Last December, I wanted to see if Bonobo could mix with hip-hop (turns out it does), and work outside my 125 BPM comfort zone. Thanks to the guys at Rap Genius for the inspiration (and the help). This is the result:

Download “Honey Junket” mixtape (256kbps MP4 / AAC) (61MB)

Track List

1. Atmosphere — The Woman With The Tattooed Hands
2. KiD CuDi — Maui Wowie
3. Ming + FS — Is There Honey?
4. Rhymefest — Mike The Mentor (feat. Michael Jackson)
5. Common — The People (feat. Dwele)
6. Apollo Brown — Brag Language (feat. Buff 1 & Magestik Legend)
7. DJ Danger Mouse — What More Can I Say
8. Kanye West — Stronger
9. The Hood Internet — Dr. Dre (feat. Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg) vs Fujiya & Miyagi - The Next Collarbone
10. Kanye West — Flashing Lights (feat. Dwele)
11. ydnar — Good Days Ahead (Bonobo vs Big K.R.I.T.)
12. The Notorious B.I.G. — Ghetto (feat. Akon & 2pac)
13. Bonobo — Light Pattern
14. Dr. Dre — Housewife (feat. Hittman & Kurupt)
15. Anni Rossi — Rude Boy (Rhianna cover)
16. Ratatat — Party And Bullshit (feat. The Notorious B.I.G.)
17. Bonobo — All In Forms
18. Notorious B.I.G. — Big Poppa
19. Lupe Fiasco — Hip-Hop Saved My Life (feat. Nikki Jean)

Chipped away learning to mix hip-hop, I present Bonobo’s “Days to Come” (2006) narrated by Big K.R.I.T. “Good Foot” (2011).

Download “Good Days Ahead” MP4 / AAC Audio (5.5MB)

After which, Sasha introduced me to his friend Tom, who’d taken his first Square transaction earlier in the day—a wholesale batch of his artisanal tonic.

Remarkable territory, this “mid-town.”

40 minutes, 125bpm, island hopping via flight 79 to Honolulu.

Download (256kbps MP3)

Track Listing

1. The Avalanches — Live at Dominoes
2. 40 Winks — Welcome To Paradise Island (Interlude)
3. Astrud Gilberto, Joao Gilberto & Stan Getz — The Girl from Ipanema
4. Silicone Soul — The All Nite Dub
5. Rodrigo y Gabriela — Buster Voodoo
6. Shwayze — Buzzin (Villains Remix v.2)
7. Michael Jackson — Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough
8. Steed Lord — You,
9. Sufjan Stevens — The Dress Looks Nice On You
10. Yelle — La musique (Tepr Remix)
11. Spoon — Don’t You Evah (DJ Amaze and Alan Astor Mix)
12. Death From Above 1979 — Romantic Rights (Girls Are Short Mix)
13. OH SNAP!! — I’m Too Fat To Be A Hipster
14. Brad Sucks — Dropping out of School
15. Mumford & Sons — Little Lion Man
16. Kid Cudi & Cee-Lo — Scott Mescudi vs. the World
17. The xx — You’ve Got the Love (Theophilus London Remix)
18. Delphic — This Momentary
19. The Presets — This Boy’s In Love
20. I Am Finn — I Love You (Van She Tech Remix)

My climbing partner TJ and I hatched this last week on an (overly encumbered) hike to Alamere falls in Marin. It’s one aspect of a larger goal to apply the philosophy of minimalist alpinism to everyday life: light, fast, with minimal protection—your wits, your experience and the strength of your companions.

Backdated to July 1, the first thirteen: two pair headphones, one Maglite, one pair Pumas. Two pillows, one remote-control wand, a coffee thermos and a padlock. A retired pair of glasses, one cable modem and one rain jacket.

July 1, 2011 is the summit. Or maybe base camp.

Update: Follow #less365 on Twitter (thanks Tim and Caterina!)

This continues to be an interesting challenge.

1951

2009

As of iOS 4.2, Apple Mail has native support for archive in Gmail and MobileMe.

The Problem

Like many folks, I consume email using a GTD-ish approach of an Inbox and an Everything Else box. I’ve disabled autocheck on my Mac, and cranked the polling time on my iPhone to an hour.

My personal email is hosted on Google Apps, which provides the great Gmail web experience along with an excellent IMAP implementation. Likewise for my previous and current company mail. The Gmail Inbox / All Mail paradigm maps neatly to the aforementioned GTD approach.

On the desktop, I use Mail.app. I prefer it over the Gmail interface for a number of reasons including offline search and its ability to aggregate a number of accounts with the “magic” folders Inbox, Sent and Junk.

One place where Gmail’s interface punks Apple Mail is one-button archiving. It even has a keyboard shortcut! Wham. Hit one key, and that email disappears from the Inbox forever.

With Apple Mail, archiving a message requires a click, drag and a prayer, exacerbated by every additional email account. You could drive a truck through the hole Fitts left in your otherwise optimized process.

The Solution: Archive via Delete

It’s possible to bend Gmail, IMAP and Apple Mail to your will. The following steps describe how to configure things so that Delete acts like Archive: one click (or keypress) archives messages in Apple mail on the desktop and the iPhone.

Step 1. Enable advanced IMAP controls. You’ll find this under the Labs tab in Gmail settings.

Step 2. Enable auto-expunge. This is found under the IMAP/Pop tab in Gmail settings. This sounds scary, but isn’t. Gmail keeps a copy of each message in All Mail, regardless if it’s in the Inbox or not.

Step 3. Configure Apple Mail. Uncheck “Move deleted messages to The Trash mailbox” and set the IMAP prefix to “[Gmail]”.

Step 4. Use “All Mail” for sent messages. Since Gmail already stores every message, sent or received in All Mail, this step just instructs Apple Mail to work that way too. If you have multiple accounts, Sent is aggregated just like Inbox.

Step 5. Configure your iPhone.

Presto! Faster email consumption.

In Apple mail you’ll see something like this:

On an iPhone, the Delete icon will remove messages from the Inbox, but leave them in All Mail. Note: Be careful not to tap Delete when viewing messages in All Mail—they’ll be permanently deleted!

TL;DR

• Use Gmail, IMAP, and Apple Mail tricks to read & process email faster.
• Uses fun terms like “auto expunge” and training yourself that hitting Delete is okay.
• Vader.

Postscript

I’ve been using this to manage my email for 2 years. It works great, is fast, and frankly hitting Delete when I’m done with an email is really satisfying.