shiny new (digital) implements

Update/202208101502: The makers of DoMarks replied to this post on Twitter, @DoMarksApp, and asked about the Reeder bug I so inelegantly shared here: said they will play with it and get a fix in the next update. VERY cool.

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A few apps / tools I've started using that have - so far - made my day a little less manic than it was before:

Structured, a visual hybrid of a calendar and a reminder that I've started using to track my routine stuff - write, read, pills, exercise, etc; had used Streaks for awhile, but got tired of the "MUST SHOULD HAVE TO" inculcation of the app. Structure is a far less powder-keg option – though I'd love a way to turn off the "surely you can come up with something else to fill this 2 hours with" at the end of an already 14-hour day (Yes, I can, and it's called POWERWASH SIMULATOR; that subway tunnel isn’t going to clean itself).

One Sec, an automation tool that makes you take a breath - yay for muscle memory interruption! – and decide if you really, truly want to open that bullshit loop - eg Twitter / email - and state, with intention, why you want to open it (one of my stated intentions is "assuage raging insecurity," for example. Takes a bit of setup via Shortcuts and Automations, but it's been a helpful way - far more so than Screen Time - to block out certain apps and shift from using them as mindless boredom relievers to actual tools.

DoMarks, my new preferred read-it-later service that lets me categorize bookmarks and sites by actions, turns the act of saving internet pennies and filling up the RIL jar into actual, actionable tasks. I've customized several – either adding my own or via tags – TO PR is for things I'd like to post here, while READ has a Kindle tag for the things – longform especially – that I want to take with me on the Kindle (which I still love) to read. A few bugs with Reeder interplay, but nothing fatal. Also: would love the ability to send to DoMarks at the top of the Share button (sorry, can’t think of its proper name right now), as opposed to the action further down (which changes based on the app being shared from).

And, finally: Upstract, where I can skim pretty much anything from major news sources that would have been otherwise filling up my RSS reader (Reeder). A quick way to get a sense of the world, of the different ways things are covered (along with allsides.com). Worth the small monthly pittance so far.

In other implements news, I've become obsessed with figuring out how to make shortcut for my iPad to jump directly to the day's daily note in Obsidian. Though I know I'm talking to myself here, any recomended ponds to fish in would be most welcome.

new notebook obsession

I take my hoarding of the Field Notes Pitch Black 64-page Dot Grid Note books (a little smaller in area than a regular Moleskine and MUCH larger than the Field Note Memo Books) to be indicative that I’ve settled, fully, on a preferred new notebook and journal. Lower page count means that my sourthpawness doesn’t lead to my hand falling off the top of the book and make everything I write more illegible than normal. Great pairing with my beloved Lamy Al-Star fine point.

analog kindling

When I first opened up the Kindle Paperwhite, I couldn’t decide if it was useful or useless - that home screen didn’t help - until I sent my first article from my read-it-later app (DoMarks, absolutely fantastic) and checked out The Economist… and proceeded to shift my subscription from the iPad to the Kindle - and did likewise for NYRB and The New Yorker: each weekly issue delivered, much slower, much nicer.

I've already come across two or three books (one of which arrived the other day) which probably would have been better on a Kindle - or at least more amenable to fragmented reading than physical books. I'm also finding it great for reading B&W manga - Tezuka's BLACKJACK Volume Three is queued up.

Verdict: useful.

In tandem / parallel / whatever, I'm coming down with a desire to return to a more analog approach. While I won't be returning to the index card system – illegibility and utility don't mix in perpetuity – I do want to focus more on handwriting notes, journaling, etc. and using digital as a way to store and deep link them for use.

ēnsso PIUMA fountain pen

While I've long been a Lamy devotee (the AL-Star with a fine point nib is my go-to), I'm always looking – often in spite of myself - for the next object of devotion. While I can't recall where and/or how I happened upon ēnsso’s PIUMA pen, billed as

"...an investigation of liberating a fountain pen from all unnecessary components and ornaments. PIUMA is machined out of solid blocks of titanium, brass, and aluminum using the latest CNC technology. In order to provide an incredibly smooth writing experience, PIUMA is also equipped with the finest German-made nibs."

Ensso https://www.ensso.com/collections/frontpage/products/piuma-minimal-fountain-pen-black-aluminum

it's come the closest of recent efforts to evoking that devotion – and in a relatively short amount of time: despite my lacking-in-detail photo above (I'm never giving up my XR, not until it gives up on me), it's truly a beautiful pen.

A few things, though, have given me pause.

• One, it's heavy and wears out my increasingly arthritic hands. Anything but its translated namesake.

• Two, it's a bit scratchier than I'm used to – but then again, Lamys are notorious for being a much wetter pen; I haven't tried other inks with the PIUMA. I did, however, use one of JetPens’s best tips for getting a scratchy pen to write – making a writing a bunch of eights on a paper bag to polish the nib – and it’s definitely helped.

