Here’s this week’s list of things to check out:

1. Ulysses: I’ve been trying trying demos of the Mac/iOS/iPadOS since the app debuted on the Mac, but I never pulled the trigger and subscribed. It’s a great example of a Markdown-based text editor, although Ulysses has some notable differences from the likes of iA Writer, what might be considered its closest analog. I don’t need or want Ulysses for much of its feature set, though; I prefer individual text files to a database exclusive to the app for this kind of writing. It does, however, have great WordPress support, even allowing you to include images in a post. I’m writing this installment of Sunday Serial in Ulysses in fact, and will likely publish it from here as well. I prefer iA Writer or even BBEdit to it on the Mac, but even there, I have to move everything over to MarsEdit (a great application in its own right, but not one I like to write in). Ulysses nicely unifies posting to WordPress when I’m using my iPad.
2. American Philosophy: A Love Letter: I mentioned this book mid-last-week in talking about John Kaag’s _Hiking with Nietzsche._I’m really ignorant about American philosophy.
3. AppyHour: Rhonda signed up for this app-delivery service a while ago. We both agree that we’ve enjoyed trying things we wouldn’t have otherwise chosen at a store. The Prosecco jam in this last box is gooooood.

Rhonda and I found ourselves temporarily in an empty nest last night, so after Brie and rosé at Bellview, we ducked into around-the-corner Greenview Inn. I hadn’t really ever looked at the “from the grill” section of the menu, but you can order a number of meat and fish selections, choose a sauce, and add an a la carte veg to go along with it. And I figured with sauces being hard to calorie track, why not try something chock full of protein? So I ordered the veal chop with some salt and pepper, and a wedge of lemon to add some zing. Twas good.

I featured Tabbs back in February as a Sunday Serial pick. My subscription just renewed, and I thought I’d dig back into this extension.

After a little configuration rejiggering (ctrl-j is the default trigger for the extention on Windows, which conflicts with Edge’s default shortcut for showing your downloads), I got to peeking around in the settings configuation. Without using keyboard shortcuts, Tabbs looks nicer than the default tab switcher in Chrome-based browsers, but mousing isn’t any faster or different from the browser default. This is where Tabbs really shines: after invoking the extension, typing alt-c will close a tab without switching to it. Similarly, you can pin tabs to the Tabbs menu to keep it at the top.

Another way that Tabbs speeds up your browsing is by allowing you to interact with a tab in a submenu from the Tabbs pane. After invoking the extension, you click or arrow to a tab (or search for it) and then type the slash character (/), which reveals a second panel with commands specifc to the selected tab:
– Pin
– Close
– Bookmark
– Select
– Nap Tab

In addition to searching your open tabs, Tabbs will search your browser history.

If you spend a lot of time in a browser, Tabbs is worth a serious look. Do note, though, that it requires a subscription to use all of the features.

Dr Henry Cloud took [Scott Pack’s observation that once you learn that life is difficult, it stops feeling so] a step further. In his book Integrity, he wrote about “eating problems for breakfast” as the key to personal growth and success. In other words, it is important to orient yourself to the fact that bad things will happen — and you have to be prepared to meet and resolve them.

All Successful People Rely on a Three-Word Philosophy

1. [DayOne](Day One Journal App | Your Journal For Life (dayoneapp.com)): DayOne is a journaling app that is tightly integrated into the Apple ecosystem (there’s a web version, too). At its core, it’s good for keeping daily journals, but the os-level integration allows you to import pictures and other data, document your location, and more. It’s a [Mac-assed Mac app](Daring Fireball: Mac-Assed Mac Apps)for sure. One of the charming things it does (if you want it to) is remind you to read an old entry. Today, I got this one:

Post-vacation trips
I often think about how bad I’m going to feel after a vacation (being sad about going back to the routine)), but in purely behavioral terms, I must like all vacations and breaks because I am always excited for them when they are upon me. If the post-vacation sadness were so salient, I wouldn’t want to even go because the negative emotional fallout would outweigh the fun. And that’s never the case. Sunday damage never dampens Friday enthusiasm. So weird…

I’m terribly inconsistent in my use of DayOne, but I do find it a good place to write things I might not want to share here or just to think (because writing is thinking). And having the entries is a fun way to recall specifics about a time you have vague memories of.
2. [Espanso](Espanso – A Privacy-first, Cross-platform Text Expander): This is a cross-platform snippet expander for Mac, Linux, and Windows. Creating snippets ("Matches," in Espanso terminology) requires adding commands to a YAML file, which is not at all like the experience of using a tool like [TextExander](TextExpander: #1 Text Replacement & Keyboard Shortcut App), but like AutoHotKey, Espanso has a lot of power and customizability.¹
3. Blueberry Pancakes: Rhonda gets a boxed mix and adds buttermilk; I don’t know how to prepare them, but I can cook them (and eat them). I make these on the Blackstone griddle after the bacon is cooked. A once-in-a-while food for sure.

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¹ I do still have a TextExpander subscription, but I don’t use it like I used to. Because I don’t write technical reports or documents as an administrator, I don’t need access to a lot of repetitive text. I do like to have a few things handy, though: email addresses, my cell number and work number, addresses… things I might otherwise have to type out repetitively.

Where I have often found Windows lacking in software compared to the Mac (gasp!), Microsoft’s own PowerToys has always been a new-installation-must on any Windows device I’ve used since I discovered it back in the Windows 7 days. My most-used and loved utility in this suite is PowerToys run, which is a launcher utility in the vein of the excellent (and also new-installation-must on the Mac) Launchbar (without which a Mac doesn’t feel like a Mac to me when it’s not installed… or should I say, until it’s installed).

