I am in a mood again. Thinking about keeping this website online as a private online archive while at the same time, writing to the journal inside my own offline database.
If I do take this private, it’ll be a stripped down HTML-only version.
Stay tuned.
Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything has to be said again.
Well, just my typewriter, actually. The local repairman said no way, and it would be cheaper to get a different one. It now rests in the trash bin behind that shop. So now I am on the lookout for a different model and color.
In the meantime, the Hanx digital typewriter will have to do.
The Los Angeles Library system recently purchased a local book publisher and plans on publishing even more from local authors. Brilliant!
Local libraries could and should support people to self-publish books, e-books, websites, etc. Instead of just computers for the homeless to play games on, set up printers, scanners, zine machines, etc. Beef up the local writers and potential authors by hosting writing parties. Maybe even add a community feed to host all of those websites and their owners with a shared feed of everything published in blog format and RSS?
I just had my cellular data plan shut off…deliberately. My talk and text plan still allows basic communication when I am out and about. Let the great experiment begin!
Since a month ago I decided I was going to start a new photography project entitled “Palm Sunday”, and then promptly shot over 100 diverse palms in the same Sunday, that project was over immediately. I’ve been looking for another project and then I finally looked up.
Living in a coastal community, the skies and clouding hit differently here. So, I thought I would give that a try with all of the challenges involved like the various lighting and cloud formations. Let’s see how long this one lasts.
The Hipstamatic 366 project is still going strong
The issue with algorithmic feeds on social sites, is the fact that they assume you would like your future to look like your past.
Did you linger or read over an article? Well then, here’s more. Liked a video? Yes, have some more of the same old crap.
*With apologies to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine
It is 2024 and the Matrix is real. Of this there can be zero doubt, if you consider your daily screen time. The digital avatar of you online versus your physical meat space in the real world. Are you intellectually honest with yourself?
Can you feel how disproportionate this balance is?
I pulled the trigger on my decision to remove the data plan from the iPhone. By next week it will be just talk and text.
I set a photography goal for myself to shoot a photo with the Hipstamatic every day, for 366 images this (leap) year. Today is day 168. I had them all on my photo website that I recently took down but for now, I’ll just add a few from the past two weeks here.
I want to design and place a machine to fill up with books that people can purchase on the go as opposed to them buying a soda or a snack. I know we will all be a lot healthier.
They remind me of the Little Free Library stands all across the country, of which I used to be a curator of one back home.
They also remind me of the Art-O-Mat art vending I’ve seen in Las Vegas.
As part of my mission this year to “de-bullshit” my life, I’ve been contemplating acquiring a dumb phone and with luck, my carrier has exactly one model. It’s features are the ability to talk, text and take crap-quality images and that’s it. The carrier representative must have thought I was mentally unstable for even thinking about it and maybe he’s right. I currently have the iPhone 15 Pro Max which, for only a few more months, is the best on the American market. So “why go backwards?”, he asked.
I love the iPhone, but apparently I love it too much and I want to reduce my dependency on it.
Then I got to thinking, why not remove all the apps off of the iPhone except for the phone, messages, the camera and photo apps? Why not have my carrier remove the data option from my plan and I pay less? Hmm.
*with apologies to Fleetwood Mac
Scrolling is a tool of our current digital existence, no matter how much we dislike our dependence on it. This is because most people are scrolling on an app platform where they have little control on the content they see.
Social media algorithms mean you don’t see the posts of everyone you follow. You see only what is currently popular from some of them. Plus you see other stuff you don’t follow that their algorithm “think you might like”. Popular means engagement, so the original post is swarming with comments from strangers. You also see ads everywhere that often takes over the original material you are trying to consume. The interface itself is urging you to scroll! Like! Subscribe! Buy!
No thank you.
Digital life shouldn’t be this way. The best way to consume media is not with social media anyway. It exists on websites – blogs, news, magazines, opinions. Millions of new, and better quality articles created every week.
But you don’t want to visit dozens of websites to find out what’s new. What you need is a way to have the website content you choose come to you, when you want it.
This solution exists already in the form of a little known technology called RSS. It exists in the background of almost all websites. It’s a way for RSS apps to subscribe to that websites content and receive new articles when they are available.
In the RSS context, “SUBSCRIBE” doesn’t mean you pay, nor do you give your email. In fact the website owner won’t even know you’ve subscribed at all!
It’s like podcasts — but for reading.
This is not a paid sponsorship, but an RSS reader such as the no cost app called NetNewsWire. It shows you articles from your favorite blogs and news sites and keeps track of what you’ve read.
This means you can stop going from page to page in your browser looking for new articles to read. Do it the easy way instead: let a feed reader bring the news to you instead.
If you’ve been getting your news via Facebook and Twitter — with their ads, algorithms, user tracking, outrage, and misinformation — you can switch to your news feed reader to get news directly and more reliably from the sites you trust.
Take back control of your scroll. Scroll your own way.
Start with two or three sources. Maybe a news site and a couple of blogs you like such as, oh, I don’t know, chrisdenbow.website. His RSS feed is simply: https://chrisdenbow.website/feed
Give it a go, and after a few days, you’ll feel something magical happen. You have an app with a feed you can scroll through that you completely control. You decide what is in there. There is no algorithm. Just the latest posts from every site interleaved in reverse date order.
You don’t even need to leave the app to read. I subscribe only to full text feeds, so the entire article is readable within the app. No cookie pop ups or confusing menus to navigate.
There’s no comments or likes. If you no longer wish to see posts from a particular author, you remove their feed from your app and you never see them again.
Everyone should have the ability to scroll your own way.
While typing this up, I obviously sung this in my head the whole time.
