Day 3: shadow 📷 . Copy of Michelangelo’s “David” in Florence.

Day 2: curve. 📷. #mbjune. The man hit a lot of curve balls.

Day 1: Tree. 📷. #mbjune. My father was a professional photographer and had a thing for picutres of dead trees. I maintain the tradition (but certianly not at the same artistic level, and I’m not developing my own film and making my own prints anymore).

#emacs (text) makes a great trip itinerary builder. Cut and paste text out of reservation PDFs. Loose the cruft (ads). Paste into final document. Less is more.

It’s #emacs bankruptcy time. What’s the current best practice/options for ELPA/MALPA and friends (auto install/update in .emacs). Thanks.

Proposition: life is better with the phone off.

Corollary: Organizations that want you to turn your phone on are not interested in making your life better.

For people using #emacs denote, what happens when you get a large number of files in your denote directory? Do things scale? Issues? Thanks.

I think “Don’t trust, also verify” is the right approach to info from LLMs.

I’m dusting off (literally) a #RaspberryPi to run #pihole and maybe #forgejo. It’s been a few years. Any suggestions? Anything new?

I finally admitted the truth today: I’m never going to program in #Perl again. Despite it being my main language for 10 or 15 years. Perl5 manual gone.

Has anybody done #twillo and #emacs integration for SMS<->email gateways?

I’m looking for ways to just leave my phone turned off, and a dedicated number for SMS<->email seems like it would be a Good Thing.

Notes to self on setting up #TOTP on #KeePassXC codeberg.org/eludom/ho…

Bloat: A single text 87 character text message converted to #email by Google Voice expanded to 21719 bytes with headers.

Just Turn It Off - Lessons Learned 2 Weeks In.

Some notes, TODOs and observations two weeks into leaving the #smartphone off:

Table of Contents

1. Distracting Trivia
2. Replace Google Authenticator
3. Make passkey work
4. Remaining reachable
5. Podcasts and Audible
6. Find alternative to Google Maps, Waze (paper maps, planning)
7. Distracted Parking
8. Distracted Driving
9. Distracting Newsfeeds
10. Track which sites always/sometimes require phone
11. Give out Google Voice where texts are needed.
12. Give Google Voice number for call-backs
13. New Google Voice Number
14. Distracting apps

INFO Distracting Trivia

Observation - I have a constant urge to look up obscure facts, e.g. “tunes in common meter in a minor key”. But I really don’t need to know. Looking these up is mostly passive, and provides a sort of dopamine hit. Not knowing makes me find other ways to get the answer like “look at common meter tunes in a songbook that I know tends to have more minor keys than others” … I have to be active to find the answer, maybe I won’t find an answer, maybe it didn’t matter in the first place, I have to make a judgment about the value and utility of the information. My mind is engaged in the whole process, whether or not I find an answer. I think keeping my mind active rather than passive is my real goal.

TODO Replace Google Authenticator

State Tax site wants to text or use google auth. I thought I set up passkey, but it’s not taking it. Have to turn on the phone

TODO Make passkey work

TODO Remaining reachable

• reason: away from home for 8 hours. Medical issues. Can’t be unreachable.
  • Possible solutions
    • Do nothing. Just leave it off. Remain unreachable.
    • Don’t go anywhere.
    • Check in at intervals (phone on) then turn it off.
    • Give contact # of someone I’ll be with
    • Get a pager

TODO Podcasts and Audible

• Audible: I binge-listened to 5 hours of “The History of Rome” podcast on Audible.
  • Alternative: Don’t listen to Podcasts and Audible.
  • Alternative: Download podcasts to an MP3 player/bluetooth device.
    • side effect - this makes the decision of what to spend time listening to much more intentional.

TODO Find alternative to Google Maps, Waze (paper maps, planning)

• Google Maps: I used google maps to figure out if there was a better way around a traffic backup.
  • Alternative: Use physical maps, pick routes less likely to have backups.

INFO Distracted Parking

• Mental observations of having the phone on
  • distracted parking: While trying to navigate round traffic jams I pulled over several times to check Google Maps. One time I stopped in gas station parking lot and did not realize I was blocking the entrance and got honked at. Stress. Thanks, smart phone

INFO Distracted Driving

• Fiddling with the phone: I fiddled with the phone more than I should have while driving. Bad. Advertising by the road is designed to take the drivers attention off the road. Bad.

INFO Distracting Newsfeeds

• Note taken on [2024-10-05 Sat 08:46]
  • I’m not reading news web sites
    • answer: back to rss, elfeed
  • I’m not listening to podcats
    • is that a loss?
  • I have to spend more time at my computer
    • but that was my working life for 38+ years

TODO Track which sites always/sometimes require phone

• Note taken on [2024-10-04 Fri 06:29] Bank someimtes caches tokens in the browser, allowing you to skip text messages Failed. Trying to migrate off.

TODO Give out Google Voice where texts are needed.

• Note taken on [2024-10-02 Wed 06:57] Had to turn phone one. Needed text from doctor to re-activate login

TODO Give Google Voice number for call-backs

• Note taken on [2024-09-27 Fri 10:55] I failed. I turned the phone on. Reason: Expecting call to get my car back form car service.

DONE New Google Voice Number

• Note taken on [2024-09-27 Fri 07:56] 9/24/24 or so - resurrected my Google Voice (new number :-(). Can use it for calls, text. Learned to forward phone there. Tested. May port my number there so that I can text from computer.

DONE Distracting apps

• Note taken on [2024-09-27 Fri 07:55] Using a spreadsheet to track medical info rather than an app.