You can get plenty of mileage out of PowerToys Run just using it as a launcher; for example, typing “Excel” in the search box will give you, as the first result, the application Excel. It’s great for web searches, too, and even searching your local hard drive.

I do prefer the fast-if-spartan-looking Everything for file searches on Windows, though; it’s a focused application in that it searches for files and allows you to open or reveal them easily. It’s pretty ugly, though. It’s also free, so I can’t squak.

Everything is available to you via PowerToys Run not just as a launchable executable, though; you can install a plugin, and after typing a modifier key (“ is the default), you can search your machine via Run but using Everthing’s power.

Run works this way; you can just type into the search bar, but you can specify modifier commands to restrict your search to specific features (calculator, file search, and your search history, for example).

Run looks like a simple app–and you can use it that way–but beneath the hood is a cache of productivity firepower. And it’s made all the better by the Everything plugin.

While vacationing in Ocean City, NJ, Rhonda and I nipped out for dinner at Peter Shields after splitting a bottle of rosé at the nearby Willow Creek Winery. While the winery is a little overbaked and expensive, Peter Shields was short, one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in a while.

We started off sharing a yellowtail crudo, one of my favorite fish from our local sushi haunt; this dish arrived garnished with cucumber and watermelon, a heretofore untasted mélange of flavors for this diner. We also split blue point oysters on the half shell, which were plump and briny, and always a favorite of both of ours when we have them. (And we’ve had them!)

I ordered a bone-in pork chop, which our server, Chris, was quick to point out was a pounded and fried dish; this was not necessarily my preference nor the dish I’d imagined in my mind based on the menu, but I readily agreed to this preparation. It was, in turn, excellent. The pork was pounded flat and dredged in breadcrumbs, and pan fried until crispy, with no residual oil on the surface. Topped Milanese style with greens and tomatoes would have been satisfying, but the lily was gilded with some chunks of meat and mozzarella. It was excellent and I’d order it again in a heartbeat.

Rhonda was craving a steak, and she got the filet. It was perfectly cooked to medium rare, as requested, and beautifully served, with mushroom ravioli to boot.

For dessert, they offered a steamed caramel cake à la mode, which we split and adored. The dessert was swimming in a pool of molten caramel and was delicious and the perfect size to split. It was a whimsical nod to the classic caramel sundae, with the cake dressing the dish up to something elegant.

Peter Shields is a BYOB, but you can order bottles from the nearby Cape May Winery, which they should advertise more; we stopped at a liquor store along the way (and admittedly saved a buck), but I probably would have sprung for a bottle of Cape May in order to try another local wine.

(This is a slightly rewritten version of my Yelp review.)

I shop for a pair I like and then wait for the Clark’s booty text that there’s a sale. Usually works out! They are darker than I’d expected but hey.

I consider myself inordinately lucky that I get to go on vacation for a week in one of Jersey’s many excellent shore towns each summer. We just got back from Ocean City, NJ, yesterday, and here are some things to check out, should you find yourself there.

1. Swimming: I wrote last year that I was anxious about not being able to row on vacation, but I found out that fairly casual swimming is a great way to burn up some calories. This was in the hotel pool, where you can avoid the crowds and the kids by jumping in right after breakfast. I swam myself silly one day.
2. Peter Shields Inn: This is not in Ocean City (it’s in Cape May), but Rhonda and I like to nip out one night for a dinner alone, and this year we tried Peter Shields on the recommendation of one of Rhonda’s co-workers. I plan to write up the experience separately, but in short, it’s an excellent BYOB (they do sell bottles of Cape May Winery wine) in that just-a-notch-above casual that shore towns excel in. Definitely in the top ten.¹.
3. Beach walks: Once again, before anyone was up, Rhonda and I took a 2+ mile walk on the beach and boardwalk, heading south from the hotel to a beach entrance, and then marched north back to Gillians Wonderland Pier (which will be closing). We will miss our La Colombe coffee stop next year for sure.

A quick word about Ocean City, which bills itself as the World’s Greatest Family Resort. It’s kinda Disney-ish, which certainly accounts for its allure for parents of young children (and perhaps teetotalers). Staying at the south end or “Goald Coast,” as it’s called, is a quieter, more beach-goer vibe, while the nortern end offers a walkable downtown, many more dining options, and of course, the boardwalk. We’ve been staying at and preferring the northern end for the past few years, and access to a number of less crowded takeout spots in Somers Point is a big plus. Whatever your thoughts are on Ocean City, it is a town with a true sense of vision, evident in its organization and (sometimes annoying) reminders of local laws and ordinances. We love to scurry around all of these attractions.

¹ I don’t actually have a top-ten restaurant list, but I should write that up. Vetri in Philly for sure would be on there.

From the Marginalian, a humbling and inspiring metaphor for life found in the humble worm:

There are experiences in life that strike at the center of our being, sundering us in half with unforeseen pain for which we were entirely unbraced. Because we know that this is possible — from the lives of others, from our own past experience, from the history of the heart recorded in our literature — we are always living with the awareness, conscious or unconscious, that life can sunder us at any given point without warning. This is the price of consciousness, which makes living both difficult and urgent.

Trauma, Growth, and How to Be Twice as Alive: Tove Jansson on the Worm and the Art of Self-Renewal