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Journaling changes

Deciding what to write where is an ongoing thing with me.

Reading Jeremy's post about keeping his personal journal helped clarify some of the thoughts I've been having about mine.

Some Entries from My Personal Journal:

On Tuesday the 12th of November, 2024, I started what I hoped to be a new habit. That is writing a personal daily journal. Over the weeks, I expanded my aspirations to include a daily check list of activities I wanted to do.

I've been consistently keeping a personal journal for years. I write primarily using Org-journal, a Daybook.org file, and a paper notebook. My problem isn't that I don't journal enough, but rather that I can't decide where to journal.

I'll never give up paper notebooks, so let's not even consider that. I like how my brain feels when writing on paper. I love the resulting artifacts, too. Flipping through old paper notebooks is an experience that can't be replicated using digital tools.

However, I don't love writing by hand for too long. My hand cramps and I become impatient. I'm faster using a keyboard and it's easier. Also, it's much easier to read things I've typed :). Combined with the other benefits of digital, I doubt I'll ever give up my digital journals, either.

As for digital, my Daybook.org and my Org-journal files compete for attention. Sometimes I write an entry in my Daybook, then add a bunch of notes below it. Org-journal also gets longer notes, sometimes with very similar content. It's confusing.

I'm thinking I'll limit using the Daybook.org file to only include simple date-based headings that show up in my org-agenda as short, log-type entries. e.g. "Shoveled the driveway" or "Canceled my subscription to SomeApp". Org-journal will include more day-to-day narration, like "Went to grocery store for pop and coffee. I'm trying the local 'Rowsers' coffee for the first time." So, log-adjacent, but with more :). I'll think of it like this: Daybook is what happened, and Org-journal is about what happened and what I thought about it.

This means that my Org-journal will include a lot more mundane things from my day than it has been, but I think that's fine.

17 January 2025 (Friday)



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  At the beginning of the year I wanted to try Emacs Easy Mode™. Yeah, I know, there's no such thing, but I thought I'd try. I ditched my vanilla configuration for Doom and I switched my convoluted Denote/Howm combo for Org-roam.

  This morning, I reverted all those changes.

Vanilla to Doom to Vanilla

No one will be surprised to learn that I've changed my Emacs config again

I'd been happily using Doom Emacs until just over a month ago, when I decided to start from scratch again.

It didn't take long before I started missing some of the niceties of Doom. I'm faster when using Doom/Evil, and sometimes it's good having things taken care of for me.

So, at the beginning of January, I switched back to Doom.

After a week using Doom, I was feeling pretty comfy. Too comfy, in fact. I couldn't shake the feeling that every Doom keybinding I internalized brought me closer to depending on Doom. It made me twitchy. Every time I typed something like SPC m a a or put a Doom macro like after! or map! in my configuration, I felt like I was spending time learning someone else's tool.

So, this morning I switched back to my vanilla config.

Now I feel better. I'm a little clumsier, and sometimes I wish I didn't have to do everything, but dammit it's MINE! 😄.

2025 Roll 195 (Hasselblad 500C/M)

Sometimes I just need to blow through a roll when I'm bored. This is from the Hasselblad 500C/M and 80mm Planar on HP5 developed with HC-110(b). Thankfully, Alice was handy. These were all handheld at 1/30th, which is a terrible idea. The one of me is underexposed and full of dust. ¯\(ツ)/¯

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Get Away (2024)

🍿 ★★☆☆☆ (2 stars)

Sometimes a twist can make an average movie better. Other times, it sends it off a cliff. Might have helped if it was actually funnier.

Details…

2025 Roll 194 (Olympus OM-2n / HP5)

Here are a few images from the first roll I ran through the Olympus OM-2n after having it overhauled by John Hermanson. The camera feels very good.

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16 January 2025 (Thursday)



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  I've been slowly working on migrating my Makefiles to just. Just is a command runner and doesn't try to be a decades-old build system. I just need a command runner :). The syntax is similar enough that converting them is pretty trivial.

