Getting everything setup is fairly straightforward:

(use-package elfeed
  :defer t
  :init
  (elfeed-protocol-enable)
  :custom
  (elfeed-use-curl t)
  (elfeed-feeds    '(("ttrss+https://user@my.ttrss.com"
		      :password "<password goes here>"))))

The elfeed-protocol-enable part turns on additional protocol support, and elfeed-feeds tells elfeed which tt-rss server to use.

The default view takes up the full width of the window, which I find hard to read on a large monitor. I use the following addition to narrow things down:

(use-package elfeed
  ;; <- Regular config goes here.
  :config
  (add-hook 'elfeed-show-mode-hook #'sodaware/enhance-elfeed-readability))

(defun sodaware/enhance-elfeed-readability ()
  "Clean up elfeed show buffer."
  (setq shr-width 80)
  (buffer-face-set 'fixed-pitch))

elfeed uses Simple HTML Renderer (shr) to display articles, so this function limits the width and sets the font to a fixed-width one.

Here’s a simple function that marks all RSS items as read before fetching new posts:

(defun sodaware/elfeed-all-read-refresh ()
  (interactive)
  (when (y-or-n-p "Really mark all items as read?")
    (elfeed-mark-all-as-read)
    (elfeed-search-fetch nil)))

import my finances into ledger using reckon, but the process was a little unwieldy. Each account uses different CSV formats, so I'd have to remember the correct commands to use when importing (which I'd usually forget by the first of the month).

So I wrote a little wrapper script that uses the CSV file to decide on what import command to run, as well as which output file to append it to. It's not exactly a revolutionary tool, but it removes some of the friction from the process.

2. Complete one session of deliberate practice

I wrote some new game libraries using a purely TDD approach. I've written plenty of tests for other projects, but I've never done it from a strict TDD way before. It went well and gave me plenty of ideas for improving my daily development processes.

3. Plan my three bodyweight skill goals

I took some time off exercising after my marathon, but I'm back on my routine of running and bodyweight workouts. My strength is slowly coming back and I've started working on basic progressions.

1. Write more

Writing did not go well.

1. Run a marathon

This was one of my largest goals for the year and I'm really pleased with how it went. It was a lot more enjoyable than my first marathon; there were people clapping and cheering for parts of the course which really helped.

And as an added bonus I took an hour off my previous time.

1. Write more

I wrote a whole two posts in May. Not good.

2. Finish my Atari ST text adventure

Another failure here. I added a couple of extras to the engine, but it's nowhere playable.

I don't think a toolbar or menu is particularly distracting, but it's visual clutter that I don't use. This code comes from my minimal Emacs configuration and hides these elements:

;; Hide the menu bar, tool bar, and scroll bars.
(when (fboundp 'menu-bar-mode)   (menu-bar-mode   -1))
(when (fboundp 'tool-bar-mode)   (tool-bar-mode   -1))
(when (fboundp 'scroll-bar-mode) (scroll-bar-mode -1))

The majority of my writing is done inside org-mode, but I also use org-mode to manage projects so I don't want every buffer to use these settings. For writing projects I use a .dir-locals.el file to automatically enable specific modes and to increase the font size.

((org-mode . ((eval . (progn (turn-off-auto-fill)
			     (text-scale-set 1)
			     (turn-on-olivetti-mode)))
	      (fill-column              . 80)
	      (visual-fill-column-width . 80)
	      (olivetti-body-width      . 80)
	      (mode . visual-line)
	      (mode . visual-fill-column))))

The code in the eval block turns off hard-wrapping, increases the font size, and enables olivetti-mode.

I use olivetti to narrow the writing area to 80 characters which I find easier to work with. darkroom is a good alternative to olivetti; it provides similar functionality, but also more options and can even set an entirely different font face when enabled.

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