Toots for jmac@masto.nyc account

Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 21:44

I love New Orleans and I am boosting “OMG snow” toots from NOLA without apology. ⚜️☃️

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 19:50

Today the cart by the library was out of coffee so I went to Dunkins and ordered a coffee at the counter instead of using the app. As I waited a neighbor came in and exclaimed about the cold, seeking my affirmation, which I provided. He said it was like Buffalo. I said it was like Chicago. “Chicago!!" he beamed. And by this time I had my coffee and said bye to everyone and left.

I hadn't done this specific kind of social grooming with a stranger in a while so that was nice, I liked that. #NYC

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 18:39

To be crystal clear, I do not plan on compromising my principles for anyone.

For me, right action would look more like saying "No, I won't do that, and here's why” than thinking “At last!" and eagerly busting out the WWII field-sabotage manuals.

I'm not ready to abandon my ideals of being an honest, dependable, and transparent person just because the world has gotten meaner. No, it's important to me to meet it by climbing a step higher, actually.

Maybe it's not for everyone! But it's for me.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 18:32

Ol' @warren will probably post an official reminder about this soon too, but in the meantime: Everything @jerry said.

Most Mastodon servers run as non-profit volunteer projects, and rely on the financial support of their users to keep the lights on. if you love your server, and you can afford to support it, please consider it. Every little bit helps.

You can often find donation information on the About page of a Mastodon server. For example: https://masto.nyc/about

https://infosec.exchange/@jerry/113867617576581382

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 18:10

I see a trending reply to this thread that advises immediately turning to deceit and sabotage, should one ever be so challenged.

That might make sense for some. I know the manual they're quoting, intended for people laboring under wartime enemy occupation. If you see your employer as your enemy, go nuts!

For me, it would be trading one compromise of my personal virtue for another. The full thread by @futurebird has more generally applicable advice and I recommend it.

https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/113866093397576803

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 15:37

I think the attitude difference between the two platforms is excellently summarized by how I saw that ubiquitous Frodo-and-Gandalf quote trending on both, with Mastodon transcribing it straight and Bluesky having Gandalf saying something cynical or sarcastic instead.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 15:33

The bifurcation of Bluesky into Twitter 2 and Mastodon into Not Twitter was very clear yesterday.

I did let myself look at Bluesky yesterday, and followed the ongoing awfulness in detail, in real time, and drenched in scornful hot-take humor, exactly as I did back on pre-Musk Twitter. On Mastodon I saw the same news, but as highlights, more sparsely, and usually after a contemplative delay. It was far calmer.

I see this as a success for both platforms, and I'm even a little relieved by it.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-21 at 14:39

I appreciate @ComicBookProgressive for my daily dose of 90-year-old Prince Valiant and Krazy Kat comix, and also because some days I need to see and be recentered by his current handle: Cynicism is Obedience.

https://mastodon.online/@ComicBookProgressive/113863499084151685

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-20 at 17:47

My own Central Park coyote story from last October: https://masto.nyc/@jmac/113365933294297235

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-20 at 17:39

In local awoo news: https://www.westsiderag.com/2025/01/20/coyotes-spotted-multiple-times-recently-in-central-park-including-in-ramble #NYC #Coyotes

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-20 at 16:57

I've been flogging the "We're independent and not beholden to billionaires!" angle of Masto.NYC for a while, and not so much the "We're not a mouthpiece for authoritarian regimes!” one, because it's hard for me to hold in my head just how many enormous social media platforms have taken overt, platform-wide hard right turns over the last few days, let alone the last year. I'll catch up eventually.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-20 at 14:56

In a backhanded way I'm actually happy about the TikTok thing, whose 24 hours of "Oh no! Look over here! Wow, now look over there!" served as a tidy reminder of how chaostocracies operate. They just want to lock their jaws into your attention, your most precious resource, and pull it out of you and whip it back and forth all day so that you feel powerless to respond to any one thing.

I don't owe them one goddamned second beyond the legal minimum needed to stay informed. Neither do you.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-20 at 14:42

I'm giving myself a task to re-read the texts that inspired me to adopt #Stoicism a few years ago, starting with “Fifty Letters of a Roman Stoic”, a recent and lively translation of Seneca's open letters—as earthy and readable as modern blog posts. https://micro.blog/books/9780226782935

A modern chaos-based government wants to grab your attention and whip it around, making you feel too exhausted and ungrounded to respond. Practicing a philosophy that lowers your emotional center of gravity is one defense.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-20 at 14:30

When contacting someone who reports to you in order to set up an unexpected conversation, and the topic of the meeting is something other than how they're in trouble, please please let them know in the first message that they're not in trouble. @elisse

https://mas.to/@elisse/113861071239289738

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-20 at 14:14

I always like to see new posts from @kernpanik, who photographs lovely details of Athens and other beautiful places in Greece. A frequent subject is the charismatic and innumerable street cats of Greek cities, whose presence and attendant culture I was delighted to discover during my visit in 2023.

https://chaos.social/@kernpanik/113856695325638241

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-19 at 15:17

I just Googled “Where does [public figure] live?" and Google returned the LLMed answer “[Public figure] is gay and lives in San Francisco."

The thing is, this kind of over-answering is very human. "Oh!! He's a gay, in San Fransciso," is precisely what my mother would chirp, if she knew this one.

And I wonder to what degree my annoyance is based on an expectation that computers only return values that adhere to my stated parameters, an expectation that non-technical people might not have.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-19 at 14:05

The number-two trending post on my server right now is a belittling scold addressed at the current wave of new Mastodon users, telling them they're using the wrong language to describe themselves.

I would like to challenge us to be a little more sympathetic and welcoming to our new digital neighbors in the days ahead!

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-19 at 13:14

I bless the Snooper Troops defenders in my mentions. I last tried to play it when I was 10 years old and my sense of taste was underdeveloped.

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-18 at 17:04

Because we didn't take the computer with us to Florida, I spent hours every day from Christmas 1983 until we returned home weeks later gazing at the lush cover art of my new copy of Spinnaker's Snooper Troops, dreaming of what the game must be like.

(It was not like the art in any appreciable way, and in fact was so awkward and difficult to play that I never came close to finishing it. Sometimes I think of streaming an attempted revisit to it…) @vga256 https://dialup.cafe/@vga256/113850061193014138

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Written by jmac on 2025-01-18 at 15:16

Whenever I see ducks and geese casually hanging out together like this I'm always struck by the size-variance within what's essentially the same kind of animal, and how different that is from any experience we have as humans. I imagine a world where, like, half of the adults you encounter are just literally twice the height of the others, and it's just how things had always been, sure whatever.

I guess if you consider dogs to be a kind of people, then we do live in that world already!

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