Living in southern NJ, we don’t get much snow, especially in December. I’m a sucker for a white Christmas.
Author: Alex Nonnemacher
I’ve Really Come a Long Way
I have a list of games to check out this week. And here we are:
Sierra Nevada Celebrattion Ale
When I turned 21, a friend of mine at Ursinus, Mike Walter, took me out to a quirky bar in Kutztown, PA. They had Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale on tap and we had a few pints. It was a memorable night for me; it was a warm, dim bar, with a low-slung ceiling and a fire going. It was a cold night on an otherwise quotidian turn of the calendar make special by companionship and ale.
Our local pizza haunt, Villa Fazzolari, has Celebration on tap right now. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it on tine beer list; the waitress even had to check with the bartenders. But have it they did, and I had two. It was great; piney, resinous. I suspect I it will hang around.
Greenview Last Night
Rhonda and I nipped out to the Greenview again last night. We’ve been doing this more, letting the boys get dinner via GrubHub. It’s cheaper and we get to have a nice date.
I had a great time last time we went to the Greenview and sat at the bar, and was eager to repeat. It’s an interesting place to say the least. We were lucky to get a table; we had no Rez and it was a Friday during the holiday.
We ordered a bottle of Chardonnay and at one point, I realized it was sitting too close to the table candle for its own good. Just before moving it, though, I realized the label was nicely lit. So I took this quick shot:
I had the halibut special; there were an overwhelming number of them, and I was hard pressed to decide. Rhonda had the duck, which is what I had last time. Hers sat atop chopped beats, which were good but a little al denté for I would say most tastes. They were good though. I didn’t intend to eat all of my polenta, but I did. I have no regrets.
WorkOmniOutFlowyLiner.opml
One downside of digitally whoring around from notes app to notes app is a trail of digital knowledge, much of which may be errata, but some of which may remain useful.
Case in point: I help with the newsletter for a professional association. I must have been using Workflowy when I started, because that’s where the style sheet is. This by itself isn’t a big deal, but when you scatter bits of info across a half-dozen or more apps without being able to (or willing) to export and import everything from the old app to the new app… well, you know.
This is compounded by Workflowy’s being web-based/ an electron app. If you don’t use the app on your machine for a while, you’re prompted to log in. This requires you to receive and paste in an access code, which I don’t prefer to running a native application on my machine locally.
I’m working on the newsletter now and I knew to head to Workflowy for the style sheet. Once I had the style sheet up, I wondered to myself what kind of file formats at export Workflow supports. Happily, OPML is one of them.
It makes perfect sense that Workflowy would support OPML as an export format, but good on them for doing so.
OPML means that OmniOutliner can open the file and save it in their native format. So that’s what I did. I now have a file called “Workflowy” on my Mac that won’t ask me to log in all the time.
I even made it look like the original.
Cape May Getaway December 2024
Last year, my mom was kind enough to surprise us for an overnight stay in historic Cape May, New Jersey. This is a nearby destination that I had just really never been too. We stayed and dined at the Washington in, and had a great time. We returned this summer for dinner at Peter Sheilds Inn, and we enjoyed our dinner. We got to talking one night that it was our anniversary and my 50th birthday, so maybe we should stay somewhere.
And so we did. I was able to book Room 7 at Peter Shields and make a dinner rez for the same night with no problem. We took the opportunity to do a little Christmas shopping Saturday night, so we found ourselves at the Lobster House for a drink and some apps. We had a Manhattan and a Martini each, the escargots, and some Cape May Salts oysters. Everything was excellent. It’s a weird old place that’s probably been run the same way forever. We hated the giant line of people waiting for a table at four pm (they don’t take reservations).
The area around the Washington Street Mall was so crowded that we decided to get a bottle of wine and check into the room. We glugged some chardonnay while we waited for dinner. Dinner was amazing, just like in August.
We started off with their excellent bread and the whipped butter, which is so good, I ate a whole timbale of it myself at breakfast. We shared the homemade cavatelli and the shaved Brussels sprouts salad. I had a NY Strip, while Rhonda ordered the short ribs with mashed potatoes. We finished with salted caramel cheesecake and the apple crumble. More wine, too; Cape May chardonnay, which was so good we stopped on the ride home to pick up a bottle for home (got some rosé, too).
This morning was breakfast at the Inn and then some shopping. I nipped out early because I was up for a few things at Wawa, and found (thankfully) my Apple Pencil just behind my car in the street parking. No damage either. I turned on FindMy right away. I thought about where it might be all night long.
