Cathi Harris

News Featured

Why I'm excited to vote for Kamala Harris

She will be the standard bearer for a compelling alternate vision for the future of the United States.

Personal Featured

Still American

On loving and leaving the United States

Writing

Did Google shoot itself in the search engine?

AI Overviews prove not ready for prime time

Writing

In which I try to make 'fetch' happen

I think anyone who has ever used Google Maps to get directions can see the potential pitfalls of letting AI tell you where you go for Sunday dinner or the best local dry cleaners - let alone anything of greater consequence.

Writing

A blog by any other name ...

I read so many Substacks, in fact, that it can take up my entire morning--reading my subscriptions on the app, then commenting, then noticing who has 're-stacked' one of my articles . . . Wait, what does this remind me of?

Death by Chocolate

I overindulged over the long Easter holiday - not in beer - as is the local custom - but in sugar. Family from home sent us a care package of yummy chocolate bunnies, eggs and truffles. And my 16-year-old daughter has discovered baking (thanks a lot, Preppy Kitchen!). She spent

Writing

Me and ChatGPT

I'm over here like Violet Crawley looking through her fan at this horrible electric lighting.

Personal

An open letter to Duolingo

Please make the early levels more tourist-friendly.

Reading

Book Review: 'The Downstairs Girl' by Stacey Lee

Jo Kuan, the protagonist and titular Downstairs Girl, is a Chinese American teenager living in Atlanta, Georgia just after the end of the U.S. Civil War.

Personal

This is your brain on menopause

I'm not wrong. It turns out menopause can break your brain.

Reading

What I'm reading on Substack

I love that they are promoting individual voices. Jury is still out on supporting the platform, though.

Reading

I got 'reader's block' in 2023

This time last year, I made what I thought was a simple (and easy!) new year's resolution to read a total of 12 books in 2023.

Personal

We moved to Berlin

It's funny where life takes you.

Reading

2023 Reading Challenge - Reading Down the Bookshelf

And we're back again! Here with the perennial goal of reading more books. This year, I'm going with what I hope will be an easy goal: Twelve books, one a month. As a writer and lifelong bookworm, it's embarrassing to admit that this is

Personal

Love song for a little house

By the time I publish this post, our 1952 brick ranch on a busy Decatur corner will belong to someone else.

News

Help for Ukraine

I am having trouble focusing on work or normal life tasks even though the conflict is on the other side of the world.

Writing

Tucker Observer: 'Cash is King'

This shortage is an ongoing national problem, driving up housing costs for both buyers and renters across the country.

Writing

What are your favorite work apps?

Otter.ai and Cube ACR Pro make my life much easier.

Writing

Decatur's affordable housing dilemma

I have an update on Decaturish this week about the city's stalled cottage court development.

Personal

Waiting for spring

Someone said on Twitter that 2021 really came in with that "hold my beer" energy and they were not wrong.

Reading

My (not very) Bookish 2020

For those of you out there who are wondering how I could not manage just two books a month when everything closed down and we were all "stuck at home."

Personal

Silent screaming into the void

I started regularly blogging again as a way to deal with my anxiety over the pandemic. I have always processed my thoughts best through writing. And, I wanted to keep a record of what life was like during this time.

Personal

Close-range parenting

We set up my son's desk in the dining room. In August, this will again be "school" for him, though right now it is the scene of too many Roblox marathons.

Personal

'The way forward is to not look back'

A few days later we learned that Georgia set a daily record for new cases of COVID-19.

Writing

Please stop sharing garbage on Facebook

Let's talk about real fake news. Not Donald Trump's fake news (a.k.a. news he doesn't like), but the fake news that is fiction--often crafted with malicious intent--disguised as fact.