@1Firewire My point was the protesting too much: people eager to take to the comments section to declare how much they don't care reveals a unique lack of self-awareness.

I mean, the depth of their care is clear to anyone watching.

Not caring about democracy is a whole other thing.

@thewebrecluse It's a lot for this particular person -- facing that sudden reality, while also trying to navigate it on their colleague's behalf within their role...which no longer exists.

Sigh.

@thewebrecluse I know someone employed in a game company's HR department. The whole company just received word that it is being shut down.

Effective immediately. No recourse.

Unpredictability is everywhere in this industry.

@1Firewire I went down the rabbit-hole of comments on that one.

Republicans want to make this very clear: they do not care what Hollywood actors say.

They are out in force to ensure that this point is stated, underscored, reinforced and reiterated.

They do not care about Bradley Whitford's opinion in particular.

They really don't.

Not at all.

Not even a little.

It doesn't matter to them in the slightest. So many of them want to be sure that there is no doubt that they...

Do.
Not.
Care.

@TetsuKaba Thanks for sharing this. It's a shocking phenomenon to see what these orgs are able to get away with, and what generous people are duped into supporting.

Finally had my first motorcycle ride of the season. I feel like I had all of the world's allergens blasted into my eyeballs with a firehose.

I love the experience of riding. But the itchy-watery eyes afterwards I could do without.

@Maude Thanks for sharing. I love this!

@corlin "Because somewhere along the way I bought into the idea that a car was a part of my independence and tied to my entire concept of self. And because a whole bunch of other people did too, it became a whole 'thing.'"

@corlin Arbitrary parking rules are a major issue for future-literate city planning. When seen from the air, the amount of land devoted to empty parking lots in many urban centres is astounding! Especially when considering how much that land is worth.

So, yeah, it's not just traffic congestion, it's all the inefficient space that vehicles require at every stage in their journey.

@CanisPundit It was a wake-up call to systems which, in their excitement about their complete and permanent victory over totalitarianism, were ushering a whole new era of it.

1984 was a culture-prophet's response to phenomena like McCarthyism.

@Maude A quick wash and wax, I think they're ready for a trip to the moon.

Who's with me?!

George Orwell's book 1984 was published in 1949. There are fewer years between 1949 and 1984 than 1984 and now.

The longer I live, the weirder time gets.

@redenigma He's one of the people I miss from the before-times.

I can only imagine the replies to this from people who dogmatically believe that singing songs is doing something.

But I won't. Thankfully I have lots of better way to invest my imagination!

If you are trying to create a online communication plan with a group of people, and you start asking them for input on what platform to built it on, you will invariably get some people saying "Only XYZ platform!" and others saying "Anything, as long as it's not XYZ platform!"

Generally, I think it's better to just start, and invite people to join.

And use email as a backup.

All these contradictory pressures and tensions -- speed up! slow down! -- are being elevated by a myriad of nascent, entrepreneurial voices with unlimited access to the public square.

Simultaneously, our would-be bulwark institutions are complicit in escalating trauma. Indeed, they seem eager to invent new ways to crash their credibility, and trash their trustworthiness.

It all feeds and is fed by a trauma paradigm.

Healing is worth pondering.

It's worth imagining.

It's worth acting on.

Much of the current state of the world makes sense when we look at it through the lens of trauma.

We've all been traumatised -- chronically by the effects of (for example) climate change, and acutely by the effects of a pandemic.

People are flailing to make sense of a reality that keeps defying sense. It defies expectations. It defies normal.

Additionally, we're all feeling the need to be make up for lost time. We're afraid of missing out, of being left behind. And we're experiencing burnout.

Adobe ran itself into another iceberg this week over a rights management controversy.

Affinity is currently running a sale to attract new users. I've seen more interest in this design suite than ever before online. (Please don't screw this up, Canva!)

I made the switch to Affinity personally and professionally a few years ago because I strongly disagre with Adobe's business model.

Adobe is one of the companies making record profits *and* raising prices on their customers. And now this. Ugh.

We are each our own editors. Amidst the heightened noise and confusion projected at us constantly, we all need strategies to identify information as valuable and valueless.

If folks are interested in telling people information, but not interested in 1. making it relevant or 2. making it memorable, then their motives are selfish, and they can be freely disregarded.

If you're trying to teach someone something, and you are doing it for *their* good, it would be wise to prioritise these factors.

@BlueStateBabe @Iceman_Bob Any glass shop can provide you with that for not too much money.

Glass is generally more rigid than plastic. You want it to be held as flat as possible. If you use two glass pieces and sandwich the photos together between them, that would help even more.

The more you can rig it up so your angles are precise, ie the lens kept perfectly perpendicular to the art, the better your results will be. It's probably going to take days, so remember to clean the glass as needed.

@ATXJane @Maude Weaponised legislation is the core earmark of the current international conservative movement. These efforts are corrupting their entire countries' legal systems to accompish small-minded, unsustainable, and ultimately easily-reversed goals.

It is a kind of cival war already in action.

I believe that it deserves to be seen as that, and addressed with that kind of political rhetoric.

Because while it's in effect, its consequences are both real and horrific.