Again you’ve managed to manage my mundane morning pulling back the fabric to reveal the “always there” magic. What a relief. Today it was by a simple link to Ingrained, (ordered) and as I looked through their site I was reminded of what can be. As a tradesman with a family business (roofing and mostly industrial but with dreams of craftsmanship) it resonates and inspires. Inspiration is surely a gift you like to give, thank you…
I spent a long while looking at their furniture too. What sinuous shapes and beautiful wood. If I ever have the money, one of those beautiful rocking chairs would be the place to spend it, and most of my time.
First off thank you for this and the positive interpretation of the substack editor. As well as the honest telling / reality that is substack and how to manage expectations.
“With just a few simple settings and a pared-back design, this editor is so much clearer and simpler than, say, Microsoft Word.”
This quote hit with a bit of a sigh, yesterday I learned that Microsoft Word’s latest update auto turns on a feature that allows Microsoft’s AI to scrape all your work in Word. My guess is they’ve gotten a huge chunk of what is on private laptops right off the bat from agreeing to the update.
Even when writing here, your substack (but I mean all substacks) are being sent to Gmail accounts so they are being scraped there without anyone’s consent.
I appreciate your positive takes and good things, I really do. Yet as the City of Angels is on fire and AI is dumping out fake images like the Hollywood sign on fire. What troubles me the most about it is even though it’s fake, it is symbolically more real/telling than the photos from actual photographers. It’s really hard to imagine a struggling newspaper paying for photographers at all anymore.
Will end here and cut the doom spiral off and say this is all rattling against a slew of positive things too, and will just hope the positive is enough.
Hey there, thanks for this comment, and yes, all these things are true at once. MS tells me that unless we revert to the 'Personal or Family Classic' version of Office 365, we are all being syphoned into the great bulging swag bag in the sky. Personally, I am so far beyond fed up with it all that I have reverted to teenage DIY band 'fuck them' mode and am just getting on with my creative life as though none of it were happening. I know that Substack is no different in some ways, and has certainly degraded in the time I have been here (not my fault, guv!)
But I choose, as a matter of sanity, to focus on what I can do, rather than bang my head against what I can't. I don't watch moving images very often, and never video news, but I know from a still image, the Hollywood clip that you mention. Fake imagery is the norm, now, and as for information... The doom spiral calls us all, sometimes. Yet, real life is full of goodness. This is only the view through a window, excuse the pun, reality is elsewhere. May yours be rich, strange and rewarding, in the right proportions.
"Personally, I am so far beyond fed up with it all that I have reverted to teenage DIY band 'fuck them' mode and am just getting on with my creative life.." Maybe Gen X has something to give the world after all. Perfect answer. Thank you.
Haha, I absolutely never cared either but maybe that was the point. It wasn't until I was in my 40s that I realized "oh, I think Kurt Cobain was singing about how meaningless it was to be part of a generation that was sandwiched between two massive generations."
I think it perhaps it felt very different in USA to UK. We had the Cold War on our doorstep, The Specials on the record deck, John Peel on the Radio and a dole queue a mile long. The best answer to Thatcher's nihilistic capitalism disguised as 'progress' was always gonna be 'One Two Three Four!'
Thank you for the responses. I do not mean to bog you down, but feel I need to share this one. Growing up I was always a bit of an Anglophile musically and learned to like American music later.
Loved John Peel, 4AD, Factory Records, Creation etc. Ironically I heard New Order - Regret for the first time in years playing at the grocery store. I highly encourage you to look at the album artwork Peter Saville made for Republic again.
For context I heard Regret play on the day David Lynch died and my Instagram was full of quotes by him talking about how “he loved the light in LA” and to “keep your eye on the donut 🍩 not the hole.” Just days into the fires in LA.
Apparently Peter Saville was a bit of a prophet. The placement of Republic(tm) logo couldn’t be more apt.
Also for additional context thousands of Silicon Valley startups have been moving to Miami post COVID because Florida does not have a state income tax. That artwork says everything and speaks too perfectly to right now.
