I agree with everything that Om Malik wrote in this post about how AI IS Changing Writing, in particular the following
The upcoming U.S. Presidential election is unique in my life time in that it is an election between two incumbent Presidents. Consequently, we don’t really need to focus on character issues because there is a record of what each candidate did in office. For example, Biden ought to focus on what Trump did and did not do about COVID-19 as his actions are on record as are the consequences, millions of people died while Trump was in office, unnecessarily. I also wish Biden, or pundits, would at least emphasize that there is a difference between feeling better and actually being better. Were you really better off when Trump was in office than you are now, or did you just feel better (were more entertained) while Trump was in office? Finally, yes, inflation is an issue right now, and if we accept that government spending is the primary cause, let’s note that it was Trump who signed and provided most of the COVID stimulus checks. Most economic circumstances are reactions to the past.
I might be out of touch, but the idea of one being able to buy a Macbook at Walmart seems odd. It feels like a cheapening of the brand. I get the ability to buy Apple “consumer” goods that include iPhone and iPad but I would not think of going to Walmart to buy a Mac.
To Be Disturbed By Ideas Is O.K.
From “The Problem with Defining Antisemitism” by the New Yorker
Stern tells this story in “The Conflict Over the Conflict,” a work that is unlikely to please partisans. The book makes the case for bridging differences and recognizing nuance. It also describes Israeli-Palestinian history as an “ideal subject” to teach at universities, precisely because it is so divisive. At the West End Temple, Stern reiterated this belief. “On college campuses, students have an absolute right to expect they’re not going to be harassed, they’re not going to be bullied,” he said. “But to be disturbed by ideas is O.K.: we want students to be disturbed by ideas and to figure out how to think about them.”
I have to remind myself that the high 30/low 40 degree temperatures that we are currently experiencing is closer to normal than the 70 degrees we had last week. The over night lows are cold enough to cause a light dusting of snow. Unfortunately the daffys that have been appearing are not taking the temperatures well.
Watching me like a hawk on St. Patrick’s day.
Site Changes
It started with a post that Manton Reece wrote about long form content publishing in a microblog format and before I knew it I had completely overhauled the appearance of this site. I wrote a reply to that post about my one wish for micro.blog is that it would not publish the full content of a titled post on the main page of the blog. In my opinion posts with titles are essays that are best published in full on their own page. I said that I would rather have a link to essays along with a lede.
Manton replied suggesting that I try the Tiny theme and that sent me down an unexpected rabbit hole of testing the theme and different fonts before deciding to apply that theme to this site. If you are a regular reader of this site you should have notice I made several changes, starting with the title of the site.
Before I go in to how I came to the new title for this site I want to acknowledge Matt Langford who developed the Tiny Theme for micro.blog. I’ve not crossed paths with Matt, but I appreciate his work in developing the theme and the associated summary plugin. Right now I am using the basic functionality of the theme but there are features that I plan to check out more in the future.
The post you are reading right now provides an example of what started me off trying Tiny Theme. If you came to this post via the main page of this blog you saw the title of the post followed by the first paragraph followed by a Read More button. I think not publishing the full, multi paragraph post enables the main page to maintain a “news feed” like appearance. I expect it to also make loading the site faster because the pages are smaller. To read the full titled post you can click either the title of the post or the Read More button.
Having changed the appearance of this site I felt it made sense to change the tagline and the title of the site. Rather than the tagline referring to me, I wanted it to refer to the theme of my writing and found that a sentence from the Thomas Merton quote on my home page did the job nicely. I then used Microsoft Co-Pilot to brainstorm titles that related to the tagline and settled on Routine Revelations.
So welcome to my new, old blog where I write posts and share information about my extraordinary ordinary routine revelations!
I don’t think the blogroll on the right side of Scripting News is visually appealing. To my eyes the page is now cluttered and that affects readability, and for me the reason to go to a blog is to read what the author has written and published. I like that both of my blogs just display my writing with no other distractions. If memory serves me right, blogrolls came before RSS, and for me RSS feed readers replaced the need for blogrolls. If you want to see what blogs I am reading or advocating look at the content of my RSS subscriptions.
I know that one can have a physical book printed from a journal in DayOne. What I would like is to be able to import all of the titled posts I’ve written here, which I call essays, into DayOne so that I could have a book produced from them. I would love suggestions about how to make that happen because it seems that I should be able to import the RSS feed of my essays into DayOne.
Daffys are about to make their appearance. Spring is springing.
Everything old is new again, even on the Internet. Blogrolls are making a come back. One can think of them like the news feeds/timelines one sees on social networks, but in this case just web site or person’s name. Not sure I want to host such a think on my own blog, and I think my RSS feeds page provides the same function in a more useful manner.
Today I am starting my next virtual walk of the Camino de Santiago. I think I should be able to complete the 577 miles later this year.
It took 582 days for me to walk the equivalent of the 2024 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Goal achieved!
I’ve written down some of my thoughts about the pending iPad announcements. I am curious about what Apple will announcement but not anticipating being a buyer.
I will make the case that March is one of the better, if not the best, months of the year. March 1 begins meteorological spring, temperatures get warmer and flowers begin to bloom. March includes 312 (Chicago), 313 (Detroit), 314 (Pi) days, and St. Patrick’s day. Spring training of professional baseball starts, and college hockey and basketball have their conference and national tournaments. The NHL and NBA seasons are approaching the end of their seasons during which teams are competing for playoff positions.
I am down to the last five miles of my virtual walk on the Appalachian Trail that I started on July 24, 2022. I should complete the walk some time tomorrow!
A problem that I see about reporting on inflation is there is little understanding nor explanation for why inflation is occuring, only assumptions. Gas prices are clearly rising, but why? It seems that gas prices always rise in the spring and summer and most assume that is due to demand. A related and important question, what can be done about it, and what could a President of the United States even do about it? My personal suspicion is that contrary to popular opinion, there is little that a Preside can do about most economic factors like inflation because they are driven mostly by the private sector.
What is Realtime? “Our automated engine continuously tracks public data feeds, detects key changes in real-time, and uses AI to distill them into bite-size stories to keep you informed.” I learned about Realtime by reading Zach Seward’s presentation on journalism and AI at SXSW.
I did some reminiscing about the smartphones that I have owned since I first started using Android in 2008. Looking back at that those phones the ones that stand out are the T-Mobile G1, the Nexus One, and the Nexus 6P. Besides the T-Mobile G1 being the first ever Android phone, it was the only one with a physical and slide out keyboard. The Nexus One had a roller ball for moving through menu items. After the Nexus One smartphones seem to all have the same physical features, which is a shame. The Nexus 6P stands out only because it is the largest phone I’ve owned and reinforced my personal preference for smaller phones.
The first day of Daylight Savings Time is never as bad as the second day, which is a work day. Need more coffee!