In November I wrote about my journaling habit, and how I was using a combination of the Day One app with my new-at-the-time paper journaling practice. Shortly after writing that blog entry I moved away from Day One and went a bit more in on paper journaling. In lieu of Day One I am using Obsidian, which works on just about anything.
Paper based journaling has become much more important to me.
At the beginning of the year I resolved to do more journaling in concert with general philosophical studying I was embracing. I have found writing in my journal to be an excellent thought exercise. As mentioned in the November blog entry, I find the words to be more meaningful when I take the time to write them down in my own handwriting, in lieu of just typing them on a random keyboard I have nearby. It’s good to take the time to write the way I learned decades ago.
I have been following along with the year with Ryan Holiday’s “The Daily Stoic” and it has made a positive impact on my thinking in 2025. It’s probably the strongest contributor to building my personal foundation as we all try to navigate this endlessly chaotic times here in the United States.
Taking a few moments a couple of times a day to write down what I’m thinking or how I’m feeling or to reflect on how my approach to life fits in with the lesson of the day in “The Daily Stoic” has unraveled the cacophony of thoughts I often have at any given moment. I wouldn’t say that I have found clarity, as that seems to be too strong of a word for how I feel at the moment, but I have found my thoughts around life to be more in the realm of “partly cloudy”. Journaling has definitely contributed to this.
As an aside, it seems that since the first of the year I have really embraced wearing hoodies. I doubt I’ll wear them when it’s well over 100°F in a month or two, but for now they are quite comfortable.
It’s good to be comfortable, in both mind and body.
I’ve mentioned before that my interest in technology manifested itself when I was quite young. In the mid to late 1970s retail outlets were moving from traditional mechanical cash registers to electronic point of sale systems. I remember Sears being a leader in the space, but other chains were moving to electronic cash registers as well and I found all the buttons and lights fascinating, and even more so, I found the connectivity between these machines and the computers hidden from customer view to be even more intriguing.
Kmart was a bit late to a standardized computing approach, and I’ve written about the history of their point of sale growth on my more geek oriented site: Vintage Point of Sale. So why am I talking about this here?
In 1985 Kmart hired David Carlson on board to lead the effort to fix their struggling migration to modern computing solutions. I very much admire the approach he took to the effort. Instead of focusing on a complete, vendor specific solution to the problem, he and his team designed an architecture based on what was best suited for the corporation’s needs. In short, this meant that while Kmart may have had IBM PCs in the back office, they could be running IBM, NCR, or Fujitsu cash registers up front. Solutions focused on connectivity and data could be shared easily, without being behind a “walled garden”.
I like this and this is the approach I take to my personal computing needs.
I no longer allow my personal data to live behind a walled garden. This means my photos are not locked into iCloud, my notes are not locked into Apple Notes, and todo lists are not locked into a proprietary task management system. Aside from video editing, anything I do on a computer can be done with MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, Linux, or even Windows, if I was in the mood to do that sort thing. This does not mean I rely on web portals for access to my data. Working with iCloud in a non-Apple environment for anything outside of email is a surprising exercise in frustration.
This approach has allowed me to migrate away from proprietary and often costly services. I have a NAS, or Network Attached Storage device, sitting on the network here at home. It has all the storage I need and could ever need with its expandability. The Western Digital PR4100 is pretty much plug and play, has file redundancy, and I can use an app on my iPhone to make sure all of my photos and other files are backed up. It has been worth every penny of my initial investment and more importantly, it saves on iCloud file storage monthly costs and does not strand my data into that “walled garden”. I can get to my data from any computer I choose. This is a beautiful thing.
Another area where I’ve opened up my data is with my “Personal Wiki”. I am now keeping all my notes, journals, etc. in Obsidian. Obsidian’s files are stored on my local computers using plain text markdown formatted files. I pay for the sync service and I have yet to find a file sync service that works better that Obsidian. It really “just works”, and like my personal computing management rules, the data is accessible from any computing platform I happen to be in the mood to use at the moment. Here’s a quick start video I found to be helpful.
Moving away from vendor specific solutions is allowing me to no longer be reliant on Apple or Dell or Microsoft or anybody for my future computing needs. I’m able to use my existing hardware for as long as it lasts without having to move to new computers just to move away from a specific vendor. I’m all about saving money these days, I’m all about controlling my data, and most importantly, I’m all about having options.
