Jamie Todd Rubin's Blog, page 23
April 16, 2022
Reading for the Week of 4/10/2022
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="1880" height="1253" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="person reading newspaper" class="wp-image-21195" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" />Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.comHere is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.
BooksFinished The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank. This was interesting, but not nearly as engaging a read as McCullough’s Truman. The focus of Frank’s book was on Truman’s years as president, but I think there is some context lost in understanding some of his behavior and decisions without seeing the life that led up to the presidency. The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz. This was a fun read that toured mathematics in the same way it is typically taught to us in school, begin with arithmetic and working up through algebra, geometry, trig, calculus, statistics and number theory.In Progress Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H. W. Brands. I’ve read several biographies of FDR and always find them entertaining. This one is no different. It is in-depth and covers some areas of his life that I haven’t seen covered in depth in some of the other bios I’ve read.Articles/postsMoonlighting as a Tow Boat by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/10/2022). I need to find some kind of exercise I really enjoy.Baseball’s Next Battle: Making the Game Exciting Again by Jared Diamond (Wall Street Journal, 4/7/2022) #sports/baseballMajor League Baseball’s Respect Problem by Andy Kessler (Wall Street Journal, 4/10/2022) #sports/baseballTo Sell is Human (book review) by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 4/11/2022)A 4-Year Degree Isn’t Quite the Job Requirement It Used to Be by Steve Lohr (NY Times, 4/8/2022)How to write great copy by Mike Dariano (Waiter’s Pad, 4/13/2022)Let’s Erase This Unwritten Rule by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 4/13/2022). I grew up with baseball and its unwritten rules went mostly unquestioned by me until this great piece by Posnanski. #sports/baseballBill Gates: We Must Develop Drugs Much Faster in the Next Pandemic by Bill Gates (NY Times, 4/15/2022)Back from the dead? Elusive ivory-billed woodpecker not extinct, researchers say by Oliver Milman (Guardian, 4/13/2022)The Kids Are Right About Email, Too by Margaret Renki (NY Times, 4/4/2022)Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid by Jonathan Haidt (The Atlantic, May 2022). All about how social media has fractured our society. It is rather bleak, but my own observations would seem to confirm a lot of what this piece is saying. #longreadsDrag & Drop Blocks and Create Notionesque Tables by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 4/16/2022)Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?
Written on April 16, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
Notes on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
Photo by Anthony Beck on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." loading="lazy" width="900" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="close up photo of wooden jigsaw map" class="wp-image-22158" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Anthony Beck on Pexels.comWilliam L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich had been on my list of books to read for years. After reading The Rising Sun by John Toland, I decided that it was finally time for me to read Shirer’s book. I thought it was an excellent journalistic narrative history of Germany’s Third Reich. What is perhaps most notable about it to me was the clear picture it paints of a nation’s descent from democracy to a fascist dictatorship without much of an outcry from citizens within or without.
When Hitler came to power in Germany, Shirer noted:
To some Germans and, no doubt, to most foreigners it appeared that a charalatan had come to power in Berlin. To the majority of Germans Hitler had–or would shortly assume–the aura of a truly charismatic leader. They were to follow him blindly, as if he possessed a divine judgment, for the next twelve tempestuous years.
Such a statement, set out early in the book, connected the past and present for me. As I wrote in an earlier post, it seemed to me that this passage could be modernized by changing three proper nouns and a number:
To some Americans and, no doubt, to most foreigners it appeared that a charlatan had come to power in Washington. To the majority of Americans Trump had–or would shortly assume–the aura of a truly charismatic leader. They were to follow him blindly, as if he possessed a divine judgment, for the next four tepestuous years.
The comparison in situations here is striking, at least to me, for it captures much the way I felt in 2015-2016 and through the four years that followed. And yet at the time, I hadn’t read Shirer’s history and couldn’t see how history seemed to be repeating itself despite all of the effort since the end of the Second World War to “never forget.”
The education I received during junior high school and high school regarding the Second World War, the rise of fascism in Germany, and its eventual destruction was extremely limited. Hitler was the bad guy who did and encouraged others to do horrible things. The Americans came to the rescue, first through Lend-Lease, and then, after Pearl Harbor, through arms and warfare. That was it, and I’m not convinced that this 100,000 foot approach to such an important moment in modern history captures the spirit of “never forget.”
