The geek in me is all fired up for the Micro.blog online Micro Camp today.

I live in fear of accidentally cross-posting a profanity filled tirade about something like font characteristics or icon design to LinkedIn and exposing the real me to my professional contacts.

Pet peeve - people who ask me stuff they could Google and then get offended when I copy/paste an answer from the Internet back at them. Not only is IT expected to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every computer program ever, we are also expected to explain them all in our own words.

I do not understand the 100+ tabs open at the time people. Not saying you're wrong, I just don't get it. Did you get attacked by a bookmarks.html file as a young child? Is yours the laptop with a petabyte of RAM? What gives?

I'm getting close to the theoretical maximum number of keyboard shortcuts a human being can remember. Getting scared of going on vacation and coming back and not remembering all the ways my Mac is supposed to work.

I was surprised today to find out that many of the people I've "met" through various IndieWeb conduits classify themselves as introverts. Without their self-identification, I would have never known. I think it's fascinating that blogging is a way to comfortably interact with the world on our own terms.

The pre-dawn bird orchestra is a delightful background noise to accompany a cup of coffee and fully charged laptop as I begin a day of research and writing.

If Saturday was a verb, it would be one of my top 10 skills. I'm good at that.

Even though I hate talking to them, I feel sorry for the salespeople who cold call us in the IT department. There's no one here who will take their calls and I just have to be blunt about it. They sound so shocked because they just want to "help us out" or "save us money."

My most hated tech company is whoever made the last printer I had to troubleshoot. Today I'm looking at you Ricoh.

Another pro tip: Don't lie to your doctor or to your IT guy because we know what you've really been doing. Just tell the truth and accept the consequences like an adult. Also, being required to use two-factor authentication is not a violation of your constitutional rights. Long day.

Pro tip: Always name your thumb drives with your given name. That way, when you leave them plugged into some else’s computer, they’ll know who it belongs to.

According to the report I just got from Apple, since September 18, 2009, I've downloaded 1640 apps from the App Store (iOS and macOS) and spent $5657.14. I'm glad my wife is not on Mastodon.

The coffee shop at work is closing until August and I am simultaneously frightened, angered, offended, under-caffeinated and sad.

My nine-year old granddaughter is visiting this afternoon. She decided to clean out the cabinet where all the old tech goes when it dies: floppy disks, CD-Rs, too many old mouses. She's absolutely mystified and simultaneously fascinated by all the fossils.

While experimenting with a new app this morning (for a damn blog post), as one does, I totally hosed the carefully crafted organization on my phone and scattered all 400+ apps across multiple screens. Now I get to spend Saturday putting Humpty Dumpty together again.

Years ago, I had a colleague who posted the same message repeatedly on social media, "It's Friday, Bitches!" I appreciated that man and his unbridled joy at the end of every work week. The world needs all the joy it can get.

Things aren't perfect, but honestly, if I'd made a list at 20 about what I wanted out of life, I would have cheated myself out of so much. Practicing gratitude is the best thing I do habitually.

Why did you pick the Mastodon instance you currently use? I came to social.lol from Mastodon.social for the community and I've been very happy here.

I don't really know what to say to people who want to use technically oriented Mac automation software but don't want to read or "fiddle" with it. I understand not everyone enjoys "fiddling" and some feel it kills their productivity, but those are the people who should stay away from #Obsidian plugins, Keyboard Maestro, Hazel etc. You kinda gotta enjoy messing with that stuff to get the most out of it

North Carolina's contributions to the culinary landscape are numerous: two different kinds of pork barbecue, CheerWine, Sundrop,and this morning's pick, Bojangles Fried Chicken Biscuit. Things that make me glad to be a #Tarheel

Well, I tried to threaten the NY Times unless they gave me an educational discount, but they were all LOL. Business must be good. It's my most expensive subscription at $27 a month.

I get up so early that I have time to take a nap before work, a little strange I'll admit, but it's working for me, so I'm going to keep doing it.

