Author: Seth Werkheiser

ORGANIZING IPHONE PHOTOS ON MY OWN DEVICES

So all my photos dating back to 2002 are in folders, grouped by year, on my external HD, which is then backed up regularly via Backblaze.

I have a reminder set for the 1st of every month to download all my photos from iPhone (via Image Capture) to my Mac, where I put them into a folder, organize (delete a lot of videos and screen shots), then add them to my monthly folder of photos I take with my DSLR.

I was using Google Photos to sync everything from my phone, but that’s $20/year going to Google. No thanks.

And now that I’m not backing up photos via iCloud, my iPhone back ups are smaller, so I was able to downgrade to the .99¢ plan, which is just $12/year. Maybe I can look more into the back up stuff and whittle it down to the free plan at some point, but this is acceptable.

SMALL CITY PHOTOS

Took myself to Pottsville, PA today, a nearby city with zero planning, just letting the vibes take me.

That brick storage unit building was built in 1900, has over 6,000 square space, and is for sale for just $150,000.

I’d have preferred finding a good place to park and to walk around, but that wasn’t in the cards today, and that’s okay.

The light was terrible, but whatever, it was a Saturday outside on a nice day.

Moving 2,600 images, screen shots, and videos off my iPhone via USB via Image Capture. I am just so done paying Apple for iCloud storage, and Google for the Google Photos storage space when I have two 2TB external HDs here, with unlimited backup via BackBlaze.

MAKE REAL STUFF

From Joshua Heath Scott:

“As artists and creatives, we face the challenge of standing out against the digital tide. Han explores the importance of making real, physical art that holds emotions, memories, and true community value, unlike the fleeting nature of digital information.”

This really makes me want to start putting together a print version of Social Media Escape Club. Of printing photos every month. Of making newspaper projects with Newspaper Club.

Via Zach

I just switched to the Brave browser, from Chrome, and I’m practically giddy about it.

Tonight I archived a bunch of old emails from my Fastmail account. Exported to Zip files, put ’em on external HD. Just like, 1000s of random sent emails, automated receipts and shit. Sure, I could have gone through and deleted a bunch, but nah.

This weekend I’ll be shutting down my Google Workspace account, and shuffling that email back to Fastmail. The less money I give to Google, the better.

GROWING WITH GROUPS

Talking about leaving social media lately has become less about the logistics and technology and more about the people. Just… PEOPLE.

Like, knowing every single answer to everyone’s situation of moving away from social media is impossible, but talking about the process. Figuring out what feels right. Talking about the flow and rhythm, the natural vibes of how you want to operate.

Less about tactics and more about the conversations we can have to figure these things out.

I did a workshop about ABOUT PAGES recently, and did it without trying to be the authority, or the instructor, the EXPERT. No PowerPoint, just vibes.

But people learned and figured things out from the group dynamic. We’re all in this together, learning together, sharing our collective knowledge and experiences for the better of the group.

LEAVING GOOGLE WORKSPACE

I’ve exported all my Google emails in .mbox format and threw them into my Apple Mail app, which I don’t ever use, but it’ll be there for safekeeping (and easy searching).

I’ve exported all my Google Drive docs as xls and doc files. Anything shared with clients and such, I told them to make a copy so they own it.

I’ve been changing a lot of emails I use for services away from this account, so if anything happens when I transfer my MX records, it won’t matter so much.

I think I’ll do that this weekend – copy all my existing MX records from my DNS host. Then update the new info from Fastmail, so all those emails go into my existing account. I don’t get a lot of emails at this “work” account, so it’ll be fine.

I have a Gmail account I can use if I need to view / share Google Docs or Sheets.

Email is taken care of.

Those are literally the two things I used Google Workspace for. Years ago I worked with some VAs, and they needed email accounts with my business, and that worked out well. But hey, Google Workspace is like $7/mo now, for something that I don’t really need. It’s going up to $8.40/mo for all this new AI bullshit that I really don’t need, so whatever.

The $100 I save per year can buy some groceries, which is lot more useful than the garbage AI that Google is pushing.