Jamie Thingelstad

One of my favorite things at Christmas is filling this wall with the faces of friends & family as we receive cards. We get to have all of you “with us” for the Christmas season. This year it has meant even more with the pandemic. 🎄

Yesterday morning there was no snow and we were thinking out hopes of a White Christmas we’re in vain. Today we have plenty! ❄️

Today we “celebrate” the Winter Solstice. Here in Minneapolis the sun will rise at 7:48 am and set at 4:35 pm. We’ll get 527 minutes of daylight, the least we will get for the last and next few months.

Much is said about Minnesota’s cold and snowy winters and mostly I find those just fine if not great. Snow can be fun and so pretty. It can be a challenge to overcome as you drive and get about, but one we are sort of proud of. The cold is okay with the right gear. And both of them make for delightful winters inside and out, with a nice cup of hot cocoa and hopefully a fireplace to warm up inside. Maximum Hygge!

But I’m not a fan of the dark. In a typical year I go to the office in the dark and leave in the dark. One upside of being at home with the pandemic is getting to experience more of the limited sunlight. I shouldn’t complain too much as I know there are many who suffer from seasonal affective disorder in this time of year. I only wish that we had more time to be outside.

So I had a thought today of celebrating the Winter Solstice as a bigger deal. Try to turn that frown upside down of sorts and make an event of our shortest day. I’m starting by writing this, and will be getting the kids into it in some form. In the process we can also note the march of longer days to come!

How about I celebrate with a blog post instead. 👍

Twitter notified me today that it was my 14th Anniversary on Twitter. I signed up on Wed Dec 20 21:25:24 +0000 2006, claiming user number #82,903. This was before the big unveiling at SXSW in 2007. My very first tweet (although they weren’t called tweets then), sent shortly after setting up the account…

On a conference call!

I love that. 😂 You can’t see that on Twitter because I use TweetDeleter these days to delete all of my tweets after 60 days, and I purged all 8,000+ tweets from my profile. I grabbed a complete archive of my Tweets before doing that though so I can still see them. That first tweet was the 1,443,783rd message on Twitter according to the backup. I’ve had Pinboard’s Twitter archiving turned on since Aug 25 2008 so it has most everything archived as well.

When Twitter first launched it was very silly. Most early users didn’t understand what it was useful for. I remember giving a presentation to a bunch of news people showing them how Twitter could be used as another channel to distribute news. That same silly product now has a protocol to hand over the Twitter account between one President to the next.

Some thoughts on 14 years of Twitter:

• Twitter used to be a lot more fun. I don’t remember there be so much hate and anger on the platform for the first several years.
• Twitter is still a great way to connect with people around the world that have information or perspective you are interested in.
• Twitter regularly feels to me like a breakout product stuck in a company that can’t figure it out. They should be fighting the bots and trolls more.
• Twitter is a weird social network because every user of Twitter has a different experience based on the people they follow.
• Avoid Twitter Trends like the plague. Don’t use Twitter to get your news.
• Twitter has gotten much more complicated. Threads are the newest thing adding complications.
• It is amazing how many of Twitters product features originated with conventions that their users adopted and then they productized.
• Twitter has a small number of incredibly passionate, probably addicted, users.
• I’ve left every other social network but I haven’t left Twitter (wait, I guess LinkedIn is also a social network now). I have deleted my archive, and I no longer follow anyone and instead use Feedbin to follow accounts. i try to limit the amount my social graph is visible. But I still find value in Twitter.

I haven’t authored any content on Twitter for over three years now. I write everything on micro.blog and then it cross-posts that to Twitter. I still see a lot of engagement on Twitter though and I do keep connected to people with it.

My hope for Twitter is that it finds it’s footing, it sheds the hate, rid the bots which would easiest by moving to a paid model. I keep thinking a Twitter where every user pays $5/mo or $50/year would be amazing. Maybe ditch the likes too, and try to get rid of the popularity contest.

Lucky looking good after her trip to the groomer.

We went to the Glow Holiday Festival at the Minnesota State Fair tonight. Fun time but we think the lights would look cooler with snow on the ground.

This Pomegranate Gimlet may be one of my favorite new drinks! Delicious! 🍸

I’ve been toying with the idea of having commenting on my Link Blog. I ran across Hyvor Talk and just set it up to give it a try. It has a really nice interface and looks great. I like the simple reaction options too. Also, it has privacy features and isn’t funded by hidden ads. I had previously tried Commento but it was a big lacking in some of the more advanced features. I’m curious to see how Hyvor works out.

CJ Chilvers shared a shout out to The Weekly Thing in his newsletter this week:

I love The Weekly Thing by Jamie Thingelstad. It’s the Ted Lasso of newsletters. I especially like his idea for a Tesla date night. All I need now is the Tesla! Santa?

“Ted Lasso of newsletters" is some super high praise! 🤩

I’m going to get that framed for the wall. 🙌

Facebook’s opposition to Apple’s privacy enhancements on their platform is a strong positive signal. The fact they are so worried about it validates that these actions must be meaningful in the fight against surveillance.

We got the Family Meal from Travail Kitchen this weekend and I cooked it up for dinner tonight. It was a delicious Lamb Ragu dish with Gnocchi. The food was super tasty but just as fun are the videos that they release to go with them. This is fun to watch even if you aren’t making the dish.

Family Meal #29 Lamb Ragu from Travail Kitchen on Vimeo.

We absolutely loved watching the Brandi Carlile livestream Still Home for the Holidays tonight. It was a great collection of Christmas music filled with beautiful renditions of many classics.

Brandi and the Twins perform O Holy Night in here and it makes your spine shiver. This 2013 performance is a taste, but tonights was even better.

Brandi also plays a gorgeous version of The River. For $15 this is a great show.

There are some swear words here and there, so if you are watching with the family be aware of that.

See list of Brandi Carlile shows.