Tech is insidious. You need to be persistent. The big tech companies have lured us in with convenience and novelty, but the real trap is often dependence. I found that many of the apps, services, and devices in my life had multiple purposes, some of which were harder to give up than others. It requires diligence to slowly remove all of these dependencies. – How I disconnected from tech in 2025

Last year I (briefly) switched to an Android phone after many years on an iPhone. The stuff that was hard was lots of little things, great AirPod support, connecting to home smart devices, getting 1Password to work most of the time, replacing location sharing, finding a good podcast client, and realizing I lost access to my recipe app.

These things feel irreplaceable when stack up all the little conveniences.

Ignore the unkempt bushes. I built these two new modern Adirondack Chairs following plans from Etsy using construction lumber. Not sure I love the weathered blue stain but it wasn’t an involved or expensive project. Here’s to morning coffee in front of the house.

The only civilized way to deal with read email is to archive it. If you use iCloud+ with a custom domain, this is how you change the default.

Settings -> iCloud+ (first menu item) -> iCloud -> iCloud Mail -> Mailbox Behaviors

Move Discarded Messages Into:
– Archive Mailbox

One more for the Oregon adventure list, hiked the cathedral tree trail to the Astoria column. A 300 year old tree is a site to behold.

Everything that used to work is still working and I now have functioning solar as well. Also, now I know what all the wires do.

My wife was just doing my daughters hair this morning before they head to camp drop-off. My daughter was fussing that it hurt, to which my wife replied, “No one said it was easy to be beautiful.”

My daughter immediately replied “It was a few minutes ago!” ☠️

I’ve been getting the Westy ready for our summer camping trip to the Olympic Peninsula. Trying to wire up Solar and the new battery. Finding myself wishing the previous owner had labeled literally anything.