@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

RufusJCooter

@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social

Mastodon, eh?
Middle-aged, cis-het white guy; my experience has been that the more we amplify the voices of those who don't fall neatly into those categories, the better. So that's what I try to do.
FYI: if I see you scolding someone for mastodonning wrong (i.e., "We don't do threads on Mastodon!" "You need to tag your b/w photos as colorless!" "This discussion of racism needs to be hidden behind a content warning!") I will block you.
also @RufusJCooter
searchable

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

RufusJCooter, to random
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

Just had the wildest dream while taking an Xmas-eve afternoon nap

there was a pop-up vinyl booth at the local Xmas village, so I was digging through the crates looking for last-minute gifts (as one does), and found a double album of Xmas standards, by Prince

bought it & ran home, put it on, it was brilliant, but also Prince, and therefore, filthy

couldn't really give that to anyone in my fam, so it was a present to me

@GrimmReality just thought you should know

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Just to balance things out, tell me an artist, that as far as you know, seems to be a decent person, as well as a great artist!

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@RickiTarr Although we don't mostly remember him as a songwriter, i feel like Fred Rogers merits a spot on this list...

stux, to random
@stux@mstdn.social avatar

Just completely redone the "collectables" component for a more optimal use :blobhappy:

I noticed that for each coin on the scene the audio file for example was loaded per coin instead of once and re-used

Also added a start of a "dark forest" that works in the same way! Now also replacing teleports and NPCs with arrays :blobcatgiggle:

https://rpg.stux.me

:gitlab:
https://stux.xyz/stux/rpg

:github:
https://github.com/mstdn/RPG

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@stux I feel like you're selling yourself short here, man - you've got the only game (AFAIK...) where you can make musk fuck off into the ocean, never to be heard from again! It's pretty gratifying!

(Game play idea: if you launch msuk into the ocean before you've collected all the coins, 2 more msuks respawn, but 2x as large...)

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

I get the impression that the same people telling me that I should be happy iPhones don't have physical SIM slots are the same people who told me I should be happy they took away the headphone jack.

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@mattblaze I think that there are a lot of people who don't understand that the logical corollary to "Shhh... Let people enjoy things" meme is, "It's okay if people dislike something that you like. Other people having thoughts & feelings that differ from yours doesn't affect your ability to think or feel as you will"

(For my own part, I've been using the same Sony MDR-7506 for the better part of 2 decades now, and I ain't about to stop...)

mattblaze, to photography
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Abandoned Store, BZ Corner, WA, 2011.

All the pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/6110374799

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@jbaggs @mattblaze I'm not sure that I agree entirely with the "no technical fix" part. Certainly, there is no technical fix for many people being insufferable - there I agree! But I do think that there are potential technical solutions to the problem of "widely-followed Mastodon users' notifications are overwhelmed by people who are, objectively, the worst."
1/

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@jbaggs @mattblaze
If you'll forgive me for indulging in a bit of anthropomorphism, It seems to me that a big part of this is that the Masto/Fedi communities are entering that awkward adolescent phase where they're working out who/what they are, and want to be.

As such, I feel like 'growing pains' are unavoidable. My hope is that the jerks don't drive all the interesting people off before we get it sorted.

Dah well. I do like that Nazis are explicitly not welcome here, so there's that.

2/2

GrimmReality, to random
@GrimmReality@beige.party avatar

FRIDAY NIGHT WORDNERD FUN: Ref-verbs

OK so the other day the inimitable and brilliant Maura Quint used Kool-Aid Man as a verb, something like "I just Kool-Aid Manned my way into the conversation."

I love - fucking LOVE - cultural refs turned into funny awkward verbs (or alternately maybe modifiers, too?) and I'm trying to think of others, but I've only come up with a couple, which I'll cite.

Leroy Jenkins - I'm pretty sure it was Jamie from The British History Podcast who referred to someone Leroy Jenkinsing into some fraught or violent circumstance (which is a bit like Kool-Aid Manning, but just consider that a coincidence).

Genesis Device - wherein I cite [ahem] MYSELF, who used it in ref to a particular football program, which is said just needed to "just be Genesis Deviced so they can start over."

I realize this is a bit deep-in-the-weeds but just if you see this and it sparks a ref you have seen, let's say, enverbed, or have so-enverbed yourself, let me know!

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@GrimmReality For another Trek neologism, I myself have used Kobayashi-maru as a verb meaning "to get out of an impossible or unwinnable situation by cheating"

(I think the first time I used that was to describe the "Fail Mary" Seahawks-Packers game some years back, e.g., "Yep, Golden Tate kobayashi-marued that one but good")

Teri_Kanefield, to random
@Teri_Kanefield@mastodon.social avatar

Here are the key highlights to the appellate ruling in the NY Manhattan gag order decision.