I understand the need for security on the internet, I do, but sometimes people and organizations devolve into meaningless security theater to appear to be doing SOMETHING, making work harder and no one safer. Get a grip.

My son flew to NYC by himself for the weekend to go to art museums, take in a Yankees game, run in Central Park and eat bagels. It's his first year with an empty nest and he's living his best life.

The iOS app store needs a good app for collecting quotes, with room for info on authors, sources and tags. File import and shortcut support are musts. Some underemployed developer might be able to make some pretty good dough on one.

One of the biggest treats in the world is when you think it's Thursday but it's really Friday. That feeling when you find out...

I've never felt the need for window management software (Moom, Rectangle, Divvy). 90% of the time I just run my apps maximized and ALT+TAB between them. When I have two monitors, I usually have VM running on monitor#2, so I don't have any configurations for that setup either.

Another pro tip from tech support - when you submit a ticket, don't use phrases like "This must be done immediately" or "I need this right now" because you do not know the priorities management has set for IT. Put in your ticket and make a polite phone call if it's urgent.

I'm going to miss John Blackthorne. Shogun was a good show, even if the last episode was kind of mid.

Pet peeve: people who call fully functional software "abandonware" because the dev hasn't changed it during x time period. Bruh - if it works, it works. Just use it and be grateful.

While I certainly support Title IX and am I'm glad we have it, the annual class we have on it is basically "How To Snitch 101".

To anyone who uses Microsoft Teams on a Mac - have you tried running it as a Safari app instead of the native one? Any drawbacks? Any tips? I'm having a hard time getting it to notify me with enough gusto. I miss getting chat requests I need to see.

Sitting in the diner with all the other white haired men. I bet I’m the only one tooting on Mastodon though.

Yes, I can take a nap before 8am. I'm a professional.

I only watch TikToks on my wife's iPad - as she holds it up to me across the living room while laughing hysterically.

Want a reason to hate Windows today? I have a user whose computer randomly enforces a ghost policy that prevents him from opening Microsoft apps. Just Microsoft. Every other vendor’s apps open just fine.

Planning a stay-at-home writing retreat this weekend while Wonder Woman is out of town. She's leaving me plenty of coffee for keyboard fuel.

Wondering why I've had so much more interaction on Mastodon as opposed to BlueSky and Threads when I post there. Seems like Mastodon is just full on my kind of people - Indieweb types with a tech background and an absence of malice.

Has anyone had any experience with #Warpcast, an app for #Farcaster?

Dental insurance is a joke. An expensive, ineffective, useless joke. A fake job benefit and damn near a crime against humanity. Healthcare inflation is nuts and dental insurance still paying out what it paid out 30 years ago.

I have a lot of respect for people who know the difference between a screensaver and wallpape

Look, no one likes the hassle of two-factor authentication, but if you're looking to place blame, place it on the bad guys, not the IT department trying to protect you from them.

Do the Brits even know how strong their Biscuit Game is? I'm over here paying $7 a roll for Mcvities Chocolate Digestives and it feels like God is yelling at me in an English accent every time I take a bite.

Just finished 3 Body Problem. Waiting for Shogun episodes. Need something new, preferably something where all the episodes are already available. Any suggestions?

My mom, since turning 70 has walked coast to coast across England and hiked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. She's looking for her next challenge and I honestly don't know what to tell her.

It's important to stay in the moment or the name of this day changes from Sunday to "Almost Monday."

That feeling when you know you have another french fry in the bottom of the bag. But you don't.

Stayed up to 1:30am on the day I got a new computer because I have no self-discipline when I get a new toy evidently.

I just got the second freebie thrown my way for blogging and now I feel like I need to come up with an ethics statement. Creating in public got complicated.

Mrs. Amerpie comes home from a business trip today and I'm so happy - been missing the hell out of her!

Do you remember the first time you heard your favorite band?

