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When I was a kid I kept a small, fresh-water aquarium. It was fun, but I always knew that the really cool fish lived in salt water. Fast forward 40 years or so and I’ve finally put together a salt-water “reef” aquarium. I’ve started small because there seems to be quite a percentage of people who bail on them within the first year or so. I want to be sure it sticks before spending tons of money and going all-in. I went with the “beginner” BioCube 32. I set the tank up the first week of June. Added “live” rock and sand. “Aquascaping” the aquarium was fun. I think I have a configuration that looks nice and also leaves plenty of nooks and crannies for critters to hide in. I added a powerhead pump for better flow, and waited. I had to buy water! ...

Sometimes I notice the Leica M10-R sitting forlornly on my desk and I’m reminded that I don’t deserve it. A camera like that should be used, and used a lot. Mine mostly sits around waiting for me to take another selfie or photo of my dog. That’s a lot of money tied up in what most people do (and often better) with their phones. I’m a rangefinder guy at heart. I’ve shot with one almost continually since 2003. The Leica M, whether film or digital, is IMO the pinnacle of camera design and construction. But…I often just want to have a camera with me for simple grab shots. You know, the one-handed snapshot of a friend at dinner. Or a macro of my dog’s toes. The M is not the camera for those. Not in my hands, anyway. So I long for auto-focus, and EVF, maybe even IBIS. ...

I rage-quit Emacs this morning. By that, I don’t mean that I hit C-x C-c really hard, although I did do that. I mean I stopped using Emacs. ...

I was struggling with some recent tweaks to this blog’s theme, and while poking around I discovered that the LoveIt theme was once again being developed. I had moved to the CodeIt theme after LoveIt looked to be abandoned back in 2020. The author had simply seemed to disappear. And then, a month ago, there was this post. Since CodeIt was archived recently and development stopped, I took the opportunity to kill my fork and switch back to LoveIt. I cleaned up a bunch of unnecessary CSS while I was in there. I’m trying to stick as close as I can to the defaults for now. ...

The quote from Robert Greene that I posted yesterday has thrown me a little: [People] are far too present and familiar, their every move displayed on social media. That might make you relatable, but it also makes you seem just like everyone else. Robert Greene I don’t know how I feel about the idea that posting so much about myself makes me seem the same as everyone else. I always figured it showed how I was different. The very last thing I want to do is be just like everyone else. ...

There was a roll languishing in the OM-2n so I finished it during my walk today. I really need to find some new subjects. Shot on HP5 Plus. Developed in HC-110 (dilution B) for five minutes. Scanned on the Epson V750. Mirror self-portrait. OM-2n. HP5 Plus Flag while driving. OM-2n. HP5 Plus Bridge. OM-2n. HP5 Plus

You’ll notice that I highlight short phrases in many of my daily post entries here. I think this makes it easier to scan things later. The HTML markup for this is just a styled <mark> tag wrapping the text to be highlighted. I write my posts in Org-mode and convert them to Hugo-compatible Markdown using ox-hugo. The path from Org-mode to HTML for this is a little convoluted, so I cheat and use a macro to generate the markup. ...

UPDATE June 09, 2022: This post was copied and pasted from the original WordPress post. Meta! :) I’m typing this post in the WordPress editor. I don’t enjoy writing here unless I’m adding an image gallery or some other fancy embedded content. It just feels off. “So write in MarsEdit or Ulysses or something instead,” you implore. ...

For years, I’ve kept a paper notebook at hand. I always have a Moleskine-style bullet journal or a Field Notes pocket notebook or a Hobonichi Techo nearby. Sometimes all three. Lately, I’ve been feeling hampered by keeping my journal on paper. My handwriting is terrible unless I write very slowly and deliberately. I worry that personal journaling suffers from too-slow, overly-deliberate writing. I spend too much time deciding between and playing with various writing instruments. I love my fountain pens, but I’m left-handed, and fountain pens are not ideal. The ink and paper must be just right, and that’s hard to arrange. ...

