Six years ago, I wrote a blog post encouraging people to ask “why” they post to Facebook? I reread it last night and at the end, I found this gem:
Now the hard part: Start asking “why” before you post? Understand the impact of your words before you comment. Or like. Or share. In all likelihood, this exercise will cause you will post less. Comment less. Like less. That’s okay. The only person who will get upset that you are using Facebook less is Mark Zuckerberg. (And honestly, he’s too busy trying to collect all your personal data to notice.)
Still true today. And not just for Facebook.
Iconfactory’s Tapestry is nearing release. I love being able to scroll through a unified feed with Micro.Blog, Bluesky, YouTube, RSS feeds and more. I’m so impressed with how it’s come together and steadily improved during the beta process.
For a class research project, I’ve been reading some journal articles about how to build more positive social media platforms. Sadly, I’m not sure it’s possible. I admire the people who are legitimately trying, though.
Had to take a few more pictures of the snow before it melts… the park behind our house is beautiful when blanketed in snow.
A little snow in Columbia, South Carolina is a big deal.
If the Bills win, it will set up a battle between Taylor Swift’s boyfriend and Hailee Steinfeld’s fiancé.
Helping my 7th grader understand linear regressions for his algebra class… I suppose this is normal? I was much older when I learned how to do linear regressions. As in, grad school.
Just ordered a custom Timbuk2 backpack to replace my 12-year-old custom Timbuk2 messenger bag. The messenger bag is still in good shape… pretty impressive for over a decade of daily use.
Enjoyed Star Wars Skeleton Crew. Fun show. Loved the 1980s Goonies vibe and would love more Star Wars like this.
I’m going to get a Micro.One subscription for my dad. He wants a place to share family geneology, stories and pictures and I think Micro.One is perfect for him.
My wife and I are making some changes around the house. Mostly rearranging existing furniture and cleaning out stuff we don’t use. But every time we make an improvement, we see something else that we need to tackle. It’s a seemingly never ending upgrade cycle.
People are talking about the “new” Honda logo that is used on their Honda Zero electric car prototypes they showed off at CES, but in reality, they announced that logo quietly last year.
I think it’s time to phase out bowl games. With opt outs, the transfer portal and and the playoff, they are an unnecessary relic. Switch to a 16-team playoff. Let everyone practice through December.
Then: Reflections from 12.31.24
Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.
The last day of the year. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks leading up to Christmas and before New Years. A minor car accident complicated the already busy season. Everyone is fine, and it was the other driver’s fault, but now we are just waiting to find out if the damage is repairable. Thankful for good auto insurance.
Normally by now, I have a plan for the next year. And I guess I have some ideas, but I haven’t written it out yet. I probably need to go ahead and do that today or tomorrow, since, you know, 2025 starts tomorrow.
Feels
- Drained. So many things to do at the end of the year. I was productive, but have not rested enough over the last couple weeks. I have two more days of vacation before I head back to work in 2025.
- Frustrated. We had a car accident before Christmas. The other driver ran a red light, although she swore she had a green light. Her passenger was incredibly aggravated and belligerent. Thankful for the helpful police officers, insurance agents and others that have helped us. But it’s just a complicated time to deal with a rental car and repairs.
- Optimistic. There are things I’m dreading about 2025, but personally, I’m optimistic about so many things. Finding that balance is challenging, but I’m going to keep pushing forward.
Health
- Still stalled. I had some good progress late in the year, but I’ve been in neutral for the last couple months. Need to kick it into gear starting tomorrow.
Projects
- Typeface design. I’ve got some sketches for an experimental typeface. It’s not something that’s going to sell so it’s been on the back burner, but I feel like I really want to spend some time on it.
- InShow. Do I need another project? Not really. Is InShow 23 coming in 2025? Maybe…
Entertainment
- Skeleton Crew. Still loving this show. Looking forward to an episode tonight and then two more in this season.
- What if…? I know a bunch of people thought this season was weak, but I enjoyed it. Storm as Thor is wonderful. And I always love Captain Carter.
2025: Incremental Progress
My themes for 2025 are essentially the same as they were last year. And the year before. I need to get healthy. I want to write and be creative. I need to stay organized.
It’s somewhat boring that my major themes have stayed the same for three years. I’ve made progress, but I still have a ways to go. I thought about changing them up, but these four goals still reflect what I need to work on so I’m sticking with them. Just some slight modifications…
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Get healthy. Once again, this needs to be my top priority. I made some good progress late in 2024, but I need to carve more time out for walking and exercising. And I need to continue to make better food choices. I turn 50 this year, and I’d like to be healthier at 50 than I was at 40. To pull that off, I need to put a lot of work in between now and the beginning of August. I’ve got some more specific plans for getting more active.
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Write. In Spring 2025, I have two Ph.D. classes. And then, from there, I’m writing until my dissertation is done. If I stay on the current pace, I have a year and a half until I finish my Ph.D. And that means that by the end of 2025, I’ll need to have made significant progress on my dissertation. I feel like I’ve been in grad school forever – I started working on my MA part time six years ago – so it feels strange and unbelievable to finally have the end in sight.
