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.
Hanging out on my deck after a long weekend of home improvements. Beautiful evening.
Saw this beautiful flower on campus yesterday.
You are currently being recorded.
Our neighbors installed a new security system a couple of weeks ago. When you walk anywhere near it – and that radius includes our driveway – a recording plays: “You are currently being recorded.”
We have great neighbors, but when I first heard it, I was a little annoyed. My wife was irritated, too. Every time we walked to our cars… “You are currently being recorded.”
A few days after this started, I was walking out to the car with my kids and the alarm system informed us that we were being recorded… and my 15-year-old daughter waived in the general direction of the camera, yelled “Hello camera” and got in the car. She repeats this greeting every day when she leaves for school, choosing to be amused instead of irritated.1
There are two lessons in this story:
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Don’t install a talking alarm system. It’s annoying. (My neighbor isn’t happy...
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.