I’ve written how I think biographies can be extremely useful tools in education. History, in my mind, is biography in plural. Shrier’s book, despite its length, seems almost the perfect instrument for the teaching of history and the lessons from history to junior and senior level high school students. There are several reasons for this:
First, the book is well-written. A hundred pages into the book I scribble a marginal note that Shrier’s style is reminiscent of another favorite writer of history of mine, Will Durant. It is a clear, easily understandable narrative history written from the point of view of an experienced American foreign correspondent living in Berlin at the time of the unfolding events. It is, in fact, a gripping story. Shirer starts by tracing the rise of Hitler from his earliest beginnings, and through him, the rise of the Nazi party and fascism.
Second, the book can be seen as a step-by-step guide for how to turn a democracy into a fascist dictatorship. We see this happen not just in Germany but in Italy as well with the rise of Mussolini. And while this may seem like dangerous instruction manual to put in front of the public, I think that part of Shirer’s intention was to highlight all of the points where Hitler and the Nazi’s could have been stopped before things got out of hand. And there were many of these points, during Hitler’s rise to power, and even after he was the sole power in Germany. It is as much a lesson in how to prevent a fascist dictatorship as it is a history of how such a dictatorship came about.
Third, it exposes the ugly truth of the Nazi attrocities committed against Jews, and many others, and it exposes the excuses given for such behavior for those Nazi leaders that survived the war. It exposes the ugly truth about the appeasment by other nations, and the selling out of countries wholesale to the Nazi regime.
Fourth, it provides context to be able to see parallels today. The book has the information required to allow people to see the canary fall dead in the mine. The passage I quoted above is one such parallel. But there are many others. When Italy began invading neighboring countries, the League of Nations could have laid down sanctions against Italy depriving it of desperately needed oil. Such sanctions were part of the League’s covenant, but it failed to do so. Today, the U.S. and many other NATO countries are using severe sanctions as a tool against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and having some effect.
Indeed, one side effect of these sanctions is that Russia is demanding payment for oil in Rubels, which crashed after the sanctions were initially imposed. The demand for payment in Rubels seems to me to be a lesson right out of Germany in the 1920s:
From then on, goaded by the big industrialists and landlords, who stood to gain though the masses of the people were financially ruined, the [German] government deliberately let the mark tumble in order to free the State of its public debts, to escape from paying reparations, and to sabatage the French in the Ruhr. Moreoever, the destruction of the currency enabled German heavy industry to wipe out its indebtedness by refunding its obligation in worthless marks.
The source of much of the information in Shrier’s book comes from captured German documents that came to light during the Nuremberg trials. Reading the propaganda from the time, and the secret documents that were coterminus with the propaganda paints a picture of deceit across the board. Once again, it helps to put into perspective modern parallels. Reading about this, I though of the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, with the propoganda showing one set of intentions and the various documents, call logs and other evidence coming to light showing a second set of intentions–in this case, a protest versus a deliberate attempt to call into question free election.
Of course, there is a lot more for high schoolers to learn from Shirer’s book. Shirer’s book is a kind of history of Europe from the 1930s through the Second World War. We see leaders across many nations, including the United States. It is a history of the European fronts during the Second World War. It is a history of oppressors and oppressed.
Whenever I read a magnum opus like Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I always want to know more about the author–the person who invested so much of their life and time into putting the pieces together. Immediately after finishing Shirer’s book, I turned to his 3-volume memoir, Twentieth Century Journey, the first volume of which I finished on the very day I am writing this essay. I’m already looking forward to the two remaining volumes.
Written on March 30, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
April 15, 2022
Loss Leaders
Photo by Safwan C K on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="close up shot of toblerone chocolates" class="wp-image-21931" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Safwan C K on Pexels.comA couple of weeks ago someone on Reddit asked me to elaborate on my motivation for posting my Practically Paperless with Obsidian series. “Are you trying to make a course and sell it in the long run?” they wondered, “or build your brand.” My answer was fairly simple: (1) to document an experiment I was making with Obsidian, and (2) because it’s fun. I’m a writer and I like to write.
