8Sided Blog

a zine about sound, culture, and the punk rock dream

what’s all this then?

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What’s all this then? I took a few months off from micro-blogging while I contemplated what I wanted to get out of it — and to develop a better system. As for the first bit, I want a rolling log of what I’m doing and things I find interesting which I can easily search and reference. These micro-posts might become topics that I expand upon in the blog proper and my email newsletter. As for the system, it’s important that this log exists on a platform that’s semi-permanent and that I own. I was in the process of creating a separate WordPress install on the blog’s sub-domain (which would’ve added a layer of resistance to my process) when I discovered this post. Violà! After some simple PHP tweaks, I now have a ‘status’ feed that’s separate from the main blog feed. This status feed auto-magically posts on micro.blog. I set it up yesterday — relatively painless with only a couple of easily squashed bugs — and it seems like it’s working fine. That means I’m back to micro-blogging. I look forward to using this as a tool to capture what’s happening and inspire more long-form blogging action. It’ll also be nice to re-enter the micro-blogging community and contribute to the exchange of ideas. 

BTW – these status updates are on a separate RSS feed than the main blog. So, if you want to follow this in your handy RSS reader then you’ll want to follow this feed.

it's me — calling from the grave

Idyllic Quiet and a Slow Pace

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I’m spending Christmas week in the country. I’m taking care of a family member (she’s doing well) and enjoying the idyllic quiet and slow pace of being away from home. You might think that I’d get a lot done in calmer surroundings but you’d be wrong. The hustle-and-bustle — and familiarity of my work environment — inspires productivity and busy-ness. Here I want to relax and let my mind wander. There’s something to be said for that, though — these breaks away from work are healthy and serve as a mental clearing house of sorts.

The main fear is routine-interruption. I’m getting up later these days, though my definition of ‘later’ is 7 AM-ish, so it’s not too terrible. I only have an iPad with me, and I haven’t experimented with it that much as a remote work computer, so there’s some trial-by-fire happening there. I’m getting by.

Mainly, I want to keep writing daily which I can do in an iPad environment. I’ve got a bluetooth Mac ‘Magic Keyboard’ so I don’t have to type on the screen. I use Ulysses (via Setapp) as the place I write, synced across all devices. I tested many different writing apps over the past year and Ulysses is the hands-down favorite. It’s the only app that is outstanding on its iPad, desktop, and iPhone versions. So there’s no excuse to not write every day while cold chilling in the country.

I am surprised there’s not a solid WordPress editor for the iPad. I haven’t found one. The WordPress iOS app seems fine but it’s limited — for example, I couldn’t find a way to center the Deep Purple photo in yesterday’s Xmas post from within the app. I ended up opening the site’s dashboard in Safari and editing from there. Go figure.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to get into app talk in today’s update, though I am planning a future post about work routines and techniques — including software — that I’ve found helpful. But, before I get back into country life, I’d like to give you a podcast recommendation.

Reply All is a consistently fantastic podcast, a deft mix of the entertaining and informative. Today I listened to episode #130, The Snapchat Thief. It details an investigation into a listener’s hacked Snapchat account to determine how it was compromised. The hosts’ discoveries are fascinating and a little terrifying. They shed light on a hacker underground that you know is out there but is still surprising once revealed. Let’s just say I’m looking into using Google Voice a lot more.

If Reply All is new to you and you like what you hear, then your next step is to listen to episode #102, Long Distance. Highly recommended — what a wild ride.

I hear trains blowing in the distance as the sun begins to set over rows of pine trees. I could get used to this.