Journal

I plan to avoid most news and all social media for a week. It's to the point where, between the daily barrage of horrible, incompetent people doing stupid, horrible things and the incessant misinformed chatter about all of it on social media, I'm going to lose my shit. I need a brief respite in order to reset.

Since I'm mostly only using macOS right now, I've punted on the NetNewsWire <--> Miniflux connection. There has been something off about it for a while. I've moved all my NNW feeds into the iCloud synced collection and it's working better.

"README-driven development" is a phrase Simon Willison used and it's kind of perfect.

I'll never understand why people get such a boner over ridiculing someone else's code. It's not a good look.

I'm spinning today. I want to do everything at once.

One of the things I did was completely revamp my Obsidian vault, with Claude Cowork's help. I wouldn't have done it without the help. Made the whole thing consistent, easy, and complete. Don't ask yet why I'm even looking at obsidian.

Much of yesterday was swallowed by converting this blog from Hugo to Eleventy (Like Twitter, I'll probably never call it Build Awesome 🙄). I wondered if I'd wake up today feeling like I'd made a mistake. So far, I don't miss Hugo. It's only been a day, though. Whether I continue to like the design is another story. I meant for it to be basic and simple, then decided to put everything on the home page. I like the individual pages, but home is pretty messy. That's probably OK, since most people read this via RSS anyway.

Today has been a whirlwind of indecision. It started with wanting to write a daily post (you're soaking in it), but I couldn't decide which blog to post it on. There are three good candidates. I'm choosing this one.

And then there's Emacs. I've spent a lot of time tidying up my config and it's still kind of a mess. It's starting to wear on me. Sometimes I want things to be clever and cool, but sometimes I just want it to be easier. I launched Obsidian yesterday, if that tells you how bad it is. Thankfully, I've come to my senses and I am typing this in Emacs. Phew!

Early AI photography tools like automatic masking and object removal were a miracle. Then came "Replace Sky" and it's been downhill ever since. The better generative AI gets and the easier it becomes to use, the more inclined I am to do the opposite and never touch the stuff.

What if I started posting from scratch at a completely different blog, but didn't tell anyone about it?

Whenever I test a new blogging tool or return to an old one, I'm reminded that there are things I need to relearn or rebuild. Everything has specific requirements. Doing this can be fun. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. Or, more precisely, it helps me pretend I'm accomplishing something. This Hugo blog has been feature-complete for a while. Creating and editing posts with Emacs is a no-brainer. I've got little functions and helpers and snippets for everything I need. So, while blogging using various platforms is fun and reduces boredom, it's anything but productive. I get tired of both Emacs and Hugo sometimes, but I'd love to stick with them and be done with it. If only, right?

...10 minutes later... https://baty.blog/im-so-moody-when-it-comes-to-blogging

The photo for this post was taken using a Leica M4. This one...

It had M3-style levers, a recent and expensive CLA by Sherry Krauter, custom framelines, and it worked perfectly. I sold it because I wanted the money for some stupid digital camera that I no longer have. This was a terrible mistake. Never sell a Leica unless you absolutely have to.

It's a pain finding a photo for every daily journal post, but reviewing my catalog helps remind me that I enjoy photography and have made many photographs that are interesting to me. It acts as a tiny bit of inspiration each day. For today's photo, it's the guy in a suit talking on the phone while leaning against the wall. It was taken using my 1946 Leica IIIf, which is adorable.

Guess what. I thought about quitting Emacs again yesterday. Went so far as to re-install Obsidian. After a few hours of new-shiny-this-is-way-easier, I remembered I can't stand using Obsidian. I do this once every month or two and I never learn.

Speaking of being back. I'm doing a daily post here, today. I've been enjoying using Tinderbox to publish the daily blog again, but I'm so far into my Linux experiment that I get twitchy using software that limits me to using a Mac. At least when there are alternatives that I also enjoy using.

Why didn't I think of doing this with my HHKB? https://medium.com/lim-less-is-more/sonshi-style-a-style-of-putting-keyboard-on-laptop-67f0a825a53c

How crazy is this? WordPress running locally, in-browser.

