โˆž

Inoreader RSS Gets New Features

Inoreader as a PWA
Inoreader as a PWA

Inoreader, the RSS app and service provider, got some new features today with the release of a new browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

  • Save and organize content: Collect web pages and social media posts and tag them as you send them to Read later.
  • Annotate while you browse: Mark and annotate texts directly in your browser, then revisit your notes anytime in Inoreader.
  • Stay on top of your feeds: Monitor account activity, feeds, tags, and Team channels -- all without switching tabs.
  • Streamline article sharing: Share content to Team channels or set up rules for automated content distribution.

Existing Features

Custom Monitoring Feeds

My favorite feature, hands down, are the custom monitoring feeds Inoreader allows me to create. It scours the web every hour to search for articles using my keywords. I have monitoring feeds to help me track my favorite software titles for news and tips/tricks. The wizard that creates these feeds lets me decide whether I want to search entire articles or just titles. I can search the entire Internet or just sources from sites whose main RSS feed I follow. As with all feeds on Inoreader, I can set up a highlighter for my search terms (Obsidian, Raycast, Keyboard Maestro, Micro.blog). I can filter out terms I definitely do not find interesting (Android, Apple Vision Pro, Trump). Finally, I can filter out duplicates and near duplicates so my feed doesn't get inundated on dates when one of my keywords makes the news, for example when updates to a certain title get released. It is possible to place all these keyword monitoring feeds into a folder and to view the output combined. I can even generate an OPML file with the output to share with others!

Newsletter Subscription Replacement

Inoreader allows me to generate email addresses to use in subscribing to newsletters. That way, I get the benefit of their content without having my mailbox clogged up. Like every other feed, these newsletters can be saved to OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive. I can export them to Pocket or ReadWise, Instapaper, Blogger, Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Mastodon or a custom location.

Automation

If you highlight text in any RSS article or newsletter, you can use the highlight to trigger an IFTTT applet. You can do the same with any article you mark to read later. In fact, IFTTT has a dozen different triggers for Inoreader and over 2000 services you can connect it to. You can read your feeds in a web browser or in your choice of RSS readers like Reeder or NetNewsWire. I like their web interface so much that on a desktop, I choose to use a stand-alone web app of their site to read my feeds since it has easy access to most of the extra features offered. On my iPhone and iPad, I use their app as opposed to a separate RSS reader. Their iOS and Android apps have an offline mode allowing you to download content to read later, useful for flights and helping you avoid a separate subscription to a read it late service.

Organization and Backup

You can use folders or tags (or both) to organize your feeds. You can set up notifications for different keywords or material from certain sources. In the settings section of the Inoreader you can look at the health of all of your feeds and easily determine if one is down, allowing you to contact the blogger or publisher of the site in question. If you currently have an RSS provider or reader, Inoreader can easily import your feeds and conversely, it can export feeds for you if you want to use them elsewhere. Your feeds get backed up every day, and you can set them to be saved to a cloud folder synced with your computer so you can have ready access to them. I use Dropbox for this.

Other Features

  • Built in podcast player
  • Turn Google News searches into feeds
  • Customize the look with your own CSS if desired
  • Get accelerated updates on certain feeds
  • Annotate and save articles
  • Multi-lingual content
  • Sync your YouTube subscriptions
  • Filtered Reddit feeds (see Obsidian posts without having to look at pictures of other people's graphs)

Pricing for all the features I mentioned is $7.50 a month, paid annually. You can download Inoreader for iOS and iPadOS on the App Store.

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email

โˆž

In a year on Micro.blog I’ve only blocked two people: one was a wealthy blogger who posts nothing but his own paywalled content and the other was attacking people for calling out the fash. I think that’s a pretty good record.