The Practically Paperless posts are the most popular posts on my blog since I started writing them last year, far outstripping all of the other posts I write. That said, they make up less than 1/7th of the posts I’ve written since I started the series. Sometimes, I’m a little bummed out by this. I wish as many people came to the blog to read all of the other posts I write.
In my more cynical moments, I think of my Practically Paperless posts (and my Going Paperless with Evernote posts) as loss leaders. They are fun to write, and they do help me work through my experiment of going practically paperless. But I’ve also been at this long enough where I know they will be more popular than my other posts. It is my hope that by putting these posts out there, people will come to the blog and discover all of the other stuff I’ve written and enjoy that just as much, if for nothing else than for its entertainment value. In other words, come for the Practically Paperless posts, and stay for the State Capitals and Other Trivia, or the improving education through biographies, or even my Vacation in the Golden Age posts.
Implied in the question on Reddit was that one would not be doing this if one was not out to make money somehow. What was my alterior motive? As regular readers of the blog know, I do this as a hobby, I do it for fun, and I specifically don’t montize what I do here. My alterior motive, if any, is to get people to read more of what I write. I am writer, after all, that’s what I do here. Indeed, I’ve been back to regular blog writing now for nearly 470 days, and I’ve published at least one post here on the blog each and every one of those days.
So if you are new to the blog, and especially if you arrived here through my Practically Paperless post, I’d urge you to check out what else I’ve written about over the years. There are more than 7,000 posts to choose from, and if you can’t decide where to begin, I put together a curated index to the blog that give a sampling of the wide variety of posts I’ve written here over the years.
And, as always, thanks for reading.
Written on March 29, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
April 14, 2022
If I Shave Off My Beard and No One Notices, Does It Still Exist?
Each autumn as the leaves begin to fall from the trees and clutter the gutters, I start to grow a beard. I do this for entirely practical reasons. It gets cold here in the winter, and determined as I am, I still like to get out for my morning walks, despite that cold. (It is, as I write this, 24°F, unusually cold for late March). A beard helps to keep my face warm in that cold weather.
The same beard that keeps me warn in the winter, overheats me as the weather warms up. So each spring, I shave it off. As my birthday falls just a week or so after the first day of spring, I use my birthday as a reminder to shave. This year, for instance, I shaved off my beard the evening before my birthday, just before bed. Below, you can see the before and after shots.
Usually, after growing used to how I look with a beard, the kids immediately notice that the beard is gone, and tell me how weird I look without it. This year, however, no one said anything. The kids said nothing when I said good night to them. They made no mention of my missing beard when I returned from my morning walk. Instead, they ran up to me, circled around and wished me a happy birthday. Kelly said nothing. Kelly’s mom, who was visiting, said nothing. I had the feeling that no one noticed.
I asked myself: If I shave off my beard and no one notices, does it still exist?
Perhaps, I thought, they were so used to seeing me with a beard that despite having shaved it off, they still “saw” it, a phantom beard created from their imaginations. I shrugged and figured that someone would finally realize I’d shaved off my beard and say something.
I write this approximately 60 hours after shaving off my beard, and so far, so one has said anything. This seems strange to me, and now I wonder if perhaps they all have noticed, but realize that it is past the courteous time to mention it. If they say something now, they admit to not having noticed for several days–or least, not having mentioned it for several days.
It has me wondering what other things I could change and no one would notice. Could I dye my hair? Wear lifts in my shoes?
I don’t really mind that no one noticed that I shaved off my beard. I just find the lack of any mention interesting. There is, however, one problem I have encountered recently shaving off my beard. You see, ever since I did it, we’ve been in a cold snap, with morning temperatures in the low 20°s, and strong, cold winds blowing constantly. It means that on my morning walks, my face, no longer protected by a beard, gets very cold.
Fortunately, it is finally supposed to warm up later in the week.
ETA: April 13, 2022 @ 8:40pm. Eighteen days later and still no one has said anything about my missing beard.
Written on March 29, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
April 13, 2022
Changing the Flag
Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="person showing usa flag" class="wp-image-21904" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.comI sometimes think the real reason that Puerto Rico or Washington, D.C. is not admitted to the union as a new state is because it would mean changing the flag. Changing the flag has two big problems. The first is rebranding. The second is that it is a huge undertaking.
