yendi

Twitter Alternatives

2024-02-20T16:43:45Z

Like many folks, I used to spend a lot of time on Twitter. I don’t anymore, because while it was far from perfect before, Elon Musk has systematically made it a worse place, and on top of that, I refuse to provide him with any new content.

That means I’ve been checking other social media spaces that cover the same (or similar) mix of microblogging and connectivity (technically, Facebook could fit in this category, but I think everyone agrees that it doesn’t). I’ve spent a decent amount of time looking at three of them. I’ll talk about them in order.

(At risk of saying the obvious, I didn’t bother with Gab, Mewe, Truth Social, etc. I also tried Threads long enough to realize it sucks, and isn’t worth considering.)

Also note that my primary use of any social media platform is on the desktop, but all of these have mobile apps that function well.

1. Mastodon.

This was the big option during the initial post-Musk exodus,

Ease of setup: Medium. Mastodon’s whole shtick is that’s it’s part of the Fediverse, which means that accounts on different servers can interact and talk with each other. It’s not inherently dissimilar from email; you’ve got an account on Gmail, I’ve got one on Yahoo, and protocols allow us to talk. But that means that, as with email, you can sign up with any of a bunch of Mastodon instances. And each instance has certain rules (ranging from post length to what kind of speech is not allowed). So the first step was finding a good instance (and note that most instances eventually run out of new accounts).

Account setup itself was fine — not much different from any other service, to be honest. But then came the real tricky part — if you want to move to another instance (which I’ve had to do twice since two different Mastodon hosts shut down*), you’ve got to go through a process of migrating your account, noting that you only actually can migrate profile info and followers, not your actual content. So everything you wrote on the previous profile will be lost if the old server shuts down.

Ease of use: Mastodon offers a “simple” and an “advanced” interface. The former looks like classic Twitter, while the latter is like classic Tweetdeck. I love the advanced one, as I can keep columns for replies, hashtags I want to follow, groups of users, etc. Posting is as easy as on Twitter, and there’s a good interface for adding alt text to images. The only major “missing” feature from Twitter is quote-tweeting. This is deliberate, as the creators didn’t like the use of that tool for dunks. While that’s valid, it also means that the use of quote-tweeting for additive discussions is also gone. And as many folks from the community noted, Black Twitter used quote-tweets heavily, and the casual dismissal of their concerns led to Mastodon feeling like a not-very-welcoming place for them.

Note that because of the use of different servers, there’s now an option to see the firehose from your local timeline, which may be nice if you’re on a server with some sort of common interest (leftist politics, gaming, etc).

Mastodon also makes it really easy to tag posts with content warnings (including images), and users can have their view configured to either ignore CWs or hide content until they click through.

Culture/Network Effect: Mastodon’s got a huge amount of small communities of interest. It also has a lot of news organizations (the timing of Musk’s destruction of Twitter helped), and a lot of journalists. There are some big Twitter Names there (Scalzi, Gaiman, Takei), though it’s worth noting that they’re all on BlueSky as well. I’ve generally found Mastodon’s more interesting as a place to consume and post than to really interact. It’s not that there aren’t good conversations there, just that it’s not what really drives the platform.

2. BlueSky.

This one started as an invite-only site, so it built up slowly (note that it’s now open for public access). It’s also built on a federated platform (like Mastodon), so in theory could allow for multiple servers and interactions with Mastodon even. Right now, though, it’s effectively one site.

Ease of setup: Easy. It’s basically like setting up Twitter or any other site.

Ease of use: The standard interface for BlueSky is basically like simple Twitter. There’s an external site called deck.blue that allows you to gain a Tweetdeck-style interface (note that BlueSky’s ability to work with third-party apps is a bit more complicated than Twitter’s; to use a third-party app, instead of just using BlueSky to authenticate, you create an app password in BlueSky that you use in that app. It’s about two extra steps at the beginning, then it works as normal). BlueSky supports almost every Twitter feature minus two: Hashtags and direct messages. It’s got a good search engine, so the former is a minor (not major) annoyance. The latter is kind of big, because while DMs get abused, they’re also kind of crucial and a standard feature on literally every other social media platform (hell, we can even do them on DW).

Culture/Network Effect. Some Twitter groups came to BlueSky pretty whole-hog. SF/F Twitter, comics Twitter, a lot of Science Twitter, big parts of law Twitter (notably Ken “Popehat” White and Mike “Techdirt” Masnick), etc. What didn’t come from twitter was the confrontation culture; for whatever reason, “block don’t engage” actually stuck pretty well on BlueSky, so folks trolling/sealioning just get blocked. There are still legit debates/arguments, but bad faith users are generally shunted away. As with Mastodon, there’s an assumption that users should use alt-text on images, and failing to do so will likely get you called out.

3. NOSTR

This has gotten some traction for being the place where Jack Dorsey hangs out, as well as Edward Snowden. That should probably give you a sense of what’s coming.

