{"id":26553,"date":"2025-12-12T17:23:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=26553"},"modified":"2025-12-21T14:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T22:02:27","slug":"rituals-and-routines-and-fonts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/12\/12\/rituals-and-routines-and-fonts\/","title":{"rendered":"Rituals and Routines, and Fonts"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Personal health updates;<\/li>\n<li>Big Think on the need for everyday rituals;<\/li>\n<li>Boing Boing on the origins of Calibri and Times New Roman, and stupidity;<\/li>\n<li>Short takes on approval ratings, European leadership, earning more, and Trump&#8217;s image.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a busy week of medical appointments, for blood work, to see the cardiologist (four and half years!), to see a new PCP (Y&#8217;s new insurance doesn&#8217;t cover my old one). Two of these involved long drives, into the city across the Bay Bridge, and down to San Carlos across the 92 bridge. Everything is fine, medically speaking. Today I managed to stay home all day today, though we&#8217;re going out to dinner in a little while. Another drive tomorrow, to Walnut Creek, for Xmas shopping.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Think piece of the day. This might have profound implications.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/brain-needs-everyday-rituals_compressed.jpg?resize=480,270\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Big Think, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, 10 Dc 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/smart-skills\/why-your-brain-needs-everyday-rituals\/\">Why your brain needs everyday rituals<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Rituals serve psychological functions that go far beyond mere habit or tradition.&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>Key Takeaways<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Rituals \u2014 repeated, meaningful routines \u2014 give the brain structure when life feels uncertain. \u2022 Their predictability can calm stress, reduce mental load, and improve social interactions. \u2022 You can design small, personal rituals to actively program your brain for resilience, clarity, and connection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Most people think of rituals as elaborate religious ceremonies or ancient traditions. But your life is actually filled with them.<\/p>\n<p>Waiting for everyone to be served before eating, giving presents for birthdays and holidays, saying \u201chello\u201d and exchanging scripted pleasantries, clapping at the end of a performance \u2014 all of these are rituals woven throughout our days.<\/p>\n<p>Since the dawn of time, humans have used rituals to acknowledge one another, signal belonging, mark beginnings and endings, and more.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, I <a href=\"https:\/\/nesslabs.com\/habits-routines-rituals-intentionality-curve\">believe<\/a> rituals are some of the most powerful technologies invented by humankind. Think of them as repetitive, patterned, often culturally transmitted \u201csoftware\u201d that serves psychological functions that go far beyond mere habit or tradition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well&#8230; says this reader. Isn&#8217;t this using &#8220;ritual&#8221; to describe cultural norms? Or personal habits? I&#8217;m guilty of &#8220;rituals&#8221; in this last sense. To this day, for example, I and my partner do certain things every week: take-out lunch on Wednesdays, dinner out on Fridays. I do a certain Locus task every Monday. Are those &#8220;rituals,&#8221; or just routine planning?<\/p>\n<p>The article is discussing rituals as cultural events. Especially involving personal transitions.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rituals also help us make sense of life\u2019s most challenging moments. They mark transitions \u2014 such as birth, puberty, marriage, and death \u2014 and help us navigate events that feel overwhelming. They also support us as we forge a new identity through rites of passage. That\u2019s why graduation ceremonies don\u2019t just celebrate achievement; they help transform a person\u2019s identity from \u201cstudent\u201d to \u201cgraduate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The article doesn&#8217;t quite get there, but I think that rituals in this sense are simply habits that we create in order to rely on them &#8212; so we don&#8217;t have to think anew every decision in familiar circumstances. They&#8217;re ways of simplifying the world, both personally and culturally.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>I appreciate this take on the font matter.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/boingboing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/marco-rubio.jpg?fit=1&amp;quality=60&amp;ssl=1&amp;resize=620%2C4000\" width=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Boing Boing, Rob Beschizza, 10 Dec 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/boingboing.net\/2025\/12\/10\/state-department-to-switch-from-woke-default-microsoft-font-to-old-british-newspaper-typeface.html\">State Department to switch from &#8220;woke&#8221; default Microsoft font to old British newspaper typeface<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The folks at Boing Boing provide background that mainstream sources have not.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Calibri\">Calibri<\/a>, a modern sans-serif typeface designed to be readable on screen and page alike, was commissioned by Microsoft and made the Office suite default in 2006. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/12\/09\/us\/politics\/rubio-state-department-font.html\">Secretary of State Marco Rubio finds it too woke<\/a> and has ordered diplomats to use the previous default: Times New Roman, designed for British newspaper <em>The<\/em> <i>Times<\/i> in 1931.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But Times New Roman is *traditional*.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The underlying problem, for Rubio and the Trump administration, is that Calibri was crafted to be more easily read by people with vision impairments and dyslexia, and is therefore is a &#8220;diversity, equity and inclusion&#8221; measure to be gotten rid of. Its use was formally standardized at the State Department under the previous administration of Joe Biden.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Because anything meant to help disadvantaged people is &#8220;woke&#8221; and must be eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>And:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The problem with Times New Roman was that it was intended for newsprint, where the ink will spread into the fibers, thickening the letterforms. On smooth paper, its letterforms are thin and spindly. On older screens, pixelation mangles them entirely. If you wanted to switch to an old-fashioned, formal-looking serif typeface because you wanted to Make Typography Great Again, there are many better options than Times New Roman. Microsoft provided <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Constantia_(typeface)\">Constantia<\/a> with Calibri. Sometimes, it&#8217;s important to remember that these guys are just plain stupid.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Short takes from JMG.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/12\/trump-rages-about-his-cratering-approval-ratings\/\">Trump Rages About His Cratering Approval Ratings<\/a><\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s lying, or delusional.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/12\/trump-european-nations-want-me-as-their-leader\/\">Trump: European Nations Want Me As Their Leader<\/a><\/li>\n<li>No, they don&#8217;t. He&#8217;s lying, or delusional.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/12\/gop-senator-make-things-affordable-by-earning-more\/\">GOP Senator: Make Things Affordable By Earning More<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Doofus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/12\/white-house-asl-interpreters-hurt-trumps-image\/\">White House: ASL Interpreters Hurt Trump\u2019s Image<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Yet again: Trump doesn&#8217;t want to be seen in any kind of context that implies that disadvantaged people are being helped.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personal health updates; Big Think on the need for everyday rituals; Boing Boing on the origins of Calibri and Times New Roman, and stupidity; Short takes on approval ratings, European leadership, earning more, and Trump&#8217;s image. &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; It&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/12\/12\/rituals-and-routines-and-fonts\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,96,18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-human-nature","category-lunacy","category-personal-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26553"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26633,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26553\/revisions\/26633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}