Creative summary

My Weekly Creative Summary for the Week of 2024-11

I accomplished a lot this week, but none of my goals. It was that type of week. I’m gearing up for a one-week vacation. See you in April.

JF Martin

Mar 24, 2024 — 10 min read

A popular photo that I published during the week on Pixelfed.

👨🏻‍💻 34 posts 😃
🏞️ 12 photo(s) shared 😃
🎙️ No podcast episode 😔
📺 No YouTube video published 😔

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I've been emotional recently for different reasons related to my blogging and writing hobby. I wrote about this and am close to sharing an article about it. This writing exercise was beneficial and proved that writing is a good thing in my daily life. 2️⃣ What is the point of telling people how many people are supporting your work? I'm genuinely curious. I might sound a bit harsh here, but I'm always double or triple-thinking before doing so myself. Does it serve a purpose? I talk about my website visitors' analytics from time to time. But why? For what reasons?

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ I wanted to find a new use case for my aging 2013 Mac Pro (the infamous trashcan Mac), but my options are now very limited. When I tried to install updates from the Mac App Store, I was prompted to enter the password for my Apple ID, only to get a warning that I could not use my Apple ID on this Mac. That’s because macOS Monterey cannot work with my other devices with an Apple ID and Advanced Data Protection turned on. I have two choices: either disable ADP on my account and use my Mac Pro or sell my Mac Pro because I cannot find a good use for it and don't want to weaken my security posture. This Mac Pro adventure wasn't really worth it after all. I had big plans for it (see “Rebooting the SDDCbox Project”) and even recently thought that I could use it for work (see “New IT Rules Prompt Me to Reconsider Revisit My Mac Usage at Home”).

📖 Reading

1️⃣ I like those weekly reviews. I see a few of them each week coming from different bloggers on Micro.blog. As someone who has had a weekly newsletter since last year, I like to read other’s work. I often learn new things while getting new ideas after reading similar newsletters. 2️⃣ One thing that I was thinking about this week is the idea of reading past editions of my creative summary newsletter a few years from now. I expect to enjoy the experience of looking back at my discoveries and past tribulations surrounding my creative journey. This newsletter is like an open journal about my creative journey.

You’re all responsible for the worst that you do. That’s how it works. You vote. You lose. Things happen. You’re still responsible. Democracy is predicated upon a people engaged in the body politic and who take responsibility for the results. Only through that sense of shared responsibility a community grows. — Guy English on Mastodon

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ My blips are for ephemeral thoughts. Micro.blog is for more developed thoughts and comments. Still with me? Read all the details in « On Sharing My Writings — What Goes Where.» 2️⃣ This week, I wondered about my inline link writing style when I wrote On Writing Inline Links - Numeric Citizen Blog. Starting with the next edition of this newsletter, I'm going with version 2. 3️⃣ I shared my experience trying to find good use cases for my aging 2013 Mac Pro.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ On my way home last week from Ottawa, I wasn't driving, so I had some free time to experiment with photography with my iPhone. I tried experimenting with Spectre, a unique camera app dedicated to long-exposure shots. I tried shooting what I saw on my right: a constant stream of trees and uncovered brown and greyish fields of corn culture. What I got was so unexpected. 2️⃣ I wrote that I'm seriously considering getting a mirrorless camera: a Nikon Zf. This camera got a lot of praise, and you can look at some photos taken with this camera right here on Glass. 3️⃣ Glass updated its website so that more content is available for browsing even when you are not a subscriber. I think it's an excellent strategy to entice people to explore more and get hooked along the way. Glass is so proud of this change that they are Reintroducing Glass. 4️⃣ Thursday, after work, I went to a photography store near my office and spent some time experiencing the Nikon Zf camera. At first, I thought the body was much larger than I would have hoped. It’s a bit boxy but reminiscent of the golden days of Nikon camera designs. It's a solid camera body. I tried many interior shots using a 40mm f1.8 lens and was impressed by the general snappyness of the camera. Having those traditional dials on a modern, mirrorless digital camera is strange. It's a brand-new camera, and I'll have to relearn quite a lot to get comfortable with it. I plan to go to another photography store during the weekend and give it another try. It's a mixed-feelings experience so far. 5️⃣ It's Sunday, and I'm back from a second visit to a photography equipment store to see the Nikon Zf. I took much more time to experiment with the camera this time, and I think I'm completely in awe of this device. It's been such a step up since my D750, yet its retro-style design reminds me of my debut as an amateur photographer with the fully manual Minolta SRT-200 camera and traditional films. Now, the other thing to consider is which lens I should buy with it. I already have a 20mm Sigma lens and a 70-200mm zoom. Those are two big lenses, though. Something to think about in the next few weeks. 6️⃣ I’ve been sharing those short “before & after” clips recently. It is done using Photomator’s before & after view, which I record on the iPad while moving the line from right to left. See the exhibits section below for an example.

