Welcome to my weekly blog!
TL;DR: Format changing [again]! It will be only a few news headline sharing along with quick comments.
Context: When I started this blog back in mid-November 2020, it was kicked off with a few interesting news headlines and also a section to reflect on a very old game I played. Later on I decided to spawn off the latter section into its own monthly column: ‘Nostalgic Game Review’. Around the same time, the January 6th capital riot occurred, and I wrote in length about my thoughts on the event, and then decided to expand the news sharing with a longer commentary.
While I enjoyed the process and the fruitful results of this format (my original goal was to continuously develop my written communication skill), I’ve also come to realize that I’ve been spending way more time than I can afford on this weekly letter. The news headline collecting, organizing, researching, thinking, thinking more, writing, editing. While I am not 100% sure how much these have helped me improve my writing, they have certainly helped me develop a huge appreciation towards the writers in the news/media industry.
As I ponder what kind of writings I want to do long term, and who are my target audience, the answers start to surface as I clarify my long term writing goal: developing a longer form story/script. And I realized now these activities are no longer in alignment with my goals.
So here it is, from this week on, I will be dialing back to only sharing a few news stories with short comments. I may still add a longer commentary when I have more to say… but will not be regular. Please do let me know your thoughts or any feedback about this!
Here are a few noteworthy news headlines:
Weekly Read
- In Minecraft’s Dream SMP, All the Server’s a Stage (Wired) – this story plays well as a reflection of the recent Roblox IPO. The 1+ year of shelter in place certainly accelerated people’s adoption of “shared experience” of the virtual worlds in games such as Minecraft or Roblox. I am hoping to see more EdTech leverage this trend and come up with something truly amazing, yet educational.
- Epic’s new MetaHuman tool lets you craft realistic faces inside a browser (The Verge) – well, if there will be a common metaverse, the denizens would probably be… MetaHuman? I am also curious if this tool is hooked up to DALL-E, then stories/scripts can go through AI and visualized via MetaHuman into action sequences… Perhaps all the actors can head home then :/
- YouTube’s Lo-Fi Music Streams Are All About the Euphoria of Less (Wired) – This story got my attention since I’ve also discovered this music genre ‘lo-fi’ in the chaotic year of 2020. I became a fan of ChilledCow after seeing this [recommended] cool video (made by this artist I’ve followed for years)
Stay Tuned…
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