The last time the flag was changed, to my knowledge, was back in 1959 when Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state. For more than six decades, the Stars and Stripes has fluttered with fifty stars. It has instant brand recognition and marketing people don’t like tinkering with brand recognition. Remember New Coke from the 1980s? No? That’s because it failed and Coca-Cola tried to wipe that branding debacle from the face of the earth. (They did this by rebranding Coca-Cola as “Coca-Cola Classic”.)
Have you ever looked at the pattern of stars on the flag? There are alternating rows of 6 and 5 stars, five of each, which add up to 50. Where would that extra star go? You could have 3 rows of 17 stars or 17 rows of 3 stars. Since both 3 and 17 are prime numbers, I don’t think you could do any better than that. For that reason alone, I think the powers that be would need to admit both Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. as states. At least then we’d maintain an even number of states.
Even more than brand recognition is the task of updating all of those flags. I can’t conceive of the logistics that would be involved in such an undertaking. Start with physical flags. They are easy enough to produce, I suppose, but how does one go about estimating how many replacements are needed? Next, official images of the flag online. In theory, all government websites point to the same cached flag image, but I suspect things weren’t planned out that well. I’m doubtful that a reference exists to where the flag is included in all government websites and official documents.
And what about text books, dictionaries, almanacs, and other printed media where images of the flag still exist? Certainly the Internet and digital media has replaced a lot of these, but I still have a current dictionary on my bookshelf, and each year I get the latest edition of the World Almanac.
It would mean two more state capitals to memorize. I wonder, what would the capital of the state of Washington, D.C. be?
When Congress meets behind closed doors to discuss statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., I suspect that their conversations really center around these questions. How would we rebrand the Stars and Stripes? How can we implement such a massive change? Because really, what other legitimate reason might there be to not admit these two places as states?
Written on March 28, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
April 12, 2022
Practically Paperless with Obsidian, Episode 26: Use Case: Managing My Blog Writing in Obsidian
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="1880" height="1168" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="a vintage typewriter" class="wp-image-19861" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" />Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.comWelcome to my blog series, “Practically Paperless with Obsidian.” For an overview of this series, please see Episode 0: Series Overview.
In Episode 25, I described how I managed my “professional” writing in Obsidian. I also mentioned that I looked to Obsidian as the one place to do all of my writing. That includes the writing I do here on the blog, so I thought I’d use this episode to describe how I use Obsidian to write for my blog.
WordPress and the Block EditorI use WordPress for my blog services, and I have been incredibly happy with the service. I like the block editor for writing and editing posts, too. However, when I finally decided to do all of my writing in Obsidian, I intended to do my blog writing there, too. There are a number of advantages to this, but the main one is a single interface and set of commands for all of my writing. Also, all of my writing is now stored in plain text files, using markdown formatting, and readily accessible locally on my computer within my Obsidian vault.
Writing for the BlogThe bulk of the writing I do each week is for the blog. Readers who come for the Practically Paperless posts see just one of eight to ten posts I publish each week. I’ve been writing here on the blog since late 2005, about 17 years, and in that time, I’ve published more than 7,000 posts. Since January 1, 2021, I’ve made it a goal to publish at least one post everyday. As of this writing, I have published at least one post every day for 467 consecutive days.
I generally try to write 2 posts per day, scheduling them out so that I build up a backlog. I do this for two reasons:
It keeps me writing, and keeps me thinking, both of which I enjoy doing.It acknowledges the truth of writing for me, which is that there are some days where I just can’t bring it. I’m either too busy, too tired, or I write something that I just don’t like. Having a backlog takes the pressure off publishing a post every day.For instance, as of this writing (I am writing this on April 3, 2022), I have posts scheduled out through April 23. I sometimes leave gaps in the schedule, like I did for this post, since these Practically Paperless posts go out on Tuesdays.
There are two ways that Obsidian helps me with the blog writing: (1) Collecting ideas, and (2) writing posts.
Collecting ideas for the blogOver the years, I’ve realized how important having a list of ideas is to writing posts whenever I have time. I’ve gotten into the habit of jotting down every idea I get. I don’t always use the ideas, but I jot them down regardless. There have been too many times when I told myself I would remember an idea, only to forget it.