Ease of setup: Bwahahaha! Oh holy shit. So NOSTR is decentralized like the other two, but relies on private/public security keys for verification and posting (which the others likely do underneath the hood, but the point is, it’s under the hood). So you’ll have security keys to track for starters. But it gets better! To truly confirm your account, you need to sign things, which means having a signing extension, and the main one that’s supported is Alby, which is also a Bitcoin Lightning wallet. Yes, NOSTR is a blockchain thing! Oh, and Alby accounts are invite only, invites are on a waitlist, but you can totally buy a Lightning wallet to link if you’d like (I got my invite because when I deleted Alby, I was able to fill out a survey about why I deleted, and when I mentioned the invite, they sent me one). But hey, once that’s all done, you’re in!

Ease of use: Well, it’s mostly Twitter-like. There probably are web clients that offer advanced Tweetdeck functionality, but the basic interface is bog-standard. No alt-text, but otherwise things work as expected, feature-wise. The “new” feature is the ability to “zap” posts, which basically means “tip,” but with tiny amounts of Bitcoin Lightning.

Culture/Network Effect: Good fucking lord. It’s techbros and Bitcoinbros and their ilk all the way down. The big topic here is how Julian Assange is being mistreated. Then it’s all about Bitcoin and masculinity and finance and “big government bad.” It’s not Gab (this isn’t a place for religious conservatives), but it’s sure a pretty big cesspool.

Conclusion: BlueSky is where I’m spending most of my time. Mastodon still has a decent amount to offer. NOSTR sucks (though I’m keeping my account to check in on it periodically, since in theory, the culture and the tech could be separated). Worth noting: There’s still a ton of stuff only on Twitter. I’m a big AEW (pro wrestling) fan, and there’s one person active on BlueSky, no one really on Mastodon (or NOSTR). Same with almost any big field — Hollywood (Jeri Ryan, John Rogers, Bebe Neuwirth are on BlueSky, but that’s pretty much it), athletes, politicians, etc. At this point, it’s safe to say that no place replicates Twitter, including Twitter itself**. And I suspect that will continue to be the case moving forward.

Anyway, if you want to find me on either of the two I actually post on, here's me on BlueSky and on Mastodon.

*Mastodon hosts are committed to giving users three months notice before shutting down.

**I’ll start calling it “X” when Musk stops misgendering his daughter.

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God help me, I re-read some Mark Millar

2022-12-19T18:04:48Z

Over the weekend, I re-read Mark Millar's first arc on "The Authority." It remains an awful piece of drek, filled not only with Millar's trademark racism, sexism, and just plain boring dialogue, but also a set of characters almost so thoroughly disconnected from the ones in the previous twelve issues that it's practically fraud to have published it as "The Authority" in the same way that saying the movies Zack Snyder made are about "Superman".

But I knew all that going in. The reason I re-read it was to confirm my suspicion that Garth Ennis was ripping off this run when he wrote "The Boys," instead of "Marshal Law," which was the assumption I'd generally been making. And I was right to correct my assumption -- rather than being a third-rate ripoff of "Marshal Law," "The Boys" is a first-rate ripoff of Millar's "Authority."

To be clear, that's not a statement that "The Boys" is good; it's aggressively not (and no, I haven't watched the Amazon series). It is, however, better than Millar's work, because Ennis is a better writer than Millar, so while it's still full of racism, sexism, sexual assault played for laughs, and other stuff, it's both better written (in terms of both dialogue and plotting) and at least occasionally enters the same room as nuance, even if it doesn't stay there very long.

But if what you're looking for is "obvious analogues of DC and Marvel superhero teams getting killed in gruesome ways," Millar can save you a lot of time. Of course, you also read Ellis's pre-Authority run on "Stormwatch," or Mills and O'Neill's "Marshal Law," or Veitch's "Bratpack," or Gruenwald's "Squadron Surpreme," or even (if you don't want the analogues) various runs of "What If" and "Elseworlds" and "Marvel Zombies" to get that as well.

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The algorithm is your friend!

2022-11-07T14:49:57Z

Spotify: Welcome to Discover Weekly.
Me: Thanks!
Spotify: First, I think you might like this band called Letters to Cleo.
Me: I've had a crush on Kay Hanley for over 25 years.
Spotify: Okay, well, how about this obscure group called Alkaline Trio?
Me: You mean the punk band that literally shared a lead singer with Blink 182 for a while?
Spotify: Okay, what about X-Ray Spex? Or that dog.? Fountains of Wayne? The Hippos?
Me: Are you feeling okay?
Spotify: Wait! We've also got Alanis Morisette and Blondie! Both are sure to be big stars once enough people discover them!
Me: . . .
Spotify: Okay fine. Here's a band with fewer that 35K monthly listeners: The Julie Ruin.
Me: As in, Kathleen Hanna's band?
Spotify: Okay, look. Um, algorithms kind of suck.
Me: But isn't the algorithm literally the Spotify business model?
Spotify: Not any more. Now our business model is that no one makes MP3 players any more for the mass market, so everyone will jus stream and use us because we're the big name.
Me: Oh.
Spotify: Anyway, wanna try a song by Cheap Trick?

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Sex and pop music

2022-11-04T14:16:19Z

Started writing this as a rant on FB, but it got long (and FB will likely bury any post this long anyway), so figured I'd crosspost it.

