Josh Withers, the group chat

Hey, you guys wanna play old people’s Seven Minutes in Heaven?

Novelist Jeanette Winterson on the value of darkness:

“I have noticed that when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing — their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling – their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses.

To sit alone without any electric light is curiously creative. I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall, but not if I switch on the lights — then I start thinking about projects, deadlines, demands, and the shadows and shapes of the house become objects, not suggestions, things that need to done, not a background to thought.”

Brian Eno:

“One of the reasons I have to take distinct breaks when I work is to allow the momentum of a particular direction to run down, so that another one can establish itself.”

Chris Dixon:

“What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in 10 years.”

Well, that will be the last time I ever take hot or not advice from Balenciaga.

Annie-B Parson:

“Social media forms are performative solo forms with an odd conflation of friendship and marketing; the body is alone in a room performing the self, with an undercurrent of desire for applause. Without a town square to gather in and hash out the day with neighbors, social media communications have a shading of loneliness underneath.”

Today is day 10 away from my family. I embarked on this trip to Australia thinking I’d get lots of sleep and rest from being a dad. Instead of barely slept and miss them like crazy. Please don’t tell them, they already hold too much power over me.

1. Mastodon’s celebration of the open web, the indie web, is an evergreen celebration that enough people, me included, will always get onboard with.

2. Mastodon is everything we’re looking for in Twitter except it’s not Twitter.

3. No one single ego can rule the Mastodon, fediverse, indieweb, open web. Instead many many egos can, will, and do.

4. Mastodon isn’t a complete social media product, still requiring many features to even gain parity with what the average internet user considers the bare minimum for a social networking product. Today I couldn’t upload a video because it was too good of a quality.

5. The business model of Mastodon/the Fediverse is missing links that only generosity can complete. Which is nice amongst friends. But all of us generous admins, hosts, mods have our limits (or jobs, kids, relationships). That’s the strength begging Micro.Blog, $5 a month and you’re good.

6. It’s actually a lot of work and resource to run a Mastodon instance still. Digital Ocean’s $200 free spend will run out soon.

I’m sitting in row three - the last row - of business class on this flight from Canberra to Brisbane after being upgraded overnight and the Queensland Premier just walked past me to economy.

How did the Qantas algorithm put me ahead of Palaszczuk?!

Couple I’m marrying tomorrow: We’d like to have an entertaining and funny wedding ceremony. Me: Oooh, I’m going to have to Google how to do that. Them: Awkward silence.

🎶 It must be hard for musicians and songwriters to try and produce better songs than the best song ever produced, Frenzal Rhomb’s Mr. Charisma.

The internet is more fun when you upload as much as you download. When you stop, comment, post, share instead of doom scroll. People create and also consume, not just consume consume consumer consume.

Cute. On the news that the leap second is being removed, Rev. Pavel Gabor, an astrophysicist and the vice director of the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, Arizona said that,

“atomic timekeeping was just one example of how the world was becoming incomprehensible to the average person, and that scientists had a responsibility to help people feel in control of their lives.”

And he went on to say,

“I think sensitivity to this mistrust of elites, mistrust of experts, mistrust of science and institutions, that’s something that’s a very real problem in today’s world,” he said. “And let’s not contribute to it.”

I’m so looking forward to the world returning to normalcy and peace in 2035 when the leap second is removed.

Philip Glass:

”I don’t know what I’m doing. And if you don’t know what to do, there’s actually a chance of doing something new. As long as you know what you’re doing, nothing much of interest is going to happen.”

Current status: Getting wasted on old fashioneds in the Los Angeles Qantas First Class Lounge.

I don’t think Trump will even make it to the Republican Nomination for President, let alone the actual Presidency. The Trump voter hates losers more than lefties and abortions.

Experiencing the weirdest vibe right now. I’m packing to leave home for a month, and the place I’m travelling to is Australia. I never thought Australia would be somewhere I travel to, only from.

