Category: Blog

Longer form articles

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This is my first typecast, so I’ll keep everything left-aligned to make it easier for me.
So already there is a typo, and the anal part of me is itching to retype the whole thing to fix it up, but that’s not the point of this exercise, is it?
I find, when typing on a typewriter – san first draft – that I have trouble thinking of something to write. More accurately, I am wary of typing anything until I have it semi-formulated in my head.
This, of course, makes sense, as you cannot delete off a typewritten page.
But at the same time I find that my mind is not used to fully forming sentences before committing them to paper; my mind is used to being allowed to see the formless ideas spewed onto the screen before going back to edit them before clicking “send” or “submit”.
I think this exercise might help my writing in some ways. Although in some ways it would force me to write slower, it may force me to think and formulate my ideas more quickly.
Reading the above entry, I could already see some sentence structure that needs improving.
And some spelling.

From my only typewriter,1 the Imperial Good Companion 1943

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For a very long time, I’ve thought about getting a typewriter. Not the electric one, nor the plastic ones from the 60’s or 70’s, but the honest-to-god-all-made-of-metal-could-kill-someone-if-you-threw-it typewriters. 

Recent correspondence between my latest IGGPPC-assigned pen-friend and I got me scouring eBay and Googling for any possible candidates in my area.

My criteria were as follows (in no particular order):

  1. Portable1 not desktop version
  2. Either has local pick-up or real cheap shipping
  3. Is not plastic
  4. Looks pretty (not too banged up)
  5. Not going to burn a hole in my pocket
  6. IN WORKING ORDER (I don’t know enough about typewriters to be able to fix one up)

Of course, some of my criteria conflicted with each other:

  1. Pretty ones were not cheap
  2. Cheap ones that look pretty may not work – and getting them fixed was probably going to cost a pretty penny
  3. Pretty and cheap ones were all overseas – and the shipping would make them UN-cheap
  4. My definition of pretty is pretty subjective and expensive. Apparently, I really like the look of the Underwoods – especially their Noiseless 77, but again, not cheap

After a week of eBay deep-diving – which included a lot of frustration, as all the pretty machines were selling at ridiculously low prices overseas, but were selling for 10x the price in Australia – I managed to snap this little beauty for $80AUD.

It’s an Imperial The Good Companion typewriter and according to the internet, it’s a 1943 model. I’ve still to find where the serial number is on this thing, so if any of you out there know where I should look, please leave a comment.

I am hoping to type my future correspondences with my pen-friend on this typewriter. And maybe, I would even try a hand at typecasting!

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I think it was in the latest MPU Live that Katie Floyd and David Sparks mentioned the issue with managing photos across devices.

This is how I do it with Hazel.

Note: This is based on Adam Portilla’s Automator method.

1. Create an “incoming” folder in Photos

In /Library/Photos/ create a folder called incoming.

2. Turn on iCloud Photo Stream on both your iPhone and your Mac

If you don’t know how to do this, I suggest reading this article.
This would make sure that any photos you take on your iPhone (and/or iPad) are being collected by your Mac.

3. Create a Hazel rule to scan the Photo Stream folder

Open Hazel and in the “folders” window add the following folder: 
USERNAME/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub

The Library folder is usually hidden so you may need to unhide it in Finder’s view options.

Now create the following two Hazel rules:

With these two rules, Hazel would take all the images found in the iCloud Photo Stream and copy them into the incoming folder.1 But don’t turn on Hazel just yet…

4. Point Lightroom at the incoming folder

Lightroom has an auto-import feature where it would monitor a specified folder for new picture files, and then import them into the Lightroom catalog for further processing.

In the Lightroom menu go to: File –> Auto Import –> Auto Import Settings…

Set the Watched Folder to incoming folder.2 3

Specify the Destination folder to where you actually want the pictures to reside. I put my pictures into another temporary folder so I can sort through them later in Lightroom.4

You can also change the name of all your photos as they’re being imported into your Lightroom catalog in the File Naming section, or apply metadata or keywords in Information.

Tick Enable Auto Import.

Click Ok.

Now you can turn on the Hazel rules.

That took a little setting up, but now you don’t have to think about it anymore. Hazel will run in the background, extracting pictures from iCloud and putting them into a temporary folder (ie. incoming folder) and every time you open Lightroom, it would suck out all the photos from the temporary folder into the catalog.

One thing to note though, this method only works for images, iCloud does not sync video into Photo Stream. I have a workaround, but I’ll leave that for another article as that involves my whole photo management workflow….

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After watching Brian Goulet’s video on séyès (French-ruled) paper, I got really excited to try it out.

From far away it does look like my script is neater than before; it’s certainly straighter!

I’ll need to practice more though; the lines make me write much larger than I’m used to.

