Excursions

When I published the final issue of my newsletter last week, I had promised I won’t send another letter to anyone, even if they stay subscribed. Even if I continue writing the essays. Here’s what I had said.

I prefer not to break your trust. You had signed up for something which I no longer intend to deliver.

I wanted the reader to provide me explicit permission to mail the essays. Today, I received the first one, with a really wonderful feedback on my writing. I am so glad the message wasn’t lost.

Both David Warner and Aaron Finch seem to have found their form today – that’s not a good news for other teams in T20 World Cup. With Maxwell and Smith already playing well, Australia is another formidable side. Interesting tournament this. 🏏

I had to connect with Google customer care today over a call. I spoke to a representative, but I am not sure if there was an actual person on the other end. I might have spoken to an AI. Crazy!

I finished listening to Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks and I instantly wanted to purchase the eBook version of the book too. This is one of those few books that are best read as both audio and text version. The audio brings out Matthew’s expertise as a storyteller — you realise how powerful the medium of storytelling is. However, as I had recently complained, it doesn’t give me enough chance to make notes from. Or to go back to those key sections and read them again.

I am not a storyteller by profession. I don’t get on a stage to narrate a story from my life to a group of strangers. Rather, I can’t even do that if I wanted to — the introvert in me shudders even thinking about it. But I do like to tell stories to the people I am comfortable with. To my family, my friends, my colleagues. And what Matthew attempts to narrate in this book is how to do that better.

But it’s not the “how to tell better stories” part that I found helpful. It is how to find those story-worthy moments from your life that had me excited. Matthew has a very natural, effortless way of conveying the methodical ways to identify, prepare and tell your stories easily. You would expect that, he is a teacher first, after all.

At the same time, he is also a writer and a renowned storyteller, though. So, listening to him tell his stories and use them as a tool to teach the process behind was fascinating. He has mastered the art over his many shows, and he lays out everything he has learnt through his experience for his readers to benefit from. He holds back nothing.

I have made so many notes, and I will make a many more when I read this book a second time. One thing, I have got homework for life now. And I don’t complain.

You should read this book even if, like me, you have no intention ever to tell your stories to strangers. Because, as Matthew says, there come moments in our life when we do tell our stories. So, instead of being terrible at it, we can attempt to do slightly better. Maybe we will not bore a few people the next time we ramble along in front of them. A must-read for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Apple is three things - hardware, software and services. Sooner they realize that services cannot follow the model of hardware and software, better it would be customers. Platform lock-in for software (like iMessages) makes sense. Why they don’t have a native app for Android for their services (like Apple TV+) is beyond me.

Apple is three things - hardware, software and services. Sooner they realize that services cannot follow the model of hardware and software, better it would be customers. Platform lock-in for software (like iMessages) makes sense. Why they don’t have a native app for Android for their services (like Apple TV+) is beyond me.

I upgraded to macOS Monterey – is it odd that I like the compact Tabs in Safari better? Sure they look jarringly different. But, boy, they are oh-so-compact. They save so much space in that area at the top.

I am not excited enough for the T20 World Cup this year. Rather, I am finding it a lot difficult to watch full cricket matches now a days. I can’t connect with this sport anymore. And I can’t say it’s just the sport that has changed.

I am not excited enough for the T20 World Cup this year. Rather, I am finding it a lot difficult to watch full cricket matches now a days. I can’t connect with this sport anymore. And I can’t say it’s just the sport that has changed.

The final issue of my newsletter went out today. It was a wonderful journey writing each of these issues. But all good things have to end some day. I didn’t want to leave the newsletter dangling without tying things up. Today’s letter does that.

The final issue of my newsletter went out today. It was a wonderful journey writing each of these issues. But all good things have to end some day. I didn’t want to leave the newsletter dangling without tying things up. Today’s letter does that.

When I published the first issue of this newsletter, I had no clue I would do that 20 times over the last fifteen months. I had started writing it with a hope that each issue brings some value to a few writers. Sure, the format did change a couple of times. I decided to make it more personal along the way. But I continued to curate links to some of the most wonderful essays I came across. My intension was to inspire the writer within you.

That's 60 brilliant essays found and shared since that first issue. I have been happy with the journey till now. Greg Anderson reminds me of why that is important.

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

Yes, I have enjoyed writing every issue.  Sometimes it was the letter I was writing to you that I was excited about. Other times, it was the attachment to an essay I was sharing that mattered to me. Whatever the case, I was excited about every issue that I sent to you.

But that hasn't been the case recently. Sure, I continue to enjoy writing on my blog – as I had said in one of the recent posts, "writing something, anything, makes me focused. It calms me down." So, it's not the process of writing that I have stopped enjoying. It is the format that, I have realized, I can't give justice to any more.

"If you don't want to do it now, you don't want to do it at all. Let it go," suggests Derek Sivers in his brilliant new book "How to Live".

So, here I am letting this go. This is the last issue for the newsletter Slanting Nib & A Keyboard. I hope you enjoyed reading the issues as much as I did writing them.

What does it mean for the subscribers? Well, first off, I will stop sending you any more letters to you, even if you continue to stay signed up. I prefer not to break your trust. You had signed up for something which I no longer intend to deliver.

With that said, this place Slanting Nib will continue to stay active. As I said earlier, I still love writing. I will post a few stories that are closest to my heart.