Dane Winer:

“Twitter inherited the blogosphere, in a sense, and the chaos of the company hid the fact that it was owned, all that we put into it, we owned none of it. It could all be sold.”

Sharing God’s Law from Letters of Note, as seen multiple times around the internet and on The West Wing, now in it’s original form, by Kent Ashcraft:

Dear Dr. Laura,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s law. I have learned a great deal from you, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend homosexuality, for example, I will simply remind him or her that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other laws in Leviticus and Exodus and how to best follow them.

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Leviticus 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as stated in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Leviticus 15:19-24). The problem is, how can I tell?

I have tried asking, but most women take offense. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine says that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Leviticus 10:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this?

Leviticus 20:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s Word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted disciple and adoring fan.

Are you a parent of a toddler or an assistant to a male CEO of a tech startup?

Why Mastodon is “big” in Japan

Gosh I needed to enjoy this: “You Can’t Handle The Truth,” but it’s the Toy Story Song

Watching Seinfeld and the episode ‘The Limo’ starts. Opening scene is at a NY airport and a Trump airline Boeing 727.

Of course the only Trump cameo in an episode of Seinfeld is one from 1992, about the neo nazi.

Maeve Brennan in a letter to Tillie Olsen via Letters of Note:

“I have been trying to think of the word to say to you that would never fail to lift you up when you are too tired or too sad not [to] be downcast. But I can think only of a reminder—you are all it has. You are all your work has. It has nobody else and never had anybody else. If you deny it hands and a voice, it will continue as it is, alive, but speechless and without hands. You know it has eyes and can see you, and you know how hopefully it watches you. But I am speaking of a soul that is timid but that longs to be known. When you are so sad that you ‘cannot work’ there is always a danger fear will enter in and begin withering around. A good way to remain on guard is to go to the window and watch the birds for an hour or two or three. It is very comforting to see their beaks opening and shutting.”

In the future we won’t share our most intimate stories with, and through, the world’s biggest tech companies. Mastodon and blogs might not be the complete indieweb story, but it’s at least in the first or second chapter.

I’ll never forget today. The day that my 20 month old daughter, whilst holding a banana, screamed for another banana, but when she had two, realised she only wanted one.

The classic B1 and B2 dilemma.

Social networks have three assets: a network effect (so we can connect with people), content moderation (so we can actually enjoy using it), content (so we have something to enjoy/consume).

The content creators have always been at the bottom of the stack. Underpaid and under-appreciated," by the social network owners.

So what if we made a Twitter owned by us?

There’s a turning tide against Twitter and Meta towards Mastodon, and honestly Mastodon is pretty good. It’s decentralised in that you can sign up to any Mastodon server/instance and talk to other people on other instances, that’s called federation. It’s one of the tentpole features of Mastodon. Federation, or the fediverse, means you can sign up to, for example, the @mastodon.social instance and if I’m in @aus.social, we can talk to each other.

But if we’re both on the same instance there’s some nice ways of discovering other people and other content, in particular discovering people and content on the same server.

Plus the instance you choose to be on has a brand story. If you’re communicating how to find and follow you on Mastodon there’s a branding aspect. Imagine saying on a podcast “follow me at Josh at Mastodon dot social” as opposed to “follow me at Josh at cool name dot com.” It can’t be long until corporations and large brands take the opportunity to start their own instance.

So what if content creators got in early and had our own network?

That’s my proposal, to start a Mastodon instance owned and run by content creators. Podcasters, writers, newsletter writers, vloggers, video makers, photographers, personalities, broadcasters - creators. Because we’d own the network we’d reap the benefits, instead of sending them to VCs, corporations, or Elon Musk/Zuckerberg.

Because all the creators have existing networks - and products - we’d flex our influence to bring audiences to the new network. Also, in case it’s not obvious, nothing will be taken away from your existing work. What changes is that instead of providing Twitter and Meta with free content that upholds the network effect that feeds their shareholders/stakeholders, you’re providing free content to build and uphold your own network that operates like a co-op content farmers market.

