I'd love to find some of my fellow Unitarian Universalists here on the Fediverse. Holler if that's you!
Boosts welcome!
#BoardGames Dilemma: I want to play Arcs (the base game), but I am currently two games into a Blighted Reach campaign and don't know when we'll ever be able to finish Game 3
lord grant me the confidence of this person who is so dedicated to their dream of creating custom card sleeves from scratch for their playgroup that they're brushing off the costs of heavy industrial machinery
they didn't need a professional printer to start printing posters, so obviously they should be able to make sleeves with amateur equipment too!
Molly Conger's podcast on the alt-right, Weird Little Guys, has been excellent from its very first episode in 2024, but her work this year has been truly next-level. She spent the first three months of the year diving into unexplored corners of Nazi serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin's killing spree to prove that "there are no lone wolves", doing some truly exceptional reporting to reconstruct the killer's social context.
The linked episode is not about Watson, but is instead a deeply poignant audio essay written the week of Renee Good's murder.
Cops & Klan Weird Little Guys | iHeart
In 1965, a car full of klansmen shot and killed Viola Liuzzo, a white woman from Detroit who volunteered to drive civil rights activists back to Selma after the...Weird Little Guys (iHeart)
This NYT recipe for a crispy tofu sandwich is a winner in my book. Plant-based meals that are sloppy and indulgent are rarer than they oughta be, and this scratches that itch.
Superiority Burger’s Crispy Fried Tofu Sandwich Recipe • 4★
Ranging from silken and creamy to firm and chewy, tofu comes in many forms and is prized around the world for its versatility. In this recipe, which is adapted from the “Superiority Burger Cookbook” (W.Alexa Weibel (NYT Cooking)
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Opposed to using AI for her software-engineering job, Erin Maus secured something of a miracle from her employer: a religious exemption.Maus, a Unitarian Universalist, said she proposed the special treatment in April, citing environmental and ethical objections to AI that don't align with her religious beliefs. She also said she consulted an employment lawyer and her local chapter's minister to help make her case.
Love seeing Unitarian Universalists pushing back against anti-human, environmentally destructive forces!
I wish our justice system would recognize that deeply held convictions need not be religious in nature; and also, if anyone is going to meet that challenge by stretching the definition of "religious", it's the UUs.
#unitarianuniversalism #UnitarianUniversalist
She won an exemption from using AI at her tech job. The Pope's remarks could fuel similar appeals.
Legal experts say employers must take AI-related religious objections seriously, as a 2023 ruling raised the bar for denying such accommodations.Sarah E. Needleman (Business Insider)
On the one hand, I appreciate the neighbors-looking-out-for-neighbors aspect of a woman who, upon seeing me pick up a Buy Nothing gift from a neighbor's porch, opened her window to ask, "Is that yours?"
On the other, it is rather annoying that something as simple and neighborly as picking up a gift from a couple doors down is regarded with suspicion.
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Just exited Pentacle Theatre's "The Lost Virginity Tour" in #SalemOR.
This was the worst show I've seen at Pentacle, and just barely avoids being the worst show I've seen in Salem. (That honor belongs to APE by Dano Madden, a convoluted Guy-In-Your-MFA ego trip of a play in which the obvious playwright-insert character, who is a playwright, receives a heartfelt apology from his wife after she has a miscarriage.)
Again, I'm struck with the thought that this could make for excellent storytelling! All it would take would be an author who is willing to be slightly critical of the suburban wine mom fantasy. Because there is something to be said about how the women's sorority gives them a feeling of empowerment and belonging even while they are actively making choices to retreat from the uncomfortable business of living in community.
But that's not what "Lost Virginity Tour" does. It has nary a whiff of critical awareness. There are no consequences. And as a result, it reads as an earnest celebration of these characters' selfishness. As far as the script is concerned, every choice they make is the right one.
I am inspired
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totally -- this weekend is pretty open for me? next weekend is a little fuzzier but also open...
Revenge of The Business Idiot
If you liked this piece, you should subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter that’s usually anywhere from 5,000 to 18,000 words, including vast, detailed analyses of NVIDIA, Anthrop…Ed Zitron (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)
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The Business Idiots have successfully changed our experience of buying and using software from one of “paying for a service” to “accessing powerful technology”…
Someone could write a killer fantasy allegory about how a cabal of mages convinced the populace that magic could only be used in prescribed ways—the mages' ways.
rather taken aback by the business acumen of the twelve-year-old who just rang my doorbell offering a car wash
he:
- tailored his pitch to the car in my driveway
- told me he was offering a discounted rate
- gave me a business card with QR code for scheduling
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The sun is shining and I'm daydreaming of a portable solar charging station.
