Category: Life

I was listening to the Cortex podcast 75 and CGP Grey was excitedly selling the new feature Apple Shortcuts (previously called Workflows when it was an independent company). I have to admit his home screen looked pretty cool with all custom icons so I broke my personal rule of never downloading an OS until the .01 release and got iOS 12 as well as the separate Shortcuts app.

 

My work phone was the first one to emerge out of the exercise.  Over the past couple years I’ve developed a basic layout with my Notes app in the top left corner and Maps in the top right corner. At my new job, I’ve adopted OneNote for this function because it plays well with Windows (duh), and this shortcut automatically asks for text input before opening the file.  On the phone, I use the app primarily to quickly jot things down, so I believe this will be a much better flow (as does CGP Grey, who brought up the idea).  At the top right, I can open up Google Maps, but it also has a few extra items on the menu, such as automatically giving pulling up directions to my next meeting appointment.

Next to OneNote are a couple ways to automate texting / email, and next to that is a couple ways to get into the web. The basic premise of these shortcuts are to ask for what you want to do, then ask for input, then open up the appropriate app with the information prefilled from the input.

The middle row starts with a speed dial for a lot of in-house numbers in the Division, including a couple ways to call home quickly.  Next, all the apps have to live somewhere and this was pleasant a location for the folder.  And finally, all the remaining icons are speed dials for each of my projects, including the Agency, Architects and Contractors.  Because I am pretty religious about ignoring work related emails at home, I haven’t been using the work phone much, but I suspect this will completely change the game.  It will now be way more convenient to pick up the cell and make a call than using the landline at the office.

The dock has Microsoft Outlook, which plays much nicer with our state Outlook server than Apple Mail.  In the middle is the Calculator and Camera. Yeah I could swipe up, but I often find myself needing these items at a moments notice when convenience is at a premium. And finally the phone app, which is also a convenient way to get to my contacts.  Unlike a lot of Internet personalities, my job is being the ultimate middleman, so I do use my phone a ton as a talking device.

 

My personal phone is also set up very similar at the top and bottom.  In the dock, I’ve replaced email with my most used app, Overcast for podcasts.  The top row has all the same functions, but each of the shortcut folders are a bit more complex since this phone is a true personal computer in a way the work device isn’t.  For example, my Notes shortcut now ties into both OneNote for work as well as Apple notes for home.

The coolest thing I did this weekend is buried in the web shortcut with the venn-diagram.  I programed a shortcut to let me take a photo, add a date stamp to it, and then open it up in Notes where I can dump it into a log for my boardgame playing (I have to believe that at some point Notes will let me just directly dump it into a preselected file and thus be completely automated).  I also did a similar shortcut for text-only logging of my meals, but I might have to consider transitioning it an image log as well.

In the second row is my WordPress shortcuts, including a couple functions to directly take a photo and then open it up as a draft.  Next is the app folder; I’ve combined all the apps in part to train myself to use the swipe and search function. And the last two are basically glorified folders for video entertainment, and music which also includes direct links to play several favorite albums, beyond opening up iTunes or Spotify.

The first couple items in the final row are quite aspirational.  The first is for reading materials, which will be primarily populated with direct links to favorite books in iBooks once I figure out how how to do so with Siri Shortcuts.  The second is reviving Apple Health from disuse; I’m hoping to use metrics as a way to motivate myself to be healthier.  The third is currently a direct link to taking videos, but I am finding it redundant with the camera app, so it may be soon replaced with Toggl Timer shortcuts (if this next new productivity kick sticks).  And finally, a bunch of autodial items for the phone.

In all, as promised by CGP Grey, this has been quite an interesting exercise to rethink how I relate to the phone in terms of actual actions instead of applications.  With the older 6s, there is a touch of lag when the shortcut opens up the Shortcut app to then run its function.  So it’s not perfectly seamless, but I believe the payoff may be worth it, though it’s much too early to tell if I won’t just revert to the previous paradigm.

I was thinking about sending an email to a colleague.  It was going to be about how distinctly short a time we have with our babies so we should try to make the most of it.

