Apple Blossom
Current Wx: Temp: 59.77°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 48% Wind: 12.39mphWords: 1138
There's a small, scrawny apple tree at the back end of our property. Last fall I saw one apple on it. I did not try it. I don't know if it had more fruit and the deer ate them all or not. But there are a lot of blossoms on it today, so I'll try to keep a closer eye on it.
Last week I was thinking about data. Stuff. Well, information anyway. Things too trivial to remember, but too important to forget. I got that phrasing from Thomas Erickson, though I don't think it appears in the paper he wrote about Proteus. Way back in the latter years of the previous century Erickson had a web site, maybe even a blog, I don't remember. But I recalled his description of an electronic notebook he created using Hypercard.
To this day, I recall reading about that notebook with excitement and admiration. It was something that appealed to me deeply, and summoned all the optimism and enthusiasm I had back then for how computers could make our lives better.
Well, fast forward a generation or so, and I think I've finally gotten around to building my own version of Proteus, Captain's Log.
The impetus for building Captain's Log came from some success I was having automating the marmot, working with guys like Jack Baty, and the folks at the Tinderbox meetups and at the forum. The inspiration was Proteus.
Having created it, using it has been, well, a hit or miss affair. Mostly miss.
But today, it's becoming an integral part of my life, to the point where I'm beginning to alter my daily habits to better exploit its value. (I found the link to the Proteus paper in Captain's Log, because I knew I'd bookmarked it. Searching on "notebook" surfaced it quickly, though it's clear I need to do some organization.)
For most of my life, I've been blessed with a fairly decent memory. I seldom experienced a problem or embarrassment as a result of forgetting something. I seldom made notes, didn't really keep a calendar. I played with "personal digital assistants," like the Newton, PalmOS products from Handspring, even that Windows OS that went into handheld devices. "CE"? But they were never an integral part of my life
These days my memory, "ain't what it used to be." I don't know if that's a consequence of aging, or retirement. When I was "working," I was exercising my "working memory," regularly. I've been retired since 2013, and it just hasn't been as important to remember things, and I find that I don't do it as well anymore.
Enter Captain's Log, and information "too trivial to remember, but too important to forget."
I mentioned last week that I was developing a Tinderbox document for the new house, planning to capture all the information about the design and construction of the house. It could eventually become something of an owner's manual. Either for me, or for whoever ends up owning the place after we're gone.
I started writing AppleScripts to capture information about the house. This wasn't especially challenging, because they were largely duplicating those I'd written for Captain's Log. But that prompted a bit of reflection. Did I want to have two ways to capture information, having to kind of mentally shift gears at the time of capture, trying to recall which script to invoke.
So I've been working a bit on both the New House Project, and Captain's Log, adding some additional prototypes, changing some of the built-in automations, while this capture process marinated in the back of my mind.
I've decided that I'm going to perform all capture with Captain's Log. In its original conception, I'd intended to include a review of each days entries, either at the end of the day or the first thing the following morning. Like much else, it was mostly aspirational.
But I discovered I could copy a note from the Log and paste it into NHP, without losing any of the attributes. I may have known this before, but it's never been something I've done regularly with Tinderbox.
So the process now is to capture an email, a phone call, a web page, a file using Captain's Log, and each morning, review the previous day's entries and copy the ones relevant to the house over to the NHP document. During the review, prior to copying, I can add tags such that when pasted into an Inbox container, action code within the Inbox will place the note in the relevant container.
I still have more work to do to refine the structure of the New House Project. As it's currently constructed, I have no agents, just containers. Agents can gather aliases of notes based on the content of their attributes, including tags. So an HVAC agent would gather all notes of any type that contain either an HVAC tag, or perhaps I'll create a "System" attribute, that might associate that note with a particular house system, like HVAC, septic, plumbing, water treatment, electricity, network, lighting, etc.
I modified the AppleScript I used to log email to include an attribute for the date received. That hadn't been important before, but I want to have a chronological record of all the email correspondence in the NHP document. So I had to create that attribute and add a couple of lines to the AppleScript to capture that date and place it in the Tinderbox note, and I had to alter the prototype to make Received a displayed attribute.
NHP is what's driving the requirement for a daily review, because I'm capturing so much data about the house. But it affords the side benefit that I get more use out of the other notes I'm creating, by adding appropriate tags, additional text, due dates and so on in the course of reviewing them. So Captain's Log improves through regular use and review, and NHP becomes a valuable record of the construction of our new home.
I've used Tinderbox for more than twenty years, but for nearly all that I've used it as a kind of content management system for the marmot, and for Groundhog Day before it. I'd play with different documents from time to time, but nothing ever stuck from a utility standpoint. This has.
There are lots of "everything bucket" apps. I have Eagle Filer and DevonThink, but I don't use them. I think this is where long years of using one app can begin to pay dividends, as I don't have to learn another app's philosophy, or user interface. I mostly get Tinderbox, though it does trip me up from time to time.
Anyway, kind of excited. Something to do that feels productive, empowering. So much so that, here it is, an 1100+ word post!
Thanks, if you've read all of it!
✍️ Reply by emailGreen Acres
Current Wx: Temp: 55.71°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 59% Wind: 8.1mphWords: 36
This is from three days ago.
Went to the gym this morning. I'm still recovering. Called Mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day. Now I just want to take a nap.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailMeta is Dying
11:48 Sunday, 10 May 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 55.22°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 60% Wind: 8.1mph
Words: 3
Good. (Gift link.)
✍️ Reply by email