I had this problem long before the advent of the Internet so the subscription thing ballooned in the same way.
In the 80's I would subscribe to & read professional journals a lot because I was a novice in the field. The local daily paper and the Christian Science Monitor as well as the hefty 3" thick Sunday NY Times as well as back issues of journals would pile up because I couldn't just toss an issue without at least skimming it. I would even skim minimally interesting sections of the Sunday Times like the Real Estate section for the occasional article on negotiating a home sale, etc.
But skimming in itself is a time commitment.
Part of the solution is likely a change in my mental attitude, that it's just fine to miss out on a lot of stuff and not keep up with stuff that is not an immediate priority.
Great topic, Marque! I feel exactly the same way. I still use FB, but I don’t allow notifications to come to me directly. I have a few groups I follow, and I can see that I already need to drop a few of them. I don’t spend much time there. Substack has way too much, and I have stopped reading most of it. I still have a subscription to The Dispatch, but I’ve halfway thought of dropping it, mostly because I’ve already read or watched most of the TMD news somewhere else. I dropped automatic renewal from TD, National Review and The Free Press. Mostly they just add to my anxiety about politics and especially how we are dealing with foreign affairs. Maybe a break is what’s needed. I’m not reading most of their newsletters lately. What are they going to tell me that I don’t already know or think?
My husband and I use Amazon Prime a lot, but we could easily pass on their Prime movies. There’s too much junk, and we hardly watch any of it. I also resent that they now want an additional monthly fee for no ads. At least (so far), there’s about 3 minutes of ads only at the beginning. We get Netflix as a “benefit” through our cellphone provider. Netflix has added another tier in order to watch without ads. Not paying for that, and would be happy if our cellphone service would eliminate the “benefit,” and lower its price by whatever the amount is it’s paying.
I do have a thing for YouTube, but right now the political ads have taken over. There seems to be almost nothing I can watch without having to see at least one, but often several. We have a subscription to Acorn, and now I’m sorry I prepaid for a year because I would drop that one, at least for awhile. It’s nice that there aren’t any ads, but I feel as though we’ve watched most of the ones that interested us. Recently, I restarted a monthly subscription to BritBox. I’m not sure how long that will last, but at least it’s easy to cancel.
My other problem has been watercolor tutorials! I’ve done several, and one I stuck with for over a year. Now, I have a different one, and it expires at the end of the month. I’m not renewing, mostly because I’m tired of following tutorials and I don’t like the feeling that I’m wasting money. Lately, I’m having more fun painting on my own, and there’s no pressure to feel like I’m wasting money if I’m not completing at least one or more tutorials each month.
One thing I’ve noticed about YouTube. If I use their app on my AppleTV (the streaming device), the ads are ridiculously long—60 second ad breaks. If I watch on the iPad or on my web browser, the ads let me skip after 5 to 15 seconds. So I’m better off beaming the iPad content onto the TV via screen mirroring than using the streaming device app.
Well, so far, at least. It’s probably only a matter of time before they start punishing all users equally…
Tbh, I got used to limited commercials when I had cable and paid extra for the DVR/Tivo service. It added a lot of value to television for a few more years: being able to watch programming later and ff through the commercials.
Had to come back to this because last night I was trying to watch some painting tutorials on YouTube on my iPad, and EVERY ONE of them started with a minimum of two ads!!
I ditched Facebook in early summer 2016 when election weirdness was ramping up. I routinely radiate gratitude into the cosmos for having been able to start and run a business before being on FB became a default necessity.
Cable/TV's been gone so long I don't remember when I got rid of it....at least a couple decades. I still do Instagram a couple times a week to share stuff with a few building science geeks, some artists, etc., etc., and to clear out the OnlyFans cretins clogging up my Inbox "liking" something so I'll notice their overly ample attributes and sign up.
I've discovered that all those old media subscriptions remain in the big guys database, and they still send me a daily short list of headlines and ledes....which is really about all I need for news. It's like quitting drinking or some other bad habit...you notice you're feeling better and have time for stuff you used to not have time for. When the big guns start winging the intro offers to get back on the treadmill, I go for it. I'm back at the NYT for an introductory $3.99 a month for 6 months; when it kicks back up to $24.99, I'll drop it again.
Substack is wonderful. All sorts of interesting folks writing about interesting things, all dreaming of that big day when they can make enough from their Substack to go to Starbucks once a week.
