Housekeeping Notes, 10/17/18
Posted on October 17, 2018 Posted by John Scalzi 10 Comments
Just a couple of brief things:
1. My phone’s hotspot was acting odd last night so I reset my phone to see if it would fix it. Not only didn’t it fix it, but the phone completely refused to turn back on. Various emergency procedures were enacted (including cursing, begging and bargaining) but to no avail. So I am currently without phone. Fortunately Verizon wireless stores are everywhere (including near my hotel in Portland today), so I’ll get this addressed, BUT for the short run you’ll likely not see pictures, etc from me, and once I leave the friendly confines of wifi I’m unlikely to be updating social media, etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
2. While I’m on tour (ie, basically for the next three weeks), I’ve made the executive decision not to make an effort to get caught up on what’s going on out in the world. I mean, I’ll be in airports so those damn TVs will be on, and I’m not going to turn my face away from newspapers or the occasional bit of news I get from other sources. But I’m not going looking for it either. My point is I’m unlikely, because of time and travel constraints, to delve too deeply into the news of the day until mid-November at least. Also, I’ve voted already and therefore feel I’ve earned a little break. Don’t expect much political/topical content here for a bit, is what I’m saying. (Mind you, I reserve the right to change my mind. But I probably won’t.) This is not necessarily a bad thing, either.
3. Remember to vote!
Taking a break from the news cycle is a good thing. If the ia something major like a terror attack, you’ll know about it. But the day in and day out pundit minutiae isn’t worth raising your blood pressure.
That sounds like an excellent plan. I am almost in the same boat with respect to voting, I haven’t technically voted yet, but the completed ballot went in the mailbox this morning.
“Those damn TVs will be on”, I regret, and am very annoyed by, the tendency for a screen to appear on the wall of every place where people will be located for even a few minutes.
Ooh, you can get out the vote all across the country on your tour!
This weekend I’m going to try my hand at postcards for voters, which is something I’d felt I couldn’t do because the examples I’d been seeing were etsy-worthy but then my sister told me that I can get pre-made postcards from amazon so I don’t have a real excuse anymore.
I read this as:
“My point is I’m unlikely, because of time travel constraints…”
If you have to get a new phone, take a long hard look at the new Pixel 3 phones. They are very impressive.
I hope you had everything backup up proper. If not, I suggest DropSync. Makes me completely unworried about anything that’ll happen to my phone.
We could all use a break from the political crap. Or not.
OT kinda-I read Balloon Juice, and some of the Jackals mentioned they had been to some of your book signings; they enjoyed your talks very much.