I'm honestly amazed when folks (and by folks I guess I mean Ben Shapiro and the sort of person who thinks Ben Shapiro is an intellectual) get upset by songs like WAP and complain that pop music is too dirty.

The '80s gave us BOTH Madonna and Prince. And Lauper's "She Bop." Not to mention "Pleasure and Pain" by The Divynals ("I Touch Myself" wasn't until '90). Oh, and a little George Michael song called "I Want Your Sex."

But if that's not enough, the entire third verse of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac," a song that dates back to the early '80s, is about how Springsteen's cock is too large for most women, and he needs the woman with a "Pink Cadillac" that can hold him.

And that's specifically the stuff from when I was growing up. The '70s had "Bang a Gong," "Afternoon Delight," "Hot Stuff," "Lady Marmalade," and more. In the '60s, we literally had Aretha talking about a lover so good he made her feel like a "Natural Woman," and Mick Jagger laying a divorcee in New York City ("She blew my nose and then she blew my mind").

And it keeps going back. "Poon-Tang" is a song by The Treniers -- and NOT a subtle one -- from 1953, and it's about exactly what you think. And that was only a year before The Toppers gave us "Baby Let Me Bang Your Box." And that decade's Bull Moose Jackson made Prince look subtle (you've likely heard Aerosmith covering his "Big Ten Inch Record," but you really don't even need to listen to "I Want a Bow-Legged Woman" to know what it's about.)

And it keeps going back before rock, before the blues, before Cole Porter was writing showtunes about "Nudist Parties," etc. It's in old sea shanties and ballads, and in songs by Shakespeare ("Where the Bee Sucks There Suck I" is not exactly subtle).

So if you don't want to listen to songs about sex, that's fine (there are plenty that aren't). But if you don't think sex belongs in music, well, music would beg to differ.

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So anyway

2022-08-12T11:38:51Z

We bought a house. And moved into it. And are at least somewhat settled there (though probably two weeks away from really having things set up properly). Could not have happened without some huge financial help from friends and family because we're in a shitty capitalist state, of course.

Also took a bunch of actual savings (but the plan had been to save for three more years until our fucking landlords changed that), and a truly great lender (happy to pass on recs for folks who want them; ditto for our great real estate agent, who might not have contributed financially, but was essential for the search).

There's been some moving stress -- there's a reason moving's always listed as one of the top two or three stressors -- but it's mitigated by the knowledge that we won't be moving again (short of a huge financial windfall of the sort that would put us in the sort of financially elite status to pay top-tier movers to pack everything for us).

The cats and dog all seem to have adjusted well, and they all like the fact that they can now access my home office when I'm working from home.

Oh, we're Walthamites now. Still using Watertown as our preferred Minuteman library (it's closer than the Waltham one, and has been our library home for sixteen years now). But yeah, not Watertown residents for the first time since moving up here. Weird.

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Life updates

2022-05-09T00:24:55Z

1. I finally, three years after taking an incredibly underpaying job at a Local College (that everyone wrongly assumes is named after a Transcendentalist) with some toxic co-workers (including the first actual workplace anti-Semitism I had to deal with), found a job that both pays well (at least by academic IT standards) and doesn't treat me like shit. My happiness at work went up a lot last August.

2. Our landlords decided to sell our house, and after initially promising us a one-year lease extension, reneged because their realtor said that would make it harder to sell. Thanks to the financial issues caused by three years in the underpaying job above, we're not in a great position to buy a house yet, but also kind of have to, since the rental market here (especially given our needs vis-a-vis medical care, public transit, and our dog) is damned near a worse option. Needless to say, I have a LOT of thoughts on the state of housing. And this is pretty much the thing occupying all my waking non-work hours these days.

3. Oh, we have a new dog (as of over a year ago). We got Starla about a year after losing Nicky, and to say she bonded with us in a heartbeat would be an understatement. She's also a chihuahua, and an utter sweetheart (except when any other dog has the nerve to walk on the same street as her).

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Bitcoin

2022-05-08T11:26:45Z

A former co-worker decided to flex and sneer about his investing in BitCoin (in a comment on a post about some financial issues I'm dealing with -- totally classy), along with a preemptive "but it's not bad for the environment" whine that of course he couldn't substantiate with any real sources.

Anyway, wrote this on FB, but might as well put it somewhere where things don't get algorithmically buried:

A few follow-ups to the Bitcoin discussion from the other day:

1. Bitcoin is environmentally ruinous. Full-stop. If you're involved with it, you're doing damage. To be clear, lots of things we're involved with hurt the environment, so how involved you are is a factor (though if you mine bitcoin, you're at ground zero).

2. If you bought Bitcoin in 2013 (or 2010, or 2018) and became rich from it, it's not because you were smart. It's because you did something really stupid with your money and got lucky. The only way buying Bitcoin in 2013 could be "smart" would be if you're a time traveller, and given point 1 above, that would make you scum.

2.5 Yes, BitCoin is a pyramid scheme.

3. Ethereum is also ruinous (and yes, has been planning a change to a less awful system for so long, it might as well be called Duke Nukem Forever). As are almost all the chains where NFTs exist (with the exception, best I can tell, of Wax and a handful of others).

