keep it cool

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 19:00:00 -0500

yeah so i'm blogging now. i wanted to start using my website for more than i currently use it for (an out of date platform to promote myself as a student fresh out of grad school).

i've been having fun writing in small bursts again via microblogging on bluesky (feel free to drop me a follow @justinshillingford.com). i'm feeling the creative itch again and wanted to express it via webdev. and a blog "platform" that i "control" felt like a good start. i think the next step (besides making this blog prettier) is getting it to support bluesky replies as comments.

anyway for my first post i wanted to talk about some of the digital tools i hope will help me keep myself together in the upcoming year.

todoist

todoist is the greatest to-do list app i've ever used, without question. fully featured without feeling too busy. and its karma system has been a great motivator for me in the past.

back during the first year of the covid pandemic, i used a mix of todoist and the gtd productivity method to keep up with my habits, establish new ones, and make it through the end of undergrad, a startup internship, and the entirety of my masters.

so i'm spinning up the gtd method again and using todoist as the main tool to follow the methodology. read more about this combo here.

obsidian

i love markdown. i'm writing this blog in markdown. and i'm doing so in the obsidian app.

obsidian is an app for composing and managing markdown files. the attractive thing about obsidian to me (besides the plugins and what feels like infinite customizability) is that everything is saved locally to .md files. i know i own these. if obsidian shuts down tomorrow, i'll be sad but i'll still have my notes.

taking inspiration from Cassidy Williams, i'm using the templater obsidian plugin to set up the basic frontmatter (a word i learned this week) for the blog posts. and like Cassidy, i export the markdown files to the github repo hosting my main website. once those markdown files are pushed, a github action runs that converts the markdown files to html and publishes them to an rss feed (i freaking love rss).

i'm also trying to use it to keep notes on trips (places to go/eat, itinerary, packing lists, etc.), gift ideas for my loved ones, a hopefully regular journal, and other stuff. this will be my notes hub.

structured

i'm a big fan of time blocking. it helps me keep up with my routines and i love a good routine. i've been using structured and i hope to use it even more in the upcoming year for more mindful time blocking. i haven't really put this one through its paces like the above 2 (especially todoist) so i don't have much to say about it. but it's been cool so far.

if any of these change or if anything interesting happens with them i'll write about it here.

but yeah i'll probably just use this space as a place to longform yap when i'm not in the mood for writing a bluesky thread.

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til we see the sunlight

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 19:00:00 -0500

the tiktok ban has just manifested in the united states. i was on that app since 2019. i don't remember what eventually convinced me to download it but i found myself delighted with it in ways that i hadn't with a piece of software in a long time.

i was introduced to some amazing creators on that app that provided different perspectives and challenged my own understanding of myself and the world around me. i will miss hearing from them. many of them are on bluesky so if we're lucky, they'll remain active there. i rarely use instagram anymore and i haven't used twitter in years. i leave figuring out why as an exercise for the reader. so if those creators end up on those platforms, i suppose i won't hear for them for a while/ever again. if that's the case, thanks for the entertainment and the education. i'd like to call out a few creators who's content i enjoyed immensely, hopefully their voices can continue to reach the ears of many:

imani barbarin. disability advocate and communications expert. if something wild is happening, odds are imani called it months/years prior. i've never seen communications broken down so well. it's not a realm i'm familiar with but imani makes it understandable. https://bsky.app/profile/imanibarbarin.bsky.social
christina brown. phenomenally adept at discussing race and Blackness. if nuance is something you're not looking for, keep it pushing. christina will bring all the necessary nuance to any discussion she enters. https://bsky.app/profile/keatingssixth.bsky.social
- christina will also be co-hosting this podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5wxMJUeugUVajiKFh4aNWf
christian divyne. ever feel like the world is making zero sense and nobody is saying anything about it? christian will say it. and he'll try to make some sense of what's going on too. i just ask that you please don't confuse him with some other Black man that you may be upset with. this happened way too often on the clock app. https://bsky.app/profile/xiandivyne.bsky.social

there are more creators that i'll miss of course and i'll probably write about them too in the coming weeks as i remember. but those were 3 of my favorites. the "we've been banned" modal that pops up on the app now makes me feel a bit weird about returning to the app even if it does come back. this is mainly due to the circumstances i believe would have to exist for the app to return. not exactly my cup of tea. so if this is it it...it was a great run tiktok. thanks for getting me through my m.eng. and life post-college. and for keeping me up-to-date on what it takes to continue to be covid conscious. i'm still masking and getting vaccinated. i hope you are too reader.

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Justin Shillingford's Blog

keep it cool

todoist

obsidian

structured

til we see the sunlight