https://jonwhite.me Latest posts from my personal blog en-us Tue, 22 Sep 2026 17:48:15 GMT https://jonwhite.me/posts/2026-07-31-300-albums-into-2026.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2026-07-31-300-albums-into-2026.html Fri, 31 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT After rating 300 albums, I realized my scores say less about “quality” and more about context, attention, and expectation—and that made me question whether numeric ratings are even the right tool for capturing why music matters. Let’s start with my current ratings breakdown: As you can see, I generally don’t... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2026-05-16-guitar-progress.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2026-05-16-guitar-progress.html Sat, 16 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT I've been practicing the acoustic guitar on and off now for about a year and a half. It wasn't until a few months ago that I started taking it a bit more seriously. I had AI put together a plan for me that consists of 15-20 minute daily sessions. I... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2026-03-12-200-albums-into-2026.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2026-03-12-200-albums-into-2026.html Thu, 12 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT Since I work as a programmer and spend much of my day sitting in front of screen, I tend to listen to a lot of music. Last year I started keeping track of all the new albums I was listening to and thought it would be fun to rate them.... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2025-07-15-100-albums-into-2025.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2025-07-15-100-albums-into-2025.html Sat, 26 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT One of my guilty pleasures is doom-scrolling on Instagram. I'm not overly proud of it, but it's not all bad as I do find some inspirational gems from time-to-time. One of those gems has been Caro Kelleyhttps://www.instagram.com/carokelley/, a musician living in Germany who often posts about her quest to listen... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2025-01-04-favorite-books-of-2024.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2025-01-04-favorite-books-of-2024.html Sat, 04 Jan 2025 05:00:00 GMT I read a lot of books in 2024 at least a lot for me that is. Reading was a big part of my year as I strived to replace much of my media consumption with books. Here, in no particular order, are my 5 favorite fiction and non-fiction books I... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2023-07-10-social-media.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2023-07-10-social-media.html Thu, 20 Jul 2023 04:00:00 GMT I've <a href="https://jonwhite.me/posts/2018-04-12-fixing-facebook.html" target="blank">written about how to fix social media before</a> but with the giants like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter looking like they're begining a steep decline it seems like the perfect time to revisit the topic. There is a lot of talk about the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/" target="blank">"enshitification" of the... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2023-06-16-one-and-a-half-years-later.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2023-06-16-one-and-a-half-years-later.html Fri, 16 Jun 2023 04:00:00 GMT I really don't know where to begin with this post so I'm just going to start writing and see where it goes. 1 1/2 years ago on December 17, 2021 my older borther committed suicide. Unfortuneatly, this was not an altogether unexpected result. Rodd had suffered from bouts of depression... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2020-09-15-patsy-cline.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2020-09-15-patsy-cline.html Mon, 14 Sep 2020 04:00:00 GMT I've been working from home for almost 6 months now and as a programmer I spend a lot of time with headphones on listening to music. As such, lately I've really been itching for something new for my ears. Thankfully, as a subscriber to his newsletterhttps://austinkleon.com/newsletter/ I stumbled on Austin... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-12-31-2019-in-review.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-12-31-2019-in-review.html Tue, 31 Dec 2019 05:00:00 GMT My Biggest Accomplishments Running a Half Marathon and Getting Myself into Better Shape I may arguably be in the best shape of my life right now thanks to deciding late in 2018 that I wanted to run a half-marathon in 2019. It was a goal that, at the time, seemed... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-08-16-get-to-work.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-08-16-get-to-work.html Fri, 16 Aug 2019 04:00:00 GMT You screwed up? Someone screwed you? Now you find yourself in a situation you couldn't have imagined just moments ago? Are you angry? Feeling bad for yourself? Beating yourself up or blaming someone else for your problems. You know what? Maybe it's not your fault. That happens sometimes. But here's... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-08-11-micro-adventures.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-08-11-micro-adventures.html Sun, 11 Aug 2019 04:00:00 GMT I've noticed over the past year or so of my life that my days really blend together. As I'm approaching middle age time seems to be flying by and I feel as though I'm missing out on life a bit. I've been asleep at the wheelhttps://jonwhite.me/life/2019/08/02/turn-off-the-auto-pilot.html so to speak and... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-08-02-turn-off-the-auto-pilot.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-08-02-turn-off-the-auto-pilot.html Fri, 02 Aug 2019 04:00:00 GMT Sometimes in life we're stuck in auto-pilot and don't even realize it. One day bleeds into the next which bleeds into the next week, then month, then year. We're surviving, living each day just to make it to the next. Wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, prepare... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-05-14-i-ran-a-half-marathon.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-05-14-i-ran-a-half-marathon.html Tue, 14 May 2019 04:00:00 GMT On Sunday April 28, 2019 I completed my first half-marathon. Before that day I had only run in a 5k “fun run” once before and other than that, I had not really run at all since middle school. Looking back at where I started 7 months earlier I’m sometimes amazed... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-01-31-what-i-read-january-2019.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2019-01-31-what-i-read-january-2019.html Thu, 31 Jan 2019 05:00:00 GMT The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald Format: audio - Part of my Reading Bucket List. I found the writing to be superb it was a pleasure to listen to on my daily commute while the story itself I found to be just so-so. That being said, Fitzgerald makes a... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2018-04-12-fixing-facebook.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2018-04-12-fixing-facebook.html Thu, 12 Apr 2018 04:00:00 GMT When news of the Cambridge Analytics scandal broke I was all on board the deletefacebook movement. I deactivated my account and started thinking about what I would do to replace the features I currently use on Facebook. What I discoverd is that it's not as simple as I might have... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2017-10-11-Samsung-GS8-Review.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2017-10-11-Samsung-GS8-Review.html Wed, 11 Oct 2017 04:00:00 GMT I've been using Android phones for about 5 years now and they've come a long way in that time. When I got my first Android phone an HTC One there was little doubt that the comparative iPhone of the time was the superior product. It's now 2017 and that is... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2017-08-31-Reading-Bucket-List-A-Confederacy-Of-Dunces.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2017-08-31-Reading-Bucket-List-A-Confederacy-Of-Dunces.html Thu, 31 Aug 2017 04:00:00 GMT Reading Bucket List is an ongoing series in which I read a classic book and share my notes and thoughts about it. This is the second post in the series This book is considered a modern classic by many and, although highly entertaining, I found it difficult to deduce exactly... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2017-08-07-Reading-Bucket-List-The-Swiss-Family-Robinson.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2017-08-07-Reading-Bucket-List-The-Swiss-Family-Robinson.html Mon, 07 Aug 2017 04:00:00 GMT Reading Bucket List is an ongoing series in which I read a classic book and share my notes and thoughts about it. This is the first post in the series The Swiss Family Robinson, published in 1812 by Swiss novelist Johann David Wyss tells the story of a family of... https://jonwhite.me/posts/2016-01-08-book-review-off-to-be-the-wizard.html https://jonwhite.me/posts/2016-01-08-book-review-off-to-be-the-wizard.html Fri, 08 Jan 2016 05:00:00 GMT In Off To Be The Wizard author Scott Meyer tells the story of Martin, a regular guy living a regular life who discovers a hidden file on the Internet that controls the entire world. A simple edit to the file can teleport Martin to new locations, send him back in...