We stopped, as we do, in the Peanut Butter shop, and I had some awesome samples. We got a jar of this stuff. I won’t eat it but it was delicious to try.
Serial Sunday: Image Playground, Smart Folders in Notes, and the Johnny Decimal System
We just blew in from Cape May, and I have some things to write about that trip. In the meantime, here’s this week’s list of things to check out:
Image Playground
iOS 18.2 dropped for me Saturday morning, and with it came Image Playground. I’ve been pretty excited about Image Playgrounds for two reasons. First, my inner prankster was dying to create a Christmas elf from a picture of Rhonda and show it to her. Secondly, and more seriously, is that I like to use these image generators for written communications in lieu of stock art. I have never done any kind of work for anyone with a stock photos account, and I find this more satisfying than looking for images without watermarks or worse. I do have a device with an 18.2 beta on it, and so while I was able to try out Image Playgrounds late Friday night, the official release is much more polished.
And interesting direction Apple took with Image Playgrounds is that you have to start with an image from your photo library: it won’t create an image of a person based on your written (or spoken) input. On the other hand, Image Playgrounds takes your input–no matter how innocuous or impersonal–and translates it so profoundly that it doesn’t much resemble the starting image. This jibes with Apple’s public statement on photos, which is that they are digital representations of something that happened.
Smart Folders in Notes
I’ve taken to using Notes for all of my note taking again; essentially, my setup always involves some kind of task list manager, a notes app, and an email application (not webmail). There’s a lot of ancillary software and utilities that I run, too, but that’s the core of my setup.
I recently noticed the Smart Folders feature available in Notes, and I was excited to use them to good end (showing the notes I’ve edited over the last couple of days, irrespective of filing). But they bring me a touch of nostalgia, too, for they remind me of the smart playlists in iTunes. I still have a bunch of them that don’t auto-update anymore.
The Johnny Decimal System
I read about this digital file system organization scheme on Reddit. I’ve been using the Para method to organize my digital files, and I like it plenty, but I have found organizing by Home/Work/Professional to be a challenge in that the structure tends to want to impose itself everywhere within Para if you use it in one place. This system reminds me a bit of the very cool Dendron projects I adopted for a while.
“A Sumptuous Breakfast”
Image Playgrounds
Image Playgrounds is finally available. I was able to try it out the night before it installed on my phone, and this newer version is significantly better.
I made holiday pics of the four of us:
Sunday Serial: Cheap Dollar Tree Hats, PaperMate Write Bros. 1.0 Pens, and Readwise Plugin for PopClip
Here’s this week’s list of things to check out:
Cheap Dollar Tree Hats: One consequence of losing weight is being cold. And I mean, in my case, to where I’ve thought maybe I should add some pounds to feel more comfortable just being. Short of such weighty decisions, I can always apply more immediate solutions, like putting on a hat. Dollar Tree around the corner had some nice ones.
PaperMate Write Bros, 1.0 Pens: Speaking of Dollar Tree, I always wander into the stationary aisle to see what pens they have for sale. I’ve gotten an impressive variety of surprise delights this way, including some interesting colors of Zebra Sarasa pens. I did not expect to like these PaperMate pens at all, but I recalled, standing there before the pen section, that the NY Mag’s list of 100 best pens featured some true cheapies. So I grabbed a pack of 10 and took most of them to work. I don’t know if I’d feel the same way about these if they were .5 or .7; I really like 1.0 pens, but they’re few and far between in most stores. The barrel is pretty wide for a cheap pen, and the writing experience is smooth.
Readwise Plugin for PopClip: I have been using Readwise for a while now to sync highlights from ebooks I’m reading to the Readwise service, and then reading over passages as the service presents them in the Daily Review feature. It’s a great way to use Readwise, and I’ve been not just delighted, but sometimes gobsmacked, by something I’d highlighted while reading but had Readwise unearth for me. My issue with Readwise is getting content into it; it’s easy to turn on sync to Kindle and Kobo APIs in the app so that highlights come over, but it’s a more browser-based affair on the Mac. (iOS and iPadOS benefit from the Readwise share sheet extension.) Happily, there’s a PopClip extension that works in Safari or anywhere else you can select text. I just tried it on a PDF, and it synced to Readwise right away.
A Finder for the iPad
It’s just a Shortcut to the Files app saved to the Home Screen, then dragged to the Dock. Feels right tho.
