Wondering what's what
My posts
Wondering what's what.
I need help. I have a stereo system that isn't hooked up. I brought a turntable with me from New Mexico that I have not used in 30 years. I never felt like I was going to stay in this house even though I've lived here now for 13 years.
I have a giant TV that I got from a friend who died in 2020. He bought the TV in 2019 so it is probably modern. But I don't know how to connect it to the Internet. I only get CBS and it is a dodgy connection. I have WiFi. I don't know how to connect them together.
Growing up, my brother Wade used to handle all the electronics. He was in a junior high school rock band and he knew how to plug things in. In some unconscious way I've been waiting for Wade to come and plug things in for me. I know this isn't rational. It's how I feel. Now he's passed away. In this way I notice his absence.
I went to the beach the other day. My friend has encouraged me to take time away and go. I have another friend who is also going to the beach. I texted him to come join us. My two friends hit it off and they talked. They have much in common. They talk about movies and TV shows and I don't know anything about what they are talking about. I have nothing to contribute to the conversation.
I've worked for a month on revising my website. I posted it to the server last weekend and it still has many problems that I thought I had fixed. I'm going to work on it again. Updating my website has been my excuse not to look for work.
I've started to look for work again. I went onto LinkedIn and I see all the same problems with LinkedIn that I saw when I was looking for work last year.
I was one of the first 100 people who signed up for LinkedIn when it started. When I first joined I could see my contact's contacts and collect leads for work search. LinkedIn turned that off. LinkedIn's purpose is to insert itself and extract money from the employment process.
I am concerned about the data LinkedIn collects. What algorithm does LinkedIn use to determine what job offers to present to me? What algorithms do they use to present prospective employees to employers?
Somehow LinkedIn has become ubiquitous. Although no one is happy to use LinkedIn no one is looking to see what's going on and hold LinkedIn accountable. It is an awful monopoly experience for everyone.
I've been thinking about writing letters to friends for the past two months after my brother died. I have trouble knowing what to write about. Also, I've been working hard on the website. I dream about my friends sometimes. We talked on the phone a few times during Covid and when my Mother was in hospice.
For awhile I considered moving back to New Mexico. My brother Wade was encouraging me to move to Los Angeles to be near him. I have had huge problems with my apartment but it looks like I will continue to stay in New York, at least for this winter.
I don't go on Facebook. I logged on to say that my brother Wade is in the hospital and critically ill. I did not go back to say that he died. One man called and said he posted that Wade died on Wade's Facebook page. It bugs me that he did. I don't know what people are saying on Facebook. I don't really want to know.
A week ago I finally received an invitation to join BlueSky. Apparently they have rolled out BlueSky extremely slowly. Now I can follow many of the design movers and shakers that I used to follow on Twitter back in Twitter's heyday.
I eagerly re-tweeted everyone's tutorials that they posted. Many of them seem to have joined three months ago or six months ago, saw not much going on and have disappeared. I notice that no one re-tweets each other's tutorial content. It used to be that people participated in #FollowFridays. That stuff needs to happen if BlueSky is to survive and thrive.
Twitter, now X, has continued to decline. Now the only people I see are journalists and lots of gay porn. I make an effort to re-tweet tutorials. but I find that many of my own tweets are about insurrectionists and haters. I re-post snide remarks.
I've taken to watching short news clips on YouTube. I am now a YouTube binge watcher. I am looking for connection watching MSNBC clips. Sad.
I go to Meetups. One is a live networking group called Code and Coffee. The others are on Discord or Zoom. Before Covid, Meetup was a big thing in New York City. When WeWork went into bankruptcy WeWork sold Meetup. It was a big loss. Meetup struggles on but the culture has changed.
I guess that is what this is about. The culture has changed and I'm looking around wondering what's what. Everything is very confusing right now.
Last month NPR went on a wild spree about the 50-year anniversary of Hip-hop. I never listened to hip-hop. I can barely recognize it or distinguish hip-hop from any other rap music. As far as I know hip-hop is still misogynist and homophobic.
So far I've stayed away from the issues about so-called refugees coming en masse to New York City. I worry about it but it seems that New York City will swallow the hordes and continue on. The refugee mass influx is only a symptom of broken policies that we have not yet jettisoned.
We've been living with broken systems that we need to change. All these weird cultural phenomena are symptoms of struggles with broken systems. People fight and argue in confusion. We need an overview of the large issues we face and a broader vision of where we want to go.
The things that I once thought were great innovations have become garish nightmare problems. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and other 2.0 web institutions are now toxic.
I am watching phenomena and thinking about the broken systems I continue to live with. I'd like to make change for myself. I do not have answers. I am asking questions, living in the now and looking towards the future.