โˆž

One of the mysterious Carolina Bays that lie scattered across the south. - About Carolina Bays

The image shows a picturesque, calm lake reflecting the blue sky and the treeline on the opposite shore.
โˆž

How to Get a Word Count for Any Folder in Your Obsidian Vault

Word Count
Word Count

A Python script that will count the words in a folder of markdown files. #Obsidian #ObsidianMD #PKM

I use Obsidian to write a minimum of three blog posts every day as well as technical documents for my job.ย  Of course, I also compose and edit notes in it too. At the end of 2024, I was curious to see how many words I'd written on each blog during the year. Unfortunately, I could not find a plugin that could do this, but I suspected that Python probably could. After working on it for a while with the help of Google Gemini, I had an easy to run script that would work on any folder in my vault.ย  If you have any Python experience, you won't find this difficult at all to use. The only edit you need to make is for the path of the folder you want to evaluate. Just save this in a text editor like BBEdit with a .py extension. Change the permissions on it using chmod and it will be ready to run.

chmod +x pythonScript.py

The Script

\#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os

def count_words_in_markdown(filepath):
  """Counts the number of words in a markdown file.

  Args:
    filepath: Path to the markdown file.

  Returns:
    The number of words in the file.
  """
  with open(filepath, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    content = f.read()
  \# Simple word counting by splitting on whitespace
  words = content.split()
  return len(words)

def count_words_in_directory(directory):
  """Counts the total number of words in all markdown files within a directory.

  Args:
    directory: Path to the directory containing markdown files.

  Returns:
    The total word count across all markdown files.
  """
  total_words = 0
  for filename in os.listdir(directory):
    if filename.endswith(".md"):
      filepath = os.path.join(directory, filename)
      total_words += count_words_in_markdown(filepath)
  return total_words

if __name__ == "__main__":
  directory_to_search = "PUT THE PATH TO A FOLDER HERE"  \# Replace with your directory
  total_word_count = count_words_in_directory(directory_to_search)
  print(f"Total words in markdown files: {total_word_count}")

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email

โˆž

How to Get a Word Count for Any Folder in Your Obsidian Vault

Word Count
Word Count

A Python script that will count the words in a folder of markdown files. #Obsidian #ObsidianMD #PKM

I use Obsidian to write a minimum of three blog posts every day as well as technical documents for my job.ย  Of course, I also compose and edit notes in it too. At the end of 2024, I was curious to see how many words I'd written on each blog during the year. Unfortunately, I could not find a plugin that could do this, but I suspected that Python probably could. After working on it for a while with the help of Google Gemini, I had an easy to run script that would work on any folder in my vault.ย  If you have any Python experience, you won't find this difficult at all to use. The only edit you need to make is for the path of the folder you want to evaluate. Just save this in a text editor like BBEdit with a .py extension. Change the permissions on it using chmod and it will be ready to run.

chmod +x pythonScript.py

NOTE: A kind person on Reddit pointed me toward a plugin that has this functionality if you'd rather go that route. It is called Novel Word Count.

The Script

\#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os

def count_words_in_markdown(filepath):
  """Counts the number of words in a markdown file.

  Args:
    filepath: Path to the markdown file.

  Returns:
    The number of words in the file.
  """
  with open(filepath, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    content = f.read()
  \# Simple word counting by splitting on whitespace
  words = content.split()
  return len(words)

def count_words_in_directory(directory):
  """Counts the total number of words in all markdown files within a directory.

  Args:
    directory: Path to the directory containing markdown files.

  Returns:
    The total word count across all markdown files.
  """
  total_words = 0
  for filename in os.listdir(directory):
    if filename.endswith(".md"):
      filepath = os.path.join(directory, filename)
      total_words += count_words_in_markdown(filepath)
  return total_words

if __name__ == "__main__":
  directory_to_search = "PUT THE PATH TO A FOLDER HERE"  \# Replace with your directory
  total_word_count = count_words_in_directory(directory_to_search)
  print(f"Total words in markdown files: {total_word_count}")

