Once in a while, I will resurface just to see what's going on in tech. I am very much out of touch with it. I think I probably should have hit the eject button about a year earlier, if I'm being honest.

Today is the last day of my 40s. And I've only got 4 hours left. I think my best decade so far was actually 35-45. But maybe I can make 50-60 really awesome.

Whom amongst us hasn't accidentally been added to a messaging thread? Granted, in my case it was about a bunch of folks I don't know going to see Wicked in a city I do not live in, not a strategic military plan. . . .

I spent most of this week in Doha, Qatar at the Web Summit. While there, iHeart Podcasts forget a partnership with the Government Communications Office to establish a podcasting foundation to help build out the infrastructure that will provide creators in the Middle East and North Africa support.

I think, starting in March, I'm going to find local volunteer community projects to join. I feel that making a contribution that can have a positive impact on people in my area might help me make a difference. Which feels like a much better option than absorbing endless doom stories.

I'm excited to hear that Burnie Burns has acquired the Rooster Teeth assets nearly a year after WBD shut down the company. Wishing him and his team all the success in the world as they reforge the media company!

I waited far too long to do it, but I've deleted my accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Downloaded everything, so at least there's that. Hard to shut down something that kept me in touch with friends, but the combo of doom scrolling and contributing to Zuck's wealth was just too much for me.

My work space. I'm part tech communicator, part cozy witch. I work by candlelight and the glow of displays. My magic is stored in Dropbox folders.

Hat on a hat.

@captainror.bsky.social Your first follower is an Internet celebrity!

Recording my last Techstuff episode today so I'm in the office. Decided to pose with the show cover art on our logo wall. Note how they decided my show would be the one with the thermostat in it. Thematically appropriate.

Tomorrow, I record my final episode of Techstuff as a regular host. I'll be introducing the new team. I'm really curious to find out where they'll take the show. But I'm more curious how it will feel to not be prepping or recording a tech podcast after more than 16 years of doing it weekly.

I have just two episodes of TechStuff left to host, and recorded one of them yesterday. Next week, I record my final episode. Then I hand control over to a new, incredible team starting on Friday. It will be a new era for the show, one better than I could have made it. Which is how we should work.

Stepping down from hosting TechStuff is just my first step in my long-term plan of becoming a burn out living in a beach town. This long-term plan accounts for the fact that I will need to relocate regularly due to changing sea levels.

Movie theaters aren't kidding about the no tolerance policy re: singing during films. I was asked to leave before I could even get halfway through "Popular." Of course, I was watching "Heretic," so that might have had something to do with it. . . .

Today's episode of TechStuff is special to me -- I explain my upcoming departure from the show (in January), where the show came from and how it has evolved over the 16 and a half years since I co-created it.

2024 was a year of big changes for me. It started off with me being admitted to a hospital ICU for two days, and that was on January 3rd. But here's the thing -- next year will feature a more dramatic change. I have been the host of TechStuff for 16 years. I won't hit 17. You're first to know.

Since the last time I was on here, I was hospitalized a couple of times, had surgery, and am working to get into a new routine. Oh, and I also closed my X/Twitter account (before all the medical stuff). It's been busy!

I find it takes a lot more mental energy for me to post on any social platform these days. And I also still feel this almost pathological pull to post -- like, if I don't, I'm failing in some way. Leaning toward going off grid and living on a mountain.

This week's Large Nerdron Collider podcast! https://www.iheart.com/podcast/139-large-nerdron-collider-74940271/episode/nic-cage-secretly-invades-nick-fury-118629374/?cmp=android_share&sc=android_social_share&pr=false

It is deeply troubling to me that my former employer, HowStuffWorks, has opted to abandon proper editorial practices and, instead, lean heavily upon AI to update/generate articles. Our goal as staff was to produce great work and never be a content farm.

I need to do some curating to follow folks so that my feed is more than an ouroboros of messages complaining about other social networks. Who are the most interesting folks to follow here?

Just finished recording today's episode of TechStuff, which goes live later today. Of course I talk about Meta Threads, because how could I not? But I also talk about the ongoing chaos at Twitter, how TikTok wants an injunction against the ban in Montana, and much more.

I dragged my feet in applying for the beta here, but thanks to a kind peer in the community I've arrived. And considering how Musk is determined to make Twitter all but unusable and Meta is leaning on Threads to siphon even more personal data away, I feel this is the right space for me.