Standing on the edge of the garden you can see several intriguing landscapes spread out in front of you. Where shall we head?
Landscapes
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Expand My Way of Being
My Way of Being is more than the behaviour I show. It’s the total sum of how I engage with the world, make meaning from my environment and take action. Expanding my Way of Being by being a learner in the world creates new possibilities for me to move forward in life.
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My First Steps as a Philosopher
Whenever I’m asked what I would do if I didn’t have to work, I’ve answered, “I’d be a philosopher.” Those who know me nod in agreement and don’t question it. Although I know deeply intuitively this it the correct answer, I haven’t been able to articulate why. My Mission Statement defines me as a scholar of life seeking wisdom.
Trek to Yomi
Artistic, black and white, side-scrolling, button-mashing, samurai fighter. Short at about 5 hours to play. That’s enough. Here’s a screeshot.
Ontological Shift
A long lasting change in someone’s Way of Being.
R U OK at Christmas?
I posted this to my work colleagues in December 2022. It was as much for me to set myself up for a break as it was for others. My 18 Days Until I Can Fully Rest was something I directed at myself. Then, in February 2023 I had time off due to burnout. Day 1 - Permission This is the first in a series of posts leading up to the Christmas Break designed to help you get the most of your time out of the office.
Astronomy Connects Me With a Greater Sense of Self
There is something special about looking up at the planets, stars and galaxies and the sense of purpose and humility it engenders within me. It is spiritual. Never do I feel so connected as I do when I turn my mind to the vastness of space.
Business has a soul
A business has a soul just as people do. Souls on a plane. Should we ask how many souls rather than employees work in a business?.
Combinational Creativity
Metadata:note-makingLYTvideo presenter:: Nick Milo, Anne-Laure Le Cunff url:: www.youtube.com/watch Anne-Laure Le Cunff came to the field through discovering the Generation Effect. Creativity does not come from a muse. It all comes from combining pre-existing ideas. That’s important because it means you can make a process out of being creative.
The Map is Not the Terrritory
This concept is an attempt to get people to remember there is more than just the map. Yet, maps show relationships. In the case of a road map, it’s the relationships between A and B and importantly how to get there. Concept Mapping and Map of Contents do the same thing. Provide an abstraction level across the territory of knowledge.
The Five Love Languages
The Five Love Languages is a model that says we have a preference for how we mark love as received and how we prefer to show our love to others. The languages are: Words of Affirmation Gift Giving Acts of Service Physical Touch Quality Time Relationships may break down when two people show their love in a language that is not preferred by the other.
My Mission Statement
The behaviour and decisions in my life are made in accordance with this mission statement; the essence of which is grounded in the principles of truth, beauty, goodness and unity. I help people take powerful action to enrich their lives. I am responsible for my feelings, attitude and actions at all times.
Hobby Together
Here’s where I share my progress on whatever project currently takes my fancy, plus any relevant discussion on supporting technologies.
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IMatch to Socials
The IMatch to Socials system automates the addition, update and deletion of images between IMatch and flickr or pixelfed. I created it to reduce the time taken updating and managing photos across all three platforms. Page under development. Scripts have only just been written. Features Uses metadata directly from the IMatch database and formats it (to my liking) for sharing with others.
Mediabank
Mediabank is the name given to our family Photography and video archive. It collects all digital media assets (hereafter media) into a single location managed by IMatch. As of March 2024 there are close to 38,000 items being catalogued and managed consuming 525GB. Storage LocationPurposeS:\memories\assetsFinal storage location for media in YYYY\mm -MMMM\ folders.S:\memories\databaseLocation of the Mediabank.imd5 file.S:\memories\database\Pack & GoPeriodic backups of the Mediabank environment using IMatch Pack & Go1.S:\memories\home videosVideos from when we had a video camera.
