esther

@esther@strangeobject.space

:antifa: :Blobhaj_Witch: #queer #goth lady, lots of #tattoos, some custom body parts, #neuroSpicy, #photography, #art, #writing, #witch, former #tech worker, #psychology student, #antiFascism, #antiCapitalism

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esther, to random

I sometimes hear people make fun of the fact that Berlin has a huge empty field right in its core area where Tempelhof airport used to operate which is now a public park and left almost entirely unchanged, runways and all.

They talk about it as if it's an example of the city's inability to do something "useful" with this land. And what they mean is build stuff on it.

But just the way it is, it is hugely popular among the people of Berlin, it's a unique space where the sheer size of it enables anyone to basically do whatever without annoying anyone else. Even at peak times like Saturday afternoon, it still doesn't feel crowded and the further away from the edges you go the emptier it gets.

It refuses any commercial "usefulness" and instead gives people space to use how they see fit. It's absolutely beautiful.

esther, to random

In the ridiculous timeline that we live in, you’ll have to jailbreak your bicycle because a startup fell over https://mastodon.notsobig.co/@phill/110701490478043590

Capitalism delivering the best possible solutions once more!

esther, (edited ) to random

"Today, we received a message from Reddit that our mod team will be replaced if we do not open up the subreddit immediately."

So, Reddit is now threatening mods directly. Wow. https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/14bddtg/statement_from_the_moderators/

esther, to random

Reminder that you should absolutely never use the website called “sci-hub dot st” to get free access to research papers instead of feeding the greed of for-profit publishers.

That’s basically communism, which is of course illegal. 👩🏻‍🏫

esther, to writing

If you actually want people to read long-form stuff you write, don’t put it on Medium. Just don’t.

There’s a whole bunch of alternatives, like these WriteFreely instances that are part of the Fediverse (the network that Mastodon also in a part of)

https://writefreely.org/instances

There’s also WordPress.com which has a pretty good free tier. https://wordpress.com/

There’s GitHub Pages which works pretty well too, if you don’t mind a little technical involvement. https://docs.github.com/en/pages/quickstart

There’s tons of affordable paid providers too. You get a lot for the cost of one bubble tea per month.

And of course there’s the option to run your own site, which is probably easier and cheaper than you think. It’s worth giving it some thought.

But whatever you do: definitely keep a copy of your writing in a place you control, even if it’s just a bunch of text files. You never known when or for what you’ll need it.

#Writing

esther, to random

“What’s your solution then?” Is one of those lazy rhetorical tricks to discredit any criticism of a complex problem.

Like, no, I will not come up with an easy solution to capitalism over a couple of social media posts. But expecting that any anti-capitalist must have a ready-to-use solution to everything they criticize is just a convenient method to shut down that criticism and cement capitalism and “inevitable” or even “natural”, to make even the idea of a different system seem impossible and not worth thinking about.

esther, to random

Happy , everyone!

In Mai 8th in 1945 the Allies of World War 2 accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender. It marks the end of WW2 in Europe and the Nazi regime with it.

Let’s make sure we don’t need another one, anywhere, ever. That work certainly didn’t end back then and is far from done today.

Old shaky black and white film footage of a German nazi building with a swastika on top, the swastika gets blown to pieces in an explosion

esther, to random

“Activists please stop organizing only on Instagram and Facebook” challenge 2023 … 😒

esther, to random

Here’s a prediction: there will not be “the next Twitter”. The era of the one place where “everyone” is has ended. (And it has never been “everyone”, just everyone who the people already there thought was relevant).

Under capitalism this model of the one place was always doomed to fail. It just lasted for an unusually long time due to lucky coincidences. Any further capital-driven attempts will fail much faster because more people can recognize the cracks earlier now.

Community-driven social networks will always have fragmentation and more friction, regardless of how many features and affordances are built. There’s always going to be social fault lines along different needs and priorities of different groups. This is inherently human and incompatible with a singular shared space that hosts “everyone”.

esther, to random

Ok, fuck it. I'll do a full today.

I opted for Barbie first and Oppenheimer second because I'm pretty sure that the former will be good and put me on an emotional high and then if the latter sucks it'll be fine. The other way around a bad first movie might ruin the second for me.

esther, (edited ) to random

If you had the time, ability and resources and got really into woodworking, would you build a …

esther, to random

Does anyone else have his problem: in email clients, when you have an email open and delete it, almost all mail applications immediately switch to the next email in whatever folder you're in, marking it as "read", even if you didn't intend to read that email right now but then it's marked as "read" so you forget about it.