4. As the crypto bros like to sneer, I "did my own research." When the bros sneer that, they don't actually mean it -- they actually just want you to shut up and listen to them and not do any research.

5. There are plenty of cryptocurrencies that are low-energy and, if not environmentally friendly, generally on the same level as other things like email, texting, etc. But as long as all the bros are behind the big ones, that almost doesn't matter.

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Yeah, fuck Russia

2022-02-25T14:28:01Z

Logging into LJ to note solely that I won't be posting here in the foreseeable future, not because of my usual lazy-ass forgetting about it, but because Russia's fucking invasion of Ukraine is immoral and appalling (and I have strong doubts about whether they'll let this post be). Anyway, also posting this to DW for posterity, where any lack of posting is just because I'm lazy and never get around to posting, and not because of war.

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The Lost Ludlum

2021-04-24T22:01:34Z

Robert Ludlum's novels were mostly titled as "The X Y," with the X generally being a proper noun used as a modifier and the Y being a more traditional noun. So, "The Bourne Identity," "The Scarlatti Inheritance," "The Gemini Contenders," The Holcroft Covenant," etc.

All of which is to say, "The Lament Configuration" would have made for a hell of a Ludlum novel.

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Reading the great mystery/crime writers

2021-01-17T21:35:26Z

I realized something recently:

I’ve read exactly half of the 72 people* who have been or will be given Edgar Grandmaster Awards (counting the folks already announced for 2021). That’s pretty good, but it also gives me a goal: Read the other 36 authors. I’m going to try to knock that off this year, although there are all the usual things that could get in the way (ranging from the end of the world to other books distracting me). I’m also trying to read only novels here; reading short stories seems like a bit of a cop-out, although I still put Edward Hoch on my “have read” list (but I’ve also read a few dozen of his stories, possibly hundreds). And I’m counting Hitchcock as one of the ones I’ve read, since his award was based really on his movies.

The ones I’ve read:

Charlaine Harris
Jeffery Deaver
Max Allan Collins
Walter Mosley
Lois Duncan
Margaret Maron
Sara Paretsky
James Lee Burke
Sue Grafton
Bill Pronzini
Stephen King
Marcia Muller
Ira Levin
Robert B. Parker
Edward D. Hoch
Mary Higgins Clark
P.D. James
Mickey Spillane
Lawrence Block
Donald E. Westlake
Elmore Leonard
Ed McBain
John le Carre
Margaret Millar
Daphne du Maurier
Dorothy B. Hughes
Graham Greene
Ross Macdonald
Alfred Hitchcock
John D. MacDonald
James M. Cain
Georges Simenon
John Dickson Carr
Erle Stanley Gardner
Ellery Queen
Agatha Christie

The ones I need to read:

Barbara Neely
Martin Cruz Smith
Jane Langton
William Link
Peter Lovesey
Ellen Hart
James Ellroy
Robert Crais
Carolyn Hart
Ken Follett
Martha Grimes
Dorothy Gilman
Stuart M. Kaminsky
Joseph Wambaugh
Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters & Barbara Michaels)
Ruth Rendell
Dick Francis
Tony Hillerman
Helen McCloy
Hillary Waugh
Phyllis A. Whitney
Michael Gilbert
Dorothy Salisbury Davis
Julian Symons
Stanley Ellin
W.R. Burnett
Aaron Marc Stein
Ngaio Marsh
Eric Ambler
Judson Philips
Mignon C. Eberhart
John Creasey
Baynard Kendrick
George Harmon Coxe
Rex Stout
Vincent Starrett

Obviously, some of the folks I haven't read are easy to find (Stout, Francis, Rendell), while others are ones I'll have to track down, but I've got a good library system, so I have faith I can do it.

Anyway, this is basically an accountability post. My reading's been about 80% mystery/crime/thriller/espionage these days, because that seems to be where my brain's comfortable right now.

*73, technically, but I’m counting “Ellery Queen” as one person here, and also not even getting into the EQ books written by folks other than Dannay and Lee.

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A few thoughts on Picard

2020-12-02T19:02:19Z

We binged the series the other day. A few thoughts:
( Read more... )

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PhotoGnome

2020-11-29T13:47:32Z

Woke up to some utterly awful news on FB, that photognome had died suddenly last night. I'll repeat what I posted on FB here:

It's been zero days since I've woken up to the news that a friend died. Joe (AKA PhotoGnome) was one of those people who just made everyone around him so much happier, and was a wonderful part of my life online long before and long after we were neighbors in Atlanta. I still have fond memories of sushi at Ru San's, conversations at DragonCon, and just plain hanging out and chatting about comics. The world's a lesser place without him in it.

Just an awful loss. I know many LJ/DW folks have migrated to FB and Twitter, but folks here should know, and frankly, Joe's one of those people who should be memorialized wherever we can.

