Uses
Updated June 2, 2025
Inspired by Robb Knight and following the suggestions of Wes Bos, these are the things I use regularly, and for the most part, daily.
Most Uses pages are very hardware focused and involve a desk. My desk is in storage on the other side of the country, while I’m taking care of Mom. For now, I’m using portable tech that doesn’t require a desk.
I also use a lot of analog technology.
Digital
MacBook Air
I moved from a 2018 13'' inch Retina MacBook Air with a failing-again butterfly keyboard in December of 2024, to a MacBook Air M3 with 24 GB RAM, a 1 terrabyte drive, and the current release version of Sequoia.
2 Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB External Portable HDD USB 3.0 drives (Amazon affiliate link).
One drive for TimeMachine, one drive for miscellaneous long-term file archiving. I’m planning on replacing both drives with portable SSDs, eventually.
CanoScan LIDE 300 Mostly I use this to scan paperwork for my Mom.
Brother HL-L2300D Monochrome Laser Printer
Efficient and inexpensive, but awkward to use because it can only print PDF files or images, and only with the Brother iPrint&Scan software, but it does support duplex.
MacOS Software
- MacOS Sequoia
- 1Password
- Acorn from Flying Meat Software for image editing, with documentation that is understandable & helpful.
- Alfred a keyboard based app launcher, and more.
- AHD5 The digital version of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition.
- BBEdit I use BBEDit for distraction free writing and for all HTML & CSS, text cleanup and massaging.
- Bear My go-to app for quick drafts, especially for blog posts. Elegant software that gets out of the way so I can concentrate on writing. Syncs reliably between macOS & iPadOS.
- Apple Books for ebooks. I’m looking for something better, but I’m locked in to Books for Apple’s proprietary DRM. Mostly I use Books for non-fiction, on my iPad and Mac.
- Brother iPrint&Scan Required to print with my laser printer.
- CleanMyMac 5
- Cyberduck an SFTP client with support for varios cloud-based servers.
- EagleFiler Archiving Web pages in .pdf and non scholarly research
- Kobo ebook app
- Mela Recipes
- NetNewsWire RSS reader I rely on RSS for most Web browsing and reading.
- Notes I use Notes every single day, on every device.
- Numbers I use Numbers for the things you’d expect, like taxes, but also for lists, databases, calendar generation, and bibliographies.
- Pages Long-form writing and business letters and invoices. Right up to the pont I send a manuscript to a publisher and I export it, the final draft is in Pages. Once a publisher has a ms., I have to license a new copy of Microsoft Word for final edits.
- PDF Expert Annotating scholarly articles for research, and sometimes, books in .pdf.
- Podcasts
- Pop-Clip “A multi-tool for text”. I'm fairly new to Pop-Clip, but really find it useful for small text modifications from the keyboard.
- Preview Basic image editing for Web pages.
- Scrivener Book drafting, and research.
- Soulver 3 Calculator crossed with a notepad, enjoyable and elegant. Monthly budgets and expense tracking, all sorts of in-the-moment calculations.
- TextExpander Lots of repeatedly used snippets, especially for CSS & HTML.
- TimeMachine
- Vox Premium, a subscription-based audio player that doesn’t depend on Apple Music, but is friendly with it.
- VueScan Pro for the CanoScan LIDE 300.
iPad 10.2'' 8th Generation iPad
I purchased the 10.2'' iPad for writing, but without a desk, the iPad is too awkward for long term use, and as my sight decays, difficult to get close enough to see the screen for long term use. I stopped being able to use a lap desk some time ago. My iPad is not used very often these days. It’s still where I read/use digital manuscript and early printed book facsimiles, which I need to list here.
iPad Mini 6th Generation 64 GB & Apple Pencil 2
I bought my iPad Mini primarily for reading ebooks and watching video. Since buying an Apple TV, I have increasingly been using the Mini for writing with the Apple Pencil 2, rather than video, and neglecting my 10.2 iPad 8th generation.
iPadOS Software
- iPadOS 18.x
- 1Password
- AHD5
- Bear
- Calibre for managing and producing ebooks.
- Freegal Music Public Library service for streaming and downloading licensed free music
- Hoopla App for using the public library digital media service to borrow ebooks, video, and audio.
- Kanopy App for using the public library video streaming service.
- Kindle Ebook app for a few legacy books. I’m replacing Kindle books with Kobo and/or Apple when I can (generally, when they are on sale).
- Kobo Ebook app.
- Libby Public library service app to borrow ebooks and audio books.
- Mela For recipes.
- NetNewsWire
- Notes General lists and notes for daily life, syncing across all my Apple devices.
- PDF Expert
- Reuters app for Reuters subscription feed.
- Sibley V2 Absolutely fabulous U.S. multimedia bird field guide
- Scrivener
- Seatowers Solitaire game derived from the OS 9 Seahaven Towers game.
iPhone SE 2nd Gen 2022 Red 128 GB
Mostly I use my iPhone for photos, messaging, podcasts, phone calls, audio books, ebooks, and music.
iPhone Software
Home
- 2 HomePod Minis Gen 1 I actually have two pairs; one is for my Mom, but I need to set them up again after making some furniture changes.
