Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Planning My Podcast with ElevenLabS

ElevenLabs has given me a realistic version of my voice, making podcasting possible in a home where recording clean audio is nearly impossible.

The human voice is undefeated. As of now, AI can't replicate its authenticity. With that being said, there are use cases for using a clone of your voice, your AI voice, in your creative work.

Let's say you want to create a podcast. As you move forward, I know you'll run into issues because I've run into issues. Sure, you can put out a crappy product with obvious cuts, issues matching sound levels, and problems finding a quiet space to record your voice. If you do that, you'll quickly lose your audience. Your audience wants a modicum of professionalism.

In my home, there is way too much going on. I live with my wife, our three young daughters, and our dog. A podcast is an impossibility. As things stand, a 15-second TikTok video is challenging. There is a solution.

Here's where ElevenLabs comes into play. Although I was skeptical about it at first, it is terrific. The platform has rendered a copy of my voice that is incredibly lifelike.

Has ElevenLabs created an authentic clone of my voice? No.

I love to write. The process calms my mind in focus. When I'm writing, the rest of the world can be put on hold. I can tune out, as I am now, and focus on this task. My ADHD makes all the other stuff in my life painful.

I haven't started a podcast yet, but I aim to do so. Without an ElevenLabs subscription, a podcast would be impossible. Now, I have all the tools I need.

Here's a caveat...

When I finally create my podcast, I'll let my audience know at the very beginning that I'm using a clone of my voice. In that way, I plan to build trust with my audience. If you choose to create your podcast using ElevenLabs, I suggest you do the same.

I also have a Descript subscription. I love Descript. Its voice clone feature is great for a different use case. I'll write another post about Descript in the future. Do not use Descript to create a podcast; its voice cloning capabilities are not nearly as sharp as ElevenLabs' capabilities. I know you’re still thinking about doing it, but don’t.

I hope I've opened your mind to new podcasting possibilities.

If you're interested in becoming an ElevenLabs customer, I'd appreciate it if you could use my link.

As an ElevenLabs affiliate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

My Life Is Chaos

A stay-at-home dad reflects on parenting, purpose, and chaos while building a site that blends honesty, experience, and affiliate marketing with love.

I want this site to be something. I want to give general tips, practical tips, and shopping tips. I want to help people. I like to give opinions based on experience, logic, and reason. As a husband, a father to three young girls, and a dog owner, my time seems nonexistent.

I always seem pulled away from anything I'm trying to accomplish. While writing this post, my bedroom has already been invaded by my wife and daughters. My dog, somehow, isn't making me pet him, which is a win.

I will not give up on my goal of being an affiliate marketer. I don't plan to make a career out of the work, but it makes sense for my lifestyle. I'm a stay-at-home dad. As an older father, I want to be a stay-at-home dad. I want to be a helicopter parent.

When I was a kid, I lost my father to divorce. I was about 7 years old. The devastation to my psyche is immeasurable.

If I can't be there mentally for my kids, I have difficulty being present; I want to be there physically. After losing my son to SIDS, my grip on their safety has tightened.

I might be gripping too tightly, but I need to feel the control while the moment is here. My oldest daughter will be turning 10 years old this summer, and I know that she's going to turn into a little lady quickly. I see it already. I will not be able to control her. I don't want to control her as she gets older, but I do want to be there when she falls.

My dog, by the way, has quietly perched himself against my lower leg in the last few minutes.

This site is a labor of love. It's meant to be a testament to craft, skill, and writing perfectionism.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

IKEA and Me

I love IKEA. I moved to a town with an IKEA because I love IKEA. If you came into my home, you'd be shocked at the number of IKEA products here.

Our kitchen cabinets and appliances were bought at IKEA. I'm currently typing this post on my iPad, which is sitting on top of IKEA's ÖJULF, or laptop support with cushion, which is fantastic. If my wife let me buy every household item at IKEA, I'd be psyched, but that won't happen.

I will admit that IKEA products aren't the best in the world, but they're generally good. They are essentially disposable products with limited lifespans. IKEA furniture isn't heirloom furniture; it wasn't built to be passed down from generation to generation.

We now live in a disposable society. My buddy owns a furniture consignment shop that only consigns quality furniture; he laughs when I tell him this, but I'm sticking to my guns. It's a mindset, and I'd bet his customers would disagree with my ideals.

Back in the 1980s, antiquing seemed to be a huge business. Our stepmother loved antiques, and my dad bought her a beautiful dining room set from the 1700s. That world of dovetail corners and ornate carving is gone.

