To be. To ponder what that means.
To cook and share a good meal
with family and friends.
To sing and play music, to wander
slowly through a landscape,
to have a glass and a smoke
and go deep into some invisible thing
among treasured companions
and treasured strangers.
To stare into the night sky
at the dust I once was, the dust I am
and someday shall be and know that
I’m home.
Ever-changing, always myself.
(…Sir, this is a Wendy’s)
Stuff I Like
(The Whole Nerd Catalog)
Current Tech Stack
Browser: Orion by Kagi
Previously used Arc by The Browser Company
Calendar: Fantastical
Data Backup: Backblaze
Email: Spark Mail
Financial Management: Copilot Money. Exquisitely thoughtful and well-designed app.
Notes
Tot. Basically a scratchpad that syncs everywhere.
Password Manager: 1Password
Podcasts: Apple Podcasts. I switched in order to be able to more seamlessly manage subscriptions to different services (e.g., Where Should We Begin, one of my favorite podcasts).
Previously used Overcast, which is still a great app, made by Marco Arment.
Recipe Manager: Crouton
RSS: Netnewswire
Screenshots: Cleanshot X*
Search Engine: Kagi
To-Dos: Todoist
Tools for Thought
Apple Notes for home. After trying a number of the big names (Obsidian, Anytype, et al.), I’ve reverted to the flexibility and portability of Apple’s native note system, which now offers interlinking and Markdown export.
Notion for work. I utilize a complex set of databases to manage custom homebuilding projects, CRM, etc.
Utilities
Raycast for app launching, keyboard macros, etc. This is one of the first things I’d load onto a new machine, and one of the last I’d give up. It’s one of those utilities that allows me to navigate my computer closer to the speed of thought.
Previously used, and still have immense gratitude for Alfred App, which I used for years.
HazeOver*, for dimming all but the active window on MacOS.
Hidden Bar, for keeping my menu bar minimal
BetterSnapTool, for maintaining consistent window resizing across my Mac desktop
CleanMyMac X*, for a quick, clean UI to uninstall, purge and otherwise tidy up my computer
Dropover for an effortless drag-and-drop shelf, which I use multiple times daily.
Paste*, for managing my clipboard
Soulver*, for calculating multi-variable math problems using natural language
TextSniper* for using OCR to grab text from screenshots.
Writing: iA Writer
And others, of course. These are just my main stack. If you’re curious about any of the above, or about other tool types not listed, just ask.
*I’ve paid for all of these separately in the past, but now I pay for them via subscription with Setapp for convenience.
Playlists
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My most-listened playlist.
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Just like it says on the tin. Great for daytime relaxing too, if you need it.
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A mix of bangers and breathers. For road trips and commutes.
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My favorite tracks, plus a little Barry White because why not? He’s timeless.
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Not old funk.
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Songs that make me feel like time doesn’t exist. Makes the weekend longer, guaranteed.
Friends & Folks I Admire
Useful Yard by André Mora
An expert’s guide to having a yard, and making it useful. This isn’t some home and garden TV hogwash. It’s about learning to read the landscape by mastering the language of the plants in your yard. Rooted in the Pacific Northwest, but universal in its essenceallwell
A creative sewing studio that has great resources (and zines!) for making quilts and other textilesBen Pieratt
Bold and thoughtful logo and identity design workPre-Brand
Marketplace of proto-brands for startups. Made by Ben Pieratt, intended for allGordon Brander
New thinking about ecosystems, tech and the future of decentralized protocolsSubconscious / Noosphere
A protocol for thought, by Gordon Brander and Chris JoelBartosz Ciechanowski
Some of the most insane, thorough, detailed and beautiful visual essays I’ve ever seen on topics I didn’t know I wanted to learn aboutBret Victor
One of the brightest minds on the bleeding edge of techMaggie Appleton
Beautifully illustrated, thoughtful essays on a range of tech-related ideasNicholas Felton
All sorts of dataviz and selfquant stuffWait But Why / Tim Urban
Maniacally researched and irreverently illustrated treatises on a wild range of topicsA Trail Tale
A seriously bonkers pixel art chronicle of Andy Moliski’s trek across the PCT
Typography
This site is set in Forma DJR Deck (headers) and Input Sans Narrow (text) from DJR. I also subscribe to DJR’s Font of the Month Club because he’s prolific and precise, and his fonts are always on point.
These are some of the foundries whose work I admire most:
Foundries
Fontwerk
Resources
Other
Coldtype by Rob Stenson