Scraping off all the subscriptions is a good step toward a better life, and it returns the time everyone complains about not having enough of....so I can continue reading books.
It’s sort of the model described by Kevin Kelly: do something online for which you can attract 1,000 people willing to pay a subscription. Early on in this, it was easy to catch myself dreaming of such things, but mainly I focused on it as a exercise in maintaining a routine. I wish had (or thought I had) stuff of profound or novel interest to prattle on about every day, but realism sets in soon enough. Eventually resignation sets in that it’ll mostly be angry-old-geezer rants in the main. There’s hardly any reason to think it could be otherwise.
This is a nice little community of Mensa type people who know actually very little about each other but enjoy exchanging ideas, and have TD as something in common. Perhaps that and the daily "rant" is all that's needed.
Interesting, I was doing the same thing with WSJ that you are doing with NYT. I have now decided that WSJ isn't my cup of tea at any price. Here and TD is about as far as I want to venture into the conservative world.
I can totally understand. I tried the modern adult’s version of eat your vegetables: “Don’t get stuck in your ideological bubble,” they said, “Read stuff from the other side of the political spectrum.” It just made me cantankerous and more hostile.
Eventually I decided for myself that it was a counter-productive waste of time.
But now I don’t even like spending as much time confirming my beliefs—even if it’s the majority of what I read. That in itself is too time-consuming.
Some huge majority percentage of all this stuff is just noise. It took cutting out all of it so I could then see how much was noise and more importantly, what is useful.
I'm doing it with WSJ too. Just finished up the same sort of deal at Bloomberg. I let TD go even though it's cheap, completely due to their shift to Dipsquat for comments. I miss KDW and a few of the youngsters. The Olde Guard? Tell me the topic, and I bet I can bullet point their essay. I can't understand how people can read some of those guys every day.
I haven't added any wood to the firepit since last night, but it is still warm, so this is day four of the burning. Yesterday I worked from home, and once an hour I'd go to the yard to rake some twigs in the woods, placing them in the firepit. I felt like a cardinal, because five minutes later a wisp of white smoke floated upward, and within an hour it was all gone. For some reason it reminds me of that pit in Star Wars, where it takes 1,000 years to be digested...I don't see much open flame (unless I add too much), but it disappears! I've cleaned a 25 square foot area of small debris.
When I camped in boy scouts, on the cool campouts we'd heat a rock, then place it in the bottom of our sleeping bags for warmth. It worked pretty well.
I checked our weather forecast; highs in the 70s through Halloween. That'll be nice, but it means I gotta hold off planting daffodils! I ordered a 200 yesterday. Katie smiled, but 🙄. I have a spot I've cleared, I hope to fill it with daffodils.
Good morning. Indian Summer (aka “Second summer” for the politically correct) is upon us, with predicted highs in the upper 70s. The mothership explores the question of what the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar means for peace. (The consensus seems to be : Peace is closer, but not here).
Sinwar was a horrible man. Supposedly one of the Palestinians he had executed for supposedly collaborating with the Israelis, he had buried alive, and made the man's own brother do it.
Having said that, the insurgency will live on, as long as Palestinians perceive they are living under occupation, so it's like whack-a-mole. Or, any port in a storm.
The team is still there, right? Maybe sad about the name being changed.
There are people who say that about the Redskins, too.
A small subset of those people insist on deadnaming trans people too; I don't assume Phil is one of them though. It's all on a spectrum of preferring that names always stay the same.
I do say that about the Redskins as well. In both cases, I'm far from convinced that symbolic removing of names acknowledging Native Americans, either helps those Native Americans in any way, or was actually demanded by the vast majority of them (as opposed to activists). But those changes do affect fan traditions, which saddens me.
The other issue you mention is totally different, but I won't touch that here.
Stephanie, I do have opinions. I'll try not to be as sharp tounged. I hope we can keep these comments more light-hearted than back at the mothership.
I have cut back on the number of subscriptions---paid or unpaid---that I have. I do a lot of reading, but I have promised that I will read more books and few articles going forward. There's definitely a sense of FOMO in cutting back my substack and magazine article reading. What if I miss a really great article by, say, Anne Applebaum? But I'm determined. Someone will tell me if something worthwhile comes down the pike and I will read that article. No need for a subscription where the "could-have-lived-without-it" to "wow-this-changed-my-life" ratio is pretty high.
