A Few New Experiments At HeyDingus
I’ve had some things bouncing around my mind for a while that I’ve wanted to try out on HeyDingus. I’ve also been feeling under the weather the last few days. So, naturally, instead of taking my afternoon off to rest, I did a bunch of typing and formatting and tweaking, and am putting several of those ideas out all at once!
I’m considering them “experiments” so that I don’t feel pressured to fancy up their pages, promote them too much, or stick to a regular update schedule. And to give me the wiggle room to change my mind about them later. I hope you’ll charitably consider them the same. 😉
Lists of lists
This is the one that’s been clattering around my head for the longest. I’m always noticing funny little things and phrases, and thinking “I should write that down. I could make a good list of things like that one day!” Well, today’s that day. You can find it linked on my Projects page.
A primary list published there that I want to call out is the ‘Where Have I Been?’ one. It was Manton Reece’s post today that put a pep in my step to get all these projects out. I wrote up my places list but it needed a home, so the Lists page came together. But the List page would have been sparse with just the places entry, so I filled it out with the other bits I’ve had waiting in the Drafts wings. There are lists of icebreaker questions, business name puns, secret weird things, and more.
Should be fun!
Custom shortcuts commissions
I’m making fewer shortcuts for the Shortcuts Tips collection these days because the reality is that my day-to-day life is less computer-focused than it used to be. And I use a Windows computer at work, so it wouldn’t benefit me to try to optimize those workflows with my Apple devices. But I like making shortcuts. It engages the problem-solving bits of my brain as few other things do. And I like helping people. So I thought I’d smoosh those interests together, and try to make a few bucks along the way by accepting commissions for made-to-order shortcuts.
If you’ve got a workflow problem that you’re trying to solve — like massaging data around, getting things formatted the right way every time, or trying to get several apps to play nicely together — I’d love to try to help you find an automated solution. You’ll get a shortcut that saves you time and effort, and I get to use my favorite tool to solve new and interesting problems. I’ve got a collection of shortcuts housed on RoutineHub, and detailed write-ups here at heydingus.net/shortcuts if you want to check out my work.
Commission requests are open at my BuyMeACoffee page, and they start at just $5.
(There are a couple of bonus new experiments hiding there, too. 🥇 🎁)
‘7 Things’ goes serial
After 95 issues of the 7 Things weekly roundup, I’m adjusting the naming scheme. Rather than each post being identified by the publish date, I’ll be swapping it with a publication number in the title instead. I’ve never quite been satisfied with the date being in the title since the items contained within are rarely day-dependent. The publish date will still be visible on the post, just like every other entry here, so I don’t see the point of having it listed twice.
The new scheme will bring the project more in line with how I think of 7 Things: An ongoing, newsletter-like web series that catalogs what’s capturing my interest over time. ‘7 Things This Week [#96]’ is out now under the new format, and I’ll be working on refreshing the back catalog without, fingers crossed, breaking any permalinks.
And, to be frank, I’ll be pretty jazzed to see that number go up each week.
Chronicling updates with a changelog
Inspired by Jose Munoz’s version, I made a last-minute addition late this tonight (read: early this morning). I created a changelog where I’ll keep track of the major updates for this site. Things like new pages, changes to the header or footer, and design updates will make their way onto this page. I’ll personally use it as a reference, but perhaps others, too, will find it interesting to see how the site evolves over time.
If I get a wild hare and can track down approximate dates, I’ll try to add notable updates from the first two years of HeyDingus onto the log as well.
Although they’re not revolutionary, I am pretty excited to be getting these projects off the ground. If you have ideas, questions, or suggestions, I’m all ears.