These are videos of water. There is nothing about them that made me choose them other than being the first thing YouTube showed me when I searched on “waterfall,” and “ocean waves.”
You can click on them and watch them. It is because they are videos!
I deleted the videos. Go fuck yourself.
Shane MacGowan was one of my heroes.
The island, it is silent now
But the ghosts still haunt the waves
And the torch lights up a famished man
Who fortune could not save
Did you work upon the railroad?
Did you rid the streets of crime?
Were your dollars from the White House?
Were they from the Five-and-Dime?
Did the old songs taunt or cheer you?
And did they still make you cry?
Did you count the months and years
Or did your teardrops quickly dry?
“Ah, no”, says he, “it was not to be
On a coffin ship I came here
And I never even got so far
That they could change my name”
Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
To a land of opportunity
That some of them will never see
Fortune prevailing
Across the western ocean
Their bellies full
Their spirits free
They’ll break the chains of poverty
And they’ll dance
In Manhattan’s desert twilight
In the death of afternoon
We stepped hand in hand on Broadway
Like the first man on the moon
And a blackbird broke the silence
As you whistled it so sweet
And in Brendan Behan’s footsteps
I danced up and down the street
Then we said goodnight to Broadway
Giving it our best regards
Tipped our hats to Mister Cohen
Dear old Times Square’s favourite bard
Then we raised a glass to JFK
And a dozen more besides
When I got back to my empty room
I suppose I must have cried
Thousands are sailing
Again across the ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Postcards we’re mailing
Of sky light skies and oceans
From rooms the daylight never sees
And lights don’t glow on Christmas trees
And we danced to the music
And we danced
Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e’er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
Still we dance to the music
And we dance
I am too old to go to festivals any more (last one was taking Phenon and three friends to Bonaroo in 2016). Heck, I barely even go to non-festival shows these days. But here’s an event that would get me out of retirement: Two days with The New Pornographers headlining one day, and Broken Social Scene the other and with the acts comprising each “supergroup” leading up to each headliner.
The numbers aren’t perfect and some of these other groups probably don’t still perform so someone will need to massage these lineups.
To whit:
Festival Idea: Broken New Social Pornographers’ Scene Read More »
Once upon a time there was a boy who learned how to make websites. Then a fucking machine learned how to do it better.
The End
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I’m just saying that ChatGPT writes a pretty good story. I hate this thing.
[Tell me a story about a living plant who is dissatisfied with the meadow in which it lives. Express existential dread at the prospect of having no personal agency.]
Once upon a time, there was a living plant that lived in a meadow. The plant was surrounded by lush, green grass and tall, colorful flowers. But the plant felt empty and unsatisfied with its environment. It had no personal agency, no control over its own destiny.
The plant had become aware of the vastness of the world outside the meadow, and felt a deep longing to explore it. But the meadow was its only home, and it felt trapped in its current location.
No matter how much it tried to will its way out of the meadow, it could never achieve that freedom. The plant felt a deep sense of existential dread, knowing that its fate was predetermined by forces outside of its control.
It was disheartened, feeling as if its life was devoid of purpose and meaning. It had become a mere passenger in this world, doomed to remain in the meadow forever.
[Add to the story with a cow that arrives and understands and wishes to help.]
One day, a cow arrived in the meadow. The plant felt a glimmer of hope, thinking that the cow might be able to help it.
The cow sensed the plant’s angst, and it knew that the plant wanted to explore the world outside of the meadow. The cow offered to help the plant, and told it that it would take it away from the meadow and into the world.
The plant was elated, and it eagerly followed the cow out of the meadow. The cow helped the plant explore the world, and the plant felt alive and free for the first time.
The cow and the plant soon became close friends, and the plant was grateful for the cow’s kindness and understanding. The plant had found a new purpose, and it was determined to make the most of its newfound freedom.
[Add to the story that the cow is captured and taken to a slaughterhouse where the plant somehow saves the cow’s life.]
The cow and the plant continued to explore the world, but one day, the cow was captured and taken to a slaughterhouse. The plant was horrified, and it quickly hatched a plan to save its friend.
The plant used its newfound agency to devise an escape plan for the cow, and with its help, the cow was able to escape from the slaughterhouse. The plant was relieved, knowing that it had saved its friend’s life.
The cow and the plant returned to the meadow, and the plant was content with the knowledge that it had made a difference in the life of another. The plant finally felt that it had a purpose and that it could make a real impact on the world.
[Add a part to the end where an alien arrives on the planet and the cow and the plant realize that all they learned was meaningless in the face of such an unknowable universe.]
The cow and the plant continued to explore the world, but one day, an alien arrived on the planet. The cow and the plant were in awe of the alien’s immense power and knowledge, and they realized that all they had learned and experienced was meaningless in the face of such an unknowable universe.
The plant felt a deep sense of dread, knowing that it was only a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things. It was humbled by the alien’s presence, and it realized that its own existence was insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe.
However, the plant also felt a sense of peace, knowing that it had done its best to make a difference in the world. It had a newfound appreciation for its own agency, and was determined to make the most of it.
Literally nobody but me will care about this which is perfect since nobody but me ever visits this site. It’s fine.
I’m one of the latest influx of people to head over to Mastodon as more and more is happening with Twitter that I don’t like. Honestly, Elon buying it was enough, but there’s been plenty since then.
I joined twit.social as @tim52 (because I like the number 52) without a whole lot of research or understanding about why you’d want to pick one instance over another. Glenn Fleishman (who I know from High School and follow on Twitter) was on that server so that’s where I went. It seems a fine place to be and I haven’t noticed any racism, homophobia, misogyny, anti-semitism, or other hateful crap, but I also have not been around for very long.
I’m just starting to get a feel for what “Fediverse” culture is like and how the ‘verse combine with your instance and people you follow to determine how conversations go. I’ve waded in a little bit but still feel pretty uncertain. There certainly seem to be a lot of people ready to help but I’m very cautiously optimistic because it so far seems very white and very tech.
We’ll see.
WordPress is updating the editor we’ve all come to know and love (I know, right?) with the Gutenberg editor. This new editor promises a lot as far as how authors create content in posts and pages.
It makes things like adding content in columns much simpler for those for whom toggling their editor into “code” view was a daunting task.
And that’s cool. It’s really cool. As someone who builds templates for people to use on their sites, it means that authors can create better layouts without risking breaking everything.
It makes it much easier to add and embed different kinds of things.
Like perhaps embed a Spotify song? A really good song by The Cardigans.
Now, I know what you’re saying:
“The Cardigans? Aren’t they that ‘Love me, Love Me’ band?”
Yes, they are that “Love Me, Love Me” band but listen to them again. They grew up, developed addictions to bad people and bad substances, and wrote great pop songs about both.
The addition of the Gutenberg editor has not been without controversy. The lead of the WordPress Accessibility team resigned due to frustration with their team’s concerns being routinely ignored. For those of us who care about accessibility, this is definitely cause for concern.
This post was written using the new editor. So far, it seems pretty good. It will definitely save money often spent solving the problems that it solves. But when it comes to accessibility, it seems worth keeping some side-eye pointed in their direction.
I wonder what "verse" element is.
If you can see this post, then I’ve successfully moved this site to a new server. You must be so proud of me!
