Why do I care about backups?

It’s probably a good thing I care about backups since I’m literally paid to care about backups. Last I checked our company is processing about 8 Terabytes of website backups every single day. But that’s not why I care about backups.

I care about backups because I’ve seen backups fail and I’ve seen people’s first-hand reactions to those failures.

In the late 90s I did a stint as a Geek Squad team member. I specialized in repairing personal computers. As part of that I role I was tasked with fixing failed hard drives. My least favorite part of that job, including telling people that their significant other had a tendency to visit less-than-savory websites, was telling someone that none of their files were recoverable.

The interesting part is that the first reaction was never emotional. People would typically reason that “well there wasn’t anything that important on the computer”. Then they’d proceed to ask what we had done with the photos, because photos aren’t files, they’re photos.

That’s when, in the softest and gentlest voice possible, I’d have to deliver a nuclear gut punch. “Your photos weren’t recoverable either. Do you keep backups? We can help you transfer the photos back to your computer from your backup drive.”

I hated asking that question. Because I knew the answer before I asked it. Of course they didn’t keep any backups. No one did. It was the 90s, and setting up backups was a full weekend tech project for nerds, not something that “regular people” would or could do.

Every time I delivered that particular set of news I saw everything from total rage to broken hearts. It was then that the fire was lit and I knew I’d do everything I can to protect important files and data. Twenty-five years later that fire is still burning bright, so today I’ll walk you through how I backup my most important data.

A Quick Note on Backup Philosophy

“Two is one and one is none” is a phrase coined by the US Navy Seals about the importance of being prepared at all times. That same way of thinking applies directly to keeping computer backups too. If there aren’t at least two copies of every important file on my computer stored outside of my computer’s internal hard drive, then the files aren’t sufficiently backed up.

For some of my most important files (ie. photos), I keep four or five copies available at any given time, just in case.

How I Backup my Personal Computers and Important Files

I’ll start with a list of the tools I use to keep backups, and then I’ll provide a brief explanation of how I use each one, and how it fits into my overall file protection strategy.

Outside of these subscriptions, my backup system also requires two external physical disk drives. I’m currently using these Samsung 2TB drives that are $149 each. I really like that they have a slim profile and don’t take up much desk space, but any modern external drive should be fine to get you going.

The investment to get started at this level looks like it’s $350 + roughly $700 per year. That’s not entirely accurate though because with many of these services, the storage is one feature of many that are part of the subscription.

Keep in mind, it’s taken me years to build up to this level. You don’t have to go crazy like I have from the beginning. An inexpensive external drive and a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner are a great place to get started with protecting your memories and other precious files. The important thing is to start.

I’ll also add that I second-guess this level of commitment myself. I don’t do this for all of our computers, only my “main machine.” We have one other family Mac and a Mac Mini that runs our family Plex server. Each of those computers have a very simple setup with Backblaze and one local CCC backup to an external SSD .

The Essentials for Backing Up Your Computer

Before anything else, I recommend signing up for Backblaze. It backs up your whole computer and any directly attached hard drives to the cloud. It works on Windows and Mac, and it’s only $99 per year per computer. You can download backed up files through their web portal, and in the event that you need all of your files in a pinch, they’ll express ship you a USB drive. It also only takes a few minutes to set up. It gives you full coverage with almost zero friction to get going, so it’s what I recommend to anyone who needs to get something up and running.

Also, I know it’s really geeky, but Backblaze subscriptions genuinely make a great holiday gift, and they have a gifting option too.

(I didn’t receive any compensation for this endorsement. I recommend it because it’s a genuinely great product. But if Backblaze decides to send a check I will cash it for sure).

Getting Started with Local Backups

After you have Backblaze up and running, local backups are the next best option for a couple of reasons:

1. Local backups are the fastest and easiest when you need to restore
2. Aside from the storage device costs, local backups are the most economical
3. Local backups are the easiest to control from a privacy and security standpoint

Time Machine

I have my Time Machine backups set to run hourly. It’s a completely set-and-forget solution. It creates incremental backups of all of your files. However, and this is an extremely important however, Time Machine does not create a bootable clone of your machine.

In other words, if your computer fails for some reason, you’ll still have to go through the hassle of reinstalling your operating system and reconfiguring all of your OS and application settings.

Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon Copy Cloner is another Mac backup utility that’s more advanced than Time Machine and gives a lot more options for backing up your computer.

Unlike Time Machine, CCC will backup your entire computer if you want it to. It will also back up individual files or folders, and will run the backups at whatever frequency you’d like. It has all sorts of advanced configuration settings.

I have a very basic weekly backup schedule using CCC. It backs up my entire computer, but only the files that have changed in the last 7 days, so backups run quickly.

I leave the Time Machine drive connected to my computer all the time. Then once a week on Sunday night I eject the Time Machine disk and connect the CCC disk. I leave the CCC disk connected for 8-10 hours, which is long enough for the CCC backups to also be copied to Backblaze. Remember how Backblaze backs up all of your external storage as well? Now you have backups for your backups!

Additional note: The disk rotation is only necessary if you’re limited on port space like I am. You could easily leave both disks connected all the time.

Here are a couple of more quick tips related to local backups:

1. I strongly recommend enabling disk encryption on external media so that even if the disks are stolen, the data will be inaccessible.
   • Instructions for encrypting Time Machine disks
   • FAQs about encryption with Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Buy an additional set of physical external disks and rotate them to a remote location (bank safety deposit box, friend’s house, etc) on a monthly or quarterly basis.
3. Solid state drives (SSDs) are more reliable long-term.
4. USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt connections allow for faster backups and restores.

Backing up to the Cloud

I separate my Cloud backups into two separate types — files and photos.

Backing up Photos to Cloud Services

My photography source of truth for photo storage is the iCloud Photos. This library is automatically backed up to iCloud, Backblaze, Time Machine, and CCC from my Mac.

Additionally, these photos are backed up to Amazon Photos, Google Photos, and Dropbox from my iPhone via their respective apps.

After initial setup, your photos will backup to these services automatically. However, and this is a big however, due to background process restrictions on iPhone, these apps will require you to leave their respective apps open occasionally to sync all of your photos.

