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Drea

My random musings on a variety of topics that are too long to fit in a Bluesky post.

2readers26posts12d ago

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Merlin Bird ID for the bird obsessed

I am not a seasoned birdwatcher by any means, but I love watching birds. I live near a very large state park that has undertaken extensive efforts to conserve birds native to our region, so we’re fortunate to have tons of birds right in our backyard When I discovered the Merlin Bird ID app a couple of years ago, I was immediately hooked. Made by the Cornell Lab or Ornithology, this app listens to the bird sounds around you and then (with a somewhat high degree of accuracy based on my experience ...

Reader by Readwise as my link-saving eveything app

Every week I save dozens of links - articles, funny YouTube videos, Bluesky posts, Instagram videos. The only thing there's more of than links I save is apps that promise to organize all these links. And I've tried many of them - Raindrop.io, Instapaper, Pocket, MyMind, KeepIt...just to name a few. And then I grew tired of these (and their subscriptions) and started dumping everything into a folder in Apple Notes, which was OKAYish, but made it difficult to find things when I went looking for th...

productivityreadwise

Journaling with Obsidian - Update

About five months ago, I made the decision to stop using DayOne for journaling and use Obsidian for journaling instead. It felt like a big decision at the time, as I had journaled in DayOne for over 14 years, amassing thousands of memories. I made the move to Obsidian not certain that Obsidian as a journaling platform would stick. But stick it has and I haven't once considered returning to DayOne. The biggest reason I made this move away from DayOne was to get my journaling under my complete con...

obsidianjournaling

I'm "Wispring" now

I started using Wispr Flow this week. I was potentially influenced by the YouTubers waxing about the incredible productivity gains achieved using AI speech-to-text apps, or I just like trying new stuff. Whatever it is, I am trying it. On a keyboard at the computer, I like typing. I'm a good typist and I love my mechanical keyboard collection. Typing helps me process information, think things through, refine what I want to say. However, lately, I really dislike typing on the iPhone. A big part of...

AI Whiplash and the Future of Humanity

These days, everything I read about AI gives me a bad case of whiplash. Educators are fed up with Ai, so much that they are going back to pen and paper assignments in class. At the same time, the government is investing untold sums of money so that AI can take over literal functions of the government, just one of many efforts to make it clear that AI is the future of work. College graduates are entering a workforce that is completely upended by AI, signaling that the ability to use AI is paramou...

aicurrent events

Beautiful azalea garden courtesy of our local water company

I was shocked to learn that our local water company, WSSC, maintains a beautiful azalea garden. We visited this week when the azaleas had just peaked and it was absolutely stunning. Five acres of nothing but azaleas bushes. The area is very accessible. There is parking just across the street near the WSSC facility, with a well marked crosswalk that provides access into the garden. Once in the garden area, you can traverse wide gravel paths. There are parts that are slightly hilly but it is fairl...

photographynature

AI tools are about to suck for most of us

AI tools are something I use daily. I am not an AI power user but more of an AI-tools-make-me-a-bit-more-productive kind of person. Personally and professionally I use AI tools like Claude and Gemini regularly for personal and work-related research, drafting, and summarizing information. Questions I used to drop into Google search are now dropped into AI tools. And I use AI tools to help analyze information, draft written work, and summarize information. All this to say, my AI tool usage pretty ...

Garden Gaslighting: don't be fooled by April!

A vegetable garden is an exercise in patience - waiting for things to grow, waiting for the right time. It's also an exercise in avoiding temptation and amateur weather forecasting, especially in the D.C. area where spring can feel like summer one day and winter the next. This extreme temperature variability makes it very difficult to know when to start seedlings, and when to transfer them into the eagerly awaiting garden beds. Get tempted too early and you're holding a memorial service for your...

vegetablegarden

Vegetable Garden Update - April 18, 2026

This year has been a fast transition from slow-prep mode to full swing with our vegetable garden. Spring was a beautiful season with rapidly warming temperatures in the D.C. area. Temps are still swinging back and forth, but with a number of 90+ degree days behind us and no foreseeable days below freezing, the ground should be warm enough to begin planting. The garlic and arugula are doing great. Arugula always does well in colder weather. Hopefully we will be eating arugula in the next couple o...

vegetable garden