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!