Please tell me I'm not alone in this.

esther, to random

It's May 1st, Labor Day in many places.

A good day to remember that your employer is not your friend and your interests are almost certainly not aligned. They will drop you as soon as your cost exceeds the profit you generate for them.

Yes, even if you have a "cushy" job right now. That only means that your cost-profit ratio right now is in your favour but that can change very fast. It also serves capitalists to make you think you're different/better than other workers so you don't feel solidarity with them.

(and please don't tell me how your company is the exception, it probably isn't anyway)

esther, (edited ) to random

How many unread emails do you have?

esther, to random

I don’t need a PC and I don’t want a PC, but it’s been 17 years since I last built one and I’m curious what that landscape looks like today. So I’ll spend some time with a configuration today, for giggles :)

esther, (edited ) to random

How do you pick and arrange the music you're listing to primarily?

(regardless of the format. Streaming, CDs, Vinyl, etc, doesn't matter)

esther, to random

“ActivityPub is an open technology so it’s fine if Facebook uses it” is a nonsensical take.

“Houses” are also an open technology but it’s very much not ok how landlords and other capitalists use it.

If you believe open standards and open source alone will protect you from the destructive force of capital, then you’re in for a harsh awakening. Or you could listen to all the people who have been harmed by or studied these mechanisms in the past already and learn something before it’s too late.

esther, to random

“Demand drives up price” is such a ridiculous and hostile concept really (and also a lie), but we so often take it as some sort of universal truth.

An economy that serves the people would recognize high demand as an imperative to lower cost, and increase access, not as a chance to extract profit.

Demand doesn’t drive up prices, greed does.

esther, to random

As a Neo-Luddite who knows quite a lot about modern technology, "ambient computing" is one of the most horrifying ideas in tech over recent years.

I sure don't want buggy, corporate owned, oppressive bullshit disembodied all around myself like some vague malicious miasma.

I prefer my technology in a form where I can smash it to pieces if needed, thank you very much.

esther, to random

I’m annoyed that English doesn’t really have a direct equivalent to the German phrase “Viel Erfolg” (literally: “much success”). Sure there’s “Godspeed” but that has an obvious Christian religious leaning and can also be synonymous to “good fortune”, placing the agency for the success in external factors like luck, destiny or a divine influence, while “Viel Erfolg” focuses agency on the receiving person.

I only speak English and German so if you know of other languages with a phrase like this and how they’re commonly used, I’m very much interested.

(In Star Trek the Klingon language has a direct equivalent in “Qapla’!” and I always liked how they pretty much use it in place of “goodbye”. I like how it communicates a kind of unconditional optimism.)

esther, to random

I still haven't found the right water bottle. I don't know why I'm being so picky about it either. The result is just that I don't have a water bottle at all.

Putting perfect before good here really. Thanks, brain.

This is more of a vent that anything else but hey, if you know now that fits these criteria, let me know:

  • made of metal
  • no complicated straw/spout mechanism that needs constant cleaning (Berlin water is very hard and creates calcification quickly)
  • red
  • 0.5 liters
  • a way to hook it to something, wither at the cap or the body

Bonus points for:

  • ability to open and close with one hand
  • customisable, e.g. with engraving
esther, to random

New ! Which movie is this from?

esther, to photography

That crow I recently had a little photo session with 🖤

(Also my first finished medium format photos)

Same crow, with a little splash of water on the ground, shot is at a dutch angle, slightly slanted to the left

esther, to random

“Contusion of the metacarpus” is such a fancy way of saying “my hand is fucked for a few days”

I’m fine. But I have to rest my left hand for a while. No cycling, no video games, no extensive typing and no printmaking. So, that doesn’t leave much of my usual activities :/

esther, to photography

While writing this post earlier today I noticed again how much modern phones mess with images in order to compensate for the physical limitations of their cameras. https://strangeobject.space/@esther/110458757289951800

Here's an example shot of the exact same subject in the same light shot with an iPhone 13 mini and an O-MD E-M10mk3 (a micro-four-thirds camera, nothing too fancy).

Both are just like the come out of the camera with no processing other than scaling them to the same size and adjusting exposure for consistency.

You can see how the iPhone emphasises edges to make the image appear sharper but in doing s distorts the edges turning them into slightly squiggly lines. Look closely at the letters and straight lines on the battery.

If you ever wondered why phone photos often look a bit "off" or uncanny, this is a big part of why.

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