alabut

alabut, 27 days ago

@tvaziri whoa, I’m so torn about Shogun continuing. On the one hand it was the best show on TV and so of course I want more, on the other they ended on such a perfect note.

Just because they’re going beyond the book doesn’t automatically mean it would be bad, like the way Game Of Thrones fumbled the final seasons. It could be a chance to extend the story in interesting new ways, like HBO did with Watchmen. I’m optimistic!

alabut, 27 days ago (edited 26 days ago)

@mathowie 100% true. In fact I just found your thread on the catch-up timeline and am responding from Phanpy! It’s so meta it hurts 🤓

I love the UX of @ivory – that’s my main daily driver and I’m a happy paying customer. But I’m constantly torn between being overwhelmed by the number of boosts and quote tweets, yet not being able to turn them off completely because of the odd gem that makes it worth it. So Phanpy is a great complimentary sidekick.

alabut, 27 days ago

@motoridersd I had Nando’s once in 2017! So many different flavor types, totally worth it.

alabut, 26 days ago

@motoridersd I didn’t know it was stateside! The one time we had it was in London and it was not accident, I planned our date night around it 🤣

alabut, 27 days ago

@marcoarment I dunno, I think it makes more sense in practice than it seems on paper. E.g I take both my phone and camera with me on photo outings - they both do the same thing in slightly different and complimentary ways.

alabut, 26 days ago

@lkanies @marcoarment I hear you, different hardware and shooting experience. But it doesn’t matter, the point stands because they’re both basically doing the same job. The vast majority of photos taken with either device come out the same and you could get away with using just one if you had to. In fact the two devices are way more similar than a Mac and an iPad if you just look at all of the different ways you can use an iPad (touch, draw, portrait or landscape, laptop mode with keyboard or handheld mode without) and yet a lot of us still prefer to have different kinds of devices doing the same thing in different ways.

alabut, 26 days ago

@lkanies @marcoarment Glad you’re happy with your camera! And I’m happy to be wrong about how it works for you. I know a vast number of people that it’s not wrong for though and so to each their own.

alabut, 26 days ago

@lkanies @marcoarment oh totally, I know exactly what you mean! The iPhone kills shadows. Everything comes out very bright and painterly, it’s such a mood killer. That’s just one example of where a camera shines.

But also that still proves the point I’m trying to make. There’s times when the iPhone’s look is great, like when you’re trying to take a quick landscape shot. Plus it shoots that look reliably almost every time. I know it’s going to come out great and in focus, not to mention it’s so easy to operate one handed that I’ll even do it while in motion on a bicycle, which is my primary social circle in real life and where I shoot like half my stuff.

Speaking of cycling, that’s how I know I’m definitely not alone with the dual phone+camera setup – there’s people with both a camera and phone on almost every single social ride I’ve gone on in the last two years. Here’s a friend with a gorgeous Hasselblad (nonsynchrofirst on IG) that I shot with my 20 year old Nikon D70:

alabut, 27 days ago

@davatron5000 oh rad, congrats. Are you working with Jina?

alabut, 27 days ago

@jake4480 I’m excited for high speed rail in CA, no matter how long it takes. It’s normal to be skeptical not just because of the timelines but because this state is the mother of all car culture. The fact that it’s happening at all is the real miracle, like if Detroit all of a sudden wanted to be a cyclist’s paradise like Amsterdam.

alabut, 26 days ago

@jake4480 it’ll get there! And if it happens in our lifetimes we’ll be too old to make those long ass drives anyway 🤣

alabut, 26 days ago

@jake4480 Same! I used to love flying but I’d rather take a train any day.

alabut, 29 days ago

@mausmalone that was great! I relate 100% to not feeling super motivated to constantly write or add to the noise.

If I can share what might help, maybe the goal isn’t to write but to read - find ways to read more from personal sites (by setting aside time like you mentioned) and then naturally that should start to kindle an urge to respond in kind. Or not. And that’s ok!

alabut, 29 days ago

@jenschuetz oof, I’m imagining some serious mayhem.

alabut, 29 days ago

@jenschuetz oh that’s true! I didn’t even think of that 🤦🏻‍♂️

We had to use belly bands when I first got my second dog because he was so anxious and not very well housetrained. He looked hilarious wearing it and even more hilarious lifting his leg for a phantom pee but we did what we had to do.

alabut, 30 days ago

@erinc super clean. Wait, is that one of those fancy multi-position chairs?

alabut, 29 days ago

@erinc @ScottE oh very cool. Something like that would help me get more mileage out of my sit/stand desk. I try to at least start meetings standing but forget all about it when deep in solo mode.

alabut, 30 days ago

@kissane ooo, that’s exactly my coffee preference too. Thanks for the rec!

If you want to mix it up with So Cal beans, my local hometown fave for dark roasts is this one:

https://birdrockcoffee.com/bird-rock-blend/

alabut, 28 days ago

@motoridersd finally started watching the new season of Hacks tonight. It’s genius! And now I’m craving coconut cake 😂

alabut, 1 month ago

@motoridersd 5 lbs! That’s quite an endorsement. I only recently heard the hype about Dark Horse from out of town friends, usually just stuck to Bird Rock or Cafe Moto until now. Nees to give it a try!

alabut, 1 month ago

@motoridersd that’s a cool origin story, love it. I lucked out with Bird Rock because I find lighter roasts to be too acidic but it’s not always easy to find a tasty dark roast that doesn’t taste burnt, plus their Liberty Station shop is a short bicycle ride away from my neighborhood.

alabut, 30 days ago

@reillypascal hey Reilly! You’re doing fine and no need to overthink it. Take it from me, I have the same approach and it works well: home page is optimized for professional content and steers direct traffic to your case studies or samples, and trust that the indie crowd will find you through RSS, Mastodon, etc.

If you want more reading into the strategy and aren’t put off by startup growth hack language, the early commercial web in the 2000’s called this The Mullet Strategy: “business up front, party in the back.” I’m pretty sure it was first coined about Digg’s advertising strategy but I can’t find a reference, this is the closest I could get:

https://simonowens.medium.com/how-medium-is-using-the-mullet-strategy-to-attract-new-users-c51f6d76e122

alabut, 29 days ago

@reillypascal @mattly I saw something that @gregorlove.com@gregorlove.com posted today in the Indieweb chat that I thought you might like, some retro ascii art for music downloads:

https://mastodon.social/@thesilenceindustry/112423290592075966

alabut, 29 days ago

@reillypascal fun! Yeah I figured the retro text would fit well with your glitch tunes vibe.

alabut, 29 days ago

@reillypascal Also if you liked that, you’ll probably also love this collaborative sci-fi project called Cosmic Voyage. It’s all text-based because it’s the web interface to an alternative protocol called Gemini, sort of like old school Gopher. Found out about it through our indieweb buddy @johanna

https://cosmic.voyage/