Being retired, it is too easy to go down every rabbit hole and get caught up on everything online including reading and commenting here and on TD as well as other sites.
How much time do people typically spend here and at TD reading and commenting? Asking for a friend.
I try to participate in the Comments at TD most days and it can burn up 30 minutes.
I save time by skimming or skipping most of the articles, as they are not really top-notch. I like Scott Lincicomes's charts and graphs, and he interacts in the comments. He seems like a friendly guy. OTOH, I critiqued Jonah G one time too many, and he got all huffy and said, "If you don't like what I say, don't read it." That told me he is there to do strictly fan service. So of course, I took his advice; Stirewalt, Drucker & Warren are a better use of the time.
I like Jonah a lot: his political preferences and instincts are very familiar to me. But I get *too much* of him, sort of like I get too much of *me* sometimes. His undisciplined writing and the Solo Remnant are often more than I can take, quite frankly. And while I find him self-deprecating, he lacks self-awareness on some level, seemingly oblivious to his heart-on-sleeve response to criticism.
I’ve given up on his written work, but I really enjoy him when he’s in a group on The Dispatch Live. He’s very amusing and charming in person, it’s clear.
Had to add—more than a little ironically: The urge to read books for me is partly from the desire to feel less susceptible to the sensation of suffering from ADHD (or at least ADD). The attention economy is so distracting I often feel like I can hardly complete a thought.
Immersion in a good book seems like an experience that has become rarer than it used to be.
You too?! ADHD is a tough one in a lot of ways. I’m constantly distracted OR I’m intensely concentrating to the point where I have trouble stopping (like now)! I tend to listen to audiobooks, even though I love reading. I found a decent monthly subscription to something called Everand, and have found a lot of great audiobooks there. They don’t have everything, but I listened to a couple of biographies (Truman and Eisenhower), as well as some fun detective series.
Exactly. I still insist on reading, rather than listening to, a book. But I think I might get further toward my goal if I went to audio books. I am in the car a lot.
I find fiction is harder for me to follow as an audio experience when I’m trying to do routine chores—or at least I haven’t found a writer that works for me that way. A lot of non-fiction, though, works fine for me, so long as it’s none-too-technical.
I listened to half the Aubrey-Maturin series while sewing various projects in my sewing room.
Same with the Alexander McCall-Smith series about the Number One Ladies Detective Agency.
Also the Maisie Dobbs novels; they re-create the England of WW I, WW II and the period between.
I think it's because the stories move along, and the various accents the actors reading the book have to assume, that keeps my attention from wandering.
I’ve always had that problem when it comes to news consumption especially. How many people’s takes on event do I need? Not many, it turns out. Even though I am one of those people who are prone to listening to preferred voices. That is, I like this or that person’s take on a particular subject more than just the plain news. You mention Applebaum, I would mention Kasparov on Twitter, but there are others.
** No need for a subscription where the "could-have-lived-without-it" to "wow-this-changed-my-life" ratio is pretty high. **
I have only a few paid subscriptions and some free signups on Substack. An advantage of free subscriptions (in addition to not paying) is that you usually only get content about once a week, sometimes even less frequently. That makes it a nice surprise, "Oh, here's an article from Aimee Byrd, how pleasant ...," instead of, "Here's something I *should* read because I paid for it."
"....the symbolism of paying and what it represents."
Yeah. Although, I don't shrug off the small fees. (Insert favorite aphorism about saving small sums and how it magically aggregates into real money here....)
Being married to a Chinese woman who grew up during the Cultural Revolution and now will NOT get rid of any article of clothing, blanket, pillow, or any tangible household item...because, who knows, we might need that scratchy blanket from 1977.... promotes an accommodating viewpoint.
Good morning. Happy Tiw's Day! We're going up into Charlotte this morning for a forestry activity of some sort. Unfortunately, the unpredictability of traffic means we'll have to leave super early, which will produce massive whining from F and D.
Greater Charlotte has been a nonstop boomtown since at least the mid-80s. It’s a wonder how well they’ve been able to keep up with traffic demand—just barely. But the traffic backups seem to get worse all the time.
Driving in a 1st tier Chinese city is wild. More cars than words can describe on elevated 12 lane highways weaving through high rises, packed tightly, but MOVING, and absolutely zero road rage. Everyone's packed in, lines describing lanes be damned, everyone edging for the advantage that will get them in front of the other car, inching, calculating, mere millimeters separating fenders, then someone gets the advantage and the other person lets them in with nary a horn honk or flipped finger...and the traffic keeps moving.