I don’t have a specific regimen for this, but every once in a while (probably about once a month) I’ll open each app before I go to bed so that the photos upload while my phone is charging on its dock.

Backing up Files to Cloud Services

Mainly I let these apps work in the background of my Mac and do what they do. But for my most important files, I have one extra special Hazel workflow. If there are files or directories that I want to make sure are protected, I add an important tag to them.

Then my Hazel workflow automatically copies them to a corresponding Google Drive, iCloud Drive, and Dropbox directory instantly. Here’s a quick preview of how I have that rule set up:

Pretty slick, right?

Miscellaneous Notes on Backups and a Few Additional Tricks

I understand that this will likely seem like overkill to most of you, and it likely is. If you’re keeping score at home, I have files backed up in six different locations and photos backed up in seven different locations, none of which include my actual computer hard drive.

It’s a relatively low price to pay for true peace of mind. I know that even under the most extreme and dire circumstances, my digital legacy will remain intact. On another day I’ll write about what it takes to restore these backups if something does go wrong, and how to do everything securely.

To wrap things up, here are a few final things I do to keep files backed up and protected:

1. I back up my iPhone to my Mac every week
2. I keep full resolution photos stored locally on my phone (I know Apple says this isn’t necessary, but again, it makes me feel better, so I do it)
3. I test and verify backups every 3 months

How about you? What does your backup routine look like? Any thoughts you have about my process or gaps you see? If you need help getting started with any of this, let me know in the comments!

Knowing when someone can be bothered when working from home is hard, so I created an automated way to clearly show those lovely housemates of yours that it’s fine to interrupt, or to please wait for a little while.

I understand the problem. Show me the setup!

Remember the video of the guy getting interviewed on BBC that had his family come barging in the office while he tried to explain the political climate of Korea?

Of course you remember it. It’s etched into your brain because it could so easily be you. It could be any of us. In fact, virtual meeting “fails” are all the rage now that more and more people are working from home.

And since the moment you were forced to start working from home three months ago, you’ve lived with a quiet, or maybe not-so-quiet fear about your kid bursting into the background during your important client call and asking you to do the finish cleanup work on their latest toilet production.

I have good news for you and the good news is that 1) there’s no need to sweat the uninvited home office guest anymore because it does happen to everyone, and 2) if you have children or roommates or significant others who aren’t complete monsters and who have some respect for social norms, I have a pretty cool way to prevent the accidental Zoom bombing.

There’s a space between the unintended drop-in and business as usual

I’m lucky because I have a dedicated workspace in my home that’s away from the foot traffic of day-to-day life. I’ve also worked from, or in an office with fewer than 5 people, for close to a decade now. Point is I can be easily forgotten by the rest of my family when I’m “at work”.

That was until the pandemic hit and every one of my kids were at home every hour and minute and second of every day. Did I mention they never leave home ever?

Because of our new-found always-togetherness, I felt more of an impulse or a need to be more present for my family. Also, the number of times that Jackie or the boys had a question or needed help with something had a bit of an uptick.

The thing is though, we had already established that “dad’s working”, so they didn’t want to interrupt. And because they didn’t want to interrupt I’d always get these faint taps on the door or a set of eyes peering in just a crack. Both of which are creepy as hell.

We needed a signal! We needed some kind of way for me to indicate that I’m interrupt-able or bother-able, or that I’m neither.

I got to work and with a smart bulb and some basic automation, created a mostly full-proof and automated way to show “I’m in a meeting” or “Please, come in!”

I’m going to show you how you can setup the same thing at home too.

Building An Automated Do Not Disturb system

My beautiful in-ceiling Hue light

Stuff You’ll Need

• Philips Hue Smart Bulbs – $45
• Philips Hue Bridge 2nd Gen – $60
• Hue App – Free download after committing your life to the Philips gods.
• Zapier Starter – $19 per month (I use this for tons of other time-saving automations in my life which is why I can justify the cost)
• Google Calendar – You probably have this already

Getting Started with Automated Do Not Disturb

I ended up choosing the Hue family of products because they seemed to have the most integrations with other systems, with the smallest amount of fuss.

I’m the first to admit they’re a little on the pricey side, which is why I went with the bulbs instead of one of their super fancy sconces or decorative light fixtures. Those things get stupid expensive, and simply weren’t worth it for what I was making.

What I set out to build is essentially an automated on/off switch that turned the Hue light on when a meeting was about to start, and turned it back off once the meeting was over.

I’ve been using this setup for a few months now and I’m super happy with how reliable it’s been, although it does have one point of failure that I’ll get into more later.

Step 1: Pick Your Light Location

I spent more time than I’d like to admit figuring out where the best place to put my smart bulb would be. We have recessed (can) lighting outside of my office, so I ended up taking out one of our standard ceiling bulbs and replacing it with the smart bulb.

Putting the bulb in an existing socket kept me from needing to do any kind of home remodeling or fixture hanging, and honestly, it’s the most conspicuous place I could put it. It’s almost impossible to miss if you come by my office.

Find the place where your smart light is going to be noticed by as many housemates as possible, and screw it in.

Step 2: Set Up Your Home Bridge and Connect Your Smart Bulb

I’m not going to get into the specifics of setting up the Hue system, but I mention it here because it’s a necessary step.

Follow along with their setup documentation and instructions within the Hue apps and you’ll be up and running quickly. It took me about 20 minutes to set everything up.

• How to Install the Philips Hue Starter Kit

NOTE: The Hue Bridge does need to be plugged in with an ethernet cable to work, so if your home router doesn’t have physical ports, you might need to add a small network switch so the Hub can be plugged in. It doesn’t work wirelessly.

Note 2: You’ll need to create an account on meethue.com for the automation piece. It’s also needed to control any of your smart home devices from a remote location, so a bit of a no-brainer.

Step 3: Connect Hue and Google Calendar to Zapier

The next thing you’ll need to do is create “Triggers” in Zapier between Hue and Google Calendar. Since you’ll probably be adding these apps for the first time, you’ll need to go through a short authorization process to grant access to Zapier so it can see your data in Hue and Calendar.