Specifically what that means is that the Special Counsel was removed from the order and what Trump can say regarding potential witnesses has been limited.

Specifically, the Order is affirmed to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding. The Order is also affirmed to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about—(1) counsel in the case other than the Special Counsel, (2) members of the court’s staff and counsel’s staffs, or (3) the family members of any counsel or staff member—if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staff’s work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is highly likely to result. We vacate the Order to the extent it covers speech beyond those specified categories. See 28 U.S.C. § 2106.

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@Teri_Kanefield @seanbala Quite possible!
My thought, coming as I do from the world of corp/IP law, was that it's common to start a negotiation by staking out a maximalist position, so as to avoid 'leaving money on the table' by negotiating w/ yourself

so it read to me like Smith was trying to get the broadest possible coverage for the order, knowing that he wouldn't get all he was asking for

but I don't know!

signalstation, to random
@signalstation@raggedfeathers.com avatar

Percentage-wise, the human race has an awful lot of selfish goblins for a tribal/social sorta animal.

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@signalstation Indeed, one wonders if, at some point in our past, our ancestors used to 'eat the rich' (as the kids say nowadays), and by discontinuing that practice, we have removed a critical feedback mechanism from the process of natural selection
</s, but not really...>

@SrRochardBunson

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

What is the most you're willing to pay for a bottle of alcohol/wine, if you drink?

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@RickiTarr I have a hard ceiling of US$100 / bottle - I've bent that rule a few times, but only on special occasions, few & far between

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

The most consistent bright spot in the dark swirl of US politics is the competence of the Biden Administration's progressive enforcers: people like , and , who keep demonstrating just how far a good administrator can go. Anyone can have a vision, but knowing how to execute is the difference between hot air and real change:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/23/getting-stuff-done/#praxis

1/

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@pluralistic N.B. - it looks like the first post in this thread links to your essay from Oct. 23?

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

What is a word that you had read, but after hearing it spoken aloud, you realized you were pronouncing completely wrong in your head?

Mine is pretty Embarrassing, and is just one of many!

MISLED! I'm not even sure how to type this out for it to make sense, but it was something like:

Myz-ulled

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@RickiTarr Mine was synecdoche

Thought it was pronounced "SIN-ek-douche"

GrimmReality, (edited ) to random
@GrimmReality@beige.party avatar

It is a true testament to the virtues of capitalism that a born-rich psychotic piece of shit could take over a major medium and spend an entire year on it GARISHLY fanboying, amplifying, cheerleading and canoodling with the most open, self-evident, self-advertising neo-Nazis on social media and capitalists and celebrities bend backwards over their dicks/vaginas to chalk it up as just "quirky billionaire whimsy" and will try to figure out ways to continue doing exactly that until the breathlessly stupid malevolent cunt actually dons jodhpurs and a swastika armband and tweets a selfie of himself so-attired with the text "All mudpeople must be exterminated to achieve true freedom," and even then, fucking half of them will start a weeklong conversation about what he actually MEANT by "mudpeople" and different interpretations of a swastika armband.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-actual-truth-antisemitic-post-backlash-advertisers/

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@GrimmReality "rich people are morally rudderless fucking ambulatory colostomy bags who want shit from each other"

Would you be offended if I borrow from this? Specifically, I intend to refer to the wealthy as "morally rudderless colostomy bags" from now on?

RufusJCooter, to random
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

The white zone is for loading and unloading only

Litzz11, to random
@Litzz11@mastodon.world avatar

Texas toddler shot in the head by grandpa who was cleaning his gun.

Just a "mishap," though. Nothing to worry about!

https://ktxs.com/news/nation-world/toddler-accidentally-shot-in-head-by-grandfather-during-gun-cleaning-mishap-shooting-range-maintenance-gun-violence-investigation-custody-law-enforcement-police-first-responders-doctors-hospital-health

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@LiberalEd @Litzz11 Back in the day, I was in a band w/, among other people, a gun owner

once, while recording @ home, I went downstairs to check on a cd-rom burn, and a bandmate's girlfriend asked to see Earl's (imitation) Walther PPK

(He did everything right, and made sure that the gun wasn't loaded before he let her hold it)

I came back into the room, and joking around, she was like, "Hey Rufus! Think fast!" and pointed the gun at me

Folks, I hit the deck so hard it made everybody jump

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@LiberalEd @Litzz11 That seems like... an ill-conceived training exercise?

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@LiberalEd @Litzz11 Gotcha - I'm just saying, holding a training exercise w/ real, or real-looking, guns, in a place where civilians are liable to wander in unaware, strikes me as really, really irresponsible?

