Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐

[UTC -5:00] 風曜日琳子 GenX, FilAm NPO/NGO SJW she/her Gemma Seymour (npub1tla…cg2u) http://paypal.me/gcvsa

#bass #guitar #pedalboard #ttRPG #travel #urbanism #geolibertarian #fountainpen #filofax #bicycle #rtkba

#FreePalestine #FreeUkraine #FreeTibet #StayWoke
#antifascist #anticommunist #antizionist #antiMAGA #nobridge #NoAI

Values: Equality, Liberty, Justice for All
Goals: Equity, Sustainability, Orthocracy
Ethics: Compassion, Frugality, Forbearance
Alignment/Species/Class: Neutral Good Variant Human Female Fighter/Champion

Public Key

npub1ghh8rv0vfuxn2mhgjxjzx8d4kk7tcrghv64ejz5czcur2l32ykysy8h75k

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[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsytmn3k8ky7rf4dm5frfprrk6mt09up5tkd2uep2vpvwp40c4ztzgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsklgxae

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ghh8rv0vfuxn2mhgjxjzx8d4kk7tcrghv64ejz5czcur2l32ykysy8h75k

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Published at

2026-07-27T03:52:54Z

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Last Notes

2026-05-12 23:08:15 UTC

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In the common law tradition, juries have the power to refuse to convict, even if the evidence of guilt is clear.
If information about the actual sentence the defendant is facing was deliberately withheld from the jury, then the jury was never empowered to produce a fair verdict, the trial was unfair, and the sentence should be overturned. Because of the principle of double jeopardy, the defendants should go free.
At least, that is my understanding of Justice.

2026-05-12 17:34:42 UTC

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It seems to me that this would be grounds for overturning any conviction, since it constitutes material fact having been withheld from the jury's consideration that could have resulted in a refusal to convict on those charges.

2026-05-05 16:29:07 UTC

One of the things I think that many Americans, and even more foreigners, fail to understand about the United States is just how big it is, and how fundamentally different the various regions of the country are, because of the history of settlement and its interaction with technology.
The physical layout of settlement west of the Appalchian Mountains and east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is completely different to the built environments of the East and West Coasts. …

2026-05-03 14:58:34 UTC

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I have been on the Internet since Autumn 1986. Nearly a full 40 years.

2026-04-30 10:41:38 UTC

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The postal service would still function just fine if the government treated it as a necessary public service, and not a business that should turn a profit on its own.
Government should never make a profit. Do we ask the military to turn a profit? Do we ask firefighting to turn a profit? Do we ask police to turn a profit?
Neoliberalism has intentionally sabotaged government in order to make it look bad, so they can justify privatization.

2026-04-24 21:42:13 UTC

I have just discovered the hilariously bad redesign of the logo for the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). TBPF, it replaces a logo which was itself a hilariously bad design, but which was actually legible and not likely to be compared with genitalia or excrement.
Seriously, simply printing "W3C" in Helvetica would have been 10000% better. As someone who can make a small claim to experience in logo design, I can tell you that your organization's name in a nice font is often the best logo.

2026-04-21 03:38:52 UTC

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I meant mainly servers. Apple has only rarely taken serious interest in the datacenter/glasshouse server market.

2026-04-21 01:10:48 UTC

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Had Tim Cook been a smarter man, Apple would already be the dominant player in the enterprise scale hardware market, just by virtue of the fact that it makes the best chips, by far.
Apple needs to return to the datacenter market. It doesn't need to pull any resources away from its own OS development to do this, because Linux runs the majority of global servers, now.
It just needs to make the hardware available in the right form factors. It has the money to do so.

2026-04-21 01:00:12 UTC

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The shocking thing is that Apple is not *just* the performance per watt leader, it is the absolute performance leader, now, and doing so while consuming 20-25% of the power of AMD's best performing CPUs.
Apple Silicon is so far ahead of everyone else on the market that it is of paramount importance to humanity that we move away from Intel and AMD as quickly as possible, just to save on the electric bills and pollution.
Linux on Apple Silicon must be the top priority.

2026-04-21 00:48:06 UTC

Very, very happy to see that Tim Cook is stepping down from Apple. His tenure has been fabulous for shareholders, but terrible for consumers.
With John Ternus at the helm, Apple's future can be and should be displacing Intel, AMD, and nVidia from CPU/GPU dominance.
Apple is by far the leader in performance per watt, and Apple is the only company in the world that can plausibly do this. Apple opening their silicon to the world could revitalize the computing industry.
https://apnews.com/article/apple-tim-cook-ceo-chage-john-tenus-3e179f3ba156f37ebdc4da5c137a8263

2026-04-20 22:16:45 UTC

Does anyone remember the 1990s Mac OS #screensaver application that displayed real-time #satellite tracking? I loved that app, it was so cool.

