Do I Know You?
I was reading Deadly Headshot's toot on Christmas day, and it got me thinking about Object Permanence and social media.
The funny thing is, I can remember conversations I had on IRC in the late 1990s, but there are many people I greatly enjoyed conversing with on the Fediverse just a couple years ago that have either simply disappeared (either deleted their account or simply don't post/reply anymore), or just don't show up in my "orbit" anymore.
All too often, I completely lose track of who I'm talking to, being enthralled in the conversation itself and not mindful of the individual identity of my conversant. This is exacerbated by the fact that I'm often using a command-line Fediverse client which only shows users' avatars when requested, and in a separate image viewer program.
I think the best advice I can give to someone concerned about their permanence in people's minds online would be to use a simple-but-memorable avatar/profile pic (and not change it), and to have a unique and memorable user name. Thinking of the avatars I find most memorable, some are basically geometric (but unique), some are images of unique faces (one I'm thinking of is a black-and-white halftoned image of a vampire lady), some are custom clip-art, like a certain fellow who strongly resembles an avocado. The ones that I often get confused with other people are the ones that are either extremely simple logos or geometric shapes, or simple portraits. Most faces just aren't that memorable, sorry. ^__^
Laptops: A Romance
As I wrote in yesterday's article, I have a soft spot in my heart for laptops. They exist in this incredibly sweet spot where convenience and agency/freedom converge in the very best way, possible. I bought my first laptop in 1995 with my very hard-earned money, but let's start …
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My Odd Relationship with Minecraft
Unlike most young people, and not unlike many of my GenX peers, I haven't played much Minecraft.
I got into it a little bit with my cousin's kids when they were young around 2010, and I even played it a little bit on my own at the time, but the …
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No More Excuses
Tonight was one of those nights were things fall into perspective.
I went to a family friend's birthday party, and it was my first time visiting them at their house in about 10 years, as well as my first time seeing both of his kids (both now grown) in nearly …
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My Socratic Sign
In Part I, I listed several things/places/events that felt magical to me in my life. In this article, I will discuss the most recent one, which I refer to as my "Socratic Sign."
Life, Rebooted
At 40 years old, I found myself without a job and without the …
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Collections
A while back, a friend and I exchanged subjects for blog posts, which turned out to actually be a lot of fun.
A week ago, he, I, and another fedifriend got together to exchange blog post ideas/prompts, round-robin style.
The prompt I was given (with purposefully no context) was …
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Getting Back In Shape (For the Acutely and Chronically Under-Dopamined)
I've just started a new exercise regimen (because, you know, it was either that or apply for asteroid status*).
I've tried to get into exercise for... well... many, many years. I've even spent a lot of money of gym memberships that went absolutely nowhere.
I will say quickly that I …
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Time
I was chilling out at the parking lot of In-N-Out after having lunch there (because the weather is pretty nice today), but decided to go to a local library to have a nice desk in front of me and do some reading/writing.
I asked the Oracle at Googlii (via …
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