For some reason I always tend to try new apps or workflows. I’m not sure if it’s my constant feeling that I need to “optimize” everything or maybe it’s “shiny new object syndrome”—whatever it is, it happens more often than I’d like to admit. Recently that was jumping into Obsidian. I’ve long heard how great it was, but I’ve also been u...

Ok, I've finished moving my old blog posts into HEY World... Over the last five years I've gone back and forth with various HEY accounts ("for You" and "for Domains") as well as personal website emails and blogs and more—not to mention the different emails and websites I've gone through before HEY was a thing. To keep it short, for now...

December 17, 2022 I have a count down/up widget on my widget screen (or whatever you call the screen you get to with a left-to-right swipe from the iPhone home screen). On it I have 3 counts. One is an annual countdown to Christmas, since that seems like the most important holiday to have a countdown for… The other two are for health-r...

November 20, 2022 This morning I took Julia (my oldest daughter) to urgent care. She fell the other night and her leg has been hurting bad enough that she hasn’t been able to walk without a walker since. For those that don’t know, she had cancer and needed to have a major surgery to remove the tumor from her pelvis and also surgery on ...

November 10, 2022 247 years old today. 🇺🇸 Happy birthday to my fellow Marines! Semper Fi! - Jason

October 20, 2022 Every ISP (Internet Service Provider) we’ve had—or tried to have—has always been horrible. Do ALL internet providers suck? Currently we have Xfinity, but they don’t offer fiber internet to residential customers. So, we’re trying to get AT&T to come hook up fiber, since they’re the ONLY option for fiber in our neighborh...

October 19, 2022 I’ve spent too much money in the past (and not so far past) on things that I want. You always feel like you’ll be happy when you buy this new shiny thing, but that’s never the case. THINGS don’t make you happy. What does make you happy? Love, experiences, family, watching your kids grow (physically and mentally) every ...

May 16, 2022 I just created this new website and over the last few days I’ve been moving all of my blog posts here. They were on my HEY World blog, but it made more sense to have them directly on my website. Seeing my most recent posts in the process really got me thinking, again, about this journey we’ve been on with my daughter Julia...

December 6, 2021 Friday (the day after surgery) Julia was really drugged up and out of it. She would respond to us, but mostly just with nods or a quiet “yeah”. The tubes that would drain blood from inside, where she was cut open (sorry, graphic I suppose), were draining more blood than the surgeon wanted. They actually took her back t...

December 3, 2021 For anyone that doesn’t already know… My oldest child, Julia, has Ewing Sarcoma cancer. She has a tumor on her pelvis that was 6 inches when she was diagnosed on August 11th of this year. She’s been going through chemotherapy for the past 3.5 months and so far has had 6 rounds of chemo. Last week she had a bunch of sca...

June 30, 2021 With all the craziness and constant go go go we all experience, I try to remember to keep focus on what’s important in life. Years ago, I remember hearing about something called the 5/25 rule. Here’s a YouTube video I found that explains it more. My simple explanation of it: Legend goes, this was advice Warren Buffett gav...

June 11, 2021 Yesterday, from around 4pm until the end of the night, we lost all connectivity to the Internet. I work from home and I first noticed my WiFi wasn’t working on my computer. So, I tried my phone and iPad, but nope - no Internet through WiFi there either. It’s notmy WiFi routers or anything like that, our stupid ISP (Intern...

June 3, 2021 With our next WWDC starting in just four days, I thought I’d put together a quick list — a wishlist if you will, for things I’d like to see at WWDC21. SwiftUI We’ve already had SwiftUI coming up on two years now and they improved it a bunch last year. I’m only starting to use SwiftUI again for work (and haven't had much ti...

June 2, 2021 I use the Headspace app for meditation and I’ve noticed lately that they’ve mentioned the difference between “routines” and “rituals” a few times. “"We all have our daily routines… making the bed, taking a shower, getting breakfast - regular tasks which are functional. Things we have to do. Rituals, on the other hand, are ...

May 30, 2021 Memorial Day is more than just a long weekend and a bunch of sales everywhere. It is a time to remember and honor those who lost their lives while serving our country. While I still plan on BBQing and enjoying some beer, I won’t forget to stop and remember why we get to enjoy our long weekend. 🇺🇸 - Jason

May 25, 2021 I bought the Paperlike screen protector for my iPad in the beginning of this year. I guess that means I’ve been using it somewhere between four and five months now. I’d been wanting to use the  Pencil more on my iPad, but the screen is slick when writing on it (I mean, it is glass). I’ve heard great things about Paperlike...

May 24, 2021 I started using Mailbrew after reading DHH’s blog post on Friday… and I just gotta say — Wow! I’m pretty sure this is what I’ve been looking for to keep up with things going on in the Twitterverse and other news, while not falling into the endless scrolling. I guess this “information diet” (that’s what they call it, right?...

May 19, 2021 In early March, I bought Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones (shortened to “XM4” for the rest of this post… and that’s what people call them anyway). I already have AirPods Pro, but wanted a good set of over-ear headphones. I work at home (like many have for over a year now) and was looking for something I can wear for several ho...

May 16, 2021 (Don't forget to read the snippet at the bottom of this post for another update.) When I started creating my new website a couple weeks ago, I was thinking it might be good to have an email to go with it. Something like “jason@<mydomain>” would make sense — so I did that. After about a day with it (and hating every moment ...

May 15, 2021 My experiences with crypto, so far... I first heard about crypto several years back, probably around the time everyone else originally learned it was a thing. Then, about three or four years ago I bought a tiny amount of Bitcoin. I think I did the same for one or two other cryptos, but either way it wasn't much money. We'r...

May 11, 2021 My latest personal/profile/portfolio (whatever you want to call it) website was at devjm.com. I liked this URL (still do, actually) because it’s short and sweet. Only five characters long, not counting the “.com”, and it conveys all I need. I’m a developer “dev” and my initials “JM”. I got to thinking, though. Rather than ...

March 5, 2021 Today, on my birthday, I thought I could share my “life story” — well, as it pertains to getting into tech and software development at least, haha! I originally wrote the following article on a blog that I didn’t continue. I’ve tried blogging twice (I think it was twice) in the past, both times deciding I didn’t care for ...

March 4, 2021 HEY, World! Here’s my first attempt at writing a post with “HEY World” (but that’s not true, I tried before they made it publicly available 😂)... I’m not sure I’ll actually write more posts using this, but I think it’s a great addition to HEY. Also love how it relates to “Hello, World!” - the first program everyone writes...

Starting a HEY World blog again, since I’m back on the service after a while away from it. Just so I don't lose any old blog posts I previously wrote, I'll create them as new posts over here.