2026-04-20 17:53:47 UTC

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And here's me, just sipping my tea.
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/116/438/306/914/411/175/original/d2244fecffd757f6.jpeg

2026-04-20 16:53:05 UTC

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As a geolibertarian and advocate for the RTKBA, I often point out that libertarianism is an *inherently left wing ideology*, and that the vast majority of people who believe themselves to be libertarians are actually the antithesis of libertarian, they are authoritarians. The basis of Liberty is and can only possibly be Equality. We must be Free precisely because we are all Equal in human dignity. Liberty cannot be divorced from Economics.

2026-04-20 08:29:58 UTC

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This is a really superficial and frankly disingenous opinion on your part. The causes and consequences of firearms-related fatalities in the US are not at all evenly distributed across the population and are far more complex that you are making them out to be.
And those "most other developed countries" have absolutely impeded political freedoms. In the UK, you can't even legally carry a locking bladed pocket knife without risking criminalisation.

2026-04-16 09:35:18 UTC

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The post before that.
https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/NTDS_Report.pdf

2026-04-16 08:55:22 UTC

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I linked the PDF file of the complete study report, above. The methodology section begins on Page 12.

2026-04-15 22:01:57 UTC

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' A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault
(61%) or sexual assault (64%). '
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/116/410/968/701/840/661/original/eb295f48a935160d.png

2026-04-15 21:58:43 UTC

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I would imagine that this figure comes from the 2011 National Transgender Discriminatioon Survey in the US, that showed that 41% of respondents to the survey reported having attempted suicide in the past.
I have always pointed out that this survey could only survey those who had attempted and did not succeed, so the true impact of suicide on trans people is much worse, as we will never know how many tried and succeeded.
https://transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/NTDS_Report.pdf

2026-04-09 14:34:11 UTC

If you don't already own a #fountainpen, and you want to try one, you should pick up a Platinum Preppy, and give it a try. They seem to be selling for about $7 USD, now.
I own expensive fountain pens. I have also used a Platinum Preppy as my primary pen for a period of about 5 years straight, despite that. They are that good.
I never hesitate to recommend one as an introduction to what fountain pens can do for you, especially converted to eyedropper fill.
https://platinumpenusa.com/preppy-fountain-pen/

2026-04-04 21:49:01 UTC

I've got a line on a new job, and if it works out, I'm definitely going to replace the three TWSBI ECOs I use most often with Leonardo Momento Zero Grandes.
Those are the most expensive #fountainpens I actually desire to own, and the last time I looked, they went for about $240 with a stainless steel nib, which is my preference. Those will be the last nice pens I ever buy in my life.
I want the Marina Capri and the Girasole (the middle two). The red one is apparently no longer made, though.
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/116/348/630/172/873/302/original/c6ad912aaed1c1e8.webp

2026-04-04 21:34:32 UTC

If I could afford it, I'd get the Caffè Bronze TWSBI ECO to load up with Teranishi Nostalgic Honey. The truth is, I really don't precisely *need* more #fountainpens or #inks.
One blue CO is EF, for writing in my #Filofax. The other blue ECO is 1.1 mm stub italic, for writing bank cheques. The red ECO is M, for crossing-out. The yellow ECO is B, for highlighting meeting documents. I also have a clear ECO F, filled with Teranishi Antique Black, but want to replace that with a black ECO F.
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/116/348/553/684/882/055/original/97c1717de4633ddc.webp
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/116/348/554/216/825/680/original/ab91ab95b93187ce.png

2026-04-04 21:23:54 UTC

I already have too many bottles of #fountainpen #ink, and I don't even own all the colors I want to own.
The only colors I use on a regular basis are the Teranishi Modern Red, and my old standby Mrs. Stewart's Concentrating Liquid Bluing (Prussian Blue).
Mrs. Stewart's is my every day ink, and I use the Modern Red mainly to cross out list items written with the Mrs. Stewart's. Occasionally, I trot out a pen loaded with yellow highlighter ink.
Four TWSBI ECOs, two blue, one red, one yellow.

