New Family Website

This blog has been my home on the internet for many years, but Katherine and I haven’t had a family website since our wedding site expired a few years ago. So, I got the idea to make us a new one, and it’s available now. You can find us at dundee.me!

It’s very basic right now, but I love the name, and I’ve already used it to make a few things:

• A landing page with a cute photo and links for each member of the family. There, you’ll find quick shortcuts to my website, Katherine’s social media, and a Winter photo album.

• For even quicker access, I’ve set up subdomains for each of us. So devon.dundee.me links to my website, katherine.dundee.me links to her social media, and so on. We can make as many of these subdomains as we like, and they can be used for a lot of different things (like easily sharing our WiFi password with guests). I have ideas for more of these in the future.

• Finally, we have custom email addresses through the family website. Rather than using Gmail or some other email service, we have our own name@dundee.me addresses that we can use to send and receive messages. (This runs through Apple’s iCloud+, which means it works on all of our devices automatically.)

That’s it for now! dundee.me is our quaint little home on the internet. I’ve had a lot of fun putting this together so far, and I look forward to tinkering with it some more in the future.

Thanks for checking it out, and I’ll talk to you again soon!

I Was Wrong About RSS

I don’t know why, and I’m not necessarily proud of this, but there is a part of me that takes pride in going against the crowd. In being unique from everyone else. In hearing about that thing that everybody’s into and saying, “Yeah, I don’t know anything about that.”

Do I think it makes me seem cool? Like a non-conformist? Like I somehow exist outside the sphere of popular influence? I’m not sure. But I’ve done it most of my life.

Take Glee, for example. When the show first came out in 2009 and it was all anyone could talk about, I avoided it like the plague. Why? I don’t know. But once the first season was over and the chatter died down, I gave it a try. And I obviously loved it because how could I not?

I did the same thing with the music of Taylor Swift. Taylor. Swift. I refused to listen to her for years because in my mind her music was too mainstream. Guess what? I adore Taylor’s songs now, and I missed out on them for so long for no real reason. How stupid.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to recognize this inclination and push back against it when I can. And yet, it’s still a part of me.

Which leads to today’s confession: I was wrong about RSS. Really wrong. For a long time. And now, I have to come clean.

For those who aren’t familiar, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a technology that allows you to subscribe to a source, like a website, and receive updates when new content is added to it. You can use it to follow news sites, blogs, newsletters and more. If you’ve ever subscribed to a podcast, then you’ve used RSS. It’s how you get new episodes sent to your phone when they’re released.

RSS readers are apps that allow you to subscribe to multiple RSS sources (which are called feeds) and view all of their contents in one place. For example, if I wanted to read articles from CNN, The Hollywood Report, and Billboard, I could use an RSS reader to subscribe to their feeds and catch up on the latest articles from all three in one app rather than going to their individual websites. Some people use RSS readers to subscribe to hundred of feeds.

I’ve known all of this in theory for years. But despite hearing so many friends and people I respect rave about how useful RSS readers are and how much the technology benefits them, I resisted trying it for myself. I read articles reviewing all the options, I even listened to podcasts about the latest developments, but I stayed out of the space myself.

Part of me, as I said before, didn’t want to get drawn in by the crowd. And to be fair, I didn’t think I needed an RSS reader. Between newsletters, social media, and my finely-curated Apple News feed, I was able to keep up with everything I wanted to. Sure, it was a bit of work sometimes making sure I didn’t miss an interesting article, but I was willing to put in the effort. Looking back, it wasn’t sustainable.

My setup started to fall apart recently. Like a lot of people, I’ve been rethinking my approach to social media. Honestly, it was long overdue. Part of that rethinking led me to the conclusion that I could no longer rely on my social feeds as a way of keeping up with the things I want to read online. Combine that with the fact that more and more of the websites I like to follow don’t integrate with Apple News, and I had a pretty big hole in my strategy. It was time for a new approach.

