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Andy Nicolaides writing for The Dent:

One of the big questions I asked myself before moving my blog from WordPress to Micro.Blog recently was ‘what would I call it?’ The name The Dent was kindly offered up to me by Zac Cichy after I tweeted about wanting to find some kind of identity to my tech blogging. The fact I didn’t come up with it myself frees me to say that I, personally, think it’s a pretty great name. While the name could mean many things, the six colour header and quote mark it as clearly Apple / Tech related.

The other alternative was to use AndyNicolaides.com, which I still own, but am not currently using. The unfortunate thing about this is my name is a bit of a mess and it would never stick in people’s minds for long, and if it did they’d soon forget how to spell it. It goes without saying that if you can’t spell a domain name, you certainly wont be going there very much.

[…]

My issue, which is completely on me, don’t get me wrong, is that I feel I’ve painted myself into a bit of a corner with the name The Dent. While I have a love for technology, I don’t always want to talk or think about it. I feel that the name of this blog gives off a certain expectation, however. This feeling has held me back from posting more often, and of varying topics.

As someone who did make the decision to move from Rocket Panda to my own name, I think that if you feel like the name is blocking you from expressing yourself completely then change it to something else. I will say that you shouldn’t do this unless you truly are convinced the name isn’t “you” anymore. Rocket Panda was a one off name I came up with in the shower and liked it because it meant nothing, but over time I felt it to be a very weird website to explain to people and what the name had to do with it.

I changed my domain and not a single person seemed to notice or care. Maybe that is because not many people read this, but it was nice to not get so much flack for changing the name of my site.

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Update: A couple of people have asked if me not having an iPad means the end of A Slab of Glass, it is not. Christopher and I both have talked about the podcast being more than just about the iPad, and we have been making strides to do that over the past few months. So no, A Slab of Glass isn't going anywhere.

After about 2 months of it collecting dust, I decided it was time to say goodbye to my iPad Pro and consequently the iPad Lifestyle. There are a couple of reasons for this, but I will stick with the one that is worth talking about: I simply don't use an iPad anymore for my work.

No, this isn't a "you can't get real work done on an iPad" article. I have gotten real work done on an iPad for years and loved it, but due to some changes in my life the iPad isn't the best tool for the job anymore.

The big one for me is editing and processing audio. I use iZotope RX 7 for cleaning up both of my own podcasts and the podcasts I edit in my freelance work. There isn't a great alternative on iOS that compares to iZotope RX 7, which leaves me to crack open my laptop whenever I need to edit podcasts. Because of this I have moved all of my podcast editing to my MacBook Pro. A lot of my time is spent editing podcasts nowadays it makes little sense to me to move from a MacBook to an iPad for the minority of the work I have left.

If I am being totally honest, it isn't just the editing that makes me want to use my Mac over the iPad. I'm not sure if it is me not always happy with certain limitations on iOS or if I am just used to the Mac, but something about the Mac allows me to work with less friction. I am almost positive this is a mental thing with me and not the limitation of the iPad that is causing this, the MacBook just seems much more appealing to me when I want to get to work on something involving a computer. Whether it's writing, editing podcasts, editing photos, managing email, or simply browsing online, the Mac just fits to me more than the iPad.

I loved my iPad and it wasn't easy for me to come to terms that I simply am not using it, but I needed the extra cash and I would rather sell it than have it collect dust on my desk.

It will be a significant transition to only have an iPhone and MacBook Pro but I think it was still the right choice for me in my life today. Maybe one day I will decide that is no longer the case and move back to the iPad more, but for now it is just me and my MacBook Pro, and I am happy with that.

Published on Leave a comment on Impostor Syndrome

Brent Simmons writing for inessential:

There’s no developer bit in anyone’s DNA. I don’t have that bit — nobody does. There’s no such thing, and there’s no collection of genes that make you a real developer, either.

You don’t have to have a CS degree. (I didn’t even own a computer when I was in college. And I didn’t graduate.)

If you’re working on an app, you’re a developer. Period. Even if it’s not a stand-alone app; even if it’s some scripts. You’re solving a problem on a computer with logic and code — that makes you a developer. That’s all it takes!

Impostor syndrome goes away eventually. You just forget about it. The fastest way to get past it is probably to help other people.

It’s okay to admit that you have it. It’s been many years, but I had it too. 🙂

If you were to replace this for blogging this is what it would look like:

There’s no writer bit in anyone’s DNA. I don’t have that bit — nobody does. There’s no such thing, and there’s no collection of genes that make you a real writer, either.

You don’t have to have an English degree.

If you’re working on a blog, you’re a blogger. Period. Even if it’s not on your own domain (though, you should really own your site if you do anything online). You’re sharing your thoughts online for others to read — that makes you a blogger. That’s all it takes!

Impostor syndrome goes away eventually. You just forget about it. The fastest way to get past it is probably to help other people.

It’s okay to admit that you have it. It’s been many years, but I had it too. 🙂

This is me, and I am sure others reading this also agree.

I have been dealing with a lot of things offline lately--which is why I haven't been posting at all--that's partly due to imposter syndrome. I get married in a few days, to my beautiful fiancé. The person that has helped me with all of my mental health issue the better part of a decade now. Afterwords, I hope to keep the imposter syndrome part of what's holding me back at bay.

Until then, if anyone wants to get in touch with me you can do so here on micro.blog or via email at Jeff[at]rocketpanda[dot]net.

