Journaling App Journey

Writing a personal journal hasn't been something that I've always done. Even recently I wouldn't say that I've actually been journaling, but rather just writing each day. I've been doing 750 Words writings nearly every day for the better part of the last year. While the theory behind these is to do a brain dump in the morning to clear your mind for the day, these entries have turned into more of a journal that I write at some point during the day. At some point I realized there really wasn't a whole lot of value in returning to previous entries. That's part of the process of these writings, but I felt like I could get more out of it. I enjoy the metrics (totally accurate or not) that are automatically generated and there are some methods to track some other more custom metrics. I tried this for a while as there were some other things I wanted to track, but I quickly fell out of that habit.

With my new lifestyle I decided to try out an actual journaling application. There are many options in the field and the three I zeroed in on were MacJournal, Day One, and Chronories. 

MacJournal is very well regarded and after some research seemed to be a little more robust than I really needed. Day One and Chronories were the two finalists in my mind. Those were appealing for very different reasons. Day One is a barebones, impeccably designed journaling application that also has accompanying iPhone and iPad apps. Chronories is what you might call a new-age journaling application. It utilizes technology to accumulate data as well as allowing actual journal writing.

These are two areas that appeal to me. I love minimal, focused applications like Day One and I'm also really interested in the self-analysis Chronories would allow. After more deliberation than was healthy, I decided on Chronories. In the end I thought it would be most interesting to track some data about myself as a I embark on a career change and a big lifestyle change. 

I'm only a couple days into using Chronories, but here's a basic rundown of it's capabilities. Each day's entry is contstructed from a combination of automatically compiled data along with a little manual intervention. After a bit of configuration and adjustment, Chronories can record things like the music you've been listening to in iTunes, the people you've emailed and chatted with, the temperature where you're at, your mood, the applications you've been using and several other other things. Some of these items can be manually added to and tweaked to record exact what you're looking for. Along with all of this there is also a space for an actual written journal entry.

Some standard report type views are set up so that after you've accumulated some data you can look back not only from an entry by entry point of view (calendar view), but also from many other angles. You could correlate your mood to the temperature for example. That sounds pretty cool to me and the process to completing an entry seems quite easy considering the amout of info that is recorded.

Regardless of what application or method you use a journal is only useful if you actually use it. We'll see how Chronories goes, but the combination of automatic and manual entry should make the process easier. More on this as my journaling continues on this year. 

A New Year, A New Life

As is common this time of the year we reflect on the year past and also what is on the horizon. This year, I find myself in a considerably different place. As of December 31st, 2011 I resigned from my postition as a Communication Technician for a financial instutition (a job I've held for more than seven years).  

I began in the profession right out of college. I went from intern right into a full-time position with no time in between. I was lucky. I found a job that I liked for a good company right out of college. There are many folks these days who are forced to compromise too much in order to just make ends meet. For that I am grateful.

When I started, I also made the mental note that if I ever started to lose interest or if some other (perhaps even risky) opportunity arose I wouldn't hesitate to make a change. Life is too short. You can't become stagnate. I didn't want to become one of those drones in the corporate world who zombie-walked to work each day just because it was safe. That's an easy thing to tell yourself, especially fresh out of college, and I can tell you from experience, something entirely different when your faced with that situation.

As I look back now this was a long time coming, but I felt like I needed a few things to line up to make my departure to something  different possible. And by "possible" I mean a level of risk I was willing to shoulder. I probably stuck it out longer than I should have, but now that we're past that point I'm glad that I did. The situation is right and the time is now. I'm sure of that.

The change is in process as we speak. I've decided to make a move to Chicago to do some work with a friend on a new business (more on this in the coming months). I've done some freelance Web development work the last couple years and wanted to spend more time in that field. I'll be doing work for my friend in this area as well along with taking on some other projects as I'm able. 

