Word to the wise -- always, always, always send yourself a test email before you send to a mailing list.

I don't get involved with "the greatest ever!" kinds of conversations.

No matter the discipline, I have a sneaky suspicion that the actual greatest ever is someone none of us has ever heard of, doing their thing in their corner, entirely avoiding the spotlight.

People getting a riled up in arguments over their particular choices for "the greatest ever!" need better outlets for their precious energy.

As election expectations ramp up in Canada, here is a thing to know about charity organisations:

"Organizations that devote any part of their resources to the direct or indirect support of or opposition to any political party or candidate for public office will not qualify for registration."

That is at the registration stage, but it's true of maintaining charitable status as well. Charities cannot be politically partisan.

It's more difficult to restore charitable status than to initiate it.

I just took in a rather extensive zine exhibit at the big art gallery in our region.

One of the things that caught my eye was a request for content from the mid-70s -- anything but poetry. I forget how it was worded, but the intent was clear:

"We're all good on the poetry for the time being, thanks anyway."

I'm getting the sense that my cat *really* likes the taste of my hair conditioner.

I wonder if someone put some catnip in it. If so, great prank!

Commentators at the Olympics talking about how "effortless" so many of the winning athletes were is the tip of a huge societal problem.

Not only is the amount of work it takes to do anything invisible, its apparent invisibly is celebrated.

A friend of mine is a successful photographer. Something he says has stuck with me: "Don't be envious of the destination if you don't envy the journey."

The journey is the real story. Each journey matters more than a shiny award.

The fault-lines running through western (esp. US) civilisation have a lot to do with celebrity worship.

The entire culture was founded on and is perpetuated by the cult of personality. Which follows -- its history all converges at the British monarchy (head of state & church).

The echoes are still being felt. Determining for and against is easy: "I am for Celebrity X. People for Celebrity Y are my enemy."

Thus, "Celebrity X is worthy of all money & power. Celebrity Y is worthy of none."

Have you been procrastinating about saying no to something you know you've needed to stop saying yes too for a long time?

I just did it. I feel so much lighter now.

It keeps catching me because I find myself feeling the stress and weight of the thing, and then I get to remind myself that I'm free all over again!

What's your relationship to precedent?

Within organisations, and even with families, sometimes good initiatives grind to a halt out of a concern for precedent. ("If I do this for one, I have to do it for all, so I can't do it for any.")

I don't give much credence to on the receiving end, as long as people feel mutually valued. On a motive level, I definitely feel the concern stronger. Should I?

In retrospect, I should have reconsidered ending my vacation on the same day as the people in my house going back to school.

We're all *so* tired.

I ordered a wired mouse and received a wireless one by accident. I knew I was going to appreciate this enough to never go back.

Sigh.

Now I'm yet another person who has to remember to turn off their mouse at the end of the day (and will definitely forget).

#FirstWorldProblems

When people tell me that they're creative in some way, I'm going to follow the path of my mentors and start asking "Are you good?"

It's a quick way for me to evaluate whether or not people are self-aware and taking what they're doing seriously.

Does anyone know of a Olympics photo gallery?

I see all these cameras at the games, but all I've seen is the TV coverage.

I want to see galleries of those pros who are where the action is.

Any leads?

I often find myself thinking about the very long, very enthusiastic podcast I listened to when Musk first made the offer to buy Twitter.

The tech pundits were positively giddy about all the ways that he was going to immediately improve Twitter, getting rid of all the bots and the misinformation. He was set to take it from a $5B company to, well, there's no limit to where it would go with him in charge!

I wonder if those tech insiders think about how wrong they were as much as I do.

Bands at a bunch of levels have riders -- specific things in a contact that need to be fulfilled.

After photographing some festivals and events this year, if I'm ever contracted for music, the single non-negotiable in my rider will be:

"Never put us in green light."

Any other colour I can live with.

Green is awful.

It honestly feels like the spell TFG cast on the US has finally been well and truly broken.

It was broken by calling its name:

"Weird."

#politics

The more online security we deploy in our world, the more vulnerable we become.

#RandomThoughts

Obviously, the Democratic Party needs a platform and talking points. And there's much to talk about, with a strong track record to boot.

But this is the political stage that has been set by TFG. He antagonises, insults, blusters -- he escalates every conflict.

No need to get on his level. No need to get worked up. Just keep acknowledging that he is the moral centre (I prefer this spelling) of the Republican Party, and move on.

He would be crushed by his own game.

@politics
@poeticjustice