I spent a career driving around metro Chicago. If one doesn't develop strategies, one is lost. I don't think about traffic much other than strategizing how to avoid it and take my licks when I can't avoid it. It doesn't upset me much.
Good friend with a Mexican wife used to love contrasting Mexicans driving in MX cities vs. LA. In MX, it’s all rudeness, impatience, scofflaw behavior, very aggressive. In LA, Mexican drivers are super polite, patient, obey the road laws. He figured it’s because the high deportation anxiety among the LA Mexican drivers made them very compliant.
That's exactly it. At least, that's a common model in Chicago.
Several years ago, I was at the Irving Park 6 corners, and two Chevy Astro vans ran into each other. About 8 folks piled out of each van and ran in every direction, leaving the vehicles in the middle of the intersection. Deportation fear is a daily experience for a lot of my associates.
Sometimes it's not too hard to get somewhere. We got around to the far side of the city and back on Saturday with no difficulty. However, the 30 minutes that Google Maps tells me now could turn into over an hour later this morning, if anything goes wrong.
I have no idea about Charlotte traffic. But having previously lived in the Washington DC metro area for close to 20 years, I doubt it approaches the level of DC area traffic.
I had this problem long before the advent of the Internet so the subscription thing ballooned in the same way.
In the 80's I would subscribe to & read professional journals a lot because I was a novice in the field. The local daily paper and the Christian Science Monitor as well as the hefty 3" thick Sunday NY Times as well as back issues of journals would pile up because I couldn't just toss an issue without at least skimming it. I would even skim minimally interesting sections of the Sunday Times like the Real Estate section for the occasional article on negotiating a home sale, etc.
But skimming in itself is a time commitment.
Part of the solution is likely a change in my mental attitude, that it's just fine to miss out on a lot of stuff and not keep up with stuff that is not an immediate priority.
Great topic, Marque! I feel exactly the same way. I still use FB, but I don’t allow notifications to come to me directly. I have a few groups I follow, and I can see that I already need to drop a few of them. I don’t spend much time there. Substack has way too much, and I have stopped reading most of it. I still have a subscription to The Dispatch, but I’ve halfway thought of dropping it, mostly because I’ve already read or watched most of the TMD news somewhere else. I dropped automatic renewal from TD, National Review and The Free Press. Mostly they just add to my anxiety about politics and especially how we are dealing with foreign affairs. Maybe a break is what’s needed. I’m not reading most of their newsletters lately. What are they going to tell me that I don’t already know or think?
My husband and I use Amazon Prime a lot, but we could easily pass on their Prime movies. There’s too much junk, and we hardly watch any of it. I also resent that they now want an additional monthly fee for no ads. At least (so far), there’s about 3 minutes of ads only at the beginning. We get Netflix as a “benefit” through our cellphone provider. Netflix has added another tier in order to watch without ads. Not paying for that, and would be happy if our cellphone service would eliminate the “benefit,” and lower its price by whatever the amount is it’s paying.
I do have a thing for YouTube, but right now the political ads have taken over. There seems to be almost nothing I can watch without having to see at least one, but often several. We have a subscription to Acorn, and now I’m sorry I prepaid for a year because I would drop that one, at least for awhile. It’s nice that there aren’t any ads, but I feel as though we’ve watched most of the ones that interested us. Recently, I restarted a monthly subscription to BritBox. I’m not sure how long that will last, but at least it’s easy to cancel.
My other problem has been watercolor tutorials! I’ve done several, and one I stuck with for over a year. Now, I have a different one, and it expires at the end of the month. I’m not renewing, mostly because I’m tired of following tutorials and I don’t like the feeling that I’m wasting money. Lately, I’m having more fun painting on my own, and there’s no pressure to feel like I’m wasting money if I’m not completing at least one or more tutorials each month.
One thing I’ve noticed about YouTube. If I use their app on my AppleTV (the streaming device), the ads are ridiculously long—60 second ad breaks. If I watch on the iPad or on my web browser, the ads let me skip after 5 to 15 seconds. So I’m better off beaming the iPad content onto the TV via screen mirroring than using the streaming device app.
Well, so far, at least. It’s probably only a matter of time before they start punishing all users equally…
Tbh, I got used to limited commercials when I had cable and paid extra for the DVR/Tivo service. It added a lot of value to television for a few more years: being able to watch programming later and ff through the commercials.
