The forecast is full of single digit lows and sub-freezing highs this week. Did I mention in live in the South? Tomorrow is a holiday to celebrate MLK's birthday. It seems like a sick joke to inaugurate a racist, rapist, felon as President on his birthday, but that is the world the voters delivered. The USA had a good run, but I guess I'll get to see first hand what it's like to live in the decline of an empire.

On to the links.

Can machines create art? That's a question we will have to deal with very soon. I'm still on the negative side of that question, but this argument that humans synthesizing all their inputs into art is no different from computers doing the same does make you think.

One thing I think about often is how poorly most of do in keeping up with far-flung friends, even with all the supposed advantages of social media. Going back to my blog post of a couple of weeks ago, what most of us want is a social network, not social media. This is an example of doing that with a spreadsheet.

How did REM manage to just walk away 14 years ago? They actually retired as a band, something very few bands manage to do. It's a Washington Post article, turn off JavaScript or use Firefox Reader mode to bypass the paywall.

Your LinkedIn network is worthless.

I had to find a new job over the holidays, and people I'm connected with on LinkedIn helped. But every single person on LI that helped is somebody I could have emailed and gotten the same result. It's the people where I had a real connection that mattered. All I got from the network at large was the job hunting equivalent of thoughts and prayers.

If you don't live in LA, you gained nothing by following the fires in real time on social media. You could have watched the first 15 minutes of ABC Nightly News each night and been just as informed, more productive, and less stressed by it all.

My friend Bill Blevins went back to 1945 to find some US Army advice on how to recognize fascism. It's sadly very relevant in 2025. BTW, Bill and his partner take off next month to hike the Appalachian Trail. That's the best strategy I've heard of for dealing with the next 4–5 months.

How surveillance capitalism and DRM turned home tech from friend to foe.

If you need some inspiration to get offline and watch a movie, this list of the top 1000 movies of all time should help.

Rangelife is a weekly-ish newsletter by startup executive Eric Meyerson that is always informative and entertaining. I always read it when it pops into my inbox.

My imaginary internet friend Andreas wrote a really great post on how the promise of being connected to the entire world online was a lie, and also a terrible idea.

That's it this week. For those of you in the US, stay away from the news this week. It's all going to be bad news.

This is an ongoing series in which I dig into the dark corners of my MP3 folder and revisit some long neglected music.

Cross Canadian Ragweed - Soul Gravy

CCR (see what I did there?) is apparently a much bigger band than I realized. I own this one record released in 2004, and I have no idea when I bought it or why. It's rock / alt. country. This album produced a top 10 hit. I wonder why I never dug into more of their catalog? They broke up in 2010 when one of the band members wanted to stay closer to home due to a son with developmental challenges. They just announced a comeback last year, and the show (with some other bands) have sold out 180,000 tickets over 4 nights at Boone Pickens Stadium at Oklahoma State University, so they are very much still a big deal. I definitely need to dive into their catalog as there are 4 or 5 more albums to explore. I also remember having a very good live DVD that came with the CD. I have no idea what happened to it though.

Sick and Tired - The big hit off the album

Alabama

Verdict: Keep it, and maybe find it some friends for the band folder.

This is an ongoing series in which I dig into the dustier corners of my MP3 folder.

Gossip Grows On Trees - EP

From what I can tell, this band existed for about a year. The 4 songs on this EP appear to be it for their musical output. I think I may have found this on Aime Street, which was a very cool music website that existed until about 2012ish, when they got bought out by Amazon and were immediately shut down. Aime Street was kind of a Bandcamp thing mixed with Web 2.0 social elements around sharing music. It was a very cool website, so of course it had to die.

Anyway, speaking of the dead, it's a damn shame that this band didn't stick together longer, because every one of these 4 indie-pop songs is damn good.

LOL. This band is so obscure, these tunes aren't even on YouTube. But their Bandcamp site is still live, and you can download the EP for free.