If I am away from the computer, I’ll jot an idea in my Fields Notes notebook. That idea will get transferred to the current day’s daily note at the end of the date. I detailed some of this back in Episode 24. If I am sitting by the computer, the idea goes directly into the daily note as a task. The task gets tagged with “#post-idea”. These tasks, uncompleted and completed are collected using the Dataview plug-in a note called “Post Ideas.” When I am ready to write each day, I’ll pull up this note and skim through the ideas to see if there is anything in particular I want to write about. This note also shows the list of ideas that I have either completed writing or discarded.
Example of my Post Ideas file — showing the section on ideas I’ve either written about or discarded.Writing posts for the blogWhen I am ready to start writing, I make use of a template and the QuickAdd plug-in to generate the note in which I compose my post. The template and plug-in prompt me for information about the kind of writing I am doing, generate the note, and automatically file the note in my Writing/Blog/Posts folder in my Obsidian vault. At this point, I start writing. Below you can see the process for creating a new post note:
Here is an example of what a post note looks like after I’ve started to write. I’ve used this post for my example:
I try hard to keep most posts between 500-600 words. That makes writing 2 posts per day much more managable, given my time constraints. It also helps me practice writing to a target length, which is useful when doing professional writing and an outlet requests a piece of, say, 500 or 800 words. Some posts (like many of the posts in this series, are significantly longer). WordPress tells me that for the 114 posts I have published so far as of today, the average length is 784 words.
Publishing to WordPressOnce I finish writing my post, immediately schedule it in WordPress. Usually, I schedule it for the next open date on my calendar. As of today, the next open date is Sunday, April 24, but since I left a gap in my calendar for this post, I would schedule this one on Tuesday, April 12.
This is a manual process for me, and it goes as follows:
Copy the text of the post out of Obsidian.Create a new post in WordPress and paste the copied text into the body.The combination of Obsidian and WordPress make this a very simple process and it usually takes just a few seconds. The reason it is so simple is that my posts are written in Obsidian using Markdown formatting and WordPress knows how to interpret Markdown formatting when it is pasted into a post. All my formatting comes through cleanly, which saves a lot of time.
Once I have the post in WordPress, I schedule it for its future date. I change the status on my Obsidian note to “scheduled” and add the date that it was scheduled for.
Managing My PostsI have “Blog Post MOC” note that i use to manage my posts. There are three sections to this post, each using a different dataview query to display a list of posts:
Posts scheduled tomorrow. This lists any posts that are schedule for the next day. I use this to proofread the post the night before and try to intercept any obvious typos I happen to notice.Posts scheduled today. This lists any posts scheduled to be published on the current day. This reminds me what is being published. I also use this to update the meta-data in the note to reflect the status (published) and the link to the published post.Published posts. This is a list of all the published posts, with a link to the published URL for the post in question.
A look at my blog MOC.Comments on the BlogAs I said, I try to capture all of my writing in Obsidian. That includes significant comments I make on my blog (or on others, for that matter). I have template for blog comments and I use it to write out my comments before posting them to the blog. This has a few advantages for me:
It keeps all of my writing in Obsdian. I can use the Vim keyboard mappings I am used to and store my comments locally as part of all of my writing captured in my vault.It allows me to think through my comments and write them with the same care I’d use for any other writing. When I wrote comments on the fly, in the spur of the moment, I tend to (a) make mistakes, and (b) miss some important points I want to make. Writing them out in Obsidian ahead of time let’s me think through what I want to say.The process for creating a new comment note in Obsidian is similar to the process for my other writing. It makes use of a template and the QuickAdd plug in. After I select the destination as “Blog” the template gives me the following options:
Selecting “comment” in my template.This provides a quick way for categorizing the note as a comment to a blog post. I also use this for other significant social media posts: posts and comments to Reddit, to various forums, and to other blogs, for instance. I find three advantages to this:
It allows me to do all of my writing in Obsidian.Writing out a comment or reply in Obsidian allows me to to think about what I am writing and edit it much easier than if I did it in a text box of a blog or a social media site like Reddit. I don’t feel rushed. I can draft a comment, then come back to it later and edit it before posting.It allows me to collect all of my writing in one place, whether that is my “professional” writing, blog writing, or social media posts and comments.Final thoughtsIn my attempt to collect all of my writing in text files in Obsidian, I’ve shown how I manage my professional writing, and my blog writing. There is one final bit of writing that I now do and capture in Obsidian. In next week’s episode, I’ll go through my process for writing my journal entries in Obsidian.
