Recursive Words

It’s been three years since I last took any time off sick – which is remarkable, I suppose. I finally caved in this morning – after catching a horrible cough and cold from my daughters – and checked out of work for the rest of the day (not before I logged in and pushed several bits and pieces over the line that will benefit everybody else).

I probably shouldn’t have worked yesterday either, but the entire day turned into “I’ll just get this done”, and “I’ll just get that done”. It didn’t help that most of the things I was doing were of direct benefit to others. I am, have always been, and will always be my own worst enemy – putting the needs of everybody else ahead of my own at every juncture.

Of course now I’m fighting the impulse – while not working – to get on with something else, rather than actually rest. Own worst enemy. My other half had a go at me this morning – telling me that if I didn’t work from home there would be no way I would be going to an office, so why did I think it was ok to carry on from home?

I guess she had a point.

In other news, I finished watching “Small Prophets” last night – a wonderful series on the BBC written by Mackenzie Crook about somebody growing “homunculi” in their garden shed. If it sounds bizarre, it’s because it is – but it’s also full of the charm and gentle humor we’ve come to expect from Mackenzie Crook. The Detectorists will forever be a favourite in our house.

While not doing much today, I’ve been tinkering with various writing and note-taking apps. After looking at Apple Journal, Day One, Bear, Notion, Obsidian, and Scrivener, I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t really matter what app you use to write – they all do the same thing. The winner looks like being Obsidian (because it’s easy), with all of my writing sitting in Github (because it’s free).

Something that has occurred to me is that whatever I use to write doesn’t really need to work on my phone or tablet – because that’s not what I use them for. I’m a bit old-school when it comes to writing – I like having a proper keyboard.

Before anybody mentions it, I’m aware there’s a nice keyboard for the iPad, but I’m not willing to pay the exorbitant price for something I won’t use all the time.

I dug my old Chromebook out last week and charged it up. It’s still in mint condition – perched in a gap on the bookshelf. It was my “daily driver” for a long time – until the huge switch to Apple stuff. I still use Google Docs for all sorts of things, and prefer it over either Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or LibreOffice. When I first switched to Apple I thought about transferring everything to iCloud, but then discoverd that iCloud really isn’t cloud storage – it’s cloud sync. Not entirely, but enough that it’s confusing.

Oh. One last thing, then I’ll stop emptying my head.

You probably noticed that I switched the personal blog away from Substack. While I love substack, it really isn’t the place for personal blogs any more – and despite my misgivings about Automattic, there’s no other easy alternative out there at the moment that “just works”. Yes, I could host my own blog, but I really don’t want the hassle – I just want to be able to write, publish, and share the idiocy that creeps out of the dark corners of my brain.

Anyway.

Probably a good point to shut up.