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October 25, 2020

Why It’s Time to Focus on the Details

What I discovered on my hike with my family led me to realize how to better handle the stress so many of us are feeling these days…

“You can’t see the forest for the trees.” That’s what someone might tell you when you don’t see the big picture. But I think much of today’s global outlook is so daunting that it might make sense to take a little pleasure in the smaller details you could be missing while COVID-19 dominates our collective.

This past weekend, my family and I took a hike through Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Pound Ridge, New York. There’s nothing like taking a brisk walk on a fall day during foliage season. Unfortunately, we found the forested terrain past its peak colors, and disappointingly, many of the leaves were already on the ground.

But that’s not my headline. That’s because I decided to take another look and focus in on the detail.  I pulled out my Panasonic Lumix LX10 camera and adjusted it to manual focus. And then it was time to get close. Really close.

You know what? There was plenty of color. Everywhere. It was usually hidden amongst the muted browns. But it was there. Color was everywhere in a forest of browning foliage decay. And so I started snapping away.

Winter is coming, and this could be an especially tough one. But that doesn’t have to be the only outlook. I think in stressful times like these, it’s especially important not to lose track of some of the happier details that may matter more than you know.

And discovering warm color in the middle of a cold forest on a gray day is one way to keep a balanced perspective… so you can also continue to see the forest for the trees.

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October 18, 2020

What Would my Younger Self Think of Me in 2020?

As a child, I thought about flying cars, especially when I got my haircuts. 2020 was a distant year I could barely count to. Here’s how my expectations met reality…

When I was a young boy growing up in New York City, I dreamt of living in my distant future, and 2020 was the year that represented that faraway reality. To me, it felt like a time beyond which I could not fathom myself inhabiting. Too much would be different. And I would be… old. Someone else, in fact.

Technology would be infused into every part of my life. I had “Star Trek” as my guide, and though I was fully aware of the limits of science fiction, I was hopeful that the future would still have many crazy-cool gadgets to play with. (As we all know, pieces of ‘Trek’ tech are now real, like hand-held communicators, universal translators, and yes, motion-sensor sliding doors.)

When Barrett meets Barrett in a Temporal Nexus
Fast forward to 2020, and the truth is I got about half of it right. Although there are no flying cars and we can’t travel at warp speed, technology is indeed infused into many parts of our lives. And while I have, in fact, aged, I’m kicking the can of ‘old’ down the time portal a couple more decades. (I reserve the right to revise my view again in 2040.)

I think what I got most wrong was my prediction that I would be someone else. To know for sure, I would need a time machine to bring the two Barrett’s together. (And we’d sit six feet apart to avoid both a temporal paradox and COVID time travel.)

If my younger self sat me down and interviewed me, I think he would be surprised.

I know I’ve changed in any number of ways. That’s supposed to happen due to the slings and arrows that life throws at you. But I think my fundamentals haven’t changed. He would still see himself in me. And I expect he’d be pleased to admit his mistake.

This is the Year to Tap into your Inner You
Still, he’d also be a little suspicious. That’s because it wouldn’t only be a one-way interview. And he’d pick up on that. I’d be asking him questions too. I’d want to tap back into some of the refreshing simplicity of his boundless optimism.

Life doesn’t often support that naive level of positive energy for any extended period. But just touching that memory is always enough to refuel the soul.

And 2020 is the perfect example of needing to tap into your inner you during this global stumble.

We probably won’t get the chance to spend nurturing time in a temporal nexus with our younger versions. So, we’ll just have to find the strength to move forward using what’s in our existing bag of tricks.

That’s life, baby.

Using Tech in our New Normal
How ironic it is that as a boy, I couldn’t imagine a future beyond 2020. It was always a sort of temporal mystery, being so far out. And of course, now that it’s here, our global reality has been reset in so many ways due to COVID. Disruption and change is clearly the norm of 2020. Much is still a mystery.

So, what comes next? What will the future look like now? Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have that answer. (My time machine is in repair.)

All that any of us can do is ride this turbulent wave and looks for ways to maintain balance and hold onto whatever sense of normality we can. On the home front, I’ll keep playing with the technology that boy Barrett hoped I would. And I’ll continue to try to use this tech to improve (or at least maintain) my day to day.

Whether that’s truly happening or my gadget purchases are simply masquerading as a cozy blanket to help me feel good remains an open question.

Maintaining Order with a Robot Vacuum
Case in point: I just bought an iRobot Roomba on Amazon Prime Day.
(Yes, I succumbed to the marketing machine. But I’ve got to admit it felt great to buy something on Amazon that wasn’t related to supplies for our home during COVID.)

I’m not sure how our cat is going to react to our Roomba, but at least boy Barrett would be proud of me. A robot vacuum? How cool is that!
(Just please don’t tell him there are no flying cars yet.)

And my choice to talk about robot vacuums is a good sign that things could be worse. In fact, I’ve got a lot to be grateful for in 2020.

#LookingontheBrightSide

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October 11, 2020

How to Find iCloud Email Folders that Disappear in Outlook for Mac

Do you sometimes feel like you need a magic wand to handle your computer glitches? Here’s my story about how I fixed my subfolder syncing problems in Outlook for Mac.

“Shall we play a game?”

Remember that line from the 1983 movie, “WarGames,” starring Matthew Broderick? That playful computer certainly caused a lot of trouble!

Recently I had what felt like a similar experience with my own computer. No, there weren’t any global implications. That said, I did feel like my world was at risk of imploding.

Why?

I thought I had lost all of my iCloud email subfolders I had created under my ‘Inbox’ to help keep my email organized…

Well, these subfolders weren’t exactly gone. They just weren’t showing up in my Microsoft Outlook for Mac. I could see them on my iPhone’s native Mail app, but not in Outlook on my iMac. (I’ve been using Outlook for Mac on my iMacs for years.)

Game Over?
So, I knew I had some kind of sync issue that my computer or the software had thrown at me.

Ha Ha.

Ha.

(Not funny)

I immediately thought of the nightmare of having to delete Outlook for Mac and then rebuild my email all over again on my iMac.

Instead I took a deep breath and put on my Tech Zen hat. I decided to do some Googling for a less dramatic solution. And happily, I didn’t have to go too far down the rabbit hole.

IMAP Syncing
The answer has to do with syncing your IMAP Folders. You need to make sure each of your iCloud email subfolders are properly synced in Outlook for Mac for them to show up. Here’s how you do that:

  • On the top bar of Outlook for Mac, click on the “Tools” dropdown.
  • Click on “IMAP Folders.”
    There, you’ll see all of your iCloud email folders, including the ones that are missing in your email display.
  • Click on each folder that you want to (re)sync and then click on the green ‘Subscribe’ button on the top left. As soon as your subscribe a particular folder, the name turns bold.
  • And then, voilà! Your missing email folders will magically reappear in your Outlook for Mac.

Human Error?
Why my disappearing email subfolder crisis suddenly showed up in the first place, I have no idea. Sure, it’s easy to blame the human. We’ll never really know.

What’s important is I’ve got all of my email back in place on my iMac. (It wasn’t difficult. You just need to remember the IMAP Folders ‘Subscribe’ trick.)

Now, I’m simply back to my general state of détente with my computers and software.

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