Michael Wade on writing.

The beauty of putting some thoughts on paper is that the process often elicits other thoughts as well as dissent and conclusions in the mind of its author.

Don’t just think it, write it.

Staring at scribbles of ink can work all sorts of magic.

I didn’t watch the video, the short viral one or the 100 minute one, of the event that happened at the National Mall. I’m tired of the bigotry, misogyny, racism and homophobia in our daily discourse. I didn’t really comment on it because I didn’t watch it. However, two writers I admire did watch and took their time with their commentary. Andrew Sullivan and Brian Beutler have interesting takes on the whole ordeal.

I like context in my news. It’s more fun to throw out Molotov cocktails about everything, but I’d rather have a more nuanced and thoughtful approach. Both writers take on the context of the event and offer a more intelligent observation of what happened and why.

Sullivan cites the appearance of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a group akin to the Westboro Baptist Church. They are a hate group that screams bigoted, racist, and homophobic inflammatory language in public. He admonishes the media who jumped on the story and dismissed the Black Israelites appearance. He’s not wrong in calling them out.

Beutler takes on the MAGA-hate wearing high schoolers and calls them emblematic of the “ugly trends that have thrived in certain communities since before Donald Trump won the 2016 election.” He calls this Trumpism and, in turn, the Republican conservative movment.

Trumpism isn’t solely based on bigotry, misogyny, racism and homophobia, but it is based on the desire to say whatever one wants because of privilege or admiration.

It all seems so pathetic. I hope our country rejects these backwards thinking Neanderthals.

“Every morning, I have woken up knowing that I will never run out of books to read. That has been my life."

— Kenzaburo Oe

So, the shutdown has ended temporarily and Trump and the Republicans got nothing. Jonathan Chait, writing in New York Magazine, nails it.

Trump is absolutely horrible at politics. His policies are unpopular. He can’t make deals with Congress because he understands too little of the policy substance and can’t be bothered to learn. He surrounds himself with unqualified staffers and listens to the worst advice presented to him. The shutdown was a self-inflicted wound whose outcome was utterly predictable.

I love these series of posts from Beto O’Rourke on the road as he contemplates running for President in 2020. They come across as genuine and harken back to old school blogging.

Ben Mathis-Lilley, writing for Slate, had an interesting take.

O’Rourke seems a little lost. His current affect is wishy-washy and borderline cheesy; it involves a lot of listening and urging people to be “respectful” and “decent” but no specific policy commitments. It would not be a positive development were he to continue in this mode indefinitely—to run for president on a platform of being nice and listening to other people’s ideas without asserting any practical ideas of his own.

But when is the last time a major presidential contender spent more than 10 minutes talking to a normal person without cameras or handlers present? When is the last time such a person was open about what is, according to behind-the-scenes reporting, his real indecisiveness about whether the world needs him to run for president? Does anyone out there get up in the morning, look at news, and think, damn, this country is nailing it, our system of self-government is really humming, and the reason why that’s happening is because everyone is treating each other so kindly and respectfully?

Does anyone see the border fight and refugee situation and think, I’m certain that my ideas about immigration reform, a very simple issue, are achievable and realistic? Is spending extended time in not-particularly-affluent parts of the country not what every public servant should be doing between TV appearances and donor calls and flights to D.C.? Is it not inevitable, if a politician is acting in a truly authentic way, like we always say we want, that they will occasionally be a little much, or uncertain, or confused, or even pessimistic?

Let Beto live! And if it turns out he is actually doing this all as a stunt while his big-money consultants are putting together a manipulative, shallow campaign to attain the presidency by using regular people as props, we can all justifiably bury him in an avalanche of cynical snark and go back to the regular order of business: criticizing Hillary Clinton for being too focus-grouped and robotic.

I’m not sure he’s running. He might make an excellent VP candidate though.

Casey Newton on Twitter –

Recently I decided my favorite YouTube genre is “teenagers getting pulled on stage to perform with their idols and melting everyone’s faces off.”

This is, without a doubt, my favorite type of YouTube video. It’s fun rabbit hole to go down on a cold, cold day.