A great, albeit sombre photo of the sea. I do have a similar photo taken somewhere in Hawaii. Mine look like the visual opposite, though (see the exhibits section below).

Some great mountain photos in this Glass’s monthly series.

I started following this photographer on Glass. Some visual gems can be found there, mostly about street photography.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ New Apple Store openings often represent great new places to photograph. During this week, Apple opened the doors of a new store in Shanghai. The entrance is both humble and very impressive. Don’t miss this article from Michae Steeber, where he writes about this beautiful store and shares many more photos than what Apple share on their website. Apple official press release here. 2️⃣ If you use iCloud Drive, please read this article. Data loss might be waiting to happen in your case. 3️⃣ No new iPad Pro: Gurman: No iPad Announcement Planned for March 26 - MacRumors. 4️⃣ The US DOJ is suing Apple to bring their antitrust investigation to the next step. I’m far from an expert, and I wouldn’t say I like following this type of news. I'm guessing Apple will spend a LOT of money to defend itself and might win or not. Who knows, really? I'm also guessing that sometime in the future, our iPhone experience might be different from what we have right now. I'm not sure it will be the best ending for the end users. Anyway, it is what it is.

(…) a sense of mystery is conveyed through a dramatic architectural landmark that invites you to explore the store below.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ While browsing my RSS feeds, I spent some time on the Enthusiasms website by Christopher Curtis. He's a guy from the UK with many interests ranging from weather observations to gardening. His weather observation page is super cool and is based on WeatherCat software and some observation stations he has set up in his backward. After reading some of his posts detailing how this weather thing is built, I was discouraged because it involves web programming. Nonetheless, I would love to run this on my aging and rather useless 2013 Mac Pro sitting on my desk.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ I decided to subscribe to Timing, a time-tracking application for the Mac. It will eventually replace Timery + Toggl because it's cheaper, works offline, and does automated time-tracking. The migration should be completed by the end of this year when my other subscriptions expire. The bad side of this decision is that I won't be able to track my time on non-Mac devices, which Toggl and Timery could do. 2️⃣ I came across this photo processing app for the Mac called Nitro. Upon examination of the Mac App Store page and their website, I found an interesting photo editing app, but I prefer to stay with Photomator. But you know what? Maybe you would come to a different conclusion. 3️⃣ I've spent some time in Raycast trying to understand better some of its powerful features like AI integration and snippets creation. Raycast is really a powerful tool that I think any Mac user should install on their machine.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ I didn’t create a new YouTube video this week, but I have many ideas for my following videos. One video will demonstrate how I'm using Craft to build a personal and private dashboard of my digital life. Another video would present a template for writing critical information pertaining to digital legacy management. That video could be part of a new template I could sell on my Gumroad page. This template would complement “A Guide for Preparing to Leave Your Numeric Legacy.”

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I started a new post series on my Blips website called “Now”. While the post title, which includes current weather conditions, might lead potential readers to think it's about weather forecasts, that couldn't be more wrong. These posts are snapshots of what I'm doing or plan to do in the short term, presented in a point-form format. They might also contain thoughts or observations from my current mental mood. See a sample below in the exhibits section.

🔮 Looking ahead

1️⃣ I'm going for a one-week vacation soon. I'm going to take it easy for a while and pause my creative activities. 2️⃣ This creation pause should help me spend more time on upcoming projects, like the Craft Starter Kit three-part course that I'm considering doing. I didn't get any feedback so far from my posts on Slack and on Gumroad about this, but I'm giving myself some time for pondering. I might do it. I might drop it.

I wish you a great week!

💡

This newsletter edition is also available as a Craft shared document here. This week's edition is based on template version 1.2.2— 2024-03-17 and was put together with ❤️ on a 15-inch MacBook Air, Craft and many subscriptions! Support my work (Paypal) or become a supporter! 🙏🏻

Exhibits 👀

Before & after photo processing session.

What a wonderful place to tell the Apple story.

👀 🤔

A picture that I like because it reflects the way I see the american society in general: highly and vastly degrading, just like this floating flag. Photography is about bringing emotions.