I just sold my wonderful Leica Q2 Monochrom. This was the second time I’ve owned a Q2M and the second time I’ve sold one. The Q2M is a nearly perfect walk-around, everyday camera for someone who wants to focus purely on making black and white images. That describes me perfectly, for a while. I love B&W photographs and the Q2M makes them as good or better than anything available. I love how using a B&W-only sensor forces me to think in tones, shades, and lighting. ...

Long story short, I have successfully rationalized the purchase of a new iPad Pro and keyboard. After a week or more of non-stop tinkering with nearly every bit of software on my Mac, I had a fit and decided to switch things up. I now have an iPad Pro (11-inch) with Smart Keyboard. The idea is that the software I use on iOS is less prone to tweaking. Plus, I’m not always futzing with shell aliases and other CLI tools just for fun. I’m not tempted by a 32-inch screen peppered with windows just begging me to play with them. I’m still thinking Reset to Defaults. ...

A week ago I did that thing where I blow up my system because I noticed I’d been doing that other thing where I spend all my time tweaking everything. I’m calling it an experiment, and I’m naming it “Reset to Defaults”. The idea is to revert to stock macOS apps where feasible, or simple and established apps otherwise, and avoid tools that lend themselves to constant tweaking. This hurts because tweaking is what I spend much of my time doing. I enjoy it! But, it’s a distraction and I should do less of it. To this end, I’ve restructured task management, blogging, journaling, note-taking, photo editing, file management, etc. ...

I’ve been using the Happy Hacking Professional 2 Keyboard since 2018. After a long search and many different dead ends, I’d found the keyboard for me. I still think the HHKB is nearly perfect, but there’s one problem. ...

I’ve had a pair of Apple’s AirPods Max for almost exactly one year. The headphones look nice and sound very good, but I don’t enjoy using them. I’ve been thinking about why that is, and came up with the following list. There’s no Off button. I hate this. I don’t use them every day, and if I don’t remember to either plug them in or put them in the case (for “low power mode” or whatever it is), the batteries are often dead when I go to use them. ...

I’ve used Zengobi’s Curio for many years when I needed a visual system for managing projects and associated files. In a recent version, Curio gained a Journal feature. It’s fairly rudimentary compared to dedicated journal apps, but I recently started testing it as a way to create a sort of scrapbook each day. It works pretty well for that. I export a PDF of the day’s entry, print it, and put it in a binder. ...

Had brunch at my parent’s yesterday to celebrate Mother’s Day. It was nice. My mom has been suffering from pain in her leg for a few weeks, but the combination of new meds and time seems to have helped quite a lot. I took the Leica Q2 Monochrom and made a few snaps. Here are my favorites from the day. Mom. Leica Q2 Monochrom Mom and Dad. Leica Q2 Monochrom ...

I have some pretty nice things. I’m fortunate and have more “stuff” than I could ever need. And yet, it seems as if I’m always buying something new. It’s just that I like to try new things, whether it’s tools, software, gadgets, or what have you. I want to see what different things feel like to have and use. My Dad’s Garage - 2022 The photo above is from my dad’s garage, taken this year. I took it because I’m always amazed at how little it changes. My dad rarely buys anything new. He just uses what he has. ...

I’ve kept a list of books I’ve read as a plain text (well, technically, Markdown) file for years. I wrote about it here. The public version is rendered using Github Pages at books.baty.net. This is fine, but at some point last year I also started logging books in an Org mode file, just to see how it felt. It felt pretty good! ...

My Epson V750 Pro, purchased in 2009, has scanned thousands of rolls of film, slides, and prints. After making strange grinding noises recently, it has finally ground to a halt. ...

Org-roam is “A plain-text personal knowledge management system” using Emacs and Org-mode and I put nearly all my notes in there. While it’s easy to find notes in org-roam based on filename, there’s no obvious way to search the contents of notes. Weird, right? ...