We live in a flat-packed sparsity world, and that's okay.

However, I won't be reviewing any IKEA products because IKEA doesn't have an affiliate marketing program in the United States.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Nulaxy MacBook Stand

The Nulaxy 360° rotating laptop stand with the swivel base is out of this world. My mother-in-law bought me one, unbeknownst to me, after I oogled hers. I have been so happy with the quality of the product.

Let me give you a few tips...

Nulaxy makes a range of laptop stands. The version gifted to me is Nulaxy's second most expensive version. There's another version with a telescopic arm, but I haven't needed that feature.

I've been using the stand with my 13" Apple MacBook Air for over a year, and it's been GREAT for ergonomic positioning. The stand allows me to rest the heels of my hands on a countertop, desk, or any flat surface while typing with my fingers being positioned a bit higher than the rest of my hand. The setup simply creates a more pleasant work experience.

If I want to stand, I merely adjust either or both of the stand's hinges. If you're worried about stability, I will tell you that my stand's hinges have remained tight, making repositioning a bit of a chore. There's no way to have tight hinges and ease of adjustment because physics is a bitch.

A word of advice: Do not buy any of the less expensive versions unless you have a specific use case. At some point, you will need to rotate or adjust the angle of your laptop, and you will be mad at yourself. I've been there, and it's not a fun place.

I do not recommend this Nulaxy stand if you want to type on an iPad with a Magic Keyboard. The hooks at the bottom of the tray make typing inconvenient and uncomfortable. I'm researching other options for this use case.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Massachusetts Ice Cream

Crescent Ridge may not milk its cows, but it trades on nostalgia; soft-serve only reminds us of what we’ve lost.

A new ice cream season is upon us in Massachusetts. Let's talk about the last 50 years of Greater Boston ice cream history. I've heard of a study that says people in New England eat the most ice cream in the world.

When I was a kid, it was Brigham's Ice Cream and Friendly's. You'd see Brigham’s in shopping plazas and strip malls, but you'd see Friendly's being built as standalone locations on their own footprint. Their business models were slightly different, but those were the places to go in the 1970s and 1980s. I still have faint memories of flared metallic cups at Brigham's and Fribbles in huge plastic cups at Friendly's; those were their signatures. As I'd learn, the ice cream was good but far from great.

We'd also go to Kelly's Kreme on Revere Beach. My uncle's father founded and owned Kelly's Roast Beef and Kelly's Kreme. My sister and some of my female cousins worked at Kelly's Kreme during those 1980s summers; at the time, men worked at Kelly's Roast Beef, and only women worked at Kelly's Kreme.

When we went to another of my uncles' places in Middleton during the 1970s and 1980s, we'd sometimes go to Richardson's Ice Cream, which was a treat. I moved up to my sister's place in 2015-2016 while our house was being built; there were construction delays. The ice cream at Richardson's, in my opinion, has been solidified and may be the best in the state.

I should mention Howard Johnson’s. Its founder, Howard Deering Johnson, lived in Milton, but by the 1970s and 1980s, HoJo's was on its way out. The company was more interested in building motor lodges across the United States.

In the 1980s, we sometimes visited my stepmother's parents’ home in Carlisle. We'd always go to Bates Farm, which had a bunch of cows and GREAT ice cream. It's been gobbled up by Kimball Farm, which is still a good ice cream company.

When we moved to Hanover, Ritter's Ice Cream was a bustling place, but it didn't feel authentic because I didn't see any cows. I might've gone to Bubbling Brook in Westwood once, which reminds me of Ritter's Ice Cream—those old-timey windows in white, low-slung buildings. Those types of places seemed to dot New England's burgeoning suburbs back then.

When we moved to Cohasset, I'd made friends who had gotten jobs at JC's Dairy, which was always busy, but I stuck my nose up at those types of places because I'd learned that soft-serve is shit.

By the way, we NEVER went to Dairy Queen. There was a Dairy Queen in East Boston during the 1970s, but it didn't last long because soft-serve is shit. In Massachusetts, DQ is a big no-no.

When I worked on Newbury Street, I'd sometimes go either Ben & Jerry's or Emack & Bolio’s, both good purveyors. I loved Ben & Jerry’s. I've read a couple of books by the founder and former CEO, and I've visited the plant in Vermont, but the owners have sold the company and gone insane, so my love has dwindled.

I moved to Sharon in the early 90s. My dad liked to go to Crescent Ridge Dairy. The lines were always long, but the prices were cheap.

