What’s in your Simplenote?

Some of the old timers may remember one of Apple’s most famous ad campaigns – “What’s on your Powerbook?”. In it, celebrities and some regular folk were pictured with their Powerbooks and revealed in text were some of the things they used it for. Even back then, I was highly fascinated by the tools people use and how they use them and this fed that crave quite nicely.

With the new release of Simplenote, I thought it might be fun to list just a few of the notes I have in mine with the hopes that others will share theirs as well. If you do decide to post yours up somewhere, @reply me your name and a link to your list on Twitter and I will update this post with it as my time allows. Sound fun? Great, here we go…

What’s in my Simplenote?

• Bits of words and wisdom – Where I keep nice phrases and well written sentences I run across on the Internet.

• Yay me! – Where I keep a little list of meaningful accomplishments. I look at this whenever I’m feeling down about myself. It also came in handy for performance reviews back when I had a “real” job.

• Home Stats – Any measurements I take around the house I keep in here so that, for instance, I always know how big the dining room is or the cubby holes in my office desk hutch. Things like that.

• My wife’s standard order at Chipotle – So I don’t have to call first if I’m picking some up for dinner or lunch.

• My personal manifesto – Things I believe in.

OK, your turn. What’s in your Simplenote?

Mike Morrow

Jonathan Gold

Caleb Chandra

Ben Brooks

Stacie Huckeba

Ian Hines

Kevin Houle

Simple Software

Ash

Myke Hurley

Kyle Baxter

Kev Rodgers

Jocelyn Richard

Eddie Smith

Randy Murray

Dennis Lenaerts

Eric Anderson

Scott Clitheroe

Ben Crowder

Randy Botti

Billy Adams

Jasmin Wong

Sean McArthur

Y. Konstantakopoulos

Chris Bowers

John Roux

Jack Mottram (who, as usual, displays mad ninja skills)

Pat Dryburgh

Mark Szymanski

Alex Carp

Ken Clark

Ian Broome

Blue Perez

Cristian Anca

Year One

Minimal Mac recently rounded the corner of it’s first year in existence. I think I can safely say that everything about it has exceeded my expectations, mostly because I really had none at the start. I thought I would come up with this little project that a few people might enjoy that discussed the merits of having “enough” when it came to technology and, with extrapolation, life. It went from that thought to execution in 24 hours. Here we are, almost 900 posts later, still doing this thing. I won’t discuss the numbers but, let me suffice to say that more than a few of you show up every day to see what I post and, as a writer and curator, it makes me equal parts humbled and proud.

I hope the coming year will bring even more of the same, yet better. I want to continue to make sure I am working every day to bring a level of quality to the work I produce here that is consistent with my beliefs and abilities. I want to make sure that the subject matter is both topical and rational. I also want to work hard to make sure that anyone who chooses to give me even a moment of their valuable time and attention walks away feeling it is a fair trade and square deal.

I’m also hoping to spruce the place up a bit. Perhaps a fresh coat of greyscale paint. Make it look even better on those new fangled devices all the cool kids carry these days.

I thought, especially for those that have not been here since the beginning, an appropriate way to celebrate would be for me to call out some of the posts I think are not only a good overview of the year that was, but are also a reflection of what we believe in:

Welcome – The very first post.

The forgotten cost of features – Wherein I use a simple piece of paper to explain that every feature has an often hidden associated cost.

The “What if” Myth – The lies we use to excuse ourselves from bad behavior.

My Pledge To You – What Gizmodo did not learn as children. Also, the things I learned.

Down With Minimalism! Clutter Is The Productive Way Forward! – There is no “right way”.

Happy Birthday iPod – Wherein I use the iPod’s Birthday to tell you a story about how to beat stereotypes.

Dancing to the rhythm, walking to the walk. – Not everyone noticed, but I like to think the content on the site changed quite a bit after this post.

Doing it wrong – Sometimes, if you want to be successful, do opposite of what people tell you.

The Season of Stuff – Not just for the holidays.

Unclutter Your Mac in One Week – Day 1 – The first part of a 7 part series. If there is anywhere to begin with getting your Mac clutter under control, start here.

Computing Simplicity? – Just so we are clear about what I believe in.

What Apple Sells… – Just in case you thought it was computers.

It’s not a bargain if you don’t need it – How’s that Tweetie 2 for Mac workin’ for ya?

Faith in The Future – My replacing my Macbook with my iPad for a mobile machine is going just fine, thank you. Writing this post on it.

The Future – My favorite photo I’ve ever posted to Minimal Mac was my own.

The Simple Life – Though this one is a very close second.

iPhone Shot – Most Tumblr popular thing I ever posted (3608 notes). Still not quite sure why.

Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing – Because even a washing machine matters.

Want not, waste not. – Because it is so fundamentally important to everything we believe in.

The Messy Desk Story

Yesterday, I posted a link to a site called Messy Desks, as part of my usual “Not what we believe in.” meme. While it is certainly true I am not a fan of clutter, this particular link and post was all a part of an elaborate practical joke on my good friend Pat Dryburgh who curates SimpleDesks. See, his roommate, John, sent me an email a few days ago that, in part, said:

One of the things that I have been bugging him about to no end is his site:simpledesks.tumblr.com. I keep bugging him about his fascination with clean looking desks… I ask him why he calls it desk p0rn, and ask him if he would ever date a girl that didn’t have a clean minimalist desk… etc, etc ;) all in fun.

Any who…  I have decided to take things to the next level by making my own site… which I have called: messydesks.tumblr.com. I have basically copied his exact layout, and wording, but put in my name and pictures of messy desks. I honestly laugh every time I see the two sites side by side.

So, that was how it began. John put it together, asked me to link to it, knowing that Pat would see it. Worked like a charm. Everyone had a good laugh.

One of the lessons I have learned, especially in curating this site, is to not take any of this stuff too seriously. This was the perfect opportunity to do just that.