Der Läufer

During the course of composing my last few posts I was circling around the idea of being creative enough to think of less shitty outcomes to our current social and political predicament. I speak here in terms of the States specifically by also somewhat generally for a good number of

Following quick on the heals of my last post, we got a report from our exchange student that someone she knows was indicating they expect to perish next year in the coming civil war. Granted this is a high school student spouting off in a lunch room, but it does

Pessimism is very much in vogue these days. There are elections across the globe this year that each herald significant import around idea and functioning democratic governance. This coming year also promises to be the warmest in recorded human history. War in the Ukraine and Israel grind on and may

Today is the last day of November. As I was driving home this evening I saw that our neighbors had left their various decorative Thanksgiving (and maybe Halloween) pumpkins on the corner of their driveway. Cherished and celebrated items days and weeks ago now sitting out as trash, destined for

I think you hit the nail on the head here, Bryan: these are all business decisions. And we as users/customers aren’t entitled to anything other than what is on offer. If you didn’t finance the movie, if you didn’t commission or build the platform, then you

My brother and I have this ongoing discussion about his media collection. He is fond of possessing and outright owning physical media that he can play locally on technology that, again, he owns and maintains. I understand this position, but I don’t entirely subscribe to it. There are advantages

Over the long weekend I had the opportunity to take in a second viewing of Ad Astra (2019) starring Brad Pitt. I saw it in the theater when it originally came out, but I don’t think I was in the right headspace to properly consider it then. When I

Yesterday my sister-in-law had something curious happen to her. She was in her office building alone with a client. The client was in the waiting area by the main entrance, and Sis was in her office. These two spaces are connected by a single, uninterrupted hallway. Between the two points

Bryan, you asked at the end of your last post for an analogy to help contextualize the advent of AI. You wondered about a member of religious sect, whose teachings prohibit the use of automobiles, perhaps opting to use one in service to a noble purpose. That is a curious

This past weekend we hosted a murder mystery party. The theme was that of a posh eighteenth-century masquerade. Guests arrived in costume themed to the period and each with their own mask tied to the identity of the character they were playing, ranging from the Countess to Bluebird, Dove, Lion,