I was working in Edgartown when Bill Clinton ate some ice cream at Mad Martha's Ice Cream shortly after his affair with Monica Lewinsky was made public.

My mom introduced me to Hodgie's Ice Cream when she lived in Amesbury, but I wasn't impressed because soft-serve is shit.

I live in Stoughton now.

I still go to Crescent Ridge Dairy, but it's changed. The prices have soared. I don't blame the ownership because there has obviously been an issue related to supply and demand for decades.

There's been way too much demand at Crescent Ridge Dairy, which has only grown as local ice cream shops have continued to close. I realize that people don't go to Crescent Ridge Dairy for the ice cream, which is good; they go for the nostalgia. They like to see the cows and the goats.

Interestingly, the ice cream at Crescent Ridge Dairy isn't produced there. The cows in the pasture are not the cows used to produce the milk that makes the ice cream. They're stunt cows.

At this point, I'm ranting, but I'm not mad at the people of Crescent Ridge Dairy. If I had an ice cream mine, I'd milk it, pun intended, for everything it's worth. For my part, I won't be going there as often because $5.25 plus tax for a tiny tot-sized dish and $10.25 plus tax for 1.5 quarts of prepackaged ice cream is bonkers.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Your Massachusetts Veteran Service Officer

As a veteran navigating mental health challenges, I found invaluable support through my local Veterans Service Officer in Massachusetts, who guided me toward the assistance my family and I needed.

I never thought that I'd be the recipient of any form of government assistance.

My mom's mom, "Nana," received government assistance; she lived in the Maverick projects, where she raised her nine kids. My mom, too, ended up receiving multiple forms of government assistance near the end of her life; she lived in one of Amesbury Housing Authority's units. My father, after getting sober, became a 100% disabled veteran.

I'm in the same shoes as my dad. I'm a 70% disabled veteran. I started practicing abstinence from alcohol consumption more than nine years ago. The journey to abstinence has opened up a Pandora's box that had been stuffed with a litany of mental illnesses. Here's an incomplete list of my issues.

  • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – My mind jumps tracks without warning, always moving, never resting.

  • Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) – Control feels like survival, and perfection is the only way I know how to feel safe.

  • Anxiety Disorder – Even in silence, my thoughts race toward worst-case scenarios as if calm is just the calm before a storm.

  • Panic Disorder – Sometimes, my body goes to war without a trigger, and all I can do is ride it out and hope it ends soon.

  • Depression – It’s like living underwater—everything is slower, heavier, and harder to reach.

  • Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) – I built a self-image to protect the parts of me that never felt good enough to be seen.

  • Other Cluster B Traits – My emotions sometimes speak louder than logic, and I can burn down what I love without thinking.

  • Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) – I learned not to trust, not to feel, and not to need anyone because once, that was how I stayed alive.

At first, I performed a bunch of self-diagnoses. The first pillar to fall was my Narcissistic Personality Disorder. After I accepted its malignancy, I learned to recognize that malignancy and deride it.

The dominoes of acceptance fell one by one, and they started to fall fast.

It's a strange feeling to be on government assistance. I'm a libertarian. I was strong in my resistance to government assistance; I wanted to break the familial cycle. I waited, in pain, for financial help. When I realized that it wasn't about me; it was about my wife and three daughters, I decided to seek assistance.

The Veterans Service Officer (VSO) and the Program Administrator at the Town of Stoughton's Veterans’ Office were instrumental in my journey. I never would've had the confidence to apply, despite the Anxiety Disorder, without their help. They deserve all the credit.

I'm now seeing a GREAT psychiatrist and a FANTASTIC therapist through the Brockton VA Medical Center, part of the VA Boston Healthcare System.

If you're a veteran who lives in Massachusetts and you think that your physical or mental issues are related to your military service, I implore you to contact your local VSO. Do not, I repeat, do not go to any of those third-party organizations that you may see in advertisements to file your claim; they will add an extra layer of red tape to your application process and will suck money out of your benefits. Your VSOs and program administrators are there to help you, not hurt you.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Bounty Select-A-Size Paper Towels

Bounty Select-A-Size paper towels cost more upfront, but their absorbency and customizable sheet size let you use less and waste nothing.

Has my life gotten so bad that I'm reviewing paper towels? Seriously? The answer, obviously, is "yes."

We all use paper towels, and we've all tried a million different brands. As a result, this exercise feels ludicrous.

Bounty paper towels. There, I've said it. Bounty paper towels are the best, and it's not close.

The post is complete, right? Wrong.