Pro tip from IT: maybe don't write "This must be done immediately" on a work ticket if you could have asked for a solution to your request well in advance and didn't.

I'm willing to pay out of pocket to have the apps I want on my work computer. I can do that because I work in IT. Some people will think that's weird, but I like what I like, and I don't want to use inferior tools. I'm already grateful because they're letting me order a Mac to manage a mostly PC network (with a VM ).

Just your typical Monday morning dopamine crisis, nothing to see here. Move along folks.

Screw Bitcoin, pork bellies and even gold - sleep is the most valuable commodity in the world.

I love the little mini-society that springs up at ultra marathon races. Everyone is intent on taking care of their runner while remaining super friendly and supportive of each other.

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, I'm fixing to flatter the hell out of a few bloggers. There are so many cool ideas floating around the #IndieWeb. Trendsetters, that's what y'all are.

The hard stuff is supposed to be hard but can the easy stuff just be easy today? Please?

Role reversal - I complained to my son that I was bored and he told me to go read a book, specifically "Be Holding" by Ross Gay, a lyric poem that is a love song to legendary basketball player Julius Erving—known as Dr. J—who dominated courts in the 1970s and ‘80s as a small forward for the Philadelphia ‘76ers.

I just heard from one of my oldest Internet-only friends, stretching back over 15 years and over multiple podcasts, blogs and social media feeds. #FeelsGoodMan

Mick Jagger has a great-grandchild older than his youngest child. #UselessInformation

My early AM stroll through Mastodon reminds me that social media can still be fun when you stay away from the corporate owned outrage machines.

Printers suck. No one gets into technology because they like printers. They have too many options. They have too many moving parts. People print too damn much anyway. I hate printers. H-A-T-E them.

My wife is an ultra-runner (and also a 13-X grandmother). She's running a 100-mile race next weekend. I'll be crewing as usual. I expect her to be obsessive about the weather and many other things in the interim. It just gives me a chance to practice patience.

Opting for a yearly subscription rather than a monthly payment almost always makes the most economic sense, but sometimes it's just hard to get up off that much dough for a simple, single purpose app.

Cross posting across Micro.blog, Mastodon, Threads and Blue Sky has given me a little insight on what's different and what's the same on each platform. Mastodon is 100% my favorite.

“Joy has nothing to do with ease and everything to do with the fact that we’re all going to die.” — Ross Gay

looks like it's going to be everything I hoped it would be.

I'd like to see a blogroll just for newsletters. Feel free to hit me up with suggestions..

Need help convincing my wife why we need a Synology. Photo backup, Plex server... anything else that might entice a computer literate non-hobbyist to fork over some technology dough?

The longest measurable time span in the world is the distance between the date you order a new Mac and the day it arrives.

All I want for Christmas is a way to filter out pictures of other people's #Obsidian graphs on the Internet.

I get more excited than I probably should every time I find a new use for #Obsidian. Today I found a plugin to import metadata for media consumption (books, music, movies, TV).

My wife (aka Wonder Woman) has been away for four days and I have got to get my psuedo-batchelor ass off this computer and get the house ready for her return or she will kill me.

Saturday morning rituals - coffee, blogging, a trip to the diner, maybe some more coffee. Promises of naps and grandchildren later on. I live for this day.

Anyone else miss Dark Sky? I still haven't found a weather app that predicts rain as good as it did.

I have to SMDH at how personally offended some of the usual suspects in the #Apple Pundit World are acting over the DOJ lawsuit. I’m like ,“Dude, it’s a trillion-dollar corporation, not your Mom. Calm TF down.”

I got a free domain registration when I signed up for another year on omg.lol. Now I have to figure out what to do with it.

I wonder which operating system I've installed the most times? Seeing how long Windows 10 has been alive it has to be running neck in neck with XP. Here at the tail end of my career, nothing else will have time to catch up. #EdTech

Every once in awhile, my wife rediscovers our Apple family plan in the App store and loads her phone up with new to her apps that I've added over time. I love showing her how they work. Her new favorite is

Going on one solid hour of my neighbors' car alarm blaring throughout the neighborhood and I'm wondering what the judge will say to me at my trial if I do what I want to do about it.

