OptimistPrime

I'm reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. It's my first Sanderson and I'm a little over 300 pages in. It's been on my TBR for a few months and finally decided to take it on.

This is awesome. Did you build it? Where are you going to put it? Do you have more pictures of the complete library box?

Chim Chim chiminy, Chim Chim chiminy, Chim Chim chiree

I got a French press and used it for awhile. I'm extremely lazy though and got tired of having to clean the coffee grounds out of the screen. That's something I didn't consider before buying it. I switched to a chemex that I like much better. Yeah, there are disposable filters but it works better for me. If I were starting over, I'd probably just get some kind of pour over thing that fits over my mug. That would take up less space than the chemex.

I've been feeling the same way the last couple of weeks. I finally got so fed up with the toxicity of Instagram that I uninstalled it from my phone. And since finding Lemmy, I've disengaged and deleted my Reddit account. So I'm trying to figure out what to do on this Internet now. And it really feels like how I used to use it. I'm finding niche blogs and sites that people post on Lemmy. I'll add them to my bookmarks so that I can remember to visit them again. I'm actually reading the articles and not just jumping straight into the comments. It's like going back in time 12 years. And I don't know if this is just in my head, but I feel like I'm regaining some of my ability to focus and increasing my attention span that's been atrophied over the last decade. I just spent most of my weekend building and playing around with a new homelab server... Something I would have done years ago but would have been nearly impossible to do if I was stuck scrolling through the dopamine machine that is Instagram and Reddit.

If you're dissatisfied with the results you get on Google or you're looking for websites that might not be in Google's search results, I recently came across this site: https://www.marginalia.nu/. The search engine touts itself as focusing on non-commercial content. It really makes me nostalgic for the old Internet... Back when you could find some random person's blog about something really specific. They weren't trying to get monetized or fit into some SEO algorithm. They just wanted to spread their passion for growing different varieties of butter beans, free of charge and subscription.

In case anyone hits a paywall, https://12ft.io can get around it. I also just learned that the Calibre software for ebooks has a news function that can download ebook versions of different publications. The New Yorker is available for download.

Articles like this make me sad because they tend to show the futility of what individuals can do. I try to reduce single-use containers and recycle where I can. But like the lady who tries to eliminate her family's trash for a year, she was demoralized to learn that her plastics probably weren't being recycled. And the ones that were, likely wasn't having much good in the grand scheme of things. So what can individuals realistically? I try to use reuse-able grocery bags. The end of this article references a study done that claims reusable bags can have greater environmental impacts. I suspect there's some nuance to that that's being left out. This article talks about that same study and says (I'm paraphrasing here), "that the results table given by the study only draws attention to the worst environmental indicator for each material, rather than providing the whole story of how the bag performs in all categories. Ozone depletion was the biggest environmental impact for cotton bags. Taking into account just that factor, a cotton bag would need to be re-used 20,000 times to equal a regular plastic bag. But in many other categories, cotton was the preferable option." I think this kind of science reporting happens a lot. Nuance can get left out.

I think all individuals can do is use common sense. Reduce the single-use things. Reuse things when they can.

Aye

That's so awesome. I've been thinking about converting my lawn to clover, if nothing else to just not have to mow it as often. How often do you mow yours?

• A Secret History
• A Gentleman in Moscow
• The Martian
• 11/22/63
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
• East of Eden

My example with the mask was to highlight the inconsistency that folks on the right exhibit. They claimed that wearing masks was a violation of their freedoms, but also seem to be in favor of policies that limit people's freedoms. They claimed that the masks made it so they couldn't breathe. But then there were plenty of insurrectionists on Jan. 6 wearing masks. They believe some unsubstantiated misinformation on Facebook about how the vaccines will implant trackers into them, but disbelieve the scientists who tell them they're safe. They pick and choose their arguments and what they'll believe without critical thought.

Of course I don't think people who refuse to wear masks are Nazis. That's silly. I just think they're selfish. And of course I don't think all Republicans are Nazis. And like I said before, I wouldn't want to be in place where there couldn't be honest debate about different politics. But I'm not convinced they have any actual legitimate principles anymore. Nazi ideology, book bans, and violent rhetoric against lgbtq are not topics I'm willing to have an honest discussion about because there's nothing to discuss. Those things don't belong in a society. Now if they want to discuss the merits of legitimate conservative policies, those kinds of debates should absolutely be allowed. But I haven't seen much lately showing that they even has those principles anymore sadly.

I don't use Nazi lightly. I only use it because self proclaimed Nazis support the extremist right ideologies. They're full of hate, and they're anti-education, and want to make it so that the queer community goes back in the closet. This isn't about some knee jerk reaction to people I disagree with. If the people on the right actually practiced the principles they so loudly preach like liberty and freedom for all, then yes, I'd be open to having legitimate discussions and debate with them. But they don't. They foamed at the mouth when asked to do the bare minimum and wear a mask to help protect their more vulnerable countrymen during a pandemic. But apparently that was too much. In their minds, that was fascism. However, they can wave their Nazi flags at protests while wearing masks. But but but I thought they couldn't breathe with them on. 😭 They only pretend to stand for freedom and family values and caring about children. They target gays, minorities, trans people, and obstruct any efforts to provide services that would actually help children and families. One example is all the Republican state legislatures wanting to end free and reduced school lunches. I'm sick and tired of decent people kowtowing to these extremists and I'm done.

Defederate them. Tolerance has limits and we have the right and, in my opinion, obligation to not tolerate the intolerant. In the words of the crustpunk bartender, "you have to nip it in the bud immediately."

Here's the story taken from a series of tweets.

I was at a shitty crustpunk bar once getting an after-work beer. One of those shitholes where the bartenders clearly hate you. So the bartender and I were ignoring one another when someone sits next to me and he immediately says, "no. get out."

And the dude next to me says, "hey i'm not doing anything, i'm a paying customer." and the bartender reaches under the counter for a bat or something and says, "out. now." and the dude leaves, kind of yelling. And he was dressed in a punk uniform, I noticed

Anyway, I asked what that was about and the bartender was like, "you didn't see his vest but it was all nazi shit. Iron crosses and stuff. You get to recognize them."

And i was like, ohok and he continues.

"you have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in and it's always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don't want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too.

And then THEY bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh shit, this is a Nazi bar now. And it's too late because they're entrenched and if you try to kick them out, they cause a PROBLEM. So you have to shut them down.

And i was like, 'oh damn.' and he said "yeah, you have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people."

And then he went back to ignoring me. But I haven't forgotten that at all.