Tomorrow I go on my first trip since getting my Tom Bihn Tri-Star for Christmas, and I might be more excited about packing than for the trip itself (which I’ve been looking forward to for months). 🤓
Got rid of a few apps, and am testing out some different ones, so here’s my homescreen as of today.
New Post to Micro.blog Drafts Script (With Categories!)
Drafts 5 has become my go to app for all things text on iOS. I do my blogging and much of my other writing for work in it due to its powerful automation. I’ve been using its scripting abilities to post my blog posts to my Micro.blog hosted blog since the app released last spring.
As I’ve gotten more comfortable with JavaScript, I’ve wanted to rework some of how my Post to Micro.blog script works. With Manton’s announcement yesterday that Micro.blog hosted blogs could now have categories, I knew this was the right time to rework my script.
So I give you “Post to Micro.blog (w/Categories)”. Catchy name, right? You can totally change it when you install it.
Essentially, the script will send a request to the Micro.blog server for a list of all categories you have setup on your blog. If you have any, it will provide a prompt for you to select categories to post to. You can also select in the prompt whether your post has a title (like this one) or not.
There’s little configuration required on the user’s end. All you have to do is run the script once, and it will ask for your Micro.blog token. Once you enter this, it will be stored in Drafts’s Credentials (not on anything of mine or having to do with this script at all), and will be used until you delete it from the Drafts’s setting. You will not be asked for your token again unless you delete.
Also, this script takes advantage of Drafts’s “safe_title” template which strips extra characters (like Markdown headings) from the title. This means you can have a Markdown H1 in the title of your post for clarity when writing, editing, and accessing, but this will be excluded from what is sent to Micro.blog.
I’m pleased with how this turned out, and hope it’s helpful to the Micro.blog community as a whole. If you have any questions or find any issues, please reach out to me at @craigmcclellan.
For Tennessee, things got weird weather-wise yesterday morning.
🔗 Inspecting JSON Files on iOS with Jayson – MacStories
Really excited to have this app on iOS. I’m already using it to debug a script I’m writing in Drafts to work with Micro.blog’s new categories feature.
Today’s episode of @theclassnerd is one of my favorites we’ve done. We get a little more philosophical and less technical.
🔗 In Defense of Benny from ‘Rent’
😂 I’m dead.
📺 I haven’t listened in years, but still know every word to “La Vie Boheme.” Rent Live is bringing me so much joy tonight taking me to the summer of 2005 when I saw for the first time on broadway.
📺 Time to begin saying goodbye to Kimmy, Titus, Lillian, Jaqueline, and the catchiest theme song of all time. 😭
📺 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Sports Analogies
Only a few more episodes left of this show. I’m going to miss it so much.
Just because kids can open the YouTube app on an iPad doesn’t mean they understand the basics of technology such as the difference between a URL and a google search. We can’t assume this generation is technologically literate and not teach the basics of computing.
In 2019, I need to listen to this song every day. It balances the sadness and anger all around us so well with hope.
The Class Nerd - Semester 2 Episode 1 - Apple Watch in the Classroom
We’re back for a new semester of @theclassnerd podcast!
Apple Music needs to add this ASAP so I can keep Frozen out of My Favorites Mix.
🎵 Maggie Rogers - Heard It In a Past Life
If you’re a fan of Haim, this record has a similar feel to their music. I’m really enjoying it.
I want to clarify my last post and say I think it’s better for everyone that I post less. Not necessarily that they do.
I’m finding the more I journal, the less I want to post on the internet. I think this is probably a good thing for everyone.
Thinking Different: Keys to Adopting an iPad-First Workflow – MacStories
The iPad isn’t for everyone. Depending on your needs, it may not be the best tool for you. But there’s no denying that it can be a successful Mac alternative for some – myself included.
An iPad Pro has been my primary computer for over three years, and the device has continually grown more capable during that time. There are still some things a Mac does better, but the iPad’s trade offs are worth it for me. The more time you spend with the device, the more you may learn its weaknesses, but the same is true of its strengths.
Great thoughts from Ryan Christoffel on how to get started with the iPad as your primary computing device. I’ve also been on this train over 3 years, and I don’t plan on getting off any time soon.
ESV Bible Verse Lookup Drafts Action
Over the years, my workflow for taking notes on sermons in church has changed many times. From using a regular Moleskine, to Evernote Moleskines (which were photographed and stored in Evernote), to sketchnoting in Linea Sketch, I never stuck with a system long. My latest obsession has been using Day One as a journal, so it seems like the perfect place to store my sermon notes.
I’m also now taking my notes on my iPhone. I used to take my 9.7" iPad (and then 10.5" iPad Pro) with me. Even with the size reduction on the 2018 models, the 12.9" iPad Pro is way too big to carry into church. Unfortunately, this does mean I lose the convenience of having a Bible app open on one side of the screen and my notes on the other. After one week of this, I knew I had to figure out a way to quickly get the text of the verses into my notes so I didn’t have to keep switching apps.
A quick DuckDuckGo search revealed the Bible translation my church uses, the English Standard Version, has an API that can retrieve full passages of a search query sent to the server. I knew accessing and processing verses from the API would be a great job for Drafts.
I got to work after church yesterday, and created the Insert ESV Text action. It will prompt the user for verses to insert. You can the passage just how you would write it down. For instance, in church yesterday, we studied James 1:1-8. You can type James 1:1-8 into the prompt, and all 8 verses will be inserted into the current draft.
On the verse prompt, there is also a switch to put the returned passage into a markdown blockquote. I have this set as the default because it’s how I prefer my text. However, if this isn’t your preferred default, look at the comments in the script for quick directions on how to change this. It’s as easy as changing the word “true” to “false” in the code.
In order to use this action, you will need a free API token from api.esv.org. The first time you run the action, it will prompt you for your API token. After that, it will automatically retrieve it from Drafts’s Credentials. Once you’ve stored your token, you’re free to start inserting Bible verses from the ESV into Drafts.
I know this is probably a niche script, but it was a lot of fun to create, so I hope it will be useful for someone other than myself. You can get the action here.