I've also decided to take my freelance writing more seriously. I guess that primarily just means writing more. I was nearly writing at capacity with the limited time that I had, but now I have the opportunity to grow in that area and take on more work. I love writing so this is a really exciting prospect. Along with more contract work I'll also be writing more here. The topics will be varied, but all within my interest range. I plan to document my experiences (a bit at least) over the coming year here as well so check back if you're interested. We'll see where it ends up, but I think good things will come of it

There are all sorts of other things that go along with this major change and I'm struck with a nervous excitment to take them on. Life is all about experiences so regardless of what side of the fence this next year falls on I can safely say this will be an extremely intersting one and one that I'm excited to tackle.

On Status Updates

I've been wrestling with how best to use Facebook and Twitter (and all other social network type applications for that matter) for some time. I see the validity in connecting with people using these tools, but I still somehow get lost in their functionality.

I think I've narrowed it down to the nature of a status update. The early days of Twitter and Facebook and the whole "what are you doing?" type of question these applications were asking encouraging you to share has always been odd to me. I never totally got on board with that and to be quite honest I've thought it somewhat presumptuous for people to think that I actually care that they just ate a great tuna sandwich (or whatever). In that same mindset I always feel strange posting anything like that because I don't want to spam all of my "friends" with some largely pointless statement.

I know that there are a lot of people that find those little snippets great. They allow others a small peak into your life. The point where I see relevance or usefulness here is when dealing with close friends and family. There are situations where it's cool to have that small window into a loved one's life and vice versa. I'm moving to a new city very soon and I know that my folks would (or at least my mom) enjoy that type of information.

For me, controlling those that I share with and that share with me is probably the most important aspect. I typically only follow people on Twitter that I think add some value to me life. This doesn't have to be anything profound and a lot of people are certainly hit and miss, but this could be anything from a link to a good article or a joke or a beautiful photo. These are all at different points on the value scale, but I do see some value in sharing those types of things and I'll unfollow anyone who I think turns up on the low end of the scale too often. Facebook has added more and more features that allow me to better manage the noise. To be frank, I have a lot of "friends" that are long lost acquaintances at best. Granted, every once in a great while I may need to send a message to one of these people, but I really don't want that window into their lives. It bothers me more often that not actually.

I find more focused applications like Path kind of interesting because these restrictions are built in from the start. It's designed to be a more closed sharing community. This has more appeal to me and I think to those interested in what I'm doing as well. I'm more apt to share things I may see as pointless, but my mom may find useful in that type of environment.

Oddly enough, I'll probably end up sharing this post on Twitter and I suppose that's an indicator that I feel like it does contribute some (although probably pretty minimal) value to the community. This is a wandering, experimental exploration for me still and I may venture one direction or another on the value scale as I go along. I certainly don't think I'm right or wrong, I'm merely trying to figure out how the noise that are status updates fit into my world.

Next Generation Apple TV

The rumor mill that works around Apple products is hardcore (arguably to a fault) and correct probably less than 50% most of the time. I don't have any specific data to back up that claim, but that's just the feeling I get. As many times as I think the rumors are completely off base and just dumb, I'll admit, I still follow them quite closely. The rumor of late, the next generation Apple TV.

Jobs was quoted in Walter Isaacson's biography, as saying "I've cracked it" when talking about the Apple TV. Since that came to light there has been much speculation about the next generation of this device.

It now stands as a set top device and that has always made a lot of sense to me. The flexibility to connect to many different displays is a huge plus factor in my eyes. Along with that Apple still has the ability to control the environment and all while keeping the price point pretty darn low. The one thing you could argue is wrong with this is the control of the actual display. Is that crucial to the Apple TV viewing experience? I'd say, not really. A display with an HDMI connection will be plenty capable of creating a solid experience.

The current speculation is that the next iteration of the Apple TV will in fact be completely integrated with the display. Essentially like an iMac where the entire device is all bundled up in one package. I don't know if this makes sense for the reverse of the reasons I think the set top idea does make sense. While the control of the entire experience would be something right up Apple's alley, I think the price point will just be too great and a total 180 from their current strategy in that market. A 37" display with integrated Apple TV would have to come in at well over $2000 wouldn't it? Considering they sell the current generation set top box for $99 that seems crazy to me. Maybe we'll see both options offered. I wold argue there's a pretty solid chance of that happening actually.