And so, after years of refusing to do so, I finally decided to set up an RSS reader. Because I’ve heard so much talk about them, I already knew the one that would be right for me. I headed to the App Store and downloaded Silvio Rizzi’s excellent Reeder 5.

I went with Reeder for a few different reasons. First of all, I was already of fan of Rizzi’s recipe app, Mela, so I trusted his work. Secondly, Reeder syncs data over iCloud, which meant I could start reading across all of my devices without signing up for a separate syncing service. And finally, I’ve heard so many positive things about the design and usability of Reeder over the years that it seemed like the obvious place for me to start.

Paying $5 for an app I’ve never tried in a category I have no experience with might seem a bit rash. But I’ve come to learn that it’s often worth paying for a premium solution from the start rather than going the free route. I knew that I wanted to have the best first impression possible of this technology I was trying, so it was worth it to pay a small fee.

Plus, I knew that if I decided to change apps at any point, it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. RSS readers allow you to export your subscriptions to a format called OPML and import them into other apps. One of the benefits of building on the open web!

Almost immediately, I knew I’d made a good decision. Setting up my RSS feeds in Reeder was quick and easy. I just hit the + button, typed in the site I was looking for, and let the app find the feed for me. There were a few private feeds, like my Club MacStories member feed, that I had to track down myself and add manually, but that was surprisingly easy as well. Within a few minutes, I had the latest articles from all of my favorite website available all in one place right before my eyes.

While I was getting acquainted with this new setup, I experimented with a couple of Reeder’s other features. I sorted my feeds into folders to keep everything organized, and I activated the app’s read later service so I could save interesting articles for safekeeping. Then I downloaded the app’s Mac version ($10) and gazed at all of my feeds syncing across all of my devices seamlessly. I was amazed.

My feeds in Reeder are organized into folders. The articles from all of my feeds are shown in the middle column.

I’ve come to appreciate Reeder’s simple, distraction-free reading experience. And I can always go straight to the article’s webpage with a single swipe.

Reeder’s read later feature comes in handy for longer articles that I want to save for another time.

Over the next few days, I gave my new setup a field test. Every once in a while, I would open up Reeder on my phone to check out the latest articles. I would read a few short ones that interested me, and the longer ones I would add to my read later queue with a quick swipe. Then, when I had time, I’d pull out my iPad mini and catch up on everything I’d saved for later. The system worked perfectly!

Everything I wanted to read was coming straight to me, all in one place, without me having to go out and search for it. No more worrying about missing out on a cool article. No more making sure I checked every site, every social feed, and every channel in Apple News. I didn’t have to do the work anymore because my RSS app was doing all the work for me. I didn’t realize how much time and effort I was putting into tracking down this information until I didn’t have to do it anymore.

A couple of weeks in, I’m really happy with my new setup. I adjusted to it almost immediately, and I feel way more on top of the news I care about than before. I still find cool stuff on social media (which I can save for later with Reeder’s share sheet extension) and I still check Apple News every once in a while to stay up on world happenings and current events. But all of the stuff I can’t miss is in my RSS reader, and I know I can rely on it.

One happy side effect of going all-in on RSS is that it’s allowed me to do some housekeeping in other areas of my digital life. I no longer need to see news on social media, so I was able to unfollow a lot of accounts. Now my social feeds are just for being, well, social!

I’ve been able to clean up my email inbox, too. Thanks to a handy tool from Leandro Facchinetti called Kill the Newsletter, all of my newsletters and Substack subscriptions now come straight to Reeder. My email is all about communication now, not news.

Reeder is where everything I want to read on the web goes, and I don’t have to do any extra work to get it there. My feeds are always working in the background to make sure I get the articles I care about. Thanks, feeds!

So there you have it. After years of thinking I was too cool for RSS, I finally embraced it. And it’s just as great as everyone’s always said. It’s vastly simplified my process for keeping up with the news I care about, and I just love using it every day. Now all that’s left is for me to enjoy some reading and wonder why I didn’t do this sooner.

