Random thoughts, that are actually predictions that could be wrong.
\nAll signs point to Apple making big changes.
\nI think both of these are too much. I’m predicting that people won’t buy them for a combination of two things.
\nVia Craig Mod’s Ridgelines 232:
\n\n\nThe day was hot, so I ended up with three drinks before me, much to Michael’s astonishment. Three?? he said, taking a photo to memorialize the liquid opulence on which I blew my cash. Hey, I had experienced a kidney stone last year, and hydration had shot up on the list of things on which never to compromise.
\n
Yeah!
\nHydration should be a value for every individual, couple, family, kin-network, society, and culture.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-23T13:40:44-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/23/via-craig-mods-ridgelines-the.html", "tags": ["Yeah"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/22/it-requires-unlearning-a-process.html", "content_html": "“It requires unlearning, a process much harder than learning.”
\nI don’t see it that way. I wonder where other people would land on this issue…
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/17670/2026/bd77f0aeca.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-22T11:06:22-05:00",
"url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/22/i-dont-see-it-that.html",
"tags": ["Nope!"]
},
{
"id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/22/there-are-so-many-things.html",
"content_html": "There are so many things that I want to fold into my life, but my life is too small. So, I’ve got to make choices.
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/17670/2026/8a28e73f5d.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-22T11:03:54-05:00",
"url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/22/there-are-so-many-things.html",
"tags": ["Field Notes","Yeah","Noticing"]
},
{
"id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/22/rober-macfarlanes-writing-process.html",
"title": "Rober MacFarlane's writing process ",
"content_html": "Yesterday, I wrote about the first sentences of The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert MacFarlance.
\nToday, I found this
\n\n\nMacfarlane begins each project with what he calls a “portal question” — seemingly simple questions like “Why do we climb mountains?” or “Is a river alive?” These questions, when combined with a child-like wonder and openness, can lead the writer through interesting, complicated, difficult terrain. These questions are the basis for a kind of intellectual exploration.
\n
MacFarlane discusses his process extensively in this interview.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-22T06:54:34-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/22/rober-macfarlanes-writing-process.html", "tags": ["Watching","Writing","Thinking about"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/21/macfarlane-can-write.html", "title": "MacFarlane can write! ", "content_html": "I just picked up a copy of The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert MacFarlance. The first sentences in this book are double plus super good.
\n\n\nTwo days short of the winter solstice; the turn of the year’s tide. All that cold day, the city and the countryside around felt halted, paused. Five degrees below freezing and the earth battened down. Clouds held snow that would not fall. […] Then just before dusk the snow came – dropping straight for five hours and settling at a steady inch an hour. […] The snow was sinking through the orange cone cast by a street light, the fat flakes showing like furnace sparks.
\n
Wow.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-21T23:56:03-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/21/macfarlane-can-write.html", "tags": ["Reading","Walking"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/21/things-i-want-to-remember.html", "title": "Things I want to remember to take a closer look at", "content_html": "I’m posting this here so I won’t forget all these interesting publications I’d like to learn more about.
\nI adore the word scrimshanker.
\nScrimshanker likely derives from the term scrimshank, which is believed to combine “scrimp” and “swanker. This term is often used to describe someone who avoids work or duty.
\nI’ve been thinking about using this word as a compliment rather than an insult to describe someone who is the opposite of a hustler.
\nMaybe use “scrimshanking” as a verb for being deliberately lazy.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-20T13:12:56-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/20/scrimshanker.html", "tags": ["Scrimshankering","Thinking about"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/20/as-a-parent-i-now.html", "title": "As a parent I now this feeling well", "content_html": "A fellow parent and blogger deathmtn shared this earlier today:
\n\n\nThe guy has started sleeping twelve hours a night in the past week. The adjustment to school hours is gonna be really rough.
\n
Yeah.
\n(Solidarity, bro.)
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-20T11:31:11-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/20/as-a-parent-i-now.html", "tags": ["Yeah","Reading"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/20/bingewatch-doomscroll.html", "title": "Bingewatch \u0026 doomscroll", "content_html": "Via Warren Ellis’s blog:
\n\n\nIt occurred to me the other evening that the bingewatch and the doomscroll are the same thing: a symptom of having given up control of your life.
\n
Yeah.