In these times where corporations are making morally grey area (to put it nicely) choices, it’s good to have options. Don’t lose your precious photos or other data to the whims of a corporation.
I went on a solo road trip yesterday while Earl and Jamie are in Phoenix for baseball games.
I approached the trip like a storm chasing trip. While it was windy, there were no storms to chase. There haven’t been many storms in these parts since last year’s monsoon. I’m hoping the shift in weather patterns will give storm potential a boost for the rest of this year.
In the meanwhile, while I was out exploring I was in full “storm chasing mode” around my mentality and approach to the trip. I have lots of photos and videos to share in an upcoming blog entry, in the meanwhile, here’s some shots that encapsulate my storm chasing mentality: open road, power lines, an awesome vehicle, and supper in a local bar.
And as a reminder, always be responsible in the local bar.
Truman went to the vet this week due to a rash on his right side, the same place that was all banged up when we adopted him in 2019. He’s been a good sport about it. He’s on a liquid oral med and a topical med for the next two weeks. He still managed to assume a few poses for the camera this week.
This is a Horchata Cream Ale from Borderlands Brewing here in Tucson.
It is a beautiful night to sit outside and enjoy a drink, especially after a long week. Limits must always be honored and respected, hence a cream ale in limited quantities.
The work week was successful. The weekend looks promising. I have plans of taking video, enjoying Mother Nature, and especially enjoying the new moon skies this weekend.
It’s the little things that make life better. Focus on the little things.
I needed to give myself a pep talk this morning. For the past day or two I’ve felt particularly dragged down by the weight of the world. So, I pepped myself up by writing this in my journal:
It seems we live in turbulent times. The best way through any turbulence is fact based action, not fear based reaction. Facts over fear get you where you need to be. Fear is such a waste of energy. Focus on the moment, not the what might be.
I was in a bit of a mood this morning so I dialed up an episode of “Bewitched” on YouTube. I landed on “Serena’s Richcraft”, an episode from the eighth season of the popular show, though it was filmed during the seventh season. For some reason the episode was shelved for nearly a year before it made its debut.
In the world of high definition television it’s fun to play “Spot Melody” when watching “Bewitched”. Melody is Melody McCord, Elizabeth Montgomery’s body double for when Samantha and Serena were in the same scene. Normally filmed only from the back, as the series went on the camera crew and editors got a little more sloppy with hiding Melody’s face from time to time. While hard to discern on a 13-inch TV from the 1970s, with today’s technology it’s easy to play “Spot Melody”. Here she smiles as Serena at the front door in a scene from the episode in question.
I grabbed this shot from bewitched.net through a Google search, so you can Melody from the front. She’s wearing a typical Samantha hairstyle from the middle part of the series.
Once you know what Melody looks like, you can spot her as a background player throughout many episodes. She passed on in 2004 at age 58.
I have been making a point of stowing my iPhone when Earl and I going out to dinner. By ‘stowing it’ I don’t mean I put my phone upside down on the table but still within eyesight. I put the phone in my pocket and try not to think about it while I’m enjoying spending time with my husband.
The other night we went to an outdoor eatery. I was looking around the restaurant when I noticed a family of four walk in. Mom and Dad had two toddlers in tow. The young ones appeared to be both less than three years old. There were various accoutrements coming along for the experience, things like diaper bags, booster seats, and the like. The hostess escorted the family to a corner table; the family got situated. When the booster seats were in place, both toddlers were strapped in and mom promptly put an iPad in front of each of them. Both iPads were in brightly colored cases with chunky carrying handles and the like. The toddlers were instantly mesmerized by the colorful images on the screens. Mom and Dad talked while the kids chomped on some Cheerios or equivalent from a cup and remained transfixed on the images flashing by on their respective iPads.
I found this sad.
Oftentimes in public I see kids practically being trained for dopamine hits when a family is out and about. I get that the parents need a break from time to time. I also get that I’m old fashioned about this sort of thing, but I’m fairly uncomfortable with the thought of the next generation being completely raised on iPad content. I equally feel bad when I see folks out walking their dogs while the dog does their thing without any human interaction, because the human is too busy playing with their phone to pay any mind to them.
Again, perhaps it’s because I’m old fashioned, but I feel like our electronic doodads, while absolutely necessary for this modern life that never brought us flying cars, have become smothering, distracting, and overwhelming.
I’m happy I keep my phone in my pocket when I’m out and about with my family.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
