The sunrises remain a striking yellow-gold. This still has the capacity to surprise me. The wildfires are still sending particles to the upper atmosphere, and I am sad that I’m becoming used to the yellow tint to my surroundings. I don’t want to get used to it, but it is a daily filter. It is becoming normal.
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I don’t write here about everything I read. I try to limit myself to books I strongly recommend. And the bulk of what I read each day aren’t books!
I read both US and international news each morning (not just the book reviews!), and I’m trying NOT to provide running commentary on that. (I’ve done that in the past on blogs, and it’s tiring. Also, you can get personal commentary on just about everything all the time on social media, along with an endless collection of reposts of things you’ve already read.) I don’t write about books until I finish them (notes for myself notwithstanding), which means I am always in arrears on endorsements.
I fall into Internet research rabbit holes, and love that Wikipedia has a t-shirt on this theme.
On Twitter, which can consume an entire afternoon if I’m not careful, I read posts by my favorite authors, journalists, comedians, artists, and activists. There is a beneficial crossover of articles and other media on topics that interest me, recommended by people with similar interests, and written about by professional sources. It allows me to have a positive experience of Twitter, which wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t filter carefully.
That makes it sound like I only do super-professional research on Twitter, which is not the case. Twitter is also full of jokes, puns, highly charged commentary, mockery, illustrations, photos, AI software being used to match celebrity outfits to natural phenomena, and dumb-but-funny observations. I have geeky sense of humor, so I wind up with a lot of this sort of thing (below, sung to the tune of “That’s Amore“)
This continues in many flavors, and is also enjoyed by the professional media (though non-media types shared the links with me in the first place):
🎶 When an eel climbs a ramp to eat squid from a clamp, that’s a moray
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 22, 2021
When an eel wants a squid that’s on land — god forbid! — that’s a moray
If the squid is too flat, there’s no problem with that, that’s a moray 🎶https://t.co/h77J9n9SAH
This, in turn, reminds me of the collection of Guardian headlines that they are very pleased with themselves over:
…and now you know too much about my non-book reading time.