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Monday night
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Reading
Finished reading: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum š
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Rushing into the Lake
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Last day of the ski season
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In a āSiriā team meeting, Apple senior director Robby Walker acknowledged that employees might be feeling āangry, disappointed, burned out and embarrassedā following the āSiriā delay, but he praised the hard work of employees and the āincredibly impressiveā features they developed, saying that Apple would continue to work to āship the worldās greatest virtual assistantā to Apple users.
I think they probably need a āMobileMeā type meeting to straighten things out.
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Enough Is Enough: Supreme Court Rules First Amendment Does Not Apply To Meghan Markle - Babylon Bee
The emergency ruling came following outcry over Markleās continual attention-seeking and upheld a ruling made in the court of public opinion that the Duchess of Sussex should just shut her yap.
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Trump Orders Drone Strike On Thomas Massie - Babylon Bee
Massie was wiped out in a counter-argument operation carried out by U.S. Special Forces in the nationās capital, following an earlier threat by the president that he should be āPRIMARIED,ā which sources confirmed was top-secret government code for ātaken out by a drone.ā
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Big stack of thank you notes for work, ready to go out with tomorrowās mail.
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Reading
Book Review: Indie Microblogging š
My standard procedure is to read one book at a time. I spend all my reading time on that book, finish it, and move on. For whatever reason, in 2025, I started on three or four books. As a result, it took me until March 12 to finish my first book of the year. Oof.
Indie Microblogging is the work of Manton Reece, the founder of Micro.blog. Manton is a developer whose career has been spent on Mac and web technology products. Hard to believe, but eight years ago, Manton unveiled the first version of Micro.blog. Iāve been using it since near the beginning. This blog is #1576 on the platform.
The book is both highly technical and conceptual. Manton pulls back the curtain on the relatively simple lines of code that make blogs like this one run. He also talks about the evolution of blogs, the why of Micro.blog, and a vision for how the future of the internet should look.
The central premise is that the web is a better, more personal space, when itās a network of countless personal blogs. Instead of content locked into a few websites (think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), people can post their thoughts, experiences, photos, video, and audio to their website, making it permanent. Every post you made to MySpace is gone forever; if you had posted it to your blog instead, it would still be accessible.
Micro.blogās best feature is how it fuses together web-hosted blogs and a social network. The two features operate agnostic of each other, but together offer a powerful alternative. I use this website to share what Iām thinking about and doing with my close friends and family. If others enjoy it, thatās wonderful, but I donāt see my blog as a place to start a conversation with strangers. I use the well-written blog engine and completely ignore the social network. Mantonās design allows for the enforcement of guidelines on the social network, but freedom of expression on hosted blogs. This is the right approach.
The book reads a lot like Mantonās blog. It was a mixture of the technical, the practical, the political, and the cultural. Manton has a perspective, and as the author of his book, it was his prerogative to use it as the lens through which he understood and speaks about the important issues we face regarding social media. His arguments wouldāve been stronger if they were presented with more balance in the examples, but his points were still discernible.
I enjoyed many of the ideas, and understanding the underpinnings of the system that I use to keep a running record of my daily life.
ISBN: 978-1737996552
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Putin Rejects Immediate Cease-Fire in Ukraine - WSJ
Any pause in fighting at this point would be in Ukraineās interests, he said, adding that Russia wanted a truce that led āto a lasting peace and the elimination of the root causesā of the war, which he described as a crisis.
That didnāt take long. Good work, everyone! Now we know what Putin wants as a price for peace, the elimination of root causes, like Ukrainian sovereignty. Shouldnāt be too hard to appease that little demand.
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Ukraine Turns Table on Russia With Cease-Fire Proposal, but Putin Has Little Incentive to Sign - WSJ
āIf Russia says āyesā, thatās very good news, and weāll begin that process and do everything we can to move that process forward,ā Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. āIf they say āno,ā itāll tell us a lot about what their goals are andā¦what their mindset is.ā
This is so naive. Bludgeon your ally, the victim, then hope the aggressor signs on? And when they donāt, what was the point?
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In a mid-February poll by Blueprint, a firm affiliated with Democrats, 65% of voters agreed with the statement, āNo one has any idea what the Democratic Party stands for anymore, other than opposing Donald Trump.ā
It was a winning strategy for 10 years; it worked until it didnāt.
Should be a flashing yellow light for GOP because theyāre courting the same problem when DJT leaves the stage.
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Reading
Finished Reading: Indie Microblogging by Manton Reece š
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Knives
Benchmade 179GRY
440C Steel | Made in šŗšø
A neat tool in the Benchmade lineup, the SOCP Rescue Tool is an all-around performer. The slender profile fits well in my hand. It gives me both precise control over each tool, and safe space in which to work. I havenāt had to use it yet in any emergency situations, but itās always there just in case I come across someone in need. Products like this try to do too much, too cheaply. Not this rescue tool.