2026-04-04 21:20:07 UTC

I don't often get excited by #fountainpen #ink, but this Robert Oster crimson is called "Jersey Devil", and I lived for much of my childhood in Atlantic County, NJ, home of the Jersey Devil. Some of my family still lives there.
I don't really need another red, but …
(currently using Teranishi Chemical Mfg. Co. Guitar Brand Taishō Roman Haikara "Modern Red")
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/116/348/512/499/772/934/original/debd38394daa24bf.jpg

2026-04-01 08:26:50 UTC

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I thought Blue Rondo a la Turk was a Dave Brubeck composition.

2026-03-29 17:55:05 UTC

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I don't think there's any question but that China is taking a long term view (as China always does), knowing that this war will be utterly disastrous for the US, Israel, and those who ally themselves with those two countries. China has the resources to buffer anyone they choose to buffer in the region, but only by allowing the war to play out will everyone ultimately gain (except, of course, those prosecuting the war). The result is likely to break US dominance once and for all.

2026-03-27 20:07:40 UTC

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This is the first I'm hearing about this. What is this about? I've been planning on moving to Graphene OS, but now I have concerns.

2026-03-20 20:36:39 UTC

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If I am going #backpacking or #camping, then I will bring a few more #FirstAid supplies, like an elastic bandage, larger gauzes, bandage scissors, emergency water treatment, extra exam gloves, but I do not go planning to be able to deal with absolutely every possible life-threatening injury conceivable in the woods. Backcountry travel is not a competition. Go slow, go safe, be careful, avoid risk, avoid injury.

2026-03-20 20:31:48 UTC

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My EDC #toiletries kit also contains things that can also be used for #FirstAid, like a 30 mL spray bottle of 70% isopropanol, a small aerosol can of Lysol-to-Go disinfectant, a couple of panty liners that can double as bandages in a pinch, a 15 mL vial of liquid soap.
And since I am #CarFree, my on-bike #bicycle #toolkit also contains a baggie with an extra pair or two of nitrile exam gloves.

2026-03-20 20:26:19 UTC

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My EDC #FAK #FirstAidKit that goes in my #handbag contains only a few adhesive bandages/plasters (various sizes), a pair of nitrile exam gloves, a spare KN95 mask, a small tube of triple antibiotic ointment, a few alcohol prep pads, a small roll of adhesive tape, and small baggies of no more than 12 pills each of various OTC medications: acetaminophen, ibuprofen, diphenhydramine, pseudoephedrine, antacid.
If I need anything more than this, I need a lot more than this.

2026-03-20 20:19:04 UTC

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Speaking of portable first aid kits, one of the big mistakes I see people commonly making with first aid kits is carry too many first aid supplies, in an attempt to be prepared for anything that could possibly happen, which results in carrying too much weight and bulk.
You should plan your FAK around the probability of actually needing it immediately, before you can access better, more equipped care.

2026-03-20 20:15:29 UTC

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Incidentally, although red is the traditional color of first aid kits in the US, the ISO 7010 standard has made the international standard green for all safety equipment, including first aid kits. Under ISO 7010, red is for fire protection equipment, yellow is for cautions or warnings, blue is for mandatory items.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_7010

2026-03-20 17:17:15 UTC

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I also need to make up a couple of hanks of #cordage to go in my #EDC and #outdoors #survival kits. I have some of Atwood's heavier cordage in natural colors for things like tent lines and such, but I don't need to carry a 100 foot spool each of the Micro Cord and Nano Cord in my #backpack.

2026-03-20 17:14:11 UTC

Today's mini project is making color-coded zipper pulls for the otherwise identical mesh zipper pouches that organize the kits in my #handbag and #travel #luggage:
red for #EDC / emergency, blue for toiletries, green for #FirstAid, and pink for #makeup.
I just need the green. I've been buying 45 Kg (100 lb) test Atwood Micro Cord 1.18 mm (3/64"). I honestly would have preferred their 1.6 mm (1/16") Utility Rope, but the Micro Cord is easier to find.
https://atwoodrope.com/collections/one-sixteenth

2026-02-23 15:00:15 UTC

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I'm trying and failing to understand why municipalities would want to ban solar power. I'm not even a solar proponent, but it definitely has its uses.

2026-02-01 19:56:58 UTC

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And, not just tech workers, everyone.
ICE can't run if people refuse to fulfill their procurement orders and deliver goods and services to them.
Tyranny can only survive if you comply with demands. We outnumber them. We outgun them. They know this. We know this. Find your courage.
Meanwhile, the regime breaks the law with impunity, so what are you waiting for? There is no rule of law in Amerika, any longer. The law has been rendered meaningless by the regime. We must restore meaning to it.