IMatch
IMatch is the software used to manage our family library of photos and videos called Mediabank. It has supported the family’s Photography in all forms for many years. I’ve owned every version since IMatch 3 over many years. It is a powerful digital asset management application. During that time the built-in features of the application have become more powerful and what I once needed scripting for, is now built-in.
Astrophotography
For sure this page is a bit of a mess. Instructional guides Astrophotography 101: A Lesson Series on Photographing the Milky Way – Lonely Speck - large MOC with multiple articles to work through on all topics Planning Light Pollution Light Pollution Map for Bendigo - I have this app on my mobile phone.
Photography
My interests are Astrophotography, Landscape Photography and Panoramas. Digital Asset Management Mediabank My Photo Dating Strategy for Uncertain Dates IMatch - digital asset management application Equipment My Photography Gear My Camera History Resources My Photography Teachers The Goldfields Track - A bike ride in Buninyong, Victoria Map of Public Land Color Filters for Black-and-White Photography: A Complete Guide | PetaPixel Shutter Speed Cheat Sheet.jpg Tools Lightroom Show Focus Points Plugin for Lightroom Jeffrey Friedl’s Blog » Jeffrey’s “Smart-Collection Sync” Lightroom Plugin .
Astronomy
There are two aspects to my astronomy hobbying. Direct visual observation using my Celestron SkyMaster 20x80 Binoculars and Astrophotography.
Astro's Playroom
A great little PlayStation 5 game that really showed off what the system and new controller could do. Fastest Platinum Trophy I’ve ever completed.
Donkey Kong Jr.
This has to go down as my first computer game. A perfect Christmas present when Game and Watch devices were all the rage. Craig and Jamie got a game as well. I always thought mine was the best. At 999 points the game started again, but faster. This was called “clocking it”. My best was to clock it 3 times in the one game.
Maquette
Maquette is a recursive puzzle game was free as part of March 2021’s PlayStation Plus game subscription. It was clear right from the start this game has somethng unique to offer - starting with a song and teasers about a relationship. At present the story is involving me in recollections about the initial stage of the relationship.
Completed Things
Computer Games A list of computer games I’ve completed, added to as I complete them (which is pretty rare I must say compared to some people but which did have a decided uplift during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020). “Completion” means playing through the main story line but for some games, they are not possible to complete so if I’ve played what I think is a sufficient amount, they are listed here.
Productive Laziness
There is art in doing as much as possible, as easily as possible and that’s what I call being productive lazy. It’s the term I use to describe my approach of doing as much as possible with as little effort as possible and applies particularly to repetitive tasks where I want them done quickly and without having to think too much.
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Personal Knowledge Management
Personal Knowledge Management or PKM is the art of taking personal responsibility for the knowledge that you need to refer to in going about your daily life. It is a skill and discipline similar to what a librarian or museum curator may perform in their role, but differs because personal knowledge management has to reflect your personal view of the world.
Tags Are Not Knowledge
Tags, or other similar metadata, added to resources in a Personal Knowledge Management system are not content. They are best used to help you curate resources and can answer questions such as: What was written in July 2023? (add a date) Where are all the references to books? (add #book) What am I currently working on? (add to-develop) When used as markers for the content of a resource - exactly like keywords - an issue arises where one tag can mean multiple things.
Personal Knowledge Management Systems Must Be Flexible
Any Personal Knowledge Management system must be flexible. It needs to accommodate: changes in taxonomy - knowledge is not fixed, and certainly our interpretation of knowledge is open to change. That comes from Being a Learner. changes in document format - knowledge comes in many forms and it’s frequently a low-value activity to convert from one format to another, unless converting into a searchable format from one that is not searchable.
Discovering Johnny.Decimal
This evening I’ve been reading through the documentation on the Johnny.Decimal system. It’s a method for organising documentation across multiple areas and categories and so falls within the realm of Personal Knowledge Management. It’s not the only system of this type. I’ve looked at, and tried quite a few.
