2023-01
[Personal Knowledge Management] The Seasons of TODO Systems
It’s funny how some TODO systems are better suited for certain times and situations than others.
Once upon a time I had a TODO system in Todoist with recurring tasks, reminders, views that only showed the shortly upcoming important tasks… a very programmed system. I’d moved away from it because it began to feel stifling, settling on something that was more akin to software development with a backlog and flexible prioritizing based on regular reviews.
Full Post
[Tabletop Role Playing Games] What the DnD Community Needs in Light of the OGL and ORC
I’ve been following with interest all the drama around the leaked Open Gaming License revision. Copyright is one of those things you never really shake once it’s touched your life, and as one that was deep into the Anime Music Video community around the time of Napster and all those (early?) copyright wars it’s interesting to see another round of this.
What I’m struggling with this time, is why the wider DnD community, an incredibly sharp and creative group of people, seem absolutely determined to have a special license for themselves instead of building on the victories we won when Lawrence Lessig and Cory Doctorow were fighting the good copyfight.
Full Post
[Tabletop Role Playing Games] Dimension 20 - Neverafter - First Impressions
I must admit when I first saw the trailer for this season, I thought “hard pass for me… not into horror.” That said, I couldn’t avoid seeing a YouTube short about how episode 3 was as crazy as episode 2 of Fantasy High, so I figured I had to give it a shot. At least on 2x speed.
So far, I’ve come to appreciate a few things I didn’t expect, and I wanted to jot them down for anyone else that might be on the fence about the series as well.
Full Post
2021-07
[Games] First Thoughts on Pokemon Unite
Getting into MOBA style games is a terrible habit, and no one should do it, ever.
That said, as one who doesn’t take my own advice and who tried out the newly released Pokemon MOBA for a few hours today, I figured I would share my thoughts here.
Full Post
[Personal Knowledge Management] Being the worst at Obsidian can make you better than you've ever been
As I was working on puling together a weekly review for myself and exploring what a CRM in Obsidian might look like, I had a realization that I think is worth repeating:
Being “bad” in Obsidian and doing something “wrong” is the correct way to go about things.
Full Post
[Personal Knowledge Management] Getting Started with Zettelkasten
For a number of reasons lately, I’ve been looking into the Zettelkasten method of knowledge management, which I’ll talk about at length in a future post.
One thing I want to highlight before I even get there, though, is just how daunting it is to get started.
It’s not even that the process of turning more temporary notes into your own synthesized ideas is that difficult to understand. It’s that a key step in the process, linking new ideas to previous ones, is frightening when you’re staring at a blank page.
Full Post
2021-06
[Personal Knowledge Management] Did I Mention the Pace of Development in Obsidian was Ludicrous Speed?
Update: Fixed broken blog link. I’ll get good at DNS one of these days…
First, it’s absolutely amazing to me how fast development is going with the Obsidian space. The number of things that are 1-2 weeks old that radically alter my workflow are just mind boggling.
https://www.ftwynn.com/posts/interstitial-journaling-in-obsidian-with-a-stripped-down-quickadd/
I wrote that less than a week ago, and now that script is a proper plugin. It’s so hot off the press it isn’t in the Obsidian UI yet, but I’m looking forward to when it is (which will hopefully resolve some weirdness I had with the script version).
Full Post
[Technology] MagSafe on iPhone is Wonderful and Should be a Wider Standard
When I was first stranded across the country due to COVID, I was sadly without my sunrise alarm clock (which I will probably use forever at this point). The closest thing I could get without buying a whole new clock was the Pixel Stand, which gave the Pixel a sunrise alarm along with it.
The alarm itself was a little finicky, but it took actually putting the device on and off the charger for me to appreciate how nice wireless charging is.
Full Post
[Technology] Hidden UI Elements are Bad
I would like to start by saying that minimal design is a good thing. Clutter is objectively bad, and it takes a lot of really difficult work to cram a lot of capability into a smaller and smaller UI surface. I am completely acknowledging that.
That said, some gestures on the iPhone can go screw themselves.
In particular, whoever decided that swipe up from the bottom but not too much was a good idea should be publicly shamed.
Full Post
[Personal Knowledge Management] Interstitial Journaling in Obsidian with a Stripped-Down QuickAdd
Update: I moved to handling this in pure QuickAdd not too long after I sketched this out.
First, it’s absolutely amazing to me how fast development is going with the Obsidian space. The number of things that are 1-2 weeks old that radically alter my workflow are just mind boggling.
An example that I started working with is chhoumman’s QuickAdd, courtesy of Eleanor’s Round Up.
While I had trouble getting the script as written, which is way over-engineered for my needs, I stripped out the basics into a simple “add this line from a prompt to the Daily Note” tool, which is absolutely perfect for Interstitial Journaling, which I stumbled on for the first time the other day.
Full Post