See you back here next week.
Prev: Episode 25: Five Use Cases for Managing My Writing in Obsidian
Next: Episode 27: Use Case: Writing Journal Entries in Obsidian (coming April 19, 2022)
Written on April 3 and April 11, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
April 11, 2022
Critical Analysis
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="813" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="antique book hand knowledge" class="wp-image-21893" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1440w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comIt sometimes seems as if everyone else in the world is better at critical analysis than I am. I’m in the midst of reading William L. Shirer’s 3-volume memoir Twentieth Century Journey, and even there, in a paragraph, Shirer comes up with what sounds to me like well-thought out analysis of the works of several people he knew.
I often contend that grade school taught me to read, high school taught me to think critically about what I was reading, and college taught me how to learn. Indeed, I went to a high school program that focused on critical analysis. It replaced the standard high school English and History classes with a core of four classes that we rotated through two at a time in philosophy, literature, social institutions, and art history. Every exam in those classes were critical essays. You’d think I’d’ve gotten the hang of it by now. And yet, I just don’t seem to think of works at the same level as others when I read their critical analysis. Indeed, I find my own analysis frequently several levels below.
Generally speaking, we here in America don’t get off to a very good start when it comes to critical analysis. I grew up having to write countless “book reports.” These were exercising in proving that you read a given work and did not require much analysis. Indeed, analysis was frequently discouraged. Until high school, I found myself the object of a teacher’s careful attention if I had some sort of objection to a “classical” work as anything other than brilliant. (In high school, I decided that honesty was more important than pandering and would frequently find fault with the books we read.)
Much later, when I was paid to write a book review column for a science fiction magazine, my observations about the books I read always seemed amateurish compared to what I was reading in other magazines. Considering this, I think there are several reasons why this is so.
First, critical analysis frequently tries to determine what the author (or artists) intentions were. I rarely try to do this. As a writer, I’ve found that my intentions matter only to me. Once a work is out in the world, intentions don’t matter so much. People will think of it what they will. The rare exception for me is when someone explicitly states their intentions, at which point I, as a critic, have measuring stick to compare against.
Second, I tend to focus on the interconnectedness of things–a likely result of being in those core classes in high school. One work, or passage, or style, reminds me of another and I consider the relationship between to the two. For instance, recently, while reading Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I noted in the margins early in the book that I liked Shirer’s style, that it reminded me of another writer I enjoy, also from that same era, Will Durant. Was there something about the way people were taught to write back then, I wondered, that led to such similar styles?
Third, I also focus on my reaction to the work, how it made me feel, the questions it made me ask, the things it made me think about. This is not very critical. There are times, when writing about a book or essays I’ve read, that I’ve gone far afield because of feelings or reactions the piece stirred in me.
The result is that my critical pieces don’t often seem as smart as the ones I read in other places. You can see for yourself, if you are curious. My book review column for InterGalactic Medicine Show, “The Science of Wonder” is archived online for anyone to read.
I’ve come to accept this as my style. It is what differntiates my thoughts about a work from others. But every now and then, I’ll read a great piece of critical analysis from someone like Shirer, thrown off as a paragraph in a 1,000+ page memoir, and be in awe of how easy he makes it look so easy.
Written on March 28, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
April 10, 2022
Sleeping In
Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="person touching black two bell alarm clock" class="wp-image-21889" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.comThere are some disappointments about growing older and one of them is losing the desire to sleep in. For the first half of my life, I wanted to sleep in late, even through I frequently couldn’t. For the first eighteen years or so that was because of school. Through junior high school I could walk to school, but school was inevitable and I had to be up, and dressed, and breakfasted. I yearned for weekend and summer days when I could sleep in late. “Late” was often eight in the morning.
