Jamie Thingelstad

I’ve been publishing the Weekly Thing for over seven years. Sometimes I need to have an image associated with it. Some of those times it is actually required. So, I’ve had a mild need for a logo to represent the Weekly Thing for a while.

However, the Weekly Thing is a somewhat novel email because it isn’t locked to a specific topic and has a blend of personal and professional. So if there was an image it hasn’t been clear to me what to connect it to.

Then I had a thought. What could I play with about the “weekly” aspect? A week is seven days. What if I could pull that into the design in an interesting way that could work with my complete lack of design skills. I did some experimentation with ChatGPT to explore a number of topics. I found something I liked and then fired up OmniGraffle to see what I could do.

After a few iterations I landed on an image that I like quiet a bit.

It is simple but identifiable. The seven blocks represent the seven days of the week. The text is Helvetica with custom kerning to tighten it up. As I played with this I liked the fun options I could imagine with the seven blocks. It reminded me a bit of Kottke.org’s redesign and how he is using the four circles.

The blocks themselves can be any colors I want.

How about a very bright set of rainbow colors?

I could see playing with this even more and generating random color combinations on the fly using a dynamic SVG image. Or how about a Christmas logo?

The blocks could be patterned. Something simple done in software, or even colored in by hand.

But colors aren’t the only option. The blocks could also be a window into an image to pull in an entirely different vibe. Let’s bring the spirit of adventure.

Or how about one of my favorite animals.

The last extension I thought about that seemed like a fun option was animation. The seven blocks don’t have to be static. I could have them moving around.

I like it and I think it works well for my needs. I’m going to play around during my winter publishing break with how I may use this. I don’t want to change the personal feel of the email with a logo. Perhaps some folks may want a Weekly Thing coffee mug to go with their weekend reading?

We “cut the cord”, or more appropriately, cancelled our DirecTV service back in 2009. We’ve been an over-the-air HDTV, streaming, or “video on demand” household ever since. Before taking this leap I had done a comparison of costs and highlighted DirecTV was costing us $1,080 a year. Adjusting that for inflation that is $1,582 in 2024.

Today we subscribe to many streaming services. Neflix, Hulu, Apple TV, Disney+, Paramount+. But the one thing that none of them can get us is live sports. For that, I’ve relied on YouTube TV. I think it is expensive, but it is the “best” way to get live TV. I first signed up for YouTube TV in 2019, and the prices have gone up wildly. The amounts here are the full amounts I was billed, not the list prices.

13.58% annual growth rate. If we inflation adjust the $43 the price would be $53 today. Instead we are $80 and soon to be over $90.

I paused my subscription. The frustrating thing for me is of all the services we subscribe to YouTube TV is used the least, and is three to six times more expensive than any of them.

I’ve been waiting for the various sports that I care for to go direct so I can get just what I want. But if the past is any indicator, this will actually just result in an even more expensive service. Maybe it is time to go back to the over-the-air HDTV.

This two-way comment system that @manton has setup with Bluesky is pretty cool to see in action. I replied to a comment left via a Bluesky authentication on my blog and it showed up as a post on Bluesky a few moments later. Pretty cool! 👏

Christmas tree is up at the cabin. 🎄

First time for the kids and I in the newly renamed Magic Pines Sit & Soak. Awesome. 💧🔥

We are all a constantly changing process.

Saturday morning at the lake. Delicious coffee. Wooden wick candle. Writing on my blog. Preparing the Weekly Thing. Lots of hygge. Good stuff.

Frosted window.

Wait a second… Connections can use pictures? 🤯

Tammy’s sister Corinne and her husband Denny hosted a cookie decorating class. They made a hundred cookies ahead of time and had a variety of different colors of Royal Icing. Denny even had pages printed of patterns for us to learn the proper technique. His cookies came out incredibly nice.

We had a wide variety of skill. 😊

I did three. My gnome was my favorite and I thought it was reasonable for a first go at it. The sweater was fine but a tad boring. The snowman however looked like it was straight out of Nightmare Before Christmas. Looked like some scary evil thing.

So, I had to eat the snowman. 😏

This celebration of Dick Van Dyke’s 99th birthday with Chris Martin of Coldplay and All My Love is incredible. 🥰

Tammy’s sisters and the husbands went to Jingle Bar at Brit’s Pub tonight. I think this may become a tradition. 🎄 Everyone wore Christmas apparel, but Corinne and Denny went above and beyond as the Grinch and Cindy-Lou Who and won the prize for the best costume of the evening!

Appears that OpenAI isn’t keeping up with the ChatGPT Extension launch in Apple Intelligence today. Trying to sign in with my account for the extension.

Getting a massive overhaul of Shortcuts support in OmniFocus 4.5 this morning is like an early Christmas present! I whipped up a quick “Add to List” shortcut to try it and love the new interfaces. They are significantly more intuitive. 🎁

I have half-jokingly said for years that I wish there were professional scratchers, sort of like massage therapists, but to scratch your back! Then in today’s NextDraft:

“A small but growing field of scratchers are making a living off their nails, hoping there’s a healthy market of people who will pay $100 or more an hour to do what a spouse or wooden spoon will do for free. Professionals contend they’re not just scratching itches. They say they’re helping people achieve a level of relaxation that is beyond the reach of a kitchen utensil or loved one. They drum up interest by posting videos of clients oohing and aahing in candlelit rooms.” WSJ (Gift Article): How to Make $100 an Hour Scratching Someone’s Back.

I made Banana Bread tonight. It seems I cook so rarely that everyone else was flabbergasted that I did it. So I decided it should get a blog post since it was such a special event. 😂

The 2024 St. Olaf Christmas Festival was amazing today! Mazie is in the St. Olaf Chapel Choir and was part of the Christmas Festival this year. It was a great program with beautiful performances by all.

The performance we saw was recorded and will be available online on December 18th.

On our walk around Lake Harriet this morning Tammy and I saw this rare Bald Eagle in the city. It was perched and analyzing the ice line for easy prey.

I love to see new blogs being created. In the spirit of Christmas, I’m gifting five 1-year subscriptions to micro.blog for readers of the Weekly Thing (announced in WT304). These folks can then get their blogs going and in January I’m going to share links and introduce each of them. Fun! 🤩🎁🎄