I own the domain name ‘theradio.au’ and I reckon it’d be kind of cool to say ‘follow me at Josh at theradio dot au’ in a video or a link o my profile being theradio.au/@josh … or insert your content brand in place of Josh.

I like the generic-ish name, and the idea of “I’m on the radio” as a term of phrase for using the social media platform, particularly as actually being on the FM/AM radio means so little.

I’m open to listening to ideas around how to start, run, and do this well. There are costs to running a Mastdon instance and because the benefits run to creators I’d look to creators to fund the project. With enough people it might be $50-100 a year, and I see the incentives run in the right direction if creators fund and own it. Other business models lend themselves to other incentives and next minute you’re owned by Elon Musk.

Weigh in on the social platform of your choice or email me at [email protected].

Apparently I don’t share my photography enough (sorry, Zac) so it’s mostly on Unsplash.

My favourite thing about Mastodon actually has nothing to do with Mastodon. It’s the experience of embracing a completely new network with a handful of existing connections but then start following new people creating a whole new social graph whilst screaming “HELLO NEW FRIENDS!”

James Hennessy in The Terminal:

“His primary motivator at this point is the absolutely daunting mathematics of the deal he signed … saddled it with $13 billion in debt and about a billion dollars a year in interest payments alone.”

A few thoughts on Mastodon at the end of day one:

The network brand name is stupid and not sticky, as is “toot”.

Running your own instance is not the best, but it’s not like there’s a perfect instance to join.

Following people is too hard.

It’s a nice system and I like it.

I decided I was being a grumpy old man by not even trying Mastodon - I think it has a stupid name for a modern product, great for an extinct elephant - but I’ve signed up … @[email protected] is me. Who should I follow?

Trung Phan on the “massive” podcast opportunity he’s identified, and something I’ve thought about a lot:

“Whatever your niche, a single person on a mic in their home can create the definitive long-form audio content for whatever is their “most valuable audience”. It’s a very simple idea …but not easy.”

Why don’t we use the word “swashbuckling” more? It’s a very cool word.

The MacOS dictionary defines swashbuckling as an adjective as “engaging in daring and romantic adventures with bravado or flamboyance” and as a noun “daring and romantic adventure.”

It came to mind as I read Margaret Sullivan’s book, Newsroom Confidential, and she recalled the story of Jeff Bezos addressing the Washington Post staff:

“Even in the world of journalism, I think the Post is just a little more swashbuckling. There’s a little more swagger. There’s a tiny bit of bad-assness here at the Post.” After some applause and laughs from the exuberant crowd, Bezos elaborated on those words with some context: “Without quality journalism, swashbuckling would just be dumb. Swashbuckling without professionalism leads to those epic-fail YouTube videos. It’s the quality journalism at the heart of everything. And then when you add that swagger and that swashbuckling, that’s making this place very, very special.”

My new life goal is to be described as swashbuckling.

It’s weird to see so much talk about Mastodon and people walk right past micro.blog. I’ve been a user since @manton launched it on Kickstarter, and I think I heard about it on @gruber’s Talk Show - I love it.

I am continually fascinated whilst reading Letters of Note as to how people not of this time, people who lived 50, 100, or 200 years ago talk about the hardships and tribulations of modern life - in their own context - being hard and negative.

Martha Gellhorn in a letter to Raleigh Trevelyan on boxing day 1967 wrote “Do you think it’s at all sensible to wish anyone a Happy New Year? I think the best one can do nowadays is just to wish that we all survive, year by year.”

Or as the preacher spoke to their church a few hundred years before Christ, recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” and they continued, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

All of humanity, forevermore, just trying to survive, year by year.

Martha Gellhorn in a letter to Victoria Glendinning on 30th September 1987:

“Anyway, I intend to spend the rest of my life wasting time.”

There are two kinds of people in the world, people who confidently pronounce “pho” and the people who anxiously listen to those people say it because they’re sure they’re not saying it right.