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Doomsday Clock

2020-11-20T14:12:30Z

So I read Doomsday Clock last night, and honestly? Kind of liked it. A few random and largely unspoilery thoughts:

- Unlike Watchmen, which stands alone if you have literally no knowledge of comics (even if it gains layers when you do), DC (heh) requires not only knowledge of Watchmen (reasonable for a sequel), but of the DCU, both in the general sense, and in some very specific ones (notably the fact that the golden age of superheroes had only recently been once again shunted to a separate earth). Not a criticism, but it speaks volumes about the intended audience.
- After years of crap like Death Metal and Final Crisis, it is so fucking refreshing to get an event book that A) stands on its own without reading a zillion tie-ins, and B) doesn't fetishize Batman as the Most Important Guy Ever.
- Mime is possibly only the second character ever from the Watchmen universe to have superpowers (unless there's a technological explanation for what he does -- it's left unsaid). I do find it interesting how little power there is in that universe compared to the DCU.
- The end result of the book and its take on multiverses is one I'm pretty damned happy with. It's extremely Superman-focused, but I'm okay with that because A) it makes sense and B) it's never about Superman being So Damned Cool that the writer clearly wishes he were him (see Morrison and Snyder again).
- If I have a major criticism here, it's around the handling of Firestorm, but honestly, other than Conway and Ostrander, I've generally hated any writer's handing of him.

(Oh, and no, I don't believe that Only Alan Moore Is Allowed to Write These Characters. Which is not to say that less isn't more - Before Watchmen was largely pointless and rancid -- but that's a bullshit argument.)

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Gloomhaven!

2020-11-17T12:54:19Z

Okay, hadn't really had time to follow or prepare for Black Friday Amazon Deals, but holy crap, Gloomhaven for $85 (including shipping) is about as ridiculously low as it gets.

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Two Tweets, repackaged here

2020-06-03T01:25:55Z

Posted both of these to Twitter over the last couple of days. Both kind of sum up my thoughts on things going on right now.

1. So yeah, violence only begets more violence. Sure. But why are you criticizing the violence that was begotten, instead of the violence that did the begetting? The riots are a natural and inevitable outcome of George Floyd's murder by the police.

2. You know, I hate the notion of looking to Reagan for anything, but while firing all the air traffic controllers was vile, I'm not sure what the downside of doing that for the police is. The baby/bathwater ratio seems to justify it.

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Assorted COVID-19 thoughts

2020-05-28T00:58:57Z

Random thoughts on COVID-19:

1. Current tally of folks I know who've died from the virus is three: My middle school music teacher, the father of a childhood friend, and liamstliam. I really hope that's where the tally ends, but suspect that won't happen. If we count internet friends I haven't met (and Liam was someone I had), there's probably folks I'm not aware of, nor ever will be. I know more who've gotten it and come through (including my mom's best friend, who's nearly 80 and is a cancer survivor), of course.

2. I consider myself lucky to be able to work from home, but the money drain all colleges are feeling right now scares the shit out of me, and I dread the thought of someone deciding that cutting middle managers is a great way to save money. And I'm hugely worried about the entire industry, of course. We're a reasonably specialized school, which is great on a lot of fronts, but a lot of our specialites require some degree of hands-on or experiential learning. I worry a lot about smaller and more general liberal arts schools, too, especially with the spate of closings we've seen already over the last few years.

3. I'm a lot more worried for other industries, of course. I know too many folks who make a living from restaurants, and that industry is likely to change forever. Ditto singers/bands, actors, burlesque performers, and pretty much any other performing artist.

4. But worried as I am for all of them, I so much more worried about the folks who have decided that the "economy" is worth human lives. Even here, there are tons of folks who do not give a rat's ass about social distancing. Out in AZ, where my mom lives, she just told me that there are stories about crowded clubs already, and I don't doubt that'll be followed by a huge spike in cases (and deaths). Same with my former home state of GA. There are plenty of good alternatives - the $2K a month one the Dems floated, for example -- but the rat motherfucker in the White House and his allies like McConnell have no interest in helping people.

4.5 See all the USPS and what the Republicans are doing to it (even though it's literally a lifeline for their own constituents).

5. We have not, thankfully, had issues on the shopping front, other than occasionally not finding chicken breasts or pork chops (and even then, we still find 'em). Even toilet paper, once scarce, has been in stock at our Star Market the last few times. The only thing that seems impossible to find is Prego Marinara sauce, which is my daughter's favorite (and a good one for 'song, too, since it's gf). I have no idea why that one's gone missing.

6. While money's tight in general (a lot less income than years ago, stuff is more expensive, etc), I still try to order food once every week or two, focusing ideally on local Chinese restaurants, which were hit even harder than a lot of places. And yes, I know about the issues around Grubhub and other delivery vendors. Ours uses BeyondMenu, which is supposedly better, and also has the best damned hand-pulled noodles I've had (so if you're local, try them. It's also the chance to have something resembling a little normalcy.

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I'm not dead, but Facebook's algorithm should be

2020-05-24T21:39:57Z

Still alive, which meant less two months ago than now, but was still meaningful.

Like so many people, I've relied too heavily on FB. It's actually fine in a lot of ways (speaking from an end-user POV, not any ethical issues surrounding the company), and some of its evil is on the second half of a double-edged blade (like how it's become genuinely useful for organizing events and inviting people in a way that no other tool managed).

