Wednesday, February 21, 2024 →
iA have just updated the iA Writer beta to 7.1. This update includes a major overhaul of Writer’s integration with Apple Shortcuts bringing with it 18 new actions. iA provide some example Shortcuts to demonstrate what can be achieved now.
As my main writing app alongside Drafts, I welcome this addition and exploring how I might use it.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Road from Gaya to Bodhgaya from the roof of a bus Following my time in Patna, I continued my journey onto Bodhgaya by catching a train to the city of Gaya. I travelled to Gaya by train along with an American, Ray, whom I had met in Patna. I had an omelette for breakfast in my hotel room, settled up with the hotel owner and then caught a rickshaw along with Ray to the railway station.
I’ve been experimenting with NetNewsWire’s iCloud service. Thanks to the RSS feed that Micro.blog offers for its Bookmarks feature, I have set myself up with a read it later service in within NetNewsWire. I hope that I don’t over use it as I have a tendency to not read articles later, but all the same, it is nice to have this feature.
Alongside that, I have set up an Apple Shortcut so that if there is a feed elsewhere in NetNewsWire that I want to read later, I can add it to my Micro.blog Bookmarks.
What fun. Now I feel clever!
It has been a week and a half since I last completed a run for the Watch to 5K program that I am following. I’ve had a cold that has lingered, has sapped my strength and made me feel like doing anything but run. Although not quite there in terms of healing, I felt that I was well enough today to run and so put on my running shoes and headed out.
When I last went out I had just finished week 3. However, with the week and a half break behind me I decided to go back to the start of week 2. Maybe the start of week 3 would have been a good place to restart, but I didn’t find that an easy week, and was not comfortable that week 3 would be an easy place to start running again, especially as I am still early on in the program. I want to enjoy this, not make it an endurance test.
So week 2 it was, and I felt that I handled it well. Despite the gusty wind, the running felt easier and stronger than the first time that I went through that week, and so I am going to chalk that up to progress being made. That has given me encouragement, and I now I am looking forward to getting back into my running routine again.
📅 This has been a strange weekend for me. The grandkids were off school on Friday and I kept thinking that it was Saturday.
On Saturday I couldn’t get it out of my head that it was Sunday, and then today I wanted it to be Monday.
With tomorrow being a public holiday here in the US, Presidents Day, I’m wondering what day I will wake up to?!
📅 This has been a strange weekend for me. The grandkids were off school on Friday and I kept thinking that it was Saturday.
On Saturday I couldn’t get it out of my head that it was Sunday, and then today I wanted it to be Monday.
With tomorrow being a public holiday here in the US, Presidents Day, I’m wondering what day I will wake up to?!
☀️ It feels good to see the sun this evening after a couple of days of cloud and rain. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy moody weather, but on this still evening the heat of the sun brings some warmth and rest.
☀️ It feels good to see the sun this evening after a couple of days of cloud and rain. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy moody weather, but on this still evening, the heat sun brings some warmth and rest.
My default search engine for a number of years now has been DuckDuckGo. In the past I have also used their browser and their privacy based (redirect) email service. I have been happy with DuckDuckGo’s service, never questioning the quality of their search results. Now though I am exploring Kagi as a possible replacement. Why? That’s a good question, for which I don’t think that I have a good, clear answer. Praise or at least mention of Kagi’s service passing across my timelines has probably played a part in this decision.
I’m not sure that I am comfortable with paying for my searches after years of them being ‘free’. For now I am on Kagi’s free, 100 search trial. I might keep DuckDuckGo in another browser and run comparative searches to compare the services. I have also read of other features within Kagi that I am not clear about at this stage and must try and remember to explore these.
Privacy is important to me within search, the reason that I stay away for the most part from the big search engines. At this stage though, I don’t know if for me the privacy of Kagi is worth a move away from DuckDuckGo?
🚽 If someone redesigned the humble toilet brush, making it more hygienic, I believe that they would be onto something.
🚽 If someone redesigned the humble toilet brush, making it more hygienic, I believe that they would be onto something.
🌊 Before going to bed last night the sounds of waves crashing against the distant cliffs, a mile away, was loud. In the middle of the night it was so loud that we could hear the roar inside the house with windows and doors closed!
I have since read that a 30-50ft swell is hitting the north shore until this evening.
🌊 Before going to bed last night the sounds of waves crashing against the distant cliffs, a mile away, was loud. In the middle of the night it was so loud that we could hear the roar inside the house with windows and doors closed!
I have since read that a 30-50ft swell is hitting the north shore until this evening.
Yesterday morning’s view at sunrise.
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 →
My wife gave me two of these metal tumblers from Japan for Valentines Day. They are great at keeping drinks cold…, and look good as well.
Yesterday was meant to be my next run on the Watch to 5K program, but I didn’t go out. I had the feeling of a cold coming on twenty four hours earlier, and yesterday I was not right. Today is also going to be a no show. I’m still not feeling right, and don’t want to do too much and just make myself feel worse. So hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll be back out there.
HAPPY LOSAR
Today is Losar, Tibetan New Year, the year of the Wood Dragon 2151.
Below is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s New Year message to the Tibetan people.
Well there’s week 3 of the Watch to 5K program completed. The conditions were perfect today - overcast, barely a breeze, and a comfortable temperature. There was some stiffness, but I was feeling better with the longer runs.
Earthquake just felt on Maui. I’m getting texts from friends across the island with people having felt it. I was sitting in my truck after a run and it just started shaking. Then the guy next to me jumped out of his car thinking that someone was shaking it!
About 15 minutes ago an earthquake was reported, initially as a 6.3 and now as a 5.7 earthquake centered 2km from Pāhala on the Big Island. This report on Maui Now confirms the earthquake and says that no tsunami is expected.
🌴 After a week living in a wind tunnel, last night the winds finally appeared to have blown themselves out. It was still when I returned home yesterday evening, and we are waking up to the same this morning.