Posts in "Long Posts"

Then: 8.10.24

Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

Reasonably good week. We’re getting our oldest ready to go back to college. I’ve started my plan to be healthier at 50 than I was a 40 — working out a little bit and eating better. Lifestyle change is hard.

Feels

  • Had someone be incredibly rude to me at work this week. And it really bothered me for a day or two.
  • Tim Walz. My goodness. I didn’t know politicians like this get elected. What a breath of fresh air. I’m all in on bringing joy back. I’m tired of the doom and gloom.
  • Work on the Ph.D. will continue soon. A couple of weeks left until classes start. I’m taking one class this semester — a qualitative research class in the College of Education. Will be a bit of a change from my normal comms classwork.

Health

Then: 8.2.24

Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

I celebrated my 49th birthday this week. My kids have an annual tradition where they bake a cake for me, usually with a high degree of difficulty. This year, they attempted to make a Borg Cube from Star Trek.

As I turn 49, I’m looking ahead to 50 next year. I’ve decided that I want to be healthier at 50 than I was at 40. I need to loose weight, eat better and be more active. Basically a lifestyle change. I’m going to add a health category to my weekly Now page updates.

Still wondering if I should post these on Sundays instead of Saturdays.

Feels

  • Uncomfortable. The air conditioning went out in my office this week. That’s never something you want in Columbia in the summer.
  • One of my friends is leaving for a job at another school. I’m bummed,...
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Then: 7.27.2024

Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

Just had a relaxing week of vacation with just my wife and me. The kids were at summer camp for the week so we decided to celebrate our 25th anniversary early up near Asheville. We had a great time, but it’s going to be hard going back to reality on Monday.

Feels

  • I feel refreshed. I really needed to take some time off from work and reset. With the leadership change at work, I think I needed the break more than I realized.
  • I’m worried about the state of our nation, but I’m energized by the change in the presidential race. Biden stepping down, and Harris consolidating support has me encouraged.
  • Being open to changes. The camp our kids went to is also the camp that I attended and worked at. They changed pick up this year, ending on Friday...
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Open Social vs. Indie Social

Choosing our words carefully

I wrote a blog post in early 2019, trying to make a distinction between “open” social platforms that thrived on interoperability compared to “captive” networks that trap you in their system. As an aside, I also noted the difference between “indie” social and “open” social and added this footnote:

I recognize that the concept of an open social network from a large corporation might seem absurd in today’s environment, but you never know.

Five years later, we have Threads, a somewhat open social network from a large corporation with a track record of building toxic captive networks. The word “open” in this case is distinct from “indie,” since no one can ever claim that Meta is a small independent company. But in the case of Threads, they do seem to be moving toward being more open.1

I think it’s important to make a distinction,...

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Then: 7.20.24

Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

Weird week. I got randomly sick for an evening. I woke up at 2 AM with a fever that only lasted a couple of hours and no other symptoms. So strange. Whenever I get sick now, I worry about COVID and getting others sick, but I’m pretty sure this was just a random virus.

Feels

  • I’m excited about upcoming vacation. It’s been too long since I took a significant amount of time off.
  • I’m worried about the state of our nation.
  • Grateful for some rain. (We needed it.)

Projects

Sticker Mule: A bad equation

The Sticker Mule email arrived in my inbox, but I didn’t see it at first. Instead, I saw the backlash on Threads.

Here’s the thing, I knew the owner was conservative, but it didn’t really matter to me. I’d randomly order stickers (or keychains) whenever they had a great special. And they ran specials a lot.

Many companies take stands on issues as a way to signal their values. But most of the time, those topics are carefully chosen to align with their customer beliefs. There is an entire discipline in public relations scholarship called Corporate Social Responsibility that studies this strategy.

But this crosses a line. Blasting your entire business mailing list with a political message — a mailing list that is a massive asset to your sales funnel — is just stupid.

Why? You are choosing to voluntarily spam your mailing list with a political message that half of your list likely...

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Comfort Star Trek

I’m home sick today and was thinking about shows I watch when I’m just killing time. Episodes I love to just put on in the background when I’m working (or sick). Most of the time, I open Paramount+ and play Star Trek. I figured I’d share my favorite “comfort” episodes. Warning: A couple of mild spoilers below for really old episodes.1

Mariner and Boimler on the USS Enterprise.

Star Trek: The Original Series

  • S1 E15 Balance of Terror. A “submarine” battle between Kirk and the Romulan commander.
  • S2 E6 The Doomsday Machine. The race to stop a machine before it destroys more planets.
  • S2 E15 The Trouble with Tribbles. My parents loved this episode when I was growing up and it’s one of my favorites. Sometimes, I pair it with DS9’s Trials and Tribble-Ations.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Then: 7.13.24

Posts titled “Then” were originally shared on my “Now” page.

Good week, although still way too hot in Columbia, South Carolina. To be fair, it’s too hot pretty much everywhere, it seems. I’ve stolen a brilliant idea from Sven Dahlstrand (@sod on Micro.Blog) and I’m going to archive my previous “Now” pages on blog in a category called “Then.” I like to have an archive of everything and it always bothered me that my Now page implementation didn’t have a history.

Feels

  • I’m tired. It’s been a long week for some reason.
  • Looking forward to an upcoming vacation.
  • Sad that summer is coming to an end. Kids start school in less than a month. The excessive heat has been brutal this year. We are fortunate to have shelter and air conditioning so we can manage, but I haven’t felt like leaving the house. Ready for cooler weather.

Projects

Then: 7.6.24

I’m giving the “Now” page concept another go. I love the idea, but I just haven’t figured out how to make it work for me. For now, I’ve settled on an opening paragraph and three category prompts: feels, projects and entertainment. Should capture a nice snapshot of what I’m focused on and how I’m feeling. When I update these, I’m going to copy them over to Notion so I have a weekly journal.

Feels

  • Looking forward to an upcoming vacation.
  • Leadership changes at work are never easy to navigate.
  • Anxious about the state of our country.
  • My sore foot is feeling better, but that means I need to turn my focus back to getting healthy.

Projects

  • I’ve decided to give this “Now” page a try again.
  • Finishing up a couple of fonts that I want to release soon. You can see previews at SbB Fonts.
  • I’ve got a paper that I need to update and...
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Dead Mall Memories

I know that enclosed shopping malls have fallen out of fashion, but I’m of an age where malls played a major role in my childhood. An abandoned mall in Columbia is being torn down and I was thinking today about all the malls that have played a role in my life. I figured I’d share a couple of memories of malls that are no more…

  • Richland Fashion Mall. The mall that’s being torn down is in Forest Acres, South Carolina. I drove past it today so I’ll start with this one. Being close to the University of South Carolina campus and my first apartment, I took a bunch of trips to Richland Fashion Mall.1 We occasionally visited the movie theater on the rooftop before nicer theaters came to Columbia. Liz and I frequented the Barnes and Noble when we were dating and registered for our china at...

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