I'm not going to disparage other brands of paper towels, but I am going to give you some strategies on buying and using Bounty paper towels because they're so damned expensive.

Buy the Select-A-Size rolls. Unless you wash windows for a living, do not buy the full-size rolls. The Select-A-Size rolls are more expensive than the full-size rolls, that's true, but you will save money.

A lot of us grab a paper towel to dry our hands after washing them in the kitchen sink. Some of us wash our hands in the kitchen sink dozens of times a day. For those uses, a half-size sheet of paper towel is all you need.

That's the most important use case of the Select-A-Size. Instead of grabbing twenty-four full-size paper towel sheets a day, you'll grab the equivalent of twelve full-size paper towel sheets per day. Those little messes, too, when you live with little kids, as I do, help to save paper towels as the day wears on and the messes pile up.

Buy the Bounty Select-A-Size rolls in bulk. I know that the idea of spending almost $50 on paper towels seems insane, but spending more, on a per-unit basis, by buying paper towels as they're needed seems even more insane. The idea may be intuitive to a lot of us, that's true, but the process of grabbing those unwieldy packages makes the task almost unbearable in its spiteful punishment of our attempted fiscal responsibility.

When she was alive, my mother loved Bounty paper towels, and she would spend the extra money for their quality.

I haven't tried Costco's Kirkland Signature brand paper towels, but I can take one look at a paper towel and judge its pliability and usefulness. I will say that HDX Paper Towels are comically bad, so stay away. I guess I've disparaged another brand, but honestly, I'm trying to protect you and your wallet.

As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Braun All-in-One Series 9 Trimmer

I bought the Braun Series 9, and I won’t go back. It’s the best all-in-one trimmer I’ve ever owned—and this is why.

I bought the Braun All-in-One Series 9 Trimmer, 13-in-1 Kit, 9440, earlier this month.

I'd been using the Philips Norelco Multigroom 7000, which has been discontinued, for years, but I wasn't happy because it would short out after using it in the shower. In defense of Philips Norelco, the Multigroom 7000 wasn't designed to be used in the shower; it wasn't marketed as waterproof but as fully washable. By the way, I've bought the Multigroom 7000 three times because I'm not a smart man.

I've also tried the Wahl Lithium-Ion All-In-One Cordless Rechargeable Trimmer, Model 9854L, but I've had no luck.

In a moment of desperation, I bought the Conair Model HC2000, part of its Barber Shop Series, but it's corded, and I wanted to trim my beard in the shower so that solution didn't last too long.

I've also bought and used the Philips Norelco Multigroom 5100, but the attachments would bend while applying pressure to my face and beard, a natural movement for men who've shaved.

I've been through so many iterations. I've been so tired of maintaining my beard, but the Braun Series 9 Trimmer gives me hope because it's waterproof. I looked for years, but the reality of a waterproof trimmer was not to be had until recently.

I looked at the Wahl Aqua Blade, but my prior experience with Wahl left me wondering.

I'd never tried Braun because it felt like an old name, like Brylcream or VO5, from the 1950s. The onomastic coincidence with Eva Braun's name, too, was an issue. Being from Boston, the home of King Gillette, the idea of using a foreign-made product seemed a bit of a problem.

Let me tell you, I am so happy with this Braun trimmer kit. I've been using it in the shower for weeks with no issues. It's got all the blades and combs you'd need. I will say that I have a unibrow. Using the U-blade, the smallest blade, will take a bit of trial and error.

The stencil, which I thought was a gimmick, has been such a GREAT addition to my beard, eyebrow, and nose hair trim workflow. You've seen those TikTok videos wherein the Black or Hispanic barbers use those lining or stencil tools on those hirsute victims who end up looking fantastic. I tried it on my beard, and I am so impressed with the results.

As I age, I'm losing my chin. The stencil has helped me perform some beard contouring, which has helped me build a bit of a fake chin. I'll never use plastic surgery, so this is my best bet at looking less like Jabba the Hutt as I age.

If you're wondering, I also use the trimmer with the adjustable beard comb attached to trim pubic hair, and it works fine.

I highly recommend the Braun All-in-One Series 9 Trimmer, 13-in-1 Kit, 9440.

As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

American Mill & Motor Club

American Mill & Motor Club is a classic car storage facility and community space in Gardner, Massachusetts, founded by Jimmy Shiels for enthusiasts who want more than a garage.

