Author: Joshua

With the recent news about Automattic acquiring Tumblr, it’s got me thinking again on where and how I like sharing my thoughts online.

On Twitter I am happy to retweet, share links, and write short thoughts.

In times past I used Facebook for personal messages to friends and for posting pictures. I’ve mostly stopped now though, and will generally only post a few times a year to update family and friends that I rarely connect with.

On Instagram I posted faithfully for several years, sharing image updates of my family.

Now I’ve increasingly been looking for a place I can own, easily create content, and share for public and private consumption.

I’ve tried Tumblr, Path, WordPress, and the sites mentioned above. There’s no perfect solution for everything I want.

I’m inclined to try two WordPress sites. One for public, and another password protected for family and friends.

So far posting on the WordPress app on my phone feels the closest to what I’ve come to expect from a good social networking app.

Amidst all the chaos of life, it’s important to remember that kids really do grow up incredibly fast.

My son is six, and my daughter is two. I love watching them interact together as they hang. Even with the age difference they love being around each other.

I’m reminded that they have an opportunity to become closer to each other than almost any other humans, and the value of having a living sibling means so much throughout life. It’s fun to watch them, and to hear their laughter and play. They also fight a lot, but it’s starting to get balanced out.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to consume data that’s more ephemeral in nature. Headlines and social media sites are one of the worst ways to do this. My ideal would be a weekly cycle with a brush if articles that inform me on things that are happening around the world. The challenge is there’s a lot of news I just don’t want to hear. News that is negative, and which I have no way of resolving fits in that category.

I just signed up for Wired, $10 for a year for print and web. Looking forward to seeing if that is an improvement.

Some random thoughts on my experiences working remotely recently.

Most of the time I work from home, in an actual office room. We built this house a year ago, and I made sure to have a room set aside for work.

Recently though I’ve been having a hard time just being in my office. I think I’ve figured out what’s wrong. Having an office at home can be tricky. You spend most of your time there, and you’re alone. The environment matters a lot.

I’ve realized there’s a few things I need to fix to make the place more inviting. First, it needs to be brighter. Second, it’s time to put some things up on the wall. I listened to an interview recently by Tim Ferriss with Seth Godin. Seth mentioned that his absolute favorite place to work is his office. It has his artifacts and memorabilia from decades of work and living.

The place I go to work needs to be the most inviting place, a location that beckons creativity and interest.

I have a few tasks on my plate for that, and will update when there’s more to say.

Backpack

After much debate I finally settled on buying the GORUCK GR2 34L in black. My goal has been to find one bag I could travel with, one that would fit my electronic gear, clothes, and other travel stuff.

I sold my GR1 21L and swapped up for the GR2. So far I’m not quite sure if it meets my needs.

Several folks online mentioned using a Bullet 10L or 15L to put inside of the 34L as a packing cube. I tried that, but it doesn’t leave much extra room. In fact, all of the zipper pouches inside the GR2 seem not as useful for what I prefer, since I put everything in packing cubes. I’d almost prefer if the GR2 only had two large areas, but without smaller zipper areas.

Since I want to travel with just one bag, but also want a smaller bag for EDC, I was hoping the Bullet would fit inside the GR2.

Travel gear

So far it all technically works, but not with enough room to really feel comfortable. I’m now debating whether to just buy a duffle bag for travel and keep my Bullet 15L with me at the same time, so just two bagging it.

Will share an update as I figure this out.

For context I travel with the following work gear:

• 15-Inch MacBook Pro + cords + roost stand + Magic Keyboard + Magic Mouse + mousepad + leather sleeve
• 12.9″ iPad Pro
• Small kit bag – For all the non MBP cords
• Sony bluetooth noise cancelling headphones
• Fieldnotes Steno notebook
• Optional: DSLR and accompanying lenses

Sometimes I scrap all the laptop accessories, but then I often regret it because they help me get into the flow of work with a real mouse and unattached keyboard with the monitor at an ergonomic height.

Pictured below:

While it’s more to carry, I definitely prefer when I can have my full setup with me. It allows me to mimic my home office, minus the larger external monitor.