Quick Thoughts

Shorter than a blog post.

Saw this article in the NY Times about the Southern Baptist Convention kicking out a megachurch for ordaining women. We are ELCA Lutherans and my children have always had a woman as a pastor. So here’s a shoutout to Pastor Karen, Pastor Ginger and Pastor Joanna. I’m grateful that you have been able to be a positive presence for our family and thankful that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America allows you to serve as you are called.

Havard Business Review with an interesting (academic) take about how developers should view the Apple Vision Pro:

Developers looking to profit off the platform Apple has created would do well to focus on applications that provide users with hard-to-access contextual information at just the right level of detail.

Got to work. Found out I grabbed the wrong laptop. Sigh.

Ryan’s first club tournament was challenging. They played against really strong (older) competition and Ryan took a beating in goal. But he hung in there and finished all five games.

A special thanks to all the parents from our team and other teams who were encouraging and supportive. A kind word really does mean a lot.

Also, even though they didn’t win a game, they have the coolest uniforms. Got to count for something, right. 🤣

Finally got a chance to watch the keynote and read the reactions of people who’ve tried the new Apple Vision Pro headset. Going into WWDC, I didn’t know if Apple could pull off the technology and I had no idea why I would use one. After reading everything, it sounds like they aced the tech, but I still don’t know why I’d use one.

I’m tired. But also, I can’t sleep. Sigh.

30 years ago, Chris and I were in the same orientation group at USC. This year, our kids are at the same orientation. Small world.

Months ago, I scheduled my daughter’s college orientation for tomorrow. Which means that instead of watching the Apple Keynote, I’ll be watching presentations about adjusting to college life.

Spending some time tonight thinking about my dissertation topic. Do I stick with the research topic that I’ve worked on for the last few years? Or venture out with a new topic? There are pros and cons to each approach. Just not sure what I want to do.

For a short week, it’s been a long week.

One of my favorite bakeries closed after a long successful run, but I found out yesterday that another wonderful bakery is taking over its location. They’ve been selling cakes at local markets and haven’t had a permanent space. It’s the circle of life, but for bakeries.

I’ve been to a lot of high school graduations over the years. And most of them aren’t great. They start late. The guest speakers and district officials give speeches that aren’t particularly inspirational. The student speakers share a bunch of inside jokes that make sense to a small slice of the graduating class. And they just last too long.

So while I was looking forward to my daughter’s graduation today, I wasn’t looking forward to the ceremony itself. (Not to mention the ceremony was held at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning.)

What I got instead was a delightful ceremony. It started right at 8:00. The student speakers did a wonderful job. They incorporated some meaningful traditions. The district superintendent delivered short and relevant remarks. The whole thing was done in 1.5 hours with around 350 students graduating. Everyone had their name read and crossed the stage. My daughter was happy and I was pleasantly surprised.

Our oldest graduated from high school today. Next stop, studying English at the University of South Carolina.

Happy high school graduate

Hanging out on my deck after a long weekend of home improvements. Beautiful evening.

Deck at night with lights, chairs and a grill. Silhouetted trees against a night sky.

Saw this beautiful flower on campus yesterday.

Yellow flower with black center. Greenery and brick walkway in the background.

I’m really intrigued by Adobe’s approach to generative AI. Building AI tools that assist the process of creative development, but don’t seek to replace it. The Generative Fill feature that they are building into Photoshop looks seriously useful.

Jamovi is so much easier to use than SPSS.

Just submitted my revised journal article. I was pretty discouraged when I got the long list of feedback, but honestly, with all the changes incorporated, the new revision is significantly better. We’ll see if the editor and reviewers feel the same way.

My 11-year-old’s orchestra teacher is retiring and he’s rallying his fellow students to make a giant card to thank her. He’s working so hard on it and the whole thing is so sweet.

Last night at the Chapin Lacrosse Banquet, Norah was awarded a scholarship named for former player Chaney Partrich. Chaney was such a positive influence for Norah when she stared playing lacrosse for Chapin in 7th grade. I know the award means the world to Norah and it means the world to Liz and me, too.

RE: Paywalls. I want writers and publications to make money, but I also want to share the great things that they write — often with people who would never pay to support online writing.