Finished reading: Naturalist: A Graphic Adaptation by Edward O. Wilson 📚

Our little travel group (6 couples) has a trip scheduled to NZ in February/March. I’m skeptical about being able to pull it off.

I have yet to find a scheme for general stuff that can take the place of Circus Ponies Notebook. It had pages and sections. Each page was an outline and handled attachments with ease. OneNote sort of comes close but doesn’t quite hack it. Anyone else miss this?

TESTING ULYSSES

This is a test. It is only a test. Don’t get so worked up about it. :) Testing some formatting I’ve not posted from Ulysses yet. Let’s see how this works. Here is some inline code: cd /home/ddykstal. Here is some code that I use to reformat text in Drafts. // Get the full text of the clipping as an array of strings let a = editor.getText().split("\n"); let b = []; let knownSources = [ {suffix: " - The Washington Post", source: "The Washington Post"}, {suffix: " - The New York Times", source: "The New York Times"}, {suffix: " : NPR", source: "NPR"}, {suffix: " - POLITICO", source: "POLITICO"}, {suffix: " | MPR News", source: "MPR News"}, {suffix: " | Star Tribune", source: "Star Tribune"}, {suffix: " - StarTribune.

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Cheboygan Light

Five minutes before we were able to cross the bridge, the bridge closed due to some sort of security incident. Now waiting along the beautiful Lake Huron shore in Cheboygan Michigan. 😐

On the road again. Ann Arbor to Manistique. Crossing the Mackinac Bridge on the way.

Currently reading: From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History by Kenneth J. Hammond 📚

Currently reading: Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚

Finished reading: It Can’t Happen Here (Signet Classics) by Sinclair Lewis 📚

Finished reading: The Case of the Lady in the Luggage by Cheri Baker 📚

Finished reading: The Case of the Lady in the Luggage by Cheri Baker 📚

Finished reading: EndTimes by Bryan Walsh 📚 The subject matter is grim, especially on the existential threats we create for ourselves. The book was released in 2019, and accurately predicted the way the science-denying Trump administration would “handle” a pandemic. Fortunately, while SARS-COV-2 was serious, it wasn’t the big one. Other anthropogenic topics covered are the AI apocalypse, nuclear annihilation, climate change, bioterrorism. Add to that the natural existential threats of supervolcanoes and asteroid impacts and you have a book that makes for some interesting reading.

Finished reading: Figuring by Maria Popova 📚 The funny thing about all of Popova’s writings such as BrainPickings is that you want to take notes. Lots of notes. She works from a wealth of sources, although she obviously has favorites, and you want to see just how all this stuff is connected. This holds true for this book as well. I didn’t avoid that temptation at first, and it made the book slow-going.

My three favorite inks at the moment are Iroshizuku kon-peki, Iroshizuku yama-budo, and Colorverse Quasar. The yama-budo is currently in a broad nib Kaweco Sport that doesn’t really do it justice. I may end up breaking my “no new pens” vow. Sigh.🖋️

🖋️ My shimmering ink problems might have been due to a new nib that wasn’t properly cleaned. I’m now using the J. Herbin Gris Orage ink with a Pilot Metropolitan with an italic nib. Seems to work fine.

Fountain pen people – I have a couple of glittering inks, but I’m having difficulty with them. I’ve been using a 1.1mm stub nib in my TWSBI Diamond Mini. Maybe the reservoir is too big? Any advice?

I’ve been taking a couple of hours each day the past week to play with Mathematica. Just stumbled on the image processing suite. Fun and perhaps useful.

📚 It’s not all work and no play. I’m also reading The Case of the Lady in the Luggage by @cheri.

TECH RESOURCES

I like having tech books around as reference and for ideas (Ruby, Python, Linux, security, style, …). I tried various books apps to use them: bad idea – no way to leaf through them easily on ereaders, although desktop isn’t too bad. I tried hardcopy which is better but bulky. The real problem is obsolescence. Both of the forms are subject to that. I was a big user of Lynda, but video is just too damn slow to pick up on essentials, and it is also horrible for browsing, and it’s gone into the trashcan since LinkedIn bought it.

📚 I’m reading Popova’s “Figuring”. I do not understand Emily Dickinson. Perhaps with time?

Just finished the audiobook “The Wave in the Mind” by Ursula K. LeGuin, an excellent set of essays on the crafts of writing and reading. The narration by Christina Moore was flawless. I’m keeping a print copy around to mark up. 📚

Ann bought a new step-through bike today so, of course, that means I had to buy a new bike rack for the truck. 😜

I just bought two Homepod mini’s and set them up in stereo in our condo. These things are great! I’ve got a Sonos setup at home and these are more convenient if you are into the Apple ecosystem.