Getting Things Done with Obsidian
This article is about how I have implemented the Getting Things Done Methodology (GTD) within the Obsidian note taking application. It is not commentary on how to follow the GTD methodology, nor will it necessarily reflect the methodology in its pure form^[Those familiar with GTD no there is no such thing as a pure implementation.].
Generation Effect
This reminds me of the common theme I’ve heard from Personal Knowledge Management over the last 2 years. That is, make notes in your own words. Research has shown you remember better your own notes. I’ve experienced that this week in how I’ve slowly approached Ontology of the Human Observer and created my own definitions.
Scripting Templates in Obsidian
Here be some dragons. This is a quick post to explain how Javascript can be used eliminate the need to update multiple pages if the structure of your metadata changes. Using Javascript comes with risks. Enter at your own peril. dd Within Obsidian, the combination of the Dataview and Templater plugins can make for a powerful way to access and organise your notes using metadata.
Sure Doesn't Feel Like a Year Off
Monday will be the first King’s Birthday public holiday. It’s not feeling like a typical long weekend for me. Maybe I’ve had too many public holidays and they are all the same. That got me thinking… From the start of my professional working career up until 2013, I had 10 public holidays a year. From 2014, that increased to 11.
My Fight With Metadata
For the last 2 weeks I’ve been working with metadata and the information that I want to track in Obsidian. As my Digital Garden, keeping information about the books I read, the movies I watch and the games I play, creates a full picture of my life (hey, maybe one day someone will be interested). Two factors triggered this latest dive into an all to familiar rabbit hole.
My Document Toolkit
I curate a lot of digital documentation for myself and my family. Within this Personal Knowledge Management it is important to remove as much friction from the system. There are so many demands on our time, that the smallest resistance can easily provide an excuse to switch on Australian Idol or Survivor and do nothing.
Quantum OS
This is my operating system which in no way suggests I am a computer. Rather, it is a set of notes that describe the rules and standards I have determined are best to manage my digital information as I see fit.
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Organising Digital Knowledge Across Multiple Systems
Digital knowledge comes at us in all forms and it can be a challenge to manage. This note describes how I manage information in my Personal Knowledge Management system. My system works when.. I am easily able to find something I’ve saved I am confident nothing important is missing Knowledge and Records It has taken many iterations of many systems to realise there is a difference between knowledge and records.
Tags Are Not Knowledge
Tags, or other similar metadata, added to resources in a Personal Knowledge Management system are not content. They are best used to help you curate resources and can answer questions such as: What was written in July 2023? (add a date) Where are all the references to books? (add #book) What am I currently working on? (add to-develop) When used as markers for the content of a resource - exactly like keywords - an issue arises where one tag can mean multiple things.
Heading Level Guidelines
Within a note, headings start at Heading 2. This is because, when displaying notes using Quartz 4, the title of the note is set to Heading 1 and to have a second Heading 1 breaks the structure of the document. Use CSS styling to distinguish headings from the displayed Title of a document.
Maps of Contents Guidelines
The Library of Congress Classification is used as a guide for the Map of Contents naming strategy used here. Map of Contents can take any form necessary to assist with the organisation of data. The default storage location for Map of Contents is \Atlas\Maps in accordance with the design principles of the ACE Framework.
Property Guidelines
By convention, as there is no way to enforce this, the properties added to file should be in this order. As I read them, this puts the most important information at the top. RankNameCommentMultiple Values1.aliasesNote link aliases within Obsidian.Y2.css-classesNote formatting changes within Obsidian.Y3.tagsNote tags.
Tag Guidelines
These are guidelines, not rules. They recogise that Personal Knowledge Management Systems Must Be Flexible. When to tag Before starting, become familiar with the concepts in The Difference Between Good and Bad Tags. Tags are used for: State tracking Throughout the life of a note it may change state multiple times, across multiple areas.
