The plan was to only generate /notes with ox-hugo, but I just spent like an hour getting the snippet and properties configured so I can generate these journal posts also. WHY!?
I'm sure you are tired of hearing about my non-stop waffling around software, operating systems, workflows, etc., and in that case, I apologize in advance.
After putting the Macs in the closet and committing to Linux, I went 180° and dug the Macs out and shelved the Linux machines. Now, I've been back on Linux exclusively again for a few days. I'm finding I prefer being in KDE than Tahoe. A week ago I wrote How I feel when using Linux and that became even more true the longer I was back on macOS. I need to decide if I can live without the apps that I thought I couldn't live without. Still working on that.
I hit a computing wall yesterday. Suddenly, I stopped caring about any of it. I'd just as soon live in the woods than think about how to manage my dotfiles (again). Or sync, or window managers. In fact, I don't want to think about the computer at all. I just want to use it. For some reason all I do is think about it. I'm back on macOS again on my desktop and thinking about just ditching Linux for now. It's so cool, though! Maybe when I start wanting to think about the computer again. This mood probably won't last, but for now, I'm going to go out and take some pictures.
I'm sitting here at my Fedora desktop thinking about how I spent hours yesterday learning about and setting up Chezmoi for managing my dotfiles. Just a week ago I posted something on Mastodon to the effect of, "I think I lost the thread the minute I started worrying about managing my dotfiles." I started wondering if maybe maybe the all-in-with-Linux thing wasn't such a great idea. It's fun, but it has consumed so much of my time that I'm wondering if it's worth it. I kind of want to stop thinking about it. I'm charging the MacBook Air as I type this. You don't want to be in my head. It's chaos in there.
And now I'm typing on the Mac Mini at my desk. I need a break from trying to make everything I want to do on a computer do it the way I want it to on Linux. I think where I'll end up is macOS on desktop and Linux on the Framework. The laptop will be more of a satellite device and not one that I need to do everything on. Just writing and browsing, mostly.
I'm considering bringing back the /notes section of the blog. For a minute I planned to modify the template so that /notes didn't display or require titles. Thing is, I don't want to go down the customize-my-blog-all-day path right now. I'm busy enough with the move to Linux. Maybe later.
Are you sick of me talking about Linux, yet? I am. But this is such a big change in my entire computing world that it's hard not talking about it. I'm running Fedora/KDE on my desktop and have had few issues. Yesterday, I scanned another roll of film using Vuescan and editing them in Darktable. I didn't hate it, which is an improvement. The only way to judge something is to use it for a while. Familiarity breeds contentment. Or something :).
By the way, I posted something related to this on the linux blog: How I feel when using Linux
It's so easy to be kind to people. Why do so many people find it difficult?
I'm kind of tired of everything related to the internet right now.
I'm on macOS this morning. Every day it's different. Sometimes I change multiple times in a day. It's fun, but crazy-making and unsustainable. I should pick one, but I can't.
☀️ Clear +27°F
Journal (Daily) posts don't show up on the home page, currently. I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing. On one hand, I don't need to worry about journal posts cluttering up the "important" stuff. Except then they disappear into the void, so I may decide to include them after all.
The other bit of trouble I ran into was the default RSS feed in the Blowfish theme. Hugo's default rss template is lacking. It only sends the summary and doesn't include any featured images. You'd think all theme developers by now would have dealt with that. I've done it myself a half-dozen times, but nope. I had to build one. It now includes the full content of each post, and the featured image, if available. The next thing is to include the Reply By Email button
I spent all morning toying with a few different static blogging options that could replace Hugo.
Kev had generously sent me a head start on a Jekyll theme that mimics my WordPress theme at baty.blog. I installed Jekyll and (to my surprise) I didn't hit any Ruby walls. While it was a great head start, I realized how much work remained, and I'm still not sure I want to use Jekyll.
The worst thing about Hugo is the templating language. It's so weird to me. Weird enough that it prevents me from tweaking things the way I like. For kicks, I installed Zola, which I haven't played with in years. It's like a sensible version of Hugo (single binary, etc.). I failed to port the theme Kev gave me to Zola, so I installed a pre-existing theme, Tabi. I kind of like it, but it's not really what I'm looking for, and I don't think I want to learn enough about Zola to make it happen.
So it's 2:00 in the afternoon and I've got nothing but dead ends to show for my day. Still in Hugo for now. It's a beautiful day, so I think I'll go for a nice walk.
You know what site of mine works just the way I like it? daily.baty.net. I tend to forget that. The problem is usually that it's (currently) built using Kirby CMS and I kind of don't want to stay sharp with Kirby. Maybe I'll just use it as is until something breaks. If nothing ever breaks, I'm golden.
