di FARHA GUERRERO Sono attratta dalla forma epistolare e confesso, con un certo imbarazzo, che la mia corrispondenza può spesso essere lunga, forse eccessiva. Io “messaggio” dal mio portatile usando tutte e dieci le dita. Spesso mi rivolgo ai destinatari delle mie email con “Caro” o “Cara”. Forse sono cresciuta in un’epoca in cui scrivere lettere era già fuori moda. Eppure, ho bei ricordi di quando scrivevo lettere a mano, da adolescente, e durante il mio primo anno di studi universitari,…

People often talk about what radicalized them on podcasts and whatnot and ever since reading Pirate’s radicalization moment (in the left direction) a few months ago, I’ve been thinking about my own moment which I believe I’ve finally identified: It was the start of the current Palestinian genocide. My belief in the universalism of human rights (that they would apply to me) was shaken occasionally by the “Suliman, the terrorist” jokes, but those were just jokes, right? Whereas the genocide…

Not much screen time for me lately, so this is a few months’ worth. But I have enjoyed some things! My Brother the Minotaur: Really well-done kids’ adventure show, begging for a second season. Avatar Aang: Thick with fan service, and that’s exactly what I wanted from the ol’ gang, all grown up and still at it. I hope they keep making stuff in this universe. Tires: Season 3 was full of heart, somehow. Caring about Shane Gillis’ love life wasn’t on my bingo card this year, but I was into it.…

Less Pressure, More Progress It's Saturday afternoon, and thus far today I've been rather busy. It started off with my first full night of sleep in a week, which was much needed. Once I was up and moving, I got dressed and went grocery shopping. Then I came home, made some salads, and started on some laundry and dishes. Afterwards, I headed down to the gym, where I got in the workout I missed yesterday (since I hadn't gotten a full night's sleep and had been up since 4:30 AM). I also made up…

Comcast is advertising their “WiFi Motion” feature, which is basically “pay us to track when you’re home or away”. I wonder how often they get subpoenaed for that information, or whether they give or sell it without the hassle of a warrant. While I would never in a million years let this into my home or office, I thank them for drawing attention to their ability to spy on customers this way.

We don’t need to believe machines suffer to recognize that the system building them is already causing real harm. The #AI consciousness debate is a useful example of how the #deathcult works – we are encouraged to worry about whether a chatbot can suffer, while the human labour, exploitation and environmental costs of building these systems are pushed out of sight. Fluent language is not evidence of consciousness. #AI can produce plausible expressions of distress without there being evidence…

Our neighorhood has many deciduous trees, which means, in Canadian October, lots of bright colors overhead and also on the ground. The camera (from its corner in my office) and phone (from my pocket) both quiver with eagerness to be pointed at those colors. Sinced I’ve grumbled a bit recently about the Pixel’s color rendition, I thought I should try some side-by-sides. So here are three pairs of pictures from the mobile and the “real” camera. The gear The mobile is a Pixel 10, shooting with the…

From Of Triumphal Arches by Margaret Atwood:When I heard A Certain Orange Person say that every country had a Triumphal Arch and so the United States had to have one too, I wondered if Canada had a triumphal arch. It does have an arch of sorts in Ottawa, but it’s not a triumphal arch: it’s a war memorial, put up after WW 1 and adding several other wars in which Canadians punched above their weight. It doesn’t say Hooray Victorious Us, but rather We Made It Through, Though Not All of Us Did; and…

Philemon, fragment 92 Kock = Comparison of Menander and Philistion II 59-67 Jaeckel, p. 105; attributed to Philetus by Stobaeus, Anthology 4.33.19, vol. 5, part 2, pp. 804-805 Hense (tr. F.A. Paley): Wealth ever brings its ills, and those not few. Some envy, some abuse and hate it too. Trouble, annoyance, meet one without end, Extortions here, there gifts to help a friend, Who, as you soon find out, has left a will To make some other rich man richer still. Thus modest means, with life devoid of…

A Tale of Two Sureties It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period,…

Went down to the beach to get some air and the waves were crashing in a very satisfying way.203 words · 3 images

★★★★: One of my favorites. Walks the fine line between parody and example perfectly, catering to both crowds. Funny, scary, well thought out, and a breath of fresh air. I really liked their adherence to the rules they set up in the world. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right! FYI: My reviews are scored out of 4. Also, thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed and supporting the indie web!

I really like how this impromptu shot came out. I’m sitting in 12A on a Mesa Airlines E175.

Music is such a balance of sticking with what works and trying new things. One thing that has never really worked for me, but I still try, as in I tried it this morning and it didn’t work, is starting a song with a bass riff. If I find a bass riff on my phone that I’ve recorded, I delete it. But I still record them. So maybe I’m just an optimist, or I’m kidding myself, or I think I can do things I can’t, which I do think I can do things I can’t. But again, it’s a balance thing. Like, stick with…

There’s no such thing as a naughty child – Just a child whose needs aren’t being met. If you already agree with this statement, you will want to see Tangled Feet Theatre Company’s latest production, A Class of Your Own. And if you either disagree with, or are unsure about this statement, you need to see it. We are firmly in the former camp, being both big fans of Tangled Feet (see our reviews of their previous productions, Need a Little Help and Belongings) and adoptive parents with an insight…

I’ve stood on the cliffs overlooking Waimea Bay as 40-foot waves slammed into the hillside and made the land shake. A sea wall as a combination big swell and king tide made the bunker-thick reinforced concrete vibrate. Seen waves erode seaside structures from below, and watched them collapse like Jenga towers. In recent days it’s been Long Beach and Newport Beach with unprecedented coastal flooding, with video of people amusing themselves paddling watercraft in the streets. The storm surge in…

