2026 Week 30

Quite a bit worth writing about this week!

🛠️ Tools of the week

• Firefox
• RemNote (notes - personal)
• TickTick
• Capacities (notes - work)

📰 Published

Published my opinionated guide to privacy-based DNS.

I’ve been wanting to write up some stuff like this and this week was a good time to start getting something positive on the blog.

☁️ The weather!

After the crazy heat and smoke from the week before this week was absolutely gorgeous in Chicagoland. Air quality as good as it’s going to get (AQI below 50). Temps in the low 70s and dew points in the low 50s. Nice taste of Fall that comes to an end tomorrow (7/26). Back to reality. The humidity has already been climbing today.

⚛ Proton testing

Last week I mentioned trying out Proton Unlimited for a month.

Proton Calendar is out for my testing purposes. Some weird misses in updating recurring events, etc. Stuff they said they’re working on for the rewrite. So maybe later. Also, they desperately need a “CalDAV Bridge” to allow use of external calendar applications.

Proton Pass-based email alias support is excellent.

When it’s all said and done I can’t see myself using Proton. I really like the user interface and they’ve done some really, really good work since I last used it. The problem? It’s pricey and solves a problem I don’t have. If someone wants to get away from Gmail the answer for pretty much any regular user is Fastmail, not Proton.

👵🏻 Wrapping up Mom’s stuff

Wrapped up my mom’s “digital life”, downloading data and deleting accounts. This all reminds me that I really need to start thinking about end-of-life plans and how someone would deal with all of my stuff.

📝 Yet another notes/task management app

Started trying out NotePlan. This app has come a long way since I tried it several years ago. It really seems to have hit a sweet spot of functionality combined with Markdown. I had signed up for a 7-day trial that I was going to cancel because they want $120/yr and there is no way I would pay that. Oddly when I went to get it from the Mac App Store the first thing that happened when I launched it was an offer for $60/yr, which me being me, I instantly accepted since I’m a nerd for this stuff and it was half the cost. So far I am not regretting that decision. I could easily see using this full time.

🫜 Gardening

Got some work done in the garden. What started out great has been very disappointing. Too many critters getting to the veggies before they’re even ripe!

🐦 Gone from social media

A conversation I had this week with someone I’ve butted heads with far too often over the last several years was a (virtual) slap in the head that, as much as I’d like to be on social media, it just isn’t the place for me. I deleted all of my social media accounts and won’t be going back. This Gen Xer is unplugged permanently from that part of the Zeitgeist.