The real world seems like a scarier place each day, but hopefully all your frights today are of the good-natured variety.
39 thoughts on “October 31, 2022: Spooky”
I'm not sure what to think of social media these days--it's hard to know where things will go with Twitter, and I just tried to open Instagram only to get a notification that my account has been suspended. (Which I'm guessing is part of what the Daily Mail is calling a mystery outage.)
At least we've still got the WGOM!
Not a prediction or anything, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see a renaissance of message boards where the crowed is more selective and self-selecting and able to be moderated (both by just general understanding and by the "authorities")
I am wondering if there will be a renaissance of independent sites. I hope there will be.
I've learned that the independent sites are still there. While there are probably more than ever, they're just that they are such a smaller percentage of the overall Internet traffic.
I've had in mind to build both new blog apps and new forum apps. The challenge is that the average person still probably won't have the energy / motivation to run an independent site, even if the software is drop-dead easy. Especially because it doesn't provide easy access to other people.
Especially given the liability issues regarding, e.g., IP, libel, etc. Who has the time and energy to moderate an open community today when there are so many bad actors?
It still amazes and gratifies me how well our little basement has held up.
I'm guessing that Twitter will change for the worse for those with thousands of followers and will then get bombarded with gross and trolling responses. For the most of us who have a smaller footprint we will get overlooked by that, for the most part. We may notice some favorite people have left the site which will make Twitter not as valuable. I also block liberally. Even if someone isn't responding directly to me, but I see their dumb comment in a reply to someone else, I block them. I have also been blocking all promoted ads in the hopes that others are doing something similar and advertisers take notice.
So I'll stick to Twitter until it becomes unbearable I guess. To be honest I didn't notice any difference over the weekend.
While the Tweeter is the only social I actively follow, I'm still going to find it hilarious when it devolves to a $44b piece of burning trash.
We do get more traffic / views from the Facebook posts, according to Facebook's metrics. I should verify from the referrers. I disabled analytics because I never looked at them.
I was a liberal blocker as well. It worked pretty good for weeding out any crypto currency yahoos from my timeline. Going with the ultimate block has been very freeing, though.
I don't know what to do with this stuff. I love Twttr. I don't see many people quitting paypal or returning their Teslas. Boring and Flame throwers are stupid. Penis spaceships are a weird troll. I probably won't do anything for a couple of months. I am on some federated socials, hard to see how much of this is media views grab or his trolling. ... I have more thoughts but not information so we'll see I guess. Balance sheets don't look great, Dorsey is working in a different approach. I'd like to know what Biz is working on. I liked super but it was too early at launch. Yadda yadda.
I would love an EV, but I won't be buying a Tesla when the time comes.
I am thinking of getting an EV for my next vehicle. Definitely staying away from Tesla. One promising development is a Chinese automaker has developed an EV truck that will sell for around $25K in US dollars. They obviously won't sell that vehicle in the US, however, it has shown other carmakers that it can be done.
A friend of mine really likes his Mach E, and its made by a real auto manufacturer.
We plan to purchase an EV whenever one of our current vehicles (2008 Subaru, 150k+, 2002 Buick, only 80k on the clock but GM rust issues) reach an unsustainable reliability threshold. I’m really interested in the Hyundai Ioniq 5; I think that would be my purchase if I had to make one tomorrow.
I was strongly leaning toward the same car but we've decided we really need to go for a three-row car. The children need the two rows two spread themselves out better. So far, The VW ID. Buzz fits best: long enough for three rows but shorter than minivans.
Until they resolve their theft problems, Mrs Runner won't even look at Hyundai or Kia.
We have 2 electric cars, and are very happy for making the switch.
I’ve had a Nissan Leaf for 4 years now, and I love it. The range is not great (about 140 miles), but that’s plenty for what I use it for (commute, errands, etc.). It would be a problem for a long driving trip, but we have other cars that handle that duty.
Plus, it was pretty cheap. When we got it, we figured out that the switch to electric would pay for itself after 2-3 years. And that was before gas prices went up in 2020.
My first EV is going to be a bike, hopefully next year.
I left Twitter a long time ago, simply because I couldn't see any benefit to being there.
I can honestly say that leaving Twitter has been good for my mental and emotional health and has improved my quality of life.
I echo both these comments.
My wife asked last night if I'd deleted my Twitter and I said not yet, but I was thinking of ditching social media all together (keeping the WGOM obvi)
She cautioned against it, worrying that since I don't have any IRL friends anywhere near our house I might feel extra isolated without it. She is probably right, she's much smarter than me.
If you left Twitter how would I hear about Tadhg Furlong's latest feats on the rugby pitch. (yard, field, grass?)
Me and Tadhg are bff's. He texts me after every game.
On the contrary, I believe I know exactly how things will go with Twitter. It's already in the crosshairs of militant extremists.
2 oz. Bourbon
1/2 oz. Lime juice
1/2 oz. Maple syrup
Ginger beer
Shake bourbon, juice and syrup on ice, strain into old fashioned glass with ice, top with ginger beer. Nor’easter. Sub ginger ale for ginger beer and it’s a Grumpy Old Man.
That sounds pretty interesting! I’ve moved hard into cocktails in the past few weeks, so this is right up my alley at the moment. Perhaps there needs to be a cocktail feature in these parts…
I'm not sure what to think of social media these days--it's hard to know where things will go with Twitter, and I just tried to open Instagram only to get a notification that my account has been suspended. (Which I'm guessing is part of what the Daily Mail is calling a mystery outage.)