I can’t believe that so much valuable conversation is {you should give me all your money} interspersed with ads and unrelated content {gamble your money away!} these days as if it’s a natural way to read and write {you’re so stupid and fat} lol.

Apple executives discussing iMessage for Android is beautifully shortsighted.

We put these people on pedestals but they’re just lucky enough to be considered winners.

Idea: The most important part of Twitter is the feeling of sending the tweet.

No-one sees your tweets anyway, so what if we made a new Twitter where all your followers and replies were just GPT-3 nodes.

An AI social network where computers affirm you and your thoughts.

Evan Amrmstrong at Every on How Elon Wins:

“Twitter is a perfect case study of the shifting power dynamics of the ad market and how to make money in this era of the internet.”

I met Charles Wooley when I was in line to be his producer on what’s now called the Triple M regional radio network.

Smart guy, good interviewer, wasn’t going to leave Tasmania for a big radio job, so they built out the Hobart studios to accomodate him.

I never took the gig, but I was impressed that someone could love where they live so much to the chagrin of a radio job.

In the Sunday Tasmanian today:

“But here I am, after a lifetime travelling the world and interviewing prime ministers, presidents and dictators, now about to engage as deputy mayor of Sorell in what is so often considered the lowly third tier of Tasmanian government.”

In the Gold Coast Bulletin today @AnnWasonMoore nails it making the biggest losses/mistakes the Gold Coast has experienced. But I’ll add one more: the Indy 300. It was so much more interesting than Supercars, and Aussie driver Will Powers still dominates!

Put a bag of cookies in the break room and it might sit for days.

Open the bag and leave it out, and within an hour, all the cookies will be gone.

We are happy to take a tiny slice off the thing that’s being shared, but we hesitate to open the bag.

The same is true with all of the initiatives in our culture. Design, movements and ideas are all trapped, waiting to be opened, and then the rest of us will happily pile on.

Open the bag.

By an unknown author, from the Startupy newsletter

I think a lot about the guy whose car I ran into on the first day of owning a car in Mexico. I didnt put the car in park or put the handbrake on, classic idiotic move on the first day of driving on the wrong side of the road in a new car.

Scratched his back bumper, lots of talking, making phone calls to family, googling costs to fix, he comes back ready to finish me financially, and asks for $500 pesos. $39.60 AUD.

“Good day” in Spanish is “Buenos días”, phonetically (in Josh Spanish) “beh-wan-ass dee-ass” and I now understand how Australian English must be hard for people learning English because Baja Mexicans basically say an abbreviated “bun dee”, which I guess is “G’Day”.

Thinking about Berlin’s computer Game Museum, the Computerspielemuseum, today.

It’s the only building in Berlin I can walk into and feel nostalgic and childlike.

TomTom: I came here to sell satnavs and kick ass, and I’m all outta satnavs.

Business idea: a coffee translator.

All I want in Mexico is to just order my coffee.

In Australia I order a long black with cream (pouring cream), or if they don’t have cream, with cold milk. I call it a poor man’s latte. All of the coffee, less milk.

A big cup of black coffee, and I take the temperature and black-coffee-ness out of it with a dash of dairy.

In Baja an Americano is basically a long black, but often filter coffee which would be fine if it was lukewarm. An espresso is an espresso shot. A long black doesn’t exist. I got close today, but once I asked for “like an Americano but hot”, they also brought out hot milk, and you don’t want hot milk in this drink.

My fortune for help on how to order a “long black with cream/milk” in Spanish, or in a way that local baristas will understand.

Reason no. 72 to read James Hennessy’s email:

“I decided to dig into this, because the prospect of an intersection of forgotten Australian pulp lit and Cold War tech development is, regrettably, extremely my shit”

@jrhennessy

Nieman Labs reckons that newspaper political endorsements might not matter anymore. I think that’s for the better?

