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Journaling

I started journaling in 2013 and since then it’s been very inconsistent. I have started to write more often and found solace in the reflection and introspection. Journaling can take on many different forms, but I’d recommend you find some method that you’re comfortable with. I tried handwritten journals, but they were never my thing. I had considered Evernote, or Google Drive, but they didn’t really capture what I wanted in a digital journal. It wasn’t until I found Day One that I really started trying to capture things.

The cool thing about Day One is it syncs on all of my devices. It’s entirely personal, and has a ton of options. It’s very focused on journaling/lifelogging. It has a few features that are incredibly important to me.

Locations

Every journal entry automatically geotags where the post was created. Additionally if you want to start an entry based on a photo it will automatically change the date and time of the entry to the time of the photo was taken and use the location where the photo was taken. Location has always been important to my memories so these features are great. You can view all of your journal entries on a map.

Encryption

The paid service of Day One offers end to end encryption. This means my memories are safe.

Photos, Prompts, Audio, Drawings

Entries don’t have to be written text. Sometimes a photo will do. You don’t have to share every photo with the world, and sometimes a journal is a good place to put the most important ones. You can also attach audio recordings, or video. There’s even a built in sketchpad for tablets and the sort.

Activity Log

As an optional feature you can have Day One track everywhere you’ve been and the duration of when you were there. If you are concerned about privacy this data is only stored on your local device. But by capturing this data, you can create a prompt based on any particular location if you forgot where you were.

Metadata Metadata Metadata

In addition to geotagging posts, Day One captures all sorts of other metadata. It will automatically capture the weather conditions through Dark Sky1 based on the entry date and time. It will capture how many steps you walked for the day. You can capture what you were doing at the time (sitting, walking, flying, etc). It will also capture if you were listening to a song when you were writing an entry2.

Overall it’s been really helpful for me to have perspective. I’ve written about some really shitty times, and I’ve written about some times that have been really good. I recently had a really good night with friends to the point where it was just very serendipitous how splendid it was. My first instinct was I need to go write about this in my journal. I’ve never been that way before. I think if journaling is something you are considering you need to find something you’re comfortable with. I’ve always been oriented towards the digital, but a handwritten journal will get the job done. Or a bunch of txt files on a hard drive.

I recommend it if you’ve ever thought about it. We’re living through history right now. Covid-19 is something that’s impacting the world and touching everyone of us. One of the hardest things I had to get past was documenting the bad times where I disagreed with someone, or my feelings were hurt, or where I made a mistake. But then I remembered no one was ever going to read it. In the immortal words of Garth Algar, “I gotta be comfortable with me first.”

  1. Although I hope they find an alternative once the API shuts down. https://blog.darksky.net/dark-sky-has-a-new-home/ ↩
  2. Brings me back to the old LiveJournal days. ↩
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Lyric Logistics: Hot Blooded

It’s been a while but I used to write these post it notes based on the lyrics of songs I’ve had hammered in my head. I call them Lyric Logistics. My wife Erica loves them so I’ll post all of them here for posterity over the next few weeks.

But to kick it off I created a new one!

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Detective Crocodile

Sometimes my most ridiculous humor comes when I’m loopy 1. In between some furious Rocket League matches with a friend, I just started sending him random voice memos via iMessage. That’s when my brain unleashed this gem:

So I present to you the manifestation of that idea. From the people who brought you Everybody Loves Mammoth2, the prime time procedural show you never knew you wanted: Detective Crocodile.

  1. Not drunk. More like sleep deprived. ↩
  2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jarbo/4556089510/ ↩
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Hardcore UNO

We live in an utter utopia of board and video games available to everyone today. There are plenty of niches that are filled and plenty of robust multiplayer experiences. But back in the day, we didn’t have much. The world has had Chess for centuries. Someone somewhere once thought Monopoly was a fun game12. But for the quick pick up and play social game, there was always UNO.

Some people take UNO pretty seriously. I am one of those people. I hold the official rule of ensuring that someone has to say UNO as they are playing their second to last card in the highest regard. However the basic game of UNO can be a little wanting in terms of ACTION! Society has adapted and produced a series of house rules to make the action better, yet they are inconsistent and not very well documented or endorsed. Some even misinterpret the official core ruleset and then are outraged when the official UNO Twitter account posts about it. I admire that everyone had collective Mandela Effect regarding the rules and that they were trying to add a little chocolate to the vanilla. But adding a Draw Two card to a Draw Four Wild card? It’s preposterous and doesn’t make any sense to me. But what if I told you that the makers of UNO had their own MANUFACTURER RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL RULES? Well… they do.

I have been preaching these for years and no one has taken my word for it. And surprisingly after purchasing a fresh deck of UNO while on vacation I had discovered they were removed from the printed manual. A friend of mine did some Google-fu and found them for me. So I humbly present to you directly from Mattel’s website a PDF with the rules enclosed. There are two specific sections of note3:

  • Progressive UNO
  • Jump-In UNO

These will change your world when it comes to UNO. If you “take UNO seriously” then you need to familiarize yourself with these. They are manufacturer recommended4, easy to interpret and reference, and make the game a blast. Also you might want to start by reading the base rules first anyway. But let’s be honest: UNO is all luck anyways and Disney Princess UNO is the real best version5.

The Official Rules PDFDownload

I’ll keep a backup hosted here just in case that link ever dies.

Jared’s Official UNO Rule Modifier: Speed UNO

Not that you asked for it, but here’s my own personal twist on UNO that makes the game aggressively competitive:

Goal: Play as fast as possible.

Penalty: Anyone who loses track of whose turn it is loses their turn and draws two cards. This can be either by asking whose turn it is, or if it gets to them and they don’t realize it’s their turn.

Play with the other rules above for disastrous fun.

  1. Except J.T. Williams always wins. ↩
  2. It isn’t and if you watch Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story you’ll realize how dumb this game is. That’s my opinion of course. ↩
  3. Don’t pay attention to that Seven-O UNO nonsense. ↩
  4. I always find the makers of games have the most balanced and fun “house” rules, rather than just being a slog. ↩
  5. There’s a dragon. ↩