Took advantage of stellar weather last week to climb at The Gunks! I was very fortunate to meet some new friends willing to take on an orphan climber into their gang. Got on a bunch of new climbs and shook off the rust. Ended the day with delicious pho. 10/10 would recommend. 🧗📷

A person is climbing a rugged rock face outdoors with trees above and a rope trailing below. A winding road cuts through a forested landscape, with distant mountains under a blue sky; pine branches frame the view from a high vantage point. A smiling person wearing a helmet and backpack is rock climbing amidst trees and boulders. A rock climber ascends a steep cliff face with trees at the top edge, casting shadows on the rocky surface. A group of people is dining together, smiling, and posing in a restaurant with exposed brick walls and artwork. The table has remnants of a meal with some beverages.

I think people overplay the “I’m 30 now so my body is breaking down and I’m old” to a frustrating degree. But I can’t deny that my body is jittering uncomfortably after a single (small!) caffeinated beverage today. I used to pound Mountain Dew like it was going out of style.

Probs a good thing, TBH

I had the distinct pleasure of summiting Giant Mountain with Hector and Renata this past weekend. And because they were such awesome hikers, we tossed in Rocky Peak Ridge for good measure! There’s still snow in those hills, folks. Stellar day out with great views and even better company. 🏔️ 📷

Two hikers stand smiling before a sign for “Giant Mountain Wilderness Area,” surrounded by sparse snow-covered ground and leafless trees. The sign includes trail information and conservation messages.

Our new favorite restaurant in the ADK, the underappreciated @thewoodshedonpark, has an excellent duck dish special this week. Superb service, amazing atmosphere, and delicious food and drink. Perfect date night location. 😉 📷

Sliced duck breast arranged next to a scoop of risotto, a rolled green leaf, mushrooms, and puree on a round white plate, suggesting an upscale dining experience.

Great use case for Vision Pro: keeping an eye on baby monitors while watching other media. www.threads.net/@shabzco/…

Another “ugh.” I’ve procrastinated making these posts because they required going through a bunch of photos and framing them just right. And then Instagram pulls this shit. (Been stuck for 20+ min.) Gonna have to do it all again. Glad I at least composed the captions in Drafts.

Notification banners with text read “Keep Instagram open to finish posting…” displayed above a blurred background image.

If you’re gonna move over to your Threads account for Fediversing, it’d be awesome if you make a post like this so we know to follow you there!

PSA: I have started federating my Threads posts via @alexheath, which means they should now be visible on here, though I can’t reply to / follow Mastodon users from Theads yet.

My posts will be at that profile going forward, and hopefully I’ll soon be able to redirect this account to avoid any confusion.

🆕📝 All eBooks Are Not Created Equal

I got a nasty surprise when I purchased an ebook version of a climbing manual this week.

🆕📝 Now, March 2024

Taking a page out of Maique's book and trying a more bite-sized /now update.

Whoa! Slick new place that Apple is linking to all their products' documentation.

😍 support.apple.com/en-us/docs

Blue Ice makes some of my favorite climbing gear and they just redesigned my go-to cragging backpack, the Moonlight. Redesigns are always nerve-racking because you don’t want them to screw up something you love. But in this case, every change looks good and they address my small quibbles with v1. 🎒

I’m kicking the tires some more with Micro.blog’s new Blogroll/Recommendations feature. My main site has a more complete list of sites I follow, but I’m starting with my must-reads on this list. Just five folks on there now, but I’ll be adding more. 👍

Anyone else curious what the rest of that help text for the ‘About’ field says? 😆 /cc: @manton

🔥 First bonfire of 2024 last night. I think it’s going to be a good friends-by-the-fire year.

🔗 Apple Is Not the Reason I’m Buying Apple Products - These People Are — havn.blog

I like all my Apple hardware. Heck, I even love some of it! I also like the operating systems, the general focus on privacy, and the way the different parts of the ecosystem work together. But I think I could enjoy a Framework laptop, Asus phone and some Sony earbuds as well! The things Apple makes and does isn’t the main reason I keep buying Apple products. It’s all the fantastic third-party developers, mostly indie, who make great software for the Apple platforms.

Congrats to @robb@social.lol and @johnvoorhees@macstories.net on bringing Ruminate to MacStories. It’s a super fun show with the best artwork, and even better hosts. 😁

🍕 Ruminate is Joining to MacStories rknight.me/blog/ruminate-is-jo

Mine and John's podcast we've been doing for over 7 years is now part of MacStories! All the same nonsense with a new home. Check out the post on MacStories too: macstories.net/news/ruminate-j

🔗 The best blog posts are genuine - rubenerd.com // Ruben Schade

These are good, and certainly entertaining. But the best are ones written with interest, passion, and enthusiasm. I’ll take something that’s rambling, hastily written, and genuine, over something shallow but smart.

I get hung up on trying to polish blog posts before they see the world and as a result, many do not. I’m not saying quanitity over quality, but I’m not running a media empire over here. I think I’d feel better getting more of my enthusiastic writing out the door rather than let drafts pile up and wilt.

Alright, I think that fixes all my current shortcuts for Micro.blog that I introduced a bug to earlier this week. 😪 I’m glad I caught my incorrect assumption about how the API worked fairly early, and that these didn’t sit for weeks with their newest feature being all wrong. 😬

Bedtime! 😴

I just updated my ‘Micro.blog Multimedia Uploader’ shortcut to version 1.1.1:

Fixed a mistake related to setting a persistent blog destination (now it uses your Micro.blog subdomain, not the numeric site ID)

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

I just updated my ‘Publish to Micro.blog’ shortcut to version 1.2:

  • Fixed a mistake related to setting a persistent blog destination (now it uses your Micro.blog subdomain, not the numeric site ID) (Thanks @manton!)

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

I just updated my ‘UpShare MB’ shortcut to version 1.1:

  • Added an option to set a persistent upload destination in case you have multiple sites with Micro.blog. Just add your Micro.blog subdomain (i.e. https://jarrod.micro.blog) in the ‘Setup Stuff’ to always upload to a particular site. If left blank, it will default to uploading to the last site you used on Micro.blog.
  • General spit and polish

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

I just updated my ‘Bulk MB Image Uploader’ shortcut to version 1.3:

  • Fixed a mistake related to setting a blog destination (now it uses your Micro.blog subdomain, not the numeric site ID) (Thanks @manton!)

Get it from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

A long-winded way of saying “We don’t have a solution for free apps yet”, but a promising exchange overall. Nice to hear from a human speaking for the behemoth Apple brand in this proceeding.

The full exchange between @rileytestut and Apple re the Core Technology Fee, since the full context is important (and I see nothing telling me I can't/shouldn’t post clips from the stream, so… 😅)

🆕📝 Study Abroad, Hobbies, and Blogging Origins with Valerie V

"Being a PenPal with someone in Kyrgyzstan" is not something that I would have had on my Bingo card a couple of years ago.

I realized today that, as of this month, my /now page is, in fact, a “year ago” page. I’d love to automate it with what I’m watching, bookmarking, listening to, etc. a la @robb@social.lol, but I’m afraid I don’t have the code chops yet to figure it all out. I’d settle for some iframes from services!