2024 is at and end and I thought I would sit and write, stream of consciousness-style, about things that I remember. Some of this is going to be pretty raw emotion and if you’re not up for that, please tap out now.
Overall it’s been a pretty good year. I’ve been at peace on a great many things and struggling with others. Technology-wise I am still rolling with four main devices: An M1 Max MacBook Pro with 32gb of RAM (Devika), an iPhone 16 Pro 1TB (downsized from a 15 Pro Max and don’t miss the size one bit), an Apple Watch S10 (gave my Ultra 1 to my middle daughter who frustratingly doesn’t use it… I should have just traded it in), and an M4 iPad Pro that I absolutely adore and am forcing myself to use more often. I’m trying to understand the decisions and trade offs that were made with iPadOS and lean into them rather than letting my old age muscle memory take over. I find myself asking questions like… “do I really NEED a professional file manager or should I just let the apps take over their space and manage files on the apps themselves?” That seems like the way Apple wanted it. I’m trying to adapt. I very much love the focus afforded by the device and opportunities for creativity.
Hello again. Nice to see you. It’s almost been a year.
I was supposed to do better on maintaining this site during 2023, but I didn’t really meet that goal. Some of the reasons were that I was tired and didn’t have much to say, but some of the reasons were largely technical.
As you can see, I’ve moved on from hosting this site at Medium. To keep a long opinion short, Medium has graduated into a clickbaity toxic mess of garbage. I’ve gotten to the point where I cringe anytime I’m directed to Medium by a search engine. I was subscribing to Medium for $5 a month and intended to build an audience there and write for pennies. That didn’t happen because using Medium has been challenging. Writing on it was painful, responding to some of the ridiculous comments was even more painful, and I just decided I wasn’t enjoying it any longer.
My love affair with blogging has significantly diminished over the years, as I’m sure you can tell by the lack of activity on my blogs. WordPress was quite busy while I slept. They created and updated the Jetpack plugin and released a desktop editor that is actually quite nice. I like how it aggregates all of the useful features of any WordPress site that I run into a single window.
I see it happen every day. There’s a cast of characters out there – Leo Laporte, Chris Pirillo, Jason Calacanis, John Dvorak, Robert Scoble (whom I absolutely DESPISE because of that “I’m the man!” snapshot on his blog… makes me want to beat him with his fucking tripod)… a whole elite clique of cynical blog/journalists who bring up topics and lead folks around them.