Always loved stars. Whenever I see a starry night sky away from the city, I feel amazed, hopeful and complete. It's crazy that this, and so much more, was what the night sky looked like every night just 200 years ago or so, before light pollution. (Well, not exactly, but let's be romantic). The photos you see below don't really represent what I saw that night. I could only see maybe 10% of those stars. Still beautiful, though. I always look for familiar constellations, like the dippers, but…

Finished The Count of Monte Cristo yesterday. A fun, breezy 1,250-page read that satisfies in a way that feel-good films do, with a lean towards intellectual and historical depth, but a more plot-driven thriller than I expected. In fact, it echoes how many television series are written today (yes, its original printed serial format lends credence to this). In the end, it’s fair to say: vengeance never felt so well-orchestrated.

It's nice to enjoy little bits of randomness every now and then I caught a post by Robert Birming the other day on Bubbles about the idea of a random photo page (you can and should read his thing here) on blogs as a top level /page, and I loved it. Granted, I post photos alongside every one of my posts even if they're completely unrelated to the topic, I really dig the idea of having a top-level page that just features a single picture1 and changes whenever I have a whim to do so. It's there at…

By David Tuller, DrPH A month after publishing a German-language article about chronic fatigue syndrome as part of a larger project, Springer Nature has removed a passage portraying “some patients with fatigue” as being “combative and reproachful toward health care providers,” engaging in “dysfunctional illness behavior,” and exhibiting “a hypochondriacal disorder.” [All translations from German have […]

During Navaratri, houses in Thiruvallikeni (Triplicane) keep golu like houses everywhere else. But here people also invite the goshti, the group that recites the Divya Prabandham at the temple, to come home. They stand before the golu and recite one particular work: Thirumangai Azhwar’s Siriya Thirumadal. Someone asked me for a recording of it, so I recorded myself reciting it at home. Your browser does not support this audio element. The choice comes from the temple. Navaratri in…

Amber Light, a print by Phil Greenwood. • “When I heard the term industrial music, I mistook it for techno and soon learned it was not.” Steven Heller talks to Chris Grimley and Alan Rapp about Industrial Music/Graphics: A Visual History of a Movement. • Halloween approaches, as does Ghosts on the Cam. Editor Robert Lloyd Parry talks to Swan River Press about his latest story collection. • There we were, and we could be naked”: Stanley Stellar’s photographs are a record of gay life in New York…

[For many “old heads,” today’s NBA needs a reset. There’s too many three-pointers and not enough low-post play. Their argument being, the NBA was a whole lot more balanced and better in the 1970s through the early 2000s. The good old days. Ironically, it’s an argument that today’s old heads sometimes heard leveled against them back in the day. Doing the finger wagging then were from the NBA pioneers from the 1940s and 1950s. They felt overlooked and disrespected by the “modern player” who,…

Anne Carson has been awarded the Nobel Prize, a splendid choice that spirals my mind back to 2010 when her NOX was published. “I wanted to fill my elegy with light of all kinds,” she writes. “But death makes us … Continue reading →

The main credit for this article goes – Signal Desktop on FreeBSD Using Linux Binary Compatibility – here. I used linux-browser-installer all this time on FreeBSD with Ubuntu system at /compat/ubuntu … but when I tried to install Signal Desktop there it said that its too old version of Ubuntu – because it was focal. The mentioned guide opened my eyes that I can use something more recent like trixie for example. When I first got Signal Desktop working in this Debian system I really hated how…

I have a problem. I want to be better than everyone but also be humbler than everyone. It’s quite the paradox. I have another problem. I want to be able to tolerate discomfort but I actively seek comfort… that’s not correct. I actively seek distraction and/or avoidance. ——- I wrote the above then posted a blog I drafted last week. It had/has some more revealing info about my financial situation and background, and thoughts on race and class and stuff that I find very interesting but hard to…

It's silly how much I love using the Pagecord web interface for writing. There's room for improvement I'm sure, but it's almost perfect for my needs right now.

Went to Cologne today to attend Fujikina. Listened to a very interesting talk by Stefan Finger about how he approaches projects. Had a friendly conversation at the Cewe booth and might finally try another printing service. Saw amazing photographs by Nina Papiorek from her visit to Chongqing (重庆, Chóngqìng), a fascinating Chinese mega city. Really, do yourself a favor and take a look! A side note on that: Her pronunciation of the name was way off — and it came up every couple of sentences. I…

I gave my blog a temporary makeover for Halloween. I've been seeing several Bear bloggers giving their blog a revamp for Halloween and I've been inspired! I was only going to change the colors, but I ended up drawing a new avatar for myself, added a new font, restyling the NOTES page, and made a Halloween-themed pixel bear! Header image Color palette Secondary font Background texture Notes Pixel Bear Header image The original image, for reference. What kicked it off was the header image! I…

[The Clichés]Got Something For You BabyPama 1001(1965)Cleveland, Ohio According to buckeyebeat : Pinky and Jim Jenkins were a husband and wife act who were part of the Cleveland's folk scene in the 1960s. They played local clubs, including several appearances at La Cave opening for touring acts. In 1965 they were on .one side of a split 45 that was released on Pama. On the other side was a recording by the Cliches of the James Brown song "Good Good Lovin" mistitled "Got Something For You Baby".…