updates from the desk of TMO
...yes, so as to not cause blogal warming, or worsen the spamming crisis – the Text0² levels were reaching dangerously high levels of sarcastic toxicity, and the Planet Web needed a tapering off of fossil snark.
... and yes, I'll take my Dad Joke trophy ;)
The sun is shining here, so I'm enjoying it. As well as the leaf blowers, as well as...well, that's all.
Glad to see ya, Inquiry :)
Tweeting The City
A day, a day long gone by, I sort of had a mental image, of us. Humans on Earth (in the developing world, and The West). That of “what makes kings kings, what makes queens queens, the importance, relevance, and edge of the modern era of 21st Century civilization”.
A lot of what had been going on (say, 2010 through 2014) seemed to be social media-centric – in (tech) business, in time spent online, in default/go-to apps installed on a phone, and even the greater world of media, in general.
It kind of birthed the initial “It's What's Happening” moniker of Twitter to begin with, but everything on and offline tended to make it's way around to, or even started on, a social media platform of some sort. Kind of an “out in the world – strangers about” approach from Twitter, and a “back home to milk n' cookies” vibe from Facebook.
In all this, the mental imagery I spawned was that of a city-goer. A Manhattan resident, likely in some form of media field, or perhaps business, shuffling hurriedly through crowds of city dwellers and down the steps of the constant subway of Midtown. Phone in-hand. Seeing the business. Commenting on the business. Being the business.
A tried and true personification of “the making it in the world” those of rural regions and “those about” could only yearn for and relegate to personal fantasy.
Perhaps dinner parties with friends/coworkers on a rooftop balcony after sunset. Or a terribly lit bar where sloppy, watered-down drinks were had amongst one's colleagues. A fast happenstance of continual activity, news, ups, downs, details and dialogue of everything deemed significant in the modern world. Documenting it, writing it, photographing it, being of it all.
The era of such a mental photograph has since wavered. The “New York Dream” (or some may deem it, The American Dream) continues for many, I am sure. As does a lagging and fledgling social media “place” in the world. But “the fast move up” has reached it's plateau. Things of umph and triumph have seen the sunlight, and other times arrived.
But as it is, we carry on. Living the best as we can.
Perhaps it is age (likely it is age) that makes me believe, or perceive, that the digital world is less of what was, to an extent. Not so much as the mid-2000's (or, 2000-2010, when the whole net (those who were active in that era) had enthusiasm for being a quirky/odd Netizen (again, my age at that time played into this perception)). And I wouldn't say this “era” is anything like the 90's, nor should it be – people dreamt up the most bizarre concepts of anything and everything put under the sun in the mid to late 90s – thinking anything could be magically achievable by two servers talking to one another.
No, I mean day-to-day content creation and release currently. General interest in content. Be it YouTube, blogs, et al – I think what “pumps up” and manifests interest on the Web is the energy, enthusiasm, and “hope” within it all, and this momentum comes from, and in ways, originates from younger crowds. 20-something year olds starting a blog, having consistent content on YouTube, partaking in areas online.
Many people (of all ages, but especially the age group mentioned) are on social media platforms (e.g TikTok (I think Snapchat is nearly abandoned by now)), which I (even my fogey-ish self) understand, because that's where all of that age group gather, correspond, or in some (most?) cases just SPEND their time – be they contributing original content or not.
Not marking against how/why one spends time as they do, but I'd be thrilled if blogs and channels and streams contained a kind of wild-eyed enthusiasm for just having that outlet. “A blog! Look at this! Look at me go!” type of attitude.
For some, it's either “ego sail” or “ego crush” – they hit an algorithmic lottery straight on, or they leave the outlet for dust altogether. To an extent, it's the platform's fault for making a win/lose system, but also one has to put their own integrity on the line, and say “well, I'm doing this for me and I/this is not for everyone, so, fxxx it all. Let's do it anyway!“.
Goes for all age groups, again, but this position (win/lose – ego sail/ego crush) is more prevalent with the younger crowds, because it's what they grew up with. Their first interactions with the Internet were social media platforms and those platforms bias algorithms, so it is (to that crowd) “the way it is”.
just noting
It seems what Inquiry is describing here is what I call “blog post in a bottle”. Like putting a piece of text into a bottle, and then throwing the bottle into the sea of the WWW (maybe that can be the next VC hotphrase/euphemism/Silicon Terminology™ ? – The World Wide Web Ocean (rolls right off the tongue!)). Similar to a “stranded on a desert island, send help, supplies, rescue” type of deal.
Sometimes (as I've seen on R.w.a and the small community here) it works, and an e-mail comes this way, though Remark.as is nearly blank, so...
Props on the “don't call me Shirley” reference. Airplane is a great movie! I saw a clip of “100 best lines in movies” and they were chock full of classic lines – the “hell of as thing killing a man” line from Eastwood in The Unforgiven, the “you can't handle the truth” line from Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, all kinds of Oscar-level classic lines, and in it, was the “don't call me Shirley” line (and maybe one other line of comedy) because Neilsen's delivery of that line was so dead serious, so unexpected, and so effective, that I think the first time anyone sees that movie, they are floored with humor. I was both jolted with laughter and the sense of being impressed with how spontaneous and “out of left field” that line was the first time I saw Airplane on TV in the 1980s.
Stay well, Inquiry. Until later..
...plagiarism. Obviously. Of course it does.
So, with a little more sincerity and seriousness than a “Content Warning” (or CW), be sure to label any of the ChatGPT stuff with “#AI”, or something to indicate that the person “posing” as having written it, did not, in fact, write it.
On that, I never understood the act/crime of plagiarism. If you can't put forward a thing honestly, then why? It's like stealing a trophy. All meaning is lost!
It's pouring. I need to go to Schnucks, buy food. Can't. I went to the vending machine, which is restocked, and bought a Butterfinger. Now coffee.
Happy birthday Mike P. of Mike's Thoughts! I'm still reading along daily, and have lost track of where you are in the world, so I just assume “The Edge” :)
I am also assuming “tomorrow” is “today” in your neck of the world, so HBD!
Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow. Overcast for six days here. I need sunlight.
Ok, this is a thing I never knew. So, when I type on my MacBook, the trackpad is actually ignoring any palm interactions that happen with it while in the typing process. I wondered about this, because my pinky keeps hitting the trackpad on the Microsoft keyboard, and registering the interaction, and then placing the cursor somewhere else in the text, and then I am typing mid-paragraph in the paragraph I just wrote.
Blog Bless (Apple) palm-ignoring technology in trackpads
Had therapy. Nice session. Discussed my past two weeks (nothing happened). And discussed my caseworker (nothing happened there, until her visit today).
Discussed blogging. It comes up sometimes. About blogging, how most of it is not profitable (or even able to be monetized (not anymore)). How it is a “time gone by” in terms of the “for-profit”/“pro” blogger. I did that, liked making money. Not worried at all about doing “it” (blogging) for free (or logging or whatever it seems to be for this outlet).
later