Category: whatever

Well, I finally removed all Meta’s apps from my phone. Including messages.

So, we’re just going to steal Venezuela’s oil.

No one who can do anything about it will do anything. Because it will benefit them.

What happened to “Thou shall not steal”?

Been keeping a written journal since 2006.

This post is not directed at any particular person.

Numerous times today I’ve seen people referring to “consuming media” or “media consumption.”

It is weird and kind of disturbing how the language of the corporate world has invaded every day speech.

We’re not “consumers.” We are human beings!

I don’t consume media. I read books. I listen to music. I watch movies.

I’m not crazy about the term “content” either. Content is shit churned out by content mills and AI. It has no value. When a human being creates something of value, even it it’s only of value to them, it’s demeaning to call it “content”. I write articles and blog posts. I shoot and edit videos and podcasts. My stuff is all unique and the product of human creativity with thought and intent put into it. It’s not there to make someone click on something. It isn’t “content”. It’s my creative work.

I wrote this recently on my experimental blog on nekoweb. I think it really applies to personal blogs and sites in general.

Before I get started, this post refers a lot to a talk Ian MacKaye did at the Library of Congress over ten years ago. If you have about an hour and twenty-seven minutes, watch it. It’s a fascinating talk. I first watched this video about 8 years ago and it made a big impact on me. Every time I watch it I find that it applies to even more areas of endeavor.

If you don’t know who Ian is, clicky clicky.

However, rather than watching the whole thing now…

…watch these short clips – first the one about skateboarding and then the one where he talks about what punk really is…

…because even if you aren’t a skateboarder and aren’t into punk rock, chances are this is going to be relevant to you if you are on nekoweb.

OK. Have you watched the clips? Good. Because, you see, nekoweb and virtual places like it are, in fact, punk rock. They are that open space that Ian is talking about. Places like this – nekoweb – are inhabited the same way physical spaces were inhabited by punk rock in its early days. The same energy is here! The strongly raised middle finger to the corporate web. The creativity! The freedom to be a freak! (and I mean that only in the most positive way)

I’ve seen this phenomenon called numerous things. IndieWeb. Small Web. But I think it goes beyond “not being part of the corporate web.” It’s a fucking rebellion againt bland, safe, conservative, monetized, commoditized, bullshit, evil corporatism in general, and that is huge! THAT IS IMPORTANT.

I’m a librarian. The academic area of my profession has long been known as Library Science. My degree is Master of Library and Information Science. When I went to grad school, the school was called the School of Library and Information Science.About 10 or 15 years ago they changed it to the School of Information. Last month it was announced that it was being merged with some other schools dealing with computing. The University of North Texas is actually putting the term “Artificial Intelligence” in their library school’s name.

The academics of Library Science are missing it. Totally missing it. They have such a boner for AI and the money it represents that they don’t even know that THIS is actually the most interesting thing happening with regard to information! The same way record industry execs had no idea that punk rock would change the world, the academics seem unaware that this vibrant subculture is growing — a subculture that holds their values in contempt. This is where the creativity will reside in the future. It’s where it has always resided. In the shadows. I once said “the best skateboarding happens in the shadows” with regard to real skateboarding compared to corporate marketing “street league” bullshit skateboarding. My friend Chris really liked that quote, but the truth is the best of everything happens in the shadows, away from the spotlight. The pinks walk by without even noticing, because they never learned to see the world through a different lens.

Nothing interesting or beautiful ever comes from “the corporate”. The pinks are great at co-opting, stealing, commodifying for the un-clued-in masses, but they never create anything really great. Corporate skateboarding is shit. Corporate music is shit. All the best stuff always comes from a true counterculture.

Congratulations, beautiful weirdos! You are in the right place!

The biggest threat to cool things is discovery by the masses and the subsequent theft/commodification/marketing of that thing. It will be interesting to see what happens with the small web with regard to service like this. I think that ultimately just renting your own server space and building your own thing is probably best.

I’m having coffee. Later we’ll take the dog for walk in the nature preserve. Then I’ll do some reading and writing.

I made a goal last night of watching no YouTube videos in 2026. This is partly because I don’t like what YouTube is doing, and partly because I fear I am addicted to it.

But this morning I realize it’s  bigger than that. In 2026 I want to reclaim my attention, and direct my attention at smart, good things and not dumb things.

Growing up my family didn’t really celebrate New Year’s. I think because it is a drinking holiday, and we didn’t drink. It might also have something to do with the fact that my parents were teachers, and after traveling to Louisiana for Christmas visits, by the time New Year’s came around they were exhausted and didn’t really give a fuck. That actually seems plausible.

So at most we would watch Dick Clark’s Rockin New Year’s Eve show on TV (or was it called New Year’s Rockin Eve? I’m not going to take the time now to look it up.)  Then we’d go to bed, and I’d wake up the next morning and maybe watch a  parade with no Underdog float lazily flying down the street with a look of great confidence and resolve on its face.

