robotamerica

music is important to me. i listen to it and i play it. i believe the best sorts of music are heard in living rooms, at kitchen tables, on the street, or at a big celebration. music played by the people and for the people. music that secretly lives inside me %%green%%punk%% - my first %%red%%love%% %%green%%lăutari%% - somewhere in my hands %%green%%trubači%% - in my lips %%green%%flamenco%% - in my legs %%green%%rembetika%% - in my shoulders %%green%%fado%% - in my %%red%%heart%%…

when i was a teen, i earned the nickname %%orange%%cheese%% due to a sleep-eating incident. for full context, i was %%green%%vegan%% at the time and %%yellow%%hadn't eaten cheese in years%%. one night, after a punk show and after drinking some forties in the parking lot we ended up at a friends house. all my pals started on a movie, and i, as usual, quickly passed out. come 2 am, i wake up upside down in a sleeping back with a pasty cheese-encrusted mouth and a clear cheese wrapper in my hands.…

over the weekend, i had the chance to reread %%green%%excercises in style%% by %%purple%%raymond queneau%%. excellent read, highly recommended. the book is simple. it takes a small slice of a day and tells it in 99 different ways. the themes are %%yellow%%repitition%%, %%orange%%mundanity%%, and %%cyan%%everyday life%%. it is about how we experience the world around us in so many different ways. %%yellow%%we can all experience the same thing, but walk away with our own story/interpretation of…

sometimes i %%red%%worry%% that the very concept of care, is becoming rarer and rarer. %%green%%care%% %%yellow%%takes cautious and serious attention%%. it is about cultivating that attention, sometimes slowly, but always consistently. in a time where instant gratification has stolen our attention, %%orange%%to care has become a form of outlaw behaviour%%. the mindfulness and attention required for care cause friction between the speed of capital (in the attention economy) and the individual…

%%green%%i took the day off in light of may day%%. i will bathe the dog, eat breakfast, and then head to centro and the markets for a photowalk. will have some coffee can catch up with some friends in the afternoon, and this evening we have a dinner planned. may is here, which means %%red%%heat%% and hopefully a lot of %%purple%%rain%%. we are considering getting another 2000-litre rain catcher. between laundry, showering, and washing dishes, we found we use about 2000-2500 litres a month. not…

i participated in (inter)national poetry this month by writing a poem a day for thirty days. the poems can be found tagged on my other site, kmnada.page. i challenged myself after a full year, in which i found myself unable to write poetry. depressing. %%green%%this challenge gave me the confidence needed to write more poetry%%. i have written 15 chapbooks, which you can find over at kmsgarden.com, and would like to start working towards a full book of poetry. %%yellow%%i am so happy to have…

before robotamerica became my handle, before it was a blog, %%green%%it started as a two-edition mini-zine that was sold at punk shows%%. i created the zine sometime around '98. it was a dadaist and situationist inspired little booklet with some essay-like writing and a series of collages and sketches. %%yellow%%the premise of the zine was a critique of everyday life and consumerism (overconsumption) in the so-called developed nations.%% that was the origin of the name as well, "robot america",…

i have based the robotamerica colour scheme / theme off of one dark (specifically onedark.nvim). i use variations of this theme accross my workspaces (cli, nvim, slack, vscode, browser, etc.). i do so because %%yellow%%i find it easy on the eyes%%, and %%green%%i have always wanted to build a consistent theme across all of my working environments%%, which i have found helps prevent the cognitive overload caused by poor design decisions made by others. though, %%red%%you may think i have made a…

pinewind, in his post thoughts on minimalism, wisely notes that: there's an aesthetic side and a philosophical side to minimalism. yes! he also notes there are social and political. agreed. i would like to add that there are also economic, ecological, epistimological, and somatic sides to minimalism as well. this reply won't cover them, but i thought it was worth bringing up, as %%purple%%some minimalist views are simply misguided while others verge on fascism%%. %%green%%i wanted to elaborate…