Purchased in 2020 | āļø āļø āļø āļø āļø
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Misinformation - Indie Microblogging
Perhaps we lose something when everything is moderated at the same level. When everything is sanitized and politically correct.
This is at the heart of Micro.blogās effort to combine both blog hosting and a social timeline. Each half of the platform has its own purpose and its own requirements for moderation. On the social side, thereās less tolerance for being a jerk or harassing others. On the open web hosting side, thereās more freedom to yell into the void.
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My knife collection blogging isnāt going super well. Mostly because I tend to reach for the same sub-set of knives everyday.
New challenge: Iām going to go in sequential order. Iāve already covered #1 and #2, so on to the next!
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Southwest CEO: Employees āWantā Assigned Seating, Paid Bags - AirlineGeeks.com
āA lot of the policy changes that weāre making, itās very clear that our employees want them,ā Jordan said.
The excitement was palpable when we laid off all those folks!
āOur employees wanted to move to assigned seating because it clears up the job in the gate of policing boarding and policing pre-boards and those kinds of things,ā he stated.
Because Delta, United, and American never have any trouble with people boarding outside of their assigned boarding groups or abusing the pre-boarding system.
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Interview with Om Malik - Indie Microblogging
I wrote a piece pointing out that Twitter now is the Fox News of social and Bluesky is probably gonna become MSNBC because like all those people who were on Twitter are gonna go there.
Where do the rest of us go?
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There is beauty in order.
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Perfect! Nearly 3:00pm and Iāve just finished my tasks to start my work day.
What will I accomplish now?
ļ漚ؚ»āš»
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The End of Southwest
Southwest Airlines self-immolated this morning with its press release announcing additional changes coming to their product offering.
The Wall Street Journal reported out the details,
Southwest Airlines plans to start charging for checked bags, a seismic shift that will boost revenue but potentially give its fiercely loyal passengers a reason to shop around.
The cracks at Southwest started to emerge soon after its merger with AirTran. Itās once fun, customer-centric culture fragmented as the cost-conscious AirTran employees were folded into the company without the benefit of years steeping in its culture. They didnāt understand the Southwest mindset, and it showed. Customer service declined, and overall quality started the long slide that brings us to today.
In business, you can either have the best product or the most engaged fans. You can make a lot of money with a small, but reliable customer base. And Southwest did throughout its history except for recent years.
Southwest will never be a big 3 airline, especially with its all-737 fleet and its inability to get to far-flung destinations in a single, cohesive network. Theyāre largely a domestic player and, as a result, has to differentiate and excel in its core business. Their irreverent culture of fun stood out among airlines; they sought a relationship with their customers, not just a transaction.
The new leadership at Southwest folded to activist investor pressure last year, prioritizing short-term financial gain over long-term company health. The corporate raiders will benefit from the increased economics and will sell out when they hit their profit target, while destroying value and obliterating the brand.
Every sacred cow, in a span of months, has been slaughtered:
The airline has already been whittling away at some of its most distinctive features, last year saying it would ditch open seating and redesign plane cabins to sell some with extra legroom. Its vaunted employee-first culture suffered a body blow last month when the carrier slashed 1,750 corporate jobs in its first mass layoff.
Whatās left? Another middling airline, indistinguishable from its competition, with really wacky scheduling, an inconvenient point-to-point network, and mediocre management:
āYou cannot be stubborn about change,ā Jordan said last summer. āAt the same time, weāre going to stick to our values.ā
What, exactly, are those values again? Not the best, not the cheapest, not the most fun, not really much of anything.
RIP, LUV.
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The Rise and Fall of the āNapa Valley of Cannabisā - WSJ
Every day, patients arrive at the emergency department of the UCHealthās Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo with conditions brought on by cannabis, said Dr. Karen Randall, who works in the ER. Some are psychotic, a more common condition nationwide since legalization has spread.
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Daryl now spends his days envisioning waking up at the roosterās crow and stepping outside into the morningās brisk spring air to plant perfect row after perfect row of restaurant-grade produce. From there, he goes on to milk his cows and collect giant eggs from his flock of blue ribbon hens, all of them completely safe from the threat of repossession thanks to their secure location inside his mindās eye.
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Reading on the back porch while the sun takes its sweet time setting.
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Search And Rescue Team Responds To Call From Injured Hiker Lost Inside Local IKEA - Babylon Bee
āDave is in great shape, but IKEA is known for being one of the hardest places to get out of. I know heās ok, but Iām just worried about him.ā