Jamie Thingelstad

Cool to see the Apple Sports app just got support for F1! 🏁 This app is how I connect to almost all sports I care about now.

This Airbnb in St. Augustine has a great vibe. The tiny pool is actually a “cool tub” with a chiller for the hot summers.

I remember 10-year-old me being envious of the cool Pinewood Derby cars my cousins Josh and Jarvis had made in Scouts. “It’s strange the stuff we remember” — indeed.

Engagement is the powerful drug of social platforms. Sometimes it is blatant and in your face, such as a notice that your post is trending. More often it is wrapped as a feature, such as analytics as addiction letting you know how many views, likes, and other such engagement your post receives. This feedback loop is a slot machine: random, addictive, and unpredictable.

Being a blogger removes all of that. As Manton Reece, the creator of micro.blog, recently shared no one cares (for now), and that is okay. This is writing on the web. First off it is almost always harder to write a blog post. This post has structure, sentences and paragraphs, not just a “blurb” spewed into the melee. Actual thoughts strung together with English grammar. The open web lacks engagement devices such as those views, likes, and “re-whatevers”. You may trigger an email. I got one of those this morning from Manu on a post I wrote yesterday. That’s rare. And no one else knows. No one sees that I received a “❤️ 1”.

So why do it? Why write post after post into the void with nobody engaging? Why bother with a more difficult approach?

I’ve been blogging for two decades. It isn’t all that different from journaling, but it is completely open and world readable. I would encourage bloggers to not think about the individual post. Instead, think about the collection of writing, over weeks and years, as a body of work. It is a body of work that you are constantly adding to. Growing and improving. The individual post is but one breath. It comes and goes. But over the course of time this adds up. It is the cumulative action that creates something truly great.

But who is your audience? Who is this for? You. Yourself. Your family. Your friends. Your friend’s friends. Your neighborhood. And they can have it whenever they want. As a gift. A gift from you to them. Not a gift to be measured in engagement, but instead as a body of work. A gift to the web, which is a gift to people.

• Up at 7:00 am.
• Leave Airbnb at 7:30 and drive to Turner’s donuts for breakfast
• Drive to Kennedy Space Center
• Listened to Nintendo Direct — Switch 2 on the drive.
• Experience Kennedy Space Center: Rocket Garden, Astronaut Hall of Fame, VIP behind the scenes bus tour, Saturn V building, Atlantis Building, Ice Cream at Milky Way, Modern building (unknown name)
• Left Kennedy Space Center right as they closed
• Got gas and visited a WaWa
• Ad-hoc dinner plans at Ferreri Pizza
• Finish drive to St. Augustine
• Check in to Airbnb in St. Augustine

Stopped at Turner’s Donuts to get a bite before hitting the road.

• Jamie: Cherry Cake, German Chocolate
• Tyler: Raised with White Frosting, Bavarian Cream
• Tammy: Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Iced Cruller
• Mazie: Blueberry Cake, Sour Cream Old Fashioned

All that, with a coffee, for $11.

• Mazie and Tammy run on the beach.
• Tyler and Jamie go to North Shore Cafe but it’s closed. Instead they go back to Mademoiselle Paris for coffee and and eclair.
• Tammy meets up with Tyler and Jamie at Ginnie and Jane E’s for breakfast. The crème brûlée French toast is very good. Mazie stays back to read on the beach.
• Tammy, Jamie, and Mazie return the rental beach chair, umbrellas and boogie board to the Lazy Turtle.
• We ride our bikes to Holmes Beach and the Kingfish boat launch.
• Tammy and Mazie make a quick stop at Publix for boat snacks.
• We meet Jeremy and take a boat cruise for a few hours where we snorkel on a sandbar, see manatees, and dolphins and cruise around the bay.
• We ride our bikes to Bradenton Beach with dinner at SMOQEHOUSE!
• We ride back to our Airbnb after dinner and head to the beach.
• Tyler and Mazie hang out in the ocean while Jamie sits in the sand and Tammy looks for shells.
• We have our last sunset on the beach.
• Everyone cleans up and we walk to Dips for ice cream. Turns out 9pm ice cream is very popular.

Tammy and I at sunset on Anna Maria Beach. 🥰

Sunset from Anna Maria Island.

We were hanging out on Anna Maria Beach around 5:30p today and saw a boat coming close to shore playing that unmistakable ice cream truck music. It had two flags in the back and we wondered “Is that an ice cream boat?” It was indeed an ice cream boat. AN ICE CREAM BOAT! How awesome is that.

The boat was a bit down the shore from us but how can you pass up getting ice cream from the very first ice cream boat we’ve ever seen. We made our way over to the boat. As we got closer I saw that not only was this an Ice Cream Boat, but it was also raising money for vets. All of the proceeds from these ice creams were going to support vets. We made a couple donations and got a couple of ice creams, and I asked for more information about this organization.

The organization is Project 11:11 started by Erin Gallivan from Bradenton. They have a bunch of profiles on various sites to check out, as well as a GoFundMe to help raise money.

What a great thing to do to bring smiles to people on the beach and do good for veterans. Way to go! 🇺🇸

• Up early at 7:00 am.
• Head to The Donut Experiment to start the day.
• Tammy, Mazie, and Tyler go on C Ponies horse riding activity.
• Jamie goes to Orange Blossom Coffee to tend to some SPS stuff he needed to do.
• Jamie picks up everyone and head back to Airbnb.
• Walk around the shoreline of the island to lunch.
• Long and relaxing lunch at The Waterfront.
• Tammy and Mazie shop. Jamie and Tyler return to Airbnb. Shopping: Pineapple Marketplace, Shiny Fish Emporium, Ami Outfitters, Two Sides of Nature, and The Lazy Turtle.
• Overcast and cool day, so head to the beach.
• Lots of throwing football, sand feet.
• Got treats from an Ice Cream Boat!
• Cleaned up and went out on bikes to dinner.
• Went to The Porch for late dinner.
• Ride bikes back to the Airbnb in the dark.

Sand feet. 🦶

Yes I’m on vacation — but I’m still updating my bits.

Finished 2.21 mile walk in 59.9 minutes (27.1 min/mile). Majority walking along the beach in loose sand enjoying the scenery and sounds. Started at Airbnb and finished for lunch on other side of the island. Saw dolphins off the top of Anna Maria Island. 🏖️🐬

Seven custom made donuts from the Donut Experiment this morning.

• Tammy and Mazie go for a morning run.
• Breakfast at Madamosielle Paris.
• Rent beach gear for next three days from Fun & More.
• Beach time! 🏖️
• Early dinner at The Porch — delicious food!
• Tammy, Mazie, and Tyler go on bike ride.
• Back to the beach for sunset!
• Tammy, Mazie, and Tyler go on evening walk up the beach and finish in the dark.
• Turn in for the night.

Prepared for an evening of shark fishing.

Sunset on the Gulf.

• 7:36a Alarm off so we can get on the road.
• Drive to hardware store.
• Peachey’s donuts!
• Botanical gardens
• Drive to Anna Maria Island.
• Check in at Airbnb.
• Attempted dinner at The Waterfront but had long wait.
• Buy a fun shovel for the beach.
• Dinner at pizza place.
• Ice cream.
• Walk along the beach until sunset.
• Jamie puts together Weekly Thing. Tyler suggests cards and the three of them have a lot of laughs playing Sevens, Blackjack, and BS.