Jim Willis

Great article for my fellow bike nerds:

https://www.wired.com/story/blue-lug-bike-shop-tokyo/

#rivendell #surly #bicycle

Sleep is my oxygen and I have been suffocating for almost 20 years. Happy World Sleep Day.

https://worldsleepday.org

#sleep #specialneedsparenting #thatgiggingmusicianlifestyle

Twine is the #rivendell cowbell

#newbartapeday

Sometimes Readwise resurfaces exactly the right quote from 6 years ago that you need today:

“Convenience is all destination and no journey. But climbing a mountain is different from taking the tram to the top, even if you end up at the same place.”

From this 2018 piece by Tim Wu in the nytimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/opinion/sunday/tyranny-convenience.html

#NYTimes #readwise

When I listen to Mark O'Connor playing #guitar on Grisman '80 (instead of Tony Rice who was, err "taking a break" from playing with Grisman during this period), I can't help but feel he's the Salieri in Rice's Amadeus.

#bluegrass #dawg

This is really a bummer, hearing the OG #HomePods are bricking and #apple won't fix them. My stereo pair still sounds amazing but I can't think of any other audio product this expensive limited to a 6 year lifespan. I love the transparency of the stereo sound stage of them but am definitely looking at alternatives:

https://kirkville.com/og-homepods-failing/

For 20+ years, GTD has helped me balance work, life, and deeper goals—something Newport's focus on only "deep" tasks overlooks.

Burkeman's Meditations for Mortals, discusses embracing limitations and making intentional choices. He and Allen bring practicality to productivity. Newport’s approach is great for those who can control every minute—but most of us don’t have that luxury.
🌱 #Productivity #GTD #OliverBurkeman #DeepWork #DavidAllen #CalNewport

https://www.jimwillis.org/2024/11/08/the-real-meaning-of-productivity-why-oliver-burkeman-gets-gtd-and-cal-newport-doesnt/

Audio and Self-hosting Updates:

It’s been a busy few weeks as I reorient myself from the warm-weather version of me that spends almost zero time on personal technology projects to the cold-weather version of me that spend most of my time on personal technology projects:
https://www.jimwillis.org/2024/11/02/audio-self-hosting-updates/

#musicselfhosting #personaltechnology #selfhosting

I was looking for a quick way to add reminders to Apple Reminders on my Mac similar to Things hotkey quick entry. There are several out there that I found through Google but ultimately landed on this one for its simplicity and natural language processing: https://github.com/surrealroad/alfred-reminders... read more: https://www.jimwillis.org/2024/10/09/reminders-quick-entry/

#mac #personaltechnology

It always feels like an honor and a privilege to play the historic Albert Music Hall down in the Pine Barrens of NJ, even more when it's a sold out capacity crowd. Posted a couple of videos linked here.

https://www.jimwillis.org/2024/02/11/albert-music-hall/

#bluegrass #pinebarrens #NewJersey

I wish that it were possible to leverage WordPress’ post formats (status, aside, etc.) to trigger crossposting. In the absence of that functionality I’m working with Jan’s excellent WordPress to Mastodon plugin, making a couple of minor mods: Here’s the code I’m using: I’m going to sit with this for a while. I think the [... read more: https://www.jimwillis.org/2024/01/13/posse-wp-mastodon/]

#Fediverse #personaltechnology #Php #posse #wordpress

I was the #3 listener of 2023 for David Grisman Quintet. I wonder who #s 1 and 2 were? This seems pretty accurate though for a year end wrap up from last.fm.

#bluegrass #dawg #LastFM

On remembering to bring my camera with me more often:

https://www.jimwillis.org/2023/12/29/x-e2s-shots/

#fujifilm_xseries #7artisans25mmf18 #fujifim

I rely heavily on journaling. My private entries go into Day One and have since the app was first released. My more public-facing journaling is done on my Wordpress site. Looking for a way to get my WordPress posts automatically imported into my Day One journal, I wrote this python script. Posting in case anyone else finds it helpful:

https://www.jimwillis.org/2023/12/15/dowpy-wordpress-posts-to-day-one/

#journaling #dayoneapp #wordpress #journal #dayone

Readwise is fine for long-form articles but isn't working out great for handling RSS feeds. Before I go back to Reeder on iOS, any other suggestions for a good RSS application that works well across #Phone iPad and Mac? Preferably syncs with feedly and can send articles to Readwise Reader?