15 January 2025 (Wednesday)

What if I just never changed blogging engines again? Man, that would be cool.

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  In a response to Why am I not taking pictures?:

  Dave Rogers, January 2025

  I think you just need a change of scenery, Jack. Or a change of perspective. It'll happen.

  I think Dave's right. Given the weather and my aversion to going places, I'll have to start with perspective :).

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  I personally found the first line of "O Wow O Wow" from Wild God to be cringy.

  "She rises in advance of her panties"

  Cave responds to criticism of the line - Issue #309:

  as its creator I feel the need to defend it – not just out of some paternal urge, but because I have always thought the line was rather good. Truthfully, when I wrote the first verse of ‘O Wow O Wow‘, I was so pleased, that I took the rest of the day off!

  And suggests how Anita, who passed in 2021, might feel about it:

  Understanding Anita, as I do, I know she loves this song and is happy to be occasionally awakened and called back to us. The dead are glad to be remembered. As for the contentious first line, Neil, I think she likes it a lot.

• Why am I not taking pictures?

  

  I wrote on Mastodon yesterday that I feel like I've given up on photography as a creative pursuit. It was a throwaway post, but it's been bugging me since.

  My rooms are full of cameras, lenses, and film. I'm surrounded by equipment for scanning, printing, developing, enlarging, viewing, etc. I love photography. And yet most of it sits idle. I'll snap a couple of mirror self-portraits when I'm bored. Or maybe take a photo of the dog when she's being cute. Otherwise, nothing.

  I don't know if this is just a brief slump or if it's a sign of a larger shift. I hope it's the former. I'd hate to lose interest in the one thing that still holds my interest.

14 January 2025 (Tuesday)



I must admit, and I know it's only been a couple of weeks, that I'm still happy using Kirby for the blog. And I'm OK with posting everything here. This is a good thing and I hope it lasts.

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Learning to want less is proving difficult. Some days I'm content with what I have. Other days I want to buy a Rolex for no good reason.

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I've rearranged the Kirby panel so it's easier to change header graphics. Now I just type the name of the image I want into the Site panel and I'm done. Previously, I'd tried getting fancy. This was when I knew even less about how Kirby works, so I made it more complicated than necessary. Now it's not as cool, but easier and simpler.

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Hiring a bunch of unqualified boobs for top government positions will definitely backfire. Won't it?

• Writing on a tablet

  I've been writing on my reMarkable tablet a bit more lately and my fancy pens and notebooks are not pleased. I don't know if a writing tablet is the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds.

  Since I can never decide which type of paper (lined, plain, grid) I prefer, the rM2 is great, since every "page" can have its own style. It's also great having all of my notes synced to the computer, just in case. It's nice for reading and marking up PDFs. Every notebook is with me always. Cut and paste and undo can be very handy.

  On the other hand, there's nothing that can replace the feel of writing with a nice fountain pen in a paper notebook. Real paper is permanent and immutable. Put it in a box and it'll last (effectively) forever. No battery to worry about. Flipping through pages is a joy. I can paste small photos or tickets or quotes onto pages. Real notebooks are infinitely cooler.

  So here I am, confused about which approach makes more sense for me. My head says to use the reMarkable for everything. My heart says to ink up my favorite fountain pen and set to writing.

• System status: January, 2025

  This changes almost daily, but here's what's happening at the moment:

  • Camera: Leica MP and Olympus OM-2n
  • Film: Ilford HP5
  • Photo editing: Capture One
  • Notes: Emacs via Org-roam
  • Email: Emacs via Notmuch
  • RSS: Emacs via Elfeed
  • Todos: Emacs via Org-mode
  • Emacs config: Doom Emacs
  • Terminal: Ghostty
  • Read-later: Zotero or Emacs/Org
  • Music: Roon
  • Blog: Kirby CMS