Beginning in high school, I took the school bus, and as I was one of the first stops on my route, it meant being at the bus stop at 6:30 am. That meant being up before six o’clock. I remember waking wearily, eating breakfast, dressing, and then falling asleep on the couch while the morning news played in the background, frequently entering my dreams. I’d sleep again on the bus ride, which was around 45 or 50 minutes long, finally arrving at school around 7:35.
It was in college that I finally had some greater control over my schedule. That first quarter at the University of California, Riverside, I had 8 am lectures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a mistake I didn’t make again until my senior year. There were times in college when I slept past noon, which seems, in hindsight, obscene. I worked in the dorm cafeteria for most of my time in school, and in my junior and senior years, would take late night or early morning custodial shifts, which, since I was already up, made it easy to get to early classes again.
Ultimately, it was traffic that turned me into an early bird. A few months after my college graduation in 1994, I started at the company that I still work for today. Over the course of that first year, I frequently “slept in” until 7:30 or so. I lived in Studio City and was suppsoed to be in Santa Monica by 8:00 am, but the traffic wouldn’t allow it. Not when I was getting up at 7:30. I gradually began to get up earlier and earlier, until I finally settled on 5:10 am. I would shower the night before, and set out my clothes. My alarm would go off at 5:10 am and I would dress, get in the car, and drive to the office, which at that time of day took only 20 minutes or so. I’d arrive at the office at about 5:30am, work until 5 o’clock in the evening, and then drive home–the latter drive often taking close to 2 hours.
I still wanted to sleep in back then, and made up for it in two ways: I’d sleep in on weekends. I have diary entries from that time noting that I slept in on a Saturday or Sunday until eleven o’clock in the morning. Also, I began napping at my desk at lunch time. I divided my hour lunch into three parts: I’d eat my lunch in the first 10 minutes, read my book for the next 20 minutes, and then for the final 30 minutes, set my head down on my desk, on a sweatshirt that I used for pillow, and nap.
Time has kept beating the desire for sleeping in late out of me. At its worst, I was getting up at 4:15 in the morning, making breakfast, then heading over to the local Metro station to catch the first train into town where my office was. (At this point, I’d moved back to the east coast from California.) I’d arrive at my office at 6 am, drop off my stuff, and then head over to the local gym to work out for an hour before showering and returning to the office to start my day.
These days, and for a long time now, I find myself rising more or less with the first sunlight, often by six o’clock. I haven’t set an alarm in years. I aim to get out for my morning walk as soon at it is light enough to see clearly. This varies with the time of year. This time of year, it means that I am out the door at 6:45 am or so. But I’m usually up at 6 o’clock regardless of what time I went to bed, and spend the first 45 minutes of the day going through the three papers I subscribe to (digitally now). This is as true for weekends, holidays, and vacations as it is for weekdays. Any desire in me to sleep in has long since wilted and died.
And yet I still sometimes think of myself as lazy. Isaac Asimov always rose at 5 am. It was, he said, because of the “candy store hours” he kept through most of his childhood and teenage years1. I was recently reading a profile of the radio commentator Charles Osgood, and discovered that he, too, was an earlier riser, awakening at 2:30 am every day, and usually getting to bed by 9 pm.
Six o’clock in the morning is just about perfect for me. It is more perfect in the summer than the winter.
The bitter irony, of course, is that when I wanted to sleep in late, I couldn’t. Now that I can, I have no desire to. Indeed, on those rare occasions (once or twice a year) when circumstances conspire to have me sleep in until 7 or 7:30 am, I feel like half the day has wasted away by the time I pull myself out of bed. Indeed, if I haven’t written at least one post by am, I feel as if the day is already starting to get away from me.
Written on March 28, 2022 (long after 8 am).
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
His parents owned a series of candy stories in Brooklyn and the stores opened at six and closed late. ↩April 9, 2022
Reading for the Week of 4/3/2022
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="1880" height="1253" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="person reading newspaper" class="wp-image-21195" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" />Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.comHere is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. This was a busy week with a lot going on. I did manage to finish two books, but my article reading was down from its normal levels because things were busy.