Tagging Journal Entries
These are the tags I apply to Journal entries. They are a means of quickly bringing related entries together so that I can see themes. Journals can have more than one tag. I'm slowly working through all past entries checking they are correctly tagged and doing things like adding a photo when I know there is one of relevance.
The Quantum Operating System
‘Quantum OS is my operating system which in no way suggests I am a computer. Rather, it is a set of notes that describe the rules and standards I have determined are best to manage my digital information as I see fit. CORE CONCEPT Organising Digital Knowledge Across Multiple Systems describes in detail where I store documents and how I organise them.
My Photo Dating Strategy for Uncertain Dates
Digital photos have the date and time taken embedded. Scanned prints, negatives and slides do not. This is a problem in Photography when the original non-digital image is scanned and there is no record alongside it of the date the photo was made. Digital Asset Management software such as IMatch or Lightroom requires a date.
My Backup Strategy
I value backups of my data and systems. Having them means a level of security if something is lost, damaged, hacked, breaks. I may be over-compensating in some areas with multiple on-site and off-site backups. Where I do that, I’m also considering the other aspect of backups which is speed of restoration.
The Garden Shed
Every garden needs a good shed, full of the right tools to make it flourish.
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Calibre
Calibre is a cross-platform eBook management tool. It allows you to manage the metadata present in your eBooks. I use Calibre because Digital Rights Management is Unhealthy and share the database with calibre-web because I like its interface better.
Organising Digital Knowledge Across Multiple Systems
Digital knowledge comes at us in all forms and it can be a challenge to manage. This note describes how I manage information in my Personal Knowledge Management system. My system works when.. I am easily able to find something I’ve saved I am confident nothing important is missing Knowledge and Records It has taken many iterations of many systems to realise there is a difference between knowledge and records.
calibre-web
calibre-web provides a web interface into Calibre. I prefer it for quickly reviewing my library and marking books as read. This software is installed on my Synology DiskStation DS920+.
Obsidian Sync
Obsidian Sync is a paid sync service from the developers of Obsidian. It is the most reliable sync solution I've found. Fix Uninitialized Sync Error This caused me all sorts of hell syncing across 3 systems. Each time I restarted Obsidian the sync was lost. The fix worked for me on Windows 10. This seems to be a rare error that we haven’t yet nailed down a pattern for.
My Backup Strategy
I value backups of my data and systems. Having them means a level of security if something is lost, damaged, hacked, breaks. I may be over-compensating in some areas with multiple on-site and off-site backups. Where I do that, I’m also considering the other aspect of backups which is speed of restoration.
A Font of Google Fonts
Instructions on how I added Google Fonts to Obsidian Publish.
Digital Rights Management is Unhealthy
I read an article many years ago, that I can no longer find, which discussed the fear of blank videotape and how it would destroy the home-video market. Instead it created a market that was of a size unforeseen. Bottom line, digital rights management (DRM) is more of a hindrance than a protector. Amazon and Kindle Books DRM Books purchased through Amazon are protected against copying and distribution by a level of digital rights management that can no longer be bypassed.
The Nightclub Model of Privacy
Too many businesses collect personal information from individuals for their benefit. Under the guise of “providing better service” private data is held, often insecurely, well beyond it’s need. If it was ever really needed at all. I’d like to see business subscribe to the “Nightclub Model of Privacy”. Check credentials at the door and allow or deny entry.
Designing The Quantum Garden
Background I have referred to my personal knowledge management system as a Digital Garden for several years now and it makes sense this online presence reflects that. Originally I used the term to mean tending the noise of digital records, but have now moved towards a place for the growing of ideas. My evolution is not uncommon as explained in this Maggie Appleton article, A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden.
Obsidian
Obsidian is primarily a note-taking tool that uses Markdown files for speed and flexibility. The official site is obsidian.md/. Within Obsidian I document and link: Personal journal entries Digital Garden notes My consumption of books, movies and TV shows This website is published directly from Obsidian using Quartz 4.