Had to come back to this because last night I was trying to watch some painting tutorials on YouTube on my iPad, and EVERY ONE of them started with a minimum of two ads!!
YES! I’ve noticed the same thing re the AppleTV app!! We had the DVR thing, and I liked that we could speed through the commercials.
I ditched Facebook in early summer 2016 when election weirdness was ramping up. I routinely radiate gratitude into the cosmos for having been able to start and run a business before being on FB became a default necessity.
Cable/TV's been gone so long I don't remember when I got rid of it....at least a couple decades. I still do Instagram a couple times a week to share stuff with a few building science geeks, some artists, etc., etc., and to clear out the OnlyFans cretins clogging up my Inbox "liking" something so I'll notice their overly ample attributes and sign up.
I've discovered that all those old media subscriptions remain in the big guys database, and they still send me a daily short list of headlines and ledes....which is really about all I need for news. It's like quitting drinking or some other bad habit...you notice you're feeling better and have time for stuff you used to not have time for. When the big guns start winging the intro offers to get back on the treadmill, I go for it. I'm back at the NYT for an introductory $3.99 a month for 6 months; when it kicks back up to $24.99, I'll drop it again.
Substack is wonderful. All sorts of interesting folks writing about interesting things, all dreaming of that big day when they can make enough from their Substack to go to Starbucks once a week.
Scraping off all the subscriptions is a good step toward a better life, and it returns the time everyone complains about not having enough of....so I can continue reading books.
It’s sort of the model described by Kevin Kelly: do something online for which you can attract 1,000 people willing to pay a subscription. Early on in this, it was easy to catch myself dreaming of such things, but mainly I focused on it as a exercise in maintaining a routine. I wish had (or thought I had) stuff of profound or novel interest to prattle on about every day, but realism sets in soon enough. Eventually resignation sets in that it’ll mostly be angry-old-geezer rants in the main. There’s hardly any reason to think it could be otherwise.
This is a nice little community of Mensa type people who know actually very little about each other but enjoy exchanging ideas, and have TD as something in common. Perhaps that and the daily "rant" is all that's needed.
It's an affinity group.
Interesting, I was doing the same thing with WSJ that you are doing with NYT. I have now decided that WSJ isn't my cup of tea at any price. Here and TD is about as far as I want to venture into the conservative world.
I can totally understand. I tried the modern adult’s version of eat your vegetables: “Don’t get stuck in your ideological bubble,” they said, “Read stuff from the other side of the political spectrum.” It just made me cantankerous and more hostile.
Eventually I decided for myself that it was a counter-productive waste of time.
But now I don’t even like spending as much time confirming my beliefs—even if it’s the majority of what I read. That in itself is too time-consuming.
Some huge majority percentage of all this stuff is just noise. It took cutting out all of it so I could then see how much was noise and more importantly, what is useful.
A good reminder.
I'm doing it with WSJ too. Just finished up the same sort of deal at Bloomberg. I let TD go even though it's cheap, completely due to their shift to Dipsquat for comments. I miss KDW and a few of the youngsters. The Olde Guard? Tell me the topic, and I bet I can bullet point their essay. I can't understand how people can read some of those guys every day.
My name was Disgust :)
I call it Disqust.
I'm having my windshield replaced this morning. May it allow me to see the world more clearly.
I hope you have the kind of service where they come to you and do the swap right in your driveway.
I’m not sure that is possible with needing calibration. I have had a horrible time trying to get OEM glass for a recent model Toyota. sigh
Probably Toyota OEM glass, iis China based Fuyao Group. They have an automotive glass plant in Dayton, and are an OEM and aftermarket supplier.
G'morning all
I haven't added any wood to the firepit since last night, but it is still warm, so this is day four of the burning. Yesterday I worked from home, and once an hour I'd go to the yard to rake some twigs in the woods, placing them in the firepit. I felt like a cardinal, because five minutes later a wisp of white smoke floated upward, and within an hour it was all gone. For some reason it reminds me of that pit in Star Wars, where it takes 1,000 years to be digested...I don't see much open flame (unless I add too much), but it disappears! I've cleaned a 25 square foot area of small debris.
When I camped in boy scouts, on the cool campouts we'd heat a rock, then place it in the bottom of our sleeping bags for warmth. It worked pretty well.
