I just finished reading Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport’s manifesto on reclaiming our attention. It’s a fast and easy read, and I found his thoughts on solitude and leisure echoed mine from the last few months.

Between travel and professional commitments, I’ve been struggling recently to find the time my introverted brain requires to recharge. I can see the toll this is taking both on me and my family, as my ability to be present with them has been gradually degrading. Newport defines the condition of “Solitude Deprivation” as:

A state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free from input from other minds.”

He builds a strong case for a link between solitude deprivation and anxiety-related disorders, and makes the claim that humans require solitude in order to survive. I’ve long known that this is true for me, and I know that I need to change my behavior and habits in order to carve out more time for myself. In particular, I need to plan and defend my time with a priority on solitude and meaningful leisure pursuits.

It’s unlikely that I’ll put myself through the intensive “digital declutter” he advocates, but I intend to evaluate the sources of distraction in my life through the lens of Digital Minimalism.

Back when I wrote about creating a child theme for this blog, I never properly configured deployment of the theme. I attempted to configure it with git --bare init, with the working tree in the wp-contents/themes/ folder. This didn’t work. I’m not entirely sure why, but I suspect it’s due to permissions.

In the end, I cloned the repo into my user home folder:

git clone https://github.com/jeffvautin/twentytwelve-child.git twentytwelve-child

Then I created a softlink from the WordPress themes folder (via ln -s).

Finally, I added the server as a remote on my local copy of the repo, so I can push changes to it with:

git push prod master

Locast, a free streaming option for local broadcast stations, made a big splash back in January ahead of the Super Bowl. At the time they offered apps on a variety of platforms, including iOS and Roku. Apple TV was conspicuously absent from the list.

That’s changed. There’s now an Apple TV app available. If you live in one of the nine markets Locast is serving, it’s worth checking out!