Alan Jacobs wrote this in his newsletter yesterday:

On Tuesday morning, January 22, I read a David Brooks column about a confrontation that happened on the National Mall during the March for Life. Until I read that column I had heard nothing about this incident because I do not have a Facebook account, have deleted my Twitter account, don’t watch TV news, and read the news about once a week. If all goes well, I won’t hear anything more about the story. I recommend this set of practices to you all.

On his blog, he continued the thought.

After reading the Brooks column I checked in on the social media I have access to, and I cannot readily express to you how strange the commotion seemed to me. The responses of people to this issue struck me as — this is going to sound very strong, but I promise you that it’s precisely how I felt — it struck me as the behavior of people in the grip of some manic compulsion, of some kind of mass hysteria. There are no rational criteria in light of which what happened between those people on the National Mall matters — none at all.

And then I was filled with relief that I hadn’t got caught up in the tsunami — which, if I had been on social media, I would have been as vulnerable to as the next person, I’m sure — and filled with determination to make my way to still higher ground. Maybe you can’t do that, but if you can you probably should. (And, to be perfectly straightforward, there are a great many people who say they can’t disconnect from social media who in fact just don’t want to, or are afraid of what will happen if they do.)

I find his approach to all of this fascinating.

I didn’t watch the video, the short viral one or the 100-minute one, of the event that happened at the National Mall. I’m tired of the bigotry, misogyny, racism, and homophobia in our daily discourse. However, two writers I admire did watch and took their time with their commentary. Andrew Sullivan and Brian Beutler have interesting takes on the whole ordeal.

I like context in my news. It’s more fun to throw out Molotov cocktails about everything, but I’d rather have a more nuanced and thoughtful approach. Both writers take on the context of the event and offer a more intelligent observation of what happened and why.

Sullivan cites the appearance of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a group akin to the Westboro Baptist Church. They are a hate group that screams bigoted, racist, and homophobic inflammatory language in public. He admonishes the media who jumped on the story and dismissed the Black Israelite’s appearance. He’s not wrong in calling them out.

Beutler takes on the MAGA-hate-wearing high schoolers and calls them emblematic of the “ugly trends that have thrived in certain communities since before Donald Trump won the 2016 election.” He calls this Trumpism and, in turn, the Republican conservative movement.

Trumpism isn’t solely based on bigotry, misogyny, racism, and homophobia, but it is based on the desire to say whatever one wants because of privilege or admiration.

It all seems so pathetic. I hope our country rejects these backward thinking Neanderthals.

In the last few years, my ability to find the time to watch all the Oscar nominated films from the past year has gone up in a cloud of smoke. So, I find it oddly comforting to read the Oscar predictions from author John Scalzi.

I have no idea if he’s going to be right or not, but it’s my favorite breakdown of why he’s right that I read.

There is a handful of television that is a must-watch for me. Game of Thrones, Westworld, Doctor Who, The Expanse, Titans, Star Trek Discovery, and Criminal Minds, to name the first few off the top of my head, are all excellent. For example, I’m really looking forward to the end of Game of Thrones, and with six movie-length episodes, it will be like watching an incredible marathon.

Still, the true guilty pleasure has been The Magicians. Yes, the one that’s Harry Potter for adults. After three seasons, it’s way more than that simple description now. In fact, Season Three probably has two of my all-time favorite moments on television, and that’s saying something. The moment the entire cast sings “ Under Pressure” to help them all deal with their various plights is silly and fun, but when Margo and Elliot speak in TV show … I lost it.

And that’s the best part. The show can do anything, has done just about everything, and is wicked smart. The characters are heroic, flawed, and real. The actors are diverse. The writing is bonkers, yet confronts real issues like trauma and mental illness. With Game of Thrones, I can theorize who will ultimately sit on the Iron Throne. I have no idea where I’m headed with each new episode of The Magicians, and that’s refreshing.

Season four starts tomorrow. If you haven’t started watching, catch up.

Patrick Rhone with a tiny bit of sage advice.

Don’t concern yourself with the what-if.

Focus instead on the what-now.

My friend Grant Chastain shared his thoughts about the Super Bowl. Unsurprisingly, they echo mine.

This year’s Super Bowl will feature that long-awaited matchup of “team that videotaped their way to beating St. Louis in 2001,” versus “team that abandoned St. Louis, finally got the good sense to fire Jeff Fisher, and turned themselves into a contender just two short years after leaving their fans high and dry.”

