What a strange feeling and the first time I’ve experienced it. I came to a coffee shop to REALLY write one of these updates in order to “pressure test” what I’m going to do next (update my Gemini chat to not just edit for length, but for content and voice as well). Laptop’s open with a blank screen on WordPress (I actually never write in WordPress but figured I’d try something new). Looked at the screen for a moment and was like “I want to use my phone,” so here I am typing with two thumbs instead the full speed of touch typing… Interesting.

I think a part of it is because I want to effortless move between photos and other apps and the phone feels like a smother experience to me. It’s funny. I have been working on becoming a “primarily phone” user for a long time, and it’s been true for a long time, but I’ve never felt the urge to write here over a traditional keyboard. I think it might be because of the nature of these updates. Writing it on the phone is a limiter of sorts and I can get a better sense for how it will display on a mobile screen (like, for example, where to place page breaks).

This thought came from a photo my wife took of me in the cold bath at a hot spring hotel. I didn’t know what she was doing when taking a photo I asked for. She kept moving the bucket around and I’m like “No! I want the bucket floating in the water!” She told me to shut up and let her do what she was doing (and so I did. 🤐) Once she showed me the photo, I saw why. She was strategically placing the bucket such that it covered up my gbolahan. 🍆🍆🍆😂😂😂

My first reaction was “I can’t wait to put this one LinkedIn! 😂” Wife: “Don’t put it on LinkedIn.” Me: “Why not?” Wife: “I don’t know, it’s not professional.” Me: “I’m not trying to be professional, it makes more sense than Facebook, everyone’s an adult!”

Then I was like… Maybe I shouldn’t put it on Facebook… 🤔🤔🤔😂 Heh… Realizing another reason I recoiled from my keyboard… WEAK EMOJI GAME! 😝

Anyhow, thinking about those things lead to me realizing I can make my “CustomGPT” (it just lives in a Gemini chat) make tailored versions of the original message based on the platform. So not just editing for length. Editing for content and voice as well. My website can have the raw version and the platforms will get a version that makes sense for the platform. This won’t just include content, but image selection and style (maybe I’ll have it make hashtags for Instagram if that’s still a thing… 👴🏾).

Do that THAT work, building a custom chat instance, is DEFINITELY keyboard work. I FLY when I’m doing that and usually have several tabs open so I can work on several projects, or aspects of a single project, at the same while waiting for the AI to “think”.

Speaking of AI. I saw AI out in the wild for the first time in the form of an announcement on the MRT (subway). I didn’t scan the QR code yet to see where it goes but I think the angle is such that you can if you’re interested. :)

My timeline jumping around a bit here, but I got Magda out of the house on on the MRT! She hated leaves the house and HATES the MRT. I suggested going to the hot spring early in the week and she was like “Maybe”. I honestly forgot about it, but when Saturday came she was like “What’s up with that hot spring?” 😂 That was a good time…

Now… Flash forward! I’m at home doing my evening journaling and I look at my stack of old journals in front of me. I’ve never had them set up like that. They’re usually hiding somewhere on my bookshelf. One of the journals caught my eye “The Transformation of miltownkid ZEE to Casey Abbott Payne” it’s dated August 2015 to August 2017 (if only that transformation only took 2 years… 😭). I honestly can’t even remember writing that title, but the timing seemed perfect as I actually am fully in the Casey Abbott Payne suit with miltownkid ZEE being experience I can draw from as opposed to a persona who had majority control over my consciousness. And… I’m fully drawing from that experience at the moment.

Opening it up, I was pleasantly surprised by a full table of contents (shout out to my brother’s wife to having me upgrade to Leuchtturm1917 from Moleskin). I’m not sure if I’ve done that with all of my journals yet. Current journals have a system for making it easier to fill out at the end of 108-day cycles.

I saw a lot of cool and cringe stuff, but there was one note in particular I wanted to bring up because it goes back to the hot spring photo. A quote my mom told me when I was quite young:

“Don’t write anything down that you wouldn’t want everyone to read.”

I don’t know why I latched onto that idea so young (maybe in high school… Maybe earlier), but I took it very seriously. I imagine the idea comes from her early days as a Communist organizer and activist, but first started to apply it online and then in my journals. It’s strange because there’s almost an editing of thought that happens in the beginning. EVERYONE might read this? I better be careful!

Over time, you get more and more relaxed. I don’t care if everyone reads this. You get more open… I did anyway, this isn’t true for all people everywhere who might have to do clandestine shit to avoid retaliation from political opponents but… I don’t have that problem (yet! ✊🏾😂) Anyhow, I’ve become open to the point where I wouldn’t care if someone was tapped into my mind and saw what it was doing.

I don’t think people should take that quote as seriously as I did, and have, but it’s definitely worth reflection, maybe now more than ever. Because I’ve been thinking about that quote for such a long time and I’ve been watching tech develop (and making predictions) I saw, and see, the writing on the wall. That quote isn’t going to just be applicable to what you write. The 2025 edition is…

“Don’t DO or SAY anything you wouldn’t want everyone to SEE or HEAR.”

People all over the world are already heavily survailled 24/7 by governments and corporations whether through cameras or devices (phones, Alexas, etc.) We are fast moving towards a time when most people will be recording all things at all times.

When recording becomes ubiquitous on the government, corporate, and social levels people are either going to have to be a very confine version of themselves or they’re going to have to “get free”. I do believe there will be a raise in things like privacy cafes, bars, and clubs (and home obviously) to counter the ubiquitousness of recording, but I don’t think people are ready for that world. In fact, people have been pulling away from social media and the like but… It’s going to be forced upon all soon… Even worse, and I don’t know when the flippining happened, but it seems like the “big data” problem may have been solved (I’m infering this from LLMs, maybe I’m wrong). There was a time when governments and companies collected more data than they could sort through. No more! (I think?)

Anyhow, I’ll end with a friend inspiring to get back on the yoga mat as a daily routine (which made me be like… As a tai chi master I should probably have my daily tai chi routine sorted 😂). That got Magda on her yoga mat today as well. Good times.