D&F 2/18/24

Can you believe it’s almost March?!

Got sick again with some kind of cold that my friend and his kid also have. I was hoping it was just allergies, but Zyrtec didn’t help much, so I plan to just ride things out with water and rest. Luckily my bike training plan wasn’t impacted too much, and I was able to see friends a few times this week before I felt bad.

I don’t miss the total isolation of the pandemic, but I do wish it was more of a norm to hang out outside. Fortunately, the weather is warming so sitting in the sun will be easy to do again.

I’ve also experimented this year with taking days off from drinking. I usually have a glass of wine or a beer or a whiskey every night after work, but non-alcoholic beer is a solid substitute and my body enjoys the lack of alcohol. I’m very fortunate that I can stop drinking for a few weeks with no real effect, but I know that’s a huge struggle for many friends. However you do or don’t take your alcohol, I hope you can find a healthy and supportive relationship to drinking, as I continue to look for the same.

Links

• The latest craze for the saddest people on the planet is a kind of shitty magical rationalism. While other people attempt to address climate change, or fight for the rights of the marginalized, these goobers are figuring out the kind of “get stoned and do philosophy” stuff that normal people did in high school and college. Next thing they’ll discover empathy or friendship and try to make it into some kind of new tec philosophy.
• Have you heard of or used “carbon offsetting”? The hot thing for big companies, offsetting the ecological damage of capitalism with, wait for it, more capitalism, is slowly being revealed as a crock of shit. Instead of sort-of-kind-of planting some trees, we need to massively rethink how we preserve and conserve old-growth forests and eliminate the ongoing damage of mass-production, transport, and the wealthy strip-mining the planet. Much like buying forgiveness, carbon offsetting won’t be much use at the end.
• What’s going on with cis men these days? All ages of men are diving headfirst into right wing propaganda and backwards patriarchal nonsense, but what’s the alternative? I don’t think all men can or should transition, and even though I personally think we should destroy gender roles, there’s not much chance of that happening. This article at least does a good job of talking about the current state, even if it doesn’t give much direction.
• And finally, a very nerdy and technical look at how to do CSS work. If you don’t use CSS this won’t mean anything to you, but for some of my readers who do front-end work, it’s an interesting suggestion of organizing principles.

Closing

I think I’m settling into a more monthly newsletter cadence, but maybe that will change again in the future. The winter tends to be a link and news-bereft period, so I have struggled a little to find things to share. I’ll keep reading and telling you what I’ve learned as this continues, and hopefully you’ve seen my blog, which has a monthly media diet of books and movies, and occasional blog posts about everything from cycling to travel. Until next time, if you’re in the bay try to stay dry, space cowgirls~