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Explore creative endeavors. In 2024, I launched a bunch of new typefaces and built a new website for my fonts. I’m really proud of what I accomplished creatively this year. For 2025, I want to finalize an experimental typeface design that I’ve worked on for years, but never really worked on seriously because it isn’t something I think will sell. However, I enjoy playing around with more unique, experimental concepts and plan to focus on that design this year. I also may resurrect InShow, a Columbia-based design show, but we’ll see if I can find the bandwidth and recruit a team.
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Get organized and stay organized. Continue to refine and evolve my methods and tools for staying organized. With so much going on, task management is vital. I especially want to work on keeping my finances more organized this year.
And that’s the rough plan for 2025. Admittedly not that exciting. Stay the course. Keep improving slowly, but surely.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Our family has been going at full speed since Thanksgiving. Three birthdays, exams for the kiddos, a car accident (everyone is fine), parties, Christmas, family visiting… Thankfully, not much on the calendar for the next few days until I go back to work on January 2. I need some time to relax.
My daugther’s school has banned use of any unauthorized internet-connected device during school hours. She’s going to miss her music during study hall. I’m thinking about how to get her music copied over to my old iPod. Or even better, a cassette to use in an old Walkman…
Had to come back home this morning to pick up a package. And was able to confirm that my “Turn the Christmas Tree lights on when I get home” automation works as designed.
Thanks to the librarians at the University of South Carolina, I have a scan of my 1997 honors thesis. It’s not terrible… and it is full of fun 1997 acronyms, like UPN, CNNSI, ESPNET and CNET.
Then: Reflections from 12.15.24
Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.
First up, Happy birthday Norah! My oldest turns 20 today. Two decades is a long time and so much has happened… and yet, it feels like it has flown by.
I’ve seemed to settle in writing these updates every other week instead of weekly. Since they are mostly for me, I going to be okay with it. But if you happen to be reading along, just a heads up.
Feels
- Excited. I’m excited for the Christmas season. Yes, most people started planning for Christmas early, but we have three family birthdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hard to focus on Christmas when we are still celebrating birthdays!
- Proud. Of my kiddos. All three of them are growing up to be amazing people. I love them so much, but I’m also incredibly proud of who they are. I’m also very proud of my wife who is excelling in her Ph.D. classwork.
Health
- Stalled. I ate two donuts for breakfast this morning… I’m going to have to hit reset after Christmas.
Projects
- Typeface consulting. Waiting on feedback a draft I provided. Refining some of the smaller things.
- InShow. Do I need another project? Not really. Is InShow 23 coming in 2025? Maybe…
- A history of media branding. In 1997, I wrote an honors thesis about media branding. I’m thinking about pulling the ultimate academic stunt and resurrecting it. I’d have to completely rewrite it – I’m sure it’s terrible – but I think I want to write a history of media branding.
Entertainment
- Skeleton Crew. I love it. The mash up of 80s Spielberg nostalgia and Star Wars. Incredibly well done, and not just fan service.
- Lower Decks. Star Trek’s animated comedy is coming to a close and it’s just brilliant. I think next week is the finale and I’m looking forward to how they wrap things up.
- Gamecock Football. Heading to the Citrus Bowl to play Illinois. No way they were going to make the playoffs with three losses, but this is a wonderful consolation prize.
- McLaren wins the Constructors' Championship. A great finale for Lando Norris and McLaren to win the Constructors' Championship. This is my first season watching F1 and it was excited down to the last laps.
My favorite eight pictures from 2024.
Tracking down a copy of my thesis from 1997
I want to find a copy of my 1997 honors thesis.1 I wrote it on a Power Mac 7500 in Word Perfect 3.5 on the classic Mac OS 8. It probably fit on a floppy drive, but I know I saved a backup copy of it on a Zip drive. At some point, I decided that I needed to move things off the Zip disks and consolidated all of my old files from college onto DVDs. I’m not 100% sure where that DVD is now, but I’m guessing it’s in my attic. Even if the disc hasn’t been ruined by the South Carolina heat, I don’t actually have a DVD drive to read it.
And then I remembered that the University of South Carolina library has the official copy in the off-site annex. I can request that they pull the physical copy for me to review in person at South Carolinina Library. It’s a bound copy of the actual sheets of paper I printed and turned in at Harper College almost 30 years ago. I’m going to request it next week and we’ll see how long it takes to get it out of storage.2
I suppose the moral of the story is don’t trust your archives to digital formats. A lot can go wrong.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Listening to a podcast this week and I realized that my 1997 honors thesis about media branding in the age of cable TV and the internet is actually relevant as media branding continues to change. I might dust it off and turn it into a history of media branding instead.
You say “Bless you” when someone sneezes. My son wanted to come up with something to say when someone coughs. We’ve settled on “May God have mercy on your soul.” 🤣
I started watching F1 this season with the Canadian Grand Prix and adopted McLaren as my team. So cool to see them win the Constructors’ Championship. And overall, such a great season for me to start with… so much fun to watch.