December 30, 2022

📅 The end is nigh!

IT'S BEEN REAL 2022 —
REAL PREDICTABLE 🙄

Reality seems to be going for a real concept album with the 2020s, so I'm headed into '23 with very low expectations. So far this decade's highlights include plague, war, inflation, and hearing entirely too much about Elon Musk. Whatcha got for us, '23? Robot uprising?* Alien invasion? Whatever it is, it can't be good. 
 
*At the pace that AI is accelerating, my money is on robot uprising. I have also spent the last quarter of the year hearing about how robots are going to steal my job now that AI is being used for "art." I have a lot of rant-y things to say about this, but for now here are two points I will make about this threat:
 
1. At present, the "art" being generated by AI isn't very good.
 
2. It is super-depressing to think about robots taking over the creation of art, because what artists often do is make people feel seen. You can’t feel seen by AI. By definition AI is not a person who reflects your experience. There is no comfort that someone else gets it too, when there isn’t a someone getting it.
aliens vaporizing someone
Dear Aliens, I know you probably have a list of people you want to vaporize, but if you're taking suggestions let me know!
 
GIF via Mars Attacks!
While the powers that be** may try to thwart us, we have lots of cool new releases planned for the next few months. We will be publishing our 3rd book, releasing a card deck product, and adding some new shirt and notebook designs to the mix. I desperately want to blab about all the details, but I am going to at least wait until we have firm delivery dates for some of the new products before I get into it.
 
What I can say with a modicum of confidence is that the Boredwalk podcast will finally be coming out of its mothballed hiatus in the new year and syndicated on YouTube! We'll also be sharing hosting duties with the other members of the Boredwalk creative team (you've seen Josh, Tess and Grace in our videos and soon you'll hear from them on the podcast) and even bringing in special guests!
** I don't know what these powers are specifically, but some unforeseen sinister force could burn down a supplier warehouse or unleash rodents of unusual size to devour our inventory — it's anyone's guess, really.
 
*****
Alright, let's bid 2022 adieu with a few famous birthdays and historical facts about December 30th...
 
• Born on this day: basketball player LeBron James (1984), actress Eliza Dushku (1980), author Rudyard Kipling (1865), filmmaker/Troma Entertainment co-founder Lloyd Kaufman (1945), and singer/Monkee Davy Jones (1945)
 
  Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announced the existence of other galactic systems at meeting of the American Astronomical Society on this day in 1924
 
• The first ever NTSC color televisions became available for purchase (priced at approximately $1,175 each) on this day in 1953. How much is $1,175 worth in 2023 dollars? A little over $12,000 — yowza! 
*****
OK, that's it for this week! We'll be back here in your inbox on Monday with a fresh email and (maybe) a fresh customer Q&A! If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming email reply to this and let us know! If you volunteered earlier this week, sit tight — Boredwalk co-founder Matt is replying to those emails one by one later today!
 
Peace, love, and angst,
 
Meredith