@RianVDM

Jamie Zawinski makes some solid points in PSA: Do Not Use Services That Hate The Internet:

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 12:28:35 -0800

Jamie Zawinski makes some solid points in PSA: Do Not Use Services That Hate The Internet:

If posts in a social media app do not have URLs that can be linked to and viewed in an unauthenticated browser, or if there is no way to make a new post from a browser, then that program is not a part of the World Wide Web in any meaningful way.

In other words, don’t use Hive or Post. Let’s not make the same mistakes again.

It takes one person to knock down a silo:

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 10:20:42 -0800

It takes one person to knock down a silo:

Wherever you end up I want to offer an idea; you are the value. Your ideas, your insights, your compassion, your ability to help someone in need, your dumb puns and dank memes; that’s what’s valuable. This situation has me thinking hard about where I’m distributing my contributions, where I’m adding value (modest as it may be), and who is benefitting.

"Try to join Mastodon. The tweets are called toots, and it looks like you need to know basic..."

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 09:27:18 -0800

“Try to join Mastodon. The tweets are called toots, and it looks like you need to know basic programming. Receive a message from someone in Germany asking for donations and explaining that the network discourages viral posts. Yell, “WELL, THEN WHAT’S THE POINT, JURGEN?””

- Fifteen Ways to Share Your Joke After Twitter Implodes - McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

This is my favorite photo of my dad, my brother, and I. It shows...

Fri, 18 Nov 2016 11:28:11 -0800

This is my favorite photo of my dad, my brother, and I. It shows my dad in the exact spot where he was always most happy. In the dirt, in front of a fire with some wine, and surrounded by his sons. This is how I will always remember him.

Dad passed away on November 5th. I miss him.

Photo

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 03:40:40 -0800

"For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a..."

Thu, 22 Sep 2016 14:27:50 -0700

“For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: There was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.”

- Can’t stop thinking about this quote from Lord of the Rings.

/via How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front

Sad news: he can’t play drums any more due to...

Wed, 31 Aug 2016 11:05:50 -0700

Sad news: he can’t play drums any more due to surgery.

Happy news: that’s his son playing drums.

This is a wonderful performance.

Wed, 31 Aug 2016 10:57:25 -0700

This is a wonderful performance.

These are all fantastic. (via STAR WARS ALBUM COVERS!)

Wed, 31 Aug 2016 10:50:38 -0700

These are all fantastic.

(via STAR WARS ALBUM COVERS!)

"Because here’s something else that’s true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is..."

Mon, 22 Aug 2016 09:43:34 -0700

“Because here’s something else that’s true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.”

- David Foster Wallace

This won’t convince anyone to change their minds about religion/atheism. But it certainly rang true for me.

Addicted to this album (and cover art) right now.

Fri, 22 Jul 2016 13:10:05 -0700

Addicted to this album (and cover art) right now.

Some lovely poster art here. (via Kyle Lambert - Stranger...

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 10:31:19 -0700

Some lovely poster art here.

(via Kyle Lambert - Stranger Things - Netflix Poster Artwork)

I love everything about this video (and song).

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 11:27:23 -0700

I love everything about this video (and song).

Thoughts about dad #1

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 11:19:44 -0700

It feels like one of the invisible forces of nature that keeps the earth spinning around its axis is disintegrating. I feel dizzy all the time, off balance, as if I might fall over at any point. Kind of like how flocks of birds suddenly start flying into stuff in the beginning of that terrible movie where the earth’s core stops spinning. Dad is a force that I don’t see often, but who helps to keep everything in its rightful place, and I’m not sure how to survive without it.

So if something feels a little strange to you today — if you almost trip, or you feel a small shock when you touch something, or you can’t get comfortable as you try to go to sleep — I think I know why. You are experiencing a disturbance in the force as a great man’s hold on this world starts loosening.

My Problem With the Bible - Brian Zahnd

Sun, 10 Jan 2016 15:26:00 -0800

My Problem With the Bible - Brian Zahnd:

This article really spoke to me.

Every story is told from a vantage point; it has a bias. The bias of the Bible is from the vantage point of the underclass. But what happens if we lose sight of the prophetically subversive vantage point of the Bible? What happens if those on top read themselves into the story, not as imperial Egyptians, Babylonians, and Romans, but as the Israelites? That’s when you get the bizarre phenomenon of the elite and entitled using the Bible to endorse their dominance as God’s will. This is Roman Christianity after Constantine. This is Christendom on crusade. This is colonists seeing America as their promised land and the native inhabitants as Canaanites to be conquered. This is the whole history of European colonialism. This is Jim Crow. This is the American prosperity gospel. This is the domestication of Scripture. This is making the Bible dance a jig for our own amusement.

And yet, all is not lost.

If I read the Bible with the appropriate perspective and humility I don’t use the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus as a proof-text to condemn others to hell. I use it as a reminder that I’m a rich man and Lazarus lies at my door. I don’t use the conquest narratives of Joshua to justify Manifest Destiny. Instead I see myself as a Rahab who needs to welcome newcomers. I don’t fancy myself as Elijah calling down fire from heaven. I’m more like Nebuchadnezzar who needs to humble himself lest I go insane.

I have a problem with the Bible, but all is not lost. I just need to read it standing on my head. I need to change my perspective. If I can accept that the Bible is trying to lift up those who are unlike me, then perhaps I can read the Bible right.

These are lovely. (via The Original Star Wars Concept Art Is...

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 10:06:27 -0800

These are lovely.

(via The Original Star Wars Concept Art Is Amazing)

Aaaand it’s proper snowing in Portland. Opened the front...

Sun, 03 Jan 2016 08:15:06 -0800

Aaaand it’s proper snowing in Portland. Opened the front door to find this situation.

This looks pretty ridiculous. Also, I want this. (via...

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 14:57:25 -0800

This looks pretty ridiculous.

Also, I want this.

(via Vanmoof’s Boncho keeps bikers dry in the rain)

"Living like this, the way I’m living at the moment, is harder in the summer when there is so much..."

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 09:44:58 -0800

“Living like this, the way I’m living at the moment, is harder in the summer when there is so much daylight, so little cover of darkness, when everyone is out and about, being flagrantly, aggressively happy. It’s exhausting, and it makes you feel bad if you’re not joining in.”

- Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train

You know, parenting is a racket, and life is crazy, but...

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 09:04:57 -0800

You know, parenting is a racket, and life is crazy, but sometimes you get to sit on the couch with your kids and watch a Crowder concert and maybe, just maybe, everything is going to be all right.