And then I spent the evening working and surfing the political drama of the day. Drama that is way, way, way out of my circle of influence.

I then woke up early this morning, and then got derailed for an hour, catching up on the all the nothing that has happened over the short night.

Work and the internet is one helluva drug.  Can’t live without either, but both can really take you out of the present.

Being present is really hard.  Who knows, with all its current hotness, maybe it’s overrated.  But it’s gotta be better than this.

I looked at my daughter in the rearview mirror.  It was a ghosted image, a secondary reflection.  She was momentarily quiet, looking down towards the right.  I could only see the top of her head, the two pigtails bound with fluorescent pink ties.  What is she thinking?  Where were we headed?

A couple nights ago, we gave our boy a haircut.  He was born with a full head of hair, and it was the first thing anyone mentions when they saw a photo of him.  But the hair has been starting to cover his eyes for a couple weeks. It was well overdue, even though we’ve been loathe to cut it.

Like all good parents, we googled “how to cut infant hair”, parked our daughter in front of the Peppa Pig Show, and took a bunch of photos.  After the preliminaries were completed, we took the little guy to the bathroom, and my wife wet his hair as I held him up.  Then we started hacking away. As a baby, he kept twisting and turning, which made clean cuts difficult.  He soon got tired of the situation and started fussing, making clean cuts impossible.

Soon there wasn’t much else to do.  We had obliterated the lovely hairdo that he’s unknowingly flaunted his entire life.  My wife and I giggled at how badly we did.  For a moment we were young lovers again, who just finished a new adventure.

The five month old has been happily gumming on anything in arms reach, his hands, his toys, the blanket, our hands.  Even if she didn’t display the same enthusiasm, our daughter went through a similar phase, but we were new parents and I generally refrained from letting her chew on my fingers.

A few weeks later a tooth had broken out, and I found out it was no joke.  The first time she bit my finger, I immediately regretted that I had missed out on something pretty cool and exceedingly rare.  In this modern professional age, we only have a kid  once or twice in our lifetimes, and lord knows when or if the grandkids will be following up.  How often will you get to have an infant comfortably chew on your hand?

But life was kind enough to give me a rare second chance, and I’m not passing this one up.  I’ll wash my hands extra, and for damn sure I’m going to let him gnaw away.

I just received a very kind note from a friend who I contacted on Facebook Messenger.  Following up on yesterday’s post, it energized me on pushing forward with this project, but it also cemented my decision to stop trying to use the Facebook timeline for conversations.

Earlier in the week, I had posted an item on the public timeline, tagging several people hoping to start a conversation, but got minimal response. It was a relatively benign subject about some changes on the AIA code of ethics, but I think the overwhelmingly public nature of social media makes difficult for people to have a conversation, aside from yelling about politics.

Furthermore, the timeline is too perfectly engineered for passive consumption.  Like an ipad, the timeline is great for viewing but not conducive for producing – hell FB even pre-manufactures posts for you.  Over the past year, I’ve taken several abortive attempts to deactivate my timeline because the addiction was just too much, but I keep coming back.  I’d like to find a balance for using this product since I enjoy seeing news and links from old friends, but if the opportunity cost is fewer true conversations, maybe I’ll have to quit cold turkey.

So yes, another post adding to the chorus of social media self haters.  Stealing from an insight by Bomani Jones, we all have a Facebook account but who actually loves the service?

Time for a self indulgent blog post.  Well the whole blog thing is self indulgent, but this one will be especially so due to the recursive nature of this post.  But if I’m gonna start blogging regularly I thought I should explore why.

This week’s exercise in blogging has been inspired by Seth Godin’s constant selling of the exercise of daily blogging.  As he points out, there will always be at least an audience of one, and apart from trying to gain a wider audience he swears that the practice daily blog forces one to sharpen their mind and think more clearly. And thinking clearly is definitely one thing I’d like to get better at.

How about a daily journal?  I’m certain it works for other people, but such an exercise never appealed to me and after a failed attempt after reading Essentialism, I’m pretty sure it would never work for me long term.  I think the threat of a wider audience will be key in making sure I get to the “clearly” part of thinking clearly.