I guess I get why MFers think they need a cop city, now?

RufusJCooter, to random
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@pluralistic Possibly Relevant to your Interests:

On the off-chance it doesn't show up in your feed organically, just wanted to flag for your attention these (wide-ranging, mostly civil!) conversations prompted by @solarbird 's very thoughtful blog post about the state of the Fediverse

https://mastodon.murkworks.net/@moira/111434649153740137

mariyadelano, to fediverse
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.io avatar

Important piece for all of us on the and by @moira
“If you want distributed social to be a thing, if you want not to be a hostage of the latest billionaire to buy out your platform and turn your beloved hellsite into a fascist disinformation fountain and propaganda machine, you have to care about large-account followers, because they have to want to be here too.”

https://solarbird.net/blog/2023/11/18/even-on-mastodon-people-are-a-problem/

Y’all we shouldn’t judge people for liking something popular. Or punish for success.

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@mariyadelano @moira This is a good & valuable thread as well! Having trouble keeping up on all the different threads of this conversation! (Might have to look into trying a different masto client...)

moira, to meta
@moira@mastodon.murkworks.net avatar

I was in a discussion today with @TechConnectify and @feditips about reply toxicity here, and I've tried to make all of that into a coherent post.

I want to go to with a version of this, but need to let it sit overnight and probably rewrite it. But I also think it's something anyone interested in non-corporate-controlled social media needs to think about, because a fair number of people go "influencers, fuck 'em" and that's... not how I think this needs to be understood. If you don't care about them, fine, but care about their followers who will follow them away.

Because like it or not, if you want to go against corporate-owned social media, you need these people too.

https://solarbird.net/blog/2023/11/18/even-on-mastodon-people-are-a-problem/

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@moira @TechConnectify @feditips Great post - I've been thinking about this a bunch lately, specifically, how does one recreate a "quality filter" in an algorithm-free timeline, where all toots are created equal?

My first thought is a reddit-like up/down vote system, but that feels like it would go against the 'democratic' ethos of Mastodon, so I don't know...

mattblaze, to photography
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

I've recently been posting approximately a photo a day, tagged with . My usual ethic, typical for artists, is to let my work mostly speak for itself, but I've decided to experiment with adding more commentary and descriptions of my process and intent. It risks sucking the life out of things, but I really appreciate hearing how and why work that I like was created, and maybe others do, too.

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@mattblaze @briansullivan A while back, someone asked Ta-Nehisi Coates (I think?) for advice for young writers, and he said something to the effect of, The way to be a writer is to write. What you write likely won't be very good at first, so then you work at trying to write better.

mattblaze, to photography
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Lighthouse, Chincoteague, VA, 2014

More pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/15393439037

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@mattblaze Random Cincoteague anecdote: way, way back in the day, on vacation there, while Mom was telling us about how much she loved the books about the horses there when she was younger, I found a shark's tooth on the beach

As a preteen boy at the time, I was firmly of the opinion that sharks > horses

RufusJCooter, to random
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

"this could have been an email, and also, I am being transformed into a monster"

Same, girl, same

mariyadelano, to random
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.io avatar

Technology is always a reflection of the society that invents or produces it.

For example, when my mother was trying to buy a dishwasher in Manila back in 2016, she walked around every major electronics store with no luck.

Why? Because in the Philippines, if you could afford to buy a dishwasher, you were rich enough to hire household help.

And with so many poor people who need those types of jobs, if you could afford a maid and didn’t hire one - you were viewed as a greedy, selfish jerk.

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@jeremy_list @mariyadelano Briefly played through Shenzhen on New Year's holiday - greatly regret not having spent more time there; what I saw was beautiful!

I had recently almost been murdered in Shanghai (long story! short version: misadventure @ karaoke club...) so I can't fault my travel companions for doing what they could to keep me from getting myself into trouble...

RufusJCooter,
@RufusJCooter@mstdn.social avatar

@jeremy_list @mariyadelano For those who might be curious: The song I was singing at a Karaoke bar in Shanghai, when some guy went into the kitchen, grabbed the biggest knife he could find, and came back into the dining/singing area, shouting about how he would "dissect [me] until [he] [found] my vagina"*

*Translation provided after the fact, in a cab, by my travel companions; for some reason, "Dissect" and "Vagina" are not part of Mandarin Vocabulary 101

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqUo9Zdv1YI

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • mdbf
  • everett
  • tacticalgear
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • tester
  • Youngstown
  • khanakhh
  • slotface
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • JUstTest
  • InstantRegret
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • ethstaker
  • normalnudes
  • Durango
  • cisconetworking
  • anitta
  • modclub
  • cubers
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •