Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
From director Ben Clement:
I said to a few friends along the way: this film is a line in the sand for the work I make next. To work within a tight set of parameters means saying no to a range of other inputs. And importantly, I want to work with dance, choreography and actors — and bridge my own literal and conceptual thinking.
I don’t know how to reply or contact Brad Barrish, so I figured I’d answer his inquiry about moving away from Google on my own blog.
Docs and Sheets might well be impossible, or at least the trade-offs might be too great. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do there yet.
I’ve been experimenting with Proton Drive, which has its own version of Docs and Sheets. I’m using it for my own projects at the moment, and I like how it’s worked so far. The sharing and normal collaboration seems to work just fine. Sure, not everything feels as familiar as the tools we’ve been using for the last 10+ years, but I’m giving it a chance.
Then there’s infomaniak, which is a wild name, but I’ve been talking to someone who moved their whole operation away from Google Workspace and it’s working out nicely for them. They seem to have a Docs / Sheets / PowerPoint offering of their own (kDrive), but I haven’t played around with it yet.
Also… being as I extracted 20 years of photos from Apple’s “Photos”, I’ve been looking for an organizational solution, and ente has been recommended as well, and it looks pretty solid.
As I tell most folks (I’ve hosted a few Break Up With Google Zoom calls in recent months with my Social Media Escape Club folks), just sign up for some of these sorts of things and feel ’em out.
The biggest tech guru YouTuber (or I) could tell you which one is the “best,” but if you log in and hate it, it won’t matter. All of these platforms and services are something you really need to get into and test drive for yourself.
I’m losing my zeal for pro sports and finally cancelled NFL Redzone, figuring there’s got to be a better way to spend seven hours every Sunday. So I started the “RUN OVER REDZONE” club on Strava.
Just go for a run from 1-8pm EST on football Sundays. Run a mile. Run a mile every hour. Run for seven hours, whatever.
After watching more backyard ultra stuff, and walking 10+ miles per day for almost 100 days, I dunno… just sounds like something fun to try and do during the football season.
I’ve hit 92 days of walking at least 10 miles per day, covering 1034.8 miles which is about 11.24 miles per day. I’m down about 18lbs., and finally able to fit back into my medium hoodies which is good news since the evenings are getting cooler.
At 50, I’ll take it.
The photo above is from a Saturday morning adventure, when I woke up at 4am to meet my friend at their camp site. It involved navigating a 1000′ climb up the Appalaican Trail in the dark, and it was fucking fantastic.
I’m running some of these miles here and there, but not many. I’ll do a 3 mile run here and there. The other day I did an 8 mile trail run. But I’m taking that very slow, since I’m having a lot of fun “just” walking, and also I don’t wanna get injured.
All this walking takes about 3.5 hours per day, which sounds like a lot, but not if you consider some people have screen times of 5+ hours a day. I don’t walk all these miles at once. I duck out in between Zoom calls, and while waiting for client approvals in Asana. The other day I was going to a party with a friend in the afternoon, so I buckled up and went out for a 5 mile walk at around 7am. Got home, ate a little, then went back out at 9am for the remaining 5 miles.
I’ve burned through two pairs of shoes already, settling in nicely with some Altras. I started out just using the the Apple Health tracking on my iPhone, but I’ve since started tracking each walk with my Coros running watch. Less ambient walking, really, so walking around the grocery store and such doesn’t count, but that’s okay.
Great news for whiny piss-babies who can’t wait five fucking minutes for an actual human to make their coffee.
Source, via the Superhuman newsletter.
Two great bits of copy I noticed on this morning’s walk.
Meat your maker – on the chalkboard out front of Heart and Hearth, a specialty grocer and deli. This is apparently for a take out / catering offering.
Scent with love – noticed this on a box on someone’s porch. Probably a candle maker of some sort.
He’s not dead, just threw in the towel. This was how the Last Soul Backyard Ultra ended.
It’s “6.7 km per lap, every full hour,” until there’s just one person left.
This was lap 94, so 94 hours of running, just over 390 miles in total.
American Mark Dowdle won.
Phil Gyford writes about renting a “skip” (a dumpster, for us American folks):
I’m increasingly aware of the psychic weight of belongings and disposing of stuff that is not and will not serve any physical or emotional purpose lifts the spirits.
I did something similar earlier this year when I had to discard of a massive TV that I was gifted, and it felt so good. Our lease ends in less than a year and I’m already in clean-out mode.
Sony took away digital movies that people paid for.
Streaming services keep raising rates.
Amazon bricked old Kindles.
Sounds like the LA Clippers broke salary cap rules.
Sports teams use tax payer money to build stadiums.
Billionaires and VC just bought the Lakers, I guess.
See also, The American Sports Plutocracy Is Bullshit.
People will start turning their backs on all this.
Back to buying books, borrowing movies from the library, going to local sporting events. I can see movie rental places coming back. Hobby shops.
A collective act of turning our backs on the whole corporatized entertainment industry. Playing board games instead of video games. Hosting dinners for friends and neighbors. More pick up games.
“What do all men with power want,” asks the Oralce. “More power.”
Modern top tier entertainment can’t stop. It must seek growth and profit while draining the very soul and joy from everything we fell in love with in the first place.
Good riddance.
YouTube will always need more. More viewers, more time spent on the site, more more more.
Some folks want to “monetize their channels,” meaning, get a cut of the ad revenue from views. Before you had to 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the last year.
Well, YouTube says you need 8,000 hours.
From TechCrunch:
YouTube announced on Monday that new creators will have to meet higher thresholds to begin earning money from ads and subscriptions.
Creators who want to start earning on the platform will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Currently, creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past year or 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over the past 90 days.
More content, more chances for people to keep watching, and an even bigger investment for people looking to get monetized.
As Seth Godin says, the problem with the race to the bottom is you just might win.