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email

โˆž

A Few Excerpts From the Story of a Long, Long Walk

2013-07-04 15

This blog is the third version of my life online. The first version only exists in fragments via the Wayback Machine. The second version, was composed exclusively on an iPhone 5, usually right at dark while I lay on my back in my tent or in one of the shelters that dot the path of the Appalachian Trail, a 2,189-mile footpath from Georgia to Maine that I hiked on my honeymoon in 2013. It is still online in it's entirety and covers the period in the weeks leading up to starting the trail, through the 156 days we actually hiked and then a few follow-ups as I reflected on the experience. - Lefty and Hush's 2013 Appalachian Trail Journal (Note: Our hike started in Harper's Ferry, WV on May 6. We summited Mt. Katahdin in Maine on July 31st. We returned to WV and walked south towards Georgia where we climbed Spring Mountain on October 9th)

Day One

I should remember this date. Cinco de Mayo, right? Of course it's also the day Hush and I got married and the day we took our first steps on the Appalachian Trail. Busy much?

We were at home this morning (at Midnight). A train ride brought the night took us to Union Station and after an interminable wait, another train deliver us to Harpers Ferry, WV. Within minutes we'd crossed the Potomac river and we were in Maryland. We hiked along the river and the old C&O Canal before diverting to the Harpers Ferry Hostel, we are camping tonight. Since we've not laid down since yesterday morning, I predict a pretty good nights sleep.ย 

I'll kill he urge to wax on rhapsodically about all of this. We are happy, excited, it's Spring and we are in love. Queue the music.

Last Night in New York

Tonight the white noise machine is set to bird calls and mountain waterfalls. After a delicious dinner of Stovetop Stuffing (minus the butter) and a peanut butter covered Clif Bar I treated myself to a wipe down with my trusty bandana by the aforementioned mountain waterfall.ย 

Lying in the shelter with Hush, Piper and Bright Side we are all trying to figure out ย a plan for Tuesday. Hush and I are in desperate need of some quality down time but the choices are few. The trail towns are small with limited lodging

Going Above Treeline

Today after a three-hour climb we went above tree line and stayed there for two and a half miles. We experienced the unforgettable sight of the barren 5,000 ft. peaks of Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette as we climbed the rock strewn ridge line ย towards them. In gusting winds but under sunny skies we marveled at the 360 degree views of rock slides, small towns, ski resorts and amazingly, the small lake we'd hiked around yesterday. From that lake, we photographed the mountain where we now stood. In the distance we could see the ominous outline of Mount Washington, the tallest point in the Northeast. Amazingly, we could also see a few of the peaks of Southern Maine.ย 

Anyone who tries to get in big miles in the White Mountains is missing a lot. For one, the hiking here is so physically demanding that pushing it will break down all but the fittest. Secondly, blasting down the trail and ignoring the overlooks is something we all do some times. But if you do that here, you're missing more than just another view of trees from overhead. You're missing something special.ย 

I'm way too tired to write much more.

Climbing Katahdin

Everyone at the thruhiker's campsite was up well before dawn. Hush and I were the first to head up the mountain. About two miles up the Dutchmen passed us as we took a break by the last spring below tree line. Those two are practically professional adventurers so we didn't feel bad to see them disappear.ย 

Katahdin has the capability to break your heart. No other mountain throws so much at you. There are sections that look impossible. In one place, pieces of broken (!) rebar stick out of a boulder at rude angles, pretending to be climbing aides. You can't use hiking poles because you must use your hands (and knees, butt, back and in one case my head) to leverage your way ever upward. Thankfully you can see the summit from nearly two miles down the mountain. Fueled by adrenaline, you don't feel much pain in that long third hour of climbing.ย 

We made it to the northern terminus of the AT at 9:30 AM. The Dutchmen took a few pictures for us as they drank the beer they packed to the top for the occasion. We started back down the 5.2 mile knee jarring descent, wishing we had gloves for the rocks. Three and a half hours later we were done.

