- This morning I was tinkering with my Tinderbox based blog and wrote a note about where I like to type and how it affects where I feel like publishing. I often chastise myself for having too many places online for the stuff I write. It's true, I probably do have too many places, but I'm me and sometimes I feel like writing in Tinderbox, sometimes in Org mode, sometimes in TiddlyWiki, and sometimes in a Drummer outline. I'm going to have to learn to be OK with this.#
- Steven Johnson wrote about keeping a "Spark File" back in 2012 and I started one of my own immediately after reading his article. I kept it going from 2012 through 2016 in either a text file or Tinderbox, depending on my mood.#
- After recently subscribing to Johnson's newsletter, I was reminded about my old spark file and so I dug it out of the archives (it's a Tinderbox file) and had a blast skimming through it. Some of the ideas in it are simply terrible. Some, now nearly a decade old, are depressingly valid and yet still undone. Keeping a file like this is a great idea so I'm determined to bring back the practice.#
- This time I'll keep it in Org mode since right now that's where all my "logging" goes. I set up a capture template to make sure I don't miss any million-dollar ideas. The template looks like this:#
("s" "Add to Spark File" entry (file+headline ,(concat org-directory "sparkfile.org") "Sparks") "* %?\n%U" :prepend t)
#
- I exported my old Tinderbox file into an outline, copied and pasted it into sparkfile.org and did a quick find and replace to convert all the history into a nice org mode format. Let the sparks fly!#
- I've tried modifying the Drummer bookmarklet so that it's easier to use for link blogging. Currently, the bookmarklet adds a link node with selected text as a child node to my Notes.opml file. This is handy, and I've found that simply copy/pasting the entry into my blog.opml creates a nice link entry for my blog. But, I want the entry formatted as a single entry and would like the quoted text wrapped in a blockquote. I tried doing this myself but I can't get the bookmarklet to work. It's an encoding or string problem but I can't figure out what's wrong.#
- I'd like to use Tinderbox for outlining and publish the outline here on Drummer. I'm sure this is trivial but I have not had the energy to tackle it myself.#
- This may not be a Drummer thing, but the outliner is a little buggy for me. For example, I can't select text with the mouse. That seems like table stakes, and I've not heard anyone else talking about it, so it must just be me. I've tried 3 browsers and disabling all extensions but I'm only able to click and drag to select text once in a while. Not sure why it changes. Also, I find that hitting CTRL-enter doesn't always break the node at the insertion point. It seems random. Still haven't had the energy to either look into or report this.#
- My head space lately doesn't have the bandwidth or focus to tackle this stuff, even though I find Drummer brilliant and fascinating with endless potential. Hopefully I'll snap out of my funk sooner rather than later. I'd love to contribute.#
Shambling Meat
#
A New Search Engine Worth Trying: Neeva - James Fallows
For now, let’s skip the question of which results end up at the top of the list, and why. The point is, none of them is an ad.
fallows.substack.com#
Wingin' it
#