At least we've still got the WGOM!
Not a prediction or anything, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see a renaissance of message boards where the crowed is more selective and self-selecting and able to be moderated (both by just general understanding and by the "authorities")
I am wondering if there will be a renaissance of independent sites. I hope there will be.
I've learned that the independent sites are still there. While there are probably more than ever, they're just that they are such a smaller percentage of the overall Internet traffic.
I've had in mind to build both new blog apps and new forum apps. The challenge is that the average person still probably won't have the energy / motivation to run an independent site, even if the software is drop-dead easy. Especially because it doesn't provide easy access to other people.
Especially given the liability issues regarding, e.g., IP, libel, etc. Who has the time and energy to moderate an open community today when there are so many bad actors?
It still amazes and gratifies me how well our little basement has held up.
I'm guessing that Twitter will change for the worse for those with thousands of followers and will then get bombarded with gross and trolling responses. For the most of us who have a smaller footprint we will get overlooked by that, for the most part. We may notice some favorite people have left the site which will make Twitter not as valuable. I also block liberally. Even if someone isn't responding directly to me, but I see their dumb comment in a reply to someone else, I block them. I have also been blocking all promoted ads in the hopes that others are doing something similar and advertisers take notice.
So I'll stick to Twitter until it becomes unbearable I guess. To be honest I didn't notice any difference over the weekend.
While the Tweeter is the only social I actively follow, I'm still going to find it hilarious when it devolves to a $44b piece of burning trash.
We do get more traffic / views from the Facebook posts, according to Facebook's metrics. I should verify from the referrers. I disabled analytics because I never looked at them.
I was a liberal blocker as well. It worked pretty good for weeding out any crypto currency yahoos from my timeline. Going with the ultimate block has been very freeing, though.
I don't know what to do with this stuff. I love Twttr. I don't see many people quitting paypal or returning their Teslas. Boring and Flame throwers are stupid. Penis spaceships are a weird troll. I probably won't do anything for a couple of months. I am on some federated socials, hard to see how much of this is media views grab or his trolling. ... I have more thoughts but not information so we'll see I guess. Balance sheets don't look great, Dorsey is working in a different approach. I'd like to know what Biz is working on. I liked super but it was too early at launch. Yadda yadda.
I would love an EV, but I won't be buying a Tesla when the time comes.
I am thinking of getting an EV for my next vehicle. Definitely staying away from Tesla. One promising development is a Chinese automaker has developed an EV truck that will sell for around $25K in US dollars. They obviously won't sell that vehicle in the US, however, it has shown other carmakers that it can be done.
A friend of mine really likes his Mach E, and its made by a real auto manufacturer.
We plan to purchase an EV whenever one of our current vehicles (2008 Subaru, 150k+, 2002 Buick, only 80k on the clock but GM rust issues) reach an unsustainable reliability threshold. I’m really interested in the Hyundai Ioniq 5; I think that would be my purchase if I had to make one tomorrow.
I was strongly leaning toward the same car but we've decided we really need to go for a three-row car. The children need the two rows two spread themselves out better. So far, The VW ID. Buzz fits best: long enough for three rows but shorter than minivans.
Until they resolve their theft problems, Mrs Runner won't even look at Hyundai or Kia.
We have 2 electric cars, and are very happy for making the switch.
I’ve had a Nissan Leaf for 4 years now, and I love it. The range is not great (about 140 miles), but that’s plenty for what I use it for (commute, errands, etc.). It would be a problem for a long driving trip, but we have other cars that handle that duty.
Plus, it was pretty cheap. When we got it, we figured out that the switch to electric would pay for itself after 2-3 years. And that was before gas prices went up in 2020.
My first EV is going to be a bike, hopefully next year.
I left Twitter a long time ago, simply because I couldn't see any benefit to being there.
I can honestly say that leaving Twitter has been good for my mental and emotional health and has improved my quality of life.
I echo both these comments.
My wife asked last night if I'd deleted my Twitter and I said not yet, but I was thinking of ditching social media all together (keeping the WGOM obvi)
She cautioned against it, worrying that since I don't have any IRL friends anywhere near our house I might feel extra isolated without it. She is probably right, she's much smarter than me.
If you left Twitter how would I hear about Tadhg Furlong's latest feats on the rugby pitch. (yard, field, grass?)
Me and Tadhg are bff's. He texts me after every game.
On the contrary, I believe I know exactly how things will go with Twitter. It's already in the crosshairs of militant extremists.
I thought Nilay Patel deftly laid out the challenges Elon has bought himself, all of which are less challenges of technology and more those of ethics and law.
And economics, I (and many others) would add. There is almost no conceivable way he makes his and his co-investors' money back.
What concerns me is that financial ROI may not necessarily be the goal of said investors.
That was nuts.
Did everybody here know there's a weird ska(?) cover of "Werewolves of London"?!? Why did no one tell me?
2 oz. Bourbon
1/2 oz. Lime juice
1/2 oz. Maple syrup
Ginger beer
Shake bourbon, juice and syrup on ice, strain into old fashioned glass with ice, top with ginger beer. Nor’easter. Sub ginger ale for ginger beer and it’s a Grumpy Old Man.
That sounds pretty interesting! I’ve moved hard into cocktails in the past few weeks, so this is right up my alley at the moment. Perhaps there needs to be a cocktail feature in these parts…
I think I can oblige with something seasonal.
There's a category for it and everything.
Gonna do some (re)reading.