If you want to give the French-ruled style a go you can download your own séyès paper and print as many as you need.

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The latest thing I’m into: a software called YNAB (You Need A Budget).

Previously I keep track of my budget with an iPhone app called iReconcile. I loved the app enough to pay a yearly subscription to get their online syncing service. That was two years ago.

But over the two years, I’ve been using the app I’ve been experiencing annoyances large and small. Sometimes the sync would corrupt my data and I would have to contact customer service to roll back my data. Which is okay, if they would only respond to my emails. I’m supposedly paying for this service after all. Lately, the app is starting to get bogged down with the sheer number of transactions and I had to clear out data before it starts moving again.

They had also advertised a web app to allow tracking and entering of data from your desktop. When I first got iReconcile this web service was next to useless and there hasn’t been any update since.

A few weeks ago I decided to email them directly to see if any updates to either the iOS or the web service were in the pipeline. No response.

That was also when my iOS app decided to cough on me again – most likely as a way of prompting me to delete old transactions (one at a time, mind you) again.

That was the end of it for me; I didn’t see the need to keep paying for non-existent customer service for an ageing app.

Google helped me discover YNAB.

It is everything iReconcile is supposed to be but wasn’t.

YNAB (You Need A Budget) is a desktop budgeting system with an iOS/Android app to facilitate tracking.

I love doing the actual budgeting on the desktop instead of fiddling with the mobile apps. Some people might want more functionality on the iOS app (the Boy certainly does, but then he’s resistant to any changes – it took months for me to get him used to iReconcile), but I highly recommend giving the system a go anyway. Being able to use the number pad on my physical keyboard just make the whole budgeting process so much quicker.

A word of note, YNAB is not like Mint.com, it doesn’t pull your transaction from your bank automatically, you have to enter your expenditure manually. I’ve been doing that with iReconcile, so this is not an issue for me, but it might be for others.

The desktop version does have an importing feature though, which allows you to manually import your transaction history (OFX file) from your bank.

This is great for finding those transactions that might have slipped the gaps and is great when you’re reconciling your accounts.

Now, what about the mobile apps?

Let me say this up front, in the YNAB system, the mobile app is used only for tracking your daily income and expenses (and your bank transfers, eg. ATM withdrawals). You can’t change your budget, and you can’t look at your reports.

But realistically, why would you want to?

The YNAB system is built around budgeting by categories instead of by accounts, which is how I’ve always budgeted but never had a system which supported it. iReconcile kind of did it, but when the budget page takes ages to load, you’re just not going to use it.

Both the desktop and mobile apps are really slick to use and pretty to look at. It uses Dropbox to sync the data between devices, and I haven’t any issues with conflicting versions of information being synced.

It’s a one-off payment of $60 for the desktop app (the mobile apps are free, but you must have the desktop app for them to work), and this one license allows you to share the software between everyone in your immediate family.

One thing I must mention is that YNAB also has a very substantial database of support filesand a comprehensive series of live classes teaching people how to budget and use the YNAB program properly. Even if you don’t buy the YNAB software, you should still go through those videos and articles; they are just chock full of tips on how to budget better.

Before I sign off, I want to point out a couple of review articles I would highly recommend reading if you want to know more about the YNAB software. I really love the apps but have only skimmed the surface of the features available. These blogs have done a fantastic job walking through each part of the program:

It’s Your Money!
Jamie Flarity

Do you budget? Are you using a budgeting program? Are you an iReconcile or YNAB user? Comment below on your budgeting experiences, I would love to know.

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I’d originally wrote up this ranting entry on how I wish people would put up Christmas decoration properly in the office, about how nothing is sadder than tinsel randomly draped over dying office plants or sticky-taped to cubicle walls and falling down constantly through the month.

But then I thought it wasn’t very Christmas-y of me to do that. So instead I just wanted to mention one little tip that would hopefully make decorating the office quicker, neater, and overall, more aesthetically pleasing.
(Now I know a lot of veteran decorators out there already know this, so please bear with me)

Instead of using sticky tape, that just looks messy, use these instead:

Command Decorating Clips

These things would save you heaps of headache.

Just stick these on your cubicle, on your walls or ceiling, and hang your decorations from them with thread or fishing wire. These hooks would stay fairly hidden (especially behind bunched up tinsel), strong enough so they won’t fall in the middle of December, and is easy to remove in January without damaging the wall.

I don’t even plan on removing mine. Instead I’ll probably hang my Valentines decorations on those hooks in February!

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I’m barely back from my holidays and nanowrimo has started. So turning away from the piles of unopen kit club kits, I put my head down to begin my 50,000 word journey.

I do not expect to be back for the next month, if I am, you could all berate me for not writing my 1667 words for the day.

I hope to survive the month and see you all at the other end as a proud winner (emphasis on the hopefully).