CH-H-Changes - Come and Face the Change
David Bowie aside, this last month has been one of significant changes.
David Bowie aside, this last month has been one of significant changes.
First, I've added the **Sunday Journalist** tag to Cole's Notes. My blog has languished for the past few years, partly due to the usual suspects like COVID-19. However, my dissatisfaction with the blogging community, journalism, and social media—especially the nonsense surrounding AI—has also played a role.
I've long used Grammarly as a grammar and spell checker, preferring it over the standard editors and spellcheckers in apps and on the web. As Grammarly moved into the AI space, I found it a powerful tool that helps me catch spelling errors and improve my voice on the page.
Recently, I've been experimenting with AI imaging and writing using systems like ChatGPT, Bing, and Gemini. I even took a LinkedIn Learning course on "How to Research and Write Using Generative AI Tools." While the course was informative, its primary value was helping me rewrite my LinkedIn profile to make it more punchy. I also cleaned up some posts and added material to various social media platforms.
However, playing with these apps hasn't advanced my writing career. Earning a living has kept me away from Cole's Notes more than anything else. A recent event galvanized my resolve to start again. An old friend asked me to repair some equipment, and I needed to access my old invoicing software to send him an invoice for the work done.
I freelanced in writing, photography, and IT systems support back then. I wrote about hardware, cameras, and automobiles and collected other ephemera. I used FreshBooks to manage my books and issue invoices. Imagine my shock when I found that the last invoice and price list of services had been used in 2013. Naturally, I updated my price lists and sent the invoice I needed.
It got me thinking—what have I been doing since 2013? Well, I'm not writing for a living. I'm just slogging along in a couple of unrewarding jobs in large corporations to earn enough to live on and pay off the massive bankruptcy I entered into in 2017 after my consulting business failed. By 2014, I had paid off that bankruptcy but lost my house, pensions from years of working, and most of my assets. Admittedly, I got lazy, shutting off my mind and working as a drone, paying the bills and keeping a low profile. I spent more time on the evening couch, consuming social media and not keeping in touch with people. My social circle collapsed to almost nothing—just co-workers and occasional bar-hopping.
At the end of 2023, I got laid off and found myself on the job market again at nearly seventy, with no pension other than CPP and OAS and all the opportunities available to an old, straight white male past retirement age.
So Now What?
Today, I returned to my computer to pick up where I left off—but with a difference. I'm older, fatter, and less fit than ten years ago, but I have no major health problems—nothing that can't be treated by returning to a regularly managed health regime of mental exercise, fitness, and eating right. Too many days as a working drone not taking care of myself must end.
What Are the Changes?
-I have the tools and am getting the motivation again. This article is a promise to myself to get back on the disciplined track of writing a column every Sunday and finding a place to publish it. Although this rant is initially in my Cole's Notes Blog, I will cross-post it to my Substack and social media, which will take it. Which now also includes X (aka Twitter). As a new project for 2025 - the Subsstack "View from the Plateau" will be a podcast site with audio and video. Since I have a face for Radio - I think that it may be audio-only - for the time being, it's somewhat empty - but I will have updates when the site is done.