I wonder if Jobs' comment that he "had cracked it" was maybe referring more to the software and licensing side of this device. Looking at iTunes, I can only imagine ridiculous amount of work done behind the scenes with record labels that we never heard much about. Getting record labels on board with the idea was a huge aspect to getting it to actually work and also to making iPods and now iPhones and iPads to be as successful as they are. One step further we could say that it was an industry changer. Couldn't we be looking at some similar arrangements with television and movie studios here? Couldn't that be where Jobs cracked it? Seems pretty likely there will be some major advancements in this area.

Whatever the new generation ends up as, I will say that I'm excited about it. Apple has been known to shake up entire industries and I'm sure they're just chomping at the bit to get at another one.

Greed

I read an article at Slate recently regarding a secret $7 trillion loan program that was extended to big banks during the financial crisis and it got me thinking.

The total numbers are staggering: $7.7 trillion of credit—one-half of the GDP of the entire nation. $460 billion was lent to J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley alone—without anybody other than a few select officials at the Fed and the Treasury knowing. This was perhaps the single most massive allocation of capital from public to private hands in our history, and nobody was told. This was not TARP: This was secret Fed lending.

Greed is at the heart of all of our financial problems right now. The participants of this secret loan program absolutely profited from it. To a scary degree. Selfishness, hipocracy and greed are everywhere you turn when looking at the current financial woes of our country (and of the world for that matter). Business and political decisions are made purely on the basis of their ability to impact the bottom line for a very select few at the very top.

Wealth equals power when you have greed on both ends of a transaction. Big banks don't want financial regulation that actually protects average citizens (The 99%) in place because then they wouldn't be able to put as much cash in their pockets. Big Banks throw money at our politicians to "lobby" them to make sure such citizen protection controls never see the light of day. Politicians don't care what is actually right for the American people because they enjoy being wealthy and want to get re-elected. And wouldn't you know, money is a huge asset when running a political campaign. We're in this constant downward spiral of screwing the American people all in the name of aiding a very small number (The 1%) in their efforts get insanely rich. Greed clouds judgement.

Occupy Wall Street

I've been thinking about the Occupy Wall Street movement since it started and after reading Ben Brooks' take on the subject I'd like to share a few thoughts of my own.

I do agree with the underlying message(s) of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I think that anyone that cannot see the issue with a very very small percentage of Americans holding an extremely large, disproportionate amount of our country's wealth is just being ignorant and is uninformed.

This is not an issue of capitalism or anti-capitalism as has been argued by some opponents to the movement, it's an issue of brining notice to the fact that our systems are severely flawed and that is exactly what OWS has done.

Ben's says:

Because to me the message of the movement has always been clear, but — problematically — the end goal of the movement has always been elusive.

I agree with this. I think the over-arching message and end goal is foggy for the most part for most people. This is bad because it allows people that are against this movement, for whatever reason (*cough*Fox News*cough*), to attack it from about any angle and at least be able to make some partial justification. I wish the message were more unified, but I will say that I think we're going down that path. Lately it does feel like there is more clarity in what this movement is attempting to do. It's trying to raise awareness to the fact that income inequality is as loppsided as it has been since 1928 and that is a major problem.

As I see it, the biggest benefit to OWS is simply bringing the financial struggles of our country and it's core group of people (the 99%) back to the forefront and forcing the media to talk about it and legislators to do something about it. We hear political jargon all the time about how these things are being worked on, but then we see that our elected officials are wasting time reaffirming that our moto is still our moto instead of working on what is really important.

I'm skeptical that it can ever happen with what we've all seen lately, but it'd be nice that something be done for the better of the people and not for the benefit of our elected officials for a change of pace.

