BowTiedApollo ☀️ Aesthetics

I'm still available for graphic design work even if I haven't been posting on X much these days. Just a quick update for anyone who needs a logo, product packaging, or anything else (I check DMs regularly)

@Peter_Nimitz AI isn't really good enough to make book covers yet.

which one works best?

@BowTiedCocoon The "For You" tab isn't great but there's still a Following tab (which can be chronological, like how things used to be) and Lists

You'll rarely see me complain but gotta admit X has become everything i hated about Linkedin: Click bait + virality + sensationilism over valuable info thats actually improving my life Haven't seen the accounts & friends i like reading in MONTHS. My feed is 99% quotes of AI articles by ppl who wrote them in the first place

@BowTiedPassport I've seen more roaches in Philadelphia than CDMX and it's not even close

This entire thread is interesting to me… because I lived in the Mexico City for nearly 2 years before seeing a cockroach. Saw one for the first time walking in reforma one night and made the comment that I thought the city was surprisingly clean for being so massive. It’s been nearly half a decade and I’ve still never seen one in my house.

@dominbydigdug Most computers are pretty interchangeable these days. If you don't need much power then it isn't a big decision. Windows: go to Best Buy and get whatever is cheapest Mac: go to Apple store and get a Mac Mini

Give me advice on desktop computard. I've never owned one, have only ever had laptops---but I no longer really go anywhere, so a desktop seems better.

@BowTiedGlobe A great deal of that 75% is setup for elaborate schemes and backstory for other characters. It's not strictly necessary stuff but it's generally interesting.

how in the world has Edmund escaped prison, found the treasure in Montecristo, helped all his friends back on their feet and there’s still 75% of the book left? I’d assume the revenge would be 40-50% max?

@jameszimmermann Another example: at a concert I went to a couple years ago, the conductor noted that they'd be playing some Tchaikovsky, and he went on for a while about Ukraine as if it was somehow relevant that Tchaikovsky was born in Russia. Unnecessary political sperging.

Classical music leaders have been saying “the audience is dying” for 50 years with no awareness that the dumbing down of the art form and devolution into political pandering is pushing people away. Sure there’s a problem with the shortening of the attention span in a technologically advancing society but there are people out there starved for the real thing putting up real money for real artists who won’t bow to the mob. I met many of them at my fundraiser concert two weeks ago (many of whom traveled great distances) and they all tell me how tired they are of sitting through slop at symphony concerts and being reeducated on the so-called evil of the European geniuses like Mozart and Beethoven. @christopherrufo is right to chase these freaks out of their ivory towers, I’m doing my best to follow his lead.

@BowTiedOx @BowTiedLoon I also grew up Protestant, and was surprised to discover that Catholics are more chill than Protestants. More things to remember but that's about it. My local Knights of Columbus are all good guys too.

Just walk into a Catholic Church and talk to Catholics I was intimidated my first time because as an American Protestant I was raised to believe they’re this cult like entity They’re not, the Church contains the most devout, good Christians I’ve ever met per capita. Just say hi

@thebeautyofsaas I only have one screenshot to contribute

lessons in there

@ThomBrady5 There are still some loopholes. For example, the existence of fraternal organizations like the Knights of Columbus.

yeah all of that is illegal under Civil Rights

@ChefGruel Companies seem to think that customers prefer shrinkflation to inflation. I haven't observed this to be the case. It lowers trust (where else are they cutting corners?) and everyone I know would rather pay higher prices than watch brands fail at hiding behind a thin veil.

Decreasing portion sizes is a kiss of culinary death for a brand. I always tell concepts, they think they have three options when prices rise dramatically: decrease portion sizes, increase prices (but keep portions healthy) or decrease quality. The first and third options will ALWAYS kill your brand.

@BowTiedKong I'm hoping that the Supreme Court recognizes how the very existence of birthing tourism is an existential threat to the US. Saying that a national security issue is enshrined in our Constitution would be insane. America isn't a patch of magic dirt for all the world to step on.

I have no idea how birthright citizenship is legal I also have no faith the Supreme Court is going to do the right thing We are headed towards some uncomfortable and inevitable conversations and decisions If you really look at the Constitution, its basically worthless. It doesn't stop infringement on any of your rights Yes you have the right to a trial, but you have to spend $30k for that right - does the constitution cover reimbursement for being arrested for nothing? It is what it is. I hope the SC does the right thing but if not...

@BowTiedQuoll Takes some time to get used to it. I wasn't a fan when I first started either, but now I do the majority of my work there.

I am grinding until I never have to open Adobe illustrator again. Absolute dog shit app Thank you for your attention to this matter!

@conan_esq An original sequel written by Colbert. Is that the best they could do for a humiliation ritual? At this point why not put "directed by Michael Bay; written by Vin Diesel; starring The Rock and Jason Statham as Merry and Pippin"

@TheManlet_King The Northman The Martian Wrath of Man

What's your favorite movie trailer? Doesn't have to be for a movie you liked, just that the trailer was good.

@sportdrink I can create Illustrator templates. I've made enough labels in my day that it'd take 2-3 days max. I'm also an American with a family tree which has branches going back before 1776. Can DM examples/info if needed.

