Jack Baty

I would like to quit social media completely, but I’m addicted to validation. I tell myself that I actually suffer from FOMO, but the reality is that I’m looking for “likes” and comments and, well, validation. Maybe it isn’t validation so much as it is feeling like I’m being seen. I mean, how else can one know they exist in the world?

I sat down this morning, looking to journal a bit about the past few days with extended family, but Emacs threw an error on launch. I fixed that. Then, I couldn’t find a note I’d written earlier. Sometimes I would just like to write stuff, take a few notes, and find things later when I need them, but without all the fuss. I don’t know how to get there.

Good morning. What shall we wring our hands about, today?

My blog turns 25 years old today

I am off social media for a bit. Whenever I feel myself doing nothing but scrolling or looking for likes or thinking of something “like-able” to say, I know it’s time for a break. I’m not cross-posting to Mastodon at all anymore, either. So now, whenever there’s a lull in the action of my life, I feel lost. That’s the feeling I want to get rid of.

Switching between the MacBook Air keyboard and the HHKB keyboard can be off-putting. I have loved using the HHKB for years, but I’ve lost patience for the function layer and missing arrow keys. My pinky hurts too often.

I asked Claude to summarize my recent blog posts. Claude knows me.

I take a lot of screenshots using the built-in screen capture tool on macOS. By default, these are saved as PNG files, which are unnecessarily ginormous for my purposes, so I always convert them to .jpg files.

I’m realizing that my enthusiasm for Hugo reflects my current mood about Emacs. When I’m all-in with Emacs, Hugo is my favorite way to manage a blog. When I’m “off” Emacs, I find other ways to blog because my whole Hugo workflow is built using Emacs. The problem right now is that I’m oscillating rapidly between Emacs and not-Emacs, so I post in multiple places. It’s fun having options, but I dislike making decisions. 😵‍💫

I continue to overthink everything related to my blog(s). I want specific things for specific posts, depending on my mood that day. It’s exhausting. The dream of course is to have One Blog. I have 4 active sites right now. That’s more than one, for those who are counting.

I’m not even supposed to be here today.

I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I’m just not feelling it lately, ya know?