Sawyer Paul's Blog, page 30
December 10, 2018
Fran’s Not Here Website
Robbie and I have been recording Fran’s Not Here since 2015, but we’ve never had a real website until today. Fransnothere.ca is live, and has every episode in one place.
It’s still best to subscribe in your podcast player, or using our RSS, but listen to it however you want really. 33 episodes in, we should really start telling people about this show.
December 7, 2018
I took a sick day.
I took a sick day. I took a walk. I took some pictures.
December 4, 2018
Fran’s Not Here 32 - More Dutch than Janet Jackson
Fran’s Not Here 32 - More Dutch than Janet Jackson
Withdrawing consent from Christmas or whatever
December 2, 2018
More Things, December 03, 2018
With the help of an IFTTT recipe that turns what I save to Pocket into a Markdown link, I can easily make a linked list blog post again. Hence, the return of More Things.
Articles are ordered from oldest to newest.
The Best Time to Go to Bed is 8:45
Surface Go — A near perfect companion device
Please stop telling me to leave my comfort zone
The case for slowing everything down a bit
The Depressing Phenomenon of Men Who Ask Their Dates No Questions
Books, Walks, and the Edge of the World
How To Stop Wasting Time On The Internet
Are interactive, digital posters set to overtake the printed poster?
Microsoft’s new Office icons are part of a bigger design overhaul
December 1, 2018
Podsync turns Youtube channels into video podcasts
I like videos on youtube, but I don’t like Youtube itself. I don’t like its recommendation system, its radicalization of ideas through its algorithm.
Podsync solves this problem. Using the app (or the Siri Shortcut) I can take any youtube channel and turn it into a video podcast. I haven’t subscribed to video podcasts in like, ten years, but this is definitely a better way of experiencing these videos. I can watch them offline now, but most importantly, the end of the video won’t send me somewhere I didn’t intend to go.
November 30, 2018
Cura, December 01, 2018
Note: The playlist embedded above will always be the most recent playlist and might not match the list below.
Cura is my Spotify mixtape. You can listen to it and subscribe here. I keep it as one playlist so it’s easy to subscribe to. I update it fairly frequently, but I also keep an archive playlist so you don’t have to miss a thing.
I hope you like it. I made it for you.
Here’s the track listing for this week:
Getting Naked, Playing With Guns By AJJ
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny By Lemon Demon
Altitude (This Party Sucks) By Mal Blum
I Feel Fantastic (Live 2014) By Jonathan Coulton
Let’s Get High And Watch Planet Earth By Watsky
Spring Break Anthem By The Lonely Island
I’m not a good person By Pat The Bunny
Fuck This Shit I’m Out By The Theme Song
Shia LaBeouf Live By Rob Cantor
November 25, 2018
Making a Spotify Playlist by Year
Okay. I know. It’s easier to do this with Apple Music, because iTunes just has all the same stuff it used to and you can just make a smart playlist with “Year” and pick a year and you’re done. I get it.
Spotify does have some smart playlist functionality, though. It’s just not built-in. Using a site like Organize Your Music lets you do a ton with your Spotify collection. It scans your collection, gives you a long list of variables (style, tempo, year, etc), and lets you make a playlist out of a visual grid setup. Most importantly, you can organize your entire library by year, select it, and make a playlist. Organize Your Music is just a fun site to play around in, and something that people missing Smart Playlists in iTunes should try to get to know.
When Timer Ends - Stop Playing
I’ve been working with the Pomodoro technique while at my day job for a few weeks now. The way I’ve kept it up is by creating two Siri Shortcuts: a 25 minute timer for working, and a 5 minute timer for a break. Both shortcuts use just the basic timer, while also creating a new Toggl (though the “break” shortcut just creates the same Toggl entry over and over).
It took me a while to figure out the best timer to work with, and I settled on “Stop Playing.” It doesn’t make any noise, vibrate, or anything. All it does is stop what your phone is currently doing and lock it. Since I’m usually listening to music, simply pausing is the least annoying way for a timer to go off.
You can see how the timer just straight up locks the phone with the video below.
