Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

That thing where all of your tasks are high priority and so you're frozen in the overwhelm of it all.

watching a video about how mild hearing loss is incredibly widespread and that loud recreational sound listening thru headphones is a big factor

and i can't help but feel like capitalist industrialization is such a huge, huuuuge factor in this that goes uncommented on because it's Just How Our World Is Now

i wouldn't need to use active noise canceling to listen to my podcasts on a normal ear-healthy volume out on a walk if there weren't cars & jackhammers in my city, except maybe during summer when the cicadas get in the mood ig

Dear Game Devs,

Please please please let me access the options/settings as soon as the game loads.

Don't make me sit through a prologue, or intro, or tutorial of any kind. Just let me adjust the audio/graphics/accessibility options ASAP and then I'll look at all of your fun informative stuff, I swear.

On my knees,
Syl

In 1999 to 2000 I was going through a very rough patch in my life. In the span of a few years, I'd gotten married, lost a parent, birthed a child, gotten divorced, changed careers, and relocated 3,000 miles away from everything and everyone I knew. What with the state of things, I didn't get to see #GalaxyQuest when it was first released.

Finally, on a day I was feeling particularly low, and shortly before the movie left the theaters, I canceled work and took myself out to a midday matinée.

I was the *only* person in a vast theater, of a size that no one builds anymore, sitting and waiting for the lights to go down. At one point, I turned and peered up at the projectionist's booth. I saw a shadowy figure moving back and forth behind the window, bending and straightening. This was in the days before automated, digital films. The Phantom Menace had been released digitally in 1999, but the equipment to show such films was extremely expensive and most theaters hadn't converted yet; "projectionist" was still a real job.

While I was looking, the figure paused, strode to the window and peered back at me, then disappeared quickly.

I turned back around and continued to fidget and ponder the misfit pieces of my life.

At the top of the aisle behind me, the theater door swung open and banged loudly on the wall. The projectionist strode down the aisle toward me, a tall barrel-shaped man with a thick beard and glasses. My first thought was that the matinee was canceled due to low turnout, and I'd be getting a refund. Just as I'd resigned myself to that, the marching projectionist shouted out in a booming voice,

"WELCOME to your PRIVATE viewing oooooooof GALAXY QUEST!!!"

He stopped in front of my row, and I saw that he had an *armload* of STUFF. One by one, he began presenting each thing to me, and as the pile in his arms dwindled, the one in my lap grew.

"As our SPECIAL VIP Galaxy Quest GUEST today, YOU are entitled to..."

"- A commemorative t-shirt!"
"- A poster suitable for framing!"
"- A limited edition refrigerator magnet!"
"- A button to pin to your lapel!"

The list and the shwag went on. With every ridiculous item, I laughed harder and harder, until there were tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes.

Then he bowed and shouted, "WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE SHOW!" and turned on his heel to march back up the aisle and out the exit door.

Alas, of all the shwag only the magnet has stood the test of time. But the humor and kindness of the unknown projectionist lives on.

#storytelling

WHAT

#tech

Best not get stenography and steganography mixed up

If your view is that cities are dying because of WFH, and you’re prepared to strong arm employees “back to the office”, but you have taken zero activity to make those offices safer against COVID and airborne viral transmission… you’re pushing eugenics.

If you’re happy to see everyone maskless again at events, and doing zero to mitigate COVID, you’re happy to see folks disabled by the virus you’re ignoring.

I’m tired of people pretending normality and taking zero responsibility.

“We do not accept iCloud Hide My email addresses.”

Aww, sweetie. Then your competitor wins this round. 💅

The grapevine is saying that Matt Mullenweg has just announced to his automattic employees that starting today, any resignation will be effective immediately to try to prevent leaks.

I'm sure this will prevent the leaks and no one will tell anyone what it's internally announced anymore.

Masterful gambit, pardner.

Can't help but notice that the reason for the Telegram CEO being arrested in France seems to have shifted from "failure to moderate the platform" (in the original reporting) to "failure to hand over user identities to cops" (Telegram updated their T&C to hand over data).

Those are two VERY different things.

Here’s my blog post about Macedonia’s phantom rail lines https://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/north-macedonias-phantom-rail-line-and-why-i-am-worried-theyre-repeating-the-error-at-the-other-end-of-the-country/ #Innotrans