BromSwolligans

Adorable. Anyone got the source? I'd follow this kid's adventures.

When life hands you a snowy parking lot on a quiet day, it's pretty cool.

That's lucky for them. I'm the the least of their worries (although statistcally, they have no worries, because they are scrolling TikToks while doing 12 over the speed limit)

fuck ICE

Got tailgated by a Genesis on the way home from family's today going 55 down a highway that is 55, but on which people regularly get away with going 75. Eventually an F150 squeezed in between us and if you can believe it (and you should because luxury car drivers often outdo full-size truck owners in driver cuntiness) actually gave me a little more space than the Genesis. But regardless, they were both following like...less than 20 feet off my ass? I mean that wouldn't be safe in 70-degree weather with no salt or moisture on the road.

I am not a perfect driver. But I do know that practically everyone else on the road is a worse driver than me. Staring at their cell phones. Close follow distances. Short stopping distances. Stupid fuzzy fucking things strapped over their wheels to guarantee the worst possible grip in an emergency situation. Not signaling and cutting off, of course. Just all of it. And the same solipsistic elements in a person's personality that lead them to behave that way under desirable road conditions gives them the self-confidence to go out there and drive in 7 degree weather with thick clumps of packed-down snow and invisible ice on the salt-slicked roads with the precisely-same behavior as they would on any other day.

Fuck 'em.

I like it.

That's great. I wish Visio/Vizio were not such common names for software and hardware. We done did those already. Do something else.

I can't find the interview now or remember who it was with because of my brainrot but roughly than six months ago this woman was saying in no uncertain terms things will get progressively darker and more violent. And I've thought of that when every one of these moments has arisen. She was speaking more to the need of a parent whose health premiums quadrupled and SNAP benefits were cut having to care for and feed a sick child and what that might do to their anger and willingness to go do something against the elements foisting this upon them, but of course we never can predict what the precise hinge point moments are going to be during turbulent times. We just knew they were coming. And now they are. And will continue.

I care. I have Ring because it was the fastest way to get cameras on my property after trouble with neighbors. I found out how liberal they are with user data and handing it over to law enforcement but I couldn't justify the expense in upgrading. For me this isn't a bridge too far in a moral sense but more like a powerful reminder I've been lax in my responsibility. I'm pricing out some Reolink cameras I can host locally at home and put on a private subnet I can just VPN into. I'll have to buy the kit piecemeal because I don't have a lot of money to toss around but I am firmly committed to getting off Ring cameras in light of this news.

there's more than one amendment that has an opinion about that

I heard of it from this video. The video creator is too much for me like 30% of the time but I think there's very often decent information in his content. His energy is just up there.

Yes, you're absolutely right.

Right now I'm super interested in the Minimal Phone, and the SLEKE Phone, and to a lesser extent the Communicator (lesser of course because but for its wonky screen size, it can essentially 'do' everything a smartphone does). I understand the Minimal Phone's often clunky compromises and that it can also technically install any Android app but as you said, the amount of friction introduced by the e-ink screen is severe enough one would hope it would help. If I had to pick one to buy today, it would almost be the SLEKE phone, because to me the idea of simply perma-banning all the apps I struggle to keep deleted myself seems just about perfect, and they also have a Communicator-esque 'notification-forward' home screen with no icons trying to incentivize you to open apps just to pass time. The one and only thing holding me back is that because they've de-Googled the phone, they appear to have broken Android Auto, and in the spirit of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I'm not too proud to say I don't find GPS mapping to be a terrible drain on my life (even though it's increasingly used as a data point about a kind of thinking that has atrophied in our modern-age brains) and I simply will not give up its inclusion in my car. I know Garmin still exists, but...that's just a little too boutique, even for me. Any in-car mapping solution I've ever used short of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay has taken way too long to input or adjust destinations, been to quirky (I'm specifically thinking of a BMW I once borrowed and its awful built-in nav), and of course, AA and AC give you that 'single pane of glass' to manage not only your maps but also your music / podcasts / audiobooks through. I just can't give that up for a minimalist phone.

But if SLEKE can figure out how to add AA back in, I'd jump ship on my old iPhone the second my Clicks Power Keyboard arrives in the Spring.