~saila's tilded page

Changes since 2019-09-19T02:09:22

2019-09-19T02:09:22Z

XLV September 18, 2019 -- 6:24pm ET

This doesnâ€™t look like I expected it to look like today.

Shouldnâ€™t be a surprise, because tinkering with the semantics of type, Iâ€™ve come to believe, is my real hobby.

â€¦

For a week and one day, Iâ€™ve been without a phone. First time Iâ€™ve been without a proper smart phone in almost a dozen years. Havenâ€™t missed much.

Also, havenâ€™t read, wrote, or changed the world more.

On dayâ€™s like today, though, I do notice how much everthing has gone online. Or rather, I notice how much of the online touchpoints have replaced the human ones.

Strange how this sounds the opposite of how it feels.Bleary eyed September 17, 2019 -- 12:45am ET

Fifteen hours and five minutes later nothing much done here yet.

But ~audiodude explained â€œÃ¢â‚¬â„¢â€ are called â€mojibake,â€ so thereâ€™s that.~audiodude

But ~audiodude explained â€œÃ¢â‚¬â„¢â€ are called â€mojibake,â€ so thereâ€™s that.Ã¢â‚¬â„¢

But ~audiodude explained â€œÃ¢â‚¬â„¢â€ are called â€mojibake,â€ so thereâ€™s that.mojibake

But ~audiodude explained â€œÃ¢â‚¬â„¢â€ are called â€mojibake,â€ so thereâ€™s that.September 17, 2019 -- 8:00am ET

Five years ago a lot of this was nostalgia. A lot has changed. Thereâ€™s a sense these spaces are now necessary and needed. Seems to be more infrastructure to support it.

Then again, 25 years ago I too was listening to 8-tracks sourced at Goodwill.Blink, blink September 16, 2019 -- 9:41am ET

[looks around]

brb

[starts shifting some unseen things around]

Changes since 2016-05-01T21:41:59

2016-05-01T21:41:59Z

Reboot May 1, 2016 -- 9:02am ET

Initially written to introduce the May 1st Reboot, but way, way too earnest. What better place than to drop it here to remind me to not write on deadline before Iâ€™ve had time to enjoy at least one cup of coffee. Genuinely think youâ€™re better off avoiding this one, although there is an idea worth salvaging in there somewhere.

There was a time when nothing changed. After a while, everything became comfortable, and then, almost imperceptibly at first, things became stale. The little touches the seemed clever once, became awkwardly dated. The groundbreaking ideas seemed like stiff examples of failed attempt. People used terms like â€œan institutionâ€ and â€œa classicâ€ to politely acknowledge nothing more than longevity.

Change, from a far enough perseptive, becomes a marker of time, as well. The break from the predictable path shows something has shifted beneath the surface. That new ideas, concepts, and expressions can now longer be contained by the crusty surface. They explore out, raw, new, and immediately attractive because of radical shift they represent. But soon, too, these weather and age, and crumble, leaving behind only the strongest landmarks.

From the new vantage point, it is easier to see what the new landscape now looks like. The world is no longer what it was, nor can it be again. The possibilities are laid bare. Every new thing after this will be building on these changes. Creating new things fueled by ideas born from every past change.

Seeing it as a constant, change reminds you of the advantages of simplicity to be found in focus ones ideas, but allowing enough room to be distracted by new directions emerging from the silohetes on the horizon around you.

So this is that.

Striping things bare, slowly at first. Getting familiar with the initial disorientation so you can learn how to discover things anew again.

â€¦you were warned.

Changes since 2015-12-01T04:26:52

2015-12-01T04:26:52Z

Transmission November 19, 2015 -- 9:53pm ET

(Listening to Lou Reed on a windy night in Toronto.)

Exactly two months ago, I was riding in a communistâ€™s cab. Heâ€™d been imprisoned for his political actions, just after I was born. He was driving us to a neighbourhood far outside the areas of Rome most non-Romans go to. As we approached the edge of the neighbourhood, he warned us to avoid the Nigerians because the police would follow us. And the last thing people like us would want is the police to follow us. We have him all the cash we could and had one of the best Italian meals weâ€™d had in weeks.

You canâ€™t take risks without rewards is so deeply cliched itâ€™s almost impossible to imagine it could still be true.

But it is.

Over and over and over again life reminds me of that.

Sometimes the winds blow in your favour. Sometimes they blow over a fencepost and expose a whole new opportunity to teach yourself masonry. Or something like that.

All this goes to say, the next few months are going to be a refreshing adventure to somewhere I havenâ€™t been for far too long.

(Now it's Ian Curtis urging me to dance to radio I donâ€™t even own anymore)

Changes since 2015-01-27T03:17:13

2015-01-27T03:17:13Z

Static January 26, 2015 -- 7:33pm ET

There's a story I often like to tell. It doesn't have a beginning middle or end, but I can tell from the expressions on the listeners' faces that it's a good one. The quality of the story, or in my telling of it, rather, isn't the important detail. What is most critical to know is that all my websites but this one haven't been themselves for quite some time now.Writing my own pink slip January 19, 2015 -- 8:25pm ET

Been on a tear lately. Making bread, interviewing dozens of people, cleaning my bike, promoting a product that will do more financial harm then good. The usual.

