D&F 06/13/21

It’s clearly less of a pandemic now than it was, at least in Oakland, because Saturday marked not one, but two get-togethers (outdoors), and Sunday meant a bike ride with pals. I can’t say I’m quite used to the level of socialization that might be the standard soon, but I did successfully keep from crying or hiding in the bathroom so I’m calling it a success.

Have you been going out more lately? Eating with pals? I hope you’re able to find your level of comfort with the out of doors soon.

The adages about 100 “true friends” came from this larger study discussing circles of friendship. I’m not sure if your parents were the friends type, but my parents didn’t have many close people in their lives, but had any church acquaintances. With less folks associating with clubs and churches, I think it behooves folks 50ish and below to create stronger non-nuclear bonds with each other. The pandemic has surely been a reminder for me to keep my closest friends really close.

Lately I’ve spent a lot more time on Discord, especially since Today in Tabs added their own. Robin Sloan joined Sidechannel recently, and got overwhelmed by it, and wonders if there’s a way around that feeling. Personally, I just don’t like the entirely too large side channel community, and prefer the comparatively small spaces of Today in Tabs and Garbage Day. They both feel like my kind of internet people—a mix of media dorks and weird perverts. Both spaces take me back to the world of IRC when I was in Texas, dreaming of the world of tech I wasn’t in the right state for yet. I don’t love Discord as a platform yet, and feel like it could stand to steal more from Slack (especially threads), but it’s interesting seeing how a new platform is employed.

I may have posted about this before, but I’m still appalled at how the richest folks completely avoid contributing to society. I know it’s a common joke to talk about guillotines and such, but in my lifetime I seriously hope we can find a way to enforce these assholes paying their share of taxes and not being a criminal drain on our planet. No one should be a billionaire.

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Well, that’s it for this week’s edition, so I hope you can get outside and see some sun! I am thrilled I’m able to ride bikes around pretty much any time during the day since the Bay Area just doesn’t get very hot. It helps that I finally bought sunscreen too.

Whether you spend your weekend exploring your city or resting inside, I hope you enjoy it. It won’t be too long before we’re coming up with new excuses to escape social events again. Until then, stay safe, and stay cool, space cowgirls~

D&F 06/13/21

Links

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