I was doing some testing of a module called Feeds yesterday. I am migrating a ton of old blog posts to this blog. It is a perfect test for migrating data via .csv file with the module. The last time I tried it out with a large set of albums, the module choked on importing the tags. This time around, it imported about 90 plus albums I listened to with the tags in one import. That ruled. I tried it out again with a bunch of old blog posts, and it imported them all as well. That ruled even more.

Past is a Slight Pain

Setting up the .csv file to import old data isn't the most fun task. It is a lot better than doing things one by one, though. Since all my old info is in .txt and .md files, I am sure there is a way to get it into a .csv. I am actually having good luck doing that lately with various tools. This is a do this in chunks while listening to a long podcast or audiobook task. Lots of tidying.

Excited For the Future

Getting new information into a .csv file is a breeze. So many apps allow you to append to a .csv file, like Shortcuts, Drafts, etc.

For example, I can Shazam what I am listening to right now and have it append it as text to a .csv file with an Apple Shortcut. Now I can import the list of things I listened to with three clicks in the blog. That is magical.

When you start doing it with a Watch or voice command, then it becomes 2001: Space Odyssey level. You can start doing things like voice dictating ideas into blog posts. Capture all the thoughts from the day into a spreadsheet, edit all the random thoughts together, and set up a blog post. Again...three clicks to post.

Save the .csv file in the right spot, and you can post from a phone. That is wizard level. That is get things done on a train level or while you are killing time at soundcheck level.

Lately, I am all about having a starting point or anchor point. When I am stuck on where to begin tasks, chores, or errands and I can't decide where to begin, there is the starting point. Go there and head out.

In computer mode it is the to-do app where all things flow into. For home mode, I start at the back right corner of the office/living room and work out from there. On drums it is a paradiddle on the snare but lately it is a half-time shuffle.

The goal for me with a fixed starting point is to eliminate the "where to start" and "what to start on" decisions. If I can get moving on things, I'll keep going for hours. Getting going is the slog through the mire for me. 

I wanted to make an "on this day in history" block to see if there are any interesting patterns with my music listening history. It is doable with a View block in Drupal with a little bit of setup. The block shows a list of albums that I listened to on today's date from every year in the past (5/15/2024, 5/15/2023, etc.).

You will be making a block with at least two contextual filters that look at the current month and current day. They will only allow content that match today's month and date. Setting up a block like this is excellent practice for working with contextual filters in Views.

Steps

Setup your View

Make a view with a block set to only show whatever content type you are posting (Page, Article, etc.).

Setup the Fields

Add whatever fields you want to display in your block. Title will work as a bare minimum.

Setup the Contextual Filters

You are going to create two contextual filters which is located in the Advanced area.

1. Select the filter for "Content: Created month" and click apply. Under "When the filter value is NOT available", choose Provide Default Value and set the Type to Current Date. Click apply this display.
2. Select the filter for "Content: Created day" and click apply. Under "When the filter value is NOT available", choose Provide Default Value and set the Type to Current Date. Click apply this display.

You should now have two Contextual filters:

• Content: Created month (Default: Current date)
• Content: Created day (Default: Current date)

Setup the Filter Criteria (optional)

If you are ok having this current year's posts in your block then skip this. If you need to NOT have posts from the current year in your block, you need to set up one more filter.

1. Add a new filter and choose what field you are using as a source for your date. Mine is "Content: Authored on".

• For the operator select "Is less than.
• For the value type select "An offset from the current time such as "+1 day" or "-2 hours -30 minutes"
• For the value, enter "first day of this year"
• For the granularity, select day.

Add the Block to your Site

Now you can place your new block wherever you want and it will show you a list of content from the current day.

This is the first day of the new season on this blog. This new season is me opening up old blogs posts from this day in the past that are stored in text files, adding them to this site retroactively, reviewing them, and learning from them, and staying on nodding terms with past me. 

I went to my folder of past posts from 2011 and the was only one post on 05/15 for all the years. That post happened in 2022. There was only one word...

"tech"

I am not even going to try to sort out that mystery. ( @ _ @ )

I ran across the idea of using moon phases as triggers to get things done. It has really stuck with me. It's one of those plain as the nose on your face level ideas. When you buy a daily planner or use a digital calendar, there is usually a moon phase in there or easy to add. It is cyclical.

Just for fun, I asked an AI to assist me with organizing my to-do system but align it with the moon. It gave me a lot of ideas to play around with in the future. There was one idea that made me point at the screen and say, "That rules!"

It told me to use the moon phase icons on my projects . That is genius. That is taking an icon and using it at full power. I can tell I love the idea because I had to rush to blog about it.

Here is what it suggested:

🌑 New Moon: Planning, starting new projects
🌓 First Quarter: Action, building momentum
🌕 Full Moon: Completion, evaluation
🌗 Last Quarter: Reflection, clearing

It could be a Kanban . It can be done with a .txt file. It can be done in an app. It can be done with paper. The actual moon could be a trigger for project review.

Oh look...today is the new moon, I should review all projects in planning phase.

