Greetings, data-tamers!
A special hello as well to the new subscribers this week. Welcome, and I hope you enjoy your stay! Be sure to check out the wide variety of material on the website as well as on the YouTube channel.
This week, I have two good things and one bad thing to share. It's not really bad, just...more of an admission rather than something to celebrate.
First, the two good things:
- I've kept up my slow but regular plod through the backlog of read-later articles that I've collected over a couple of years. I had a few days in there where I didn't read anything, but that's fine; I'm not aiming for a perfect streak, since making that a goal necessarily means I'll feel like a failure if I miss a day, and therefore less likely to continue since perfection is no longer possible. (There's a habit-building app designed specifically around this admission.) Daily progress is indeed my target, but habit formation is the real goal. Daily progress is just the most obvious means to that end. With that in mind, I'm happy with the consistent small wins I've achieved so far this year.
- Over the last week, I've set up Monarch Money to help provide my wife with a much clearer picture of our shared finances than she's had recently. I keep meticulous records in a somewhat oddly name app called Moneydance, but it isn't convenient for more than one person to use--at least not as we've got it set up. I've been relentlessly bombarded with Monarch ads on social media ever since I clicked on one of them months ago, and I finally decided to give it a try. The beautiful Sankey diagrams tipped me over the edge...I can't imagine a prettier way to visually represent cashflow. Anyway, I'm liking what I see so far, though I haven't used it enough to identify whether there are any tiny annoyances that will make it a pain to use. It doesn't seem to use double-entry accounting principles, even behind the scenes, and that's a shame since I think about money that way. But that's not necessary to provide a high-level financial overview, net worth history, investment insight, or cashflow diagram.
I've neglected writing about financial data organization other than the one time I touched the topic early in 2025, partly because it feels different to me than, say, document organization or establishing good backup habits. But gaining insight into where your money comes from and where it's going is a truly powerful experience, particularly if you've never done it before. There are many options other than Monarch, including, Rocket Money, Origin, Quicken, and a ton of apps (both cloud-based and not). You don't have to commit to a budget or decide to your spending habits. But it's absolutely worth getting insight into your accounts.
So, I count that unexpected dive into Monarch as another small win for 2026: I hadn't planned to do it, but it will help my wife and me manage money together better than before.
Now, the bad thing.
It's kind of silly, actually: I lost a movie.
Back in 1998, when I was about 13, I saw the first hour or so of a 90-minute made-for-TV science fiction movie called The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (or, alternatively, The Osiris Chronicles). It was actually meant to be a pilot episode for a series that never made it to production...but I digress. It was intriguing to me, and two thirds of the way in, I was invested in the storyline. I never saw the end. Every so often, I thought about it and searched online to see if I could find it anywhere, but without success.
Fast forward to sometime in the 2010s. In a random eBay search, I happened upon someone selling what was clearly an unofficial digitized copy on a DVD-R for something like $10. I bought it immediately. As soon as it arrived, I ripped (re-ripped?) a new digital copy to be stored on my Synology NAS. At least, I think that's where I put it.
BUT...I didn't actually watch it. I only archived it. 😬🤦♂️
Now, against all odds, I can't find it.
This is exactly the kind of thing I would have gone to great pains not to misplace, digitally speaking. It should be clearly named, in an obvious location, somewhere among my video files. But it isn't there. I've searched half a dozen times with different names, keywords, date/size parameters, everything. It's just gone.
Now, I've actually found a place where I can (probably) get another copy, likely from the same original source but under a different name (not on eBay, though). It would only cost me $15. But while I could do that, I'm hesitant--not only because it's silly, and probably not objectively worth the $15 even aside from the story I just related, but also because GOSH DARN IT I really should still have the copy I already bought!
I haven't decided how to proceed. I tell you this, I supposed, to admit that even someone with pretty good data habits, and good technical skills, and a focus on helping other people stay digitally organized can, in fact, still misplace something that is subjectively important to me.
I'll let you all know if there are any further developments on this harrowing tale--whether I cave and buy it again, or if I stumble across the file or the original DVD-R.
Have you ever lost anything like that, whether it was something as silly as a sci-fi movie you only saw half of or something more important, like a set of wedding photos? Let me know, if it's not too painful to share.
Until next time, happy data-taming! (and for those of you on the east coast--stay warm...there's apparently a monster snowstorm headed our way!)