If you're a car enthusiast and you need a place to store your vehicle in Massachusetts, consider American Mill & Motor Club. The club is run by a guy named Jimmy Shiels; he has a weird obsession with the 1966 Buick Skylark GS. If you're going to have a car obsession, however, the only acceptable answer is an obsession with the 1965 through 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback.

With that being said, Jimmy LOVES cars. He's attending the 44th Annual Buick GS Nationals at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky this week. I've been to Jimmy's house; he has dozens of classic cars stored in his “barn.”

Jimmy doesn't want to just store cars. He wants to create a community of classic car enthusiasts at his storage facility in Gardner, Massachusetts. Jimmy’s a car geek, that's true, but he’s also a talented general contractor and real estate developer; he’s completely rehabilitated the property.

Where’s Gardner? Does it even matter? You’re storing your car on the property, which means you get to drive your vehicle to and from the property!

There are occasional car shows at Fitchburg Municipal Airport (a 15-minute drive) and cruise nights at Kimball Farm in Lancaster (a 25-minute drive), as well as Ralph’s Diner car meets in Worcester (a 30-minute drive), making the idea a win-win.

If you’re interested in being part of something larger than your hand-modified Honda Civic, Mazda Miata, or Subaru WRX, American Mill & Motor Club is the place.

And if you’re a younger guy who thinks Johnny G’s, Lou’s, or Uncle D’s Custom Exhaust are the pinnacle of car life, you might be pleasantly surprised to meet a few older dudes with a Crown, a Diamante, or a Silver Shadow in their pockets — guys who can steer you, pun intended, down the winding road of life.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Apple Airpods Pro 2

Upgrading to AirPods Pro 2 resolved my fit issues and enhanced my experience with features like extra-small ear tips and Conversation Awareness.

I bought the AirPods Pro 2 in March. I'd been resisting the purchase because I had the original AirPods Pro. I also need to be strategic with my spending because I ain't a rich man.



I had some issues with the original AirPods Pro. My right ear canal is tiny. My antihelix was damaged while I was wrestling in high school; the parochial term for my injury is “cauliflower ear.”

The original AirPods Pro only have ear tips in small, medium, and large sizes. I would have to stuff the damned ear tip into my right ear canal after pulling my right ear's helix upward, and the fit always seemed to become painful after a few hours. My experience, as you might imagine, wasn’t comfortable.

The other issue? I loved the noise cancellation feature of the original AirPods Pro, but it became a latent issue whenever anybody tried to talk to me. The idea of removing my AirPods and reinserting them into my ears was annoying.

AirPods Pro 2 has solved those issues. They have an extra-small ear tip. In my case, I use a small ear tip in my left ear and an extra-small ear tip in my right ear.

The AirPods 2 also includes an adaptive mode that pauses active noise cancellation whenever I start talking. This isn’t ideal when I’m belting out the lyrics to my favorite songs, but it's great when I’m trying not to be rude. Apple calls the feature "Conversation Awareness." I’ll have to learn to tweak the settings to start singing without feeling interrupted, but this feature is a game-changer.

I suffer from tinnitus. I haven’t tried using my AirPods 2 for tinnitus treatment, but I may. This isn’t to say that AirPods Pro 2 will cure your tinnitus; they won’t.

I don't have hearing loss, but AirPods 2 also have a hearing aid feature, which is a fantastic option for people like my mother-in-law.

I should also mention that the AirPods 2 are significantly faster than the original.

I am an Apple fanboy, and AirPods 2 are, without a doubt, a big leap forward for its ecosystem.

As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

As a veteran, I turned to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to manage stress and reconnect with myself—and it turns out the VA might be onto something.

I'm so grateful for the Department of Veterans Affairs. You might be waiting for the punchline, but there isn't one. I'm truly grateful.

I've been in therapy for a while now. The VA has adopted Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as its playbook. If I'm understanding it correctly, mindfulness is a big part of ACT.

I attended my first VA CALM virtual class yesterday morning, which is described as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) group.

The idea of mindfulness seems ridiculous in its goals and its practices. There's seemingly nothing to the philosophy. It's, as Jerry Seinfeld famously said, "a show about nothing."

The word mindfulness is an oxymoron. The professional mindfulness advocates that I've worked with, including my therapist, seemingly don't want practitioners like myself to use my mind. It's the weirdest thing!

In reality, mindfulness makes so much sense for people like me.

I suffer from debilitating anxiety. I've also been diagnosed with ADHD. I've also been diagnosed with other mental illnesses, including OCPD.

I'm a powder keg of overstimulation and overthinking.

As a result, the reality of "being present" has seemed like an impossibility.