#softwareRecomendation #rss #feedly #iPhone #iPad #Mac #reader #reeder

Netflix Viewing History to Letterboxd

https://www.jimwillis.org/2023/10/30/netflix-viewing-history-to-letterboxd/

Bahamas/Afie Jurvanen at Asbury Lanes last night. Second time I've seen him, first time was just solo Afie. What a killer band. Was definitely oldest audience member and went in to show sooo curious about what kind of crowd he'd draw. It sold out, shocking but great! Crowd talked over most of the show, shocking but disappointing! Especially since this is music that really pays dividends on attentive listening. Hi tele tone and chops are 🔥

#asburypark #bahamas #telecaster

Following several weeks of digital housekeeping, I’m determined to do a better job about being consistent about where I’m storing links, online articles, resources and various “read later” type stuff.

My tools of choice are Readwise Reader and Shaarli. I’ve been pretty lax about what goes where so I spent some time thinking about how I should be leveraging these two tools. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

Shaarli:

Description – The personal, minimalist, super fast, database-free, bookmarking service. Do you want to share the links you discover? Shaarli is a minimalist link sharing service that you can install on your own server. It is designed to be personal (single-user), fast and handy.

• Strengths:
  • Preservation of the original source.
  • Archiving capability with tools like the Wayback Machine.
  • Easy to surface old links.
  • Quick bookmarking for future reference.
• Weaknesses:
  • Less interactive than Reader.
  • No native feature for highlighting or making notes.

Reader:

Description: Readwise Reader is the first read-it-later app built specifically for power readers. If you’ve ever used Instapaper or Pocket, Reader is like those except it’s built for 2023 and brings all your reading into one place including: web articles, email newsletters, RSS feeds, Twitter threads, PDFs, EPUBs and more.

• Strengths:
  • Active engagement with content through reading, highlighting, and making notes.
  • Email feature to reinforce and recall highlighted content.
  • Distraction-free reading experience.
• Weaknesses:
  • Doesn’t preserve the original source, only a text extract.
  • Harder to surface old articles compared to highlights and notes.

Decision Flow:

• Is the content something you want to actively engage with now or in the near future?
  • Yes: Go to Reader.
  • No: Go to Shaarli.
• Do you want to be reminded of the content through highlights and notes?
  • Yes: Store, read and highlight in Reader.
  • No: If it’s just a reference or something to check out later, store in Shaarli.
• Is preserving the original source important?
  • Yes: Store in Shaarli.
  • No or it’s not a priority: Consider Reader.
• Does the content align with your personal taxonomy?
  • If it’s a deeper, personal topic: Consider Reader.
  • If it’s a quick reference or informational topic: Consider Shaarli.

Use Cases based on my own Personal Taxonomy

I’m hoping that this will help me be able to be more consistent about what lives where. We’ll see!

https://www.jimwillis.org/2023/10/19/deciding-between-shaarli-and-reader-a-personal-taxonomy-approach/

#organization #personalTechnology #reader #reading #shaarli

My #journal software (#dayoneapp)’s “on this day” feature was especially rich this morning:
- 16 years ago today a more hopeful version of myself sent out #Twitter invites to 20 of my local friends hoping to increase our sense of social proprioception (1).
- 19 years ago today, I wrote about the loss of liner notes with digital music inspired by this piece(2).
Amazing both of these links are still up!
1: https://www.wired.com/2007/06/st-thompson-4/
2: https://harlem.org/itunes/index.html

It’s a bummer that peak inspiration for recording in my office/studio coincides with leaf-blowing season.
#homestudiorecording

#howtodonothing