@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

zakalwe

@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com

Culture Special Circumstances, detached.

pp desc for vision impaired: The N7 (Systems Alliance Special Forces) Seal from the Mass Effect games.

Neuro-spicy. Aspie pretending (sometimes badly) to be human (at least, it often feels that way) while fighting depression and chronic insomnia. Aspiring mostly-SF writer, burned-out IT geek, humanist who wants to see us make at least a token effort to stop enshittifying our entire planet. Is there really anything so incredibly, soul-threateningly terrible about the idea of giving a shit about other people?

Something I said pissed you off? It may be a misunderstanding, I'm far from immune to foot-in-mouth disease. Please check with me before you assume it was malicious. It most likely wasn't. If I don't think you're someone worth talking to, I just won't talk to you in the first place, period.

Follow-backs: If you have something to say, sure. No posts? Nothing to say? What would be the point? In the words of @PatternChaser, "I don't follow back, I follow interesting." I'm trying to keep the signal-to-noise ratio in my feed high. Still, if you follow me and I see it, I will do my best to at least find time to look. I can't guarantee I won't miss it, I'm not awake 24/7.
(And sorry, but don't expect me to follow you if you're posting the same dozen posts, day in, day out, day after day after week after month. In fact I'll most likely mute you.)

Came here to put words into my mouth so you could attack me over something I didn't say? (Yeah, sadly, it's happened.) Just don't. I WILL block your ass. Nobody has time for that shit.

Geek Stuff: I run Gentoo Linux, and I maintain a personal overlay with packages for dev-perl/Tk-MListbox, sys-apps/procmeter3, net-misc/icbm, media-sound/perljammer, app-crypt/sherpa, and app-editors/xnedit. Of those, net-misc/icbm and media-sound/perljammer are my own projects.

#nobot #writer #geek #linux #mysql #Gentoo #nosystemd #science

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

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Truly and honestly, I have a great time here, because you all make it great. You boost, you reply, you encourage, and inspire! It is crazy to me that I get to talk to people from all over the world every day. I get to be friends with people I'll probably never actually get to physically meet. I was born into a pre-internet world, and this still feels a little like a miracle to me.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr @Uair It is pretty much a blast from the past. I knew a few people with five-digit IDs. But I don't think any of the people I hung out around at the time actually used it much.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Thebratdragon @Uair @RickiTarr I have LOTS of IRC (and ICB) friends. I talk every day with people on both services that I've been hanging out with for thirty years now. Many, I've met face-to-face at least once as well, but by no means all.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

When you read Librarian Erotica and think it's real life:

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr Fox should be required to run a continuous scrolling chiron that reads "PARODY — FOR ENTERTAINMENT ONLY"

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

If you're interested in understanding what's wrong with corporations right now, what's driving our global capitalist omnishambles? This is an amazingly insightful (if long, and entertainment-industry focussed) deep dive into the madness of modern management theories:

https://docseuss.medium.com/the-biggest-threat-facing-your-team-whether-youre-a-game-developer-or-a-tech-founder-or-a-ceo-is-8cd1ad359508

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@cstross This reiterates, with much more detail, things I've been saying for years: That Ivy League business schools and their MBA programs are directly and actively harmful both to business and, in fact, to the entire world. They do not teach how to manage, they teach how to mismanage, because they are based upon theories of "success" that are utterly and completely divorced from the realities of what actually makes a business successful — producing something that people want, well, at a price that people can afford to pay for it. (And then there's the banking and investment sector, which becomes ever more single-mindedly focused year after year upon hoovering wealth out of the economy.)

Another part of the problem is that I don't think the world's "business leadership visionaries" actually understand that no matter how good their products, they aren't going to be able to sell them if nobody but themselves has any money to buy them with.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

I'm going to start writing all my posts on old English, and daring people to correct my grammar and spelling.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr Sorta related: Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song covered in Old Norse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia0vVQnNGcc

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Not a modern day Jesus?

What a racist, vile POS.

Via Kyle Cheney:

says on Truth Social that it would me “my great honor” to go to jail for violating Judge Merchan’s gag order and that it will make him a “modern day Nelson Mandela.”

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@ReedsDad @GottaLaff Trump would spend his entire time in prison whining that it was unfair, unconstitutional, and unjust persecution.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Have you ever met someone who lies all the time, but doesn't seem to realize they are lying?

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr Let's say ... that I know a number of people who have very strange ideas about what is true, and at least one other who is very big on rationalizing things into terms under which she is right.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

What embarrasses you the most?

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr To quote Information Society:

🎼 I am absolutely right, I am absolutely certain
I am absolutely right, I am absolutely certain
I am absolutely right, I am absolutely certain
Of all the mistakes I've made... 🎵

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

MEANWHILE, at , via Ryan Reilly:

Supreme Court Trump immunity arguments underway.

"There can be no presidency as we know it" without presidential immunity, Trump lawyer John Sauer argues. 🤦🏻‍♀️

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@GottaLaff

Kav seems set to say POTUS can't be prosecuted FOR ANY OFFICIAL act unless the crime says POTUS can be prosecuted.

What a ludicrous, farcical argument.

Can a SCOTUS Justice be found in contempt?