Tonight, though, I finished two epic product positioning documents. One was for public consumption within my company and focused on the design challenges facing a promising new direction for the business. The other, however, outlines in 11 or so steps how to eliminate my job and return the company's fiscal performance into good short-term shape. While it's built on genuine numbers, the piece primarily served as a good venting exercise for my thoughts about my industry.

Of course, if anyone is interested in seeing and discussing it, you know how to reach me.Long goodbye January 16, 2015 -- 10:58pm ET

This has been a strange week. There was a stat I heard a couple of days ago about employee retention: Most of the people leaving the company were there less 5 years, and under the age of 44. After turning 44, it was suggested, the employee was there for life (or until retirement).

Earlier in the week, an old collaegue reached out to me after many years. "If you are ever thinking about leaving your company, let me know first," he said. At the end of the week, today, another group of friends decided very publically to end their careers. Althugh they'd been there for well over 5 years, they were under the 44 threshold. In betweem those moments, I had conversations that reminded of those I had a decade prior; I've seen ideas become more real than I could have imagined; and I've remembered what it's like to watch late night movies and have my mind expand with possibiities.

There may not yet be a rhythm or purpose here in tilde.land, beyond my sporadic navel gazing, but I think I'm okay with that. I'll let the kernel of future thoughts ferment here for a while and someday, maybe, someone will be able to get drunk on them.

Changes since 2015-01-03T06:33:11

2015-01-03T06:33:11Z

Medium first January 2, 2015 -- 6:28pm ET

So I published that peanut butter piece. If first impressions are all that counts, there will be some very confused Medium readers. (And despite how it seems, 2015 will not just be about the one line relvokcor.xyz post.) published

Changes since 2015-01-01T22:16:12

2015-01-01T22:16:12Z

This is how the year begins January 1, 2015 -- 11:11am ET

Birds are chirping louder than the sounds of my fingers making words. Gotta fix that.

Changes since 2014-12-17T16:35:34

2014-12-17T16:35:34Z

Hot mug, brown water December 17, 2014 -- 8:44am ET

Sometimes you wake-up and you know, even if you don't want to be, that this day you'll be in a bad mood. That's today, although I'm hoping to change that with this cup of coffee.

Changes since 2014-12-04T04:28:40

2014-12-04T04:28:40Z

Static December 3, 2014 -- 10:12pm ETWarning: This one is very much me struggling to sketch the flow of ideas that already exists intact in mind...somewhere. In other words, it's stream of conscious, and unedited. Therefore, likely more than a little earnest and naive.

Trying to up my game so I can talk to the kidz. Learning the Node and all that that enables. What it reveals is not just the obvious (that web sites are no longer composed of pages, but are instead apps, composed by clever programs and exisitng at one URL but for convention sake) but also some of the deep and profound changes this medium brought on publishing.

Which is where I earn my income.

The fundamental problem for story-tellers for multi-millenia had been how to replicate one's ideas in a way that would enable others to discover them. Oral story-tellers were limited by the range of their voice, scribes by the pace of their writing (and access to vellum). Movable-type helped change that, and the newspaper industry capitalized on its mastery of printing and distribution to rake in a fortune. Now a writer can, of course, distribute an idea to a billion people in an instant, and make it available in any medium for almsot free. With cost reduced to zero, profit for publishers is quickly racing to that same point, too.

Which brings me back to me learning Node.

During the past 20 years, I've taken mental sabaticals. I've devoted my nights to learning a new technology, to master a new technology. With that mastery gained, I've been able to use that to parlay that into a professional success time, and time again.

But I've peaked.

And part of that is okay.

I have no desire to return to the trenches and build things like before (besides, I actually believe -- thanks in part to reading a poorly writtern review of The Grid -- that my niche area of expertise will become as irrelevant as linotype operators found themselves a few decades ago). I reached my peak becuase my professional passion area (publishing journalism) no has longer any value. There is nothing I can conceivably think of that I could devise that would justify the margins needed to sustain any venture. For a few years now, I've played with a number of ideas. I've scaled down the costs by 50%, 83%, by 99.92% and it still doesn't hold.review of The Grid

And this is why I keep coming back to relvokcor.xyz. There's something here that suggests a more viable future than Node. Than publishing stories for 3 cents a reader. Than turning billions and billions of pages into a one very polished software application.something here that suggests a more viable future

And tho I still have no idea what that something is, I have a feeling it's remembering what all attracted us to this world-wide web in the first place. To share experiences with someone else who might be interested in our story.11:03pm ET

Probably related. I still haven't published that Medium post.that Medium post

Probably related. I still haven't published that Medium post.

Changes since 2014-11-23T14:29:54

2014-11-23T14:29:54Z

Public notice November 23, 2014 -- 2:38am ET

It's late. But I've now included this place in my public pantheon of places I can be found at.