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Space Age Madness
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Some Things I am Enjoying

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Here are some things I’ve been enjoying recently, in no specific order. I am not compensated in any way, even referral payments, for these links. Hope I turn someone else onto something they enjoy.

Mela

After years of being a devoted user of Paprika, I have completed converted over to Mela as my digital recipe keeper. Mela is from the same developer as Reeder, which is the RSS reader I have used, in conjunction with Feedbin, as my newsreader or choice for a long while now. Why did I switch? First, Mela just has a much cleaner user interface, feels more current and modern than Paprika, and is more in keeping with my personal taste.

Mela Main Window

Second, because this app comes from the developer of a feed reader, it has the same concept built into it. This allows me to add my favorite recipe sites to the app, and quickly be able to see the recipes that they have posted recently, then easily add them to my recipe collection in Mela. I like this workflow better.

Migration from Paprika was very fast and I haven’t found any issues with my collection of recipes. Once I purchased both the Mac and iOS versions, my recipes appeared everywhere via iCloud sync without issue.

Mela is $4.99 for iOS and $9.99 for the Mac.

Sportsletter

I’m a big fan of sports. I’ve also worked in sports for the vast majority of my professional career now. I’m not sure where I found it, but The Sportsletter is just an absolutely great and completely free daily sports email newsletter. It hits my inbox every morning about the time I get out of bed, and they do a phenomenal job of giving a sports fan the news, notes, stories and schedules for the day. Here’s an example newsletter for your perusal. I think maybe the best thing about it is that it’s not junked up with ads.

The Week: 10 Things You Need to Know Today

While I am suggesting email newsletters that hit your inbox in the morning. I have to suggest this daily news email from The Week. They are a credible source of daily news headlines without a lot of bias. You can subscribe to this one here. It’s exactly what the title says, ten things in your inbox, linking to credible news organizations about the stories if you want further information. If you’re interested in getting a bit more information every morning, this is a good way to do it.

Notorious EDC Beer Bomb

I wouldn’t consider myself a big EDC guy, but pens have been sort of a gateway drug for me into this world. The moment I saw the Notorious EDC Beer Bomb, I knew that I had to have one. (I borrowed this image from their site, sorry Tom.) It’s a bottle opener, a pry tool, and just a delightful little guy to carry around. I’m finding all sorts of uses for mine, and I kind of can’t wait for it to get beat up with use. Here’s a great little history of the object.

Notorious EDC Beer Bomb

Now the bad news, getting your hands on one of these isn’t super easy, and it seems like it’s getting harder all the time because they have gotten so popular, come in different color ways, and have attracted a bunch of avid collectors who congregate over on a private Facebook Group. Your best bet, if you want to take on the challenge of purchasing one of these, is to follow them on social media, and get into the Facebook group.

LePen

Do you remember LePen? When reading my weekly Pen Addict member newsletter a couple of weeks ago, there was a link to a blog post from The Stationer about the tools Tessa currently uses. Lurking in that list was a pen that I had totally forgotten about, LePen. I remembered how fun these skinny little pens are, and decided to order some from her shop. These pens are just as fun to have around I as remembered, and I am now using them to add color to my Bullet Journal spreads. I especially like their Olive Green color.

Well, that’s enough for this post, more to come soon.

Apps: What worked for me in 2018, an update

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I’ve heard a lot of people say on podcasts in the last few weeks, as they wrapped up their app usage for 2018, that the mobile app market is mature, and that, while they wish there was a lot of new stuff to share, or a lot of change from 2017 to 2018, there just isn’t a lot of new stuff.

I wish I could say that I don’t agree with this, but, looking at my post from 2017, I don’t see a lot in my app usage that has changed a year later. This isn’t to say that I’m not perfectly happy with my devices, and I do like some of the quality of life improvements that Apple made this year at the OS level, especially Shortcuts and Screen Time. Aside from those, and you can almost just read that post from last year if you’re interested in what apps I’m using the most across my Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad.  There are a couple of additional app high points that I will point out as additions below.

I am really happy that Darkroom, which was already my photo editor of choice on iPhone, has made it’s way to iPad with a really nice version. In combination with my original Gnarbox, I now have a full portable workflow solution that is just camera and iPad Pro. I’d love to upgrade to the SSD Gnarbox this year, but I just bought the existing one, and feel like I need to get a little more out of it before spending more money. I like this solution better than directly connecting a card reader to my iPad because it’s backing the photos up to the Gnarbox at the same time. I do plan on spending more time with Lightroom on iPad this year too. I’ve been a long time Lightroom user on my Mac, and it’s still my primary solution there.