\nNote:\nI realize I link back to Warren Ellis, and a few other people who produce work I enjoy. There are a few reasons for this.
\nRecently, my five-year-old kid saw a DeLorean, and he thought it looked really cool.
\nI told him it was in these really cool movies called Back to the Future.
\nHe asked me what the movies were about, and why they were called Back to the Future . This audio is me trying to explain thfrist two films to him. It’s actually kind of hard to explain these movies to a five-year-old! (Well, it was hard for me.)
\nBelow is a quote from my ridiculous explanation.
\n\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2026-08-19T15:20:24-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/19/explaining-back-to-the-future.html", "tags": ["Me!","Watching","Micro.cast"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/19/what-would-it-change.html", "title": "What would it change", "content_html": "When he goes back in time, the car kinda runs outta gas, and he has to find a way to get more gas to make the car go back to his present, which is the future in the past where he is, which is very confusing.
\n
I read this today on Ganzeer’s blog.
\n\n\nRandom thought: The whole simulation theory that seems to be increasingly trendy these days actually isn't at all at odds with any of the traditional religious beliefs of old, the ones that imagined God as an anthropomorphized king on a throne in the clouds. Because simulation theory by definition implies the entire universe being created by someone somewhere
\n
I’ve been thinking about this kind of thing, because I’ve been talking about it with a few people.
\nWhen I say “this kind of thing,” I mean big questions like:
\nI’ve noticed that in the conversations I’ve had about these questions, some people have really strong opinions which they will argue for fervently. They will get really worked up.
\nI tend to enjoy the conversations, but I don’t get worked up, because I keep thinking to myself, for me, the answers do not change anything.
\nAs I reflect on all this stuff right now, as I write these words, I wonder if I’m being a little too sure of myself. I don’t know the answers to these questions. They are mysteries, and I think that’s why they are cool and fun to think about or talk about. But maybe if I could know the answers to these questions, if they stopped being mysterious, it would have some massive effect on who and what I am. If I did know the existence status of God, or that I was/wasn’t in a simulation, or that free will was/wasn’t an illusion, all sorts of stuff about how I live my life would change.
\nI don’t know.
\nI guess I like not knowing.
\nNot knowing is fun.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-19T10:06:38-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/19/what-would-it-change.html", "tags": ["Reading","Eh?"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/19/the-national-mantra.html", "title": "The national mantra", "content_html": "From John Gruber’s Daring Fireball blog
\n\n\n“Fuck you, make me” is, to me, the founding principle of this nation. That was our message to King George III, a tyrant descending into madness...
\n
Then from another post
\n\n\nThis is how you handle a bully: “Fuck you, make me.”
\n
Yeah.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-19T05:30:33-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/19/the-national-mantra.html", "tags": ["Yeah","Reading"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/18/lots-of-stuff.html", "title": "Lots of stuff ", "content_html": "I’ve got a ton of stuff I want to get done today. I’m off to a good start… Hoping to maintain momentum. Here are a few things on the pile of stuff I want to get to at some point (I don’t think I’ll be able to get to it all).
\nTried working on an essay that I’ve been working on for longer than I expected. I could not get into the right mindset and sustain my focus in the way I needed to. Random thoughts about all sorts of other things kept getting in the way. I’m going to trust my unconscious and assume that today just isn’t the day to write this thing.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-17T16:53:40-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/17/not-today.html", "tags": ["Me!","Writing"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/17/listen-to-joe-frank.html", "title": "Listen to Joe Frank", "content_html": "When the day has a certain vibe, the best thing to do is listen to Joe Frank’s voice.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-17T16:50:08-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/17/listen-to-joe-frank.html", "tags": ["Listening"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/17/from-on-writing-content-and.html", "title": "Are we all writers?", "content_html": "From On Writing, Content, and Art, by Manu:
\n\n\nThis is clearly writing and, therefore, I am a writer. But in that case, we’re probably all writers. We all text and send emails and post online. Are we all writers? What makes a writer a writer? The medium? The length? The meaning? The time spent?
\n
Fun to think about those questions, eh?