Worst Intentions

Perfect Words

Two weeks in a row, we are on a roll. It was a weird week. I started my new job on Monday, then we had no running water in the house Monday night thru Thursday. I will never again take the flush toilet for granted.

The Tao of Cal - Cal has written several books on how to live in our always on world. This page on his website is the Cliff Notes version of what he has to say. Cliff Notes... who remembers those? Who will admit to writing a book report using Cliff Notes without ever reading the book?

There is badass, and there is stopped running a marathon to perform CPR for 10 minutes and save a life, then went on to finish the marathon.

I have never wanted to go on a cruise, and this article about passengers left behind on a remote African island did nothing to change that stance.

Some guy has over 10,000 tapes he made of rock and punk shows in Chicago over the last couple of decades. The are all getting added to the Internet Archive.

I don't think this author actually understands what makes a salesperson great, but the article is entertaining to read.

Eat real food. Mostly plants. I'm terrible at following this advice, even as the evidence mounts.

Building an open web that can protect us from harm. Who are your allies on the open web?

If you are looking for additional reading material this long list of newsletters writer's favorite newsletters is certain to provide at least several interesting options.

Because Brian tagged me...

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

My site launched on 31 December 1995. Even way back then, I was trying to add something to the site weekly. Thankfully, my impassioned defenses of the Bob Dole for President campaign didn't survive my various server moves. Blogging when it became a thing was a natural transition.

What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why do you use it?

I've been using the Pelican Static Site Generator since about 2015. My primary reason is security and cost. HTML pages never need security patches. Since the site is static, it costs me about $1.50 a month to host.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

I started with Grey Matter around 2000 or 2001. Then moved to Blogger, Movable Type, WordPress, Anchor CMS, Drupal, and finally Pelican.

How do you write your posts?

I write in a text editor, then cut and paste into the LanguageTool online editor for that sweet AI grammar checking. Then I cut-and-paste back into ReText, update with Markdown as needed, and save. Then I run Pelican, and rsync the output directory with the web server.

Now that I've written that all out, it seems overly complicated. I might work on that.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

It varies. I don't have any routine with a specific time to write. I write when I have something to write about.

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit?

I publish immediately. Then see a typo I missed and publish again. LanguageTool is a 2025 addition to the workflow, so we will see if it cuts down on the typos.

What's your favorite post on your blog?

That's like asking about my favorite child. I have attempted to create a "Best Of" page on several occasions. There is still no "Best Of" page on the blog. This one is probably the one I share most often. This one might be the most important post I've written. Trigger warning on both for cancer.

Any future plans for the blog?

The blog is essentially unchanged since 2018. It works the way I want. I don't have any plans for major changes.

Who will participate next?

I'm going to tag Jason and Andreas

Someone made this point on Mastodon this week, and I thought it was an excellent point. I think what most of us want is a social network, but social networks don't scale to billion-dollar corporations, so what we keep ending up with is social media.

A social network is semi-private. It's you and the people you admit to your network. Another way to think about it is that your social network is the people in your phone contacts. It's the people you'd want to hear from if they happen to be in town. It's the people you'd want to know about if you both happen to be in the same airport at the same time. Not only that, but it's probably 10% of your Twitter or Bluesky or Mastodon contacts, plus the people you know in real life.

Facebook started out as a social network. But that limited growth, and now it is a Nazi training app. I think the turning point is when any app starts to show you content that up did not specifically ask for. When that happens, the app has jumped the shark. It's social media, not your social network.

I don't think there is a functional social networking app right now. Ev Williams, of Blogger, Medium, and Twitter fame, has something new called Mozi, which is an attempt to do social networking correctly. Did he learn from his mistakes at Twitter? I guess we will see. It's iPhone only currently, but his Medium post has me intrigued, and I'm on the wait list for the Android App.

But I also keep thinking that the last thing any of us need is another app. It seems like Mozi as he is describing it could easily be a feature that comes with your phone. The contacts are all there. RSS and SMS are already there. Actually, now that I think about it, if I'm right in that what most of us want is a social network and not social media, there is a huge dollar opportunity sitting here for Apple and the other phone manufacturers. If they provided the basic contact management features we want out of a social network, it could represent the first real opportunity we have to take a serious bite out of Facebook.