So, if you wish to receive these stories from me via mails, please drop me a note. Just hit reply, or email me. I would be glad to send you my personal stories, with a promise of not doing so more than once a week.

Thank you for subscribing and reading my newsletter. Goodbye for now!

It was a terrible first day at T20 World Cup. I hope the second day is a better. For one, there’s excitement for the India-Pakistan match - that’s always a special occasion 🏏

I don’t remember the last book before How to Live by Derek Sivers that made me contemplate so many times while reading. The moment I was done with the last page, I had my diary out to capture my understanding from each of the 27 answers to that one principal question, how should I live.

As Derek says in the subtitle of the book, they are all conflicting answers. But the conclusion is not weird at all — for one, Derek is a masterful and a deep thinker. Each short chapter has most knowledge presented in the least number of words possible. Wisdom to words ratio is pretty high with this gem of a book.

At the surface, the book is pretty straightforward to read. Short chapters. Short, easy sentences. But, dig deep, and it is one of the most difficult books to fathom. It will force you to question what you have believed throughout your life, and it’s that questioning that will leave your mind unclouded.

It’s easy to write long, elaborate prose. But it takes time to shorten it, and I am glad Derek took that time. In his words, it took him four years, often writing 16 hours a day, to condense it down from the first draft of 1300 pages to 115.

What results is one of the most powerful and important books ever written. Take time and read it slowly. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I enjoy writing posts in Drummer. One of the many reasons for that is I can see all my posts in the same editing space. It is so easy to scroll through all your posts and find reference to just that one old post.

One thing that missing, though, was there was no easy way to get the url for that post right in Drummer. So, I got scripting. I have created a script which does just that. Select any node, run the script, and it will present the URL for that post in a dialog box. Here’s how you enable it.

• Copy the below Drummer script and paste it in your special opml file for Scripts menu (File ⇾ Special files ⇾ Scripts menu…)
• You will see a new entry in Scripts menu
• Select any node, even the headline (a titled post), and select the newly added script menu item

You will get the URL for the selected node.

Get Post URL
	var created = op.attributes.getOne("created");
	var baseurl = opml.getHeaders().urlBlogWebsite;
	if(typeof(baseurl) == "undefined"){
		baseurl = "http://oldschool.scripting.com/" + opml.getHeaders().ownerTwitterScreenName + "/";
	}
	var dt = new Date(created)
	var day = (dt.getUTCDate() < 10 ? '0' : '') + dt.getUTCDate();
	var month = ((dt.getUTCMonth() +1) < 10 ? '0' : '') + (dt.getUTCMonth() + 1);
	var year = dt.getUTCFullYear();
	var hour = (dt.getUTCHours() < 10 ? '0' : '') + dt.getUTCHours(); 
	var minutes = (dt.getUTCMinutes() < 10 ? '0' : '') + dt.getUTCMinutes()
	var seconds = (dt.getUTCSeconds() < 10 ? '0' : '') + dt.getUTCSeconds()
	var post = opml.parse(op.getCursorOpml());
	var isTitledPost = typeof(post.opml.body.subs[0].subs) != "undefined";
	var postUrl = "";
	if(isTitledPost) {
		postUrl = baseurl + year + "/" + month + "/" + day + "/" +  hour + minutes + seconds + ".html";
		postUrl = postUrl + "?title=" + op.getLineText();
	} else 
	{
		postUrl = baseurl + year + "/" + month + "/" + day + ".html#a" +  hour + minutes + seconds;
	}
	dialog.ask("This is the URL for the selected post:",  postUrl);

A T20 with less than run a ball required, going into the 19th over, still in balance. Now, that’s not too common. This is going to be a different T20 World Cup.

I really liked what Frank Meeuwsen did with his script to crosspost to WordPress from Drummer. I did attempt to get inspired by it and create a script to crosspost to Micro.blog. But, I hit the CORS issue and then I stopped. I have already signed up for too many side projects to spend my time on. I don’t want to add to the list.

Reminder to self: Don’t join another community now. If you can’t contribute or have strong feeling about any discussion in-progress in there, it’s not for you.

Writing through an outliner has surely made me update my blog more. It’s not for all, sure. I wanted to ponder over what makes Drummer a more natural writing environment for me.

I wish there was another view for the timeline at Micro.blog that displays just the long-form posts one after another. The way the timeline is currently, it is always too busy with micro posts, replies and especially images. The updates with just a link in them tend to get lost. Ideally, what I would want is 3 views minimum – the current one can stay the default. But original posts only and long-form only would be good filters to have.

My daughter wanted to record a different video this week. In her words, she didn’t want to record about any “sciency facts”. She wanted to talk about the first novel that she read. So, that’s what she did.

I am subscribed to too many newsletters. If a day goes by without reading, there’s a huge backlog of unread issues. I think it’s time prune the list a bit.

I hope I didn’t break posting earlier. Did I? This is a test to check that. Fingers crossed that the post fails.

I knew there would soon be a way to post to my blog hosted by Micro.blog via Drummer. I didn’t know Manton will get it done so soon! And more the feature, it is the way it is implemented that impresses me. Kudos @manton!

I am not going to watch the Apple event today. I have long stopped enjoying these pre-recorded videos.