Reddit has the weirdest culture amongst the websites I frequent, Mastodon doesn't even come close to having all the unwritten rules that Reddit has.

I thought the IndieWeb was supposed to be easy. Why can't I figure out web mentions?

Like most men, I wonder how I'm going to do the dishes if my wife isn't here for me to tell her I did them and not worry about it now.

One of the greatest opening lines in the rock and roll music canon,

What do you call taking a nap before noon on the weekend? Self-confidence? Luxury? Old age? IDK, but it works for me.

I extended my Setapp membership to include iOS apps. It allows installing on up to four devices and includes a couple of otherwise expensive subscription options like Curio and Headway. Now I have to determine if I will use them often enough to get value from them.

I use Ivory by Tapbots for Mastodon on my Apple devices but I'm stuck on a PC at work. What's the best client for that platform? I use the advanced web interface and I'm testing Elk. Got any other suggestions?

I think it's important to support fellow bloggers and members of the IndieWeb community. No one wants to feel like they are shouting into the void. Reach out to someone who's work you like today. You'll be glad you did and so will they.

Today and tomorrow only - price reduced software at the - My purchases: Audracity, Nametag, Photoscope, Evo, Logger, Mastowatch, Presets, Relog

The PC I was assigned when I started working at my job won't run Windows 11 (processor too old) and today the boss said we could order new computers. He's open to letting me get an M3 iMac and if it works out I'll be the happiest guy on campus. It'll be like Christmas all over again.

Well, at least everyone else at work will be tired too. The Monday after the time change is my least favorite Monday of them all. It sucks.

Woke up with the birds, thanks to that #DaylightSavingTime switch. Thrilled about losing that precious hour of sleep! 🌅⏰😴 #SpringForward #NeedsMoreSnooze

Breakfast at a place where the waitress calls you “Baby” tastes better.

The Worst Thing Ever is here -

I've been doing the omg.lol, Mastodon, Micro.blog thing for two months now and it has been a blast. It's exposed me to some great writing and personalities. If you're sitting on the fence, jump off and get started.

Looks like we'll be starting tonight. I hope we like it as much as the critics seem to.

All the #Apple fanboys (#NotASlur) wishing they lived in the EU today so they could take advantage of the new features in iOS 17.4.

All I'm saying about web design, is that back in the days of Geocities, it was easier to make stuff look like I wanted it to. Things will click eventually, but today I'm frustrated.

Hoping our new Help Desk candidate accepts our offer and gets me off of this damn phone and out of the land of forgotten passwords!

Almost Monday...the other name for Sunday night.

Add me to the hordes going to see Dune 2 this weekend.

Is today the day I finally rearrange my iPhone home screen for the first time in recent memory? Don't fear the widgets they say.

Gonna pull the trigger on some Thai Hot level heat from the local takeout tonight. I may not survive but that rush is going to be worth it.

My favorite quote on #walking

Anywhere is within walking distance, if you've got the time - Stephen Wright

Leap Day should be a work holiday. It's only an extra two hours a year (saved up). More proof that The Man doesn't care about us workers!

Today's gonna be the day when nobody at work forgets their password, said Pooh...

My only goal for today is to drink enough coffee to not die.

Not a Monday fan but what can you do? Damn thing just rolls around every seven days whether I'm ready or not. Guess I'll suit up and show up and make the best of it. Dang, bro!

Brainstorming ideas for blog posts over coffee on a Saturday morning is one of my favorite times each week.

Waiting on two massive downloads - Facebook history from 2008-2024 and Gmail 2005-2024. Going to use the info in my new #Devonthink setup as part of my #PKM setup.