My therapist has been fantastic. He's guided me through some exercises. I'm terrible at mindfulness, and as he says, it's okay.

The woman who led my VA CALM class this morning taught me some pocket practices today, which I hope to start using. The first is called "two feet, one breath," and the other is called the "three Ps". They're stupidly simple, but I have a feeling that they will be good tools if used in an intentional practice.

My therapist also likes to say that "practice makes progress, not perfection," which is a GREAT way to frame mindfulness.

My therapist, too, calls Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Steven C. Hayes "the Bible" of ACT.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Satechi R1 Multi-Angle Foldable Tablet Stand

After years of cheap collapsible stands, the Satechi R1 finally nailed it—solid, adjustable, and built like it actually wants to hold your iPhone without falling apart.

Here's my first affiliate marketing blog post. I've got an Amazon Associates account set up, and I'm ready to go. I'm in the big time.



I've picked the Satechi R1 Multi-Angle Foldable Tablet Stand as my first product because it's sitting right in front of me. I bought my stand back in 2021, directly from Apple. I still use it almost every day.

I've been through so many iPhone stands over the years. They never seemed to be "perfect". They tended to be flimsy or poorly designed.

The R1 is solid. It's got two folding arms for multiple angles and some rubber backing, which helps to keep my iPhone or my iPad in place. I rarely use the stand with my iPad, but I'll let my kids prop my iPad on the stand when I'm in a pinch.

The stand is more expensive than most, but I've been using it for more than three years now without any issues.

The R1 is currently Amazon's Choice, and it's also my choice.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Let's Buy Some Shit

I’m laying it all out: what I use, why I link to it, and how I plan to make a buck without selling out—because if we’re being honest, we’re all buying some shit.

I buy a lot of shit. I don't have a shopping addiction, I just happen to buy a lot of shit. I'm going to start telling you about the shit I buy.



I'm not going to tell you to buy the shit I've bought, but I am going to tell you why I bought the shit, and maybe, you'll buy that same shit.

If you buy the shit that I buy, I might get paid. That's the point of this practice. I want to get paid for telling you about the shit that I buy.

There's a lofty phrase used by the people in the "tell people about the shit you've bought or haven't bought" industry, they call it "affiliate marketing", and, my god, it's a terrible name.

There's no trust in "affiliate marketing". The phrase, let's be honest, engenders the side eye. If you told me that you were an affiliate marketer, I'd laugh in your face.

The only job title worse than affiliate marketer? Influencer.

What's the difference? An affiliate marketer is an influencer without influence.

That's me. I don't have any influence, and honestly, I don't want to have any influence over other people. I just want to tell people about shit that I like.

I'm also, gulp, going to tell people about shit that I don't like, but it's evident that there's no money in telling people about shit I don't like.

What, then, is the reason to tell people about shit I don't like? It builds trust.

If I don't have the loyalty and trust of people who want to buy shit, then I'm shit.

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Jonathan Bowen Jonathan Bowen

Download App Store Icons

Discover how I leveraged iPadOS Shortcuts and ChatGPT to create a tool that fetches App Store icons, enhancing organization in Contacts and 1Password.

I've created a shortcut using the iPadOS Shortcuts app, and I'm so damned proud of myself. Shortcuts is ridiculously finicky. In reality, it needs a lot of work.



I'll be honest, I didn't create the shortcut. I stole the shortcut from RoutineHub and cleaned it up using ChatGPT, but wow, I had to learn that I don't understand Shortcuts before I decided to steal an existing shortcut.

I've been trying to learn Shortcuts for years. When I was a kid, I'd type BASIC programs into my Radio Shack TRS-80 in an effort to get some simple program to run, but I'd always make a mistake and have to parse through thousands of characters before giving up.

ChatGPT has been a game changer. I fed it screenshots of my stolen shortcut, and it did a great job of answering my questions with solid advice. I feel as though I'm ready to take on the world of productivity with the newly found power of artificial intelligence.

My shortcut doesn't do much. It grabs app icons from the App Store and saves them to either iCloud or the Photos app. In reality, I add those icons to my Contacts app, which allows me to easily visually identify emails in my Mail app from companies with which I do business.

I also add those icons to all types of items within my 1Password app.

I've added the shortcut to RoutineHub as Download App Store Icons (Clean Version), which makes me feel like a big shot.

If you'd like to download the shortcut directly, without feeling like a big shot, I've created an iCloud link directly to the shortcut.

If you find the shortcut useful, let me know.

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