This series noted the one thing these leaders had in common: sure, they all had interesting ideas, but more importantly, they lived by their ideas. If they had just talked a lot, they would not have had the real-world impact that they had. Their actions were inspiring.
So if you want to be a pretty cool and impactful person, in whatever form that takes, then figure out what you stand for and live it.
I know, I know… that’s easier said than done.
But what else are you going to do that could be any better?
Besides, it’s fun to do stuff, and talking gets old.
Work in progress 👩🏻🎨 My friend Emily is giving my home office some much needed character. 🌊 #mural #painting #workinprogress #officespace #ocean #austin #texas #atx #shotoniphone via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C5mlaAaO8ra/
A few months ago, I knocked off a bucket list item by recording a song with a friend who can sing.
The actual bucket list item was “Make a song that I can play in my car using Siri that I actually enjoy.” 😉 So I made sure to get it out on all the streaming sites.
But the one streaming service I missed, and probably the most helpful as a musician, was SoundCloud. This site is a little more artist-oriented. You can upload songs instantly, give and get feedback, and basically do whatever you want without going through a distributor.
I have a couple new songs in the works, but none good enough yet to post here even by show-your-work standards. When I do post something, it’ll go SoundCloud first.
Next up in iOS at a glance series, where I give you a quick visual about an iOS development concept, we’ll jump into stack views.
Sticking with old-school UIKit concepts a little conger, stack views give us a simple way (pre-SwiftUI) to lay out a screen without a bunch of constraints, which can quickly become ungainly.
Stack views just organize subviews in a row, either vertically or horizontally. Stack views can be combined with each other as well to create complex layouts, such as below.
Stack views are typically invisible and only used to contain other views, so what we actuality see is this.
So there it is: stack views boiled down to a quick visual. Of course, the topic goes much deeper, including options for distribution, alignment, and spacing.
Zizania texana (Texas wild rice) is a rare species of grass found only on the first two miles of the San Marcos River. 🤯 It appears to be SUP-friendly. #sanmarcos #sewellpark #river #rice #wildrice #texas #shotoniphone #sup via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C5MStzMOy1d/
The documentary STEVE (martin) tells the story of a really awkward, out-of-place aspiring comedian who wants to do something genuinely new but was initially failing badly.
It is cringe-worthy at times. What is this guy doing?
But Steve keeps relentlessly trying things, observing, and changing. It goes something like this (so far)…
Is there a future for me as a magician?
-> No, that looks like a dead end. Let’s try comedy.
Should I follow the classic comedy conventions like using “indicators” to signal when the punch line happened?
-> Nope. Let the awkward tensions build naturally and see what happens.
Should I open for other acts and perform for 1000 people who are there to see someone else?
-> Nope. This is getting me nowhere. I’d rather headline for 50 people who actually want to see me.
And finally, this long-haired comedian who looked he was “trying to be the Eagles” decided to change his whole look and attitude. I just like the clarity he finds.
I wasn’t making any waves, so l made a decision.
Instead of being at the tail end of an old movement, I’ll be at the front end of a new one.
And he follows it up with action.
And so l decided, “Okay, I’m putting on a suit, I’m putting on a tie and I’m cutting my hair.”
Instead of looking like a hippie from the ’60s, I’ll look like somebody new from the ’70s.
And of course kind of a punch line.
Or like someone from the future.
Someone from the future indeed. He was about to become the biggest comedian in the world.
In the depths of Winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
Today I found myself looking right at this phenomenon in my little garden.
You see, this winter’s cold snap savagely killed almost all the plants . As a memorial, I left a sad, dead, spiky blackberry stalk sticking high out of the ground.
Now that dead stalk is getting overrun by new green growth. Blackberry sprouts are shooting up in other parts of the garden as well. The plant is even flowering, meaning fresh blackberries are on the way.
Life is resilient. 💪
Just don’t touch that dead stalk. That thing is not kidding around – ouch!
Autoresizing was Apple’s first shot in the days of yore (iOS 2, circa 2011) at letting early iPhone views rearrange themselves (this is the “auto” part) in response to screen rotations. It was limited and clumsy, as was pretty much all of iOS at the time. Mail, contacts, calendars, and the App Store were new features on the iPhone.
