For all the shit I give #Twitter (and which it deserves) for being a corporate Big Social network, I'm still saddened to see it (seemingly) collapsing due to the unparalleled hubris and ineptitude of a petty tyrant.

I did not start 2022 suspecting Twitter would be gone by the end of it. That seems likely now.

Folks in my Twitter feed are now posting about where else on the internet they can be found, and making melancholy "guess this is it" messages.

It feels not dissimilar to watching a building burn from the safety of the sidewalk. "Damn," we say as the flames punch through the roof. We wince as a timber cracks: "Shit, it really is going down."

This guide by @Justin Pot is an excellent introduction to Mastodon and the Fediverse, and it contains additional relevant links at the end.

If you're #NewHere and still looking for your 101-level guidance, I recommend this article and the supplementary resources it links to!

#MastodonTips #MastoTips #FediTips

How to Get Started on Mastodon

Interested in trying the social network everyone's flocking to? Here's what you need to know to find your way around and build community.

^{Justin Pot (WIRED)}

The birdsite is rapidly devolving into Bootlicker Central. So many people uncritically parroting capitalist propaganda, like that labor laws are standing in the way of True Innovators like Musk. 🤮

It's really depressing.

I might get another chance to play Wanderhome this weekend and I'm very excited about that.

#TTRPG #RolePlayingGames #RolePlaying #RPG #RPGs

As I've watched more James Hoffmann videos, I've wanted to develop my currently-nonexistent palate for #coffee. I nabbed this bottle of Stumptown #ColdBrew from a bargain grocery store yesterday, and whaddya know, I actually really liked it!

It had a really bright, fruity flavor without too much bitterness or acidity. I stirred a bit of cream and sugar into the mug, but honestly, it was pleasant enough straight out of the bottle that I could have drank it all that way.

Of course, there's no information on the bottle about the origin of the coffee, so I can't learn much in that regard. But hey, here's to actually tasting coffee!

Tonight's cocktail: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).

A sake-based fizz using sake from a local brewery, elderflower liqueur, and a homemade butterfly pea flower and lemongrass liqueur.

I spent all day painting rooms—the baby is two months away, it's time to Turbo Nest™—and the entire upstairs of my house is in disarray. I was trying to think of something to do to occupy my time this evening... well, why not mix something?

#alcohol #cocktail #cocktails #mixology

"I was told this was a Twitter replacement; how was I supposed to know there'd be a culture?"

Corporate social media have commodified human interaction so much that we don't even see community online.

If you joined a new soccer league, you'd expect that there would be a period of getting to know people. You could probably anticipate that the group would have its quirks and ways of doing things, and that you'd feel like an outsider for a while until you got it figured out.

If you moved to a new city, even if you knew some people there, adapting to their social circles would not be an instantaneous process. Human relationships don't work that way. Socializing takes time; it's an organic process.

Why would online communities be any different?

Big Social doesn't care about the people in its communities, only the Content they create and engage with. But that's an aberration.

Before I left for work this morning, I added the directory of my in-progress Hugo site to Syncthing so I could access it on my work computer. I'm glad I did. After my morning clients were done, I had a bit of a breather, and I was able to fiddle with CSS a bit.

Started adding some neutral defaults to the base CSS for my theme. I have a more opinionated theme in mind right now, but I like the idea of having a basic fallback that's stylish enough.

#theWorkshop

It's a sunny autumn morning here. When I first stepped outside, there was frost on the leaves.

I want to share with you one of my favorite albums on days like this: Yasmin Williams' Urban Driftwood. It's optimistic, sunny fingerstyle acoustic guitar and I just never tire of it.

What #music are you #ListeningTo today?

Urban Driftwood, by Yasmin Williams

10 track album

^{Yasmin Williams}

I am a little disheartened to see that the influx of Twitter users has, somewhat predictably, brought some who care nothing for this space or its norms, and want nothing more than another dopamine/adrenaline dispenser. That, I fear, is the biggest threat to what makes this space special: that stubborn attitude, plus moderators who won't challenge it.