2026-02-01 19:44:18 UTC

RE: https://mstdn.social/@smutmag/115996501336067805
The only reason this isn't already happening is because there are not yet enough people willing to defy the regime and/or shield those who do.
This is going to take more than just a few people, because the regime has power on their side.
People have to be willing to break the law and make sure others get away with breaking the law, before real change will happen.
#note1juk…euzy

2026-01-10 19:31:39 UTC

The primary argument for #LandValueTax as the #SingleTax is not that it is demonstrably the most effective and efficient means of #taxation, it's the moral argument that #LVT is the only tax which comports with the requirements of #morality based on the #NaturalRights theory of #Equality, #Liberty, and #Justice for All.
Acceptance of this is unnecessary, because even if you don't believe in #libertarian #philosophy, you still believe in the authority of government to tax anything it wishes.

2026-01-08 20:53:42 UTC

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That's a Norman Rockwell painting entitled "Freedon of Speech" of a man attending a Vermont Town Meeting and participating in our centuries-old tradition of direct democracy. It comes from a series of paintings called, "The Four Freedoms" The use of this image to insinuate this is "communism" is depicable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Speech_(painting)

2026-01-07 11:12:40 UTC

I saw a YouTube video in which the presenter was talking about the idea of a $100 USD "pen for life" (including ink refills). He chose a Right Choice $50 titanium body retractable rollerball and rollerball refills. He claims refills (Pilot G2 or Pentel Energel) cost about $1 each and last him about a year each.
I use a $35 TWSBI ECO #fountainpen and Mrs. Stewart's Concentrated Liquid Bluing, $4 for 8 oz (237 mL). Pelikan 4001 is available in 1000 mL bottles (blue or black, at least) for $30.

2026-01-03 22:15:19 UTC

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How is this a real place on Earth and not the setting of a fantasy movie?

2026-01-03 22:14:26 UTC

I should probably go through my collection of assorted 1990s #calligraphy #fountainpens and see if there are still cartridges available that fit them, then give them away.
I've never going to use them again. I'm sure there's a kid out there somewhere who would be as fascinated with them as I was when I bought my first calligraphy fountain pen set at age 10.

2026-01-03 17:14:13 UTC

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Why is the word "luxury" in scare quotes?

2025-12-27 09:25:46 UTC

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Is there some reason why you wouldn't feel sympathy?

2025-12-22 20:32:56 UTC

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Even a layout that repeats itself once per minute is going to get boring pretty quickly, although a layout that is a 113 foot radius circle would be about 710 feet of track, so even at 183 feet per minute, that's a minimum duration of 3.87 minutes.
Of course, you'd want it to be more than just a circle, which would introduce a lot more possibilities for enjoyment.

2025-12-22 20:28:44 UTC

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So, to build that radius at HO scale, you are looking at about a 113 foot radius, so your layout would need to be a minimum of about 230 feet wide just to model that realistically and be able to turn the train around at that speed.
The world speed record for a model train is 44.82 kmh, or about 2450 feet per minute (no info on the scale, sorry), so obviously 182 feet per minute should be easily achievable.

2025-12-22 20:23:32 UTC

I've always like #ModelTrains, but the problem, to me, is how big a layout actually needs to be before I find it interesting in the long term.
My dream has always been to realistically model a high speed passenger rail service.
An HO train (1:87 scale) running at a scale speed of 60 mph will travel 5280/87= 60.69 feet of track per minute. To model an N700A #Shinkansen at 180 mph would be triple that, over 182 feet per minute.
The track radius which allows that speed is 3000m, or 9843 feet.

2025-12-19 00:57:41 UTC

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You appear to be barbequeing a meatloaf on top of a bowl of something, but I'm not quite sure I understand the method in the madness.

2025-12-11 00:32:53 UTC

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I absolutely implore the entire world to stop doing any business at all with the US, wherever and whenever possible or feasible.
As an American, I need you to use every bit of leverage you possibly can to bring down the Trump regime, and nothing talks as loudly as money.
Do not visit. Do not attend conferences. Do not buy things from US. Do not sell things to US. Be vocal about why.

2025-12-05 04:18:14 UTC

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In my defense, I was like 13 years old back then, when I saw GBH play.

2025-12-05 03:11:48 UTC

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Wait. GBH was from the UK? How did I not know this?