Gary Voth’s piece, The Forgotten Lens, reminds me why I love the 50mm so much. I only have a vintage Minolta f/2 manual focus lens at the moment but now I want the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2!

Dave Winer with the best Twitter analogy:

“Why would I leave Twitter? It’s like living in NY and not taking the subway. Sure it’s dirty and smells bad, but it’s how you get places.”

Reporting for The Verge, Justine Calma says that

“Traffic jams are tied to lower birth weights.”

It’s almost like us humans are making ourselves extinct eventually.

This New Yorker profile of Director, James Cameron, hit home with this line:

“He sees himself as essentially outside and other and alone; he bites the hand that feeds.”

Thats a solid mark of an artist, that they create from the outside-ness, the loneliness, and in doing so they bit the hand that feeds.

Just yesterday a photographer friend and I were lamenting this feeling in ourselves. It’s why I found it so easy to transplant to a new country, maybe why I feel so at home with an airline ticket.

So if you feel alone, you’re not alone, despite the fact you truly are.

On ya bus

Bob Dylan:

“Boy, I hurried… I hurried for a long time. I’m sorry I did. All the time you’re hurrying, you’re not really as aware as you should be. You’re trying to make things happen instead of just letting it happen. You follow me?”

Tuesday’s sunset from Todos Santos

Punta Gasparino, Baja California Sur

El Pescadero, the little fishing village we’re calling home this month

Did Bono actually encourage Tim Cook on services and subscriptions when they worked out the deal to give away Songs of Innocence through iTunes?

Tim Cook in 2014:

“But we’re not a subscription organisation.”

Tim Cook in 2022 (paraphrased):

“Services, services, services, services, services, services, services, services, services, services, services, services, services.

Bono in The Guardian on the birth of U2, that iTunes album and Live Aid:

“I don’t think I voted for the name U2, but I didn’t stop it. I definitely stopped the second suggestion – the Flying Tigers”

I’ve eaten sushi in Japan, Iceland, New York & Vancouver. Australians have made me sushi, Italians, Croatians & Kiwis.

But I never thought the best sushi I’d ever eat was down a dirt road outside of a small village of 3,000 people called Pescadero.

Noah’s was 🤌🏼

I’ve never heard of Haiku photography but I like it.

Breaking news: Luna rode a horsey and she is pretty flippin pumped about the whole idea.

The directions to the Los Sagrados horse rescue we visited today said to go through the Cardone Forest. I was curious what a forest in the desert looks like.

Welcome to the Cardone Forest outside of Pescadero.

A helpful guide to our journey so far.

We like Baja California Sur so much I’m worried we might not see the rest of the country.

Thursday in Todos Santos

Sell everything and start again somewhere else, it’s awesome!

When I first started as a computer tech back in 1998 there was a really complex procedure we’d undertake if a computer just wasn’t working properly. We’d reformat it, wipe everything clean, and reinstall Windows.

I feel like that’s what’s happening to us. A good old fashioned life-defrag, a reinstall of our operating system, getting us back into working order.

2022, the year where Lettuce made the news twice.

Ted Gioia asks if smart people do books anymore?

“Goodby logos, hello brand logos.”

Sammy J on ABC Melbourne:

‘Acts like a Bureau but always the BOM to me.’

The most embarrassing thing about Kanye West buying Parler isn’t that he bought Parler, but that he (and most people) think that the world needs a new social media platform.

It’s the internet equivalent of starting or building more and more new gated communities in a town to make it safer and better.

Ultimately the town without gated communities, but the ability to operate without the walls and gates is the better town.

What does that mean on a modern worldwide computing platform like the internet? Get a blog. Use your keyboard, type some words, upload some photos, and share them with your mates. Get a blog roll. Share the love and seek out the things you love.

The future of the internet isn’t in the existing, or new, social networks or walled gardens. It’s in freedom of expression and seeking your own inputs.

At least then when Kanye does something stupid, I just get to choose to not read his blog. But if you want to, you can.