But then I recall that I can just block, ignore, or defederate from the Outrage Users and Outrage Hubs, and that's pretty neat.

"Musk has accidentally created a public hearing on his reputational and professional worth, where we now will see if he is a great CEO or a rich guy who kept winning until he didn’t. The public will now watch and judge him in real time as he makes the decisions that most CEOs get to make behind closed doors, in part because he can’t help but announce them personally. He cannot post less, because it will show a lack of attachment to the massive purchase he made, and if he posts more, he will be subject to the hyper-attention that made him famous.

"Musk will be judged in a public, embarrassing way, and he has paid for the privilege. He lacks the temperament to deal with even the lightest of ribbing, yet he has guaranteed that’s all he will hear for a long, long time."

Give me more of this #ElonMusk schadenfreude. Serve it up to me in a big bowl and I will gobble it down. Om nom nom.

If only egotists who've been enabled their whole lives didn't tend to burn down the world around them when confronted with their folly.

Musk's Kobayashi Maru

Elon Musk has had a difficult weekend following a difficult week, with all difficulties a direct result of his actions, a continual flywheel of actions and consequences that confuse a man with too much money and time on his hands.

^{Ed Z (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)}

This week, I'm trying to lean into the variable nature of my attention. I can continue to chide myself for having more projects than time and regret not being able to work on them all... and, if I want to make progress on any of them, it might be useful for me to simply acknowledge those automatic judgments and take the inspiration when it hits.

(I'm constantly trying to help my clients develop similar perspectives; maybe there's a little bit of "Counselor, heal thyself" going on here.)

That's how I got system emails working again here on my server yesterday. I think my next focus this week might be making progress on my website redesign. That sounds fun.

As the spouse of a local journalist and someone who considers himself fairly leftist in philosophy, I really wish leftists would be a bit more specific when they tar all journalists with the brush they use for CNN talking heads or New York Times editors.

Journalism as an institution is not above criticism, and the criticisms of these big national or international consent-manufacturers is rarely applicable to local journalists. A world without local journalists—which we're fast heading toward—is a scary one indeed.

[heads up: food]

The last time I tried using my butter keeper, I ended up with butter shot through with veins of blue mold, and it smelled an awful lot like blue cheese.

But it's the dark months and I want soft butter on my toast and scones, so we'll see if I can do better this time around.

I've been here on the Fediverse for years, but I realize I'm missing a very important niche of content.

Folks: Where can I find excellent #cats and #CatPics?

Feel free to share your own in the replies. I want to see your cats. Don't forget to add alt text if you do!

I love the new energy this #TwitterMigration is bringing. My feed has been active, exciting. I'm encountering cool new people.

I logged out of my Twitter account tonight. I've done that plenty, but this is the closest I've ever come to feeling ready to leave it behind.

I've noticed that there's a lot less drive-by snark on the Fediverse, and I really appreciate that.

The Twitter culture of reflexively responding to strangers with hostile snark is so grating. I find it grossly antisocial—if you were to do that in person, you'd be rightly considered an asshole, but it's just what we do on Twitter because... it gets engagement, I guess. People get cheered on when they make a sweet dunk, so there's an incentive to prove you can be clever and punchy by snapping at easy targets.

Here on the Fediverse, or at least in the corners I inhabit, I feel there's a bit more understanding that normal social rules don't go out the window just because we're behind screens. I value that.

[heads up: food discussion]

In the #PNW, there are two fast food chains called Taco Time. I learned this several years ago, but because I've only ever lived in the territory of the "lesser" one, the distinction felt academic.

I'm traveling this weekend through the territory of Taco Time NW, in western Washington, so I had an opportunity to try the supposed "better" Taco Time.

And it definitely is. I wandered so long in the dark. 🌮

When I read people asking, vis a vis Twitter and Mastodon, "Where are people supposed to go if they want a big built-in audience?", my heart falls a little.

I don't think the scale of Twitter is at all desirable. I don't want another Twitter, I want smaller communities, even if that means I can't broadcast my thoughts to every far corner of the internet. In fact, especially because I can't do that.