So, I had a wild idea about trying something new.
Ages ago in Internet years, I was quoted in Jeff Jarvis’s Public Parts, after replying to a question of his on Twitter, about living in public in an age where public was no longer a physical manifestation but a psychosocial one as well.
“Being public led to my mantra of honesty. I am who I am all the time because, being public, lies have thin shadows.”
Me, in Public Parts, Jeff Jarvis
Now, in the twelve1Fuck me, 12 years… years since that book was published, I’ve come to learn some things about myself. For instance, I’m more openly honest than the midpoint in part because I’m on the spectrum, which I’ve learned is a behavior more likely to occur in those of us somewhere on that plane.
I’m also a lot more suspicious of the weight of lies anymore, and whether they have the same consequence they used to for the liar. Recent examples seem to put that social construct to some rather public tests, and the ability to lie without consequence nor shame has been cultivated into an aesthetic.
All that aside, I’ve realized of late that I’ve been hiding in a way. Finding ways of shutting myself away from the world, even as I try to be seen from specific angles, in the right lights. And so, I decided I should try to break out of this self-constructed cave a bit, by living more in the open.
And hey, I’ve still got a blog, so I’m gonna blog.
The goal is to make this a daily activity, but will it be daily? I mean, we’ll see? I don’t like to make guarantees, I’ve lost too many hats over walls2Oh, I also learned I have ADHD too. Which, I mean, duh? But I had no fucking clue and learning that about myself, and that it’s genetic, answered SO MANY QUESTIONS about myself and the last few decades. But I’m gonna take a whack at it, and I’m gonna set a recurring Calendar event for it, so we’ll see how it goes.
Some bits I’m gonna talk about daily are, a general ramble, some notes on informational and entertainment things I consumed and thought were notable, and my progress on the various projects I’m working on (at varying levels of vagary.)
Thanks for reading, even if it’s just my Mom3Hi Mom!, and reach on out if you want to know more about anything, or even if you just want to chat. I’m on BlueSky, Twitter (for now), LinkedIn, and elsewhere.
What I read
I read a stupid amount on a daily basis, but mostly online. I’m one of those stubborn people that still uses an RSS reader (Vienna! It’s fuckin’ great!) and am subscribed to something like 45-50 feeds? They’re not all daily updaters (Neil Gaiman, I miss your blog posts buddy), but enough are that I take in a LOT on a daily basis. So, that’s where a lot of my inbound reading material comes from. Highlights include Defector, Ars Technica, Scalzi’s Whatever, Kottke.org, and acoup.blog
I also subscribe to several newsletters, some daily (like NextDraft, Money Stuff, and the NYTimes stuff), some weekly (big ups to Ingrid Burrington’s Perfect Sentences [I read her everywhere I can, she’s the best], Scope of Work, Orbital Observations, among many others), and some just sort of when they publish (like Deb Chachra’s, which had a lot of the noodling that turned into her new book).
Like I said, I read a LOT. So, here’s where I’ll try to toss some highlights from things I took in today.
From Ars, it turns out ChatGPT might have Seasonal Affective Disorder? The black box nature of AI training models continues to confound easy reasoning, but that it could pick up on a seasonal slowdown inherent to human communication and activity is sociologically astounding to me. Also, this prompt (via Twitter), which attempts to counteract it by providing psychological safety and the comforting assurance of a friend, makes me think about how we backed our way into magic via sufficiently advanced technology.
Speaking of Deb Chachra’s new book, I massaged the spine of it earlier today and started in. It’s about the sometimes hidden, mostly just unobserved layer of infrastructure that supports the complex web of modern life. As a guy with not one but two Submarine Cable Maps on his walls, I anticipate it scratching an itch.
What I watched
I’m a pretty big fan of football, at both the college and professional level, so tonight it’s going to be the weird Monday doubleheader in Miami and New York. Earlier I caught up on Rick and Morty, which after jettisoning a troublesome founder, seemed to miss no beats in finding new voices (figuratively and literally) and telling great stories. Really looking forward to the finale next week.
What I heard
A separate daily habit I’ve built and (mostly) sustained is 30 minutes of walking per day. This is nearly always on a treadmill in my basement, because I live in a place that does Winter right, because I like a consistent pace without stopping for signs or lights or whatever else, and because I can knock it out whenever I like, looking as rough as I like. On these, I nearly always listen to a podcast of some sort (and often simultaneously do the recent Times sudoku puzzles) (the ADHD is STRONG). Today it was the first 30 minutes of Dan Carlin’s Twilight of the Aesir, working my way back through it on my way to his recently released Part II.
I also started in on the new album from the Cotton Modules, The Greatest Remaining Hits because goddamn if I don’t enjoy a high-concept album.
Projects in progress
Being a stereotype of ADHD, I’ve got a lot of irons in a lot of fires. I’m gonna note any progress here mostly as a shame eater for my lack of forward motion on things, but also because it can act as a sort of Teddy Bear Problem Solving source, in that talking about where I’m at forces me to think about it from other angles.4And if you need your own teddy bear to aid in your problem solving, there’s no better source than Teif’s Teddy Bears, run by the greatest crafter I’ve ever known!
Currently, I’m working on a webapp that redirects inbound links through an invisible level of human-checking and then to a collective landing site, which outwardly connects to an API endpoint to bring in customer links. Yes, I know that’s incredibly vague. Mostly that’s on purpose, because I’ve still got no idea if the idea has legs or if I can pull it off. Partially it’s because of the vague concern that the select set of people that might know what that implies might expect something from me. Mostly it’s because I’ve got a low level of self-confidence about the whole thing.
Still though, made a bunch of forward progress on it today.
I’m also working on the first draft of a novel, the same for a screenplay, some noodling around on a weird concept album idea, and planning out a bunch of woodworking projects for when my garage is warm enough that I can’t cut off any digits without feeling it.
Anyhow, that’s a stupidly long first day’s post, that mostly does a lot of the table setting for future, more briefly constructed issuances.
If you read any of the above, thanks! If not, well, I guess I’d have no way of knowing? Regardless, it felt nice to live in public a little more, and to step a few feet out from my cave and into the digital light. Seeya tomorrow.
Notes:
- 1Fuck me, 12 years…
- 2Oh, I also learned I have ADHD too. Which, I mean, duh? But I had no fucking clue and learning that about myself, and that it’s genetic, answered SO MANY QUESTIONS about myself and the last few decades
- 3Hi Mom!
- 4And if you need your own teddy bear to aid in your problem solving, there’s no better source than Teif’s Teddy Bears, run by the greatest crafter I’ve ever known!