Excursions

I am really enjoying my experience using Bard- I have long stopped using search engines as the first stop. Only after I have asked Bard, my query do I return to a regular search engine. And even such instances are getting rarer.

For example, I was today wondering what movie a particular scene was from. Bard got the answer bang on. A search engine never got this right for me.

Unfortunately, ChatGPT has long fallen behind in the race. This is what it came back with. As much as I would have liked otherwise, Google is quickly gaining back the lost ground.

My daughter loves her music and is always crooning songs. Humming tunes. On a fine day recently, she surprised me and her mom with a tune of hers. One she had composed. She sang it so brilliantly, with a few lyrics and all 🥹 So, that’s what we recorded today - a new video is out.

A moment when I paused my usual hectic morning routine today. A moment that reminded me of why I still love the early morning vibe. And a few memories came rushing back.

I haven’t read a more frustrating book than The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi. It has a smart premise. Pavesi was aiming to attempt something pretty unique. But then I feel he got distracted by the lure of surprising readers. The twists and turns were too many to keep the book coherent. There are no characters to connect with. No story that captures your attention. The seven stories narrated by the lead character are silly. The twists are sillier. And are one too many. It was frustrating to see a clever premise wasted through controlled writing.

At the same time, I haven’t heard many better narration performances than by Emilia Fox. She is extremely natural while voice acting in both stories and dialogues. I could visualize every character distinctly just through her voice.

The last time I was this impressed by someone’s narration was when I listened to Ray Porter narrate Project Hail Mary. Absolutely fantastic!

Early mornings always play a significant role in my routine. I love the vibe all around during the dawn. The calmness. The silence. The hustle and bustle of morning service boys with their newspapers and milk packets.

The surroundings wake up around me, and I love to be the spectator.

Nature looks to be shrugging off the dormancy from the night before. Birds get busy early. Chirping. Waking each other up. Or already playing? Who can say? Trees sway lethargically with a smile, like a sane grandmother in a busy home. The breeze caresses me like a loving mother – I can almost fall asleep again.

Never a night owl, I couldn’t stay awake beyond a reasonable time, even during my hostel days. Those were the days when staying up all night was normal. A sign of a happy student even. While my friends used to blast off into the night with their choice of rock music, I lay on my bed in deep slumber. Frequently, my friends and I had breakfast together – the only difference was that they were depleted on their way to bed, and I was chirpy post my deep sleep.

In the recent past, my morning routine has been hectic, not allowing me to live the calmness I so adore. Today I paused for a moment and stood looking out at the wakening surrounding.

A moment of life around. Of nothingness within. Of memories galore.

My phone works way better in Power Saving mode. Battery is brilliant. Services aren’t unnecessarily hogging me memory. I may always stay in this mode.

For quite some time now, I have disabled the replies from my Micro.blog timeline. I liked the quietness initially, but the silence is tiring now. I want to discover new conversations and people again – so I’m enabling replies in the timeline again. I love this control!

Yesterday, I intentionally wrote a post on simple writing in a lot straight forward manner than I usually do. A dull manner, I would say. It didn’t matter as it served its purpose for me.

I keep my writing simple while conveying my thoughts. It is the most effective way that I know. I learnt this from all the people I enjoy reading online. But Derek Sivers has been the most significant influence.

There was a time when I liked to ornament my writing with unnecessary words. A lot of context. Too many adjectives. Metaphors.

I don’t do that anymore as it is unwarranted for my kind of #writing. I don’t want to pen the most beautiful piece of prose. Or be creative with the use and selection of words. I write to convey my ideas and that needs just clarity. Manu says this while sharing why he feels he is not a writer.

What matters here is not the writing, is the communication. Is the exchange of ideas, and the sharing of experiences.

I relate to this thought. As long as what I want to say is unambiguous, and is understood without trouble by the reader, my goal behind why I write is met. The length of the post or my vernacular does not matter.

I want my writing to sound as I do while I speak. And I don’t articulate. I talk.

Threads reminded me of why I eventually fell off the Twitter timeline. It’s the same people talking about the same stuff they always do. The early adopters, the famous bloggers, and podcasters. The social media celebrities. They have a bubble of their own. They talk amongst themselves as you listen. You are not part of any community – you are watching a show.

Then there are the posts that are written mainly to go viral. The memes. The questions. The jokes. And the jokers. The social media diarrhoea.

These threads (pun unintended) garner the most engagement, which makes the algorithmic timeline bubble them to the top. Now, these are all I see. And I don’t enjoy either of them.

The diversity of both the posts and the people is also why I love the timeline on Micro.blog. It’s never the same people or the same type of posts that crowd the place. And if they do, I know how to correct that.