2025-11-27 20:22:33 UTC

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As a native of NYC during the bad old days, I well understand that our social experiments with public housing in the US have ended almost entirely in disaster, and that is precisely because those developments were built with efficiency as the only goal, not human dignity and community.
This does not mean we should not build apartment buildings, it means we need to build apartment buildings with human dignity and community as our foremost concerns. #urbanism #architecture #design #housing

2025-11-27 20:19:29 UTC

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But it needs to be understood that tiny, individual dwelling structures are literally the most inefficient type of structure that can possibly be imagined or built, because they have a comparatively high ratio of external building envelope to enclosed volume, and a comparatively low possible density of occupancy, compared with multiunit residences, making them the least efficient possible use of valuable land.
They absolutely should never be used for housing the poor or unhoused.

2025-11-27 20:16:42 UTC

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people who have difficulties—whether internally or externally imposed—that make it difficult for them to live in urban environments.
I realized this very early on in my investigations, and concluded that there are a lot of people, like me, who are often subject to extreme, undue discrimination, and for those people, tiny houses on wheels can be a boon.
One benefit of THoWs is that they impose very little burden on the landscape and are not permanent structures.

2025-11-27 20:14:22 UTC

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Many people in the tiny house community wanted tiny houses to be the answer for everything, but I am here to tell you that tiny houses are a generally terrible idea that really is only suitable for certain types of people in certain extenuating circumstances.
Tiny houses, especially those on wheels, have very few advantages and very many disadvantages, compared with good #urbanism that allows people to live in dignity with humanscaled spaces and fixtures.
However, there will always be some…

2025-11-27 20:12:11 UTC

10-12 years ago, I got seriously involved in the tiny house on wheels community, and spent a lot of time seriously thinking about house design and the ramifications of the THoW movement.
My ultimate design settled on an 8' x 16 ' floorplan, with a 4' screenable front porch/greenhouse extension.
This, I judged, was the bare minimum size that could support 2 adults and 1 small child.
It would sleep 2 in the loft and fit a standard 52" crib mattress on the main level.

2025-11-20 04:53:14 UTC

Could you guys possibly fit in one or two more old white men, you know, for diversity?
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/115/580/230/161/187/485/original/dd02ba1aac7519a7.png

2025-10-30 16:13:27 UTC

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At least I know that my female GenX cousins in the PH are perfectly fine with LGBT people. Probably most of my GenX male cousins, too, or at least the ones I'm in touch with on SMS. It's the older ones that tend to be more conservative. Most of my female cousins are unmarried and are unlikely to ever get married.
My father's family is from Anda, Bohol, but a lot of my family lives in Calamba and/or Metro Manila. If I ever decide to move to the PH to retire, it will be near them.

2025-10-30 01:03:18 UTC

I managed to knock out some new in-between pages for my #Filofax in Affinity Publisher. The new ones have 12 pt (4.233 mm) rulings instead of 5 mm. This is the narrowest ruling I am comfortable using, and I write with a TWSBI ECO EF nib #fountainpen
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/115/460/404/998/618/320/original/abd0621e9a1ddfce.jpeg

2025-10-28 19:20:03 UTC

Every time I make myself a bowl of #ramen, I have to remind myself that you are not actually supposed to drink all the broth. The broth is hyperseasoned, because it has to be to deliver proper seasoning to the noodles, when you pick them up out of the bowl.
Today's Ramen: Maruchan Seimen (Maruchan Gold in the US) Spicy Miso flavor, with added sliced pork cooked in onion base with ginger/garlic paste.
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/115/453/399/176/901/199/original/573f576b6616403f.jpg

2025-10-27 14:44:12 UTC

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What I mean by the social aspect is that I am a queer woman and a vocally anti-Roman Catholic atheist. There are aspects of our modern culture that make me deeply uncomfortable. Politically, I am on the left, and that puts me at odds with the Marcos and DDS crowd. My family is a politically active family in Bohol, but my politics do not necessarily agree with those of my extended family.

2025-10-27 06:01:54 UTC

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I have had almost all those problems in the US, too. What concerns me most about possibly moving to the PH is the political, economic, and social climate, not the weather and tectonic activity. But the PH is likely my only option if I find the US becomes too dangerous, since I have dual citizenship rights.