“Report Out”
I’ve always found this construction redundant. One dictionary entry:
an account given of a particular matter, especially in the form of an official document, after thorough investigation or consideration by an appointed person or body.
“Out” is kind of assumed. To where else can one report?
Thanksgiving Break 2024
Part of my process of writing up Sunday Serial is looking at my photo library for things that caught my fancy. I realized that I had a nice long weekend and break and took some pictures I’d enjoy sharing. Nothing outside of my normal life, but as I’ve been reflecting lately, my notion of a good weekend or a nice night hasn’t changed a lot over the course of my life. Errands, dinners out, some fun things here and there: that’s a life. And in the end,
We Had Some Drinks
Summer finds us glugging Aperol Spritzes during the long weekends; we returned to form over the break. The challenge of a spritz, if you consider it such, is opening a full 750 ml bottle of Prosecco and wasting about half of it. That happens to us a lot, but not this weekend.
We Cooked Some Food
It was Thanksgiving, and we hosted again this year (just my parents). As usual, I smoked our free grocery store turkey. It came out pretty good; I over salted some areas during the dry brine, and used a coarser salt than I normally would. I did grind it up in a mortar and pestle, but I could have done a better job. The turkey also cooked a fair bit quicker than I expected; I had a little trouble getting the temp in the smoker to come up to 325, but the bird cooked in about the three hours I expected. I will probe more extensively next time with the thermometer.
The thing about cooking the turkey this way is that it’s using the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker in a way that it was not designed to operate. With some small variations, the smoker is designed to hold heat in the neighborhood of 225 degrees Fahrenheit; you can adjust the airflow to increase or decrease this, but getting much above 250 is a challenge. You can accomplish this by leaving the water pan empty but in place in the smoker. This allows more heat transfer to the lid of the smoker, which is around where your bird is sitting.
Rhonda made an excellent stuffing that included roasting some turkey wings as part of the base; a mirepoix went into the pan with the roasting wings as an early step. The end result was an excellent stuffing with rich vegetable flavor. Aaron lucked out by having the wings for lunch.
And of course: apps! Charcuterie, as everyone is calling it these days.
Out and About
We squeezed in a trip to Bellview on Friday, having the usual: a platter and some wine. We got a bottle of rosé and a growler of Demeter, as usual, and the “That’s My Holiday Jam” platter, which has two types of cheese, some salami, pretzel chips, kettle corn, nuts, and some chocolate-covered berries. Always so good.
Friday night was sushi at our usual joint, the newly renamed Ikura in Vineland. I’m pretty consistent here: an app, usually gyoza, and I have some of Rhonda’s Kani Kappa salad, and then I get one roll and three kids of sashimi. I track what I order on my phone so that I can see what I got last time, but it’s partly to help me remember what I want. Sushi is fun (and more challenging) than ordering dinner in the form of an app and an entrée because, if you’re not choosing a pre-set dish, you are selecting a la carte from the menu. Because the pieces are small, you have to keep track of what you’re ordering.
Birthday Dinners
We always celebrate family birthdays by going out to dinner; this year we went to the Greenview for my birthday on Saturday, and the four of us nipped out Wednesday for my actual birthday to the Maplewood. It’s nice having some decent places close by for dinner. I wrote up Greenview already, but Maplewood was characteristically great, with weird pacing but good food.
Egg Bites
Vacation is fun because it’s a change from the normal grind. One thing I do on the weekends is make breakfast for the week. I have been making hard-boiled eggs this year, whereas I had always been making sous vide egg bites. We had some sausage left over from breakfast on Friday, so Rhonda suggested that I make some egg bites. I made six of them for her; I made hard boiled for myself. I hope they came out good; I didn’t have any sour cream or cottage cheese to use (the latter of which is my preferred mixer).
A Little Shopping
We stay away from retail establishments during the holiday; there’s the internet, or course, and today’s Cyber Monday. We did have a few errands to run, and yesterday checkout of Barbera’s for holiday gifts (candy and chocolate); Rhonda grabbed a frozen ice cream taco and some ice cream sandwiches for the boys. They have a cinnamon bun flavor that wouldn’t normally excite me, but it looks sooooo good. Rhonda and I usually get a couple of scoops (they sell Richman’s Ice Cream) in a waffle bowl.
