Last week was another frustration-filled one (which included what would have been my brother Tom’s 44th birthday). My To Do list is a mile long but we had already booked the trip for my son’s school break so we forged ahead. Without internet access. On Lake Pepin, in Stockholm, WI. It was a lovely long weekend of trying to get my mind off of all of the things that need doing. But now we’re back in it with ALL the stress. Everything demanding my attention all at once. At least the trees sure are pretty right now.
Five good things:
- File under flashback. Sleater-Kinney Announce No Cities To Love Reunion Album & World Tour. Looks like I know what our Valentine’s Day plans are (they’ll be playing First Ave that night).
- Been doing a lot of photo editing lately and it’s much better while listening to podcasts. 99% Invisible has become my favorite. A recent episode about the history of pinball is the best, For Amusement Only. And I found this bit, Balls of Steel: How Pinball Became Cool Again.
- Absolute insanity. 1971 Living With Neil the Lion: Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith and family, just hangin’ with their lion
- What It’s Like to Carry Your Nobel Prize through Airport Security
- Last week’s news but still good: HBO Without Cable, Coming In 2015
In the super bad news category, freaking GamerGate. I haven’t addressed this here (been tweeting about it like mad) but in case you aren’t aware here are some good pieces about the lousy situation:
“Women Are Being Driven Offline“: Feminist Anita Sarkeesian Terrorized for Critique of Video Games. And A Former FBI Agent On Why It’s So Hard to Prosecute Gamergate Trolls. And “Rape and death threats are terrorizing female gamers. Why haven’t men in tech spoken out?” The smallest glimmer of hope from the UK where a new law will throw trolls in jail for two years.
Super discouraging. In the early days of the web I had so much hope for this new medium, to bring us all together. And it did then. I still have many friends who I initially met through our blogs or flickr photo walks. But the web has also become just another avenue for humans to be shitty to one another, and a more impersonal, removed one which only makes the hate filled cowards that much bolder. I’d like to think the good outweighs the bad but situations like this are so damned overwhelming. Makes me long for my own Point of View gun, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy style.
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