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Exciting developments in the #SelfHosting front: I've set up a Pangolin instance on a cheap VPS and am starting to configure it to point to my services! My vision for this server is starting to actually come to fruition.
Of course, with steps forward come new challenges: for some of the services that I access via apps on my phone (Navidrome, Wallabag, etc.), I need to figure out how to properly configure things so that the apps don't bounce off the Pangolin authentication layer. 🤔
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Ah, phooey, my attempt at #fermenting pine needle soda doesn't seem to have panned out. After 5 days of primary fermentation, there's no pine flavor, just slightly sweet, slightly fizzy water with a yeasty funk.
Oh gosh darn it, it probably has to do with trying to ferment in a kitchen that gets a lot of daylight. Even if the bottles haven't been in direct sun.
Anyone have good reliable resources for making your own fountain pen ink? Ideally, I'd love to make my own black ink that is acid-free, from widely available plant or organic materials.
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Thank you, this is great information. I've considered keeping a dip pen or two around anyway, so this is good encouragement to do so.
Curious, for those who have successfully started a #hackerspace, #repaircafe, #techcoop, or some other collaborative community space dedicated to technology:
What sorts of local partnerships did you look for when organizing?
I'm interested in building this kind of space, and I'm trying to brainstorm what local groups I might be able to join forces with. A local ham radio club, a mutual aid network, and a punk space are on my list. If you have other inventive ideas, I'm all ears!
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Hi, I am one of the founder organisers of the Rugby and Coventry Repair Cafes and I now run them both.
Happy to chat or I can just send you the notes I've made.
Where are you based?
Martin
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Hi there, Martin! I'd love your notes; I'm currently very early in the ideating stages—this is barely more than a pipe dream—so I don't quite feel committed enough to trouble you for a chat.
I'm located in the US, in the state of Oregon.
The nukadoko is starting to smell active and I just filled three swing-tops of booch for secondary ferment. It's a good fermentation day.
Does anyone have a #selfhosted service they find useful for, like, coordinating neighborhood groups?
My wife and I host a neighborly potluck every few weeks, and I'd love to have a way to keep in touch with our neighbors, coordinate events, and chat in a space that's not a bunch of different group texts. I'm watching @Bonfire's work on federated groups closely, and suspect their "Community" flavor may be precisely what I'm looking for when it's ready, but I'm also curious if there are other offerings in this space.
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I'm looking for the same kind of services. Thanks for pointing to @Bonfire as I was not aware of that.
In my case, I'm actually less interested in self-hosting (although I certainly could). I'm really looking for a hosted service that could provide the kind of services you mention.
And I'd be fine to even pay some basic amount. (I would pay for a server to self-host anyway.) My issue is that services where I could do this before have started charging a LOT or drowning things in ads.
Have you seen Mobilizon? I like it but I have yet to convince any of my groups to try it out
In the spirit of #MayDay tomorrow, what are your favorite songs of labor, protest, resistance, or rebellion?
Has anyone in western #Oregon (the Willamette Valley, #SalemOR, #EugeneOregon, or similar) successfully built and used a solar food dehydrator? I'm considering it, but all the guides I read caution that for effective dehydration, you want pretty hot ambient air temperatures. Our summers are definitely not as mild as they were when I was a kid, but I'm curious to hear if our climate is amenable to solar dehydration or if it's a doomed endeavor.
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surely, we will be able to make up 5 runs in (checks notes) a single inning
lunch today: sloppy chorizo-potato tacos. cheddar griddled onto corn tortillas, a spread of chipotle mayo, the soyrizo-potato blend, red onions, more cheddar, cilantro.
yummmmm.
I came home right as Muñoz began pitching and the score was 6-2 Mariners. It looked like they were an easy 3 outs from victory.
THIS DAMN TEAM. 😫
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I'll be sharing this to the Little Pixel Library once I get it up on my website, but I finished this today and am excited to share.
There was a website that held a library of common elements of modern UI/web app design, assessed for their attentional harm or addictive qualities. I don't remember if it had these exact items, but you would find things like "infinite scroll" and "notification badges" on there, along with research and recommended best practices.
Does anyone know what it is I'm thinking of?
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I learned last night that you can make I Can't Believe It's Not Umeboshi from apricots, and this is going on my projects list for this year next to starting a nukadoko bed.