When I was born my dad drove a 1957 turquoise and ivory Chevy Bel Air convertable. It's what brought me home from the hospital that first time. Wasn't long before he had to sell it because it was impractical once he had a kid. The Chevy was replaced with some beat up station wagon. I don't think he's ever forgiven me 😀

I avoid any apps that involve "streaks" because breaking a streak makes me feel bad about myself. Although sometimes I break them on purpose because YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!

I've spent much of the morning deleting stuff. It's possible I've been too aggressive, but it feels great. One of these days maybe I'll have the guts to delete all of it.

There is no "productivity system" in the world that will make me less lazy.

Having too many choices is bad for me, but I refuse to give up any of them. You know, just in case.

I don't know which camera to use. I don't know which computer to use. I don't know which fountain pen to use. I don't know which writing app to use. I don't know which blog to use. And so on. Yes, yes, I'm very lucky and privileged to have this problem. Still, it's a problem I have. One to which the answer is probably, "All of them". Which breeds a different set of problems, but I can't complain.

It's too late to be pessimistic

--Yann Arthus-Bertrand (and others)

Using LLMs and agents to do stuff for me is amazing and exhilarating, but it's not fun and it feels dirty.

MODE by Flickr | The Next Big Thing in photography

The Next Big Thing in photography is landing February 26, 2026.

Hey Flickr, I love ya, but unless whatever you're planning actually is going to be the Next Big Thing in photography you're shooting yourselves in the foot with all the breathless hype.

Wouldn't it be funny if I just punted and moved my blog to Pika?

I am constitutionally unable to decide anything and then stick with that decision. For example, I moved my blog to baty.blog because Pure Blog is so cool. Then yesterday I went back to Hugo because I missed editing posts in Emacs. Now today I'm using the Tinderbox version of my daily blog because I want it static, not Kirby-generated. Sheesh. I've typed this paragraph in 3 places.

Continued reading "Manifesto for World Revolution". It's wildly unrealistic but still gets one fired up.

Am I back? Not sure yet, but I think I'm a static-blog kind of fella. Pure Blog is awesome, and Kev's done a great job with it. I like it a lot. And yet, there's this nagging feeling about it running "out there" and needing PHP, etc. Pure Blog is super simple to host, but not as simple or portable as a static site. A CMS with a nice, simple UI is pretty great, but I've spent years honing my combination of Hugo and Emacs. Blogging is a "solved" problem, right? :) Anyway, I'm going to try this again for a minute. I've migrated the "regular" posts from there to here. I don't think I'll bother with the journal entries.t

The reef tank is a struggle. I'm always fighting some unwanted critter or algae or chemicals or something. I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I do like watching the coral wave around in the current. The urchin is super cool, too.

We're celebrating a family birthday today, which means ice cream!

Have you ever thought about just not doing this being online thing any more? I do, sometimes. It passes quickly, but I do wonder what it would feel like to spend more time in the world. You know, the real one. And don't say, "BUt OnLInE Is tHE ReAl WOrlD noW!" because no it isn't. And it becomes less so every day.

If I were to start a new business, it would be entirely focused on offline activities. In-person is the thing I want, and I'll bet other people do, too.

Kev Quirk has created a new (php-based) blogging tool called Pure Blog. Of course I had to spin up one of my own: pure.baty.net. I'm just tinkering (for now).

I posted to baty.photo, the Ghost blog I'd intended to use for focusing on my hobby. It's been months. Every time I think I want to have a dedicated blog for photography, I start a new one, then abandon it. Maybe I just wanted to tinker. Maybe I wanted a CMS to do things for me for a change. I don't know.

Most things I post online are me thinking out loud and are rightfully taken both with salt and with the knowledge that I'm usually just exploring how I feel about things or what I've noticed. Sometimes, I get pushback from people. That's fine. It doesn't make me wrong, though. Unless it does, and in that case I'll change.