Nonlinear Growth

One of my biggest priorities over the past year has been to slow down. After wearing a bit thinner than I was comfortable with in 2021, I committed myself to not overcommit myself in 2022. To set aside time just for me and for my family rather than taking on as much external responsibility as I could handle. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

The effect on my mental health was stark. I’m really good at putting too much pressure on myself, and I didn’t realize what an impact it had on me until I got out from under it. I’ve been much more present this past year, not to mention more pleasant to be around. I appreciate things more deeply than I used to. I like myself more now, which is an odd feeling—but one that I’m proud of.

It’s been surprisingly great for my work, too. Without the haze of anxiety hanging over me all the time, I’ve been able to think more clearly and, ironically, get more done. My output last year was the best it’s been in a long time thanks to my decision to do less.

But the area I’ve seen the most improvement in is my ability to regulate my reactions to the things that happen to me. Before, my immediate response to any stressor was an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. I literally learned to recognize the sensation of cortisol being released in my brain. I would go into situations preemptively stressed out about what was going to happen, and then when it actually happened, I would stress again. It was a brutal cycle.

Once I slowed down and reclaimed some of my mental bandwidth, I found that I had more control over that urge to melt down. Instead of feeling dread when something unexpected happened, I learned to face it, adapt to it, and carry on. Every single thing didn’t seem like a disaster anymore.

This was quite freeing; it literally felt like a weight had been taken off of my shoulders. I didn’t have to be afraid of life anymore.

I could look at unforeseen obstacles as challenges rather than roadblocks. I could exercise flexibility and accept the things outside of my control. Basically, I could approach the world in a healthy way, and I am so thankful for that.

Over the past year, I’ve seen these benefits grow and manifest in so many different ways. My quality of life has improved. I saw myself change to the point that I felt like a totally different person.

That is, until something happened recently that reminded me just how much I’m still very much the same.

The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is an extremely busy time at the church. We do a lotaround Christmastime here. In previous years, I would spend the season feeling anxious about everything I needed to do. This time around, though, I was feeling much more on top of things thanks to my being in a better mental state and some careful planning.

Then the unexpected happened. A wrinkle came up out of the blue, and it threw me off. I wasn’t prepared for my plans to change, and I really wasn’t prepared for my reaction to my plans changing.

I started to stress. I felt the familiar rush of cortisol coursing through my brain. My mind got foggy; I tensed up. I was immediately back in the place I’d been too many times before.

The anxiety I was feeling in that moment was compounded by something new: disappointment in myself. I’d come so far! How could I let it get to this point again? I was frustrated not only with the situation, but with myself for reacting the way I did.

Thankfully, my relapse was short-lived. It was rough for about a half-day before my better instincts kicked in. Even though I experienced that moment of intense stress, the fortitude I’d developed over the past year helped me recover relatively quickly and get a handle on myself. In reality, the thing that had set me off wasn’t that big of a deal, and I took care of it competently.

Still, it was a humbling experience. After keeping my emotions in check so well for so long, I was shocked at my capacity for reversion. I thought I was cured; turns out, not so much.

As much progress as I’ve made (and will continue to make), I’m not immune to my own frailty. I’m still human, after all. There will be days when I don’t react to things the way I would like to, and there’s only so much I can do to control that.

That doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying. I’m still quite proud of the ways I’ve grown over the past year, and I’m appreciative of how my life has improved as a result. One setback doesn’t negate the many steps I’ve taken in the right direction. One bad day can’t take away how far I’ve come.

It’s the same for all of us. Growth isn’t always linear; it doesn’t necessarily move in a straight line. We work to improve ourselves, and often we succeed. Sometimes, we don’t. But we can’t let that stop us from trying. It’s the trying that counts.

Hopefully, in the long run, we’ll be able to look back and see the ways we’ve grown. We may not notice the inches we’re gaining day by day. But eventually, we’ll look up and realize we’re in a completely different place than where we started, even if we took a couple of steps backward along the way.

So don’t give up. If you’ve had a setback, let me be first to tell you: I’ve been there. We all have. But we don’t have to stay there. We can keep going.

