I would be totally fine with that tbh. Though I wonder if we’ll ever get to the place where a Mastodon client somehow incorporates an algorithmic timeline for those who want that?

I’m still Christian and I adore both bands. David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) is recording some of the most theologically rich music of his career now, back under the Pedro name, as he’s come through his whole wrestling with faith. Not sure what he considers himself these days, but it’s clear that he’s never going to shake his Christian upbringing.

Like MxPx, their inclusion of faith in their lyrics became so much more honest and less forced once they left their Christian music label. They introduced me to punk.

Amazing Grace is one of those songs that uses a particular meter that allows for these kinds of tune changes. You can sing it to the tune of House of the Rising Sun as well (among others). One of my supervising/mentoring priests (Episcopal) from when I was in seminary did a Lent study on Amazing Grace and had people listen to all these different versions.

Tracy Chapman’s version is truly excellent.

I feel like the majority of people I see quit Mastodon do so because the platform (and Federation in general) don’t coddle their egos. With no algorithm to game and ingratiate themselves on everyone’s timelines, they make a public exit and talk about how broken Mastodon is and offer their takes on what it needs to be. Which, unsurprisingly, sounds like a non-Elon-ed Twitter.

I love Mastodon. I love discovering new people and accounts by happenstance (and not spoon-feeding).

The rich live better and I’m fine enjoying their leavings.

I want this as a sticker for all my repurposed old tech. This is an excellent quote.

Also DOGE cutting the workforce that would process things like this, ensuring that people have even more trouble getting proper documentation for voting.

[insert Andy Samberg saying “cool cool cool cool cool cool…”]

One thing I want to know is: who did Waltz think he was adding? Is there another Goldberg in the administration (or a foreign one?) out there? Or is his name right under Gabbard’s in the contacts list?

This makes me wonder if this was part of a ploy to let the public know how messed up things are in a “blink twice if you need help” kind of way. Or did Waltz feel these people are undeserving of their cabinet appointments and so managed to lift the veil so we can all see it? Is he mad that he wasn’t considered for the Secretary of Defense position? Is this his way of being Jim from The Office and looking into the camera?

The security approach was what first drew me to Apple back in like 2005. The whole focus on proprietary software that resulted in practically zero malware was definitely worth me having to do file-type conversions on documents and all that crap to keep up with people on Windows. And I loved it. And I kept adding every device and loving how seamless they all interact with each other.

But then there’s that shadow side you refer to. The gradual dumbing down of software, the constant hand-holding. The walled garden began to feel like a lock-in.

My last new Mac purchase was in 2011. I still use that machine. But I was not getting security updates and other things I use were leaving me behind so I decided to give Linux a try. Chose Ubuntu and the hardware was suddenly like new again. Apple makes beautiful machines but waste them on some increasingly basic software. My Linux-run Macs have made me fall in love with computers all over again.

If this somehow results in me being able to run like Graphene on my iPhone in a few years, or even connect my Apple Watch to a non-Apple phone, I will be pretty excited.

Always trust Wesley Snipes. Always.

Someone accidentally left the TV on Canadian Bacon and he caught a few minutes of it before he went to speak with reporters.

And Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive Republican that opposed trusts and the imbalanced influence of money in politics (but the changes began to happen during his time, which is why he left the party altogether). There was a time when “Republican” just referred to the kind of governmental structure one supported (just like “democrat”), with a range of economic and social views. That’s actually what the “grand” in Grand Old Party (GOP) referred to iirc—it was a party big enough handle a range views and ideas. AND, again iirc, the whole push for republican governmental ideas by said party was to find a way around the stranglehold of slavery in American economics. Representative government could make decisions that the populace might not support because it was the morally correct thing to do (which is also why the concept of electors was advanced by Hamilton, incidentally: as a safe-guard against tyranny—electors could look at an elected candidate and say “nah” because that person was actually likely to work against the interests of the United States).

How the mighty have fallen.

I have four kids and I took ~6 weeks of paternity leave for each of them (which was in my contract—I’m an Episcopal priest, though I still went in on Sundays because I was going to go to church regardless so I might as well lead services and save the parish money on paying what we call a “supply priest”). It’s absolutely worth it and don’t let anyone make you feel weird about it. You’re doing a great thing for your partner and child—as well as yourself. Babies are a lot of work for dads as well! Acting like dads don’t need paternity leave is a form of patriarchy.

I’d not considered this before. Damn.

I switched over to LibreWolf recently. I discovered Vivaldi just a few hours before I learned about the Manifest v3 stuff for Chromium (which is a shame because I actually LOVED Vivaldi). I really want to try Zen Browser, but I’m using old, 2011-era Macs (running Ubuntu 24.04 on one) and it won’t install. LibreWolf is great because of its clean, minimal design and absolute privacy-forward thinking. I’ve enjoyed it so far (and I’m only running it on the Ubuntu machine).

The Ice Cubes app for Mastodon has a trending function, but it’s based solely on aggregating boosts and favorites (from what I can tell). The Impressia app for Pixelfed has this as well, but it offers the options to see trending posts or tags, etc. (I’ve found Impressia to be way better than the Pixelfed app on iOS, tbh).