syncing. But this means that each minor save results in the entire file - and attachments - being re-saved and re-synced. This is not very efficient.
Changing to the ‘bundle’ format allows the app to save using the macOS package file format. This then only syncs the changed elements, and leaves the various file attachments untouched and so they don’t sync each time.
Other Options
There are plenty of options available to do a similar job, and I’ve tried them all!
With Steve’s date file, it was easy to try incorporating it into each application. They all have strengths and weaknesses, of course.
Some of these include:
- TheBrain - really fun software to use, but it was a resource hog on my laptop and it’s just too expensive (both initially and then a subscription) when I already own viable alternatives.
- DEVONthink - this can do the job, but it’s just too clunky for continuous quick text entry.
- Notebooks - I couldn’t find a nice way to integrate this app for this purpose.
- Paper & Pen - I’m a tech-addict!
I am sure my use of this daybook will ebb and flow, and I will probably change my approach as time goes on.
However, I can say that this system has made quick logging of events and noteworthy items doable through the day, and I believe I will get value back from it over time.
On iOS, iA Writer may look better, Ulysses may seem better, but 1Writer actually is better!
Somebody needs to tell the tightly-wound petrol station guy that if I reverse into the spot, I am not entering the station from the wrong direction. I’m just a good driver.
This is a post purely to test whether my Inoreader rule matching is working. If it is, certain others will receive this post by email.
You are not supposed to get locked out of your own car with a keyless entry fob…