You’ll create one trigger to turn the light on when your calendar event starts, and another one to turn it off when the event is over. Simple enough, right?

• Comprehensive List of Hue Integrations with Zapier
• Comprehensive List of Google Calendar Integrations with Zapier

Create a Google Calendar Start Event Trigger

Choose the Calendar You Want to Use
I have my work calendar setup for this one

Customize the Event
After some trial and error, I set the start time at 15 minutes before my my event starts. What I found is that the Zapier automations aren’t super precise, so there were occasional times that the light would come on after the event had already started. A 15 minute buffer mostly resolves that issue.

Create a Set Scene Zapier Trigger
Now that you’ve connected Google Calendar and setup that piece of it, you’ll want to create the automation that actually turns the light on.

You want the “Set Scene” event from Philips

Choose the account you created when setting up your Home Bridge

Customize the Scene
I’ve chosen “Savanna Sunset” because it was easily the most grabbing of all the pre-configured scenes. If you get really nerdy you can create your own custom scenes and really fine tune that color palette. I’m lazy, so I haven’t done that yet.

NOTE: There’s some very important, yet understated text in that last screenshot, which is the point of failure I mentioned earlier in this article”

NONE OF THIS WILL NOT WORK IF THE LIGHT SWITCH IS TURNED OFF

Trust me, I know.

In order to save you some setup time you can use the Zaps I created and just put in your own account information.

EVENT START ZAP

EVENT STOP ZAP

And that’s it! You’re ready to go. Now whenever your Google Calendar events start and stop, a giant glowing red (or green or blue or yellow) orb will illuminate and signal to your family and loved ones that you’re either in a meeting, or created a fake event to give yourself an extra 30 minutes alone to scream into a pillow.

Whatever you need it for, this automation will be there to help.

P.S. I found an iOS App that solves a similar problem. It isn’t automated, but it lets people share whether or not they can be disturbed with the people they live with. It’s called Oh Bother and looks pretty cool. Check it out.

P.P.S. Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts and feedback about my last post. I know it was a little bit heavy, but I felt like it needed to be. It created more private conversations than probably anything I’ve written before. I’m glad we can all learn together!

P.P.P.S (or is it P.P.S.S.?) If you run into any issues with your Do Not Disturb setup, feel free to give me a shout and I’ll do my best to help out.

Fun fact: the First Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened in Utah in 1952.

Not-so-fun fact: Colonel Sanders’ first name is apparently Harland which is the 2nd most Southern name.

The first most Southern name is Bocephus.

The most Southern name hierarchy as we know it is officially:

1. Bocephus
2. Harland
3. Hank

The most popular name for girls living East of the Mason-Dixon in 2019 is Dolly but it’s not even in the top 10 most Southern names.

None of this is important.

What is important is that Harland, excuse me, the Colonel, has created something for the holiday season that’s sure to bring the spirit of giving into your home assuming you have two things:

1. A fire place
2. A hankerin’ for some franchise chicken aromas

The KFC Firelog available exclusively at Wal-Mart (which seems like a gag but is 1000% true) promises to bring the savory scents of those 11 herbs and spices directly to your face holes. Light up that log and you’re instantly transported to flavor town.

And I know that some of you are asking, how is this real? Is this real?

It’s real.

And honestly, it’s brilliant. No one knows their target market better than the Kentucky Fried Chicken corporation.

I’ve done some independent market research that shows that the KFC Firelog is the perfect gift for literally every single person in your life that owns a fireplace.

Exhibit A:

I was somewhat surprised myself, but it turns out every single person who owns a fireplace loves them some world-famous fried chicken smells too. There are zero exceptions.

At $18.99 for up to 3 hours of burn time, you’re probably gonna want to gift a six-pack to the people you care about most. I frankly can’t believe that these are only sold individually. Definitely a miss from the KFC team.

And KFC, if you’re looking for more ways to introduce chicken fumes into the atmosphere, let me pitch you a few quick ideas:

• KFC Air Freshener – Two spritzes in every room and your dog will never run away again.
• KFC Scented Candles – Please be careful with this one. You could decimate the entire candle industry with one creation. Some obvious monopolistic risks here.
• KFC Fabric Refresher – Tired of your clothes smelling like summer rain? Bring a new SEASONing to your wardrobe.
• KFC Perfume and/or Cologne – does poultry excite your partner? Buy Eau de Kentuck.

What are you waiting for? The holiday season is upon us and the time to order is now. Give the perfect gift to the cousin who went muddin’ that one time and blew a head gasket so ended up huntin’ squirrel to kill the time until Pa could show up with his wench but then accidentally shot an armadilla which everyone knows is bad luck which hell we didn’t need anymore of that on account we were already buried in mud n’ shit but then not too much later Ma showed up with a bucket of the Colonel’s goodie goods and ya know it all ended up alright.

Author note: I wrote this at 3 am because my kids either hate sleep or hate me, or both.

I have a vice. Well, I have several but we’re going to focus on one today.

I love soda.

And right now in Utah there’s a fancy soda craze sweeping the region.

These little soda shops are cropping up like black mold in a Louisiana swamp and the idea is that you take perfectly good soda, add a bunch of random trash to it, and then pay $4 for roughly 38 cents worth of product. AND YOU SMILE while doing it. It’s a complete racket and I personally refuse to participate but there’s one part of it that makes a lot of sense to me.

The citrus squeeze.

Whether you’re drinking water, soda, an iced tea, or literally any other beverage that’s intended to refresh, a little squeeze of lemon and/or lime can really brighten it up and bring everything together.

I don’t want to get too political here but it’s important you know I’m a citrus squeeze advocate.

Well, this fancy soda craze has trickled down into the everyman gas station here. The convenience store where I’m most frequently a patron has added a full soda syrup bar and sliced lemons and limes so that one can self-serve this flavor-punch accouterment. And for the most part, it’s a very nice addition.

I see them clean the syrup pumps on a very regular schedule and at least weekly the entire syrup rack is removed for a deeper clean. Whoever is running sanitation over there should be applauded. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t run a black light through there, but by gas station standards they’re setting a high bar and I appreciate it.

