Excursions

I published the first (planned) issue of the newsletter via Micro.blog today about my first evening in Sydney. I’d scheduled the post & it worked as expected. Sure, I want to improve the styling of the emails. But it’s good to post at a single place. All feedback welcome!

I love Pringles crisps. But the way they stack up, I could never eat them in a bunch — I feel guilty to eat more. As if I am emptying the can sooner and denying others of this wonderful cooked Potato. Fascinating how the container impacts your behaviour. Equally fascinating is the history of this brand of snacks. For example, the attempt was “to develop a new kind of potato chips to address consumer complaints about broken, greasy, and stale chips, as well as air in the bags”.

Well, chips haven’t changed much. And they didn’t even want to — as if they wanted to make the greasiness their identity.

The product was originally known as Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips, but other snack manufacturers objected, saying Pringles failed to meet the definition of a potato “chip” since they were made from a potato-based dough rather than being sliced from potatoes like “real” potato chips.

All the technicality aside (yes, the shape of the crisp has a name), they just don’t taste like chips. They are different. And yet, “no one can eat just one”.

Sunday evening today was supposed to be a distraction-free, creative session with my tools. It was anything, but. Don’t you hate it when someone else’s plans become unplanned, unavoidable commitments for you? The price human pays for being a social animal 🤷🏽‍♂️

I was wishing my daughter good night today and she left me with a weird analogy. “… something something .. like a tomato wrapped in chocolate”. I have no clue what it means. Does it mean good or bad? I can’t sleep now and she is sound asleep. Kids, I tell you.

I’ve moved all the posts from Ghost to Micro.blog. With a single outlet for all my writing now, I’ve got an archive of the posts, the likes of which would make the future newsletter issues. With each update, this place continues to be better and closer to what I need. Yay!

After a welcome phase of independence from my smartphone, I am back to fidgeting unnecessarily with the device. I keep it close to me when I shouldn’t. Notifications have started pestering me again. They hack my focus away. I know the reason, I have given up on my resolve to not hand over the control. It didn’t happen instantaneously. It happened gradually, over time. Now I feel the burning sensation like a slowly boiling frog.

There was a time when I used to go to any extends to stay away from the device. Keep it in the next room. No apps. No notifications. Never next to the bed. YouTube disabled. And on and on. Eventually, every time I picked it, a bulb lighted in my brain reminding me to not surrender.

And the pesky device conquered those defences one by one, without me realising. It started with a few apps. Then their notifications. Then a need to watch and share a YouTube video from the device. Before I realised, I was wishing good night to my phone lying in the bed.

Today, I was on my computer, the powerful personal computer which can cater to all my commands. But I reached out, as if out of habit, to the smartphone just to peek at those apps, the web versions of which I had just visited. I knew I was sick again.

My smartphone has become the most personal thing I own, but also the one I need to frequently stay away the farthest from.

Another batch of newsletters delivered, unintentionally. Updating old posts triggered emails today. Sigh! I don’t know how to apologize for spamming the inbox of the subscribers here. Old published posts should never get scheduled for delivery. Time to tweak a few things here.

A request if you are serving a newsletter. Please mention what I, as a reader, can expect when I sign up for your newsletter. It would be great if the subscribe page on your blog describes this and also links to the archive of the older posts.

With Micro.blog simplifying newsletters, many folks that I already interact with have enabled the option. If I haven’t subscribed to you, know that I am already closely following you on the platform and via RSS. I am an active community member, I hardly miss anything you say 😊

I was listening to some podcast today when at one moment the host said, “We were told no windows”. The first thought I had was what’s wrong with the Windows platform? Slowly, I realised she was talking about the literal windows. You know, those holes in your walls? No, not bugs in your firewall … whatever!

As much as I love Ghost as a blogging platform, I hate maintaining an additional platform. I needed to keep it on because it provided a wonderful way to deliver newsletters as an extension to a regular blog. Another reason I used it was the editor — it is hands-down the best web editor interface out there. But, I never draft my newsletter posts directly in the web interface anymore. I use Ulysses for all forms of writing, and I love it.

With Micro.blog supporting the email newsletters, I can again bring all my writing to a single place. That will be one less platform to manage and to pay for. So, the Slanting Nib newsletter shifts to Micro.blog now.