Sport Drink is hiring a few temporary contractors. We’re looking for competent, punctual Americans. We pay you, you do the job correctly and on time. You can think of it like bounties on things we need done. Simple as that. JOB ONE: We need someone to take our existing website and optimize it to perfection. We like the general design style we have, but it needs to be fleshed out to the logical endpoint. Quick, functional, good user experience with clear options. We need to able to launch a new SKU and drop it into the site with a seamless look and feel. We need some logical categories and product structure. And because everyone uses phones now, we need this all done for mobile as well. This is not so much a massively creative job as it is about perfecting what we have. Think the efficiency of the McMaster-Carr website, or how good storefront sites were prior to the influx of indian vibecoders. We want crisp, efficient, straight to the point but in our style. You'll work closely with our designer, should you need him. JOB TWO: We need someone to take the Photoshop files for the labels of our various flavors and turn them into a flawless Illustrator master file. You could do all of the flavors or do just one to perfection and let us use it as a template. This will be the master file we create all other flavor labels from, so it has to be spotless and ready to go. This job is obviously the more simple of the two, but it still requires the same attention to detail. Once it’s done right, it will hold up for a while. —— Indians and other third-worlders need not apply, and no we’re not kidding. This job is strictly for heritage Americans. Any and all third-world applicants will be blocked and blacklisted. Reach out to us through here and let's talk. Strongly suggest showing us some previous works of yours or whatever displays that you're a good fit for the role.

@BowTiedGlobe Fortunately that sub isn't as Reddit. I don't even have an account; I check their daily news threads occasionally and that's about it You can also check your Chase Offers in-app from time to time (they now have 'Reserve exclusives' in their own section)

@BowTiedApollo noooo reddit aaaarghhh

what is the easiest way to keep on the loop with offers like this? genuinely great perk of my card that i only found out thru an X follow

@BowTiedKong Gemini is good mostly because of NotebookLM and the Google Drive integrations. The image editor is decent and Deep Research does what it should. Claude is usually better outside of those things. I don't really use Grok or ChatGPT.

AI people: Going all in, getting paid versions of GPT, Claude, Gemini Do I spend 15 minutes a day with each (including my boy Grok here) or test one for an hour a day and rotate? Grok will stay up, I use it as a legal associate throughout the day already…

@signulll No, that's the typical position of most authors and artists these days. Probably 80-90% of them think AI is a plagiarism machine built on stolen work. They don't know how it actually works and thus have an extreme hatred of all things AI.

was talking to someone at a bar in nyc recently. she was an author, so inevitably given what i do (& against my will) we ended up talking about ai. when i tell you that her idea of it was so dystopian, my god. like she was visibly repulsed by it. not even skeptical. just pure visceral hate. her position was that it should be banned by the government & no one should use it. this might be half or more of america.

@thomas_sands @BowTiedBroke The fastest liquidation of AMEX MR is likely to open one of their checking accounts, where I believe you can redeem at 0.8 cents per point. Or if you have a Schwab account, having a Schwab Platinum gives a better rate of 1.1 for sending points to a brokerage account.

@BowTiedBroke What would you do to liquidate sat half of my 500k AMEX points with no obvious international travel redemption in the next 2 years (baby..)?

For any wondering how points will be affected by any tightening of rates here is the simplest way I can explain it. I’ve been accumulating massive points for 25-30 yrs. Travel with my corporate job, credit cards, whatever. They won’t liquidate your points or the program. That’s not how goes. They’ll do it this way. What happens, the points will start to lose value vs what their previous yield was. I’ve seen it time and time again over the decades with hotel credit cards points (usually issued by Chase), airline points (Chase and Amex), etc. What happens is, the points set up is the easiest thing from their P&L to tighten up. First, the modus operandi is they say “If you don’t use these within X time frame, you lose them” where it use to be “They never expire”. That one doesn’t really rock the boat with customers. Next, it’s “Redemption is now 50K points for one hotel night vs the old 25K points” or “Redeem your points for a $50 gift card for 100K points”, where it was 50K points for a $50 gift card in years prior. It’s an agreement between the card issuer and the chain (Delta, IHG, Marriott, Walmart gift card, Best Buy, etc). And those companies all set the value of the points, which is why those points are transferred to their respective partner each month. But, with rewards programs like Chase UR and others where the points stay with the card issuer and reservations can be done directly via Chase travel portal and Chase has a say in the value of those points as well. With regard to basic bank issued credit cards (ie Chase UR, Capital One cash back, WF rewards). Most of those can be converted to cash back. Those cash back rebates points are funded by high interest rates and interchange fees. My point is, “if” the pressure ratchets up and the CC issuers do a reprieve of interest rates temporarily to appease the administration (it’s a big if, but I wouldn’t want to be holding 10,000,000 points), one of the first places that will get hit are the points values. They won’t take back points, but they will slash their redemption values. Between my Amazon biz and my construction biz, my annual spend is close to $2 million/yr. I have many cash back cards (I’ve moved away from airline and hotel point cards because of the devaluation), but I can’t see the banks letting me earn 2-2.5% back on my transactions if there is a shakeup on their interest rates they charge to balance carriers. The bottom line is….the bottom line, when you’re a publicly traded company. From a corporate P&L standpoint, it’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to recoup “some” of the loss of the interest income earned from card holders who carry a balance. Just my 2 cents from being a “points ho” since 1999 and accumulating well over 50,000,000 points/miles in those years via corporate travel and biz spend.