In lieu of brick and mortar shopping, I did avail myself of some software deals. I have been using Raycast for a while now, but I’ve been terribly curious about some of the pro features. I do wish there was a membership tier that didn’t include AI; I don’t think I want to use Raycast’s AI chat app. It looks like a dark version of ChatGPT’s client and won’t likely integrate with Siri. I have tried out the notes (very cool, but not on iPad or the Phone, and no handwriting, so that’s not a sale for me), turned on sync, and started messing around with things.
I guess I’m most excited about Raycast, because it’s to my mind an expensive subscription and the discount really helps push the cost into consideration territory, and it’s also got a deep feature set. One of the things that I’m most interested in seeing is the degree to which I can stop using Launchbar; I’ve been control-spacebarring to get around my Mac for a couple of decades now, and some of the muscle memory is deep: Google searches, clipboard history, and running apps are all things I use Launchbar for. I might need to consider swapping my keyboard shortcuts so that control-space gets me into Raycast instead of Launchbar.
Another thing I’ve been enjoying is figuring out some of the specifics of how Raycast works. For example, you can specify “favorites” from among all of the different elements of the app. I know that using Raycast to resize Finder and app windows will be a major use case for me, so I pinned one of my favorite Window Management settings to be a favorite. I likewise added the root level of my Para folder in Documents, and even tried a document as an example. You can even point Raycast to Shortcuts and favorite them if an app you’re looking for a plugin for doesn’t have one, but supports Shortcuts (currently OmniFocus for me).
I also got licenses for Keyboard Maestro (just an update for me), CleanShot X, and KeyCue. So in that regard, CleanShot is the only new app to me, but I’m excited to lean into Raycast and Keyboard Maestro more than I have in the past.
Dinner at Greenview Inn
Dinner last night to celebrate my birthday was good enough to warrant its own post:
- Appetizer: Baked Clams
Rhonda and I wanted to split a dozen raw oysters. They were out. These were really good though. I would definitely order them again. They make good martinis, too.
- Entré: Elk
Like a lean beef. Very good.
- Dessert: Crème Brûlée
Better than the Franklinville Inn.
Sunday Serial: Purple Safari, Elk, and Feedbin’s Email Newsletter Service
1. Safari Technology Preview: I started using Safari Technology Preview back in the late 2010s just for kicks, and started using it again recently. I don’t think I’ll ever notice any of the WebKit updates, but hey… it’s like beta testing, which I am wont to do as well.
Safari Technology Preview side note : I typed this into ChatGPT, but didn’t get any confirmation of my hypotheses, which is that the icon (purple) and initials of the project (STP) are some kind of homage to Stone Temple Pilots. I may never know.
Key Features:
1. Access to Experimental Features: Includes the latest updates to WebKit, the open-source browser engine that powers Safari. It often includes cutting-edge web technologies like enhanced JavaScript, CSS, and WebAssembly capabilities.
2. Performance Improvements: Frequent updates focus on enhancing speed and responsiveness.
3. Regular Updates: Typically updated bi-weekly, ensuring users have access to the most recent innovations.
4. Isolated from Stable Safari: Runs independently of the main Safari browser, allowing users to test without affecting their regular browsing experience.
5. Developer Tools: Offers enhanced developer tools to facilitate debugging and web development.
6. Cross-Platform: Available for macOS and macOS beta versions, ensuring compatibility across Apple’s ecosystem.
Safari Technology Preview is ideal for web developers, designers, and tech enthusiasts who want to stay ahead with the latest browser capabilities.
2. Elk: We went out to dinner for my birthday with my parents to the nearby Greenview Inn last night, and they had elk as a game special on the menu. I love going to a restaurant will a fully-formed plan of what I’m going to order, and then having the entire enterprise washed out with the mention of a special. We go to the Greenview enough that I know what I want most times, but find their specials to often be delightful and seasonal preparations of something that elicits my unbridled curiousity.
I really liked it; it came plated with a carrot reduction and some sweet potatoes (which I mostly skipped). I had a nice bite of Rhonda’s prime rib, too.
Elk eats like red meat, but has fewer calories and fat. I liked it!
3. Feedbin’s Email Newsletter Subscription: I’ve been using Feedbin as the backbone of my RSS reeding for a long time. I tried Feedly for a bit but jumped over to Feedbin long ago. One of the features that I like about it and keeps it in the top slot among its competitors is the Email Newsletter Subscription feature. Feedbin creates a fake email address for you, and your newsletters are delivered to Feedbin instead of your email inbox, which surely runneth over. I’m still working out how this works with NetNewsWire and Unread on iPadOS, though.