Today, I unintentionally delivered an email newsletter from Micro.blog to my subscribers. While importing the older posts to the new system, even a post with earlier date got scheduled for email delivery. Thankfully, it was a single post. Need to be wary now while importing.

An easy upgrade to Micro.blog premium just for email newsletters. Plus it’s in line with what I wanted. Feedback to follow. For now, the plan is to email long-form posts to the subscribers. I will move Slanting Nib posts and subscribers here. I would love if you join the group.

Every single problem proposed to be solved by blockchain hits up against three fundamental technical limitations that inescapably arise from economic or legal concerns.

Source: Web3 is Bullshit

Assuming Manton is about to announce some way of emailing posts or digest of post to the subscribers of Micro.blog hosted blogs, here’s how I wish it works. Email is just another cross-posting option. I know it’s tricky, and it will not work that way given Micro.blog, as timeline, also supports feeds from external blogging hosts. But here’s how I hope it works for it to be useful for me.

The writer selects a category (or a group of categories) for emailing. The posts she publishes under those categories are emailed to the subscribers. Subscribers decide whether they want an email for every post or for a digest of the posts (on a defined schedule — daily, weekly).

This would be a good start, everything else can come later. I have no idea if this is even a feature Manton is working on. But he says it’s “totally unique”. So, I am hoping it works very different from typical newsletter services.

Prepend 12ft.io/ to the URL of any paywalled page, and we’ll try our best to remove the paywall and get you access to the article.

Source: 12ft Ladder. I am surprised this still works.

An idea for a service →

I want to build a service that serves static contents for independent blogs. For example, serve all images for your blog posts.

I recently watched two masters, music icons A. R. Rahman & Arijit Singh, have a candid conversation about music. It was wonderful to watch them talk all about their music and the process. We need more such conversations — not interviews about life. But go deep about music.

I am back to using Mach3 by Gillette. Having tried everything, this razor still gives me the most comfortable shave. I don’t love money-hungry tactics of Gillette, but am glad they made this model.

There was a time when I used single blade safety razors. When Gillette launched the dual-blade razors. I thought it’s double the blades, this has to be better. It wasn’t. Later, I could finally afford Mac3, and I used it for the longest period of time. There was no need to shift, it suited me.

Then the craze for Indie, hip brands with products targeting “bros” engulfed India too. Search for a razor on Amazon and you will be bombarded with a slew of funnily named brands selling grooming products for mens. All claimed quality and affordability. Most targeted Gillette. Feeling burdened with guilt of not supporting newer brands, I switched. I started using a 5 blade razor from one such brand. And then kept hopping for a couple of years. Razor shopping soon became a hobby, and then slowly turned into a nightmare.

Eventually, I gave up and went back to Gillette. First to their pricey 5-blade razors and finally to Mach3. I realised something after this period. A razor with more blades doesn’t always mean better shave. More doesn’t always mean better.

So in short, I am done feeling guilty for using a product from a brand that’s hated a lot. It works for me, so I use it.

Whoever wins this India vs New Zealand second test match (looks to be going only one way at the end of day two today), it would be remembered for the spell by Ajaz. He gave a new meaning to carrying the team on one’s shoulder. Bowling almost half the team’s share of overs is no small feat. 🏏

Now that Micro.blog can schedule a post, it supports the bare minimum set of features that a basic blogging system should, according to me. Both this and the drafts filters were easy fixes. It makes using the web interface for posting a lot more usable.

PS: I had scheduled this post to go live at a later time :-)

I’d a calming morning walk amidst a dense fog around me. I love the sweet smell of the fog, it tickles and bring a gentle smile on my face.

I came across the concept of Web3 so often recently that I had to make sense of the why, what and how of this proposed evolution of Internet. So, I started digging and captured my thoughts as I learnt about this.

I finished reading Four Thousand Weeks, a philosophical guide by Burkeman about time. This one is the best time management book that preaches one should not fret too much about managing time. Live life being aware of its finitude. Doesn’t matter how much we try, we can never master time. It reminds you throughout the book that you don’t have time, but time is what you are.

Just like Burkeman did with his previous book, The Antidote, he left with so many profound observations and thoughts. This is not a practical guide of hacks that you could try to follow to improve your life. Rather, it lends an opportunity to reflect on at least a couple of ways you perceive the concept of time, and consequently, lead your life.

I had no idea there exist movie versions of the Psych gang. Boy, I need to find out where I can watch these. I am .. psyched.