Author: harold

Employment in America in 2021 is a nightmarish maze.

The family dog passed away and he was cute.

I’m hiding his toy.

Like, so so cute. Well behaved most of the time, if a little bit mischievous.

He spent his life following my mom and my sister. I played with him a lot. I was hoping that I would travel back on time for him to make a very specific yapping at me; mom told me that he always greeted me differently and I always put that on the fact that I was the one running after him and his toy in the front yard. That’s connection right here.

May you enjoy running with other dogs in the dogs paradise, little dude.

We hear a lot about the metaverse or metaverses.

That makes me think about microcosms.

microcosm

[ˈmīkrəˌkäzəm]

NOUN

1. a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger.

Everything is a microcosm now. Everyone is in his/her lil world(s).

Mainstream, culturally, isn’t really a thing anymore.

That’s a big shift.

There’s a pull and push in the world of technology right now.

A push for the most cutting edge tech, putting us inside virtual worlds like we’ve never been before: VR/AR, services, subscriptions.

A pull for the most efficient, no-brainer old tech that keeps us in the real world: 2010s or older desktop software, no smartphones or very limited ones, computers used until they die.

I think we should aim for a middle ground that would simultaneously provide progress AND sustainability. Me and my middle! I know.

The consequences for the next decades will be defined in the current one.

They say “pimpin’ ain’t easy.” Well, neither is slaveholdin’. Like children, dogs, dice, and overpromising politicians, and apparently prostitutes, slaves don’t do what you tell them to do.

“I looked on the Internet, and the therapists are all white. Standing in the forest or in front of a bookshelf, promising career and sexual fulfillment, and healthy relationships. How come you never see photos of them with their overachieving kids or fucking their partners to satisfaction? Where’s the proof in the pudding?”

My father had a theory that poor people are the best drivers because they can’t afford to carry car insurance and have to drive like they live, defensively. We were caught up in a slog of uninsured rust-bucket jalopies and compacts, all doing exactly fifty-five miles per hour, their trash bag windshields flapping in the wind.

Jaguar model names sound like rockets: XJ-S, XJ8, E-Type. Hondas sound like cars designed by pacifists and humanitarian diplomats. The Accord, Civic, Insight.

Paul Beatty in The Sellout, which makes me laugh to no end. It’s brutal and irreverent satire and not easy to grasp at first. Definitely needs multiple passes to get it all.

I think this book would make a tremendous animated movie or series with a A Scanner Darkly aesthetic. It would be the bomb.

Isn’t it a beautiful small house? I don’t know if I’d live in a layout like this. It sure looks wonderful from the street though. Natural cross-ventilation, hello!

They put a new coat of asphalt on my boulevard and before doing so, they have to make it rough, as in this picture. I probably lost 3 months worth of tires driving on this. Whatever.

I’m straight up not having a good time with this Windows 11. They are dedicated to kill backward compatibility and I think that’s not going to go well, especially with a chip shortage. Especially with inflation. Especially with billions of older machines and older software working just fine, if not running on Windows 10/11.

It circles back to “we need to slow our roll with consumption and be smarter about this e-waste”. Not sure people selling computers and operating systems like that, but our planet sure does.

I’m not mad at you. You were supposed to deliver the thing yesterday. The product arrived today. The product was bent.

I’m not mad at you. You might be fourteen, trying to save for your future or current student loans.

I unbent the product. It’s a little crooked, I will be fine.

I’m not going to report it, make a scene, rate you -987 or demand a refund or a return. I understand that it’s a nightmare out there, delivering packages.

I hope you’re well. Drive safe and next time be careful, hoe.

Derek is so right! Here’s his reasoning:

If I buy a book in one format, it doesn’t seem fair to pay full price to get it in another format. That would be paying twice for the same content.

Let’s separate these two things:

1. Contents: the words in a book
2. Delivery: the ways to get the words into your brain: paper, audio, PDF, HTML, etc.

What we really want is to buy the contents, not delivery.

With so many different devices now, it seems fair that if you buy the contents of a book, it should include all formats of delivery. EPUB, MP3, Kindle, M4B, PDF, HTML, or whatever new formats may come in the future.

Today you want to read silently by the fire. Tomorrow you want to listen while you drive. In ten years, you want to read it again on your new device. This should all be included when you buy a book.

That gave me an idea: what if device manufacturers were doing the same? Say you buy a phone but instead of getting a new one in 18 months through your carrier, you just get lifetime support. That is, the manufacturer does everything it can to make the device last. Changing parts one by one if/when they wear out, for a small fee.

Imagine how much savings we would be doing. Imagine phones that last at least five years. Imagine the staggering amount of rare minerals, toxic sludge, sweat and blood that we would save from spilling all over this planet.

We NEED to consume less. Smarter. Let’s go.