Well, as of today, I have exactly one year to go in my 50s and I plan to make the most of it. Age is just a number (well, that and knee pain) and things just keep getting better. Count me as one of the happy people you know.

Everything in moderation. Except awesome. You can never have too much awesome. Gotta remember that.

Out of cereal so I at Ramen Noodles for breakfast like a teenager. Now all I want to do is watch TikTok and skip school.

This is a fun one: name 5 things you DON’T like that most people L❤️VE. Here’s mine:

1. College sports
2. Super hero movies
3. Reality TV
4. Talking about the weather
5. Starbucks Your turn!!

Today is my first full day with a new iPhone 15 and my plan is to...buy new cables. Also to figure out the action button, take some pictures, reconfigure Apple Pay and download some new apps. Oh and enjoy #Obsidian not crashing.

- This week's bookmark collection includes a magnificent time suck at the Internet Archive, thanks to Jarrod Blundy from HeyDingus. Also included are the YouTube channel of the week, the blog of the week as well as a helpful tool for skirting paywalls, a great article on the Fediverse, new AI tools and more.

Getting frustrated with #Obsidian for iOS. I find myself downloading my vault every day to stop the app from continuously crashing - and I'm paying for Sync.I didn't have this problem using iCloud

Wrote a little piece on some helpful

So, IFTTT just raised prices by 33% and you know what, I’m just going to pay it and keep going. I get so much value out of the automations I have set up. I need them to make my emails to #Obsidian work. Another plus, their tech support stays with problems until they are resolved.

If all my #Obsidian plugins worked on the same day I wouldn't even have a hobby anymore. The ones I fight with the most are Templater and Omnivore. I break them both on the reg.

If anyone is an #Obsidian and #Omnivore fan, I wrote a thing

The weekly update to the /now page is complete.

A sign that the end times are approaching - $200 subscription pass for a weekly date night sold out in minutes, so we suppose that answers TikTok’s question about whether it’s an acceptable date spot

Today's prompt in my writing app is "In my dreams..." and now I want to go back to sleep.

My RSS feed manager, Inoreader, just added a feature allowing you to make a feed from a Keyword. I immediately did this for #Obsidian and #Raycast - two apps with a healthy community of users and advocates. I'm looking forward to it being easier to keep up with news.

My wife, a CPA, has given me a monthly app budget to help regulate my spending on new software. Nothing happens if I go over but it gives me something to shoot for. I have a hard time resisting anything that looks interesting.

BBEdit writing an AppleScript for me right in the app. FTW!

Today's micro.blog challenge is figuring out how to configure DNS A Records and CNAME Records to point to the $1.50 domain I bought at Namecheap.

I was relying on #Artifact for new app recommendations but for now I’ll be relying on Reddit and AppRaven. You?

Updated my /now page -

I got a copy of #MarsEdit from #Setapp but I'm finding it easier to write and publish in #Obsidian using a couple of easy to configure plugins. The "paste URL into selection" tool is the best thing that ever happened to #Markup.

I always look forward to what John Siracusa, @siracusa@mastodon.social. has to say. His latest post at Hypercritical, , on the dilemma of training AI is well thought out. He sees this the grayness in the questions raised.

Browsing . Spent a good portion of my afternoon writing. It felt good.

Updated my now page with info on Omnivore, Hey Dingus, App-Raven, Microsoft Edge, Reservation Dogs, Fargo, the weather in SE North Carolina and more.

Monday, that day I leave my nice, warm Mac cocoon and head back into the terrible cold world of Windows.

Watched the first two episodes of Reservation Dogs on Hulu this afternoon. Good stuff. Can't wait to see more.

With the help of kind Internet strangers, I figured out how to import my Mastodon follows into my new social.lol account! Now I don't have to spend hours rebuilding the list of people I've cultivated since making the move to the Fediverse.

I signed up at omg.lol tonight but still can't figure out how to join the social.lol Mastodon instance. I'm just going to keep clicking on buttons until something happens.