2025-10-09 01:34:45 UTC

It's very important for people to understand and remember that the mere fact that differing #opinions on a tpoic may exist, this is no indication that all opinions are equally supported by #evidence and #reason.
Only those positions which can be justified based upon evidence, reason, and self-consistency with preceding #prinicples ought to be regarded as reasonable and sound.
#philosophy #politics #morality #ethics

2025-10-08 22:28:03 UTC

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This is exactly what I was thinking about while reading The Oatmeal's comic about the use of AI in art.
The problem I have with AI is that there's no meaningful human input. The reason why I want real art in my life is not because it is "beautiful", but because the point of art and writing and music, etc, is the communication between human beings, and AI has **no meaning** behind it, because there's no human on the other end of it. Prompt massaging isn't meaningful.

2025-09-16 19:34:12 UTC

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Utter twaddle. The people who are the most successful are the people with the most privilege, plain and simple.

2025-09-12 16:03:06 UTC

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I cannot tell you the number of web forums and Facebook groups from which I have been banned for exactly this reason.
Somehow it's not "politics" if a cishetwhiteman attacks queer people, trans people, people of color, or women, but its "politics" that gets you banned if you stand up to homophobia, transphobia, racism, and sexism.

2025-09-01 15:31:25 UTC

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That’s why a certain subset of the culture is so enraged when we insist on the idea that a species with intelligence, language, community, and culture is not and cannot be “monsters”, they are “people”, and aggressing against them is inherently evil, why they are so enraged when we point out that regarding all individuals of a people with stereotypes is inherently racist in nature. That’s why The Lord of the Rings is undeniably racist in its treatment of orcs, from the beginning.

2025-09-01 15:29:19 UTC

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The way the word “monster” is used in #gaming #RPG #TTRPG culture is really just a shorthand for “creature we can morally/legally harm with impunity because we are not obligated to regard it as a person with rights we are obligated to honor and protect”.

2025-09-01 00:20:53 UTC

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There is a museum in the city of Philadelphia, called the "Mütter Museum", which is part of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It was founded in 1858, but was not open to the public until the mid-1970s, and it contains what might be called specimens of medical oddities.
One of the things that struck me hardest when visiting the museums collection was the preserved specimens labelled "Monster". I won't go into any more detail, because it's frankly quite gruesome.
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/115/126/182/607/667/411/original/936d732d4c90ec2a.png

2025-08-31 17:55:40 UTC

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And that's even before we get into the racism that is literally baked into the ideas underpinning Western Fantasy, in the first place, particularly the very idea of "monsters", which is a word that has a very dark history in human culture.
That's why I've always preferred to have the enemies in my #fantasy #RPGs and #TTRPGs be other people.

2025-08-31 17:52:11 UTC

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And the idea that there would be caves and ruins littering the countryside filled with monsters and treasure, enough to support the idea of "adventuring" as a profession is even sillier.
If you notice in Japanese Fantasy, it largely revolves around videogame tropes, where dungeons magically appear, monster corpses evaporate upon death leaving behind treasure, and all three are magically replenished periodically. Because that is what's needed to make the genre make sense.

2025-08-31 17:48:33 UTC

If there are two things about #DnD Dungeons & Dragons that I dislike that aren't the class-based character development system and the nonsensical magic system, those are the very concepts of "dungeons" and "dragons", in the first place.
A dragon, were it real, would be a gigantic solitary apex predator that would require a vast amount of sustenance, and so there would necessarily not be many of them.

2025-08-30 21:08:28 UTC

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Rentseeking is, in the grand scale of history, the greatest evil ever. The entire point of rentseeking is to grasp ownership of a needed thing, and use that ownership to extract a usage fee from others, thereby extorting income without doing any actual work to earn it. Rent, the returns to hoarding of inherently scarce assets, is a very different economic idea to interest, the returns to capital investment. Capital being a product of labor, more capital can always be made. Capital is not scarce.

2025-08-30 21:01:53 UTC

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We, as a species, clearly cannot rely on the goodwill of those who own and operate cloud data storage centers, much less private library operators like Elsevier, etc, so distributed networks of small nodes are really the only reliable way of preserving our knowledge.
And if that constitutes “piracy”, well, I’m ok with that, because the alternative is a new Dark Ages, and effectively perpetual or terminal copyright has no moral legitimacy .The benefits vastly outweigh the risks or the qualms.

2025-08-30 20:58:14 UTC

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The only reason copyright even has any moral legitimacy whatsoever is that it was meant to secure a limited monopoly for a limited time, as an incentive to create new works.
IP protections are out of control in the modern era, and need to be drastically curtailed for the good of humanity.

