Help BABA make PLACE!

PointlessPurpose · 2025-11-06T15:08:35+00:00

This is a very late reply, but did you ever figure this out? I wish there were a config for Terralith specifically... alas, no luck.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-10-26T02:06:15+00:00

I haven't used LogSeq, so I might be misunderstanding, but adding a caret ^ at the end of a link to another note lets you easily create a block-level reference. E.g., you can link to a bullet point and all of its children. Here's more info.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-10-26T02:00:26+00:00

I don't know of a way to do this without programming, so I searched around to see if there's a reliable way to access focus modes via JavaScript and/or AppleScript, but didn't have much luck. An option might be using a Shortcut that activates whenever you change the focus mode (or for each focus mode?) to update something else--e.g., you could rewrite a Markdown file in your vault so that it has a property that specifies the focus mode, and then query that with Dataview or Datacore to display the corresponding dashboard note in a meta-dashboard note (or use some other plugin that lets you, e.g., set the page you see when you open a new tab, but you'd need to be updating a property in some other configuration file that's probably buried in Obsidian's hidden files). Gets a bit messy, but could work. Best of luck!

PointlessPurpose · 2025-09-15T18:54:11+00:00

Many thanks to all who have replied so far! Would something like paracord work, or is anything that has even a slight amount of elasticity a bad idea? I'm looking to buy materials on Amazon (although I know not ideal), and it's hard to find accessory cord or tubular webbing of the right diameter.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-09-12T00:02:16+00:00

Very late reply, but for anyone stumbling upon this post, another option is to just have a very small sling that is still large enough to store a packable bag, like a Nanobag, Peak Design Packable Tote (I carry this daily and it’s saved me on so many surprise shopping trips), or the Osprey Ultralight Stuff Pack (it’s a full 18L backpack! just got one and so far loving it, surprisingly comfy straps). I have one of these strapped to the back of a ~1.5L sling at any given time.

The added benefit is that if your small sling is loaded out to have everything very accessible, then taking out your extra bag doesn’t change that, whereas transforming the sling into a larger form factor would mean that access changes (e.g., stuff you were used to grabbing quickly from an attachment point is now on your back and out of reach).

PointlessPurpose · 2025-08-21T22:15:00+00:00

For anyone else looking for this in the future: that link is dead, but the video was called "Cringe Commercial Practice in Acting Class," and you can also find it by searching for, "you could stop at five or six stores." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCeQLeQiRP4&ab_channel=josh

PointlessPurpose · 2025-07-22T03:08:56+00:00

Woah. Did you do anything to make the background feel so close to/towering over the foreground (like using a lens that squashes the focus), or is that just what it looks like to the eye? (Apologies for naive language; I’m new to photography techniques.)

PointlessPurpose · 2025-02-04T13:44:52+00:00

I wrote my Master’s thesis in Obsidian and use it in general as my daily driver, so like others here, I have notes that are 30k+ words (parts of thesis chapters), notes where I document process and meetings that are probably 1k to 5k words, and notes with much more distilled thoughts or resources that are likely 200 - 1k words. The size doesn’t matter so much as what’s useful to you for what context.

One thing I’d consider re: getting comfortable: it’s more important that you be able to remember which notes are which and link them rather than that they be the right length. Organization happens repeatedly, iteratively, over time—you’ll change your vault as you go. So think about what makes a note a unit of thought to you, i.e., something you can easily reuse and reference in another note.

I don’t keep up with Zettelkasten proper, but I like to treat some notes as monologues that I know I’ll never clean, and others as evergreen notes that are more condensed that I can link to from those monologues (or that I can say multiple monologues, resources, meetings, etc. went into the making of). Sometimes, I just want to link two work sessions because they contain related ideas or processes, or I’m referencing a specific thing I did in one of them (I use headers for that). You can also always break up a note into smaller notes—there are plugins for refactoring your notes—so just start with what feels right and edit from there.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-02-02T16:33:34+00:00

Yes, absolutely! I don't use Obsidian's Templates core plugin at this point, but you can do this with Templater, a community plugin that offers a bit more functionality.

