Every year1, for the last sixteen years, I make a video of our family putting up our Christmas tree. I’ve been behind in uploading these. Last year for obvious reasons.
I’ve finally gotten around to uploading 2022, 2023, and this year’s 2024. I’ve even found the “lost” footage from 2016.2
Without further ado…Merry Christmas!
If you want to journey back with me, I have finished uploading all the videos* going back to 2008!
I’m now a fan of Jungle and Will West (the lead dancer)
This past weekend our family went on a little trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. We rented a cabin and went on a hike (pdf) at Lake of the Ozarks State Park. I took some photos and a dronie video and a 360 photo too!
Three and a half chill minutes of clouds at sunset from the other day. Taken with my little drone (DJI Mini 2) at about 400ft AGL (above ground level). If you look really close at the second half you can see downtown St. Louis and the Arch. Which is about 17.6 miles away!
Ok, my headline is a little tongue-in-cheek. I’m a technologist and I want to believe that technology has improved our lives. From airplanes to vaccinations to smart phones to light bulbs. However, like everything in life, choices have consequences. Here’s two video essays I recently watched that discuss how the technology you’re using right now 👀 can do you harm. It’s not your fault, we’re still in the infancy of having the capabilities we now have – to broadcast and consume at a global an unending scale – and our squishy human brains are not adapted for this. At. All.
A pretty good summary of why Twitter/Facebook/etc are not “public squares” as traditionally (and in a historically socially-healthy way) conceived.
It’s not just social media that is causing fractures in society. We also don’t share the same popular culture as we once did. Remember when you had to sit down at the same time as every other person in your country to watch the latest episode of a show? And then talk about it at work the next day? That doesn’t happen as much any more. Our own world of shared culture is, well, less shared.
See also Joan Westenberg’s ruminations on the old internet. (Via kottke.org)