It’s been an exciting week! I have a new side-project I’m excited to share more about, but I think I might keep it to my breast a little longer while I get my footing. But I bring it up because it will be dividing my attention—especially for the next few weeks.
At the same time, we’re getting ready for Halloween, and wrapping up soccer season. The Mondavi season has started back up—the performance venue on campus—and we have tickets to see Andrew Bird on Monday, and just went to listen to astronaut Terry Virts talk about being in space and taking photographs of his view from above. I especially enjoyed how he used some of his photographs of electricity to talk about the visualization of wealth disparity around the world.
One of the other things that struck me most was when he said his days on the space station were maybe 99% work—as in the mundane bits of necessary routine, from lab projects to brushing his teeth—and 1% elation. It made me think about how that’s probably true for wherever you are. It’s just those few moments you look up and take it all in, so to speak, and it’s relative. Our capacity for that elation is always somewhat limited by our attention span. And then I came across this Henry Miller quote on SwisssMiss:
“The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” — Henry Miller
Lovely, isn’t it? With that, I move onto some Friday links. I thought I’d start calling these “The Weekly Digest” from here on out.
Not too long ago, I came across a photo app that would quickly scan your phone for duplicate images (why I can’t stop taking seven photos of the same thing, I do not know), and then prompt you to quickly choose which one to keep. It seemed like a genius tool for decluttering and cleaning up albums. But I could not for the life of me recall the name. So the other day, in an IG Story, I sent out a query. A few people suggested Flic, which seems handy: it’s like a Tinder—swipe left, swipe right—only for photo albums. But then someone had it: Gemini Photos.
Yes, this was the one! Screenshots of maps you never deleted, blurry selfies, and all of that random clutter—it will find it all and let you remove it in a satisfying single tap.
It got me to wondering, what apps do you think are hidden gems? I know we all love Waze for directions or our podcast app, but which are the ones that you bring up in conversations with your friends? As in, “Have you heard of it? It’s so brilliant! Such a lifehack!”
But what I found compelling was his understanding that acting on such a goal doesn’t always feel so simple.
For example, no matter how many different approaches we seem to take to the on-time, out-the-door, to-do list, it’s really challenging to get everyone on their way without their forgetting something or one of us losing our cool. This, he agrees, is one of the things parents most commonly complain drives them nuts!