The Trail Out of Damascus

Welcome to the Abingdon Gap Shelter, a few miles south of the Virginia line. No one is here tonight other than Hush and I. Entries in the log book repeatedly complain about the noisy shelter mice so i suppose we do have some company. All of our food is hanging from the home made mice proof food bag hangers. So are our packs.ย 

We're deep enough into the woods to hear nothing but nature, bird calls, wind in the trees, the buzz of flies and the whine of stinging noseeums. There's no creek here, just a spring at the bottom of the hill, the long steep hill. This shelter, like many in TN I'm told, has no privy, just lots of mysterious trails into the surrounding woods.ย 

We ate our standard dinners, tuna and peanut butter on (separate) tortillas, salty snacks (gluten free pretzels, Chili Cheese Fritos) and candy (Milk Duds and Whoppers). We had some hot tea as well.ย 

Since its our first night out, we went over our plans for the next few days. Thankfully there aren't any long days coming up. That's good. I'm tired, footsore and just don't have as much energy as usual. After a few mild days, ill be ready to do something crazy,

The Last Mountain

We started hiking today at 6:15 AM. The last time we started that early was Maine. We managed to hike in the dark for well over an hour using our head lamps while still making decent time. The trail leading to Springer goes through several gaps but the tread way is good. We had a little extra motivation to make good time.ย 

After we passed the Hawk Mountain Shelter we stopped for our last creek water coffee break. We started seeing other hikers shortly after that. I told every person I saw that today was the last day of our through hike. I was a little excited.ย 

We had 14.5 miles knocked out by 1:15, putting us in the Springer trail head parking lot. We hung out, talking to other hikers, scoring consumable trail magic and trying to come to terms with it all.ย 

When my Uncle Fred and my Dad arrived we headed up Springer, where I got teary eyed only briefly. We were undefeated in our struggle to become thruhikers. We won.ย 

ย We took a bunch of pictures. I left a rock from Katahdin up there with a note asking someone to take it back to Maine if they happened to be going that way.

Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐Ÿ‘‡

โˆž

Some Role Models for Journalists

Bad Journalism

Journalists aren't getting much respect these days, some with good reason. Others are being constrained by cowardly and sycophantic media companies bowing down to MAGA.

When I was in the third grade, my Mom got married to a newspaper reporter. For the next few years we moved all over the state as the chain he worked for kept promoting him from reporter, to city editor to editor in chief. I learned how much work goes into reporting the news as I watched my step dad work long hours at marathon city council meetings for the Gastonia Gazette. I learned how to keep stats at high school sporting events for the New Bern Sun Journal and how to develop film in the darkroom of the Harnett County News. Our family made a trip to Washington, DC once so he could attend a press conference President Ford held just for the NC press. The biggest story he ever worked on was the return of Robert Garwood, an American Marine captured in Vietnam in 1965. Garwood didn't return to the US until 1979. He was sent to Camp Lejeune adjacent to the city of Jacksonville, NC where lived. My step father covered his court martial where he was found not guilty of desertion, the solicitation of U.S. troops in the field to refuse to fight and to defect and of maltreatment

When people criticize everyone involved in reporting the news of being untrustworthy, or sellouts or downright dishonest, I know better. Journalism can be a low paying, thankless job performed ny incredibly dedicated people. Here are a few examples.

Woodward, Bernstein reflect on Watergate reporting 50 years later - ABC News

How investigative master Seymour Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre - Nieman Storyboard

The story of Pulitzer Prize-winning publisher Horace Carter in "The Editor and the Dragon: Horace Carter Fights The Klan"

The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry - ICIJ

How the CIA Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb - The Intercept

Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐Ÿ‘‡

โˆž

Another day ends as the sun sets over beautiful North Carolina. One less day of the present political nightmare to get through.

Orange and pink clouds stretch across the sky, creating a vibrant sunset over a silhouette of trees on the horizon.
โˆž

I’m seeing a lot of straight, white male voices who can’t be bothered with how upset some people are by the new reality. Adopting a “look at me, I’m stoic” attitude is the definition of privilege. People freaking out are not being performative, nor are they part of an outrage machine. Attempting to delegitimize the way people feel one day into the new regime is messed up - Me

โˆž

Nominations for Obsidian Gems of the Year for 2024


Obsidan Logo
Obsidan Logo


These are the different categories and the products nominated by the community for the 2024 Obsidian.md Gems of the Year, an annual tradition on Discord. Have fun investigating the favorite new and existing complements to what, I think, is the best app to come along since the invention of the browser.ย 

  1. Best content
  2. Best template
  3. Best tool
  4. Best existing plugin
  5. Best LLM integration
  6. Best third-party integration
  7. Best new theme
  8. Best new plugin

Best content

Best template

Best tool

Best existing plugin

Best LLM integration

Best third-party integration

In this category we're highlighting the work of individuals and teams creating plugins that rely on other services, including paid services.

  • ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Are.na โ€” by javierarce
  • ๐Ÿ‡ง Enveloppe โ€” by Enveloppe
  • ๐Ÿ‡จ Harper โ€” by Automattic
  • ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Instapaper โ€” by Instapaper
  • ๐Ÿ‡ช Lรฉgifrance โ€” by carnetdethese
  • ๐Ÿ‡ซ Relay โ€” by no-instructions
  • ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Typefully โ€” by Sรฉbastien Dubois
  • ๐Ÿ‡ญ Yanki โ€” by kitschpatrol

Best new theme

Best new plugin

In this category we're highlighting the work of individual developers creating standalone plugins.

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email

โˆž

Nominations for Obsidian Gems of the Year for 2024


Obsidan Logo
Obsidan Logo


These are the different categories and the products nominated by the community for the 2024 Obsidian.md Gems of the Year, an annual tradition on Discord. Have fun investigating the favorite new and existing complements to what, I think, is the best app to come along since the invention of the browser.ย 

  1. Best content
  2. Best template
  3. Best tool
  4. Best existing plugin
  5. Best LLM integration
  6. Best third-party integration
  7. Best new theme
  8. Best new plugin

Best content

Best template

Best tool

Best existing plugin

Best LLM integration

Best third-party integration

In this category we're highlighting the work of individuals and teams creating plugins that rely on other services, including paid services.

  • ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Are.na โ€” by javierarce
  • ๐Ÿ‡ง Enveloppe โ€” by Enveloppe
  • ๐Ÿ‡จ Harper โ€” by Automattic
  • ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Instapaper โ€” by Instapaper
  • ๐Ÿ‡ช Lรฉgifrance โ€” by carnetdethese
  • ๐Ÿ‡ซ Relay โ€” by no-instructions
  • ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Typefully โ€” by Sรฉbastien Dubois
  • ๐Ÿ‡ญ Yanki โ€” by kitschpatrol

Best new theme

Best new plugin

In this category we're highlighting the work of individual developers creating standalone plugins.

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email

โˆž

I spend a lot of time on my deck. Through the years, I’ve gotten to know many of the tree rats who live in the massive old oak trees in my back yard.

A squirrel is holding a nut in its mouth, standing with a blurred green background.
โˆž

Slash Page Highlights

Slash from Guns-n-Roses

Last year, when Robb Knight created the Slash Page website, I spent an afternoon creating a few of my own. Since then, I've periodically updated them as life has continued around me. Robb defines Slash pages as "common pages you can add to your website, usually with a standard, root-level slug likeย /now,ย /about, orย /uses. They tend to describe the individual behind the site and are distinguishing characteristics of the IndieWeb."

Although some grumpy types rebel at the thought of having the same pages on their blog as others have, as is their God-given right, I happen to enjoy seeing how original different people can be as they riff on the same ideas, If you've created your own Slash pages, feel free to drop a link in the comments so others can check them out.

My Slash Page Home

Check out the links to the individual pages of you want to see the whole thing. These are a few highlights

/Interests

/Nope

  • No, Mr. Paywall, I do not have to pay to read. I haz skillz.
  • Pay TV with commercials is an oxymoron
  • I donโ€™t want to upsize, super-size or biggie size. Bruh, have you seen my waist?
  • Person at my door, I donโ€™t want to buy magazines, home security or anything else
  • I want gas, not a carwash for my rusted out 2005 Camry

/Someday

  • Eat dinner in New Orleans
  • See assault rifles banned again
  • Palestine
  • Go to my Momโ€™s 100th birthday party
  • See a woman elected US president