I am using Encrypt.me to automatically VPN my devices when I connect to untrusted WiFi networks. For a variety of reasons, but mainly because my Instagram account was hacked using a SIM Swap on Halloween, I have gotten more security conscious over the last few months. I’m also using Google Authenticator and have acquired a Google Titan device and a couple of Yubikeys. I still need to write up my tale of sim swapping woe at some point. Those aren’t apps, but have an impact on the way I access things. Over time, I would like to have almost everything in my online life locked down with one of them.

The Weekly Bump: Episode 2

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I’d aimed to have this done on Monday, but my energy levels have been all over the place the last few days, and I just never got to it. Small subtext is that I had a medical situation a couple of weeks ago, and am recovering from it, but slowly. The energy levels are really the last thing to get back to normal when you don’t eat for a few days. I won’t get more specific than that, I’m reluctant to post medical related information on the internet or social media.

Like most of the gaming world, I’ve really been enjoying Fortnite this week and for the last month or so. For those who aren’t gaming adjacent, it’s a “Battle Royale” style game that has skyrocketed in popularity. The game is available across a wide variety of platforms, but I play on PC. I am “bumpish” should you want to friend and play with me, but don’t set your expectations too high on what my level of skill might be. I’d love to play with you in any case. I’m only on a few times a week, and for a brief time, I don’t get much dedicated PC gaming in these days with family duties.

I’m also enjoying the rollover to the Year of the Raven in Hearthstone, which happened this week with the release of the Witchwood expansion. I exalt in the end of the mill deck era. There is one card, Shudderwock, which is totally broken and makes things less fun than they could be. Here’s a great video from Disguised Toast that elaborates on how broken, at least the animations, if not the whole mechanic are.

I did go to the Atlanta Pen Show for a couple of hours until I ran out of gas.  My new purchases were an “Aiken” pen from Carolina Pen Company, which is colored to look like the Northern Lights using the same material as this pen, and a Seed A5 case from my friends at Nock.

I did also buy some Gigante Note Cards from Nock while I had the chance in person. These folded over notecards are a favorite of mine, and I keep a couple in my pocket sheath with me all the time. They are essentially the smallest available notebook, with only 4 pages.

Top of mind for me on the music side is Black Moon Rising from the Black Pumas. There are listen links for a variety of music services on that page. At first I thought it was Cee-Lo Green, but it’s not. I haven’t been able to find anything else by them, they are from Austin, TX.

Last night we watched the first episode of the Pastry Chef season of Chef’s Table about Christina Tosi from Milk Bar.  If you have Netflix, I highly recommend this episode, I found it really inspiring. Be careful though, you can order just about anything in the episode from their web site. My cookies are on the way.

I’m thinking about getting a ReMarkable Tablet based on the recommendation of some folks online who swear by it.  Seems like it might either completely replace my work notebook, or it won’t work for me at all though, making the price tag a little tough to swallow. The iPad hasn’t really worked for me for this particular use case, and I love my e-ink Kindles, so the idea of the product might be in my sweet spot.

ttfn.

 

My Quick Take: Vesper, Adieu

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What went wrong was very simple. We never made enough money.

Source: Vesper, Adieu

 

I really like(d) Vesper, but it never stuck for me. I was a day one user, mainly because I am huge fan of all three of these guys, and also consider their QA lead an internet friend.

I don’t know what they could have done differently, especially with only three of them, I do think that, for their core audience, there are three platforms that matter:

  1. mobile/iOS
  2. Desktop Mac
  3. Web

I think to be successful in the market segment they were in, you need to have solutions for all three. Other solutions, like Apple’s Notes app and SimpleNote, while they might not be as elegant as Vesper, win based on the utility on multiple platforms. That’s why Vesper never stuck for me. Having said that, even Evernote, which appeared to be a juggernaut in this market, are having their own issues with a subscription business model.

Only Brent, Dave and John know for sure, but from my outsider’s view, this was a part time job for all three of them. I suspect that if even one of them had made this more of a full time job, it might have generated perspective and possibly drive to succeed. Just guessing on that bit, and I could be completely wrong.

I’m currently using Apple Notes as my primary phone/tablet/desktop text tool. iCloud sync has worked great for me.