Excursions

I don’t face the “Too Many Newsletters” problem that Om refers to.

Email newsletters were intended to address the problems of “RSS feeds” by consolidating all the information in your inbox. They aimed to streamline reading and information consumption.

I control what I subscribe to. I am not a completionist, so I often mark all as read. I unsubscribe aggressively. Plus, like Om, I keep Newsletters far away from emails and use Feedbin.

This has helped me keep the newsletter issues in check and not become a burden.

What is slowly turning out to be a regular Sunday routine, I am sitting in Starbucks as my daughter happily reads her book. It’s so hard to pull her out of this place – she loves sitting and reading here. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring either my laptop or a book with me today. So, I’m getting bored.

Who is this 100-year hosting plan from WordPress for? And isn’t $38K too high even for businesses? Or am I missing something?

I like rating things, though I don’t do it often. I used to follow the standard star rating – rating stuff one of five stars. At times, I even went into the scale of half.

I slowly realized that it is not a good scale for how my mind works. It’s too much work and the trouble of finding an accurate star that captures how I feel was enough to deter me from reviewing at all.

I am changing how I rate things now to a different scale – either I like it or don’t. It’s simpler and no longer a mental hurdle.

How about a third option in between when I neither like nor dislike something? A “meh” maybe? Well, that’s why the second scale is not “dislike”. It says I did not like it.

If it is not a confident yes, it’s a no. A two-scale rating covers that range.

Wow! Chandrayaan-3 lands on the moon – watching it live as it descended closer to the surface was thrilling. I witnessed the last few moments live in a cafe surrounded by others glued to the screen, equally tensed and excited. People drinking coffee and those making them. And as the scientists erupted in joy clapping and high-fiving each other on the screen, so did the people around me. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment to be part of.

Congratulations ISRO! 🇮🇳

Adults do well when they seek to be childlike, and that’s possible without being childish.

Source: Childish or childlike? →

I agree with a lot of philosophies on reading shared by Tracy - especially not to be a completionist and to not read books out of obligation.

I do want to try this though. These days I take too long to finish a fiction.

Immersive storytelling benefits from few interruptions. Nonfiction benefits from reading only short amounts at once and reading multiple books at once

My daughter was writing in her journal today and casually asked me why she does not see me writing in my journal anymore. She was referring to a physical journal that she would see me writing in frequently a while back. I didn’t have an easy answer for her, to be frank.

I said first that I write in my digital journal now – after all, I do have a Day One subscription, and it prompts me every day to make an entry. Do I always make one? Well, rarely. I haven’t updated my journal with anything meaningful for quite some time now. Journaling isn’t part of my routine anymore. So, I have slowly stopped doing it.

I was regular when I had made it my morning habit. The routine changed and so died my habit.

Leaving me in that deep thought, my daughter went on to scribble happily in her journal. Once she was done, she said, “I love how I feel when I capture everything on my mind in these pages.”

Even I want that now.

When I created Scribe, the idea was to make it work fully client-side – everything works from my browser. I intended to keep myself in check, to build only the simple, must-have features. It is good that I took that decision; otherwise, I would go down a rabbit hole supporting everything I want to. A lot is missing currently, I know. I have also heard a lot that others suggested.

But to be frank, I don’t know where to start. I can’t support many of the requests without a server-side component – for example, handling images. What’s that one feature that is the most glaring miss? I have been using the editor for over a week without issue, other than a few styling fixes.

Update: I am open to feature requests (and even pull requests) though. So, if there’s a feature you want to see supported, do create a new issue.

I had recently quipped here that we might see an increasing number of posts suggesting to other people what and how to blog. Here’s what I said then.

With Twitter and Facebook dropping in popularity, I expect blogging to attract a few new users as an outlet for their voice. And I also expect the pundits to pollute the internet again with their suggestions on the best ways to blog.

Then, I went on to suggest what people should do while blogging. The irony, much?

