Obsidian: A Free Note Taking App

...he importance of contextual relationships in understanding information. My book list made with a plugin that searches a book catalog and creates my own personal Goodreads. A lot of people use Obsidian for daily note taking but I prefer a pen and paper diary for this. If you prefer a computer I think it would be great for this purpose and you can even integrate your notes with a calendar. Obsidian is highly customizable if you’re willing to sift th...

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Going Gray!

...a house in Portland, OR, and I just today did my first project out of the book – routing the shower drain into the garden. It cost about $60 for all the pipe, glue, a 2” hole saw to drill through the wall, and a new drain kit (my old drain was decroded as crap). Our house is only 750 sq. ft. (plenty for me, my gf, and our 3 dogs), and luckily our bathroom is right next to the garden plot I’ve had for about 3 years now. We’ve got a ton of squash g...

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The Question Concerning Technology: Heidegger on Tech

...es in the ineffable, that which can only be accessed, if dimly, through poetry, through art, through the irrational. If you’d like to read Heidegger’s essay I’d suggest heading to your library where it can be found in a book Readings in the Philosophy of Technology, edited by David M. Kaplan. That book also contains an essay by Hubert Dreyfus “Heidegger on Gaining a Free Relation to Technology” that gives some more context. You can also find Heide...

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Acedia, iPhone Addiction and the Noonday Devil

...tackling the solutions to acedia. Applying acedia to phone addiction is a book length project, not a blog post, but allow me to consider some of the solutions these thinkers came up with. First is simply mapping the qualities of acedia to better understand what to do about it. The Desert Fathers, sitting in their cells, found that restlessness could mean just looking out the window to see what’s going on. Paradoxically, as the Desert Father Evagr...

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Netflix Before Netflix: The Tabard Inn Library

...rug stores and other retail establishments. Eaton also had a home delivery book service called the Booklovers Library. The scheme didn’t last long but did result in the creation of a huge mailing list that Eaton attempted to use for other businesses. Does this sound familiar? My local Von’s grocery store has a DVD rental service kiosk out front that still gets use. No, I’m not going to build a Tabard Inn Library reproduction for myself but I certa...

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