Category: Life

Link List – April 24, 2018

I’m from St. Louis and choose to live here. While I don’t agree with the article in its entirety, I do think it hits on some of the pain points the region faces.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/maraprmay-2016/the-real-reason-middle-america-should-be-angry/

In a weird way this was both expected and unexpected.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/843zzy/the_average_faces_of_42_different_subreddits_oc/

I talk to people a lot. I often worry about looking like a goober. This is a helpful and healthy guide to appearing confident (even if like me you’re internally screaming when presenting publicly) 🙂
https://i.redd.it/72ykszmke5k01.png

The Jedi embody a form toxic masculinity in which emotions should be controlled, hidden, and not discussed. That leads to their downfall at the hands of Darth Vader. 1

“That passage gives us some clues as to the real reason why Anakin Skywalker can’t handle grief or loss. He’s been well-trained by the Jedi to stifle his emotions and hide his vulnerabilities. He’s never learned how to process and work through painful emotions in healthy ways. The results are as predictable as they are dysfunctional; Anakin is left completely unprepared for tragedy, and like too many young men in our own culture, he eventually lashes out in anger and leaves behind a trail of horrific violence.”
One of my favorite things from the new Star Wars film, The Last Jedi, was the message that we should learn from the past, but not ensconce the people present as heroes. The Jedi did some bad/stupid things and yet for years popular culture has been enamored with their zen-like understanding of the universe. Useful, but flawed. The starchy ‘on a pedestal’ style of the Jedi order should die, but the lessons should live on.

Luke: “We are what they grow beyond”.

Apply this to religion, patriarchy, Christopher Columbus, etc.
http://popculturedetective.agency/2018/the-case-against-the-jedi

“Some thoughts on what can be lost, and what can’t be, when we share what we love.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESyJop31cmY

SAVE HILL VALLEY! (and the history of video games)
https://uncrate.com/video/saving-lost-video-games/

I’v always been a fan of folks over at Penny Arcade. I have taken my family to PAX. The guys at PA aren’t perfect, but they seem like good people who are continuously improving themselves. These two recent comics and notes are evidence of that.
https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2018/03/07/toxic-masculinity (discussion)
https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2018/03/09/everything-old-is-new-again1 (discussion)

This video of Fred Rogers testifying before the Senate Subcommittee in 1969 should be annual viewing for all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA

There’s many little robots inside you. Growing up I always thought nano machines would look like little metal robots. As I read and learned more, I have a feeling that our future nanobots will be organic – highly modified, but based on CGAT vs the microprocessor. I think humans might one day surpass the biological machines that live in the body, but that day is not today. This is some impressive evolutionary engineering.
https://www.reddit.com/r/specializedtools/comments/7te9zy/dna_polymerase_iii/

That giggle at the beginning kills me. 11-year-old kids man. Dealing with this shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiQaIaI9xmk

Spike Jonze is one of my favorite directors. Particularly for his shorter works. My fandom extends to seeking out a DVD of his collected works (which is now woefully out-of-date). His latest music video (and incredibly small advertisement) does not disappoint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305ryPvU6A8

One of the larger teams I support at work recently deployed a significant feature to the last two (and largest) Wikipedias. It feels good.
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/04/17/wikipedia-page-previews/

I went and saw Hamilton this past week. I didn’t quite understand the hype and purposefully avoided listening to the soundtrack. 2 I can confirm that it did not disappoint. It is easily one of my top 4 theatre productions.

Jackie and I are a few episodes into Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is co-created by Michael Schur who also created Parks and Recreation and The Good Place. I don’t know why we missed this show, but I’m happy that I have 5 seasons to catch up on.

I don’t know what to believe is real anymore.
http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/post/173230067806/image-inpainting-for-irregular-holes-using-partial

I bought Skyrim (again) for the Nintendo Switch. This was one of the first games Kari and I played together. She would sit on my lap at my computer and tell me where to go and what to do. When the game got scary I’d tell her to look away as I beat up the monsters. I wonder if Kori will be as interested to play with me?

My dad and I went to a book signing by John Scalzi. He was as thoughtful and funny in person as his online persona – and obviously as witty as his writing. It was also a special event as science fiction, and John’s books in particular, are a bit of a bonding experience for my dad and I. My dad got to ask John a question and I had him sign our book “Mike + Chris”. []The question my dad asked John was if he had read the book Earth Abides, which my dad considers one of his favorites next to Old Man’s War – one of John’s first books. The answer was, “No, but I’ll look into it.” and, “Thank you that means a lot.”[/efn_note] If you like good books, check out Scalzi.

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John Roderick – XOXO Festival

A frequent guest at XOXO, John Roderick is the frontman and songwriter of The Long Winters, the receiving end of Merlin Mann’s weekly phone calls for Roderick on the Line, and one of our favorite storytellers of all time.

One of the most consistently funny talks from XOXO 2016 1 , John Roderick laid on the line the myth of no effort. 2 The idea that trying to be cool, to avoid being considered uncool, is unhealthy. Being cool is not more important than admitting to yourself and others that something required hard work. Because, as my dad likes to say, “If it wasn’t hard, they wouldn’t call it work”.