As a sidenote, this year we watched some Thanksgiving Day parades. Most of the televised coverage was essentially commercials for various different musical groups and shows. It sucked. Have people forgotten Underdog?

As an adult I’ve come to really appreciate New Year’s Eve as the one holiday that’s actually adult-oriented. I don’t drink, and never have, and really don’t appreciate the connection with alcohol at all. But I do appreciate the idea that there is one holiday in the year that doesn’t cater to children. OK – maybe drunk children? But mostly it’s for adults.

Tonight, rather than spend the whole evening watching the festivities from around the world, we’re going to spend at least a couple of hours watching a live stream on Twitch of our friends’ band playing. It’s their New Year’s Eve virtual show. It will be fun. One of the many great #blessings of the pandemic was streaming entertainment done live by real people. It really helped everyone stay connected. While I do appreciate not being terrified of the virus all the time now I also recognize that the pandemic spurred a lot of creativity. The social isolation wasn’t easy and certainly had its detrimental effects, but I have to say it was the one time in my adult life when I didn’t feel the pressure to rush around like an idiot all the time. People had time.

I didn’t really have any official New Year’s resolutions last year. I had it in the back of my mind, or maybe the front, that I was going to do more game-mastering for my two campaigns. This was challenging because I’m involved in a lot of different things. But with great intention I dialed back my other activities and focused on my gaming. And I did in fact succeed in this goal.  I’m very happy about this because I enjoy running my games, and I especially enjoy being with my gaming group, both in person at the table and online. They are very important people to me. Most of us are old friends, and those who are new are just as important. Our gaming group is more than just a gaming group. We lift each other up when we need it.

I also made great progress this year  in freeing myself from the pernicious twin Cults of Productivity and Optimization. I spent time sitting on the couch with my wife and our dog and our cat listening to music. Just listening. Listening to wonderful music on the Big Stereo and enjoying being alive here on this planet with the person most important to me and our sweet little companions. I will continue this.

Anyway, happy New Year you animals.

I love being an uncle. This is a post by a blogger I follow who obviously also loves being an uncle. And he’s a damn good one.

https://micro.fromjason.xyz/2025/12/31/a-note-to-norah.html

Last year I removed all the tracking code from this site. I had already removed Google Analytics and replaced them with Fathom, an ethical analytics provider, but decided it was not really important to know how many people were reading this blog.

I have to admit, I do wonder from time to time.

Anyway, if you read this blog, subscribe through RSS, or whatever, thank you.

Sunday morning. About 9am. Coffee. Wife spinning great records on the Big Stereo, nothing pressing to do. Fuck yeah.

I am thankful (or whatever) for…

• My wife, who makes me happy in more ways than I can possibly ever articulate
• Out cat, Lefty, who at the now-tender age of 16 is loyal and also driving me crazy
• Our dog, Riley, who is just such a good boy
• Aikido – which reminds me to try to be a better person every day
• Skateboarding – without which I’d be a very different person
• Libraries – which gave me a career I am proud of
• My gaming group – surely the best group ever and really my closest friends
• Growing up in a peaceful home that provided security and love
• Medical science for saving my wife’s life
• My community, which is diverse and wonderful
• My extended family
• My extended in-law family
• My situation in life, most of which was simply a matter of luck
• Music, which we enjoy seeing live and on the big stereo
• The fact there this is something, rather than nothing. It didn’t have to be that way.
• My other friends. I am lucky to have so many. They are all valued.
• Books and reading

Today we went and early voted in a Texas constitutional amendment election.

Voted against all the bad things and in favor of the good. Example: Vote in favor of funding for dementia research. Voted against the “parents rights” amendment what is essentially just a badly camouflaged anti-trans bill. We get stuff like here with the republiKKKans in charge of things in the state. Fucking lunatics.

We live in a world where there are second-generation scientologists.

Let that percolate in your brain a bit.

It’s a ripoff.

I have to admit I have enjoyed some of the Star Wars stuff that has come out over the last few years. A lot of the Marvel movies have been pretty horrible, as have the TV shows, since Disney bought Marvel.

I’ve cancelled Disney over the Kimmel thing and really don’t care that they are bringing him back.

​They are a scumbag capitalist company that just purchases creative franchises, extracts as much value from them as possible, and ruins them in the process. Cultural strip-miners.

I will not be watching any of their movies in the future. Seriously, I just don’t need any more Star Wars in my life, or Avengers.

The public library has DVDs. The public library has more great science fiction novels than I can possibly read in my remaining years of life, and their almost all better that Disney’s movies. I have tabletop roleplaying games with which my friends and I create our own entertainment together. I have skateboarding and Aikido. I have a beautiful intelligent wife to enjoy my Disney-free life with. We take our sweet little dog for long walks. We talk. We listen to music on the Big Stereo.

Sorry Disney, you are just one more slimy corporate whore at the consumerist orgy, and I just don’t need you.