But it also has the fucking algorithm that decides to bury posts because they link to youtube, or have more than ten words, or because you posted too often, or because someone there got drunk. And there's something fundamentally wrong about not letting people read posts in fucking order, like god intended. Twitter's moving that way, but at least lets you override it in a meaningful way.

So I figure I'll post a few things here, where they'll get no engagement because 95% of DW/LJ has stopped reading, instead of getting no engagement because a computer decided the contents didn't matter.

I actually haven't updated since I got a job again, so I figure I should mention that, too. Started after Thanksgiving 2018, at a local college that pays way less, but which has one thing my previous job had -- a boss who's competent (my last one, to be fair, had one for years until the uberboss, who's from the Tr*mp school of management, axed him). Like anyone working in higher ed these days, I'm working from home and dealing with all the usual uncertainties.

Also of note (especially for longtime readers, which I guess is everyone, seeing as I can't recall adding a new LJ/DW sub in ages), our daughter is twenty-five, out of college for a year now, and working a fulltime job as a QA tester at a local software company. She loves it and it seems like a great fit for her. Of course, she's also working from home these days.

Anyway, based on the lack of engagement, some things FB has decided the world shouldn't know about.

1. Goldfinger's fantastic quarantine videos. These are new performances of some of their classic songs, done from 5-8 houses at once. Often featuring many doggos. They're up to seven songs so far, and I love watching them all.

2. Bad Cop/Bad Cop's new song, Pursuit of Liberty. So good. I'm listening to a LOT of punk these days, and we need more contemporary and angry feminist punk bands. I've preordered the new CD, and you should, too.

3. Will Leitch has a great piece about Terry Pendleton and the nature of the MLB MVP compared to other sports. FB doesn't like MLB links if they're not getting money for them, just like with Youtube.

4. I'm reading a TON of mystery/crime these days. The Stranger Diaries, by Elly Griffiths, won the Edgar, and while it wasn't my choice (Fake Like Me was sooo good), it's very solid, and has her taking a shot at her own misdeeds from her debut novel, calling out authors who call animals in crime books. The dog in this one, does, in fact, live (which shouldn't be a spoiler to anyone with an understanding of narrative). I've also enjoyed Peter Swanson's slight meta (but really not) Eight Perfect Murders and Elizabeth Little's Pretty as a Picture. I'm reading less SF/F (which has just gotten weaker as a field in recent years), but Jemisin's The City We Became is fantastic, triply so if you're a New Yorker of a fan of Lovecraft who also recognized the problems with his works. And I feel like everyone already knows about Gideon the Ninth, but if you don't, you should. Yes, it's lesbian necromancers in space (dayenu!), but it's also so much more. Incidentally, FB buries book recs no matter what I do. Links? Dead. Long paragraph with no links? Dead? One sentence? Dead. Three sentences plus a picture of the cover (since they supposedly like pics)? Dead. It's almost impressive.

5. The piece from Outside Magazine (which produces a ton of really good articles and podcasts) on python hunting in Florida is well worth the read. Will probably post a more life-updatey kind of post later, with the intent of making LJ/DW a real part of my routine. Of course, I may read these words in two years and rue them. Hope everyone -- whoever remains -- is well.

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A few Thanksgiving deals: Book coupon, Venom, The Martian, X-Box

2018-11-22T14:58:07Z

Thanks to unemployment and other stuff, not really putting together the daily deals this year (as you've probably noticed), but a few ones worth pointing out today before gorging:

Amazon's annual $5 off $20 book coupon is live! Use NOVBOOK18 as your code (it'll be at the link, too). This runs through Sunday.

The limited-edition pre-order blu-ray of Venom is $12.11 (69% off, nice!).

The Martian on Blu-Ray is $3.99 (77% off).

And in video games, the X-Box One 1GB with Minecraft is $199.00 (34% off), if anyone still is looking for one.

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On convention staffing and lacking "benches"

2018-10-29T15:06:12Z

As some of you may know, I've resigned from my position as Assistant Division Head of Programming at Arisia, and I also won't be on panels or attending the convention at all. I won't go into why here, as I've already talked about it and I suspect that anyone following fandom knows. I want to discuss a side-topic.

A lot of the public and semi-public handwringing has been over the subject of having "benches." When there's no one else capable of doing, say, Program AV for the con, do you hire the rapist (Arisia's answer three years running, it turns out, has been "yes")? When no one else is running for President of the corporation (or when the person running against the problematic person has values you don't agree with), what happens? Long-term, obviously, the con needs to build a bench, train new people, etc. This part's generally obvious and agreed on by everyone, and there are good proposals about how to do it (mentoring, apprenticeships, etc) in lots of places. But that's the long-term solution.

Short-term, though, there are four choices if you lack a bench and don't have someone who can replace the person you need to get rid of:

Choice one is to actually run the con with the dangerous person on board. This is the decision Arisia chose to make (without making the actual danger itself known to members or most staff), and that other cons have done in previous years (see Wiscon/Frenkel). I do not consider it the right one, and it's clear that almost no one else does. Note that as a general rule, only a handful of people on staff at a cone actually will know this is happening (so while I use the blanket terms "Arisia" and "Wiscon," it's likely a small subset of folks near the top of the boards).