But there’s a dark side too. I have photographic proof that Big Citrus has been price-fixing the lemons and limes in a way that Bernie Madoff would find appalling.

First of all, yes, the syrups are all complimentary. I’m glad you asked. It’s an important piece to the puzzle. I’m not sure what kind of socialist regime is at the heart of this operation but as someone who never partakes of the syrups, I still endorse the practice because I’ve seen the joy it puts on the faces of so many other people, including the roommate that I share a bed with.

Second of all, no, the citrus is not complimentary. There’s an upcharge of 5 cents per slice which is the completely wrong way to price the citrus (we’ll get into that more in a moment). The only explanation I can come up with for why the fruit wedge is an additional fee is that Big Citrus is running an independent operation outside of the rest of the convenience store. Because if the gas station is giving away complimentary syrups, why, pray tell, would they be charging for lemons and limes?

I understand that Utah is a food desert and we don’t have any local citrus. I understand that stocking it must have some associated cost, perhaps even a high one. So let’s assume for just a moment that charging more for for this little squeeze of sunshine is a fair practice. It’s in direct contradiction with the economic model of the syrup bar, but we’ll soldier forward.

Even if I’m able to forgive the fruit fee, and I’m still not sure I am (in my heart, where it counts), the only possible explanation of the “per slice” pricing model is corruption.

The pricing model is disgusting and I wouldn’t be surprised for a second to learn that it has organized crime ties.

I present you with exhibit A:

Varying lime wedge lengths from presumably the same lime.

We don’t even need to get out calipers to show how wildly inconsistent the sizing is here. It’s like if Coach charging the same price for a Snakeskin Harmony Hobo and a Pop-Up Messenger Crossbody! CAN YOU IMAGINE??? (I had to google expensive purse companies and browse their catalogs to complete this paragraph).

Even more, there have been many mornings when I’ve squeezed (squoze? squozen? squeezeth?) the limes and instead of their delicious and refreshing juices flowing into my cup, it’s been dust, moth balls, and sadness. If you remember that scene in Christmas Vacation when Kathleen cuts into the turkey you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Charging the same fee for such a wildly variable product is, in fact, criminal. And it can’t stand any longer. The good news is, I know how to fix it.

A scale is the answer here. I’d be totally comfortable weighing each wedge prior to adding it to my beverage and paying accordingly. Of course, all of the citrus would be handled with tongs and a small wax insert would be replaced on the scale between each citrus-weighing. And yes, the weight of the wax paper would be factored in and removed at the time of pricing. We live in a society, mostly. We would keep the prices consistent and fair with current market rates. Even further, all lemon and lime rinds would be removed by the staff prior to weighing, so that skin thickness isn’t unfairly skewing the juice to price ratios. Yes, labor costs for rind removal may increase the total fee slightly, but allowing guests to skin their own citrus could easily result in tampering, and that won’t stand.

Have you seen similar little injustices where you live? Does my solution have any weaknesses? Where do you stand on the soda shop craze? I’d love to hear from you!

Editor Note: This publication shares this solution freely and without licensing fees. All service stations are welcome to use this perfect plan without payment. We do ask for attribution in the form of placement of a small statue (84-96”) of Ryan at each store location. You’re free to use whatever materials you’d like to construct the statue after receiving written approval from the publication.

It took me 38 years to recognize all the little things that I realize.

Put another way, it wasn’t until very recently that I realized how differently I see the world than almost everyone else.

Like the time I could see the slow-motion internal dilemma of a fellow middle-aged man reaching for a copy of The Avengers and wondering if he could pull it off as a Mother’s Day gift.

Or the time I was pitched a live stream trucking startup by a stranger and thought it sounded like a pretty great idea.

Or the time I noticed the bakery by my house only made 4 crullers every morning when they should have been making way more.

You get the idea.

Most of the people I know in real life who read this blog will tell me how “funny” it is when they read it. And don’t get me wrong, I definitely dramatize and go out of my way to make folks laugh when the mood strikes. It’s a service I like to provide for one low monthly fee.

Narrator: Ryan is under the impression he’s been charging $187 per month to read his blog for years and is still bewildered that he’s unable to account for the funds.

But for me, that “funny” is the gift and/or curse that I live with every single day. It’s the noticing that’s truly different about who I am and the way I operate, not so much the ability to make jokes and tell funny stories from nothing.

Life in High Definition

Do you remember the time your family got a new flat screen TV that had high definition? Before makeup artists knew how to make adjustments for an HD camera?

It was an incredible feat of technology and horrifying all at once. Like, the person talking to us through the panel on the wall looked like they could step through the frame at any time and join us in our living room. But there was also this harsh realization of wondering if the stunning and unblemished Matt Lauer had always looked like Skeletor with a receding hairline. And if he had, and this new technology brought it to the forefront, what would mere mortals like us look like on HDTV?!

That’s the closest comparison I can make to what it’s like to live inside my brain and see the world through my eyes. I see the peculiar in the mundane.

I was trying to explain this whole idea to a friend recently and told them about how I saw someone returning a fruitcake at a Costco and asked them how bad a fruitcake would have to be to wait in a line on a Saturday to return it.

Their answer: “Huh, I’m not sure. That hadn’t ever occurred to me.”

Well, dear reader, “It hadn’t occurred to me” has literally never occurred to me.

EVERYTHING OCCURS TO ME.

I see everything in the sharpest and most vivid detail and apparently through a very special lens that was crafted for a small few. And I want to find more people who see the world like I do. Or at the very least who can appreciate the weird in the same way that I do.

There’s a darker side to seeing the world this way that I’ll talk about some more another day, but today we’re all good vibes.

Information Overload

In the same way that it takes a lot of very large hard drives to store high-definition video, storing the constant stream of memes, news articles, and everyday life that’s flowing into my brain takes a lot of mental energy, and frankly, I don’t have many places to off board the stuff that I don’t need anymore. I have Twitter, my journal, and I have this blog. And a small number of friends who get my bizarre texts.

I’d like to publicly apologize to them here.

