Today’s listening.
Today’s listening.
At this point, I tend to average 1-2 podcasts a week. I’m in hybrid work mode, which means I drive to an office on a local college campus two days out of the week and work remotely from my home office the other three days. That gives me time for about 90 minutes of podcasts on my commute. My number one selection currently is Not Dead Yet (Apple Podcasts) hosted by Ben Sasse and Chris Stirewalt. As Ben Sasse undergoes treatment for his pancreatic cancer (and faces his own mortality), he’s been interested in discussing what comprises the good life.
It seems more people and organizations that were principally opposed to the X (ex-Twitter) network a few short years ago are now returning. Sometimes, they are doing so with apologies, as if they know it’s a bad look. The latest is the Apple-centric publication Macstories. The move was accompanied by the requisite explanation that they do not support the politics of Elon Musk or the direction he has taken the platform.
I’m not one to argue on social media very often, but even when I want to rebut someone, it’s difficult. How do you respond to someone who is reposting a commentary on something written by yet another person? You’re several degrees from the original malformed premise.
Lauren writes about the humble linklog at Flotisserie.
An outbound link points to someone else’s work, so a linklog is essentially a renewable engine for sending traffic to other people and places. That’s the precise opposite of what big platforms want from audiences; platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook quietly bury posts with outbound links to keep your attention (and dollars) on their site and with their advertising customers. A linklog further leans into that dynamic: it willingly hands your audience and attention away while crediting your forebears, comrades, mentors, and co-conspirators. It turns the rough digital filing system into a “folksonomy,” if you will.
Linklogging is still one of my favorite ways to blog.
I have to say, I’m really looking forward to The Blockbuster Chronicles from Brandon. He writes about working at a Blockbuster at the turn of the century.
That’s what The Blockbuster Chronicles is about. Not really the rise and fall of Blockbuster Video. Plenty of people have already told that story. This is the story of one Blockbuster store in Millington, Tennessee, during the last few years when video stores still felt like they were going to be around forever.
Having worked in retail for years, I think I’ll be able to relate.
The 8BitDo FlipPad looks like a lot of fun, but I have no idea what games I would play with it.
Watched: Project Hail Mary 🍿 last night. Though he shares my nickname, Rocky reminded me of my cat Jonah. Very enthusiastic, overfamiliar, and with a lack for respect for boundaries.
Emma Collins brings up the point that no one calls Wendell Berry a “country writer,” like we call musicians from rural areas “country musicians” and “country singers.” Perhaps, we should, like she does, start calling them “agrarian singers.” Her piece, Not the Times, The Eternities goes into the American love of nature. Since you can’t dig into America’s fascination with our natural beauty without mentioning the transcendentalists, she quotes Thoreau.
Thoreau spoke about chastity of the mind. “Read not the Times. Read the Eternities,” he thundered in his essay “Life Without Principle,” as he marveled that people allow “idle rumors and incidents of the most insignificant kind to intrude on ground which should be sacred to thought.”
Time to touch grass?