Choice two is to suck it up and deal without them. Yes, that means someone else is going to have to do more work, and work they're not qualified for and have to learn quickly. It means some aspect of the con will be weaker than intended. It might even mean that something doesn't take place (if only one person can run the masquerade or a certain special event, that event might not happen). It sucks, but it also ensures that the dangerous person isn't a part of the con. It's NOT, to be clear, sustainable; asking folks to work beyond their means is something that can be justified in an emergency, but not as a regular event. It's also something that some cons can handle better than others (bigger ones usually have more staff to spread around; smaller ones might have a looser structure or fewer technical requirements that require skillsets).

Choice three is to recruit a replacement. If the only person qualified and willing to handle tax issues for the dealers at the con is also someone so toxic that they're on the "do not hire" list for your con, you probably can't ask a Green Room staffer to pick up that ball. So you have to start looking at who has the skillset elsewhere. Look at the org charts of other cons, local and otherwise. Ping the people who do the jobs there and at places like Worldcon to see if A) it's something they can do, and B) if they know others who might be capable of the job. Shockingly, skilled people often know other skilled people. And if you have to, see if money can help. You may not be able to pay someone, per se, but if you can offer a comp, or even a room comp for a night or two, or something, it's money well-spent (that said, also set expectations; this is money being spent to deal with an emergency, and not something that should be expected every time).

And choice four is the nuclear one: If you genuinely can't run the con without a rapist on staff, maybe you shouldn't run the con. That can mean any of A) You personally should not run the con (because maybe someone else can find a replacement), B) the con itself should skip a year to give you more time to find a replacement, or C) the con should end. Really. It's not an ideal choice, but if you find yourself incapable of finding a replacement, or running the event without the person, your choices come down to either letting a known predator have power within the con, or not running. If you really think that the running the con with the dangerous person on staff is the better choice, you're part of the problem.

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The Price You Pay and pseudonyms

2018-08-26T23:21:05Z

The Price You Pay by "Aidan Truhen" was fantastic, and is highly recommended for folks who like their thrillers full-bore ludicrous (think Duane Swierczynski's "The Blonde" or "Severance Package). I'm also fascinated by the whole "this author is actually another author using a pseudonym" thing, since I've never understood that marketing. I do understand an established author using a fake name to try something new, but that's not usually known at the time (Bachman, Galbraith, etc). Ditto for someone using multiple names to separate subgenres for their readers (Jayne Ann Krentz). But this feels similar to the KJ Parker/Tom Holt thing, which was just kind of BS.

Oh, and while I certainly don't disbelieve the theory -- put forth in the NYTimes review -- that the author is really Nick Harkaway, I'd love to know why folks seem to think that; I could see Harkway doing this, but I could also see Charlie Huston or Adam Sternbergh or a bunch of others doing it, too.

(Yes, I posted this to FB, but while no one may be around on LJ/DW anymore, at least posts still make it here in order and won't be buried by an algorithm if anyone shows up.)

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On the Titans trailer

2018-07-19T23:12:57Z

So for everyone complaining about how dark and moody the trailer for the new Titans series is, do y'all remember The Judas Contract (generally considered the apotheosis of silver age Titans stories)? The storyline in which A) middle-aged Slade Wilson sends his 14-year-old girlfriend (and yes, we see them in bed together) to infiltrate the team (including seducing Beast Boy), and B) tiny Joseph Wilson -- aged roughly 4 -- gets his throat slit open with a sword? Titans during any period when people actually read and cared about the book always had some serious darkness going on (see also literally everything about Raven and Starfire's backstories). Dick Grayson cussing is hardly that big a deal.

Instead, maybe complain about DC wanting $75 bucks a year for their streaming service. That's too dark and gritty for me.

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Books read on vacation

2018-06-24T15:29:09Z

Books read either in airports, in planes to and from San Juan, or on the cruise. All are recommended (other than the unnamed one, but it's not horrible, either):

1. The Parking Lot Attendant, by Nafkote Tamirat. This is a ludicrously beautiful and witty novel, even if it fails to quite stick the landing. It's the story of the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants living in Boston, and the weird and titular not-quite-cult-leader she encounters in the local community who draws her into a conspiracy involving a potential utopia. It's hard to describe, but absolutely worth grabbing, and works on multiple levels if you're familiar with the "joys" of trying to get places around metro Boston using public transit.

2. (Unnamed novel reviewed for PW)

3. What is Real: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics, by Adam Becker. I mean, doesn't "particle physics" sound like a perfect topic for travel reading? Seriously, this is an excellent book, much more a science history book than a pure science one (I'm someone who hasn't taken a physics course since the seventh grade, so trust me when I say this is aimed at the general public). It's a great dive into the battle over quantum origins and the battle over the Copenhagen Interpretation, featuring all of the major players -- Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, Bell, Everett, Bohm, de Broglie, etc. -- with as much biography of them thrown in along with their conflicts and discussion of theory. Really recommended for anyone with an interest in science.

