Category: Me Myself&I

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.

August 28 2021, 4:52pm ~ still going.

This is one of the best skateboarding video ever. It came out last year but I only watched it early this summer.

I watched it a few times. Times 10.

It’s so perfectly iconic. The music, the editing, the camaraderie, the tricks, the styles.

I could go on.

The skateboard company behind that vid is valley-based Illegal Civ, which has been very active on YouTube.

Y’all have to sponsor Noe Solis. His part like all of them, is so dope.

And there again, I watched it again. Davonte, you’re the man brother. Thank you, thank you.

When I clicked on a button and Google said “we’ll attempt to..” I knew I would get that Overstock email until I die.

If I have a tombstone, I’m pretty sure Overstock will find a way to get their freaking sale engraved on it.

Unrelated but it looks like autocorrect is getting worse, how is that possible after 15 iterations of an OS? I don’t know. Let’s breathe.

The Chicago Sky won their first WNBA title last weekend. Candace Parker is from Chicago and had just landed on the team roster last season after a few years with the Los Angeles Sparks.

It’s a great story. The WNBA playoffs this year were amazing. Shout out to miss Copper who was so relentless the entire series.

Yup, the WNBA was fully vaccinated by the end of May while the NBA still isn’t yet.  Almost 60,000 people died from COVID-19 last month in America (only 8,000 died in June).

Something something women get stuff done.