Ted Gioia in the Honest Broker:

“This is a signal that we have reached the endgame (of the internet) stage. And a new game is beginning with totally different recipes for success.”

We left Los Cabos today for an adventure up to Todos Santos about an hour’s drive north of Cabo San Lucas.

A few observations.

1. The best branding I’ve seen for Mexican food yet is a restaurant called “Five Tacos and a Beer, Please.” You wouldn’t believe what the main item on the menu is.

2. There are a lot of parties in Mexico, and a lot of beer and spirits are sold and consumed. I was the only person at the OXXO (think 7/11) who didn’t buy alcohol while I was there.

3. it hot.

Kurt Vonnegut:

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

It’s happened! We’ve had our first American tourist in Mexico think that Austria and Australia are the same place.

The lovely person “spent some time in Germany one summer” and thought our accents sounded similar.

Sam Kris: The internet is already over.

“In the future—not the distant future, but ten years, five—people will remember the internet as a brief dumb enthusiasm, like phrenology or the dirigible. They might still use computer networks to send an email or manage their bank accounts, but those networks will not be where culture or politics happens. The idea of spending all day online will seem as ridiculous as sitting down in front of a nice fire to read the phone book.”

Drove in Mexico for the first time today. I didn’t witness another car on the road in Los Cabos use it’s turn indicator.

I’m worried if I keep using the indicator the local news will do a story on me.

When asked at the restaurant what we were celebrating at dinner tonight I said “being alive!”

Now every staff member congratulates us on every interaction and I’m not sure if they’re being sarcastic or genuine.

The podcast series “Startup” was a thrilling listen as Alex Blumberg created Gimlet. It’s depressing to now read how Spotify has gutted that creation after acquiring it. Maybe Spotify isn’t podcasting’s darling?

Wednesday sunset

Patron saint of pioneers and travelers, Saint Joseph of the capes.

Or, in Spanish, San Jose del Cabos.

Episode five of Who’s Gonna Save Us with Saul Griffiths, paraphrased by Kai in Dense Discovery:

“A typical Australian suburb spends about $4m on petrol and diesel per year. That creates half a job at the local petrol station which is mostly selling sugar and tobacco anyway – that’s like three things that can kill you in one store! Anyway, if everyone is driving electric vehicles and producing their own electricity, those $4m will stay in the community. We know from spending behaviour that 55% of that money will be spent locally, creating a huge number of jobs. Not just energy jobs, but it’ll be paying for better bakeries, new classrooms, a fresh coat of paint for the sports club, etc. I don’t think we ever really thought about just what a screamingly good thing that would be for every community.“

Driving from the airport to the hotel in San Jose Cabo and I’ve spotted my first guard in a watch house holding a gun. Despite the girl at immigration saying so, I feel like I’m really in Mexico now.

Sitting on a flight that’s migrating our family to Mexico and I’ve never been more terrified and excited in my life. With any luck that energy, and Bluey, will help survive a 13 hour flight with two toddlers. Godspeed, us.

Will Sansom at UT Health:

“Could eating salmon, cod, tuna, herring or sardines keep our brains healthy and our thinking agile in middle age? New research makes this connection.”

I’ll take some salmon, tuna, and a nap thx.

Freya Stark:

“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.”

Three days til the Mexican sabbatical.

This is so bizarre and weird to listen to: AI-generated Joe Rogan interviews AI-generated Steve Jobs. By podcast.ai.

“Your audience is just so different to the normal Apple user”

Tim Burrowes reports on Rupert Murdoch’s “remarkable” 70-year career in the media:

He created a newspaper empire which has shaped the culture of the English speaking world.

He made newspaper paywalls work when nobody else thought he would succeed.

He saw streaming coming and sold most of his TV and film interests to Disney at the top of the market.

I personally find the influence of News Corp and the Murdochs disgusting and intolerable, yet I can also look at that 70-year body of work and say it’s remarkable, amazing and will most likely never be repeated in a similar scale. Which is most likely a good thing.