Music and Memories

Music is a powerful thing. More powerful than most people realize and more influential in our daily lives than most folks understand. I was thinking recently about the connection that I often make to events and different time periods and how music helps me to recall them later. This is certainly not a new thought or idea by any means. It's just something that has popped into my head several times over the years, but I've just now gotten around to writing about it.

We're able to remember things better with some context and I think that music, at least for me, enables me to create the most vivid memories of specific times in my life. The events seem to be a mixture of the important and the mundane and range from periods of weeks to really specific points in time, but the connecting factor in all of these is music. There is that one song or album or even just musical genre that puts a context around these memories and has allowed them a seemingly permanent space in my mind.

The music acts as a trigger to jog the memory from my subconscious bringing it into my active thought. It's really pretty amazing when it happens. There may be a major event or some special trip that I took many years ago that I have essentially not thought about for months, but as soon as I hear a certain song my mind can put me right back there. It almost throws me in a daze for a few moments while I remember that trip. While I remember that significant event. A song can trigger a seemingly pointless memory as well. It doesn't necessarily matter as sometimes those little moments are just as fun to fall back into as the pivotal ones. Music has a way of transporting you back to that time and place like nothing else.

I know there is some scientific thought around memory and recollection and I'm sure this would play right into some of those theories, but I felt like jotting this thought down because I just think it is cool. I listen to music a lot and have this sensation quite frequently, but for the most part I take it for granted. I plan to do more musical time traveling in the future. I think I'm going to let the Yonder Mountain String Band take me on a backpacking trip to the Winds in Wyoming next.

Listen to some music. Make some memories. 

Jony Ive on Creativity

And just as Steve loved ideas, and loved making stuff, he treated the process of creativity with a rare and a wonderful reverence. You see, I think he better than anyone understood that while ideas ultimately can be so powerful, they begin as fragile, barely formed thoughts, so easily missed, so easily compromised, so easily just squished.

This is a quote from Jony Ive at Apple's Steve Jobs Tribute last week. I know it's posted all over the Web all ready, but it's just so great that I felt the need to throw it up here and add to the clutter anyway. It's a great statement about Steve coming from his good friend, but even more than that it is such an enlightening, elegant way to think about the creative process.

The entire event is worth the watch, but I found Jony's words especially touching, insightful and inspirational. He speaks at about the 47-minute mark.

Will Pay for App

A recent tweet by, developer of Instapaper, Marco Arment mentioned that he had been getting hit up for promo codes for his latest and most significant update of his application, Instapaper. The messages claimed that they "loved his application" and he was in turn questioning why they wouldn't just buy his application if they loved it so much. Valid argument.

I've had this discussion with a lot of people the last couple years regarding paying for applications and I've realized that I run up against a couple of common push backs to paying for applications. I've had mixed results in explaining the value in paying for the applications we use and love.

One is that of the younger person that inevitibly grew up in the Napster/Pirate Bay era of pirated music and software. They got crafty using what was a fairly new tool when they became interested (the Internet and World Wide Web) in locating what they wanted and downloading without repurcussion or thought of impact for free. This builds up an expectation that can be really harmful to artists and developers. That "why pay when I can get it for free?" mentality kicks in without the thought of what impact those decisions have on developers and artists.

The other is the flat out cheap person. The mentality seems similar, but the bottom line is that they just don't want to spend any money if they don't absolutely have to. In the beginning they get pissed at any additional cost past the device they just purchased on the recommendation from their tech savvy nephew. I've run into this one mostly with people of older generations.

Apple has done a great deal to "right the ship" so to speak. Platforms have been provided that make the process of selling and purchasing insanely easy for both sides of the transaction. Of course there are still a wide variety of methods for pirating, but at least now a simple, makes sense process is in place.