4. The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen. I try to read a few mysteries-in-translation every year, and having spent the last few years on French and Japanese authors, am finally swinging back to Nordic crime authors (which may be redundant, as it seems like every author from the Nordic countries who gets translated today writes crime -- see also Alvtegen, Nesbo, Larsson, etc). This book is the first in the "Department Q" series, a story of a cold case unit started for political reasons. It's much wittier than a lot of the generally-grim Nordic Noir stuff, with a solid and flawed hero and some nice twists. I'll definitely be grabbing more books from the series.

5. The Ensemble, by Aja Gabel. This is kind of a perfect little summer beach read (although I read it on the plane ride back). It's the story of the members of a string quartet over the course of fifteen years, complete with their romantic entanglements, health issues, and professional crises. It's a fun and sweet novel about love (in many forms), and probably has extra appeal for musically-inclined folks.

ETA: 6. Florida, by Lauren Groff. A fascinating and melancholy collection of stories. There are themes and repeated symbols (storms, unnamed spouses and children, dogs) running throughout, and it's the sort of collection you want to sit and let marinate in your head for a bit. Also recommended, although maybe not as cruise reading.

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Early January Longreads

2018-01-02T18:42:33Z

Allison Glock's The Eight Truths I Learned From Humping Athletes, reprinted at Deadspin after appearing in GQ twenty years ago, is fantastic

At Vox, Anna North writes, Historically, men translated the Odyssey. Here’s what happened when a woman took the job.

Outside Magazine's been quietly doing some damned fine journalism over the last few years, and Ryan Zinke is Trump's Attack Dog on the Environment is a great profile of a terrible Secretary of the Interior.

Remember Jen Hatmaker, the Evangelical Christian who spoke out against Trump last year? Not surprisingly, she's taken a lot of grief from a religious movement still dominated by racist and sexist men, reports Tiffany Stanley in Politico.

In Deadspin, Emma Baccelleri's Major League Baseball's Statcast Can Break Sabermetrics is a great look at the way stats in MLB continue to evolve.

I've been following the sexual harassment situation at WNYC for a while (On The Media did a podcast on it as well), but the Splinter's David Uberti covers it as well as anyone in his piece, How New York Public Radio is Dodging Accountability for its Sexual Harassment Problem.

At Kotaku, Maddy Myers says that Tier Lists Are Full of Shit, and I can't disagree. I don't do competitive fighting games because I'm terrible at them, but the argument that people should play weird and interesting characters instead of whatever strategy guides tell you is effective but boring resonates (witness the low rank Ghost Rider, who I find nearly essential, gets in Marvel Puzzle Quest).

There's been a LOT written about Star Wars: The Last Jedi (which I loved, incidentally). Todd VanDerWoof, over at Vox, offers The “backlash” Against Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Explained, a good (but FILLED WITH SPOILERS) piece talking about the different kinds of fan reactions.

Back at Deadspin, Eoin Higgins asks Why Won't The FCC Let Orphan Counties Watch Their Local NFL Teams? The answer, of course, is more complicated than sports, as are the implications for local news.

And finally, if you're a fan at all of Serious Eats (and if you like food, you should be, as it's the best site out there), Jonah Weiner at Grubstreet has a fantastic profile of J. Kenji López-Alt called Kenji Dreams of Sausage that's a must-read.

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Final Amazon Deals of the year: magazine subscriptions, kindle books

2017-12-31T18:29:16Z

Two quick deals to close out the year:

The Kindle Daily Deal is on "Best of December" deals, but actually just has a bunch of random books, including Ann Leckie's Provenance for $2.99, Styron's Sophie's Choice for $1.13, and a bunch of others.

And there's a deal on magazine subscriptions, including Entertainment Weekly for $15 for digital only, and Popular Science, Taste of Home, Reader's Digest, Popular Science, or Saveur (as well as a bunch of others) for $3.99 for regular subscriptions.

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Amazon Digital Deal Day: Marvel comics, HBO Now, Overwatch, Kindle books, more!

2017-12-29T17:53:03Z

Amazon's got their "Digital Day" going, with a lot of great deals across various media. A few highlights:

There's a huge Marvel Digital Comics Sale, with graphic novels like Star Wars, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil, Infinity Gauntlet, Hawkeye, and more for under $2.20 each. There are some larger collections like Punisher Max for as much as $5.

If you subscribe to HBO Now, you get a $10 Amazon Credit.

The Kindle Daily Deals include a Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance, Marie Lu's Legend, and Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise for $2.99 each.

In digital games, the GotY edition of Overwatch is $29.99 (50% off), while Fallout 4 with the Season Pass is $24.99 (50% off). Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Digital Deluxe is $39.99 (50% off), which is the same price for the non-deluxe version, so hey, free DLC.

And if you have an Amazon Fire, you can snag Monument Valley 2 for $2.49 (50% off), which is a great deal on a great game. If you've got younger kids, all Toca games for the Fire are $.99 (66% off). And Teeny Titans -- which is essentially an old-school Pokemon game with the Titans, and is genuinely great -- is $.99 (75% off) on the Fire.

There are a lot of movies on sale, but one notable one is Jack Reacher: Never Go Back for $4.99 to own digitally.

There's a ton more at the sale, if you've got the patience for the deep dive.

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