/Blogroll

/Save

/Feeds

/Subscriptions

Blogs
Joan Westerberg $4.17
Jason Kotke $2.50
Hey Dingus $1.00
Matt Langford $1.00
Flohgro $1.00
Keenan $1.00
Manuel Moreale $1.00
Numeric Citizen $1.00

| | $12.67 |

Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐Ÿ‘‡

โˆž

Strategies for Preserving Digital Memories

Digital Memories Graphic

I have copies of blog posts I wrote in the 1990s for my first blog posts on GeoCities. I've lost count of how many computers I've accessed them on. I have copies of digital photos I took using a Sony Mavica camera, which used a 3.5 inch floppy to save the images. All of those songs I downloaded using Napster during its brief moment in the sun, I have all of them too. In fact, I have multiple copies of all of those memories. It's not hard to do and if you don't have a system, you should create one.

Tips for Saving Documents

The two best formats for saving text based documents are as plain text/Markdown or as PDFs. Microsoft Word might be ubiquitous, but the format changes and you are never guaranteed to be able to open old Word documents in new versions of the application and across platforms. Luckily, the ability to convert a Word document into a PDF is bulit right into macOS and Windows.

How I do convert a Microsoft Word document to PDF format? - Ask A Librarian

Use Plain Text to Future-Proof Your Writing | Writing Pursuits

Tips for Saving Photos

I have copies of my photos on an external hard drive and on three different cloud services. It's easy to set up a modern computer or phone to automatically save photos to multiple cloud services. If your photos are valuable to you, and I consider mine to be priceless, make an investment in having multiple copies.

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Google Photos: Edit, Organize, Search, and Backup Your Photos

Transfer Photos and Videos to Amazon Photos - Amazon Customer Service

Tips for Saving Music

If you have music your purchased from an artist at a coffee shop or after a bar concert, chances are, it's not going to be on Spotify or Apple Music. If you have bootlegs collected over the years, you want find that on commercial streaming services either. To make sure you keep a copy of those important tunes regardless of what happens to your computer, put a copy of them on an external drive and a cloud drive, like Dropbox, Google Drive or One Drive. If you use Apple Music, you can upload them using a special Apple service and listen to them in the cloud.

Subscribe to iTunes Match - Apple Support

Tips for Saving Memories

If you are a Mac user, I highly recommend the journaling app, Day One. When you pair Day One with the automation service IFTTT, you can use it as a record for your whole life. I save my location history, media consumption, social media entries, blog posts and my own hand written memories in Day One. You can use it to create paper version of your journal and PDF versions.

Day One Is Popular for a Reason | AppAddict

Connect Your Mac Apps with IFTTT | AppAddict

Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐Ÿ‘‡

โˆž

Apps for Trakt

Trakt
Trakt


The extensible tracking service, Trakt, for keeping up with your TV and movie watching habits has been around a while. You can use Trakt in a browser, but It has an API that allows app developers to incorporate the Trakt database into their products. Recently, Trakt got a significant new feature with the introduction of scrobbling, the automatic addition of shows watched to your personal database from five of the largest streaming services:

  • Netflix
  • Max
  • Hulu
  • Amazon Prime
  • AppleTV+

It also added scrobbling from several popular media centers and players, like Plex, Kodi and VLC

The features in the Trakt API and companion apps allow you to track what you're watching, add to lists, discover, find where to watch (via a partnership with Just Watch), see what's up next and get recommendations. Trakt has a free tier and a pro tier. I've had a pro membership for a decade. It provides a lot of value, and I've recommended it to everyone in my family. If you would like a free one-month pro trial, use this link.

