Category: Digital Life

tweets, xkcd comics, dreams and sticking to your guns

Carl Setzer

As I expect you all know, early in 2020 I returned to school to study web application development (head here if you need an update). I’m not the youngest student. However, I’m not the oldest, either. I have had a few people mention that, as I’m older, I don’t have as much to offer the world and that I’m keeping the space from those who will contribute more. Bah! I have a lot to offer. I bring a lot to my classes, to my fellow students, and will bring a lot to wherever I land, career-wise, next.

First thing this morning I came across this tweet:

Motivates me hard! Who knows? Maybe I’ll go after a master’s (not sure I want to do a PhD…though, in my heart-of-hearts, I want to know EVERYTHING about computers).

This comic from xkcd gave me pause, too.

xkcd - Dreams

Ultimately, I need to believe in myself, in what I bring, in what I know. Don’t hold back! I’m investing far too much time and energy to be timid about all that.

Ah, to live a bold life! We’ll see, my friends, we’ll see.

Some Thoughts On Being A 21st Century Student

Carl Setzer
person writing on notebook

I have a few favorite tools that really make school more effective. One: I get my textbooks on Kindle. I have the Kindle app on my computer, plus I have it on my phone and iPad. Having my books wherever I find myself is great. Plus, I can hit ctrl+F and search the whole book quickly. This has been really helpful when I’m struggling to remember “that one command”.

Also, I have Grammarly’s app installed. Being able to spell and grammar check in the browser is a great time saver.

Lastly, I love using Evernote to take notes. I often use paper, and also the note feature within the Kindle apps. But I can scan the papers, and import the Kindle notes, so all of them are in Evernote. Again, being able to search is powerful, and being able to review whenever I have a few minutes of downtime is great.

Danny Elfman’s Creepy New Song “Happy”, Just In Time For Halloween

Carl Setzer
Danny Elfman: Happy

I’m a fan of much of Danny Elfman’s work. Oingo Boingo and The Nightmare Before Christmas only touch the surface. Reading in Nerdist that he released a new pop song made my morning wonderful. Perfectly creepy vibe for the days before Halloween. Check it out below! (caveat: there are a fair number of NSFW words).

Also, as tomorrow’s Halloween, check out my “An Atypical Halloween” playlist. You will NOT find Monster Mash there! I try to keep things trope-free.

Balmorhea’s Masollan

Carl Setzer
Balmorhea

I discovered Balmorhea a few years ago but only came across “Masollan” recently (earlier this year). I’ve become very fond of it. The instrumentation is exquisite. Electric guitar and bass with drums, violin, cello, and upright bass? I find it delightful. The ethereal way the melody floats above the harmony vibrates within my soul.

Featured image created with Adobe Spark, font: AcuminPro-Thin. I wanted a sepia styled, warm summer’s day vibe. I hope I pulled that off. 

A Soup Of Chat Systems

Carl Setzer2 Comments
Woman, Laptop, Coffee

I can SO relate to this xkcd comic right now.

Venn drawing of chat networks
I have a hard time keeping track of which contacts use which chat systems via xkcd comics.

I’ve dealt with this a lot over the years. In 2020 this has seriously challenged me. I do try to make sure my contact list has notes about that, my system is…incomplete.

Being a good networker (which is, really, being a good friend) involves respecting people’s preferences. I have friends who HATE Facebook, or Twitter, or are not on Instagram, or who are only on Instagram, or who loathe email…we can continue on with this. Little notes go a long way with this. But it requires time, which is on the rare side right now.

 

Nice Weather For Ducks: Today’s Musical Interlude

Carl Setzer
Weather for October 4, 2020
It’s looking like rain

Looking like it will be a damp and dreary day. A lovely day for ducks, methinks. Which often makes me think of this song by the British electro-pop duo, Lemon Jelly.

I do find the song delightfully charming. I’m deeply grateful to John Richards at KEXP for introducing me to this song, along with so many other great ones.

Grace Hopper, Lord of Cobol

Carl Setzer
Grace Hopper, Lord of Cobol
Grace Hopper, Lord of Cobol

I’m a fan of Dr. Admiral Hopper. Funny, with all my years of enjoying Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Hopper, I’m surprised that I never connected “Cobol”, Dr. Hopper and the Lords of Cobol.

So, here’s a bit of fun whipped out in Photoshop.

Below is a brief history of Cobol. A critically important programming language.

Design Matters Podcast Featuring Fanny Singer

Carl Setzer
Design Matters With Debbie Millman

I’ve been following Debbie Millman’s “Design Matters” for years (I’ve written about previous episodes before). She’s a brilliant interviewer with a great gift for finding interesting guests. With a focus on creatives and the life of being a creative, I find her guests to be inspiring and fascinating. I love seeing a new podcast in my feed.

Today’s episode features Fanny Singer, author, art historian, and, perhaps, most famous for being the daughter of restauranteur Alice Waters, proprietor of Berkley’s Chez Panisse.

I must confess my ignorance of Dr. Singer, Ms. Waters, and Chez Panisse before today. Even though I have an affinity for Berkeley that started in the mid-80s when I was a music student. One year we went to the West Coast Jazz Festival, hosted by Berkeley. I loved the campus and the city and seriously wanted to head there. But, well, life happened. With all that, I’m disappointed in myself for this ignorance.

I highly recommend taking the time to listen to the podcast. For some reason, the podcast is only showing up on the Design Matters Soundcloud feed. Maybe it just takes some more time to ripple out to iTunes, Google’s Podcasts, etc. But, hey, Soundcloud is awesome!

 

The episode references a few things that I thought I’d add links (for your convenience).

  • Fanny’s Instagram
  • Alice Water’s Instagram 
  • Alice’s Egg Spoon: A classic tool that, well, looks like fun to use. Not cheap, but I’m sure hard-core foodies will find it indispensable.
  • Debbie and Alice discuss the fun cooking videos make together during the pandemic. You can see them on their IGTV channels on Instagram (here are their direct links for your convenience: Fanny & Alice). Also, they put together a few YouTube videos through Knopf’s YouTube Channel. Here are the videos (finding them is a bit of a pain):

Colophon: Dr. Singer’s dissertation focused on the British Pop artist Richard Hamilton, who I hadn’t heard of before this podcast (I learned a lot this one). Their description of him makes me extremely intrigued so I intend to research him further. In particular, his cutting edge computer-generated art seems very intriguing.

 

A Monday Morning Haiku

Carl Setzer

summer’s excesses
Helios’ angry glare
I await night’s grace

Today’s predicted weather brings temperatures in the 80s. As a Seattleite, this sits far above the realm of comfort. We tend to whine at such, those acclimated to temperate climes.

I designed this piece with both an eye towards negative space and a clean font. Lato, built into InstaQuote, carries that light sans serif quality. I like the readability, too. This parchment background brings a nice historic/traditional quality.

I hope your Monday sets you up for a productive and satisfying week.

YouTube Video Unboxing of an iBook G3

Carl Setzer

I just stumbled upon this video with iJustine and Marques with MKBHD from 2018. I don’t know where they found an unopened iBook G3 in 2018, but that’s particularly cool to me.

Anyway, what’s particularly fun for me: I had one of these! I loved this! And I enjoyed the odd stares from my techy friends. That was especially true when I used the handle. Though that was convenient, especially when I was moving a short distance (didn’t need/want to load it into my backpack), in hindsight, it was rather weird.

Kinda weird that I’ve lived so many of these historic tech moments. I’m not old!