My old friend @vladcampos recently published a video showing how he uses Obsidian and Micro.blog, along with my Micro.publish plugin, as his social media hub.
👶 🐧 tinyScientist has a new word: winwin. His version for the word penguin (Pinguim in Portuguese).
👶 📺 tinyScientist has a new word: nhenhenho. His version for the Portuguese word desenho, which means “cartoon”.
Week 2024-07
It was a busy week, and I continued playing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in a healthy manner. The same approach goes to the TV show See, which I have been watching in a balanced way.
On Tuesday, tinyScientist took part in Fasching at the kindergarten, dressed as Batman! He was the most handsome Batman ever1.
On Wednesday, tinyScientist woke up grumpy and feeling unwell, and we decided not to send him to kindergarten. It turned out to be a wise decision as his condition worsened throughout the day. The night was particularly rough, leading to him also missing kindergarten on Thursday, following the doctor’s advice.
Also, on Wednesday, I received my copy of Viking Death Squad. By Thursday, I got Index Card RPG: Hard Suit, and I am still awaiting the official Index Card RPG Decks.
I took Friday off, as I still have a few vacation days that need to be spent before the end of March – the deadline in Germany to avoid losing the previous year’s vacation days. I spent the time working on Micro.publish and… purchasing another RPG book from a local store, MÖRK BORG. The book itself is a masterpiece of art.
And my printer died…
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Apologies, George Clooney. ↩︎
Feedbin can share and save articles to a variety of services. For services it doesn’t offer direct support, it’s possible to manually configure the integration. That’s what I’ve done with Micro.blog. In Settings & Share, I’ve added:
https://micro.blog/bookmark?url=${url}
I’m currently using the URL used by the Chrome and Firefox extensions. This URL closes the window after saving the bookmark on Micro.blog:
https://micro.blog/bookmarks?go=${url}
With this I can easily send content from Feedbin to Micro.blog.
I encountered issues while trying to generate the image of [image description here]. Let’s try a new request or explore another idea.
These issues have become frequent while using ChatGPT for generating images for Epic Tales Tavern.
Week 2024-06
Personal
I hadn’t planned to start watching another TV show, but on Saturday night, while organizing my desk, I decided to find something to watch. I ended up watching the first episode of See. The concept intrigued me, and I watched the entire episode. However, I won’t binge-watch the series; instead, I’ll watch an episode now and then, in a balanced manner.
I’ve fallen in love with the Index Card RPG system - ICRPG for short - and created a custom GPT to generate some images for me. The custom GPT isn’t perfect, but I’m satisfied with the results it produces.
Below is an image of an Orc with his fluffy cat, a rendition of the image I created for my other blog, Epic Tales Tavern.
tinyScientist is very happy with kindergarten, and so are we. The Kita-Eingewöhnung was a success, and by the end of the week, he was staying there alone without scientist needing to be there.
Another milestone is that tinyScientist wants to walk and run everywhere. He walks very comfortably, and we hardly notice any effort on his part to maintain balance. Very natural.
At the end of the year, I stopped using Instapaper and have since abandoned Pocket, Readwise, Matter, Pinboard, and other similar services for saving links to read later. However, I’m starting to miss the functionality, as I encounter several pages during work hours that I would like to save for later reading. On my work computer, I use a different Apple ID, preventing me from syncing GoodLinks via iCloud between my work and personal computers. I’m considering using Micro.blog’s Bookmarks feature for this purpose. Nonetheless, for reading later, I continue to use GoodLinks on my personal devices. It’s an excellent app.
Hacking
I’ve added a new microhook to Matt’s Tiny Theme and submitted a pull request, which was accepted and is now available to all. The new microhook enables users to configure the profile image displayed at the top of the blog/page. I’m using it on my three sites (two blogs and one single-page website).
One of the sites I host on Micro.blog is the Micro.publish website, which recently moved to a new address.
Regarding Micro.publish, I’m planning a release soon that will allow users to edit categories of previously published posts. Currently, only the title and content of the posts can be updated.
Following that, I plan to start working on the image uploader. I wrote a detailed draft outlining some design decisions and other considerations about Obsidian and the solution, which I plan to publish soon.
Work
I had planned to work from the office on Monday or Tuesday. However, due to rain and wind, I ended up going to the office only on Friday. Fortunately, Friday turned out to be a good day to be there, as I had several one-on-one meetings and a demo session.