Mac Apps

My current choice of apps for Trakt integration is Sequel Entertainment Database, an app that also provides lists and tracking for print and audiobooks as well as games. It is in iOS/iPadOS app that runs on Macs with Apple Silicon. There are several other well regarded apps that run natively on the Mac.

iOS Apps

I've used various iOS apps with Trakt over the years, and my favorites are:

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email

โˆž

Apps for Trakt

Trakt
Trakt


The extensible tracking service, Trakt, for keeping up with your TV and movie watching habits has been around a while. You can use Trakt in a browser, but It has an API that allows app developers to incorporate the Trakt database into their products. Recently, Trakt got a significant new feature with the introduction of scrobbling, the automatic addition of shows watched to your personal database from five of the largest streaming services:

  • Netflix
  • Max
  • Hulu
  • Amazon Prime
  • AppleTV+

It also added scrobbling from several popular media centers and players, like Plex, Kodi and VLC

The features in the Trakt API and companion apps allow you to track what you're watching, add to lists, discover, find where to watch (via a partnership with Just Watch), see what's up next and get recommendations. Trakt has a free tier and a pro tier. I've had a pro membership for a decade. It provides a lot of value, and I've recommended it to everyone in my family. If you would like a free one-month pro trial, use this link.

Mac Apps

My current choice of apps for Trakt integration is Sequel Entertainment Database, an app that also provides lists and tracking for print and audiobooks as well as games. It is in iOS/iPadOS app that runs on Macs with Apple Silicon. There are several other well regarded apps that run natively on the Mac.

iOS Apps

I've used various iOS apps with Trakt over the years, and my favorites are:

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email

โˆž

Kure Beach Pier on one of NC’s many barrier islands. In the spring, when the blue fish are running, it’s so crowded with people that it’s difficult to find a spot. In the winter, at dawn is a different story.

A wooden pier extends towards the horizon, lined with lit lamp posts, against a backdrop of a vibrant sunset sky and calm ocean.
โˆž

When You'd Rather Be Somewhere Else

New Zealand

Lots of Americans are wishing they could spend the next four years anywhere but in the United States. Escapist fantasies are the order of the day. We know the old saw is true,"No matter where you go, there you are." There may not actually be a geographic cure for what ails us, but escapism and fantasy are what we have left. We are fully cognizant of the creeping oligarchy and fascist tendencies popping up all over the world, but we still want to get away.

If you live in one of the places I mention, you can be a spoil sport and leave a comment detailing all the things wrong with my fantasy version of your homeland if you'd like to. I know I am dealing with an idealized creation of my own imagination. I am just wishful, not naive.

First Choice - New Zealand

This is about as far away as I can get from Mar-a-Lago. It's attractive because, like most of my fellow countrymen, I only speak one language and what do you know, it happens to be the same one they speak in New Zealand. If photos tell the truth, it is a drop-dead gorgeous country. Like the US, it has a famous and spectacular long distance hiking trail, the Te Araroa, 3,000 KM of rugged beauty. Another positive factor about the culture there is that white people seem to have taken more responsibility for the historic injustices done to the Maori people than what we have. That's a big plus.

Second Choice - Ireland

I've actually been to the island of Ireland, but not the Republic. I was only able to visit Northern Ireland, the six counties that the UK still holds on to. Still, I know that the Irish Republic has a president who is a gay, half-Indian doctor. I'm giving the country a lot of credit for that. I'm also a fan of the way the Irish police themselves. They don't even call their law enforcement folks "the police." They are referred to as the Garda Sรญochรกna and they manage to keep the peace without being armed to the gills and shooting POC every 15 minutes. I don't have Irish heritage, so I hopefully won't annoy anyone with the typical American plastic paddy act. There are a lot of tech companies there, so I'd even be able to contribute to the economy.

Third Choice - Pitcairn Island

My ultimate Fantasy get away is the tiny British Island in the Pacific Ocean where the inhabitants are mostly descendants of nineย Britishย HMS Bountyย mutineersย and twelveย Tahitianย women. There are about 35 permanent inhabitants. Most of the people who live there are Seventh Day Adventists and while I am not religious, I am well acquainted with the Adventist Church. I like their emphasis on health and I appreciate the way they decided to ignore some of the changes other Christians made to their religion, like arbitrarily changing the day or worship just to make the pagans happy. I'd gladly hang out on a tiny island far away to escape MAGA for four years.