I wonder if some of this comes from the fallacy of youth. That as young people we’re not well-educated on how to take a compliment. Maybe it’s partial social anxiety at being “found out” (like imposter syndrome) so it’s easier to minimize and brush off the effort it truly took to do something. I was raised in the midwest, so part of how I was raised was to remain earnest and modest. Maybe that shortens the impact of our work and our growth as people?

In the second half of the talk Roderick got into why he kept finding himself doing things that came to him easily.

Speaking for myself (and many other people I know), some people keep doing the easy thing, or find another easy thing thinking it’s harder, but never get the courage to do the truly hard thing. Doing the truly hard thing is, unsurprisingly, hard.

So, my encouragement to you: Don’t be contented with being contented.

As Jackie put it while watching this with me, “There is always more to be done. Be ok with the ambiguity of that.”

Early 2018 Programming Note

I’m not feeling well. Stressful things have been getting to me as of late. Some are small, some are large. The short-and-long of it is that I think I need to do something different to improve my health. So, a new year is as good as an excuse as any (and the timing just works). So I’m trying a few things. Friends, bear with me.

Continue reading Early 2018 Programming Note

Internet Health Advisory

I’m the “computer guy” in my family. Which means I’m often asked about what to buy or use, if an offer online is legit or a scam, and what to do when something breaks – always the guy when something breaks. 🙂 Most of my advice is reacting to someone’s inquiry. Yet this time friends, I have an Internet health advisory to share with you all. You didn’t ask for it, it’s my opinion, but I love you and think you should consider it.

Over the last year I’ve examined how I use the Internet and am trying to to better. Social media, a never-ending stream of terrible news 1, and always more things I could be reading/doing than there is time for, have motivated me to consider how I approach my consumption and participation on the web.

First bit of advice, get off social media. Bookmark a few sites to check. Sign up for an RSS service and throw a few URLs in. Foster Kramer writes 2 in a “An open memo, to all marginally-smart people/consumers of internet “content””

“By going to websites as a deliberate reader, you’re making a conscious choice about what you want a media outlet to be—as opposed to letting an algorithm choose the thing you’re most likely to click on. Or! As opposed to encouraging a world in which everyone is suckered into reading something with a headline optimized by a social media strategist armed with nothing more than “best practices” for conning you into a click.”

Get off of the services that try to tell you what to read and find the things that you want to read.

Second, make and find smaller communities. Either by pruning your friend list (do you need to know what someone you went to high school with – who you haven’t talked to in 20 years – had for lunch?)3, following a more selective group of people (and never brands), and turning off notifications for every bloop and beep these services try to innodate you with.

This article on “tiny, weird online communities” resonated with me and I hope it encourages you as well.

“The mainstream social internet is so big; everyone is connected to everyone, over a billion on Facebook alone. The consequences of connection — fake news, radicalization, massive targeted harassment campaigns, algorithmically-generated psychological torment, inane bullshit — were not part of what we were sold. We don’t really have the option of moving our lives off of the internet, and coordinated boycotts of our monstrous platforms have been brief and mostly fruitless. But many of us found ways to renegotiate the terms of how we spent our time online. Rather than the enormous platforms that couldn’t decide if, let alone how they had contributed to the election of a deranged narcissist or the rise of the virulently racist alt-right or a pending nuclear holocaust, why not something smaller, safer, more immediately useful?”

In the XOXO Slack the excellent Andy McMillan commented on this article with, “That’s a point I reflected on quite a lot in 2017. We’re really not built to handle this kind of ongoing awareness of every way every person on the planet is suffering.”

Andy’s right. It’s good to be aware of what is going on in the world. It’s good to try to push yourself to be a better, more emphatic person, but at some point too much is too much for any one person. Don’t do that to yourself.

I spent more time in Slack than Facebook or Twitter this past year. I spoke up more in the communities I’m involved in online. 4 Sure, I’ll still post a few things to social media to let folks know what my family is up to. But most of my positive interaction with folks has been through smaller, tighter-knit, communities than sprawling Mega Malls of Madness. I don’t need marketing folks spewing “How do you do fellow kids?” stuff at me on Instagram and Facebook. I’d rather join a small community and listen and talk to folks interested in the same thing.

Third, pick up a phone, invite some friends over, go outside. A few years ago a good friend would organize gatherings of friends. It was an event I always looked forward to. A few good friends together in a room for an evening playing cards, board games, and experiencing each others company. I’ve decided to not wait for an invitation (I know you’re busy Ted and I love you!) and start hosting more get-togethers myself. Just this past weekend I had about 10 good friends going back years show up and hang out. It was great. No matter how close you are to someone over the Internet, nothing can replace being in the same room together.

So friends, as we enter the year of 2018, please consider this advisory from your computer guy. I know it’s hard. I know it’s easy to fill the little moments of boredom with one more scroll. If we’re honest with ourselves, what do we have to show for it, and what could we have done with that time instead?

You want an easy start? Invite me to the next poker night. 🙂

Image via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons