stephen.news

hypertext, words and more

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  • True Detective: Night Country is finally here

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    2 min read

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    In many ways, Night Country sings a different tune than the previous seasons of True Detective. Previously, follow up seasons reception was less than favorable. Fans are salivating for a follow-up that can meet or exceed the original grit and pull of the debut season. In season three, Mahershala Ali delivered a refreshing saga that was draped in nods to the first season, but didn’t thread the needle completely. Season four however takes the core of what made season one so fantastic: murder and mysticism.

    Theology and mysticism have long treaded a thin line which Carl Sagan has touched on. Understanding our natural world is the only thing that can aid us from steering toward superstition:

    “Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.”

    Carl Sagan

    Night Country gives us many opposing parallels to consider within its narrative walls: Native Americans and white men. Cultures and conquests. Science and mysticism. Light and dark. Order and disorder. Environmentalism and exploitation. Machine and organic.

    The twilight of the long arctic night is a frightening backdrop. The severe darkness beckons for relief. I can hardly fathom enduring more than a few days of darkness myself. Isolation in a such a harsh dark world ratchets up those anxieties even further. The arctic night is a brief pause in an otherwise mundane cycle: daybreak is always followed by the night.

    But, not in Night Country. A chilling start, capped off with a dizzying end. SO much more is yet to come and I couldn’t be more happy with where this is headed.

  • The Original Star Wars Logo

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    1 min read

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    The original Star Wars logo from 1976, which was suddenly dropped before the official theatrical release.

    Here’s what 20th Century Fox went with instead in 1977:

    And here’s the Star Wars worm-like logo we know and love today:

    h/t 1000logos.net

  • James Doolin, American painter and muralist

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    1 min read

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    James Doolin was an American painter and acclaimed muralist. Known for his urban and natural Californian landscapes. His works elevated everyday urban life under his lens, his style and his palette. His works were brimming with vibrant locomotion and depicted a certain reverence. Los Angeles artist and writer Doug Harvey described Doolin’s work in LA Weekly in 2002 when Doolin passed:

    “His paintings were successful in a way that is rare and precious — they enabled us to see the places we overlook every day and to recognize that, in spite of its ominous industrial overtones, the city is shot through with a luminous, electric vitality and a psychological potency verging on the mythic.”

    Study for Corporate Rise, 1986
    City Of Glass, 1991
    The Last Painter on Earth, 1983
    4WD, 1983

  • 35

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    2 min read

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    Today is my birthday. It’s only a day after Matt Mullenweg’s. As a little gift to myself and to him, I’m publishing a little post to reflect upon turning 35.

    This past year was especially busy and special. I travelled quite a bit. Visited the family in Texas a lot. Spent some quality time with my aging grandparents. We roadtripped to Maine, Montauk, and traveled to Cancun for a lovely beach wedding. 2023 was full of plenty of ups and plenty of downs. We even roadtripped from NYC to Texas for Christmas and rang in the New Year from Washington DC.

    I’m a little tired. Ready for much needed rest as winter begins to rev its arctic engines 😅

    Initially, I had planned to plan a big birthday party for turning 35. Instead, this birthday weekend consists of a low-key weekend staycation at a mystery hotel in the city (planned by my partner)! Tomorrow evening, a few friends and I will get together for drinks, but nothing huge is really planned other than the standard social meetups.

    I’m really looking forward to focusing on my health (yes, this includes my mental health as well) this year. I want to do more hiking and more exploring this year. If you too want to do more hiking and live in the tristate area, lemme know if you’re looking for a hiking buddy! I’m also beginning to feel the pains of growing older ever so slightly. So, I’m eager to stay in shape so I can continue doing what I love doing most.

    Now, that I’m halfway through my 30’s, it’s time to organize my time and resources to spend a good deal of time with loved ones, re-connect with old friends and maintaining my current relationships. I hear it gets harder to make friends as you age, so I’m taking stock of who’s in my orbit now and trimming the fat so to speak.

    In other news, this blog itself got a facelift. I was thinking, a new year calls for a new theme. Frankly, every time this blog gets a new theme, I get a renewed sense of urgency to blog more myself. Last year, I published about every other day. My big goal for 2024, it to double that.

  • How to make perfect eggs every time

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    1 min read

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    I always look forward to Sohla El-Waylly’s tips on cooking. She is a master in culinary arts. She’s got legendary wit and has great perspectives on cooking. Sohla studied at CIA, previously had a show on Bon Appetite, went solo with her own show and now has a show on NYTimes Cooking.

    To be brief, she’s incredible. Buy her books.