But everything else remains neatly tucked away under the luscious mane atop my slightly misshapen head (my great hair is one of the last things I’ve got so I’m gonna celebrate it, ok?). And my brain just works on this information, not ever knowing exactly what to do with it. It just processes endlessly until I work myself into a tizzy or write 10,000 words on how Robin Williams is the most special actor of a generation and then never publish it.

Because of this bottleneck, I have an idea that I’m going to try that goes against common convention. Every blogging expert will tell you he right thing to do to “skyrocket your traffic” or “hack your search rankings” is to create a “niche” blog. Write about something incredibly specific in every possible way.

• The ultimate guide to unlocking hotel thermostats
• Are hotel thermostats really spy cameras for government agencies?
• How to discipline your hotel thermostat when it’s stopped listening to you
• Do you have enough hotel thermostats for retirement?

Excuse me while I add Content Strategist and SEO Expert to my LinkedIn Profile. adjusts monocle

The Little Curiosities

Now as compelling as my hotel thermostat blog sounds (there’s a whole section called “hot takes”, get it?), I’ll be honest, it bores me.

I’m a dynamic person with dynamic interests that range anywhere from 80s Pop Music to “After centuries of trading eggs and lumber I wonder who figured out they could just polish a rock really well, call it currency, and then have unlimited funds at their disposal overnight. And what’s the 2019 version of that look like?” (Short answer is that it’s Bitcoin but I’m stealing future topics from myself so I’ll stop here).

You know, normal stuff.

All this to say I’m shedding the pressure of writing about family, or comedy, or productivity, or tech, or cooking, or WordPress, or literally any other specific topic. I’ll probably write about all of those things in one way or another, but hopefully with a unique spin or at least in a way that highlights the high-definition life view that I carry.

On a much more frequent basis I’ll be publishing here on what I’m calling Little Curiosities. Weird questions I ask myself, bizarre things I see, little things that make my life better, or creations that impress me that might fall outside the mainstream. They also might be very mainstream, but I’ll find a way to put a unique twist on them.

And sometimes I’ll just let my brain run rampant and burn through compute cycles because I literally need it to keep this mind of mine healthy as I zoom toward 40.

And as I put out more things like this, I do hope that a little community of weirdos grows here. I’d love to have a healthy comment section full of unique takes and points of view, and more importantly the people attached to those ideas. And I know that sounds very web circa 2008, but I’d love to see it make a roaring comeback in 2020 and beyond. Those were the “good old days” of the internet, and they don’t need to go away.

Curious that we let the nerdiest guy at a University full of the biggest nerds in the world convince us Facebook was “cool”, right? Right.

If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll follow along by subscribing to my email newsletter (there’s a box in the sidebar), or subscribing via RSS. You can follow me on Twitter too, but please consult with your physician prior to taking that extreme step.

Thank you to any of you who read the things I put out into the world. I feel immensely grateful for that. And for the special members paying $187 per month, I’ll be updating my special private latest episode of the Little Curiosities podcast in just a bit.

Narrator: Ryan has been uploading episodes of himself talking about shoe horns to a stranger’s SoundCloud account for four years now and no one has the heart to tell him.

We all know what a Roast is, right?

They started back in the mid-century 1900s with Dean Martin, I believe, and the idea is that someone brings together a group of people they really like and trust and the collective then proceeds to take personal shots until the guest of honor is either crying because they’re laughing so hard or because the jabs have become so deeply personal that their first step out the door is into a taxi cab on their way to a special hospital with padded rooms called “Woodlawn” or “Aspen Reserve” or something like that.

Comedy Central’s had their flavor of roasts for quite a while now and they’re not really my speed because anymore it seems like the participants barely know each other and are only there because 1) they’re getting a paycheck and 2) they fill a really nice demographic that can be used for pitching advertisers.

The CC roasts are also entirely about shock and awe which I find to be a particularly boring flavor of comedy.

At any rate, as far as I know, no one in the last 60 years has had the intestinal fortitude to bring one of their own children on stage to speak real truth.

And I know why. It’s because the guests of honor are genuinely terrified of what their children might say. Kids are ruthless and will say all the things that even make the Howard Sterns of the world squirm in their chairs a little bit. Kids have seen the behind-the-scenes that no one else has. And they have zero built-in filters to know when it may or may not be appropriate to share from their memory banks.

Let me show you a quick example:

(​Disclaimer​: I’m intentionally not identifying which of my children said these things to protect their privacy. I’ll use the name “Patrickus” as a proxy name)

Working Out

In an attempt to take better care of my body I’ve been exercising more. Still not a lot, but it’s enough of a shift that my kids have started to notice the habit. So I’m in our basement sweating away to Jock Jams or whatever and Patrickus enters the room.

Patrickus: DAD, DON’T EXERCISE. COME WATCH A SHOW WITH ME

Me: I need … to… gasp I need to exercise buddy.

Patrickus: Nah, you can stop.

Me: Haha. I can come watch with you in a little bit but I need to finish this workout first. Just a few more minutes.

(​Quick aside: Like I needed any extra motivation to quit that workout on the spot. I was dying to watch some Peppa Pig if it meant I didn’t have to do the next set of lunges, but I soldiered on​)

Patrickus: NOT A FEW MORE MINUTES. COME ON!

Me: No really, bud. I’m too fat so I need to exercise more.

Patrickus: ok

Now let me paint a picture really quickly. Patrickus once spent an entire month, 30 seconds at a time, trying to convince me that his birthday was in August when it’s actually in February. And you know when they nagging stopped? When I threw him an impromptu “half birthday” because he clearly has a stronger will than I do.

So for him to concede this quickly with my “I’m too fat” take means that he bought it immediately which is so incredibly hurtful but I also respect the honesty so much.

Never in my entire life have I been owned by two syllables in the English language, or any language for that matter, the way I was that day. O followed by a K in the most understanding tone.

Devastating.

And also HILARIOUS.

So Patrick, err, I mean Patrickus… as of today you are formally uninvited from any future roasts. OK?

What’s the most honest and honestly brutal thing that a child has ever said to you? Let’s feel the pain together (and celebrate how funny our can be).