Published on Leave a comment on Getting Caught Up 25: Task Managers and Podcasting

In episode 25 of Getting Caught Up Mike and I talk a lot about task managers and getting things right when it comes to keeping tasks together. Jeff explains his checkered past with nearly every task manager out there, and he lets fate decide what app he uses next. Also, Spotify is talked about briefly at the end of the episode.

Published on Leave a comment on Being Honest With Myself

It's no secret that I write a lot about blogging on Rocket Panda. I have a thing with going meta, I even used to host a podcast about podcasting before Rocket Panda even existed. That said, sometimes it can be fun to go down memory lane.

Yesterday I was migrating my website over to micro.blog1 and I noticed something about my writing style over the last two years. There's been a stark contrast in my older posts and the ones I write now, and I wanted to talk about it.

My older posts were me trying to imitate and mimic tech journalists like that of 9to5Mac and TechCrunch. I was trying to be more journalistic and matter-of-fact without adding anything personal to them. I even tried to make myself sound like and Apple expert, but if I am being honest with myself I know little about the history of Apple and the impact they made before 2008, which was when I jumped into the Apple ecosystem.

Once I realized that wasn't working out for me, I moved to doing things like listicles and have my Top 10 iPad Life Hacks and The 9 Things I Learned Going iPad Only. I look back at both of these kinds of writing and cringe, because desperation has a foul and pungent scent and I reeked of it. After I got over how much of a try-hard I must have looked like I realized that had I not done those things and looked in the mirror afterwards I wouldn't have come to the conclusion I have today about what it is I want to write about the things that I'm passionate about.

If you look at my more recent pieces, I am writing more personal pieces about the things that I can add personal input on. I have written things like Why iOS 13 Made the iPad Home Screen Fun Again and my TouchType Pro Review2. These things are comments on the news from Apple and the companies that cater to those users, but I center it on myself and my feelings on it instead of trying to make this an article for TechCrunch or something similar.

It is much more satisfying for me to comment on the smaller things that I'm comfortable speaking on instead of trying to get my share of the pie with what the rest of the big Apple blogs are commenting on. There are times where I may add my feelings and opinions on something but only when it is something that I am comfortable with. Gone are the days where I try and do some quick research and reading up on something that I know nothing about just so that I can be with the rest of the Apple News cycle. It is great if you enjoy that but I found it to be extraordinarily draining both mentally and emotionally. Chasing that forever-spinning wheel of tech news is not something for me.

If I am still staying honest, it's hard to make a blog about the Apple news as a single independent writer. That faucet is broken and it is just a firehose of information shooting out at you with an unlimited supply of water. I have tried being a part of the firehose and it's simply not for me. I would rather be a trickle of water by myself for a small amount of people to drink from. Which brings me to why I have moved my site to micro.blog.

Why I Moved to Micro.blog 3

The reason for this is two-fold:

  1. I am not a Pro Blogger, and I need to stop acting like one
  2. The atmosphere at micro.blog isn't as formal as something like WordPress for me, and I like that

When I say I am not a Pro Blogger I mean that I don't have hundreds of thousands of readers, and I don't think I necessarily want that. It isn't a goal in my life to make Rocket Panda anything other than a way for me to express myself creatively. I don't look at stats, I don't see what posts are getting the most clicks, and I definitely don't want to make my site a digital billboard with ads everywhere and videos playing automatically. That wasn't the case when I first started though, I wanted to make Rocket Panda my full time job so badly. So much so I was willing to throw a piece together I thought would get lots of clicks and subscribers instead of writing something that I was happy with.

What I want when it comes to this blog is that I own every pixel top to bottom and that I can say what I want, when I want without worrying about upsetting anyone that has control over my livelihood.

As for the second point, micro.blog is a place for me I consider a much friendlier atmosphere than that of Twitter or Instagram. There's nothing about this service that makes me upset or feel inadequate about myself. It is just writers and bloggers sharing their lives, thoughts, ideas, and photos with others. As someone that doesn't have a staff of writers it can be lonely at times writing, and having the ability to be a part of a community that isn't culturally toxic and genuinely delightful helps fill that void for me.

I could have kept my blog on WordPress and linked it to micro.blog, but for me it made more sense to just put all of my chips in this service and embrace the limitations it comes with. I am happy with my setup and I hope to see it stick, and I think that this time it will.

After some tinkering and playing around I finally figure out how to fix my biggest gripe with the service, which was differentiating the micro posts (the things I would post on Twitter) to the articles (like this one). Because of the addition to categories and the support for Hugo I managed to figure out how to add parameters to my site to hide my micro posts from the website but still have them post to micro.blog for those who follow me there. For those interested, I found the answer to that from the Hugo Discourse which is a group of helpful individuals4.

This isn't me saying that you should move to micro.blog, that is for you to decide. That said, I do think that more bloggers should look I the mirror and answer the tough questions about what they are writing about and what they want to share, because it took me way longer than it should have to listen to the people who told me to write more personal posts over the bland lists and news articles I was writing.

  1. More on that in a bit ↩
  2. Sorry Salman if you're reading this, I still haven't sent the review unit back to him. ↩
  3. I have since moved back to WordPress because of wanting to have link posts work the way I want, as well as having more granular abilities with the way my site looks. That said, the sentiment of being more informal is sticking with me. ↩
  4. I have bookmarked this site for future browsing as well if I ever decide to tinker with my website again ↩