It seems that being a Firefox user means being in a constant state of trepidation about whether the app will last the year. For a long while now, it has been well known that the browser’s very survival depends on the largesse of its search partner, …
Reading
Of Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham
- Can it be used on any type of metal surface?
- Does it leave any residue after …
Tech
The Precarious Fox
Sticking It Out
David Brooks on doing things that aren’t easy because you feel compelled to do them.
But when you look around you see a lot of people out there choosing to do unpleasant things. I don’t just mean those adventure freaks who feel compelled to climb …
Tech
Hookmark + LinkDing
It’s hard to believe that I hadn’t heard of Hookmark until recently. The crowd I follow online doesn’t tend to miss Mac productivity tools, but this one seems to have escaped mass publicity within that community. The premise seems like a powerful …
Tech
Amazon’s Rufus, which must be some kind of AI chatbot, wonders if I’ve got the following questions about Stereolab’s upcoming album Instant Holograms On Metal Film:
Accumulate Wisdom, Not Information
Chris Butler writes about the glut of information to which we are exposed and how that does not advance our wisdom or understanding.
Think about this comparison: Information is to wisdom what pornography is to real intimacy. I’m not here to …
Straight outta Estonia.
New Mexico governor mobilizes National Guard to tackle crime emergency in Albuquerque
I briefly attended high school in Albuquerque during the early 90s as my family deliberated on whether we wanted to live there (we ultimately didn’t). When I …
The new Bracket City game from The Atlantic is fun but my mind keeps thinking I’m looking at markdown.
Currently reading: How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill 📚
Jerome, that cantankerous translator of the Latin Bible, awoke one night in a frenzied sweat: he had dreamed that Christ condemned him to hell for being more of a Ciceronian …
My 13-yr-old claims he doesn’t like music, so imagine my surprise at him walking around the house belting out Wham’s “Careless Whisper.”
Noise
Perfect Teeth
I hate to feel like I’m just getting old and only able to appreciate music from my youth. I’m still open to new music and find much to enjoy in the output of the current generation of music. However, I suppose like anyone, I do have a …
culture
Moondrop Displacement Entry
W. David Marx writes on his blog Culture about 10,000 Maniacs and the earnest progressivism of the early alternative music culture.
Certainly 10,000 Maniacs were a bit over-the-top, but they fit seamlessly in the general aesthetic of “alternative” …
I’m having a good deal of trouble bringing myself to throw out a perfectly good Fujitsu ScanSnap just because they not longer make drivers for it.
I love this set of photos from Emilio Herve of the Japanese Breakfast show at El Museo del Barrio. I’ve seen Japanese Breakfast live but wasn’t treated to this kind of spectacle.
It’s amazing how many different facial expressions …
Great. My son’s Echo Dot just notified him about the arrival of his birthday present. So much for surprises.
Noise
Tech
Vinyl On Roon
I tend to place a great deal of emphasis on harmony between the different parts of my life. When there is some sort of discontinuity, it vexes me. This can play out in pretty serious cognitive dissonance.1 It can also filter down to less …
I spent 45 minutes to an hour last night in conversation with Copilot, banging my head against a CSS issue. No resolution. It only took one query to Claude to completely fix.
On the latest episode of the Symbolic World podcast, Jonathan Pageau explains why Disney trying to map contemporary cultural values onto an older story results in a jumbled mess.
My wife and I are generally aware of the same cultural touchstones. I would say I was a bit more deeply engaged in certain subcultures, though, which can lead to some interesting reactions when I bust out singing a song like Stryper’s “To …
culture
Uncle Crizzle Resurfaces
Back when our local newspaper, The News & Observer, was more of a going concern, I used to dig following the columns from Craig D. Lindsey. Lindsey, AKA Uncle Crizzle, had a keen eye for culture and finding overlooked treasures. When the paper …
After buying this razor from Henson, I have officially made two purchases after seeing the products on Instagram. I guess ads aren’t all bad?
Noise
Friday Night Video
Headlights Pointed At The Dawn
For this Friday Night Video, we’re going back a way, to the mid-nineties. Smashing Pumpkins had released Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness a fittingly grandiose title for an ambitious and widely varied double-album. At the time, I heard the …
Unpublishable.txt
Chris Butler writes about the words he chooses not to publish online and that end up in his unpublishable.txt file.
The Unpublishable file is filled with half-formed critiques of the systems I work within, questions about the ethical implications of …
Tech
The Return of Googie
Anna Kodé has a piece in the New York Times (gift article) about the early Space Age Googie style of architecture. The article is filled with eye candy and visual delights from the style, some …