my name is kevin, %%green%%but i prefer km%%. i was born in canada, but have called mexico home for well over a decade. i was a geography and literature teacher for many many years, but have since moved into the solar energy industry, carrying forward my teaching and geography knowledge into a new, exciting space. %%purple%%i was born in the 80's%% on the cusp on millenialhood, but consider myself more a part of the nintendo generation or a soft gen x'er. i come from a working-class family,…

a large part of %%green%%escaping%% %%red%%algorithmic dumping grounds%% is %%blue%%becoming an explorer%%. %%purple%%exploration is one of the funnest parts of the open web%%. i try my best to find at least one new site or space a day. this exploratory curiosity has given me an optimistic pov of a much more resilient open web than i would have suspected only a few years ago. we are really doing it y'all! %%green%%we are keeping the open web alive%%. every silly little blog post, personal…

here is a rose, bud sprout, thorn prickly exercise for the springtime feelies: 🌹 💧 rain + water in the desert 🪻 flowers: jacaranda, flor de mayo, palo de rosa ... 🥵⛈️ el borchorno is not on everyone's fave list, but i love the heat before the rain! 🍉 fruits! watermelon, mango, ciruela criolla ... 4 rosesn 🌱 🌞 summer is coming, and that means less tourists! 🧑🏽‍🌾 we start preparing the herb gardens and milpa 🍹 we will drink many cocktails to beat the heat of may 🔥 we can safely have fires and…

%%orange%%i woke up to the sun coming up over the mountains, slowly bringing light into the valley and into our bedroom window%%. our bedroom is a small space. wooden floors, brick and adobe walls, and a lovely wooden roof with long, angled vigas. waking up here, each morning brings a poem. this morning i was thinking about two books that had a big impression on me in my younger years studying geography: %%purple%%the poetics of space%%, %%green%%by gaston bachelard%%, and %%purple%%tender…

i jot, note, list, and journal a lot of things digitally. especially during my workdays. in an attempt to be a little more present, at least in the eyes of other folk, i decided to create what i am calling a %%green%%jot ecology%%. this jot ecology is based on subject-dedicated notebooks or personalised field notes notebooks. i maintain a general logbook and longer form journals as well within this notes-based ecology. %%blue%%the idea is to strengthen knowledge and retain memories based on…

a quick geography of routine everywhere where there is interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy, there is rhythm. %%purple%%henri lefebvre%%, %%green%%rhythmanalysis: space, time and everyday life%% %%blue%%i've moved more times than i've fingers to count%%. between provinces, countries, states, cities and towns. i've lived both urban and rural lives. i recently moved, again, and this has gotten me thinking about routine and its connection to space. %%green%%i'm highly…

i have a confesion to make: %%purple%%i prentend to be organised than i really am%%. i have myself some pretty simple organisational tools for daily life, digital life, and work; yet, i always find it hard to actually use them. even after gameifying things for myself. it isn't about %%yellow%%motivation%% or even %%orange%%practicality%%. my systems are practical and easy to use. it is really more about %%green%%habit%%, or %%red%%lack thereof%%. for most of my life i have just let my dyslexic…

i wish there were more experimental and fun text carets. i mean, why not. this wish resulted in the visual experiment below. which is your favourite? the text cursor zoo experimental blinking caret forms guillemet the fox jum» » u+00bb angle bracket the fox jum⟩ ⟩ u+27e9 reference mark the fox jum※ ※ u+203b squiggly arrow the fox jum⇝ ⇝ u+21dd light shade the fox jum░ ░ u+2591 medium shade the fox jum▒ ▒ u+2592 dark shade the fox jum▓ ▓ u+2593 square with diagonals the fox jum▩ ▩ u+25a9 flag //…

yeah, but [do]es [th][s]he[y] even ++green++garden++? our garden is slowly coming along. we have been propagating our house plants/herbs and preparing some to be planted outside. we won't seed/plant until later in may when the rains come. it is too hot and dry right now. but we do have the old garden going. mostly cactus, some fruit trees (lime, lemon, orange, mango, and nispero. some seasonal flowers. but what we really want to get started on is our herb beds and milpa. soon! space has been…