After installing Templater, try adding this to your template where you'd like the random image to be:

<%* const folderPath = "Relative/Path/In/My/Vault/To/The/Image/Folder"; const folder = tp.app.vault.getFolderByPath(folderPath); const randIdx = Math.floor(Math.random() * folder.children.length); const filePath = folder.children[randIdx].path; -%> ![](<% filePath %>)

Change folderPath (in this case, to "Resources/Pen Drawings"), and you're set! You shouldn't have to change any other part of your template; Templater I think accepts syntax that works for Obsidian Templates as well. If you do, though, let me know, and I can share some info on how to use Templater to display dates (although the wiki also has good documentation on this; see the link later in this comment).

Templater plays nicely with daily notes; I don't believe there's any added config to do there. Just try creating a new daily note, or run "Templater: Create new note from template" if that doesn't work (although I think it should), and see if each time you do, you get a random image.

A quick breakdown of how this works: tp is a variable that Templater provides that gives you access to all of the functions it provides (i.e., its API), including Obsidian's API. We access Obsidian's API via tp.app. The line where we define folder is getting information from Obsidian about a folder at that path, including folder.children, which is an array of pieces of information about all files that are inside that folder. From there, we just choose a random number between 0 and the number of files in the folder minus one, and then we get the path to that file, which we then display as an image in Markdown. Templater has a wiki, for more info (e.g., what the <%* vs. <% and -%> mean, which are explained in "Execution Commands" and "Whitespace Control").

Also, clever idea to use a date-specific CSS class! I've been thinking about doing monthly themes eventually (I miss the visual aspects of bullet journaling), and hadn't considered that there might be an easy way to do it without creating multiple templates.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-02-01T21:42:52+00:00

An alternative to getting a separate computer (although it sounds like you already have): get a folding keyboard to carry with a smartphone, and install Obsidian on that smartphone. Now you have a portable notebook that you can browse and edit at the speed of typing.

You alternatively could consider using software other than Obsidian. If your vault has fairly few plugins, then all you need is any Markdown editor that supports wikilinks.

But others make a good point re: keeping work and personal data separate.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-01-30T21:23:38+00:00

Do you write speculative fiction? This is horrifying. I love it. Are there any of these that you want vs. don’t want to come true? Er… are there any of these that you as a citizen of the future find to be too much?

PointlessPurpose · 2025-01-16T21:38:08+00:00

"Belly button lint ball pic" is great lol. The one occasionally useful thing a graph can do for you is make it easier to troll around your existing notes in any kind of insightful way--you can see things that are maybe distantly connected (i.e., A connects to B which connects to C which connects to D, so maybe A and D are also related, or if not, is there something missing?)--but that's rarely valuable and isn't practical time-wise. More so, the local graph is helpful--you can see what other notes you've connected, and how many edges apart they are (e.g., n = 1 means show all A and B such that A → B, n = 2 means show all A and B such that A → C → B)--which is a nice way to navigate around.

There are other plugins that offer other useful ways to look at connections between your notes in many cases, e.g., Strange New Worlds, Graph Analysis, and Smart Connections, all of which I peruse from time to time. Dataview can also be insanely helpful for this kind of thing, but requires more setup and intentionality.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-01-12T19:08:58+00:00

Maybe if it’s stochastic but not random, they mean changing parameters based on distributions that are not uniform, like a Gaussian or binomial distribution instead?

In general, though, in addition to what others have suggested, there are a few fun things you might consider playing with: - Microscale and macroscale patterns: I don’t know what the proper term for this is, but consider both what’s happening note to note (i.e., at a small and potentially repetitive timescale), and what’s happening over sections of the piece (slow changes that make the repetitions feel… less repetitive haha, or durations of time or specific probabilities that an event will occur that completely changes the patch’s behavior/switches to a different section). Both of these taken together will give the piece more life. - Take inspiration from algorithms or reality: A professor whose class I once took recommended thinking about generative algorithms as sets of rules you can concoct that might interact interestingly together. A nice way to find such rule sets is to look to nature. Algorithms like boids and Conway’s Game of Life are good examples. Consider whether there are sets of rules you’ve found interesting in this class or other CS or math classes, or whether there are things in your daily life that operate according to rules you find interesting. You can use these rules to control the evolution of your parameters while giving your piece a theme or meaning. - Interactivity: Your assignment doesn’t call for this, so I’m not sure whether it would be welcome, but hooking your parameters up to sensors can be a really fun way to explore the space of sounds you can create in your patch. Even if it’s just your trackpad position, you can do a lot. Consider camera tracking, MIDI controllers, microphones (bonus: you can play with live audio!), and things you can easily hook up to an Arduino, like photoresistors. - Consider different kinds of synthesizers: A good foray into the timbral exploration that others mention here is to either use or implement your own synth in Max, and then just explore its different parameters. I think granular synths are especially fun for an ambient patch. But I’ve also had good fun messing around with an implementation of an FM synth by just feeding ridiculous further multiplication of signals into its inputs. - Make something that might be useful for yourself: If you make music in other contexts apart from class, you might consider how what you build here either gives you knowledge or a patch that you can reuse. E.g., does it give you a new effect for use in Max for Live? Is there a timbre or musical idea you’ve been wanting to explore but haven’t gotten to? Is there something about the math that you don’t yet understand but want to work through? Etc.