I’ll be pulling for chicken wings and crock-pot meatballs.

I use Google Docs for a lot of my writing. It’s the service that allows me to write in a way that works the best for me. I use Word mostly at work and Docs for my personal projects. I’m not a power-user, but I’m always looking for ways to make Google Docs work better, faster, easier, etc.

Josh Spector in his For the Interested newsletter, linked to an article on Fast Company by JR Raphael breaking down 25 useful Google Docs tricks and tips. I did not know very many of these and a couple really surprised me. Here are a couple that stood out.

9. Docs’s dictation feature is good for more than just regular writing and editing: Anytime you have some audio that needs to be turned into text–from a recorded interview, a podcast, or whatever the case may be–find a quiet room for your computer, fire up Docs’s voice typing mode, and let the audio play. Docs will provide a full transcription of your recorded audio, no specialty services or fees required.

12. Docs has its own tool to let you crop or edit images: Just click on an image within your document, then click the Format menu and select “Image.” There, you’ll find the command for cropping as well as a broader “Image Options” selection that contains functions for recoloring and adjusting the image’s transparency, brightness, and contrast.

25. Don’t limit yourself to Docs’s list of default fonts. You can add dozens of fonts into your word processing setup–and once they’re added, they’ll always be available in the regular font dropdown menu. All you have to do is open that dropdown menu and look for the “More fonts” option at the top. Click it and browse or search Google’s web font archive to find the style that meets your needs–then write away with the right look for every project you tackle.

I’m going to try the transcription one straightaway.

Today is Paul Stanley’s birthday, so I went down a small little rabbit hole of YouTube videos and found one of the first times I ever saw any live video of the band. 3–2–1 Contact was a show on PBS akin to The Electric Company and Sesame Street, but set up for an older audience and the fourth episode featured KISS from the 1979 Dynasty tour.

I’m not sure I’ve seen this clip since I saw it the first time. It really took me back to being 12 years old and seeing and hearing the band live with my eyes wide open. I know I was blown away at the time. The bit with the voice modulator stood out in my memory as well as the light up guitar Ace Frehley was using.

The other TV appearance that made a huge impression was the segment on Kids Are People Too when the band formally introduced Eric Carr. Paul’s New York accent was so strong to my Midwestern ears.

KISS has been a part of my life for a long, long time. It’s fun looking back and seeing moments of KISSTORY that impacted my young fandom.

My favorite comics penciller of all time, George Pérez, announced his retirement from comics work.

With respect to future published work in comics and such … while I know it’s been no secret that I’ve been dealing with a myriad number of health issues (diabetes, heart ailments, vision issues, etc.), they have indeed have forced me to, for all intents and purposes, formally retire from the business of creating new comic stories.

I’m heartened that he is able to retire with dignity and his legacy will live on.

Michael Wade chimes in with the same point I was going to make about the Gillette Toxic Masculinity spot.

As Gillette’s “toxic masculinity’ ad sparks an uproar, their executives should remember that there are some serious alternatives to their product. Here are two strong ones:

The original (and memorable) commercial for Dollar Shave Club.

The warm-hearted commercial for Harry’s Shaving Company.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the Super Bowl spot and it certainly will get tongues wagging. However, I think both the Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s commercials are infinitely better at doing the most important thing which is selling shaving accessories.

For the record, I use Dollar Shave Club and haven’t bought a razor at a store in years.

Michael Wade lists out seven career killers. I’ve been guilty of all of them although I’m definitely better at 5-7. Number 1 is my biggest problem.

1. Fear of failure. The opportunity-killer. Careers are made by seizing opportunities.

2. Lack of judgment. Just make sure you don’t seize every opportunity. An open door sometimes leads to the basement.

3. Fear of success. Beware if you notice that whenever success is within reach, you choose to re-tie your shoe laces or reassess your strategy.

4. Perfectionism. You want to do excellent work but a quest for perfectionism can be paralyzing.

5. Indiscretion. If saying something will bring intense pleasure, it may be time to edit your words or to embrace an old ally named Silence.

6. Sloth. Do your research and get the job done. (Repeat)

7. Unreliability. You don’t need to be a wizard, but it pays enormously to be known as a reliable performer.