It’s weird how I spend a few days relaxing in WordPress, then I wake up one day and think, “Maybe I’ll generate my whole website with Org-mode and Emacs!” I probably won’t do that, but I sometimes consider it.
I don’t want photography be just another way to generate files to play with on the computer.
The temperature dipped to freezing for the first time this year. This usually means it's truly the end of summer. Blech.
My therapist asked me why I thought it was a problem to have so many blogs/cameras/notebooks/etc. and I couldn’t give her a good answer. It often feels like a problem, but is it? Maybe not. Maybe I’m just having fun and that’s fine.
I’m using WordPress lately because it’s easy and I don’t have to think about anything but the typing. Images are easy to add and it can do fancy things when it needs to. Sure, it’s a bit bloated and janky, but if what I do most of the time is hit “New post” and write, who cares?
I swear to god if I see one more person accuse someone else of being “complicit” with one evil group or another because they happen to use a product that is somehow remotely tangental to that group I’m going to become complicit. Fuck off.
I have so many great cameras, and I have the free time to use them. Yet I've barely been taking any photographs. Why is that? I'd love to figure it out.
I wake up every day wondering who I'm going to be that day.
Both WordPress and Hugo have things to like about them, so I keep using both because I don't want to miss out on the good things about one when I decide to use the other. It's silly, but there we are.
I'm trying to spend as little time as possible on any social media. I'm finding it difficult.
I started posting over at baty.blog again for some reason.
Me, on this day in 2019:
For like a week now I've gone to bed with the ThinkPad and using Linux to actually do stuff. It's fun. Not easy or care-free, but for the first time I'm having a little fun.
It'll stick eventually.
The 3.1.0 update to Omarchy has been released. The Discord channels are awash with people having trouble with the update, but I ran it on both my machines anyway. No issues so far.
Some days I want to live entirely within Emacs. Some days I want to live in a browser. Some days I want to live in terminal and TUI apps. These things, while not mutually exclusive, don't get along well.
I am surprisingly content with using Zen browser.
I'm typing this in neovim/lazyvim for some reason. Sometimes a change in venue is refreshing, right?
I've optimized myself into a completely broken system.
I should probably write more about Linux and the NAS and the little Canon AF-7 and the sorry state of the US, but I don't have the energy to put the words together in a useful way. So I'm kind of doing it one sentence at a time here in the dailies.
If I'd have stuck with one system/process for longer, I'd really have something. As it stands now, all I have is a big fat mess.
I don't know where to put things. I have several dozen files in my Downloads folder and I've no idea what to do with them.
All the second engine does is fly you to the scene of the crash.
-- Pilots
It's possible I've bitten off more than I can chew. New desktop and laptop. New OS on both. New NAS. New media streamer (Jellyfin rather than Plex). New Immich install (via Docker on the UGREEN NAS). New photo editing software (Darktable). It's a little overwhelming. My M4 Air is taunting me from the shelf over there.
Thinking about including a status thingy at the bottom of my daily posts. Got the idea from Warren Ellis. Do I actually do enough to justify writing it down every day? Maybe.
Gruber doesn't get art: Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal: 'A Cartoonist's Review of AI Art'
I'm still working on my photo workflow in Linux. It's gotten to the point of being tolerable, but it's still not enjoyable. Darktable is powerful but there are too many ways of doing everything. I feel like I'm just throwing stuff at the wall, hoping it turns out. I suppose I will eventually find a process that works consistently, but right now I'm not even close to that. I really miss Capture One.
I've spent a ton of time and money moving my film scanning workflow from a flatbed to using a digital camera. My results using Darktable's Negadoctor module have been lackluster, so I re-scanned my last roll using the Epson flatbed. I still feel like it's faster and less fussy doing it that way. I loaded the TIFF scans in Capture One, selected all of them, and hit "Auto" and that was it. They look better than the ones I futzed with forever in Darktable. I haven't timed it, but I'd bet that the total time from dried film to shareable images is significantly faster using the flatbed. Sigh.
I mean, if you're going to start using new computers running a new OS, you might as well get a new, unfamiliar NAS and an updated Orbi router kit while you're at it. That's what I did. Chaos!
I haven't been mentioning Omarchy or the Framework laptop lately because I don't feel like being scolded for "supporting projects that promote facism" which is of course not what they're doing, but whatever. I'm not interested in arguing about it, and I'm not going to clear my throat before every mention. fwiw I like both products very much. Send me an actual apples-to-apples equivalent and I might switch.
I'm trying not to miss my Mac but I kind of miss my Mac. Not being able to develop a comfortable photography workflow might be a dealbreaker for Linux. I'm still trying, though.
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