jonbell

Happy @kawaiicon.bsky.social
day! My first time, excited.

Oh good, happy to help!

Funny, literally thinking about this phrase this morning. Was trying to figure out what to affix it to if not a guitar.

Duh. A laptop.

I might be misunderstanding your question but this is in every macOS menu since 1984. If you go to File and see Get Info (cmd-I) then you can hold down a modifier key and see Show Inspector (cmd-opt-I).

Context menus too, like Open turning into Always Open With…

Insider trading is a real problem in congress, I agree.

But the extreme amount of bipartisan alignment here speaks volumes. There have been plenty of other opportunities for them to team up and make trades on other issues.

Can’t think of bills that survived a SCOTUS challenge 9-0 though.

It’s also possible that the 9-0 case hinged on the actual risk of the CCP having a direction connection to the algorithm animating our culture, politics, and opinions on things like Gaza, Ukraine, Taiwan, etc.

Rather than “all 9, even the progressive ones who never agree with the GOP are greedy.”

Amazing thread

The key detail is how unlike us this is. We don’t have date nights. We are homebodies. We’re frugal and not spontaneous. We haven’t been on a trip by ourselves in 17 years, since having kids.

It was our favourite trip and party of all time. The perfect (insane) yolo day trip. So glad we did it.

Last week I gave a talk in Sydney. Someone invited me to a party happening one week later. I laughed, because I live in another country.

I returned home to Wellington and joked to my wife that we can’t go, of course. She said “why not?”

So yeah, we flew back to Sydney just to attend a party.

And it's not public yet, but I have this working for myself! Every time I post on a service, my script slurps it down, saves it to my own DB, and I get a copy of it forever. Super helpful for a) making a search for all your creations across the net b) dealing with sites disappearing

Hey Creators, Please Make Firehoses! I want to see everything you’re doing in one place

Oh and while we're talking about the future of social media and gardens, here's my big epiphany that led to a whole new product. Check out this article: jonbell.medium.com/hey-creators...

I'm basically saying that creators should have a single place to put all the cool stuff they're up to. (cont)

Pretty good, pretty good. Talked to my son for a long time about the pros and cons of Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator albums

Want to find the gardens? Want to help out? Start with @erlend.sh and @spritelyinst.bsky.social and spiral out from there. The rewilding is happening, you just won't find out about in the skyscrapers.

there are also more gardens than I've ever seen before.

Even if the internet is 99% corporate and 1% weird, 2024's internet is bigger so the 1% is bigger. Now is way more creator-friendly, way more networked, way easier to accept payment or find your tribe than ever. (cont)

If you agree with @mariafarrell.bsky.social when she says we need to Rewild the Internet, as I do, these are some of the "gardens" that are growing in the shadows of the big corporate skyscrapers.

Maria and I chatted a bit about this. The skyscrapers are bigger than ever ... but (cont)

If you're following me because of my thoughts on social media, especially because of my @webdirections.bsky.social talk, a few things you gotta do:

1) Follow @erlend.sh
2) Read what his team is up to at bsky.app/profile/erle...
3) Check out @spritelyinst.bsky.social and spritely.institute

It's not that I'm against doing it right. I'm just against fighting every single little battle. I believe in perspective.

So that's why people thought my name was Jo. But it's fine. "Everything is copy," as Nora Ephron always said. In the end it all worked out, and I got this story out of it! <3

Did I want my very first order of business to fight for a new email address? Putting me out of commission for five days? Should I go for quality and long term thinking if it meant a short term loss to my team?

And that's why I stuck with jobell@microsoft.com.

But, like, my name is jonbell. I said "Ohh... hey, any way I can get jonbell instead of jobell?"

"Oh... yeah. We can... it's just that a name change usually takes like 5 business days..." they looked at me expectantly.

There wasn't a right or wrong answer, per se. They got it. I got it. Hm.

So I understand slow. I went in reminding myself "don't make waves, don't think you're in a nimble design agency."

So I was in my first meeting with leadership on my first day and my manager told me my email address: jobell@microsoft.com.

Logically, it makes sense. First two chars, last name.

A story about joining Microsoft 10-15 years ago and why people thought my name was Joe.

I joined the Windows Phone design team, and I was used to working in big business. I know things are slow. I know it can be frustrating. Heck, I grew up in DC, with my friends' parents working in the government.

Hey so if anyone makes a starter pack called like People Who Used to Be Active Online But Got Burned Out and They’re Still Here But Just In a Different, Less Clout-Chasing Phase But You Should Still Follow Them Because When They Post Projects They’re Still Worth Seeing

please add me to it

I haven’t followed the tour very closely so I don’t know the standouts. Therefore I’m gonna just pick a random city.

LA!

(The black dot is a ship I haven't drawn yet. First spotted in Sydney, my first ship in a port other than Wellington)

Exciting news from my Vessel Spotting project, where I draw little pixel art of ships I spot in Wellington and track where they go in the world.

See the ship at the top? That's a car carrier with a really unique look, returning home to Japan, the furthest I've seen a ship go.

The rivalry is real!

Waving from the airport to go home, thanks to the 900 jillion friendly and smart people I spoke to at another wonderful @webdirections.bsky.social !

❤️❤️❤️

I say this with love and bemusement, not shade, but wow Sydney residents are extremely proud of their awesome home. Like, as proud as Texans. It’s notable.

Ani DiFranco:

“And you’ll say ‘Did they love you or what’ and I’ll say ‘They love what I do. The only one who loves me is you.’ And you’ll say ‘girl did you kick some butt’ and I’ll say ‘I don’t really remember, but my fingers are sore and my voice is too.”

I’ve been preparing for this talk for a long time. Now that it’s done, two songs keep running through my head:

Kendrick: “sometimes you gotta pop out and show [people]” — I love the stage, and it’s been five years since my last new material. Pleased it went well.