On the writing front #
There are as many writing processes as there are writers, and that’s one of the reasons why writing advice that falls into the “process” category has always rubbed me the wrong way. Statements like “You must write a little every day” or “You must start with the most important scenes” simply don’t make sense. “You must…” above all find the method that works for you to see a damn novel through to the end without giving up halfway. So I’ve always preferred to introduce my own practices by saying “Here’s what works for me”, and let readers take inspiration or not.
On the web front #
Today, I’d like to talk about file synchronization. Google, with its Drive and Docs products, has established itself as THE go-to solution for many people when it comes to collaborating on files. There are other, less GAFAM-friendly alternatives, like the suites offered by Infomaniak or Proton. These are good news, but they’re still online solutions, based on the cloud. Your files aren’t stored at home. My partner and I decided to try something different: local network synchronization.
This idea started with Obsidian. I was looking for an alternative to Notion that would let me easily organize my reading and writing notes. I was won over by Obsidian because all my files are stored locally, an Obsidian vault is literally a folder on my computer containing a few json configuration files to display correctly in the app and implement data structures. Pages are written in Markdown, it’s simple to use, the basic version is free, and you can install and develop plugins as needed. The problem was that I needed to share my vault between two different computers: my personal computer, which I use for writing and reading from my RSS feeds, and my work computer, which I use to store notes that blur the line between professional and personal, usually related to my job as a developer. Until then, I’d used GitHub, but I realized that my need for versioning was actually too limited to justify this tool, and the manual operations for synchronization weren’t ideal.
On another note, my partner and I often need to share documents between us, for example, creating a folder for our tax documents, planning our next road trip… At first, we used Proton Drive since we both have Proton email addresses. But my use case with Obsidian gave us the idea to try something else: Syncthing. This solution allows us to synchronize folders between multiple computers on our local network, including our work and personal computers, as well as our smartphones. The app is available on our various Windows, Mac, and Android devices. Our initial tests have been quite encouraging. It lets us keep a copy of our documents on each computer, so multiple copies, without relying on the cloud. Plus, each “share” has its own configuration: for example, our shared vault can be synced only between our personal devices, while my “writing and dev notes” vault will only sync between my own devices, without cluttering my partner’s.
In the garden #
This week, I was on a rescue mission in my garden. Sometimes, you have plants that clearly aren’t doing well, and yet you don’t do anything about it. You procrastinate due to lack of time, until the inevitable happens: they’ve completely dried out. Or rotted. In my case, it’s the latter. Here’s the thing: we installed wooden planters along our terrace to make it look nice, planting climbing plants in them. But the planter at the end gets much more rain compared to the one next to the wall, and the geotextile doesn’t allow for sufficient drainage. As a result, the two plants I’d placed there—a kiwai and a passionflower—ended up with their roots submerged in water. This had been bothering me for weeks, but I hadn’t taken the time to deal with it. Until now.
I uprooted them and repotted them individually, sheltered from the elements. The root systems seemed salvageable, with relatively healthy white roots still attached, especially in the case of the kiwai. I trimmed the longest roots so that the root system could regrow from the cut. My bird’s nest fern wasn’t so lucky: its root system was completely black and crumbling. I had to admit the plant was beyond saving. Ninipiou joined the compost.
Otherwise, I think my kiwis will be okay, they’ve recovered well from the cold snap \o/