PicoBlog

Social media is broken. We all know this. At this year’s Eth-Denver I was introduced to the app that will fix it. It has nothing to do with crypto (many apps don’t at Eth-Denver; heck, I saw an electric motorcycle launched), but this year’s event brought me face-to-face with Airchat, thanks to dev Arjun Khemani.  Arjun explained to me Naval Ravikant’s latest brainchild—a social media app called Airchat that captures your voice, morphs it into text, and broadcasts it, letting listeners grasp the human behind the screen.

Are you hungry, or are you thirsty? Are you hungry, or are you bored? Are you hungry, or are you tired? And if you are hungry, have you tried ignoring it completely? I mean eating is so déclassé. Have you ever thought about the mental gymnastics that we do in order to decide if we have earned a right to eat? I mean seriously, even if we are hungry and our bodies are signaling to us that we need food, we often go through a checklist to see if we should, in fact, eat something.

Have you ever asked yourself the same question? I’m guessing I’m very much not alone in this… I’m currently reading the brilliant Strong Female Character by Fern Brady about her experiences, as an autistic person, growing up and living in a neurotypical world. And while I am not autistic (as far as I know!) and while my life has certainly been far less challenging (bar the anxiety and panic attacks) I can relate to some of the social awkwardness that Fern writes about.

Jimmy Buffett (1946- 2023) passed away last night surrounded by loved ones. He was 76. A nation of Parrotheads mourn. Although he’s mainly affiliated with his Mobile, AL upbringing and his Key West ocean kingdom, Buffett had close ties to Austin, where his compadre Jerry Jeff Walker moved in 1971. Walker’s the one who introduced Buffett to the Florida Keys, where Jerry Jeff lived before Austin. Both songwriters got rich- Buffett richer- by creating an escapist lifestyle around their music.

Hi everyone, I was going to write an article about the future of deepfakes this week, but decided to address another pain point, why violence is so ubiquitous in movies today, and why female actors are increasingly cast in violent roles. These are big questions, and there are other media to consider, like video games. I don’t play video games and much ink has already been spilled fretting over violence in them, so I leave that to others.

My paperback for I Have Some Questions For You is out today (did you know that all books come out on Tuesdays?), and I’ve realized that the paperback thing is not entirely intuitive to readers. So I’m here to explain it all. Beyond the obvious (the floppier cover), they’re bound with glue rather than with the stitching that usually holds a hardcover together. This makes them flimsier and more likely to fall apart 20 years later, but they don’t hurt as much if you’re reading in bed and you drop one on your face.

The world seems a little (a lot?) crazy and stressful right now. If you’re finding it all just a bit too much, then search out a patch of forest and bath in some of the goodness therein. Hopefully this week’s issue will give you something interesting to look for while you visit… Autumn – my favorite time of year! – is beginning in the northern hemisphere… cooler temperatures, bluer sky (why does it appear bluer?

Before I jump into today’s newsletter, a quick reminder to those of you who haven’t yet: Please take my new reader survey! I’ve gotten lots of responses and they are SO helpful, but I would love more. Thank you! Take my reader survey A few weeks ago in a group text chat, some of my lady friends bemoaned that their partners have become rather crabby. Their husbands walk around with their shoulders slumped, don’t have any patience with the kids, and are often complaining.

“Currently Consuming” is a regular series I plan to write about what I’m watching, reading, listening to, etc. But let’s be honest— mostly watching. In my past mommy blogging life, the only shows/movies I ever wrote about were G rated, so I’m excited to write about stuff that isn’t animated by Pixar. Although, I have to say, those Pixar movies are a hell of a lot better than the crap I am currently watching.