As for what to think clearly about?  I’m not sure.  The blog will certainly be a repository for anything longer form that I post elsewhere (book reviews, extended boardgamegeek comments, etc).  I don’t mind freely giving away my content to other platforms with a wider distribution, but it certainly seems silly to trust their archives.  Xanga, anyone?

Beyond those specific targeted writing exercises, I have been pondering what else I would write.  The easy thing would be to fall in line with the classic American prose genre, the fast food of non-fiction – self help stuff (with an emphasis on architecture).  In fact, I’m certain that if I was still in private practice that’s what I would have done, but I just got a new job the state which is essentially a terminal position.  If Nevada is gracious enough to keep me aboard for the next thirty years, there isn’t much else to hustle for unless I get bored enough to change the scenery.  I mean, it would be nice to develop ever increasing prominence in my profession, but this gig lets me accomplish that just by doing a good job at the office.  While I won’t refrain from posting snippets of self perceived wisdom,  I think focusing the blog on work stuff would be ultimately unsatisfying.

Which brings me back to creative non-fiction – observations of life as its lived.  This is where I did my best writing, in those Ray Lifchez ED101 seminars in undergrad.  They were longer form 3000 word essays, submitted once a week, and took some real effort.  Maybe I’ll get back to that schedule someday and bang out some rigorous stuff, but not now.  For now I’ll default to the old tagline I’ve had for this blog for some time – “poetry, art, and whatever stuff catches my attention”.  But this time, do it every day.

This might be a cop-out but for those times when I don’t feel like writing, maybe I’ll also use the blog as a repository of interesting stuff.  If I’m not going to write for the day, it better be cause I was was ingesting something more worthy than such a thinking clearly exercise. So, I might as well document it here.  (I had originally cross posted the blog with my FB account so that stuff that got posted on the blog would end up in FB’s “memories” feature over the years – but my social media autopost plugin stopped working and I’m trying to unaddict myself from FB, so that now seems like a doomed endeavour).

I suspect its premature to think too hard about what this body of work will become.  At it’s essence the blog is definitely an expression of freedom.  Now that I don’t have to worry about angling for the next job, and now that I have a modicum of control over my daily schedule (aside from the demands of my children!), I feel mentally free to commit time to explore again.  Accomplished internet personalities often try to comfort up and cominers by telling them that they are envious of the nobody’s freedom because they don’t have a demanding audience to cater to.  I think I’ll take them up on their offer and embrace such freedom.  There is always a danger of melting into a puddle of undirected energy, but that’s a danger whether I write or not.

The other big question where am I going to make the time?  I’m a dude that needs my sleep.  Then I got eight hours of work plus commutes and I have to take a lunch break to maximize my efficiency for my employer.  Of course I got two kids whose lives I don’t want to pass by.  And I already need to spend more time every day exercising.  The one thing I can sacrifice is aimless web and social media surfing – which I intend to do, but it is one helluva drug to kick!  Aside from freeing up wasted internet time I’ve also started to try writing in my head.  As a kid who grew up on the computer, I’ve always written my essays on the machine.  Except for meeting minutes, I’ve never written notes longhand in advance of typing it up.  But with a five month old, I am spending a good amount of time with both of my arms and hands engaged, often in a dark room.  So I guess this is the time to develop this skill.

I have a pretty epic track record of picking up and dropping hobbies (boardgames, martial arts, rock climbing, harmonica, banjo, ukulele, cooking, baking, hand drums, photography, hell this site was originally a very short lived webcomic) so I have no idea how long this will last, aside from knowing it will certainly end at some point (maybe as soon as next week).  But its worth a shot right?

Due to an ill timed diaper change, our five month old ended up staying up late into the night.  With his big brown eyes open wide as platters and his usual silly smile, he practiced a collection of new sounds beyond his oft rehearsed screeches.  There were puffs and pops, pffts and creeaks vaguely matching the noises the big people make.

At 2246 they grow up interminably slow.  At 0537 the morning after, one laments how fleeting this season shall be.