#pickling #fermentation #fermenting #japanesefood
Homemade “Umeboshi” Apricots!? This Easy Hack Tastes Just Like the Real Thing
No Japanese ume? No problem. Here's how to recreate that classic umeboshi flavor with apricots you can find anywhere.Hav...…Japanmcconnell
#3GoodThings from today:
1. Walking around Queen Anne and listening to the birds singing. I stopped a couple times just to watch a nearby songbird, including one tiny friend who had made a nest out of moss in a tree. I would have walked right past.
2. Listening, on the radio, to the #Mariners taking Houston to town as we drove back down the I-5 corridor.
3. Friends who graciously took our request for help and made us dinner so that when we arrived back home, we didn't have to strain to fit cooking in the evening's schedule.
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Bonuses:
4. Spotting two barred owls in our friends' backyard trees
5. Meeting all sorts of interesting tropical birds at the Woodland Park Zoo
Very birb.
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Current by @tg is such a pleasant, calm-looking piece of software. How I wish someone would make a similarly considerate #selfhosted RSS reader.
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I'm so sorry, #Mariners fans, the last game I came up to Seattle to see was disappointing too. Maybe I'm the problem.
I just learned of Disroot (@disroot@nixnet.social).
What a cool project. I hope I can one day set up a local cloud co-op doing something similar.
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Does anyone have a system or method for managing digital calendars, some shared, in a way that doesn't, like, make you want to scream?
My wife and I each have our own Google Calendars. I'm trying to use my Nextcloud calendar more as the default. We also have a shared joint calendar for family activities... where I also sometimes schedule my own stuff just for visibility. We have a calendar for my daughter's school, and I have one for my work, which affects my busy/not busy status.
It all feels so crazy-making and disorganized. I want simplicity and organization. And, like, I know there's sense to be made out there, but I've been living with this hodgepodge system forever and I could use some light from the outside to help me reorient and find a better method.
I like a shared calendar where you invite the relevant people to individual events so it also shows on their personal calendars. Unfortunately my attempts to do this across heterogenous calendar platforms have been unsuccessful, so I continue to use Google for calendaring (to match everyone else) even as I use Fastmail for email.
This entry was edited (Friday, April 3, 2026, 11:51 PM)
AI companies have got some Tommy Shriggly-ass accounting
opening the window and hollering "good morning!" at a passing friend and his kid like I'm in the opening scene in a musical
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I kinda want to try switching from Nginx Proxy Manager to Caddy, but the last time I tried to use Caddy as my reverse proxy, I could not get Nextcloud-AIO to properly set up.
Of course I can't just let "good enough" lie...
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Went out and pruned the blueberries in the sun while the Goblin napped. I'm about a month late here; March (and especially the last week) have been so sunny, the bushes have not only budded, but even started putting on leaves and a couple flowers. These bushes both need a more aggressive pruning than I gave them today—their tallest branches are as tall as me—but since they already have leaves, I didn't want to cut them back so far that they struggled.
It's been two years since we got a good harvest; last year, we both transplanted them and pruned them, so they were too shocked to put on any fruit in their new home. Next year, I'll have to catch them earlier so I can prune them back further.
Having blueberries in our yard is such a blessing.
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It's so weird how when I try to navigate to the page in my ISP's customer portal where I can review the contracts we've agreed to, that page consistently gives me a "We're having trouble connecting to My Account" error.
How coincidentally weird, Xfinity! How strange!
Here's what I hate: this could very well be a coincidence. I admit it. But in the year of our lord 2026, when we know companies employ dark patterns to manipulate user behavior, it is entirely possible that Xfinity has deliberately engineered this behavior to force customers to call customer service and interface with an agent.
And calling the ISP just directs me into a "conversation" with an LLM with artificially generated speech
I hate every moment of this
#3GoodThings from today:
1. Today's service at my UU congregation, both the sermon itself (a meditation on the poetry of Mary Oliver) and the richness of being in a community with so many people.
2. The Goblin's coy smile when she was blinking the nap from her eyes and spotted me watching her.
3. Actually remembering to mount my drive after dismounting and fscking it. I always forget this step, then I reboot and things are unsurprisingly broken.
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It was just this weekend that I read Cal Newport's advice in Digital Minimalism to schedule yourself "office hours" when you're open to drop-in conversations with friends. A day later, I saw not one but two folks who had their own office (or "un-office") hours listed on their personal webpages.
Well, I guess the universe was tryna send me a message, so I put a couple office hour blocks on my calendar this week and just got off the phone with a good friend. Turns out, talking to someone for an hour is a much nicer diversion than YouTube shit when washing the dishes and putting the house to bed.
Spencer
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