Maybe i'm not the best person to advocate for this given how sloppy my website is, but i really hope that most ppl thinking about m aking their own site realize something very important, which is that your website doesn't actually have to have everything. You don't have to recreate everything on the web, or even your favorite social media site! I recommend starting small, working on what you can or what you know, and plan to do more whenever you feel like you have the capacity to do so. i think probably most people can do more than they think-- setting up a basic website isn't that hard-- but the last thing you want to do is burn out before you even get around to it! just throw up some info for now, and if you decide to add a blog, or a links page, or a wiki-- that stuff can come later.
recognizing john noble in a show by a single voice line and getting hype. i will never understand ppl who don't love character actors more than stars
okay i realized why my rss feed was publishing every post again everytime i made a new one and hopefully i have both fixed it and will remember to continue doing it right in the future lmao
i have to admit, i feela little guilty about blogging more since cohost went down. i never really felt like much of a blogger, tho? i think twitter/mastodon-style social media works well for me bc it just works how my brain works in conversations, like i just post stream of consciousness and don't worry about going back and tightening it up-- obviously that's possible on a blog, i'm doing it right now and getting sidetracked, but the temptation is always there. also its harder to justify just reposting art on here lol. but maybe i'll settle into it!
the other thing is that honestly im just kinda... enjoying being on the internet less in general? it's a lot of rss feeds-- i finally set up thunderbird to use as an rss reader since i realized it was like 85% of what i wanted out of a feed reader, and i'm doing more reading there, especially on my downtime at work-- basically when i would've just scrolled social media. i'm also working on projects. i set up a grocy instance, so that's been kinda my mindless work cooldown project, when i'm too tired to do anything but watch a show but still need to feel productive, lol. i'm doing a lot more planning as well. i tend to go in phases with that, so we'll see how well i follow thru, but it's exciting right now to feel the possibility.
anyway i just wanted to check in so ppl didn't think i fell off the face of the planet. i'm in chicago right now, unfortunately mostly to do some work rather than to relax and see friends, but its still nice to have a change of pace. i'm hoping if the aforementioned plans work out, i can save up and finally get at least one of my cameras in shape to start carrying around more and using-- that'd certainly be nice to have something to post lol. and i found a stash of old drawings over on my defunct tumblr, so i'm excited to post those as well! don't worry, i'll post something on my feed then as well so ppl know to look.
i think the only other thing is i would like to make this place look a little nicer/be a little easier for me to use, but like i said it's kinda just like... i like the amount of time i'm spending on the internet rn! it's funny how much cohost has just made me feel less like i need to interact with online in any way other than what i enjoy. so i'll probably get there eventually, maybe not, but either way, i think i'll be okay. at least, i hope anyone reading this doesn't mind, lol
Paul Jackson, Jr., formerly in charge of bridge and structure maintenance at the Seattle Department of Transportation, is now head of Harrell’s Graffiti Programs and Initiatives. Two other employees, from Seattle Public Utilities and Arts, are also on Harrell’s in-house graffiti team.
graffiti's obviously more important than infrastructure. after all, graffiti is very visible and immediate, and infrastructure is mostly hidden and long-term, so why worry about that
My current reading list, for anyone interested:
i also just finished reading Joe Sacco’s safe area gorazde: the war in eastern bosnia 1992-95. I also have Sacco's Palestine and Footnotes from Gaza on hold at the library, but there's a bit of a wait, fo obvious reasons. Looking those up is what got me on this kick in the first place; it's been quite a few years since I last read his work.
I read and really enjoyed this article by Margaret Killjoy-- I feel like it articulates a growing feeling I've had and struggled to articulate to the people around me about why I feel so increasingly disenchanted with electoral politics-- I still want the democrats to win, but I can't bring myself to spend as much energy or care on the election every four years; there are other important things to worry about and spend that time on instead, that I might actually see making concrete positive change to the world.
Every four years we hear the same thing: “it’s different this year. This is the most important election of our lifetimes.”
The reason this statement is so effective is that, somehow, impossibly, it’s generally true, or it feels true. The 2016 election mattered—the fate of the world hung in the balance. The 2020 election mattered—the fate of the world hung in the balance. The 2024 election matters—the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Democracy itself is on the ballot, they say, and in their way, they’re not wrong: the election this year is between a candidate who believes in representative democracy as an ideal and one who does not.
Can it be that the stakes are indeed higher, every four years? Probably. We have more and more on the line with each passing day, as climate change gets worse and the world order stumbles drunkenly towards collapse, world war, or both.
Or it’s a shepard tone. There’s this auditory illusion called the shepard tone, maybe you’ve heard it. It’s a sound that appears to be constantly rising (or falling) in pitch, no matter how long you listen to it. It’s uncanny, unnerving. I just played it while writing this piece and my dog looked over at the computer, curious and a bit unsettled.
It’s probable that “this election is the most important election of our lifetime” is somehow both true and also an illusion.
See, the way you build a shepard tone is that you layer multiple tones, all of which are rising over time until they reach a peak and start over, but you put the volume emphasis on the ones that are rising rather than the ones that have peaked. So the mind always notices the parts that are rising.
We do that when we look at the world around us. This isn’t just true of the political spectacle. We as a society put emphasis on problems that are getting worse, and there are always things getting worse. This is rational of us, a survival instinct: the current problem needs solving, always. If you are starving and freezing, and you find food but not warmth, your need for shelter is going to only become more dire and the intensity of your situation will only continue to rise despite the fact that your food need has been met.
Acknowledging this pattern shouldn’t mollify us and and it shouldn’t pacify us. Our situation, as individuals, communities, and members of a global population, can and does get both better and worse, and I suspect that the life of the average person on this planet is going to be getting worse due to both climate change and authoritarianism.
my wishlist for people having to migrate off cohost
Subscribe to this feed with the RSS reader of your choice!