My intention wasn’t to do so, though. Instead, I wanted people to not worry about any of that stuff, especially while they are getting started blogging. Over the years, I have written about anything and everything. Hot sarcastic takes. Fiction. Technology. Personal essays. I wrote them all.

Many people suggest that one should stick to a specific area if they want more people to read what they write. It’s better if that area is niche. Well, nothing kills a writer’s motivation faster than the voice at the back of the mind continuously questioning if they should write what they are writing in the first place. If anyone will read them. That writer will bear that voice a few times but then realize it’s too much trouble. And soon stop writing.

So, long back, I decided I wouldn’t judge what I write or where I publish it. Nothing matters as long as I want it to be published. That includes who reads it. Or if anyone does at all.

I have accepted now that the only thing I control is the words. Everything else is external, outside of my control. So why worry about that?

"Control your perceptions. Direct your actions properly. Willingly accept what’s outside your control." – Ryan Holiday

A welcome reminder!

Why should I care if my writing gets included in training the ChatGPT and likes? Is there any clear harm that I am not able to see? Or is it just the fear of anything not in direct control?

I would rather want myself to be my own voice than someone else.

Why should I care if my writing gets included in training the ChatGPT and likes? Is there any clear harm that I am not able to see? Or is it just the fear of anything not in direct control?

I would rather want myself to be my own voice than someone else.

Charlie assumed that the phone was broken because, in his world, phones don’t make a sound until they begin ringing.

I liked this post on payphone by Matthew Dicks. Especially the above quote. Dial tones are indeed dying. I wish they didn’t - that “noise” was once a sign of a healthy phone. Not one with something wrong with it.

It was last year that I subscribed for a year of Grammarly Premium. I would like to think that it has been beneficial. But I want to be sure that it was -- the only way to find out is not to renew the subscription immediately. I will stay on the basic plan to determine what I would miss.

It was last year that I subscribed for a year of Grammarly Premium. I would like to think that it has been beneficial. But I want to be sure that it was – the only way to find out is not to renew the subscription immediately. I will stay on the basic plan to determine what I would miss.

🦉 4AM. And I am already awake.

Sensitivity is a gift but handling it requires skill. Change is what life is, yes, but it still disorients. Learning how to navigate change without terror (or with less terror) is necessary.

Source: Rumbling at the bones →

I wish I would someday be able to write with the same clarity as Annie. Another must-read post from her.

I saw the Galaxy Fold line of devices again today. I don't know why people think the crease at the centre of the screen is not a problem. I can prominently feel it as I scroll through the text or interface. And isn't that what we do throughout the day with our phones?

☕ Coffee and words!

I watched Heart of Stone today – such of waste of Alia Bhatt’s talent. It’s not a bad action film, I have seen worse from Netflix. But it isn’t a good one either. Too lose in the second half, for sure. Alia needn’t sign for this.

One highlight of Scribe editor is that it’s web-based. So I get consistent experience across all platforms and screens. Also though I write as rich-text, the underlying Markdown gets posted. You can also export the same – so you can also use it for non-Micro.blogs.

I have been working on an editor for Micro.blog that has a simple interface and works well even for long-form writing. I have written this post from what I call Scribe, a clean web-based editor that can post to Micro.blog. https://am1t.github.io/scribe/

I have been working on an editor for Micro.blog that has a simple interface and works well even for long-form writing. I have written this post from what I call Scribe, a clean web-based editor that can post to Micro.blog.

This is a focused writing space with an editor that completely works on the client side. What I write is auto-saved locally. I can save the same to Micro.blog as a draft to be edited later there. Or I can post it to go live on my blog. There is a word/character counter and dark mode. And it also works on mobile.

Of course, this is not the first post I have published with Scribe – I have been using this for the past couple of days, fixing all the issues, big and small. Now, you can also try it out.

There’s nothing else to explain. Just get writing and sign in to Micro.blog, if you like it.

Every friendship day, me and my family spend time with our friends. Meet them to relive old memories. Individually. This year, I decided to spend the whole day with two of my closest friends – my wife and daughter. We visited a children’s museum and had a blast playing and having fun together.