    This all brings me to her Cooking 101 segment on NYTimes Cooking, on how to make perfect eggs every time. Eggs are the building block for so many recipes. It’s a unique protein that has been used in cooking for a millennia. To achieve perfection here requires some knowledge of chemistry, tame temperature on the skillet and understanding timing. All of these skills can inform your cooking in other recipes since eggs are such a crucial component in many dishes.

  • How to Write according to David Ogilvy

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    1 min read

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    In September of 1982, David Ogilvy shared the following:

    1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing.* Read it three times.
    2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
    3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
    4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
    5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
    6. Check your quotations.
    7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning —and then edit it.
    8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
    9. Before you send your letter or memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
    10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

    *Writing That Works., HARPER & ROW,

  • “The Real Toy Story” photo series by Michael Wolf

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    1 min read

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    In 2004, photographer Michael Wolf traveled to Southern China to document the lives of the toy factory workers that live there: their days consisted of sewing, painting, and other repetitive tasks. He documented how they slept, ate, and live under the often brutal conditions and demands of global consumerism and capitalism. (h/t gessato.com)

  • Learning Korean (한국어) Day 523: Express necessity

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    1 min read

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    Today, I began on Unit 21 in Duolingo. This is day 523 learning Korean 한국어 😅 This Unit’s subject is Express Necessity. Cute and useful.

    줄 서야 합니다.

    You have to stand in line.

    죄송하지만 지금 퇴근해야 해요.

    I’m sorry but I have to leave work now.

    저는 퇴근해서 집에 가야 해요.

    I have to leave work and go home.

    민지는 숙제를 오늘 해야 해요.

    Minji has to do the homework today.

    오늘 저녁에 출근해야 해요.

    I have to go to work this evening.

    의사는 빨리 준비해야 해요.

    The doctor needs to prepare quickly.

  • Reddit is sunsetting coins and community awards

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    2 min read

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    From the u/venkman01 on Reddit’s Product Team:

    TL;DR: We are reworking how great content and contributions are rewarded on Reddit. As part of this, we made a decision to sunset coins (including Community coins for moderators) and awards (including Medals, Premium Awards, and Community Awards), which also impacts some existing Reddit Premium perks. Starting today, you will no longer be able to purchase new coins, but all awards and existing coins will continue to be available until September 12, 2023.

    Many eons ago, Reddit introduced something called Reddit Gold. Gold then evolved, and we introduced new awards including Reddit Silver, Platinum, Ternium, and Argentium. And the evolution continued from there. While we saw many of the awards used as a fun way to recognize contributions from your fellow redditors, looking back at those eons, we also saw consistent feedback on awards as a whole. First, many don’t appreciate the clutter from awards (50+ awards right now, but who’s counting?) and all the steps that go into actually awarding content. Second, redditors want awarded content to be more valuable to the recipient.

    While I never fully understood Reddit Gold as a product (and neither did Reddit it seems), it was much beloved by the community. Gilding fellow redditors comments felt good and was honestly pretty novel at the time. It was also an awesome indicator of high-quality content. Seems like Reddit is likely killing off this feature because gilded content would otherwise identify high-quality content to would-be web crawlers, and Reddit wants a piece of the pie.

    I think coins and micro-transcations certainly can be a successful model for creators (see Twitch). But Reddit, has historically never understood their general userbase and has historically never leaned into empowering creators/powerusers. Each year, they shed more and more classic nostalgic features while product inherits tech debt. Coins and Rewards were certainly more useful than RPAN (yikes). Honestly, some of the best features are user-generated, maybe Reddit is making a grave mistake here.

  • Elon Musk’s decision to block unregistered users from reading tweets decimates Twitter’s SEO

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    2 min read

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    Turns one of the side-effects of blocking traffic from reading tweets, is it will tank your SEO and search appearance. Twitter is forcing all unregistered traffic to login or register. If your content is not indexable, it will hurt your SEO scores. This mechanic is well understood by web and software engineers. My best guess is all the pandering and feet-kissing people in his orbit neglected to tell him the consequences of this to keep Elon’s temper tantrums at bay. Making tweets visible to registered users only and installing rate-limits is a terrible product choice that affects growth strategies negatively. Don’t take my word for it, the numbers speak for themselves.

    Barry Schwartz for SEO Roundtable writes:

    On Friday, June 30th at about 1pm ET, Twitter had 471 million URLs indexed in Google Search according to this site command.

    Then yesterday, July 2nd, I snapped another screenshot and Google had 34% fewer URLs indexed, 309 million, that is 162 million fewer URLs indexed

    Then this morning, I grabbed another screenshot, and it was down now to 227 million URLs indexed, that is about 52% less than what was indexed on Friday

    […]

    Twitter URLs indexed by Friday to today went from about 471 million URLs to 227 million, a drop of about 52%. I wonder what type of impact this has on its traffic from Google Search, if any.

    Musk is an idiot.