So if I’m reading the Apple/F1 announcement correctly, my F1 TV subscription will be rolled into Apple TV, which I already pay for as part of the Apple One bundle… so… once less subscription, I guess.

My family loves the State Fair. I love how much they love the State Fair. (I don’t actually love the State Fair.)

Interesting that Microsoft released some process images on Instagram to explain the thinking behind their new icons. They are correctly treating this icon refresh as a type of logo rollout and people who care about the icons will appreciate the glimpse into the redesign process.

Hate to see that South Carolina basketball’s Chloe Kitts tore her ACL and will miss the season. She’s one of my favorite Gamecocks, and hopefully, she’ll come back strong.

Picking an NFL team

I typically watch one or two NFL games a week, and yet, I don’t really have an NFL team. (I’m currently watching the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football as I write this.)

When I was little, I was a Cowboys fan. We’re taking about the Tom Landry, Danny White, Tony Dorsett era Cowboys. When Jerry Jones bought the team and got rid of all my favorite players and their legendary coach, I decided I was no longer a Cowboys fan. I briefly pulled for the Bears when I lived in Chicago and they won the Super Bowl, but I was never fully invested and then, they fired Ditka.

In the early 2000s, I had a fantasy football team each season. That meant that I pulled for players, not teams. Every year, I’d pick a new team and have a new rooting interest.

I’m a South Carolina Gamecocks fan, so I’ve often pulled for teams with former Gamecocks. But trades and free agency happen. The Bears and Alshon Jeffrey became the Eagles and Alshon Jeffrey. The 49ers and Deebo Samuels became the Commanders and Deebo Samuels. Picking a team based on a player means that when a player leaves, your affinity for that team fades.

I’ve only been to one NFL game — a battle between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets when my dad lived in Miami. Both teams were terrible and I can’t remember who won. I obviously didn’t develop an affinity for either of those teams.

Every so often, I feel like I’m missing out by not having a favorite NFL team. But how do I choose?

After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I think that the most logical team for me to pull for is the Carolina Panthers. They have been terrible, but seem to be improving. (They just beat the Cowboys today.) They usually have a couple of Gamecocks on the roster. I do love their black and blue color scheme. And if I really do become a fan, I could easily catch a game up the road. I’m going to start making a point of watching Panthers games. We’ll see if it sticks.

And if being a Panthers fan doesn’t stick, I’ll just go back to pulling for good games and Gamecocks.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

  1. I did break this rule when I became a fan of McLaren’s F1 team. That said, I still haven’t purchased any McLaren merch. ↩︎

I never thought I needed to install a clipboard manager on my Mac. I was wrong. I absolutely love the clipboard history integrated into Spotlight on macOS Tahoe.

Symbolism is strange

It’s always funny to me what pop culture symbols acquire added cultural meaning.

My son is a big fan of the manga series, One Piece. I haven’t watched much of it, but I know the basics… renegade pirates fighting against an authorization government in search of the ultimate treasure. It’s amazing to me that the One Piece Jolly Roger, with a grinning skull and a straw hat, has become the symbol of protests across the globe.

In a similar way, the logo for the Marvel vigilante and anti-hero Punisher has become a symbol controversially used by military, law enforcement and fascist groups. I often see it on pickup trucks, sometimes combined with an American Flag pattern. I doubt any of these people read the comics, but are instead attracted to concept of excessive violence that the symbol projects.

In both cases, the creators of these symbols have no control over how they are now used. Marvel’s trying to regain control, deciding to change the Punisher logo to separate itself from their co-opted symbol. However, these symbols have taken on a life of their own and I imagine it’s impossible to fully reign them back in.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

This statement from the ELCA bishops is strong:

Love insists on the dignity of every human being. Love insists on justice for the marginalized and oppressed. Love insists that the church must reflect God’s diverse, life-giving community. Love insists that we listen, speak, and act with respect, even in disagreement.

This article is about software development, but I think this passage relates to leadership, too:

When you go too far up, abstraction-wise, you run out of oxygen. Sometimes smart thinkers just don’t know when to stop, and they create these absurd, all-encompassing, high-level pictures of the universe that are all good and fine, but don’t actually mean anything at all.

An interesting post from Simon Sinek on leadership.

Most of us want to be noticed. We want our efforts to matter, to be acknowledged. But the best leaders I’ve ever met are the ones who don’t need the spotlight. They’re the ones who understand that leadership is the awesome responsibility to see those around us rise. It’s not about rank or authority. It’s about caring for the person to your left and the person to your right. It’s about making the choice, every day, to help others succeed, even if no one is watching.

I thought college football fans were intense on social media. F1 fans are on a different planet. Goodness…

The economics of academic publishing are strange. The whole thing seems powered by lots of free (or low paid) labor in the name of service to your field.

Hanging out on the back porch and enjoying a glass of bourbon after a long week.

Seth Godin on leadership today:

Weak leaders (bosses, parents, captains and shift managers) resort to authority because they don’t trust themselves and their team enough to actually lead.

This is so incredibly true. And just because someone has lots of “experience,” it doesn’t mean they know how to lead.

Maybe longevity isn’t a liability. (If you know, you know.)

Me: I can’t believe no one is talking about Clemson losing to Syracuse.

Also Me: I forgot that I blocked “Clemson” and “Dabo” in my social media apps so I didn’t have to listen to people talk about Clemson.

Centralization of media was a mistake.

We live in a world now where our media outlets are owned by a small number of conglomerates. And while this is possibly a more profitable set up for the corporations that own these outlets, it also makes it easy for them to be manipulated by billionaires and governments.

Our distribution channels are corrupted as well. Social media and newsletter platforms are controlled by a small number of players all motivated by advertising profits. We find sites through search engines that increasingly favor AI summaries over original content.

It shouldn’t be like this. No venture-capital-funded start up is going to provide a solution. No existing player is going to erode their own platforms. Instead, it’s going to be a grassroots effort to embrace the open standards we have (for example, RSS). We need to promote discussion by sharing stories that are meaningful and powerful. We need to support platforms and creators who are trying to address these issues without trying to build the next Google. We need to embrace technologies that make society better.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.