I am stoked to start implementing this. Project organization is not my most favorite, so anything to make it easier to do, easier to understand, and kind of fun rules.

: If this is an idea from someone somewhere, let me know so I can credit them here.
: Kanban is pronounced kahn-bah. Full stop.

Took a second to update my morning writing workflow. Before, I was using a plug-in in Obsidian to see a word cloud of all my free-writing gibberish. I'd love to automate that step, so I found some JavaScript that I could drop into an Apple Shortcut. I'll add the script below.

So now my morning flow is to run the Morning shortcut. The shortcut:

• Creates a random linear drum pattern and puts it in my task list for Today
• Asks me what I did yesterday and appends it to a text file called Story
• Asks me what I learned yesterday and appends it to a text file called Wisdom
• Selects one random Japanese grammar for me to practice and puts it in my task list for Today
• Selects one thing to deep clean from a list and puts it in my task list for Today

Doing this seems to incrementally move the pieces forward.

Here is the Javascript for counting all the words in all the text files in a folder.

function run(input) {
    var app = Application.currentApplication();
    app.includeStandardAdditions = true;

    var folderPath = input; // Get selected folder
    var wordCount = {};

    // Get list of .txt files
    var files = app.doShellScript(`find "${folderPath}" -type f -name "*.txt"`).split("\r");

    files.forEach(function(file) {
        var content = app.doShellScript(`cat "${file}"`).toLowerCase();
        var words = content.match(/\b+\b/g); // Extract words

        if (words) {
            words.forEach(function(word) {
                if (word.length > 3) { // Ignore short words
                    wordCount = (wordCount || 0) + 1;
                }
            });
        }
    });

    // Sort words by frequency
    var sortedWords = Object.entries(wordCount).sort((a, b) => b - a).slice(0, 100);

    // Create output text
    var output = "# Top 100 Words Used:\n\n" + sortedWords.map(([word, count]) => `${count}: ${word}`).join("\n");

    return output; // Send to Drafts
}

It's been fun setting up the podcast for our band. Four episodes into it, and I'm learning a lot. Noting some observations now while it is in its infancy. Future me can come back to this and have a laugh or a think.

Length

Started the podcast with every intention of it being short. With each episode, I am noticing a temptation to make it longer and longer. An intro here...an ad there...and then the episode is long.

If future me is reading this and the show is now an hour long, you need to get it back to ten minutes or less.

Outside Influence

When I was searching for answers on how to get my podcast XML file to validate, a lot of "how to make a podcast" links popped up. I clicked around a few and was quickly bored. So much about how to make podcasting "pro". Not so much about how to have fun.

If future me is reading this and the show sounds like a talk show right now, you need to get it back to the first four episodes vibe.

Intention

We have listeners that speak Japanese, English, a little or a lot of both, and neither. I am fully aware of this and am keeping it in mind with each episode. I want there to be something to enjoy no matter what languages you speak. It is more of a challenge than just getting on the mic and yammering for a while. I think some people are going to think we are trying to be art-y, but for real, it's all about making things that can be enjoyed anywhere.

If future me is reading this, can everyone still find something in the show to enjoy?

Links

Podcast Feed: https://1000sofcats.band/public/feeds/podcast.xml

Website: https://1000sofcats.band

One of my favorite shortcuts I made is the Weather Icon. It is a simple four step shortcut but it is so reusable in other shortcuts.

For example, I have a shortcut I run for when I greet my colleagues in the morning. It chooses a random salutation and runs the Weather Icon shortcut to get the weather.

Steps

1. Get current weather at Current Location
2. Get Condition from Weather Conditions
3. Dictionary w/ the Keys being the weather conditions (list below). Value is the actual emoji.
4. Get Value for Condition in Dictionary

Weather Conditions ¹

• Clear
• Mostly Sunny
• Sunny
• Cloudy
• Partly Cloudy
• Mostly Cloudy
• Rain
• Showers
• Thunderstorms
• Snow
• Hail
• Sleet
• Blowing Snow
• Fog
• Haze
• Dust
• Smoke
• Windy
• Tornado
• Hurricane
• Drizzle
• Overcast
• Freezing Rain
• Freezing Drizzle
• Flurries
• Hot
• Cold
• Blizzard
• Ice Pellets
• Sandstorm

¹ Not sure if this list is complete or not. Seems to be working though.

One thing I love lately is generating a word cloud in Obsidian from my morning writing sessions. There is a plugin for it called "Tag & Word Cloud" that generates a word cloud of my most commonly used words.

I run the plugin as a treat for getting a morning writing session done. For example, my list today is "show, tasks, things, let, words, need, time".

It's kind of like having a personal oracle.

You can add a token using the wysiwyg. That rules BUT watch out for one thing.

When you want to add your token, be sure you've clicked on the Source button.

If you don't click the Source button to add the token, the wysiwyg might add extra formatting code to the token. Which then makes the token broken. In my case, the wysiwyg adds a span tag to the token which breaks things.

Steps

1. Click Source.
2. Add your token.
3. Click Source again.
4. Click Save.
5. Stay rad.