The world is starting to reflect on 2020-2022 and what everyone did, and how we reacted, and I’m not reading many pieces that are all in with their support.

This is from Dr Raya Leibowitz, Israeli oncologist, a scientist (MD/PhD) and the head of a medium-sized oncology institute in Israel:

“I am writing so not to forget the response of governments and societies to the COVID-19 pandemic over the last 2.5 years; responses that were, for me and many others, dystopian. During this time, Israeli society, as I knew it, has dramatically changed for the worse.”

The thing I’m most interested in is how I even feel hesitant to share this piece because of the negative feedback I receive from my community for not being all-in on the response to the pandemic.

The article is a personal story of a doctor who held not-so-mainstream views and how her community rejected her. If the net effect of Covid is that you’re alive but living with division in community, living with fear and hatred of others, I think I’d rather be dead.

7 Photographers on Finding Your Voice

I could quote Robin Rendle’s post, ‘Take Care Of Your Blog’ forever:

“There will be blog posts that you adore that no one reads and there’ll be blog posts you spit out in ten minutes that take the internet by storm.”

An interesting piece from Ted Gioia where he highlights something I’d missed, that music, and music reporting, as turned from being fresh and new, to nostalgic and old.

Six days to Mexico.

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

• Scholar, Joseph Campbell

50 ways to be ridiculously generous—and feel ridiculously good by Alexandra Franzen.

38. If you have a colleague who is self-employed, encourage them to charge more. Tell them, “You provide incredible value. You deserve to be paid what you’re worth. I think you should raise your rates. If that’s something you want to do—I’d love to help you do it.” If they’re open to it, help them brainstorm, strategize, and figure out a plan to roll out the new (higher) pricing.

Becoming a dad shrinks your brain. I’m not mad, I’m just stupid.

Andrzej Stasiuk:

“It is good to come to a country you know practically nothing about.

Your thoughts grow still, useless.

In a country you know nothing about, there is no reference point. You struggle to associate colors, smells, dim memories.

You live a little like a child, or an animal.”

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but despite their ads this week, Optus wasn’t attacked.

They left the front door open and unlocked and a thief took the personal identity information of thousands of Australians.

The most horrible hotel in the world featured in Tone Knob by Nick Parker:

Then in 1996 they asked the new-kids-on-the-block agency KesselsKramer2 to help them sharpen things up – Which they did not by improving the hotel or doing a fancy re-brand, but by keeping everything exactly the same and proudly embracing how crap it all was. They started calling themselves ‘the most horrible hotel in town’.

My reading device of choice has been a Kindle Oasis (2nd model) I picked up at a Best Buy in Vegas in December 2017. It fast became my favourite little gadget. The Oasis was last updated in July 2019 - and Britt owns that model. It’s got a warmth setting and a smidge larger battery, but it’s basically the same.

So I’ve been waiting patiently for an Oasis upgrade or replacement. In the meantime I just have to recharge my Kindle every two days instead of every two months, no big deal ya know.

New Amazon product of the month, the Kindle Scribe, has been drawing lots of Remarkable 2 comparisons, and avid readers of this blog might remember I was a big fan of my Remarkable.

Since that review a few things have changed:

• I sold my iPad Pro because the Apple Silicon MacBooks married with a Remarkable 2 was a happier solution.
• I’ve now sold my Remarkable tablet because I’ve been downsizing in preparation for living in Mexico and travelling around.
• My Kindle Oasis remains unchanged, but desperate for replacement.
• I’ve also bought an iPad Mini because size - but it’s a terribly underpowered machine so that’s being relegated to “TV on airplanes and buses” duty with my kids.

So does the Scribe fit the Remarkable-loving, iPad-replacing, Oasis-upgrading dream I’ve been looking for?

It seems to be a really close fit, with one exception. The Oasis would have been one of the largest Kindles produced at 7", but the Scribe is a 10.2" device, almost matching the Remarkable, and I think that’s too big to lay in bed reading a book from.

So we wait.