Media

I’m over 60 now, so I often react differently to certain things than younger people do. Badly, most of the time. Take, for example, the rise of “Video Podcasts”. To me, that’s always seemed a contradiction in terms. “Podcasts are audio!,” I’d grumble. I don’t know why I cared, because I never listen to podcasts, anyway. I do, however, watch a lot of YouTube. Like, a lot. Too much, but I’ll deal with that later. Recently, I was watching a lengthy video about some topic or another, when I realized that the entire thing was just two people talking into microphones while a camera was running. Then it happened. One of the guys said something like, “You can follow this podcast here or on…”. Dammit! They called it a podcast. Was I really watching a podcast? Damn kids! ...

Here’s my star rating system for everything: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loved it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was good ⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was OK ⭐️⭐️ I didn’t like it ⭐️ Hated it With me, everything gets 3 stars by default. Books, movies, photographs, everything: 3 stars right off the bat. I always assume that this new thing or person or conversation will be OK at the very least. This applies to more than just media. It applies to people, too. Sometimes I’m disappointed and end up with 1 or 2 stars, but more often than not I’m surprised and delighted and my opinion of something or someone goes up rather than down. ...

A New Guild System | THR Blog | Blogs | The Hedgehog Review: At a time when, as Levin points out, people tend to see participation even in such august institutions as the United States Congress as a platform for building their own personal brand, the solo-proprietor world can all-too-easily become branding all the way down and the personal website a device for constant ego-feeding. “Branding all the way down” indeed. ...

I got my first Kindle in 2007. I had given up on Amazon letting me do the Most Obvious Thing, which is to use the current book’s cover on the lock screen. But, after 13 years, I finally can! Finally! (I’ll probably decide to disable it when reading “Fifty Shades”, though)

None of the old books on my Kindle mean anything to me. They’re just there. I never see them, I never re-read them. I never use them for anything. Seems like a waste. In addition, I’ve recently purchased a couple of hardcover books that I didn’t enjoy. So now what? They’ve gotta sit on my shelf forever? I suppose I could always give them away, but that’s also work. (Advantage, real books, though). ...