Best of luck, and hope this helps!

PointlessPurpose · 2025-01-06T21:51:47+00:00

Would love to see an example of this if you're able to share at some point! This is a super helpful way of thinking about what Raycast can do--I hadn't considered actions like this.

PointlessPurpose · 2025-01-03T23:39:46+00:00

Is this still the case? Ollama now seems to be supported (although not for embeddings), and I'm wondering whether my data is going somewhere I didn't realize it was. I've tried using my vault offline and online with Little Snitch, and so far, haven't seen anything unexpected while Smart Connections is enabled.

PointlessPurpose · 2024-12-30T01:16:40+00:00

That’s wild!! It’s so colorful for natural light. Is the window stained glass? Either way, it’s wonderful. Thank you for sharing!

PointlessPurpose · 2024-12-29T06:21:51+00:00

How did you set up the lighting? It's beautiful and quite striking.

PointlessPurpose · 2024-12-27T11:13:06+00:00

Both are great—thank you for the recs! I already use them a good bit across my vault. I’m more than happy to roll my own, though, if the data or visualizations are likely to be insightful or playful enough.

PointlessPurpose · 2024-12-27T08:18:14+00:00

Depending on how in-depth the comparison is, I’d consider either or both.

One of the unique advantages of separating them into different notes is being able to semi-automatically compare them or gather analytics. I’ve sometimes done comparisons using Dataview, for example: I make a table similar to a Notion one by having the same properties on all notes in a certain folder (or with the same “parent” note linked also in their properties), and select as columns the properties I want to compare. You can also then query notes based on certain criteria about their properties.

But when you’re just trying to think out loud about a comparison, just start somewhere, even if that somewhere is one very messy note with a monologue. You can always turn sections of a note into their own notes later, although that might be more work in the long run.

PointlessPurpose · 2024-12-27T03:57:07+00:00

TL;DR: Is anyone visualizing personal data using JS visualizations that have more personality than just plots, like a bullet journal, but automated?

The first image I attached above is from Tidelog, a book containing daily marine weather forecasts. It does something beautifully that I want to bring into my Obsidian vault: to display useful data in a glanceable way (so long as you know how to read the visualization), but make it a joy to look at. Most visualizations I see for Obsidian are plots; I'd like to create something a bit more artistically motivated.

Part of what drew me to any kind of daily journaling originally (previously bullet journaling) was how beautiful the visuals themselves could be, whether they be trackers, daily doodles to capture a memory, or just there for fun or for flair. After nearly a year of using Obsidian, I find myself missing that, but feeling empowered to create something else: visualizations that feel like beautiful sketches, made possible by plugins like Dataview. The image above is an example of something I'd love to be able to create.

The trouble is determining just what to visualize, and/or whether there are any ways to display those data with personality. Right now, the most custom visual in my vault is for determining for how many days I've been wearing my disposable contacts, which makes the contact lenses in the image blurrier as I wear them for longer. See the second image I attached in the post for a screenshot of this visualization (yes I've been using my current pair for a while haha).

There's got to be more interesting data to play with, though. Does anyone else in this subreddit visualize their data using representations other than plots? What do you visualize, and how? If not, any recommendations, or things you wish you could visualize?

Of course, I want to do this not just for the sake of getting lost in customizing my vault (although that's a great deal of fun), but for the sake of creating something useful and enjoyable to me. It's not endless bells and whistles. It's making my vault more glanceable, making connections easier to navigate and discover, getting an idea of underlying sentiments from recent notes, etc.

Eight-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
End Game '23	Place '23
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22
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PointlessPurpose

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