[Electric Speed] My new webcam | AI for writer’s block

A note from Jane

Let me tell you about the most embarrassing gathering I ever hosted.

It was my senior year of college and I couldn’t wait to welcome the new incoming staff at the newspaper where I worked. I also happened to be living in my very first apartment rather than a dorm room, with a real kitchen. So naturally I figured I should cook something for this special occasion. And my favorite dish in the world? Green bean casserole.

But I didn’t have much time to fuss with it, so I dumped four cans of green beans into a big stock pot, along with two cans of cream of mushroom soup, and heated it. Voila.

Then, for something sweet, I had recently re-discovered my childhood love of Nilla Wafers. I got a jumbo box.

And that’s what I served. Maybe there were some other items around. A bag of chips maybe? Some cheese cubes?

I don’t remember. What I do remember is going into the newspaper office the next morning, and the adviser telling me she had heard all about my green bean and Nilla Wafer party.

That moment gave me lasting insecurity about hosting people and revealing either that I have no taste or no class.

Yet at the same time, how I’d love to recapture that time in life where I had little fear or care of such judgments—to share what I love, without shame.

In the last issue, I asked you to tell me if you have a favorite tool for annotating photos or images. One person responded:

I’m a years-long fan of GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program app), a free image editing program. It can be as complex as you feel like making it. I also love the inexpensive video-making program Wondershare Filmora. You can upload a series of images, move them around, add a soundtrack or voiceover. I made a promo for my last book and several travel videos, all uploaded to Vimeo. As the phone cameras improve, so do my videos! —Joanne Orion Miller

Unrelated, I received this book recommendation from reader Cary Tennis:

I just read this amazing novel translated from the Italian by William Weaver, with intro by Italo Calvino, called That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana by Carlo Emilio Gadda, an Italian author who’s known to Italians who studied humanities in high school/college but kinda unknown genius otherwise. Amazing book. Like I say, maybe it’s just the espresso talking but anybody who wants to read an amazing book (full of the most obscure words in English, half of which are made up—he’s kind of alike a James Joyce in Italian) … this is the one.

Next question: This one is for people who travel frequently: What is the one thing you always take with you, or otherwise do, to make travel easier or more comfortable? Hit reply to this email and let me know, or discuss over on Discord.

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