It takes a lot to motivate me to want to leave North Carolina, my lifelong home. We are not looking forward to the continuation of the current timeline. I'm approaching this from a massively privileged position as a straight, white, male, middle-class veteran. My brothers and sisters who are POC, LBGT or poor face all kinds of discrimination, harassment and potentially the loss of health insurance, medical care and the removal of any social safety net. It is going to suck so bad.

Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐Ÿ‘‡

โˆž

Accountability is the Grown Up Name for Cancel Culture

Snoop Dogg and Trump

Well Snoop Dogg has sure gone and pissed of a bunch of people. Including me. I don't know when holding people accountable for their behavior became something that the self-proclaimed moral majority disagreed with. They made up a pejorative for it, because of course they did. Accountability is now known as cancel culture and it is a certified Bad Thing that the meanies on the left do to people who...what? Oh, they hold people accountable for sexual harassment, assault, racism, hypocrisy, lying and general douche-baggery. Why this upsets right-wingers is obvious. They don't like being held accountable. They truly believe there to be some special quality they hold that should let them blithely escape judgment when what they really need more than anything is a great big dose of it.

Oh, do let me remind you that these opponents of cancel culture have a huge list of people and corporations they's tried to cancel for the stupidest of reasons:

  • Starbucks for supposedly Satanic coffee cups
  • Nike because they made a Colin Kaepernick commercial
  • Carhartt because they required their workers to get COVID-19

Americans and โ€˜Cancel Cultureโ€™: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment | Pew Research Center

Itโ€™s Not โ€œCancel Culture;โ€ Itโ€™s โ€œAccountability Cultureโ€

16 White Celebs Who Made The #Canceled List

List of things Conservatives have "canceled" - TheAlmightyGuru

Enjoyed it? Please upvote ๐Ÿ‘‡

โˆž

Using Obsidian and Drafts Together

Drafts and Obsidian
Drafts and Obsidian


When using a Mac for writing, I'm all in on the notes app Obsidian, a plain text/Markdown editor. With it, I use various plugins to create a personalized workspace that provides me with all the tools I want. I use

On iOS, however, I prefer to write using Drafts, also a plain text tool, but one designed as a temporary holding spot until the text is moved to its final home. Drafts has an online directory where you can find extensions that add to its capabilities, making it useful with various apps, not just Obsidian. I use it with Things 3, Google, Dropbox, Google Drive, Day One, Gmail and ChatGPT. There are also extensions to format Markdown and for other text manipulation actions.

My problem with Obsidian on iOS is that although the program now opens much quicker than it used to, it is slower than I'd like to sync, even though I am a paid Obsidian sync user. It's also prone to crashing and restarting if I try to do certain things while it's syncing. Sometimes, if I've started my daily note on my Mac and I if try to open it on my phone before the sync finishes, my existing content gets overwritten or a duplicate file is created. To avoid creating content on the phone with Obsidian. I just use it as reference tool.

Both Obsidian and Drafts are universal apps. Anything you create on one hardware platform eventually becomes available on all platforms, Mac and iOS. Here are my different use cases for Drafts with Obsidian.

Send to Obsidian (link)

This action creates a new note in the inbox of my vault with the contents of the Draft. I only use one vault, but if I used more than one, I could use different versions of this Drafts extension to send notes to different vaults.

Append to Daily Note (link)

If I have information in a Draft that I want to add to my daily note, this extension appends the information to the bottom of the note verbatim. It's best not to run the extension until after opening Obsidian for iOS and letting it sync.

Append to Daily Note With Time and Place (link)

This action adds a time stamp and the GPS coordinates to the text appended to the bottom of my Daily Note. I use this a lot when traveling.

Notes Created from Vivaldi with an Apple Shortcut (link)

The Obsidian web clipper works with Safari but not other browsers. I use a shortcut available through the sharesheet to send web pages as Markdown files to Drafts. Then I can send them on to Obsidian, from my phone if I need to, or I can just wait until I am back at my Mac.

See More Obsidian Posts

โœ‰๏ธ Reply by email