BooksFinished Twentieth Century Journey: The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940 by William L. Shirer. Of the three volumes this one was my least favorite. It wasn’t a bad book, but it rehashed a lot of what I had just read in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, so it felt repetitive. I did like the parts where he described how he became a broadcaster for CBS and working with Edward R. Murrow. Twentieth Century Journey: A Native’s Return: 1945-1988 by William L. Shirer. I enjoyed this volume as much as the first. Both served as excellent bookends for Shirer’s life.In Progress The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank. I read about this book first in a review in the New York Times, which called it the first biography of Truman since David McCullough’s massive volume a few decades ago. I loved McCullough’s bio of Truman (I’ve read it twice!) so I was naturally curious about this one, which focuses primarily on his years as President.Articles/posts by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/3/2022)Come See Me Speak! – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (4/4/2022)Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted by Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter (NY Times, 4/5/2022)Scar tissue/this time is different – The Waiter’s Pad by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 4/4/2022)Users are taking the internet back (Protocol)Bobby Rydell, Teenage Idol With Enduring Appeal, Dies at 79 by Michael Pollak (NY Times, 4/5/2022)Dark Passage (1947): Happiness Against All Odds – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (Golden Age of Hollywood, 4/6/2022)Nehemiah Persoff, one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, dies at 102 – The Washington Post by Adam Bernstein (Washington Post, 4/6/2022)Personal Knowledge Management Workflow for a Deeper Life — as a Computer Scientist |Jackson Confirmed as First Black Woman to Sit on Supreme Court by Carl Hulse and Annie Karmi (NY Times, 4/8/2022)Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?
Written on April 08, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
The Raven and the Woodpecker
Photo by John Napier on Pexels.com
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." loading="lazy" width="900" height="574" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="black and white bird on brown tree branch" class="wp-image-21864" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by John Napier on Pexels.comThe woodpeckers are out in force this spring. I don’t know if they are more populous this year, or if I never noticed in the past, but on my early morning walks, they seem to be everywhere. Indeed, their pecking seems almost like a kind of Morse code communication through the treetops, with one bird tapping away somewhere to my left, and another responding somewhere to my right.
A few weeks ago, there was a noise coming from the fireplace. It sounded like bird had somehow gotten in at the top of the chimney and was beating their wings against the bricks, trying to find a way out. For some reason, a bird in the house is a bit disturbing. Years ago, while I was attending the World Fantasy Convention here in the Washington, D.C. area, I got a call from Kelly telling me there was a bird in our bedroom. I came home, and sure enough a bird was in our room. I opened a couple of windows, closed the door to the bedroom, and after some effort, managed to direct it to an exit.
Some time after that, Kelly was down in the family room, looking through boxes of toys on a bookshelf. She moved some toys around and found a dead bird in one of the boxes beneath a pile of toys. We noticed some blood stains on the wall and pieced together what had happened. The bird must have gotten in through the chimney, crashed into the wall, broken its neck and landed in the toy bin. More recently, a bird crashed into the window of my office and broke its neck.
Looking up into the chimney, I could see nothing, and after a little while, the rapping sound went away. It came back the next morning, and I thought to myself that if that bird was stuck in there, it was going to eventually starve to death. I pictured having to pull out the ladder, climbing up the chimney and seeing if I could find the bird. But then we didn’t hear anything for a week and I forgot about it.
But the rapping came back. It occurred mostly in the mornings. It sounded metallic, but I couldn’t ever see what was causing it. Clearly, it wasn’t a trapped bird. A week would have killed it. What was it? I thought about Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” but instead of “rapping at my chamber door” it was rapping on something up the chimney.
This morning, the mystery was solved. I left the house on my usual walk. As I passed the neighbor’s house, I heard that same metallic rapping come from their chimney. I stopped and looked up. Sitting, perched atop the chimney cap, was a bird and I was pretty sure it was a woodpecker, not a raven. I paused to watch it. For a moment it did nothing, but then, I saw it dip its beak and begin pecking on the metal chimney cover. The sound it made was identical to what we were hearing on our chimney.
Still, I’d like to be able to tell that woodpecker to stop his wrapping because it can be distracting. “Nevermore!” I’d say to him. “Nevermore!”
Written on March 26, 2022.
Did you enjoy this post?
If so, consider subscribing to the blog using the form below or clicking on the button below to follow the blog. And consider telling a friend about it. Already a reader or subscriber to the blog? Thanks for reading!
Email Address
Subscribe