We were already married when I found out you had been paying 10 cents for every single text that we sent back and forth the entire time we were dating.

I started to do the mental math and my brain overheated because I knew how many late nights we spent furiously finger-typing until 2 am.

All along I figured you must have had unlimited texting like I did, but it turns out only the coolest of the cool had such a luxury

But that’s how we’ve always done everything.

You see, I never had any reason to assume that you had unlimited texting. A very basic question from me would have saved you full paychecks of digital bits that have since evaporated into the ether.

But asking that question would have been “awkward”, and even though I’m sure you went into a cold sweat every time the T-Mobile bill arrived, on the surface you were always beyond cool.

In your mind you were making an investment. In my mind, I probably would have encouraged you to change your plan, or honestly, the text messages would have slowed down a whole lot.

And deep down I think you knew that. But you didn’t want the texts to stop.

You knew how hard it was to get inside my brain, and more importantly inside my heart. And so now that you had found your way inside my thick outer shell, you weren’t going to risk letting that door close again, even if it meant picking up more shifts or starting another part-time job.

Welcome to Mooseport

Does anyone outside of our closest friends know that Ray Romano and Gene Hackman are who brought us together?

That the feature film with a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 19 and a critic score of 13 was the catalyst for starting our family?

And no, I don’t mean that in the literal sense. Jeez, perverts. Why’d you go and ruin a perfectly romantic post about how Jackie and I started dating?

It’s not like Ray Romano was our Barry White. We wouldn’t put on Everybody Loves Raymond re-runs and listen to the smooth sounds of Ray yelling “MAAAAA WHY’D YA TELL DAD ABOUTIT?!” in order to get in the mood.

No, that wasn’t it at all. BUT, sometimes a really awful movie is great reason to ignore the movie completely and get lost in each other. The movie is a decoy because there’s no cool way to invite a person to your shared dorm living room to talk about how much you care about them.

I remember how nervous we both were. The idea of telling each other how much fun it had been to spend time together was terrifying to both of us.

And for the longest time I gave myself credit for brining us together. Because technically I sent the text and rented the DVD, so that night that set the trajectory for the next fifteen years was all my doing.

high fives self

It took me longer than I’d ever like to admit that your efforts are the reason we’re together all these years later.

I mean, technically, I did send the text and did spend the $4.18 at Hollywood Video, but I never would have had a chance if you weren’t there to begin with.

You were always there, and not in a stalker-type way. As far as I know you’ve always had a clean criminal record.

But it was like you knew we’d be together way before it was something I had even considered. Before it was a fleeting thought for me, it was a foregone conclusion for you.

And if you hadn’t known that fifteen years later we’d still be together, we probably wouldn’t be together. Because I would have told you to save your money and stop texting. And Ray Romano would still be stuck in that demolished Hollywood Video.

Happy Birthday Jac. Thank you for always seeing what matters most (and for showing me I’m worth the 10 cents per message).

Brady would be mortified if he knew I were writing this so if you see him in the street, please keep this particular post on the down-low.

He deserves all the attention that we could possibly ever give him, but the last thing he wants is the praise and limelight. I’m hoping he’ll appreciate this someday, but he’d die of embarrassment if he were to see it today.

Brady is glue.

He’s always quietly holding things together behind the scenes. He never asks for recognition, and would always prefer a quiet thank you over any kind of fanfare.

Brady had his 11th birthday yesterday and I can’t let another day go by without expressing my gratitude for the amazing human that I get to call my son.

So why exactly is Brady glue?

I’m glad you asked. Because on the surface it probably feels a bit strange for a parent to compare their offspring to a household adhesive, but believe me, Brady is glue.

Glues Allows the Bonding of Dissimilar Materials

To understand one way that Brady is glue, you need to understand the dynamics of my family, at least a little bit. Brady has two brothers with autism, two neurotypical (mostly) parents, and a 140 pound Newfie Lab. We’re like the 2019 iteration of the Brady Bunch except for instead of blending two families, we’re blending a cocktail of complex behaviors and neuroses.

You’re every-day-run-of-the-mill ten eleven-year-old is going to buckle under the pressure of the cement mixer of everyday life in this type of environment. I know I would have (I still do). But not only does Brady survive in the heat of the kiln, he somehow brings all of the pieces together and melds them into a beautiful sum of parts. He creates art from scrap.

Brady is glue.

Glue is Flexible

Any good structural engineer will tell you that rigidity and brittleness are the enemy of sound structures. The earth moves every single day. An edifice with high tensile strength but no flexibility is going to buckle with even the slightest shift in its foundation.

Lucky for me this family is held together with one of the most impressive materials ever conceived. Brady’s ability to “go with the flow” is astounding to me. I watch in awe as he accommodates the needs of everyone in the family at the expense of his own interests. And he does it all with a thumbs-up readily available and a Cowabunga attitude. It’s remarkable.

And to be clear, we really go out of our way to give Brady the most “normal” childhood we know how. We try not to ask too much. He simply has a unique ability to sense when the structure is on the verge of collapse, and his flexibility will help us reset to fight another day.

He’s done everything from canceling events we know he was looking forward to, volunteering to stay with his brothers while mom and dad take a much-needed five to refuel with Diet Coke, all the way up to volunteering his allowance money to pay for a treat when Collin is inconsolable.

Brady is glue.

Glue Becomes Stronger Under Heat and Pressure

We all have hard days. And my definition of hard is different from your definition of hard. But we all have days where we feel the need to throw our hands in the air and give up.

It’s in these moment’s that Brady’s strength becomes the most fierce.

I’ll never forget the time that he turned down an iPhone because he was worried about how it might make his friends feel. At 10, had I been presented with one of the most impressive technological devices on the planet, my friends probably wouldn’t have ever seen me again.

And I’ll also never forget about the time that Collin and Patrick were both completely distraught at the same time. Kicking, screaming, the works. None of us knew what to do or how to cope. And as I rounded the corner into the living room, I found our ten year old on his knees, supplicating to the Lord that “Collin and Patrick can be happy again.”

