On This Day in Collections

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since I first wrote about the Collections app for Club MacStories, but it’s true. Now, I’m back to share a new way I’m using the app: an On This Day view to resurface entries from the current date in previous years. I love this type of feature for my journal and photo library, so I thought it would be worth exploring if I could replicate it with my Collections databases. It turned out to be a fun experiment and one I now get to benefit from every day.

If you’re interested in learning more about how I added an On This Day feature to Collections, check out my story in the Club MacStories Monthly Log.

Sound Therapy

I was slightly terrified when Federico asked me to cover Apple Music’s new Sound Therapy feature because music isn’t a topic I write about often. Trying to explain and test scientifically enhanced songs that are supposed to help you focus was certainly a new challenge. But I enjoyed diving into the feature and actually found it to be beneficial; I might even stick with it now that my testing is over.

You can read my full impressions of Sound Therapy over at MacStories.

Mac Automation

I wrote an actual Mac story! In the latest Club MacStories Monthly Log, I shared my approach to automating the Mac.

I’ve mostly sat on the sidelines of the conversation when it comes to Mac utilities because those tools aren’t available on my platforms of choice. But thanks to the persistent influence of my colleagues who are always finding interesting new tools for their computers, I recently started dipping my toes into the world of Mac automation.

I haven’t used a Mac as my primary computer in a really long time, but it’s still an important part of my work at the church. Rather than optimizing my Mac for getting everyday work done, I’ve created automations that help me oversee the tech side of services and stream events live. It’s been a fun new area to explore, and I enjoyed getting to write about it.

You can check out the full article on Club MacStories if you like. Thanks as always for reading!

Friend of the Show

I had the privilege of being the first guest on Joshua Wold’s new podcast Friend of the Show! The episode covers a wide range of topics: online friendships, faith, the role of luck in our career paths, our shared love of Neopets, and more. It was a great chance to chat with Joshua, whom I met a couple of years ago on Mastodon but haven’t had a chance to connect with beyond text chat. And if other people enjoy listening in, that’s even better.

You can listen to the episode here. My thanks to Joshua for having me.