I checked our weather forecast; highs in the 70s through Halloween. That'll be nice, but it means I gotta hold off planting daffodils! I ordered a 200 yesterday. Katie smiled, but 🙄. I have a spot I've cleared, I hope to fill it with daffodils.
I can't do spring bulbs here until November.
Daffodils....mmmmmm
Good morning. Indian Summer (aka “Second summer” for the politically correct) is upon us, with predicted highs in the upper 70s. The mothership explores the question of what the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar means for peace. (The consensus seems to be : Peace is closer, but not here).
Sinwar was a horrible man. Supposedly one of the Palestinians he had executed for supposedly collaborating with the Israelis, he had buried alive, and made the man's own brother do it.
Having said that, the insurgency will live on, as long as Palestinians perceive they are living under occupation, so it's like whack-a-mole. Or, any port in a storm.
Being in Ohio, shouldn't they call it "Guardian summer" now? 🧐
No. And neither of us are from Cleveland, former home of the Cleveland Indians. 😞
I saw Mickey Mantle play up in Cleveland, 1960, 61
Why should I be sad about not being from Cleveland?
Not about that, but the name change. The current name is inoffensive and bland.
The team is still there, right? Maybe sad about the name being changed.
There are people who say that about the Redskins, too.
A small subset of those people insist on deadnaming trans people too; I don't assume Phil is one of them though. It's all on a spectrum of preferring that names always stay the same.
I do say that about the Redskins as well. In both cases, I'm far from convinced that symbolic removing of names acknowledging Native Americans, either helps those Native Americans in any way, or was actually demanded by the vast majority of them (as opposed to activists). But those changes do affect fan traditions, which saddens me.
The other issue you mention is totally different, but I won't touch that here.
Stephanie, I do have opinions. I'll try not to be as sharp tounged. I hope we can keep these comments more light-hearted than back at the mothership.
I have cut back on the number of subscriptions---paid or unpaid---that I have. I do a lot of reading, but I have promised that I will read more books and few articles going forward. There's definitely a sense of FOMO in cutting back my substack and magazine article reading. What if I miss a really great article by, say, Anne Applebaum? But I'm determined. Someone will tell me if something worthwhile comes down the pike and I will read that article. No need for a subscription where the "could-have-lived-without-it" to "wow-this-changed-my-life" ratio is pretty high.
Being retired, it is too easy to go down every rabbit hole and get caught up on everything online including reading and commenting here and on TD as well as other sites.
How much time do people typically spend here and at TD reading and commenting? Asking for a friend.
I try to participate in the Comments at TD most days and it can burn up 30 minutes.
I save time by skimming or skipping most of the articles, as they are not really top-notch. I like Scott Lincicomes's charts and graphs, and he interacts in the comments. He seems like a friendly guy. OTOH, I critiqued Jonah G one time too many, and he got all huffy and said, "If you don't like what I say, don't read it." That told me he is there to do strictly fan service. So of course, I took his advice; Stirewalt, Drucker & Warren are a better use of the time.
Jonah is Jonah.
I like Jonah a lot: his political preferences and instincts are very familiar to me. But I get *too much* of him, sort of like I get too much of *me* sometimes. His undisciplined writing and the Solo Remnant are often more than I can take, quite frankly. And while I find him self-deprecating, he lacks self-awareness on some level, seemingly oblivious to his heart-on-sleeve response to criticism.
I’ve given up on his written work, but I really enjoy him when he’s in a group on The Dispatch Live. He’s very amusing and charming in person, it’s clear.
Too much.
Had to add—more than a little ironically: The urge to read books for me is partly from the desire to feel less susceptible to the sensation of suffering from ADHD (or at least ADD). The attention economy is so distracting I often feel like I can hardly complete a thought.
Immersion in a good book seems like an experience that has become rarer than it used to be.
You too?! ADHD is a tough one in a lot of ways. I’m constantly distracted OR I’m intensely concentrating to the point where I have trouble stopping (like now)! I tend to listen to audiobooks, even though I love reading. I found a decent monthly subscription to something called Everand, and have found a lot of great audiobooks there. They don’t have everything, but I listened to a couple of biographies (Truman and Eisenhower), as well as some fun detective series.
Exactly. I still insist on reading, rather than listening to, a book. But I think I might get further toward my goal if I went to audio books. I am in the car a lot.
