I spoke bluntly at an internal team meeting this morning. I fear I am so not invited to the presenter’s Bat Mitzvah.
… lesson one from pilot school was “fly the plane.” Strange noises? Fly the plane. Zero visibility? Keep flying the plane. Stomach bug kicking in? Fly the plane. Whatever was going on, first you had to fly the plane. Then you could try to address everything else. He saw that as something of a life lesson. Whatever is most important is what you have to do first, despite distractions, interference, or a powerful desire to be elsewhere at the moment. And while you can be on autopilot a lot of the time, when things demand your complete attention, they have to get 100% of your attention.
Om Malik: The future of writing: How AI will shape our tools.
AI doesn’t write for me, but it helps me write and I expect more of that.
“Mayor of Kingstown” is like if Scorsese made a TV series and decided his movies were too family-friendly and sunny.
We watched three episodes, and we’re done. It’s a fine series, but the news is depressing enough.
Garbage Day: “Project 2025 is the policy paper-equivalent of a school shooter manifesto…. The Republican Party is full of weird men that talk like The Joker and all you really have to do is hold a mirror up to them and they fizzle. My most steadfast view of American politics is that it’s not about having coherent political beliefs or clear policy objectives, it’s simply about not being a huge fucking weirdo.” Yes.
AOC and a group of House progressives unveiled articles of impeachment against Thomas and Alito. Hell, yeah! Good to see that at least some Democrats have spines. Not like the party leadership.
Also, Clarence Thomas took a free yacht trip to Russia and a helicopter flight to Putin’s hometown, “among a slew of other gifts and loans from businessman Harlan Crow.” This article includes a list of bribes from the impeachment papers. It’s quite a list. Thomas is as corrupt as a Tammany Hall politician; he should have a cash register next to his seat on the Supreme Court.
The fediverse does not exist
What exists now is Mastodon, which is tiny compared with siloed social media, and also a few other platforms, which are tiny compared with Mastodon, and which partially interoperate with each other and Mastodon through ActivityPub. But only partially.
Among these ActivityPub-compatible platforms is Threads, which is already a bajillion times bigger than Mastodon.
Also, hanging off this tiny ActivityPub archipelago is the island of BlueSky, which is I guess not part of the fediverse because it doesn’t use ActivityPub idk why isn’t it connected to Mastodon?
The only people who care about this kind of thing are a few foolish nerds, among whom I include myself.
“Any one can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.” — Robert Benchley
I think tonight will be the night that I introduce Julie to the wonderfulness that is “Severance.”
I watched it without her when she was visiting family in 2022, and I am definitely up for a rewatch. Season 2 drops in January.
“The Cat Creeps,” a 1930 lost film. Only two minutes of footage exist today.
My Mimestream subscription expired a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I’d skip renewing. Gmail is no longer my primary email service because I am no longer self-employed. However, I dislike the Gmail web interface. And while Apple Mail works, it’s not as nice as Mimestream. So I renewed. $50/year isn’t nothing, but I still use Gmail a lot, and Mimestream is worth it.
