Monthly Archives: July 2013

Love The One You’re With

Our first love must be self love.

To love one’s neighbor as oneself, one must first learn to love oneself. If one hates themselves, then how could they love their neighbor? To love your neighbor, you must love yourself.

First care is self care. If one does not care for self, how can one ensure they will be in an able position to care for others? To care for others, first care for your self.

To be able to give all of ourselves to others, we must first know ourselves fully. How else might we know the depth of that we have to give? In order to give of yourself to others, know yourself deeply.

In order to give, you must first have earned and received. How would one have anything to give otherwise? Receive first, so that you may have something to give.

Place love of self first so that one may know love and have that to give. The action may seem selfish yet the reason and intent is selfless.

This is an unfinished thought exercise from my writing journal. I think it makes the point as is so I’ve decided to leave it undone.

Everyday Software (Mac)

Screen Shot 2013-07-08 at 9.12.46 AM

For no particular reason, other than the fact the people like to know these things sometimes and full disclosure, here are the apps I use every single day on my Mac. This does not account for everything installed and used. This is just the stuff I use every day without fail. I’ll likely do one of these in the future for iPhone and iPad as well.

  • Safari — I believe in using the built-in tools whenever possible. It helps when the built-in tools are pretty darn good. I find Safari pretty darn good most of the time.

  • Mail — The one email client I have used long enough and learned deeply enough to be maximally efficient with it.

  • BusyCal — Way better than the built in Calendar app (formerly iCal) and has easy sharing of calendars which my wife and I depend on.

  • nvALT — I’ve been a Notational Velocity user for over 8 years. I use it for all sorts of things. Currently contains 867 notes. nvALT is Brett Terpstra’s fork of this open sourse project that adds a ton of useful features which make it that much better.

  • Byword — What I use for most writing when on my Mac.

  • Twitter — Yes, Twitter. The official client. I still check in here daily despite having mostly moved to App.net.

  • Reeder (awaiting update) — My RSS reader of choice. Only worked with Google Reeder so I have not used it since that shut down on the first of this month. Once it updates to support FeedWrangler I’ll gladly fire it up once again.

So, those are all the “app” apps I use. But, what about the menubar and “just runs in the background” sorts of things? Here are those:

  • Droplr — For sharing files, screenshots, and quick one off notes easily.

  • Dropbox — If it is a file of any sort it is likely in here.

  • Day One — Which I use more as a daily log than a journal.

  • Jumpcut — Clipboard buffering. Keyboard driven. Full on awesomesauce.

  • Shortcat — Use your keyboard to find and click on buttons and links. The less I have to touch my trackpad/mouse, the faster I am.

  • FastScripts — Execute scripts with keyboard commands.

  • QuickCal — Enter calendar events quickly using your keyboard and natural language processing.

  • Quicksilver — Launch apps and do all sorts of other cool things using your keyboard (Are you sensing a theme here?).

  • DragonDrop — Provides a “shelf” with the shake of your mouse to drag stuff temporarily before dropping it.

I might have missed a few things but that’s what I use every single day on my Mac.

I’m a full-time independent writer who works hard to bring you quality reading and ideas here daily. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane — A Review

ocean-lane-book

The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel byNeil Gaiman

I had to find out the hard way so consider this a warning. Picking up The Ocean At The End Of The Lane and reading the first few pages will mean you will not be able to put it down until you are through. It will fill every spare moment and fill the full ones with anticipation for getting back to it. This is what happened to me yesterday and it was worth every word.

Such books are rare. Ones that are just the right length and compelling enough to read in a day. Rarer still are the ones that at once make you wish they had not ended so soon, yet are exactly as long as they should be. I wish the world were filled with books such as this.

The story is told through the memory of a seven year old protagonist. He is bookish and lonely. Naturally curious and suspicious. More at home in the worlds beyond and apart from ours than he is in his own. The story is told through these eyes. These are eyes we understand because we have all, as children, seen through them. Equally perplexed and powerless against a reality we all too often wished were fiction. Yet, all the while, what we simply long for is the comfort and familiarity and safety that we idealize as ‘home’ (whether or not our home meets this ideal). It is the only place any of us, ultimately, wish to be.

This is a book about going home.

It is lovingly written. But, perhaps even more importantly, it is beautifully edited. You can tell that great care and polish went into the editing process. I know that at least several drafts were shared among trusted and knowledgeable friends who provided feedback during it’s creation. As such, every word is where it needs to be. There is never too much or not enough. Always just enough to tell the tale and swiftly move the reader’s imagination along.

This is a book I know I will read over and over again. Perhaps I will find something new. Maybe, I’ll feel something that I did not feel the first time or see something in my mind’s eye that I overlooked. But perhaps, like the protagonist, I will keep returning to a place that felt like home to me, looking for myself between the pages.