2025-08-30 20:54:06 UTC

Public libraries really ought to be better funded, but they aren’t going to be, and so it seems that for the time being stochastic piracy is going to be the only reliable means of preserving humanity’s collective cultural output for posterity.
Many forms of media require the life’s work of hundreds, if not thousands, of people to produce, but many rights holders would rather see than work become unavailable to anyone, rather than put their parasitic rentseeking profiteering in jeopardy.

2025-08-26 15:01:05 UTC

A question not enough people ask is whether or not the world and #society actually ought to be the way they are, whether or not there mght actually be better ways of doing things, whether #traditions are #based in #evidence and #logic—or even #compassion and #dignity—and whether or not we can make life better.
The ultimate purpose of life is to live well—to pursue #wellbeing and #selfactualization. If we fail in this, we have wasted the most precious gift of all. #philosophy #epitaph

2025-08-16 16:59:32 UTC

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The problem is that we have a large proportion of people on the putative "left" in this nation who believe even the defensive use of force is illegitimate, and so they want everyone disarmed. As a queer, non-Christian, woman of color, I'm not so sanguine about the good intentions of the police and military as to allow them to be the only people with access to arms.

2025-08-16 16:56:57 UTC

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Everyone who wishes not to keep and bear arms should be afforded the right to refuse to do so. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is people who try to take the right away from others. There's a reason that right was enumerated, and that reason is abundantly clear right now.
I am NOT saying that we should initiate the use of force. I am saying that if we do not have the ability to use force in our defense, then we cannot stop fascism.

2025-08-16 12:55:11 UTC

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We have to take responsibility for our government. Power will always be misused, and only power can counter power. This kum bah yah “nonviolence” bullshit is getting people killed, because the fascists know that there’s no way we can stop them, so long as they just ignore decency and we hold ourselves to it.

2025-08-16 12:17:49 UTC

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Protests don’t work when the regime refuses to play by the same civic and civil rules. Democrats need to drop their incessant push for gun control. I don’t think they realize exactly how much this one issue matters to so many people that would otherwise be willing to compromise on economic and social matters.

2025-08-14 17:39:56 UTC

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Excellent write-up. I’ll be honest and admit I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to issues like this. I’ve been pretty happy with my Paria Outdoors Thermodown 15 quilt, the regular length, even though I’m tall enough for the Tall length, and I’ve been wanting the 30ºF version for the warmer months. Paria is a budget line, so they don’t use the highest fill power down, making them not the lightest or most compact option, but for the price, they are an excellent value.

2025-08-06 12:53:32 UTC

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This might be the only thing that will retain me as an Apple customer. The browser issue is my number one most hated aspect of using my iPhone and iPad, and I have resolved to replace the iPad with a Linux laptop and the iPhone with a Graphene OS phone.
Because I cannot freely run the common software of my choice, the browsers, adblockers, and content filters that I want to run, on iOS and iPadOS, they have lost 99% of their utility for me, due to obtrusive advertising and surveillance.

2025-08-01 14:40:28 UTC

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Tocino Spam isn't sold anywhere near me, so Amazon is the only option. I've wanted to get some for a long time, but the price was too high. I jsut happened to look at Amazon for something else early this morning, and they had dropped the price drastically.

2025-08-01 12:32:42 UTC

OMG. Tocino Spam for less than $3 a can ($32.92 for one-time delivery of 12 cans)?? BUY IT NOW! #FilAmFood
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/114/953/535/138/874/298/original/8e3b1dd262958d8d.png

2025-07-31 01:12:13 UTC

Very few things are quite as frustrating to me as the popularity of people with opinions that are wildly incorrect on the subject of #PoliticalEconomy, specifically people who are kneejerk autoreflexive #socialists while clearly haveing no understanding of the fundamental relationship between Nature and Labor, let alone what Property is and how claims of property rights can be legitimately established.
#Socialism is not a pro-worker #philosophy, it is inherently anti-worker, anti-Labor.

2025-07-28 23:37:20 UTC

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It honestly surprises me that #SquareEnix apparently hasn't figured out how to use username filters during the character creation process.
#FFXIV is currently plagued with RMT activity that is coming from one particular website, and the accounts their bots create always have either 3 or 4 letters in the given and surnames.
They ban hundreds and thousands of accounts every week for RMT activity, but most of them could be immediately halted at account creation.