Good morning Caroline,
Again you’ve managed to manage my mundane morning pulling back the fabric to reveal the “always there” magic. What a relief. Today it was by a simple link to Ingrained, (ordered) and as I looked through their site I was reminded of what can be. As a tradesman with a family business (roofing and mostly industrial but with dreams of craftsmanship) it resonates and inspires. Inspiration is surely a gift you like to give, thank you…
I spent a long while looking at their furniture too. What sinuous shapes and beautiful wood. If I ever have the money, one of those beautiful rocking chairs would be the place to spend it, and most of my time.
First off thank you for this and the positive interpretation of the substack editor. As well as the honest telling / reality that is substack and how to manage expectations.
“With just a few simple settings and a pared-back design, this editor is so much clearer and simpler than, say, Microsoft Word.”
This quote hit with a bit of a sigh, yesterday I learned that Microsoft Word’s latest update auto turns on a feature that allows Microsoft’s AI to scrape all your work in Word. My guess is they’ve gotten a huge chunk of what is on private laptops right off the bat from agreeing to the update.
Even when writing here, your substack (but I mean all substacks) are being sent to Gmail accounts so they are being scraped there without anyone’s consent.
I appreciate your positive takes and good things, I really do. Yet as the City of Angels is on fire and AI is dumping out fake images like the Hollywood sign on fire. What troubles me the most about it is even though it’s fake, it is symbolically more real/telling than the photos from actual photographers. It’s really hard to imagine a struggling newspaper paying for photographers at all anymore.
Will end here and cut the doom spiral off and say this is all rattling against a slew of positive things too, and will just hope the positive is enough.
Hey there, thanks for this comment, and yes, all these things are true at once. MS tells me that unless we revert to the 'Personal or Family Classic' version of Office 365, we are all being syphoned into the great bulging swag bag in the sky. Personally, I am so far beyond fed up with it all that I have reverted to teenage DIY band 'fuck them' mode and am just getting on with my creative life as though none of it were happening. I know that Substack is no different in some ways, and has certainly degraded in the time I have been here (not my fault, guv!)
But I choose, as a matter of sanity, to focus on what I can do, rather than bang my head against what I can't. I don't watch moving images very often, and never video news, but I know from a still image, the Hollywood clip that you mention. Fake imagery is the norm, now, and as for information... The doom spiral calls us all, sometimes. Yet, real life is full of goodness. This is only the view through a window, excuse the pun, reality is elsewhere. May yours be rich, strange and rewarding, in the right proportions.
"Personally, I am so far beyond fed up with it all that I have reverted to teenage DIY band 'fuck them' mode and am just getting on with my creative life.." Maybe Gen X has something to give the world after all. Perfect answer. Thank you.
🤣 I forget I am Gen X. Those terms never stuck in my mind for some reason!
Haha, I absolutely never cared either but maybe that was the point. It wasn't until I was in my 40s that I realized "oh, I think Kurt Cobain was singing about how meaningless it was to be part of a generation that was sandwiched between two massive generations."
I think it perhaps it felt very different in USA to UK. We had the Cold War on our doorstep, The Specials on the record deck, John Peel on the Radio and a dole queue a mile long. The best answer to Thatcher's nihilistic capitalism disguised as 'progress' was always gonna be 'One Two Three Four!'
Perhaps, it still is.
Thank you for the responses. I do not mean to bog you down, but feel I need to share this one. Growing up I was always a bit of an Anglophile musically and learned to like American music later.
Loved John Peel, 4AD, Factory Records, Creation etc. Ironically I heard New Order - Regret for the first time in years playing at the grocery store. I highly encourage you to look at the album artwork Peter Saville made for Republic again.
For context I heard Regret play on the day David Lynch died and my Instagram was full of quotes by him talking about how “he loved the light in LA” and to “keep your eye on the donut 🍩 not the hole.” Just days into the fires in LA.
Apparently Peter Saville was a bit of a prophet. The placement of Republic(tm) logo couldn’t be more apt.
Also for additional context thousands of Silicon Valley startups have been moving to Miami post COVID because Florida does not have a state income tax. That artwork says everything and speaks too perfectly to right now.