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-17T08:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/17/from-on-writing-content-and.html", "tags": ["Reading","Writing","Eh?"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/17/from-warren-elliss-newsletter-orbital.html", "title": "Don't wait too much or too long", "content_html": "From Warren Ellis’s newsletter Orbital Oppositions:
\n\n\nFeeling good, doing what you like and taking pleasure in things isn’t a luxury. […] here’s the takeaway: live your life like it’s worth living. You’ll feel better. Wear your favourite clothes. Cate Winter, a wiser woman than I will ever be a man, once said to me; don’t save things for that perfect time, because that time will never come and what you’re saving will either go bad or never be used at all, so enjoy them now.
\n
Yeah.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-17T07:22:26-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/17/from-warren-elliss-newsletter-orbital.html", "tags": ["Yeah","Reading"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/16/pirate-lamp.html", "title": "Pirate lamp ", "content_html": "From Midnight Radio: A Toarchlight Shining at the Bastards by James Reeves.
\nWhere he writes about this amazing brass pirate lamp his grandfather owned.
\n\n\nFor decades, this brass pirate lamp stood on a workbench in my grandfather’s basement that smelled of spider poison and Saginaw Bay.
\n
That, whoever is reading this, is one hell if a sentence! I wish I wrote sentences that good.
\nAnyway, James talks about how when his grandfather was moved into a retirement home.
\n\n\nTo help residents locate their rooms, the nursing staff encouraged each patient to place a memento on a shelf next to each door. Plastic flowers, birthday cards, family snapshots, and woodland figurines lined the halls because it’s easier to remember a picture of your grandchild than room 27B.
\n
That got me thinking about memory, and our relationship to memory. I’ve been thinking about this a lot as of late. Don’t know why.
\n![\"\"](\"https://from78.micro.blog/uploads/2026/6abccbfc0d.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-16T08:05:09-05:00",
"url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/16/pirate-lamp.html",
"tags": ["Field Notes","Reading","Afterwardness"]
},
{
"id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/15/via-warren-elliss-blog-very.html",
"content_html": "Via Warren Ellis’s blog:
\n\n\nVery quickly filling up a notebook with bad ideas. Which is the only way I know of to get at the better ideas.
\n
Yeah.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-15T13:24:43-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/15/via-warren-elliss-blog-very.html", "tags": ["Yeah","Reading"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/15/raining-acorns.html", "title": "Raining acorns ", "content_html": "Over on the Disquiet blog, Marc Weidenbaum will post 30 seconds of an interesting sound he encounters just going about his day. (This one is of buzz saws.)
\nToday, I was walking to the park with one of my kids, and I noticed this small thumping sound, which turned out to be acorns from the oak trees dropping to the ground. I liked the sound and recorded 1:00 min of it. There are is also the sound of lawn mower and birds in the background.
\n![](\"https://from78.micro.blog/uploads/2026/img-1200.jpg\")
\n\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-15T12:32:14-05:00",
"url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/15/raining-acorns.html",
"tags": ["Listening","Noticing"]
},
{
"id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/15/i-think-this-is-a.html",
"title": "Life finds a way. ",
"content_html": "I think this is a small tree growing up through a hole where some rebar is coming through a parking brick.
\nI thought this was pretty.
\nI wonder if it will last, or if someone in the future will cut it down or pull it out.
\n![](\"https://from78.micro.blog/uploads/2026/325c70235f.jpg\")
\n",
"date_published": "2026-08-15T10:14:52-05:00",
"url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/15/i-think-this-is-a.html",
"tags": ["Looking","Noticing"]
},
{
"id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/13/via-tetragrammaton-bern-porter-spent.html",
"content_html": "Via Tetragrammaton:
\n\n\n[Bern] Porter spent much of his ninety-three years on the far margins of American life, an irascible iconoclast who insisted that art was something to be found, lived, and distributed without ever asking for permission.
\n
Yeah.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-13T06:27:57-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/13/via-tetragrammaton-bern-porter-spent.html", "tags": ["Yeah"] }, { "id": "http://From78.micro.blog/2026/08/12/devs.html", "title": "Devs", "content_html": "I’m watching the TV miniseries Devs on Hulu. It’s super good.
\nGreat soundtrack!\nVery interesting ideas.\nCompelling story.
\n", "date_published": "2026-08-12T10:33:39-05:00", "url": "https://notes.neilgorman.com/2026/08/12/devs.html", "tags": ["Watching"] } ] }