That is actually an exciting thought.

This blog post composed while listening to Axe:20 Years from Home (1977-1997)

This is an ongoing series in which I dig into the dustier corners of my MP3 folder.

David Cook - Analog Heart
David Cook - David Cook

David Cook won the 2007 season of American Idol. Analog Heart is his indie album released pre-Idol. David Cook is his big label release after he won American Idol. The songs sound very similar, with the post-Idol release being more polished with higher production values. Personally, I prefer the rawer sound on the indie release. Nobody will ever be able to accuse Cook of selling out though. This early 21st century pop-grunge sound is very clearly his thing. He was making it as a struggling artist pre-Idol, and he made the same music when he had a million dollar budget. He left the big label in 2012 and has gone back to indie since. I hope he banked a couple of million from the post Idol run is happily living a comfy life making the music he wants.

Note: 2007 Idol is the only season I ever actually cared who won. Cook is a fraternity brother, so I wanted to see him win.

Fall Back Into Me (Analog Heart)

declaration (David Cook)

This is an ongoing series in which I dig into the dustier corners of my MP3 folder.

Bree Sharp - A Cheap and Evil Girl

Holy carp is this record good, and it's a debut at that. It was released in 1999, and I'm sure I bought it because of the cult hit "David Duchovny." But Bree was not a one hit wonder. Every song on this record is an incredibly catchy, folk-pop-rock tune. Several of the songs arguably fall in the punk camp. I have no idea why I've been skipping over it for years. That will change, effective immediately.

The album isn't on Google Music. This is the music video for David Duchovny.

And America, from a subsequent live album.

This is also an example of why you should buy music kids. You'll own it, for life.

Verdict: Back in heavy rotation, immediately.

I will almost certainly regret naming this recurring post Sunday links. However, one of the links is an essay is on optimism, so let's roll with it.

The New Scientist Editor Sumit Paul-Choudhury, on the power of optimism, even in the face of something as tragic as his wife's from cancer.

I think this article comparing the constant fight in nature between predators and prey (foxes and rabbits in the example) to the issues between billionaires and the working class in spot on. The billionaires have taken too big a piece of the pie, and they are due for a population crash. Hopefully sooner, much sooner, than later.

A First Hand Account of Homelessness in America was making the rounds last month, but is well worth reading if you missed it then. The gap between middle class and homeless is much narrower than most of us want to admit.

Rambles.net is amazing. Over 17,000 reviews and articles in a circa 2004 design. It appears to be managed entirely by updating HTML pages. I don't see any sign of a CMS, and I can't find an RSS feed. It's a Web 1.0 time capsule.

The Cone Parade is a delightfully silly local NYD tradition.

Hunter shoots bear. Bear falls out of tree and lands on guy's friend, killing him.

This drone footage following the route to the summit of Everest is gorgeous. As I watched it I kept thinking...that doesn't look so tough. Click here for my Kickstarter to fund my summit attempt on Everest.

I hope the first real week of 2025 is a good one for everybody.

1. Remove the app from your phone. You can still access via a web browser if you really want too, but it's a pretty bad experience in a mobile browser and that will naturally reduce the time you spend there on your phone. This will also double your battery life as all that tracking that Facebook does kills your battery.

2. Appify the desktop experience. Open Facebook on Chrome and find the install feature in the menu. This will create an entry in your menu that says Facebook, which when used, will open Facebook in a dedicated Chrome instance that has the address bar, bookmarks, etc. all hidden. The only thing you'll be able to so in that window is Facebook. When done, close the app. Not having it in an open tab in your browser staring at you all the time will naturally reduce the time you spend there. Out of sight, out of mind, works.

That's it. It isn't rocket science. People that "can't" cut back on Facebook simply don't want to cut back on Facebook. Deleting FB would be ideal, but for many of us it isn't practical, as it has become the place we keep in touch with people we care about.