Craig McClellan

I have an orange fountain pen ink from that I adore from a small maker. When I first ink it up, it is one of the most beautiful inks I’ve ever seen. But if I leave it inked for more than a day or two (which I never write enough in one day to empty out a pen), it dries out, loses character, and becomes difficult to write with. I’ve put it in different pens with different nibs, and it is the same experience every time. I’ve decided it’s time to stop trying with this ink. I’m disappointed every time I use it.

Similarly, I bought the first iPad Pro the day it was released in 2015, and it immediately became my primary computer. I upgraded to the first FaceID model in 2018, and eventually added the Magic Keyboard as well. I haven’t had a personal Mac since around that time, and it’s been no problem.

As a teacher, I ran my classroom off of the iPad Pro. When I moved into EdTech, my employers provided me Macs which to use (currently on a 16" M1 MacBook Pro), but my iPad has been my constant personal device.

Unfortunately, the amount of friction I’m experiencing with my iPad continues to grow. Websites load poorly on its “desktop class” version of Safari. Stage Manager brought about a new multitasking paradigm…that is worse than before. I’ve grown tired of fighting against this device.

I’ve debated for a long time what I want to do about the problem. I really love the iPad as a platform. My iPad mini still gets a ton of use. And while it’s barely a fraction of what Viticci is experiencing, I definitely felt for a long time like I was an iPad guy.

But I’ve finally done it. This is the last blog post I will write from my iPad Pro. I’m about to clear it off because it has been sold, and a new M2 MacBook Air is on its way to me.

As much as I love this device, it’s not working for me. And so, like the orange ink I love so much, I’m letting it go.

King Brothers Toyota - SNL

This sketch from last night made me realize my children will never know the joy of terrible local car dealership commercials, and I’m a little sad about that.

Finished reading: Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer by Tyler Staton 📚

I want to read this a dozen more times to soak it all in.

📺 Starting “The Last of Us” tonight very rapidly showed me I am still not ready for stories containing a pandemic. I’m really disappointed. I was so excited about this show. It had so many things pre-2020 Craig would have loved, but it was just too much for me tonight.

My company flew its remote workforce to HQ in Austin for the week. Seeing friends I haven’t seen in person since Jan 2020 and meeting way more has been so good for this extrovert who works from home. It’s also exhausting going from one extreme to the other. Ready to get home.

I caved to peer pressure on micro.blog, and bought 3 years of omg.lol the other day before the price went up…but what do I do with it? Any cool uses besides locking down my username?

When the first Theme System Journals were released, I bought one because I like Myke and Grey. I wanted to be part of the community around Cortex participating in yearly themes, and I’m a sucker for systems to make me feel more productive. But I had trouble making it stick, and then covid hit. My initial theme (I don’t even remember what it was), went out the door. I was in survival mode. I eventually tried again sometime in 2021 with the same journal, but still couldn’t make a habit of it.

Eventually, I gave up, and recycled my journal (I know, I know). It was taking up room on my desk, and wasn’t being used.

I journal every day in my bullet journal, so I just didn’t need something else.

Over the last couple months, as I started to evaluate certain areas of my life, I noticed commonalities between things I wanted to change. A theme if you will. These were all big enough areas I knew I was going to have to be intentional about tracking and managing these areas.

There was not a question about how I was going to do this tracking. I ordered a new Theme System Journal. This also meant I got the updated V2 version of the notebook (which even after just my initial setup feels significantly nicer).

Since the micro.blog community has several folks who share their themes, I thought I would post mine to have some community around my theme.

So without further ado, my theme for the year is:

The Year of Adele Dazeem (aka Let it Go)

I live my life trying to tightly control everyone and everything around me. It brings stress, and harms relationships. This year, I want to just let it go.

I’m focusing on 6 areas.

1. Spiritual Health - Trust God with my needs more, and rely less on myself.
2. Mental Health - Let go of my phone & social media. Read more books.
3. Family Health - Let go of small things & don’t get so angry with my kids.
4. Social Health - Let go of Covid hang ups & say yes to more social opportunities
5. Work Health - Let go of some growth goals for now & focus energy more on my family
6. Physical Health - Let go of some extra body fat

So there you go. My theme for 2023. We’ll see how it goes and if I can stay consistent with the journal. But I’m excited about trying it out. After I use it for a few weeks, I may post how I use the journal’s pages and boxes. For now though, I hope I’m leaving you with Let it Go stuck in your head.

🍿 Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery

Got one last movie in before midnight. One of my favorites of 2022. I loved the first Knives Out, and this was great as well.

🍿 Matilda the Musical

Give my family good music, and we can forgive most plot and acting deficiencies. Fortunately, the music was incredible, and there were none of those to forgive. This movie was just great all around.

[10] And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (ESV) Luke 2:10-11

🎄Merry Christmas Everyone!