Quick Thoughts
A coworker of mine took Twitter off her iPhone home screen today and replaced it with Threads. She’s been a heavy Twitter user for a very long time. More and more people I know are making the jump away from the service formerly known as Twitter.
Last day of vacation. Caught a Columbia Fireflies minor league baseball game. Had a great time and my son chased down two foul balls.
Back to work tomorrow.
I’ve worn contacts since 10th grade, but for some reason a few months ago, I decided to just wear glasses and see if I wanted to switch back. I gave it a few months, but I missed my contacts. Had my eye doctor appointment his morning and I’m back to contacts.
Road-trip to Charleston and saw a bunch of cool EVs. One Rivian, a Mercedes EQS, a BMW iX and a car carrier with (6!) Cadillac Lyriq SUVs heading to a dealership somewhere.
Beach day today at Isle of Palms. Found a couple of nice shells, too.
Back in 2018, I wrote a second blog post about preparing for the sudden demise of Twitter. The illustration I did for the post seems appropriate to reshare today.

My academic research is typically focused on logos and branding. When I look at the Twitter-to-X rebranding, all I see is future citations and research questions.
I don’t know why the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover came out early, but it’s delightful. 🖖
Day two of vacation: Caught up with my sister and her family. Always fun to get the cousins together.

When we got married, Liz wasn’t planning on being a teacher… so a late August anniversary wasn’t a big deal. Now our anniversary falls on the first week of school every year and we never really get to celebrate. This year, we decided we would celebrate our 24th anniversary a little early.

Day one of vacation. Hanging out at the pool.

My daughter (ACL repair) and my dad (back surgery) were in physical therapy at the same time this morning. They were both so excited to see each other. It was so sweet.
Two long days to start this week. Productive days, but exhausting.
Working this afternoon from the Ph.D. student suite at the School of Journalism at the University of South Carolina. I don’t work from this office often, but I could get used to this view.

Was the first person in the office this morning. It’s so quiet, but I’ve gotten a lot done.
I was going through my sketchbooks today and realized that I haven’t been sketching lately. Need to get back in the habit.
Trying to add some academic journal RSS feeds to Feedbin. Most of them have feeds, but some of them try to push you to subscribe to an email update.
Went down a rabbit hole and discovered that iron-air batteries are a thing…
Each iron-air battery is about the size of a washer/dryer set and holds 50 iron-air cells, which are then surrounded by an electrolyte (similar to the Duracell in your TV remote). Using a principle called “reverse rusting,” the cells “breathe” in air, which transforms the iron into iron oxide (aka rust) and produces energy. To charge it back up, a current reverses the oxidation and turns the cells back into iron.
“Reverse rusting?” Weird. Interesting implications for power grid management, though.
My daughter is getting playing around with her new MacBook Air. She’s used to her iPhone, and various Chromebooks that she has been given by her school since 6th grade. I’m noticing just how differently we use computers.
Seth Godin with the reminder that you can’t always have the good without the bad.
After watching this week’s Strange New Worlds, I went back and watched Amok Time. They’ve really done a nice job of building a Spock/T’Pring/Chapel backstory that adds depth to The Original Series episode. 🖖
Signed my oldest up for her college move-in time. Now headed to the Apple Store to get her a computer. It’s getting real.
Vampire cat.

I’ve had this small task hovering over my head for about a week. Finally sat down this morning and knocked it out in about 30 minutes. Someday, I’ll learn to just make some time each day to knock out the small stuff.
Insomnia is kicking my ass tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.