The only problem with going to the office is its proximity to the city’s largest art supply store. It’s hard to resist temptation there.
I have been playing around with the Feedbin iOS app and found out completely by accident that it is possible to save searches.
I recently noticed that saved Feedbin searches appear in Reeder 5. I have been using Reeder since its inception, and it continues to astonish me. It’s an amazing app by Silvio Rizzi.
🤖 🎨 The art of the Index Card RPG is so awesome that I was inspired to create a custom GPT to generate some images for me. I was happy with two particular images and decided to print them on index cards.
The first is the Rogue Elf from my solo campaign, the second is inspired by this friendly Orc.
👨💻 Micro.publish address just got shorter: micropublish.micro.blog → micropublish.blog
📷 ☕️ Morning ritual.
👨💻 Color coding my websites. I’m happy with the result.
Green: personal blog.
Red: Epic Tales Tavern.
Purple: Micro.publish website.
Feedbin Actions
Today, I started using Feedbin Actions, a feature that allows users to automatically organize their articles — such as marking them as read, starring them, or sending notifications — based on specific criteria they set.
I’m using it to automatically mark articles as read if they match one of the following rules:
title:"members post": At least one of the feeds I follow publishes posts exclusive to members, to which I’m not subscribed.title.exact:("Sponsor:" OR "(Sponsor)"): Three other feeds label posts about their sponsors with “Sponsor:” or “(Sponsor)”.title.exact:"Apple Vision Pro": There has been excessive coverage about Apple’s new hardware recently.
The first two actions were enabled for all feeds to simplify the process. The final filter is applied to all feeds with exception of a group of feeds that contains news and posts about software engineering.
Week 2024-05
On Sunday, I dedicated some time to creating a website for Micro.publish using Micro.blog’s new feature, the Single-Site Web Site.
I opted for a variation of the Bear theme for the site. However, later in the week, Matt released the Tiny Theme 2.0, introducing a feature that significantly simplifies customizations. As a result, I decided to use it for the website.
tinyScientist had two doctor’s appointments this week. For the first one, scientist accompanied him to the hospital for a routine check-up with the doctor who had performed his surgery in December. Everything went well, and the next appointment is scheduled for three months from now. I joined them for the second appointment, which was for vaccination and a regular medical check-up with the pediatrician. All was well there too!
I’ve already played more than 50% of the new Prince of Persia. I’m trying to spread out my gameplay to avoid finishing it all at once; let’s see if I can maintain that self-control.
Towards the week’s end, I was visited by a cold that decided to linger. Fortunately, it’s just a cold and not the flu.
Tiny Theme 2.0
The new Tiny Theme feature, implemented by Matt, is quite impressive. Essentially, it allows users to create hooks that the theme uses in specific situations. This feature enables the customization of the blog’s appearance and functionality without the need to edit the theme directly.
I have updated my three sites — two blogs and one website — to use it.
📷 Bathroom selfie
I lost my Leica soft release button (in red) yesterday.
I found it today, nearly three months later. It turned out to be in the pocket of a jacket – not the one I was wearing on the day I thought I had lost it.
I have moved Micro.publish from my blog to its own website, using Micro.blog’s latest feature, the Single-Package Web Site.
Week 2023-04
I can’t believe January is almost over. I managed to survive an entire month without subscribing to a new service or buying a new app. However, I did spend money on books, including literature and RPGs.
I finished watching the seasons of:
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - I would watch another season.
- For All Mankind - I’m eager for more!
But I didn’t start watching anything new. I’m going to spend some time now reading and playing RPGs instead.
I worked from the office on Tuesday and Wednesday and attended two in-person workshops. On Tuesday, the workshop was about Creativity and, on the following day, about Time Management and Productivity. Both were filled with theory, techniques, and practical exercises. I hope I can apply some of these techniques, especially those for time management.
On Friday, I had to make a quick visit to the Embassy to get tinyScientist’s new passport and social security number. As with all visits to the Embassy, it was quick and easy.
In other news, tinyScientist’s Kita-Eingewöhnung is going pretty well. It’s great to see the progress and how well tinyScientist is adapting to the new environment.
Last but not least, I’ve started playing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown on the Nintendo Switch. I wasn’t planning on buying it — who am I kidding? — but I ended up purchasing the game on Friday. At the time of this writing, I’ve already played 30% of the game. It’s that good!