Re: Re: Of text editors and writing posts

Which is a response to:

Note: if you want to let me know of a reply, I've implemented gemini-mention so you can notify me. Check the link at the bottom of this post.

I'm going to attempt to do a double response in this post, and re:re:, if you will, because, well, I have something to say to both authors. I'll start with the first reply.

When it comes to writing a gemlog post, I sometimes think these things out while I'm driving or standing in line and I'll occasionally jot down some notes on my phone. Othetimes, especially when I have a day off without the kids, I'll do more of a deep dive. The discriminating factor here is usually time.

When I don't have a lot of time I usually go for the stream-of-consciousness posts, which, interestingly, are the ones I get the most comments on (the few responses that I do get). On the other hand, I do some of this as well:

It remains far too easy and thus far too tempting to endlessly edit and revise as you go.

Absolutely. I'm not that great at vim, which is a blessing in disguise because I don't always go back and endlessly edit due to the fact that I don't want to have to look up a vim key binding. However, in some of my more technical posts I still go back and make sure that everything is near perfect, especially when I'm writing something akin to a HOWTO in gemlog form.

So in short, I'm a bit of a "swooper" when I'm time limited and it's not a technical post, and more of a "basher" if I want to make sure everything is right in my technical posts, lest someone points out I made a mistake.

Reading this post made me realize - or rather, re-realize - how I am as a coder. I am definitely a basher when it comes to coding. In my short stint as a professional programmer, I endlessly revised my code as I went along, trying to find the most perfect way to solve a problem. I felt this way because it was my first programming job, and my boss told me I only had 8 hours to bolt on this piece of functionality to a giant CMS. I didn't want anything to break, and I especially didn't want the QA folks to keep kicking back my code for bugs. So, I did what I could and just obsessed about the code, thinking about it constantly on my drive into work, on my lunch, and on my way back home. I wasn't a reviser... I wanted it done like I'd been coding for 20 years, and in doing so, I busted my allotted times for making my little piece of code. It was no surprise then that they let me go after 7-ish months, when they realized I just wasn't the high-speed junior developer they could get for cheap. I took up another job with my brother-in-law doing some coding for him for 6 months, and found that I was doing the same thing. I went down rabbit holes figuring out all the functions and libraries I could use to best solve a tiny problem, and then I went onto the next. After I left my BIL told me he whipped up a proof-of-concept in a week of what i'd been working on for a couple months. He said it wasn't perfect but it was functional... and that's what stuck with me. I can't do code because there's just too much to think about and piece together in my head, and I get stuck in analysis paralysis. Luckily, judging by the length of this paragraph, my writing doesn't always suffer the same plight.

In school I'd always been good at grammar and writing. I didn't mind reading, and doing research, and writing papers because they just made sense to me. I'm not as good at writing as some of the folks around here, but when I need to crank out something professional, I can usually do it, and in such a tone that meets the needs of the customer (or the person that I writing to). I could've gone into writing, but computers were my passion back in the 90's and early 2000's and I thought I was going to be a network administrator and a computer programmer. I was pushing towards network admin in the beginning but somehow landed on programming. I think it's because I like the challenge of getting a piece of code to work and to tinker with it.

So, now I'm in management, and it's good and bad all at once. I don't get to do the technical things anymore, which kinda sucks, but I also get to rely on my business skills that I've built over the years and now I'll hopefully get to use them to make some changes.

Anyway, back to the original post:

How do you write your log?

Procedurally, I do it a few ways. Most recently I created a Titan upload script for my capsule so that I can post full gemlogs right from my phone. I save a copy of my gemlog template in a note keeping app, and compose it right there when I'm killing some time waiting at an office, and I think of a good topic to write about. Once I get it where I like, I just post it up and my script does the rest.

Previously I solely had to log into my capsule via SSH to post, and having a very busy life with a couple of kids, I just don't have the time to sit at a keyboard that isn't owned by my company. Of course, that's what I'm doing now, but that's only because I carved out some time. As for the capsule itself, I manually manage all the files as I feel this is the true essence of Gemini. I think ~solderpunk said much the same somehwere in one of their posts, and I agree. I SSH into my account, copy my template file into the drafts folder, and bang away at it until I feel like I'm done. I'll move it over to my main gemlog folder, slap a date on it, and update the index. If it's a non-technical post, I'll upload to my DSN Antenna aggregator, otherwise I'll post to the main Antenna instance.After that I generate the atom feed with a script I grabbed from ~Solderpunk. And that's it.

When I don't have time to write long-form gemlog posts, I typically post to my tinylog from my phone (I created an update script to post to that one as well), and lurk around ~skyjake's BBS.

If anyone is looking for distraction-free blog writing for their capsule, I highly suggest writefreely. I set it up fairly painlessly and the interface is super clean and distraction free. It also federates and can mirror the posts as a gopherhole. You can check out my blog and gopherhole links on my main page if you're interested.

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2024-01-17

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Gritty

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