wait a minute... who *am* i???
hiya gang,
it's been a hot minute since we last interacted over this medium, huh? rest assured, i have a good reason.
the reason: i was busy. and i put it off. and then it seemed an insurmountable task to write all the things i would have normally wanted to put in. so i just didn't do it.
so: i'm not gonna do a big catch up. we'll just pick up like we normally do, as most (all??) of you folks reading this already have some level of awareness of what's been going on, big picture style, in my wild and precious life.
furthermore: i'll just get started now.
one thing that really bugs me is the amount of security cameras i walk by on a daily basis. from the ubiquitous ring cameras that might as well have a pipeline straight to the cops (i know these things are a relatively affordable accessibility aid to a lot of disabled folks, but i would argue that accessibility aids shouldn't come with the kind of strings a ring camera does), to the diy-ed, all-footage-saved-to-a-local-server, motion tracking cameras (i think if you're gonna have a security camera set-up, this is better, but i am tired of watching cameras literally following me down the sidewalk as i take my baby on a walk every morning). that last parenthetical is what really gets to me. just about every morning, the baby and i walk up and down the streets of our immediate neighborhood for around an hour. my casual observance would guess the amount of houses we walk by that have cameras pointing at the sidewalk (not even cameras only focused on someone's personal property) at around 70%. obviously, not super scientific, but i've done this walk dozens of times over the last few months, and it bugs me that there is footage of every mile of it. i just want to enjoy the walk!!
related reading from almost 20 years ago
and another thing!! on these same morning walks, everyday i see drivers blowing through the crosswalks, with nary an eye to any pedestrians trying to make their way through. they roll through, see me and the baby waiting to cross, slam on the brakes so their rear wheels stop in the middle of the crosswalk, and sheepishly try to wave us to cross in front of them. why would i do that?? i don't trust you!! (tangentially, if you're the last of the line of cars cruising down the street, and you see someone waiting to cross on foot- i think it's very weird to stop your car for them to cross in front of you. in another second, they would be able to cross without the threat of a several thousand pound piece of metal and plastic hitting them. i get that pedestrians have the right of way, but its much safer to cross a street after all the cars have gone by!)
feels good to get those off my chest :)
noteworthy reads
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plastic eating bacteria - like renewable energy, not the best solution (reduce energy demand/reduce plastic manufacturing) but still some benefit.
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logistical deep-dive into the siege of gondor - first of a multipart series written by a historian who specializes in ancient military logistics. if you're a lotr fan, a worthwhile read. also available in audio.
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logistical deep-dive into the battle of helm's deep - much the same as the last one, but, you know, a different thing. no audio, unfortunately.
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planes keep almost crashing into each other - i was already not big on flying, as it's massively polluting, but this makes me even more reluctant. we don't have the infrastructure to do this safely even in the short term, let alone the climate impacts.
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indigenous groups leading the way on data sovereignty - various indigenous groups are prioritizing keeping their digital data secure, and how they're going about it.
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let kids books being weird - i've been reading a pretty decent amount of kids books recently- a lot of them are pretty boring, or catered to the adult gaze. adults think kids books have to teach them morals and how to do the right thing and all that (and books definitely have a part in shaping those worldviews) but sometimes a book just has to be weird and out of left field and surreal. not everything is about training kids.
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brian boggs apparently makes a real good chair - i want to sit in one.
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chicago police scanner activity isn't publicly accessible in the moment anymore - this is old at this point, but still bad. this data oughta be publicly accessible at all times. let the cops keep calling each other on their personal phones if they want to keep something off air. on a personal note, i'm bummed that the guide i made for folks on monitoring the scanner when your people are in the streets is no longer relevant :(
i'm gonna cap the articles there, but here are some books (no links tho, just off the cuff)
- i most recently reread all of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series. i hate that elon musk likes these books, but i also don't think he understands them as the satire they are?
- before that, i read the martian and aurora by kim stanley robinson. i've been slowly making my way through his canon over the last year or two, and i enjoy his work a lot. i've got more of it on my list.
- i've started parallel minds by laura tripaldi, but sidelined it while i read all of the hitchhiker's books. a main focus of this one are interfaces, the new thing that comes into existence when two things come together.
- the devil's element: phosphorus and a world out of balance by dan egan. this book lays out the history of human knowledge about phosphorus, and how important it is for our continued sustenance, and also how it'll run out if we don't figure something out.
- raising free people by akilah s. richards. this is a book about unschooling. it lays out the reasons traditional schooling doesn't work for this family or their values, and why and how unschooling works for them.
records
- please give me your recommendations :)
alright y'all, i'm calling it. i want to get this out before i spend too long tinkering.