In a moment where breaking down would have been totally understandable, and frankly, was how I reacted, Brady reached for the most powerful tool in his arsenal and brought us all back together in an instant.

Brady is glue.

Happy Birthday, Brady. I hope you read this someday. But not today. I just want you to be happy today. I love you, buddy.

I keep my most-used apps on the lower half of my home screen so they’re easier to get to.

Curating a list of apps that I use every single day was harder than I thought it was going to be. There are many many apps that I use almost every single day, but there are exactly ten that I can say I use literally every single day.

And so I don’t perjure myself in the event this blog post is ever presented as evidence in an iPhone-usage court of law, I ultimately used the criteria that in the last 30 days I’ve used the apps listed below at least 29 times.

And just so this isn’t another random listicle polluting the internet, I’ve also included links to some helpful guides I’ve personally used to really get the most out of each one of these apps. Enjoy!

1Password

My master password is . Get it?

I feel like I’ve gushed at length about 1Password but it’s become an integral part of my life. Full stop. It’s important for maintaining secure and unique passwords, and it’s an incredible tool for that purpose. Where 1Password truly become daily game-changing software for me, was when I started tapping into features like one-time passwords, storing numbers like SSNs and birthdays, and even tracking details like expiration dates for memberships, passports and driver licenses. There’s a bunch of other non-password stuff you can do with it too.

1Password Resources

• Choosing a better master password [1password blog]
• What else can you store in 1Password? [1password blog]
• Use Watchtower to find passwords you need to change [1password blog]
• Use 1Password as an authenticator for sites with two-factor authentication [1password blog]

Safari

This search engine of choice is a blog post for another day.

I surf the web every day . And I use Safari for that. I wrote an entire post about some of the reasons I use Safari and some tips for getting started if you’re using another browser right now.

Safari Resources

• Why I use Apple Safari – And Some Tips for Getting Started [this blog]
• Best Safari Extensions of 2019 (I agree with most of these) [iMore]
• The Power User’s Guide to Safari [Lifehacker]

Drafts

This blog post started in Drafts before I knew it was gonna be a blog post. Initially, I started making a little list in Drafts about apps I really love and enjoy using every day. And now we’re here. Basically, I capture everything from my entire brain in Drafts and then see where it goes from there. Sometimes my drafts get deleted, and sometimes they evolve into something useful or dare I say, important? Drafts has become an every day must-use app for me.

Drafts Resources

• Getting Started with Drafts Screencasts [Drafts website]
• Drafts Actions [Drafts website]
• How I use Drafts on iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch [The Sweet Setup]

Bear

I love the little icons I can choose for every tag. Look at that Cobalt color scheme too

The best way I can describe Bear is that it’s sort of like Evernote? It’s a system for storing notes and text in Markdown. I can add pdfs and stuff like that to it too, but that’s a more rare use case for me. Some example entries include “Stuff I Want to Get for our Kitchen” and “Printer Cartridge Models”. I’ll also use Bear to draft important emails occasionally. The search within Bear is nice and quick, and it has a useful tagging system to keep things organized too.

And while it might seem contradictory to use Drafts and Bear together, lots of my Drafts end up as notes in Bear eventually. Bear is where I keep reference material that I want to keep around and check back on often.

• Why I finally replaced Evernote with Bear [The Verge]
• The Super Big List of Tips for working with tags and Bear notes [Bear app website]

Day One

I clearly don’t get out much

Day One might be the most beautifully-crafted software I’ve ever owned. I mean it. I genuinely love using it every day. And I think if I didn’t enjoy using the app so much, I never would have established a daily journaling habit that’s lasted for a full year now. The app just gets out of the way in an extremely elegant way.

Every day I find a new little delightful surprise when I use the app, like the ability to automatically import my instagram posts, or something more subtle like looking at all of my blog post entries on a map. I look forward to adding whatever’s on my mind into Day One each day.

Day One Resources

• Day One in Depth – This is a course that I took that’s really well done. It’s $29 and while the video overviews of the software are nice, I could have figured all that out on my own. The most helpful takeaway from the course for me was all the different ways and ideas for using Day One each day. I’d definitely recommend it. [The Sweet Setup]
• Day One Journal Series – [Day One website]

Reminders

Yes I lay out my clothes for the following day every single night. Leave me alone.

I use Reminders to remind me to do things. That may sound pretty obvious, but Reminders isn’t a Todo app for me. I literally tell Siri to “remind me to tell Jackie about what happened at work today” or “Remind me to change the laundry in 45 minutes”. It’s a little utility to remind me to do things that won’t take long to do, or I can’t do right now, and that I also don’t want to forget. I use Reminders to remind. Imagine that.

I haven’t taken a deep dive into the new iOS 13 Reminders app yet, but I’m not sure a lot of the extra stuff that’s been added will be for me. Some of it even seems ahem … heavily inspired … by my next favorite daily app.

Reminders Resources

• Reminders App: The Ultimate Guide [iMore]

Things

Things is my actual Todo app. It’s also very good software and feels incredibly solidly built. I’m pretty sure I’ve used every todo app on the planet. Yes, even that one. And while there are many apps that have way more features than Things, and are seemingly more powerful, the relative simplicity of it is what I like most about it.

Things is powerful in all the right places, and beautifully basic everywhere else. Omnifocus felt like sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter. Google Keep was like riding a unicycle. And Things feels like a finely tuned supercar. I can get in and “just drive”.

• All The Things – Productivity Course – This is another course that I purchased and can highly recommend. There are a few parts of Things that I had a hard time matching to exactly the way I work, and this course helped me figure out some ways to make the app work similarly to the way that I do. [The Sweet Setup]
• Creating Repeating Todos – This wasn’t terribly intuitive to me at first, but now that I understand it I love the way repeating tasks work in Things. [Things website]
• Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac – A major selling points for me on Things is that I can control the entire app without touching my trackpad or mouse. Woohoo!

Streaks

I’ve used Streaks off and on for a number of years and have recently added it back to my arsenal. I’ve always liked the idea and implementation of the app. It’s like a habit tracker where you log certain activities that you want to do on a regular basis. In the past the app has been overwhelming to use because any day I’d break a streak and have to start over at zero again, I’d feel a major sense of failure.