So autoresizing makes for a fitting intro to this series.
Autoresizing allows the developer to specify how one view relates to its super-view as far as its size and margins, and which parts are are flexible vs. fixed.
In the days since autoresizing was introduced, more capable layout tools like Auto Layout with constraints and now SwiftUI have been introduced.
But you’ll still see the autoresizing “mask” (an old-school programming term) hiding out in the Size Inspector in Xcode under the View section. If you wondered what that was, now you know.
My daughter took this pic the other night while out walking. It looks kind of like a graduation 👨🏻🎓 or a giant halo? 😇 #ellsworthkelly #ellsworthkellyaustin #nightphotography #museum #austin #texas #atx #shotoniphone
“Speeding up” is what I like to think of as relaxed focus. Just keep moving forward; the motion keeps your momentum up and keeps your thoughts and actions fresh and relevant. No more paralysis of analysis.
Get moving. Prioritise a kind of fluid, calm urgency in your life.
Now, Ted Lasso said “Be a goldfish“, but I’m going to say “Be a shark.”
Okay, a shark is a deadly predator. Don’t do that; set that aside for a minute.
The best quality about sharks is that they understand relaxed focus. A shark is always moving purposefully, but it’s never in a hurry. A shark don’t stop or wallow or get bored or frustrated. A shark is always going somewhere and always has a plan. A shark’s movement seems to feed its energy rather than expend it.
So in life, be a shark. Keep moving purposefully and own your little neck of the ocean.
In case you noticed this blog has a new name and logo, and you thought “this blog got hacked,” fret not. The new name, Mental Break Town, is on purpose.
“But that’s exactly what a hacker would say!” you protest.
Okay, okay, in that case, if I start trying to sell you fake Rolexes, phish you, or spread hate speech, then you’ll know I got hacked. 😉
But why the name change?
Well, patmcg.com was basically just my name, and the blog needed a new name that isn’t about me. It’s about stuff I’m interested in, and hopefully stuff you’re interested in.
Also, this a just a blog and not a company, so I dropped the .com in favor of .blog.
So, I thought of a new name, and luckily the domain name was available. Done. ✔️
Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
Miyamoto Musashi
He must have been onto something. Yes, the world matters; everything matters. But don’t weigh yourself down personally with it. You are definitely not going to win a lot of sword fights if you do.
This description goes on to say that “After retiring from dueling, the swordsman turned to his community, mentoring students and sharing wisdom through his writing.”
Okay, I have a new hero ✔️ and a new retirement plan ✔️.
I thought my previous downtown Austin sketch would be a natural fit. But alas, it was too complicated and fuzzy. 🤷🏻♂️I needed something simpler and bolder for this purpose.
So I myself 10 minutes to come up with a few ideas. The “final” logo (bottom left) was not what I had initially imagined, but it felt right after playing around with it for a bit.
Of course, this being my personal not-for-profit, no-expectations blog, I can change it if I ever feel like it. I like this iterative process. 🙌
To get my song out there where it can be streamed anywhere – via Siri, on the HomePod, in the car – I needed to pick an “artist” name to use on all the streaming services. It’s always fun to pick a band name, but I had set a rule for myself from experience messing around fruitlessly with friends in the past: first the music, then the name. You have to earn the name.
So I decided to go with The Coastal Service. 🙌 It’s sort of a play on The Postal Service, an amazing band with one of my favorite albums ever. I am not a Postal Service tribute band; their name just inspired an idea.
“The Coastal Service” is meant to invoke a sense of mystery and fog and awe and danger. It’s about meeting the ocean: like life, it’s big and dangerous and beautiful and meant to be explored.
I also like the idea that this fictional “coastal service” is there to serve humanity and is broader and more secretive and than, say, the US Coast Guard. It’s somewhat inspired by a Wes Anderson vibe, especially Moonrise Kingdom.
While I liked the extra guitar part on the previous take, I also felt like it was a bit too much. It sort of changed the song from a “singing” song into a “guitar” song.
After a fresh listen, my buddy Joel had a helpful suggestion.