You don't have to choose. I have an audio book going for the car, housework, gardening and a book to read. Both delightful in different ways.
I find fiction is harder for me to follow as an audio experience when I’m trying to do routine chores—or at least I haven’t found a writer that works for me that way. A lot of non-fiction, though, works fine for me, so long as it’s none-too-technical.
I listened to half the Aubrey-Maturin series while sewing various projects in my sewing room.
Same with the Alexander McCall-Smith series about the Number One Ladies Detective Agency.
Also the Maisie Dobbs novels; they re-create the England of WW I, WW II and the period between.
I think it's because the stories move along, and the various accents the actors reading the book have to assume, that keeps my attention from wandering.
Well put.
I’ve always had that problem when it comes to news consumption especially. How many people’s takes on event do I need? Not many, it turns out. Even though I am one of those people who are prone to listening to preferred voices. That is, I like this or that person’s take on a particular subject more than just the plain news. You mention Applebaum, I would mention Kasparov on Twitter, but there are others.
** No need for a subscription where the "could-have-lived-without-it" to "wow-this-changed-my-life" ratio is pretty high. **
I have only a few paid subscriptions and some free signups on Substack. An advantage of free subscriptions (in addition to not paying) is that you usually only get content about once a week, sometimes even less frequently. That makes it a nice surprise, "Oh, here's an article from Aimee Byrd, how pleasant ...," instead of, "Here's something I *should* read because I paid for it."
Exactly.
Yup. And its cheaper.
I shrug at a cost of $5-$10/mo. It's more the symbolism of paying and what it represents.
"....the symbolism of paying and what it represents."
Yeah. Although, I don't shrug off the small fees. (Insert favorite aphorism about saving small sums and how it magically aggregates into real money here....)
Those small sub charges add up faster than you think when you’re trying to budget.
When one is married, a budget requires the commitment of both parties.
Being married to a Chinese woman who grew up during the Cultural Revolution and now will NOT get rid of any article of clothing, blanket, pillow, or any tangible household item...because, who knows, we might need that scratchy blanket from 1977.... promotes an accommodating viewpoint.
Good morning. Happy Tiw's Day! We're going up into Charlotte this morning for a forestry activity of some sort. Unfortunately, the unpredictability of traffic means we'll have to leave super early, which will produce massive whining from F and D.
Greater Charlotte has been a nonstop boomtown since at least the mid-80s. It’s a wonder how well they’ve been able to keep up with traffic demand—just barely. But the traffic backups seem to get worse all the time.
We hope for F and D’s speedy recovery!
Driving in a 1st tier Chinese city is wild. More cars than words can describe on elevated 12 lane highways weaving through high rises, packed tightly, but MOVING, and absolutely zero road rage. Everyone's packed in, lines describing lanes be damned, everyone edging for the advantage that will get them in front of the other car, inching, calculating, mere millimeters separating fenders, then someone gets the advantage and the other person lets them in with nary a horn honk or flipped finger...and the traffic keeps moving.
It's educational.
It must be a shock to your senses when you get back here, and it seems like everyone is aggressive and angry!
I spent a career driving around metro Chicago. If one doesn't develop strategies, one is lost. I don't think about traffic much other than strategizing how to avoid it and take my licks when I can't avoid it. It doesn't upset me much.
Good friend with a Mexican wife used to love contrasting Mexicans driving in MX cities vs. LA. In MX, it’s all rudeness, impatience, scofflaw behavior, very aggressive. In LA, Mexican drivers are super polite, patient, obey the road laws. He figured it’s because the high deportation anxiety among the LA Mexican drivers made them very compliant.
That's exactly it. At least, that's a common model in Chicago.
Several years ago, I was at the Irving Park 6 corners, and two Chevy Astro vans ran into each other. About 8 folks piled out of each van and ran in every direction, leaving the vehicles in the middle of the intersection. Deportation fear is a daily experience for a lot of my associates.
Sometimes it's not too hard to get somewhere. We got around to the far side of the city and back on Saturday with no difficulty. However, the 30 minutes that Google Maps tells me now could turn into over an hour later this morning, if anything goes wrong.
I know Charlotte almost exclusively via the I-77 transit. The downtown-Charlotte-to-Statesville portion seems to be one long choke point.
I-77 is ghastly.
I have no idea about Charlotte traffic. But having previously lived in the Washington DC metro area for close to 20 years, I doubt it approaches the level of DC area traffic.
Probably not.