The good news is that recently (in the last six months or so) something clicked and I realized that every time I started to use Streaks in the past, I’d also add 5 new habits that I wanted to add to my life. This time I’ve started with some basic habits that are high on my priority list and I don’t intend to add anything new until everything I’m tracking now is routinely happening every single day without question.

I have Streaks for brushing my teeth twice per day, not eating after 8:00pm, weighing myself, writing, and praying. Nothing major, but they’re all little things that I know will have a very positive impact on my life over time. This time around Streaks has “stuck” much better and doesn’t have the attached guilt if I need to start over sometimes.

Fitbit

I know that Apple Watches are all the rage these days. I’ve owned two of them, and from a technological and fashion perspective they’re far superior to anything that Fitbit makes. BUT, and this is a very personal but, I really do like the simplicity of FitBit.

I own the Fitbit Flex 2 and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Fitbit makes it anymore. WHAT A SHAME. I love it because it doesn’t even have a screen. At the time I bought it I paid around 60 bucks. It tracks all my activity and sleep, but doesn’t have the ability to interrupt my day with notifications.

Also, if it breaks at some point, it was inexpensive enough that I’m not going to be bent out of shape about it. The fact that it doesn’t have a screen makes it almost indestructible though. And sure, there are tradeoffs, and again, if my biggest priority were “best tech gadget” then the Apple Watch would win by a country mile, but there’s still something really charming about the simplicity of FitBit which is why I haven’t given it up quite yet.

MAKE ANOTHER SCREENLESS FIT BIT, YOU COWARDS!!

That’s It. That’s the List.

What are the apps that you use every single day? What can add to my future app list that I haven’t already? FEED MY APP HUNGER.

With the internet we would finally get rid of the monopolistic stronghold from our Cable and Satellite providers! We were going to be Julie Andrews in a Swiss meadow of endless DRM-free on-demand content, and our only cost would be the pipe that would bring it directly into our living room set top box.

It was a day that couch potatoes everywhere revered. 12,000 content buckets streaming 24/7. Never again were we going to ask “is anything good on?” We’d be deliberately ignoring our screaming children to choose which of all the incredible things we’d watch. We’d have to prioritize our content into formal queues.

“No no, Emmy-award-winning show, I’ll get to you when I feel like it. You don’t tell me when you’re on. I summon you when I’m good and ready. In fact, I know it took you three years to make this TV show, but I’m still gonna watch every single episode in one night because I’m a monster and I can.”

In many ways we’ve achieved this Xanadu fantasy status, but there’s a catch.

Narrator: I’ve been saying all along there’d be a catch.

Me: Dude, no one likes it when you’re smug, Mr. Narrator.

Narrator: The year is 1992 and Ryan is alone in his Grandmother’s basement with an entire box of Twinkies…

Me: OK WOW chill out, man. I’ll let the smugness go this time. Can we get back to the catch?

So the catch is this — We’re slowly moving away from the two provider duopoly (sorry, Dish Network, you were never really a player) into the Wild West of internet streaming services.

Instead of giving one financial offering to our content gods each month, we’re now at the mercy for a whole bevy of providers. No one really knows how much to charge for this stuff yet. It’s a mad dash for subscriber acquisition but you can rest assured that as the market matures and content farms grow their respective TV crop, the price on these services will inevitably go up over time.

Breaking Down the Numbers

DirectTV believes in very accurate pricing?

If I sign up for DirecTV Premier+ today, I receive 330+ channels and every single Premium channel (HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc) for $139.99 per month. That sounds like a lot (and it is!) but for all intents and purposes this appears to be every English and Spanish channel available to consumers, and hey, they’ll throw in a massive DVR to record it all to watch at your leisure if you sign up today.

Now let’s take a look at the streaming landscape. I’m going to include the no-Ad “upgrade” for every service because with a DVR and traditional TV, you can mostly recreate the ad-free experience by smashing your fast forward button.

Author Note: All of these services love offering a free trial and hate telling you how much their service actually costs. Many of the links below were really tough to come by, so… you’re welcome.

• Netflix – $15.99 per month
• Disney+ (soon to be released) – $6.99 per month
• Hulu (no Ads but they still show Ads) – $11.99 per month
• CBS All-Access (commercial-free) – $9.99 per month
• Peacock – They haven’t announced pricing for this yet but I had to include it because it’s clear they didn’t ask one person under the age of 40 about whether or not this was a good name for a streaming service.
• HBO – $14.99 per month
• Starz – $8.99 per month
• Showtime – $10.99 per month
• AppleTV+ – $4.99 per month
• YouTubeTV – $49.99 per month – I figured you’d want at least one live streaming service with sports available.
• Amazon Prime Video – $8.99 per month (also available with an annual Prime subscription with loads of other benefits for $119

Drumroll please…. $143.90 per month

And while streaming can be as much (or more expensive!) than traditional TV, there are some convenience benefits that might warrant that kind of trade-off. But we won’t get into that discussion today.

And, of course, it’s much easier to cancel one of these services than it is your TV contract (godspeed if that’s something in your near future).

The cost today isn’t what’s that interesting to me. The fact that we can easily be subject to a dozen different content providers is the part that’s equally interesting and terrifying to me.

Like I said before, this is just the beginning. As media groups invest more and more in original content, their pricing for these services can’t be a race to the bottom. The prices for these services has to go up.

So what’s our breaking point? Do we just continue to pay the digital content overlords their juice forever? Do we become one car families to support our media habits? Do we employ a judicious cancel/subscribe regimen based on the content we want to watch today? What say you?

P.S. I’m making this a P.S. because very few people care about this but even if I pay $143.90 per month for streaming I still can’t watch my beloved Utah Jazz. Even with an NBATV subscription the games are subject to regional blackouts. The Jazz are locked into a pretty bad TV contract with Rocky Mountain Sports Net so literally the only way I can watch Jazz games on TV is by having a DirectTV package. So right now I’m stuck somewhere in limbo. Thank you for reading this P.S.