I’m wondering if you could use the clean version but bring in the guitar at some point under the whistling to add a little depth there.
I tried it out and… bingo. 🎯 This was the best of both worlds. The guitar comes in at the bridge and mixes things up at just the right time. Thanks, Joel.
My kids say the vocals are pretty “echoey”, but I’m hoping that adds to some mysterious ambience. Believe me, you are not ready to hear me singing raw just yet. 😉
I like the saying, “Imperfect is perfect”. Sometimes I switch it up to, “Perfect is boring.”
Music that is super-slick and produced starts to sound kind of the same.
As a person’s appearance approaches “perfect” (often with plastic surgery), they start to look the like everyone else who had that surgery.
That’s why I love this visual from Harsh Darji on Medium. All the circles are perfect but the same. The odd one on the end stands out. You could even say it’s outstanding. 👌
William Shakespeare wasn’t the only one writing interesting things in the Elizabethan Era, back when codpieces and lace decoration were all the rage for grown men. Poet and clergyman George Herbert, while not as flowery as Shakespeare, also had some poetic things to say, especially this mighty metaphor.
She’s killing me at Phase 10; down by 95 points with this hand. 😭 #cardgame #phase10 #familytime #family #kids #auatin #texas #atx #shotoniphone #mcgkids via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C1ew4ztuBWX/
Being a storyteller and not just a basic sage, Shakespeare had some amusing / ironic context around this quote, including a “windy preface”, as part of the play Hamlet.
The city is lit up like a Christmas tree. 🎄 #austin #texas #atx #lake #ladybirdlake #skyline #downtown #holidays via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C0EsVuNO9yE/
Since I posted about jumping in and trying to sing, I thought I’d post my first attempt. I got inspired to see what I actually sound like now that I’ve had… let’s see… one voice lesson. 😆
I thought Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire would be a good first song since it’s short and simple. And most especially, the vocals (I now know!) are exactly in my natural range, aside from the really high “wooohoo hooo” stuff, which I pushed through and tried anyways.
I wanted to give this song my own sonic touch, with a more modern sound. I think Springsteen was basically trying to do a Johnny Cash song here, so this is me trying to sound like Bruce trying to sound like Johnny. 😆
I always liked the song Beautiful Day for its optimism and presence.
It’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away.
Sure, that’s the obvious takeaway and a great reminder that every day counts.
But the last part of the song has been inspiring me even more as I dig into a scary new skill, which I hope is the right kind of difficult for me: playing, singing, and eventually writing my own songs. 😱
What I really want is to do find my own voice. Literally.
Despite never considering myself a singer (and consistently receiving negative feedback whenever I have tried 😆) I am jumping into singing with the help of an expert music teacher who always sees the best possibilities.
And that’s half the journey.
Touch me, take me to that other place Reach me, I know I’m not a hopeless case
Which brings me to the best part of Beautiful Day: the last bit, the part about forgetting what you don’t have now and feeling your way, somehow, into the new.
What you don’t have, you don’t need it now What you don’t know, you can feel it somehow
I keep trying to explain this Israel-Hamas war to my kids, and it’s really so caught up in the past, both near and distant. Repeatedly, one side’s autonomy, safety, and identity is violated by the other. And it’s piled up over time to the current conflict.
The Daily tackles this history in their 1948 episode, describing an “arsenal of memory” that gets “chiseled in stone” to define each side’s grievances.
When you go to the Middle East, you see immediately how people are imprisoned by history, the especially in Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Ireland put a similar conflict behind it: a centuries-old conflict of two intertwined groups of people involving religion, culture, territorial disputes, terror, violence, and injustice.
They ended up with a two-state solution: Ireland and the UK. There is peace and prosperity. People move freely between the countries. There are no checkpoints, walls, vengeance deaths, or bombings.
There are pubs and museums, a peaceful countryside, and a booming film industry.
The world needs to step up and make this happen in the Middle East. Doing so will require setting aside some fear, which is just a mind killer, but a peaceful solution can happen because it has happened elsewhere.