My hope for each of us this year is that we’ll all experience growth in the ways that we need it, as messy as that growth may be. Happy new year, friends.

My Creative Output This Year

One of my big goals for 2022 was to invest more time and effort into creative outlets. My writing habit really suffered because of the pandemic, and I wanted to be purposeful about tapping into that side of myself again. Now that the year is coming to a close, it’s time to look back and see how I did.

To start, I challenged myself to publish a blog post at least once every month, which I was able to do. Most of my articles centered on technology. I wrote a series about indie apps that I’ve been enjoying, a couple of posts about the color options on Apple’s devices, and entries about a few other tech-related things happening in my life, like buying a new Mac. Tech’s been front-of-mind in my free time this year, and it’s been fun to express that here on the blog.

Aside from blogging, I’ve also been putting out a lot of podcast episodes with my friend Sigmund. Each week on Magic Rays of Light, we discuss everything happening in the world of Apple TV. I never saw myself becoming a regular podcaster, but I feel like I’ve gotten more comfortable in front of the mic this year. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m proud of what we’re making.

On the work side of things, a good amount of my creative energy has gone into building and continually working on the church’s new website, which launched early this year. I didn’t realize what an undertaking that would be, but it’s paid off significantly in my day-to-day work of keeping things updated and looking nice. I feel like I’ve gotten into a solid groove of staying on top of what’s happening and keeping church members informed, which also requires me to generate a ton of promotional materials.

We started a church newsletter a couple of months ago, and that’s been a fun challenge to put together. It’s powered by the same tool that I used to build the website, so everything’s nice and cohesive. Coming up with the system to make it all work was a refreshing creative exercise, as is actually creating the newsletter each week.

I’ve also been blessed with the opportunity to preach several times this year, including for the first time on a Sunday morning at my church. Sermon-writing is a whole process unto itself, and it works a totally different part of my brain than any of my other work. I’m always so grateful to get to do so.

So that’s been my creative output this year: blogging about tech, podcasting about Apple TV, building the church website, publishing the newsletter, and writing sermons. At any given moment, I’ve felt like I could be doing more, but looking back, it’s been quite a lot. I’d say I accomplished my goal of exercising my creativity this year, especially when it comes to my personal writing.

Another goal I had for 2022 was putting less pressure on myself. That might seem counterproductive to upping my creative output, but I actually found that the two went hand-in-hand. By setting my goal pretty low at one blog post per month, I gave myself space to build the practice back up without getting stressed out. Instead of a chore, it was something fun and enjoyable, as it should be.

Getting back into writing has been one of the highlights of my year. To everyone who read, shared, or responded to something I wrote, thank you so much. You were a part of me reconnecting with this thing I love, and that means the world to me.

Looking ahead to next year, I hope to keep up my writing habit and publish at least as often as I did this year, if not more. I’d like to keep writing about technology, because that’s what I’m passionate about. But I think I’d also like to write about other topics that interest me. I’m not sure exactly what that looks like yet, but I plan to explore it more in the coming year. And I’m sure I’ll continue my creative efforts through podcasting and work as well.

Who knows what the new year may bring? I’m sure it’ll have its creative challenges, and I look forward to facing them head-on. 2022 has been a productive year of flexing my creative muscles and building some good writing habits. Here’s to more of that in 2023.

Mastodon

For a variety of reasons, many people I respect and enjoy interacting with have shifted away from Twitter in recent weeks. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of the service’s issues here. I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m now on Mastodon.

I don’t sign up for new social media services very often. To be honest, I was hesitant to create a Mastodon account and give myself another feed to keep up with. But enough people that I want to hear from are there, so I decided to give it a try, and so far, I love it!

The energy on Mastodon is quite fun; it all feels very new and untainted by the ills of for-profit services. I check my Mastodon feed not out of a sense of compulsion but because I actually enjoy it. That’s a great feeling.

There’s still a lot to figure out. For example, I’m not settled on which app I’d like to use, so I’m open to suggestions. If you’re on Mastodon, let’s connect! I think this is going to be a good thing.