• Three, that it's designed to NOT be posted throws me a bit. I have to stop and remind myself to put the cap down someplace that a.) I'll remember and b.) that Kirby won't get ahold of it - both being easier said than done.

Want to give it a few more days for acclimation and try out different inks before rendering judgement. That said, I'm optimistic as to its chances at devotional evocation.

noteshift, part iii

(previously…)

Two additions to the noteshift workflow:

First, my Coal Creek Leather cover for my recently-beloved Field Notes Note Book (I dig the paper and it's beyond wonderful to not have my hand fall off the top of a thicker notebook into illegibility at the start of each page) arrived and it's as stunning as the smaller Memo Book wallet I've had for years. And it smells so good.

Second, since I shifted to smaller notebooks, I've been using this fold-up pocket dry erase board for thinking by hand. If I end up with something useful, I take a photo of it and load it into Obsidian for future reference or forgetting. Erase and repeat.

Note: I ordered my Noteboard via Amazon: the website listed on the board and bag seems defunct and I can't find it on the site they say it moved to…

Still getting the Obisidian Daily and Weekly notes feature configured – but I think I've got something closer to what I'm looking for. Dumped Toggl because it was redundant data; when, in some mythical future, I have actual clients, I can definitely see the value. But, since it's just me myself and I, I'm fine with how I've been managing that particular aspect of my workflow.

To be, as ever, continued, I'm sure.

noteshift, part ii

I’m finding the digital shift far more useful in the long run though I write by hand when I need to think and try to decipher what I've written so it's useful later on, more often than not to no avail. My index card system is now defunct simply because I can't read them and, given that I write in fountain pen, the chances of degradation and data loss are just as good via computerized efforts – though with the added benefit of being able to read the latter.

(Will probably create a second Obsidian Vault for those and move them into the main Work vault when needed for projects.)

Also experimenting with adding Toggl to my workmix to get a better picture of how I spend my day. Divided into projects, including into "other peoples' shit"; as Annie Dillard tells us, "how we spend our days are how we spend our lives," and I'd rather it not be overwhelmed – as it has been for the last decade or two – by "other peoples' shit."

noteshift

I've switched over to Field Notes Pitch Black 64-page Note Books for my journal and I love them. Smoother writing and, for the southpaw that I am, not having the huge gaggle of pages for my hand to fall from each time I start a page makes my handwriting somewhat neater. Waiting, impatiently, on Coal Creek Leather to ship my journal cover for this thing, since, thanks to the weird Note Book size, no one, except CC, makes a cover to fit them. More of a reliance now on sticky notes and Obsidian for making notes useful beyond the act of their writing (working on a new piece on how I use Obsidian and my Stream Deck for July’s MacroParentheticals0082).

stream deckery, day one

First full morning with my 15-button Stream Deck: skeptical of its utility at first but once I figured out profiles and made one for Obsidian, the productivity value became obvious; will add a post once I figure out how I'm going to use it fully. Also: returning the iPad Pro in my work setup, likely open also to Obsidian for online writing and such. I love Drafts, but in the interest of consolidation mental or otherwise, I'm trying to stick to Obsidian for everything. Wish it had better iOS integration, though: I'm not technically/codingly savvy enough to make my own useful widgets and shortcuts.

Muse, round two (or three? IDK)

Made a second attempt at using Muse, having quit and cancelled my subscription sometime late last year when it reverted whole blocks of text to earlier versions with no rhyme or reason and their helpful support staff ceased being so: to not trust a writing tool, no matter how brilliant it is – no matter how close it is to representing how you think – is a death sentence for its utility.

However, in the course of working MainFictionThing (into the ground, perhaps) yesterday morning, I saw the potential benefit it could derive from the spacial thinking canvas approach that Muse offered and, intrigued by the promise offered in the new Mac version and the truly genius interplay of it and the iPad and iPhone versions, I – with fingers duly crossed that the text reversion issues had been fixed – downloaded and logged in and played.

While the genius of the idea behind the app remains intact – and I could see, as in previous attempts, its value in writing not only MainFictionThing but in organizing TSR interview prep and etc etc – I found the text editing options to be still rudimentary at best (though perhaps I've been spoiled by the nigh-limitless abilities of Obsidian and my years now of working in Markdown) which would more likely than not require that I work with another text editor to create the final product (that said, I'm excited that iA Writer 6 will, apparently, add in wiki-linking), and, unfortunately, found further that no matter how much I tried, I couldn't shake my distrust of the earlier release's textual vanishing acts.

Deleted it from all devices of work and distraction by afternoon.

For now, sticking with Obsidian (I have to say here that writing in Obisidian is an absolute joy; thinking in Obsidian... eh) and legal pads and dry erase boards – but damn, do I want Muse to live up to its promise: it's so, so close.

Side note: compiling a list of Obsidian community plugins that have become invaluable to my process. Will share eventually.