- Apple TV 2023 4k WiFi + Ethernet 128 GB
- Sony Bravo KDL 32 TV Given to me by a neighbor; no idea how old it is.
- Skullcandy Sesh Earbuds
- Apple Watch SE Gen 1 (GPS, 40mm) Silver Aluminum Case
- OUHENG Watch Band Retro Brown Leather/Silver
- GE LED+ Backup Battery LED Light Bulbs, A21 Rechargeable Emergency Light and meross Smart LED Light Bulb, Smart WiFi LED Bulb
- A variety of Wi-Fi | Bluetooth doorbells and motion detectors to alert me when Mom needs me.
Services
- BackBlaze Backup services. Probably moving to iDrive.
- DropBox Still on the free plan.
- iCloud 200 GB plan
- Apple Music annual subscription. I am considering cancelling, and instead relying on Freegal for streaming and MP3s, Vox, and my own CDs.
- omg.lol Site status page, basic Weblog hosting and other services, and a kind community.
- Pika.page
I’m moving sites from WordPress. Pika.page sits on top of Markdown and has the basics for simple, uncluttered Websites and blogs.
- Posthaven.com
is another basic blogging platform that’s Markdown (and HTML) friendly and I’m moving a few Blogger and WordPress.com sites to Posthaven.com.
E-readers
I can no longer reliably read printed books, so I pay close attention to e-readers.
- I was given a Kobo Libre 2 for Christmas, and primarily use it for reading fiction and poetry.
- I use my iPad Mini mostly for non-fiction ebooks and .pdfs, annotating them with the Apple Pencil 2.
- I’m following coverage and reviews of e-ink tablets like the Remarkable 2 and the Supernote Manta, with an eye towards annotating .PDFs.
Analog
Most of what I write involves analog tools at one or more stages of my writing process. I tend to buy scholarly books in printed codex form (for purposes of citation & annotation), as well as novels in hard cover that are important to me or in particularly well-designed editions.
Paper
I’m dismayed by the recent closure of Write Notepads, as they leave retail notebook production and sales and pivot to exclivelywholesale custom production. I loved their notepads, lined and Cornell-note ruled, their hard-cover A5 notebooks in a variety of ruling, and most of all, their portrait-spiral bound undated planner. Good paper, affordably priced and lovely people.
I use Composition books for general research notes and draft. I usually have a couple of Composition books in use at any time. I watch for back-to-school sales at chain stores and Renys when these American school standards with lined pages, a sewn and taped binding and marbled covers are on sale for $0.50 to $1.00. Those that are made with rice or sugar cane fibers will even stand up to F or M nib fountain pens.
I bought an EMSHOI A4 Spiral Notebook College Ruled, 11.2" X 8.27", 150 Sheets/300 Pages, 100gsm Lined Journal on a whim. This is a thick notebook with decent paper, great for drafts and notes, good with pens, fountain pens, or pencil, and surprisingly affordable.
Fieldnotes When I was out and about I used pocket notebooks a lot, for grocery lists, short notes to myself about things to do or remember, bird sightings—all sorts of things. I am using a Spring 2025 Field Notes The Chicago Look graph-ruled notebook to take notes for one online class, and the recent Summer 2025 graph-ruled Is A River Alive? notebook for another online class.
I use index cards, record cards, note cards, 3 x 5 cards or whatever they are called in your dialect, daily. They are useful short for notes to remind me of daily tasks and objectives, reading notes, bibliographic citations, writing prompts, portable shopping lists, all kinds of uses..
Pencils
I love a good woodcased pencil, and have a number of favorites. Everyone raves about Blackwing Pencils, and I’m very fond of them, but $32.00 for twelve pencils is a bit pricey. There are lots of really good, enjoyable, more reasonably priced pencils.
- Mitsubishi 9852EW This is a beautiful recycled wood natural finish pencil with green foil stamping, (“Master Writing”) and a dark purplr eraser. The graphite is smooth and dark. This is probably my favorite writing pencil.
- Mitsubishi No. 772 Bicolor editor’s pencil. Great for annotating and marking up hard copy for revision. It’s a almost-as-good replacement for my favorite bi-color, the Caran D’Ache.
- I’m using a Pilot Legno wood-body mechanical pencil. The Legno has a beautiful curved wood body that’s more like a conventional pen than a mechanical pencil. The Legno is exceedingly comfortable for long-form writing. I usually use .05 mm 2B Pentel or Pilot graphite.
Pens
These are the pens in current use.
- Lamy 2000 Makrolon F nib with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-Kai blue-black ink. This pen holds a fair amount of ink, and I keep it filled and in use almost all the time. This is the primary pen I use for long form writing.
- Lamy CP1 F nib with Diamine Red Dragon.
- Pilot Custom 74 in Teal with Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku.
- Spoke Design Roady with Schmidt easyFLOW 9000 Blue refill. A pocket sized ball point pen that posts, and is extremely comfortable and pleasant to use.
- Mitsubishi Uni-ball Signo UM-151 Gel Pens 0.38 mm Red, Blue, and Green for annotating.
- Sakura Pigma Micron Pen 03 0.35 mm Red, Blue, and Green for annotating very thin textbook paper (hello Norton Anthology of English Literature.
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June 2, 2025