2025-07-28 23:17:27 UTC

#Anonymity, forgetfulness, and forgiveness are essential aspects of digital #privacy and #security.
They are every bit as essential to the functioning of a healthy society as the traditional "Three A's" of information security: access controls, authentication of identity, and accounting (or accountability, if you prefer).
#infosec #compsci #philosophy #morality #ethics #politics #sociology

2025-07-20 15:06:47 UTC

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#Tolkien is good example of an author whose works deserve more criticism than they have received.
Although Tolkien famously decried any attempt to read The Lord of the Rings as an allegory, it's plain that it's impossible to read LotR as anything but allegorical, especially when you consider his personal history as a soldier and his avowed pastoralism and opposition to industrialism.
His works have racism baked into their very bones, and people get very angry when you point this out. #books

2025-07-20 15:00:29 UTC

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There are three aspects of our society that have dramatically changed since the mid-20th Century: sexism, racism, and homophobia/transphobia. Many of the seminal early works of #ScienceFiction were written during a time when things we now see as sexism, racism, and anti-LGBT sentiment were more acceptable to readers than they are today.
Star Trek, in 1968, was the first televison show to ever show a kiss between a white man and a Black woman. Ellen DeGeneres only came out on TV in 1997.

2025-07-20 14:47:38 UTC

When #reading older works of #ScienceFiction, I find it helpful to bear in mind that they are often products of their times, and that ideas which we find distasteful now may have been commonly acceptable then, and ideas which seem commonplace to us now may have been considered wildly radical then.
Then there is the fact that many famous works have been grossly misinterpreted to the point where the popular understanding of them is complete nonsense (cf: Starship Troopers). #books

2025-07-12 23:32:28 UTC

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The circumflex over a vowel in French indicates where a following "s" was removed, so the original word would have been Middle French "goust", from the Latin "gustus" (taste). The French Academy revised the spelling, so post-1990, it is officially just "gout".

2025-07-08 08:16:45 UTC

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I guess you have no idea how the fediverse, the DNS system, or the Internet in general work.
See, my private network does not need to resolve "mastodon.social", because my account exists on a server that doesn't block "mastodon.social" by default.
Like, maybe go to school or something and learn how the modern communications system works, IDK.

2025-07-08 08:11:04 UTC

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I'm actually totally fine with DNS blocking the entire .social TLD.

2025-07-08 01:18:19 UTC

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I have noticed while reading the manuals for my Anker powerbanks that they only use full charging current under specific conditions. Most of the time, they are charging the batteries under a fraction of the stated capacity. The closer they get to 100% charge, the less current they permit.

2025-07-06 14:02:23 UTC

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I’m sorry, I did not mean to imply that the future of Graphene is in doubt, I meant my future ability to access supported hardware is in some doubt. I am hoping that if I get a Pixel 9a this year, it will remain well-supported for its useful lifespan, and 4-5 years in the future, the landscape will have changed for the better.

2025-07-06 13:52:11 UTC

The #Fairphone is very interesting, but it’s not available in any meaningful sense in the US, one of the most lucrative markets—if not the largest market—in the world.
With Google’s recent announcement that they will no longer be providing device trees for Pixel phones, my plan to switch from my now 4.5 year old 2020 iPhone SE2 to a Pixel running @npub1kwa…e0nj might be in some doubt. We need alternatives to Apple, Google, and Samsung that aren’t entirely controlled by the CCP/PRC.

2025-07-01 06:14:37 UTC

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Can I just say, I was shocked to discover that none of my local stores sells Better Than Bouillon Turkey Base outside of the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season?
I had to resort to ordering a jar from Amazon, because I ran out. I eat turkey all year, because it's delicious, and that means I need turkey stock to make gravy.
https://files.mstdn.plus/media_attachments/files/114/776/507/717/580/233/original/2caeb66af22daf04.jpg

2025-06-25 20:47:49 UTC

I have always maintained that the legitimacy of any state extends only insofar as that state protects the rights of those it claims the authority to govern and those whom it claims to be under the jurisdiction of its laws.
No state has a "right to exist". No state *can* have any such right, because no state has any claim to *rights*, in the first place. Rights inhere in and belong only to the individual, solely by virtue of their existence.
States have powers, not rights.
#politics #law

2025-06-25 16:30:41 UTC

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This gives me some hope for my hometown. NYC is a cultural magnet and an exemplar of American political and financial support for Israel. The NYC (and NYS) Democratic Party has been mired in conservativism. We need change.

2025-06-21 15:22:02 UTC

I almost forgot my two used fly fishing #books arrived yesterday. I just opened them both now, and they are in much better condition than the last used book I bought, which makes me happy. One appears practically brand new, the other has a few flaws, if you look closely.
Mark Kurlansky, "The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing"
Ian Whitelaw, "The History of Fly-Fishing in Fifty Flies"