I'm reminded, though, why I try to post only (or mostly) positive things online. Even the positive things can be taken in ways I never intended, and sometimes are. But I'm certain that if I were to use this space to vent about how shitty the world is right now (and it is very shitty), I'd be scolded for doing it wrong. I don't have the headspace for that. I'm not here to argue. Everyone else has that covered.

I've donated, I don't even know how much, but real money, to causes that I believe are doing good in the world. I don't talk about it, and I don't list them. It's my business. And again, I don't need to be told why I've chosen badly.

I get to choose what works for me here and what I write about. This is my space. I don't need approval. Neither do you. Isn't that awesome?!

I think I'll go shovel some snow.

Snow shoveled. Now what? Whine more about my hurt feelings when people criticize or poke fun at me? Nah, I'm playing with self-hosted music servers and streaming clients on Linux. Much more fun!

I should be taking more photos. One roll of film for the entire month of January is embarrassing. I have a new Leica Q2 to play with, and I've taken maybe 20 images with it so far. What's up with that?

I'm bored with all the performative quitting going on. What do you want, a medal?

Later: I don't think Dave cared for my comment about being bored. Fair enough. Sorry, Dave, you're excluded of course :). I wasn't "sub-posting" you or anyone else in particular. And I'm not bored with people quitting things that don't line up with their ethics or anything else. That's excellent. I'm bored with people talking about it in that particularly smug tone that social media brings out in people. Frankly, I'm so angry about just about everything happening righ now I can hardly think. I'll exercise my privilege by being bored by the tiresome discourse around so much of it.

Come to think of it, I'm bored by just about everything. I seem to have only two reactions to everything: anger or boredom.

Took the M3 loaded with a roll of HP5 over to my grandson's this morning. Shot the roll at ISO1600. Nothing very good to show for it, but at least I did something.

I woke up thinking about why using Linux makes me feel good. It isn’t really an ethics thing or a Tim Cook’s Bad Behavior thing or even a Liquid Glass Sucks thing. It’s just a feeling I get with Linux that I no longer feel on macOS. It feels quieter. I feel like it’s just me and the computer. Like it’s mine, you know? It's a Linux kind of day, today.

Let's face it, I will never stop futzing with blogs. Yesterday I was all over the daily.baty.net blog, but was writing both in the Tinderbox and Kirby versions. Almost switched it back to Tinderbox, but chickened out. This morning, I started this post in Kirby, then decided I'd just put it here, because my dream is to have One True Blog™ and if that dream ever comes true baty.net will be that blog.

There are a few loose ends on the website I'm building for a friend's new business. I can't seem to make myself work on it. I enjoy the first 90% of every project, but struggle to get through the second 90%.

Still working through what goes in the daily journal posts and what goes in separate /notes. Diary-like stuff goes here. Things I share or statements I make go in notes. Maybe?

Most of the time when I try new things, It's to see how those things feel. Software, hardware, cameras, workflow, all of it. I love experiencing new ways of doing things. Sometimes I end up "deciding" on a particular thing, and that's that. Except it never is, is it?

What I'd like is to show the current journal post, pinned on the home page. It should display the full content of the post. Then, below that, only show recent non-journal posts. I'm sure Hugo will resist and I'll end up hating the process and the results. I'd ask Claude for help, but that's a whole 'nuther can of worms and I'm not in the mood.

I'd like to spend my days reading, thinking, and making art but I can't tear myself away from the computer for more than 30 minutes, so I do none of those things. The computer used to be a creative environment for me. It's not anymore.

Do you ever get tired of people writing better than you, drawing better than you, thinking better than you, being better than you? I do.

What's with the irrational fear of databases?

It was -15°F while walking Alice this morning. I tried the doggy boots, but she wasn't having it, so we barefooted it. She must be tough, because I didn't see any signs of her feet bother her.

I don't know why I worry about what kinds of posts belong where or whether they belong at all. No one else cares, why should I? So yeah, these daily posts are going to stay here for the moment, until I decide I was wrong.

Oh, and fuck this entire administration.

I swear every one of my gel and ballpoint pens has started skipping at once.