We made a song (well, a cover)! My barber/pal Emily did the signing 🎤 and I did the rest. 🎸 Recorded as CRIMELESS just for fun. The original is by @sirchloe ! #music #song #cover #firstsong #milestone #austin #texas #atx #justforfun via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CycCHGuu0kh/
My daughter doing her best Chris Evans impersonation.🕴️”Why do they always try to look like that?”, she said before tying to look like that. #gq #gqmagazine #impersonation #chrisevans #lookalike #magazinecover #magazine #daughter
Yes, we tend to think of Paris as fancy and somewhat formal, but this article says Paris really comes to life in the city’s “stunning” public pools.
She had no answer as to why the most perfectly appointed Parisians, so consumed with fashion rules and rigid etiquette on the city’s streets, have no issue flaunting their informality in the showers.
“We are all a mix of contradictions,” she said.
And best of all, thanks to the upcoming Olympics, they’re even swimming in the Seine now.
👉 pulchritudinous [puhl-kri-tood-n-uhs] – a synonym for “beautiful” that starts with a “p” 🤷🏻♂️
That’s it! Who’s down for a swimmingly fun time in France? 🏊🏻♂️
Rain delay ☔️⚾️ Could there be a more beautiful sight? #rain #baseball #atx #austin #texas #shotoniphone #nightphotography via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CxMkUA0O9JO/
I love the idea that playing it safe is a risk. It’s as counterintuitive as it is true. If you don’t believe me, ask Oprah.
I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk … Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time.
Sometimes I forget these phones are waterproof. 🌊 (Or was that water-resistant?) Photo credit: my daughter. #underwater #swimming #Austin via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CxA4hNlOvFx/
I feel the same way, but it’s not easy. Once you get to a certain point in life, you realize loving is scary – it takes courage and an acceptance of risk. But it’s still the best thing we can do in this world.
Next up in the iOS fundamentals at a glance series: frames and bounds.
This is such a fundamental idea that there are a ton of articles and videos on this topic. But here’s the most basic idea…
Unlike some previous concepts, the term frame is perfect here because it’s just like a frame on a wall.
A frame (subview) is placed on the wall (superview). The frame has a location, defined by its origin in the upper-left, and a size, plus an x/y coordinate system.
Simple enough, right?
Bounds gets a little more confusing. It should probably be called “window” since it defines what part of a potentially larger view you see, but that term was already taken, so here we are with “bounds”.
Like its frame, a bounds also has its origin in the top-left, plus a size and its own x/ycoordinate system. Oddly enough, the y-axis works opposite of the frame. 🤦🏻♂️ They do this just to make programming hard, right?
Here we can see that the frame above only showed us part of a bigger picture; what we see is defined by the bounds.
This concept is especially useful for scroll views, which essentially let you move the bounds around to look at different parts of the view.
I hope that helps. And if you ever get confused, remember a frame picture of a wall, like this one at the local coffee shop.
Trying to challenge myself and write some original songs instead of just doing covers, I’ve found that the lyrics come a lot easier than the music. Putting together some new and interesting musical chords or, heaven forbid, a melody? That’s hard. But I can rhyme all day.
So I thought it was funny when Keeley Jones, the soccer (aka “football”) team’s vivacious marketing honcho on Ted Lasso, said this on S1E3.
I’m cute, and I can rhyme my ass off. No wonder they want to destroy me.
Kudos to Keeley for that laugh and for giving me something a little lighter to post here today.
Back to your regularly scheduled philosophy quotes, tech sketches, artsy photos, and amateur ramblings later.
A sea of happy cactuses. 🌵 (I mean cacti. 🤔) #cacti #cactus #spring #springtime #austin #texas #atx #shotoniphone via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C59cwBOu6P6/
Continuing with the iOS at a glance series, we’re still digging our way though the old fundamentals of layout.
Introduced way back in iOS 6 with the initial collection view offering, the flow layout gave developers a more natural and fluid way to lay out views than the OG table view.
A flow layout lets your subviews flow just like words on a page (at least in English), from left to right and top to bottom, as the blue pencil line shows below.
The blue pencil lines here illustrate the flow layout working, but of course what the user actually sees is just the subviews.
Mental Break Town 