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

So, who said what to that slick looking nazi Speaker to change his mind about aid to Ukraine. He went to Mar a Lago the night before.🤔

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@StillIRise1963 @Snowshadow yeah, it's amazing how often these fucks change their mind on an issue when they suddenly realize that it personally affects THEM.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Why is it that the people who brag about being "self-made" aren't?

If you turned out successful odds are you had help, a lot of it, and a good amount of luck on top of that. Imagine being so self absorbed that you don't give credit where credit is due.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@RickiTarr Sociopathic behavior.

Saltssaltgirl, to random
@Saltssaltgirl@mas.to avatar

Me flirting:

If you need, I have an extra pair of eclipse glasses.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@20002ist @Saltssaltgirl 🎼 I study nuclear science, I love my classes
I got a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses 🎵

zakalwe, to random
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

https://imgur.com/gallery/WSpp6Ze

Kyle Rittenhouse scored "far below" the required minimum score of 31/99 on the ASVAB military entrance exam and was permanently barred from the USMC. A retired Navy SEAL who tried for over ten months to try to shape him into a semblance of a respectable human being with a future ahead of him stated that Rittenhouse just pissed it away.

Just in case you were still wondering.

ai6yr, to Youtube
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

The Verge: YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown now includes third-party apps https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/15/24131338/youtube-ad-blocker-crackdown-mobile-apps

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@stevewfolds @ai6yr I won't be held to ransom. If YouTube tries to force me into paying $14 a month not to see unwanted ads for products I'll never buy, they can just lose me as a viewer.

zakalwe, to random
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

Hmm. How should I put this ...

"My former employer's never-fully-addressed technical debt problems are no longer mine."

Yeah. That works. I guess.

msquebanh, to random
@msquebanh@mastodon.sdf.org avatar

I am rescheduling my afternoon taxes appointment.

Not feeling good. Not feeling like I'll be able to keep my shit together, if I have to deal with any random public today. I'm having one of those super difficult, overly emotional days. When I feel that I could either start crying or start screaming, at the slightest provocation.

I avoid all public encounters when feeling like this. I don't want to misdirect sadness/anger/frustration. I listen to my internal orange flags & heed them. Self-care.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Snowshadow @msquebanh Part of it, I think, is that there is this utterly dysfunctional attitude that being able to openly hurt and abuse people and suffer no consequences for it proves that you have power.

It also proves that you are utterly unfit for it.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@msquebanh @Snowshadow If you reward the bullies and ignore the victims, you are complicit in the bullying.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@msquebanh @Snowshadow But also, as well, I refuse to allow this treatment to make me act that way. I WILL NOT participate in the cruelty. That is not who I am.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@msquebanh @Snowshadow Ah, thank you for clarifying. I understand the question better now.

It hurts, but if there is no acknowledgement of that and no apology, then I try to remember that this is on them not on me, and keep in mind thereafter that this is a person that I cannot trust — whether to have my back, or to consider my interest, particularly if they see it as conflicting with theirs. And that ranges from "This person is inconsiderate" to "This person does not actually see me as a real person."

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@msquebanh @Snowshadow I don't exactly understand what you're asking there, as worded.

I'm not good at enforcing personal boundaries. That doesn't mean I don't try. It does mean that sometimes it's still very difficult — especially when I feel threatened.

Some trauma — and some abuse — takes a hell of a long time to heal.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Snowshadow @msquebanh I am not good at enforcing personal boundaries. For too much of my life I was taught, quite without conscious intention I'm sure, that I wasn't permitted to have any.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Snowshadow @msquebanh Actually this is something that I discuss a bit in my novel Fireborn. My protagonist finds himself in the position of trying to explain sexual harassment in a culture that doesn't even have a word for it, because such behavior is considered so completely unacceptable that they never needed to coin an everyday term specifically to describe it. The Saamen language also doesn't have words for the concept of slavery, because they just don't enslave people, period.

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

Always felt like forensic science was a little iffy...listening to Robert discuss some of the foundational cases that established its use in the American legal system disgusts me.

Bottomline, it's mostly subjective analysis. All of it. And the people who suffer are the people well off racists think should suffer.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 Yeah. Bite analysis is particularly bullshit. FBI bite analysis "experts" have been repeatedly found unable to distinguish human and animal bites, much less tie a bite mark to a specific human.

"Yeah, this bite mark was clearly left by teeth, and we can all see the suspect has teeth. Must have been him."

Skepticat, to random
@Skepticat@mstdn.social avatar

Here's your answer SCOTUS:
If a president breaks the law, then that person is subject to criminal violations.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Skepticat Shockingly, this isn't rocket science, and it doesn't need 30 years in law practice to figure it out.

Adam_Cadmon1, to random
@Adam_Cadmon1@mastodon.online avatar

I find today's outing most interesting because as I told you guys, I'm renting a vehicle through Lyft. The way that works is until I "earn" enough in fares to cover the cost of the rental (in addition to giving a required number of rides) I can't withdraw any funds.

zakalwe,
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

@Adam_Cadmon1 There is nothing benign about any part of Uber's or Lyft's business model (or their copycats elsewhere in the world). There's fundamentally four parts to the plan:
— Destroy existing taxi service by undercutting it
— Get driver labor as close to net free as possible, denying drivers benefits by classing them as contractors
— Eventually replace human drivers altogether with automation
— Once 100% of fares go to the company, jack fares up as far as the unregulated market will bear

In the rare markets where government forces them to play by the rules, they declare it "unfair" and pull out.

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