One thing I enjoy the most about my hosted Micro.blog site is the On this Day — as I call it — hack. It is a nice way to look back at previous years, previous posts, just like you would do using The Day One Journal app. Memories can go either way, they can either make me cringe, happy, or sadness. It is a good way to see where you have been mentally and emotionally and where you are now. However, my biggest joy recently it’s seen what music I had been listening to. Every time there is an album or song I really get into, I post it on my site, in fact, I have a category called Music Likes. With Apple Music, it is sometimes hard to keep up with everything you have liked because everything gets lost in the never-ending queue of new music added every day. So, for like many other things, my blog is not just a digital diary but also acts as a second brain.

Every morning, as part of my daily routine, I open my browser, go to my on site and visit the On this Day tab. If there is an album or song, I make sure to listen and see if I can recall the emotions or the reasons of why I had decided to “log” it.

It’s a good exercise, little thing to do and brings me a bit of joy.

Now, if you all excuse me, I am going back to listen to Hemispheric Views’s latest pod show episode and see how Jason grades “his” employees or co-hosts.

When Are You Enough? – Greg Morris

Your body isn’t good enough, your hair, your clothes, the car you drive, even the food you eat. Nothing that you are currently doing, or anything about your own self, is good enough compared to this thing. Just look at how happy these people are, having loads of fun and smiling all the time. Don’t you want to smile too?

This, sums up Instagram for me, or at least that’s what it morphed into for me, and one of the reasons I closed it. Just like advertisements, and in my case, Instagram, can make you feel less and not enough.

If you have read many of these already, skip this one. 😅

In the past few months, right by the end of 2020, things have gotten a little overwhelming at work. Bringing a lot of stress, things not being as organized, many little tasks within projects falling through the cracks. Because of it, I had realized that I needed to fix my system. I don’t want things to fall though, I don’t want to rely on my mental notes, “Oh I’ll remember that later” or “I will make a note of it later”. I am very forgetful, and more so now that I’ve got lots on my plate.

So down the rabbit hole I go again. The First two options, and the obvious ones given my situation, were TickTick and Todoist. Why those two? Well, they work on Windows, sadly that’s the system I have to work with at work. Another benefits? It is quick and easy to enter tasks, Ctrl + Shift + A (for TickTick), and no matter where I am, it will open a quick entry window. Ctrl + alt + A (for Todoist), it will open the app along with an entry window. Both have natural language parser, so I can just type away or copy and paste from an email or meeting notes. Sounds about as perfect of a system as it can get. Doesn’t it?

A few days ago, in a super secret Discord channel, I posed a question.

What is the best to-do app?

Someone, in all his wisdom, replayed;

The one that you will actually use!

— Jason B.

Hm, there is something about that. Although both TickTick and Todoist are excellent apps for what they are meant to do, there is always a something that I don’t find myself wanting to spend time in them or pay attention and use them. Last time I looked at TickTick and did anything in there was early February. I have just re-installed Todoist a few days ago and its already been ignored.

The one app that makes me want to really use it and that better clicks for me, besides Reminders, is Things 3. Just like, Reminders, it is an application that I have in every Macintosh device I own or have access to. Unlike other task managing apps, Things’s interface does not give me anxiety, it is clean a nice to use. One downside would be, no Windows application which makes quick capture a little tricky.

So, I have been using Things 3 for the past few days, and I am happy with the setup, I have been actively using it and putting things in there — organizing my life better. As far as entering things, well, I have my Macintosh cellular device and I am bringing my Macintosh tablet with me and I have it set up at my desk and a good old-fashioned notebook — and a pen.

Over two years ago, I quit Facebook, no regrets or haven’t looked back — don’t miss it. At the en of 2020, I quit Instagram, deleted, gone! Even when I made the decision, I was wondering if I was going to regret it. Well, for the past week or so, I have been having Insta-withdrawals, I miss having instagram but for the right reasons. I liked seeing pictures of friends and family that I don’t have close contact with or just don’t ever see in person anymore for whatever the reasons. So much so that I’ve even downloaded the app, I just very hesitant about opening and logging into a new account and start over.

Last night, I almost did it, I opened it, enter my phone number to create an account, which I probably shouldn’t. Your phone number is almost like your social security number these days. I ended up not moving forward, I swipe up and “killed” the app. Then I started thinking of why I had quit and that prevented me from try again.

Like I’ve said, there are things I miss, I miss some friends, and the interactions, I miss posting my pictures too, it’s a fun thing to do. What I don’t miss is the Facebook aspect of it, not just the way the app works now but some of the feelings and anxiety that these Facebookated apps can bring if you’re not careful. And that is what I am scared of, being sucked into the Facebook-like-social-media-vortex and lose sight of what I really want and enjoy from the app, if it makes any sense.

I have a feeling that I might wind up doing it, one night, when I have had one too many beers, and like any good decision-making, I will say Fuck it and back to insta I’ll go.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I have been playing Persona 5 Strikers on the Nintendo Switch there. I am only a little over 3 hours and still figuring out how I feel about it.

I was listening to the Podshow Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin and Kevin was talking about how he doesn’t have a very critical mind, and he just enjoys things. I so, identified and related to that. I don’t have that kind of mindset, of being critical or think too critically when watching a motioned picture show, whether is live tv, animated, or big screen. I, either like or not, and even when I don’t like it as much, I don’t criticize it or talk bad about it. At least I try not to, I have been caught up in conversation probably saying, that sucked, which is a behavior that I am trying to correct.

If I am going to be that critical about everything I am supposed to love and enjoy, I am just going to be bitter all the time I feel like. Besides, I don’t get paid for that. If I am going to have a critical mindset, it would be at my day job, where it matters to me.

Just watch all the things, read all the things and have a good time. Moreover, as the song says, it’s okay not to like things, just don’t be a dick about it.