Internet detox
We have been away camping for a few days. Three days without an internet connection has been great!
We have been away camping for a few days. Three days without an internet connection has been great!
I’ve used a variety of website, blogging, and social media tools and platforms since around 2008 when I first dived into having an online presence. So deciding what to use this year has been a deliberate choice.
I have one current social media accound – Facebook, which is not publically visible and I use strictly for keeping in intermittent contact with a few friends and family who hang out there. My preference for social interactions is real life interactions, or by email. I’m quite protective of my personal email address.
I do quite like the idea of Twitter, and used it quite a bit from around 2010 to 2014 but abandoned it as the ratio of interesting stuff to garbage and vitriol declined. But the short format and interactivity is good, it is the saturation with advertising, gaming of the algorithm by sellers and deterioration in civility that ruin it.
At the other end of the scale are various blogging platforms or even keeping a static site. I really like this longer form type of site but realistically don’t currently have enough motivation to write thoughtful long posts so would probably have spent time and money setting up a site just how I want it only to let it sit without updates for months.
Micro.blog is a good middle ground. I already had a free account, it is reasonably priced for a managed blog, and conceptually I think of it more as a place for shorter updates and thoughts so feel less pressure to write interesting, informative posts.
I just finished reading The Retro Future by John Michael Greer. I’d rate it about 7/10. The author argues that the Western concept of unending ‘progress’ is an illusion and that due to diminishing resources our society may be heading towards a serious decline. If a decline or even collapse of industrial civilization is inevitable then we should look for old technologies and tools that would enable society to continue but using less energy and other natural resources. Finished 21 January 2021, 256 pages. (Kindle edition). 📚
I’m looking forward to 2021: In 4 weeks I begin training as an electrical enginer, leaving behind five years of stress and bullying from my current manager. Financially it will be a struggle, but worth it for a change in career and new perspective.
I just added @microdotblog to my domain name with @iwantmyname. Go check it out: mikemcarthur.nz
Today I joined the ranks of folks who have injured themselves riding (or in my case falling off – ) a Lime scooter. My own fault, took a corner too fast and slid out of control. Now I have a skinned knee and wrist.
I just noticed that I am wearing my watch which has a flat battery. I put it on my desk last night knowing that the battery is flat and I wouldn’t want to wear it today, so am puzzled as to how I managed to put it on and wear it for three hours this morning without even noticing. Some habits just happen without thinking!
Really happy to have completed the first day of my Chaplaincy training. This is just the very start of the course but has me excited to learn more and get into the internship component.
After some fiddling with DNS settings and such I now have my new domain (mikemcarthur.kiwi) pointing to my micro.blog site and for good measure changed my theme to ‘Arabica’, which I really like.
Taking small steps towards getting back into regular blogging. I haven’t written anything on the web since March – in many ways a needed break but I do miss getting thoughts into writing and somehow it makes a difference to know someone might read them.
After a year-long hiatus, I’m back on micro.blog and it’s good to see the community is thriving.
Reading about global warming while sweltering in Wanaka, quite appropriate.
I’m curious as to what chemicals are in Lynx body spray to make it so pungent (and in my opinion, awful).
Flamin’ Windows and it’s autoupdates, takes forever to start up and even to shutdown.
It has been so hot in Dunedin lately that I’ve stopped wearing my (analogue) watch but then really miss the convenience of having the time on my wrist. Pulling out my phone to check the time is a hassle.
Interesting to see how dramatically my use of Facebook tapered off in the last 3 years. From multiple posts per day to perhaps 2 per month now!
In the process of slowly backfilling my blog with my Facebook content. Facebook really object to deleting old posts, an annoying popup asking “are you sure” and assuming you’ve been hacked with every item I delete.
I only figured out what the ‘conversation’ option does when you tap on a post in the micro.blog timeline a couple of days ago and it has transformed my experience – magic!!
Watched a movie about Enid Blyton this evening, she was not at all like I imagined her to be. She was a terrible mother, workaholic but clearly a prolific writer (750 published books!)
A summary I wrote of some of the current thinking on the role of serotonin (5-HT) in depression: Serotonin and Depression
Oops, not ready to catch my usual bus to work, my morning ‘routine’ (‘stumble’ really) is rusty after 3 weeks holiday.
Preparing myself for returning to work on Monday by applying for a new job.
Can anyone give some tips on integrating micro.blog with WordPress.com? (Allowing for a very loose interpretation of ‘integrating’)
I’ve made up my mind about blog platform/hosting and have chosen to go with WordPress.com
I am trying out Squarespace as a blogging platform. A completely hand coded site is too much work and I am tired of WordPress security issues. What I really want is to focus on writing rather than technical stuff, despite always getting bogged down in the details of that.