Apple has simplified the transaction so much that I've found it is easier to get people to see my side of the argument, which is that paying for the applications you use is incredbily beneficial to everyone. In the Appstore world applications are priced very competitively (in some cases I would argue too cheap) so the price of applications becomes less of a hurdle. It's easier to prove that a $0.99 app is worth the purchase to my 70 year old uncle than a $30 piece of software.

There will always be free applications and I have no gripe about those and I actually use a couple regularly. There are different strategies developers employ and reasons for offering applications for free and that is fine and an entirely different discussion all together. What I find interesting is when a developer decides to change their pricing model and start to say charge $0.99 for an app that was previously free and the user community (or at least some of it) is up in arms about it. I don’t have apps on my iPhone that I don’t use and if I use an application and it benefits me I just can’t see complaining about throwing a dollar at a developer who worked hard to create a useful tool.

I have absolutely no problem paying for an application if it in fact useful for me. If it isn’t then I don’t need it and won’t download it simply because it’s free. I have had some luck in swaying people to my side of the fence. New users will push back at first, but eventually see the validity in what I’m saying and how simple and affordable the Appstores.

Paying $4.99 for an application as amazing and useful as Instapaper is just a no-brainer. It’s a carefully designed and built application that serves a fantastic purpose for many people. Not only that, Marco is an independent developer (like many, many iOS developers) who puts a lot of care and time into making his application the best it can be. He cares and you can feel it. Paying for his work only encourages his continued efforts and judging by what he’s already done, the application will most definitely become even better. Marco gets compensated and his users continue to get a great product. It’s a win-win.

If the app is useful to you, cut back on one triple-caramel-mocha-latte (or whatever) this month and pay for it.

750 Words

Some time ago I stumbled on a theory or school of thought that involved writing 750 words the first thing of every morning. These are called Morning Pages, which is an idea from the book by Juila Cameron called The Artist's Way.

The idea is that you're able to sort of flush your brain out and work through any thoughts or ideas that you have fluttering around in your mind right away in the morning so that the ideas flow the rest of the day. It's a journal of sorts, which was something initially that turned me off about it to be quite honest. Then I discovered a Web application called 750 Words. The application provides you with a place to do your writing each day and then keeps track of the words you've written. It attempts to analyze your writing as well, which can be quite interesting at times.

The original idea for Morning Pages encorages the writing to be done right away in the morning and done longhand. It amounts to about three pages of writing. While the analog approach is kind of cool to me, and I have done some of my writings this way, I just can't make it routine. I'm at a computer all day so this electronic solution fits my lifestyle perfectly. And I'll say, while not completely necessary, the info nerd in me kind of enjoys the stats and analysis of my writing.

Buster Benson, the application creator, was nice enough to include some other dynamics in the application to encourage writing as well. There is a game element to 750 Words that awards you badges based on the number of days you've written as well as on your behavior. For example, you'll be awarded The Flamingo once you've written ten days in a row. While these aren't a huge motivator necessarily, they are kind of fun and I have to say I've gotten more encouragement from them I thought I would.

I haven't followed the Morning Pages method from The Artist's Way exactly, but I've found the exercise of a writing brain dump each day to be incredibly helpful. For me the practice of just writing down my thoughts has allowed me to process things much more easily and clearly. There's something to getting your thoughts down that brings light to them. Problems seem easier to deal with. It's easier to flesh out ideas or see their validity or stupidity.

An additional benefit to writing 750 words each day is that you're also honing your writing skills. The best way to become a better writer is to write more and let's be honest, we could all be better writers. Plain and simple. 750 Words allows you to monitor your writing and do so in a personal, private setting. If you're apprehensive about sharing your writing this is a perfect solution. I, personally, use it as an addition to my other writing.

I'll admit that I don't write my 750 words every single day, but I will say that I just feel better on the days that I do. I can notice a difference in my mindset during the stretches where I am especially committed. Over the last six months or so I've grown more and more attached to this writing and it has now essentially become a part of my day's routine. I don't feel right without it.

Whether your an artist or a writer or neither, the benefits of writing each day make trying 750 Words a no-brainer.