Banning the TikToks…

This article from starbreaker.org came across my radar today. It expresses what I think about the TikTok ban pretty completely. Now it looks like Trumpistan may try turn it into some form of state media. How fitting.

I’ve never used TikTok. As soon as someone showed it to me and I saw videos of teenagers dancing I formed a negative opinion of it, because I can be a dick that way.

The  ability to create your own website is what democratizes the internet. The ability to run your own email list, using your own software democratizes it, just like owning your own data and creative output that you can move around and shield from AI thieves (as best you can) democratizes the web.

What would REALLY democratize it would be the ability to fully and completely OWN your own domain name, rather than renting it. But that’s how it works.

I’ve read opinions that having your own site should be easier. I don’t really believe this. It is already just so easy. It’s easier than it’s ever been. What is missing is the awareness in the general population that it’s possible. Awareness and desire. Not everyone wants to have a website. They just want to share stuff. The Fediverse answers that need quite well, but it requires a tiny amount of effort to understand. Tiny. Frankly the ability to text a group of friends and include an image or short video pretty much covers the sharing part as well.

But there is nothing like having your own domain name and website. Or even just a page. Hosted on space that YOU rent or own. Nice and portable. Make yours site such that if one host closes are begins to suck you can just move it. Easy.

Problem solved. You’re welcome, America.

The Beauty of the Hyperlink

As I delve further into the movement back to personal webpages and blogs as the basis for the real internet, one thing that has become very clear is that you must use hyperlinks whenever you can!

The beauty of the web, and really its original intention, was the linking of one document to others, creating – GASP – a web of information and links!

It honestly feels absurd to be explaining this, even if hardly anyone is reading. This is such basic knowledge, but I’m sure that if you ask almost anyone who wasn’t in tech back at the beginning, a serious computer hobbyist, or a librarian, they won’t know why it’s called the World Wide Web.

Social media at best barely permits good linking habits, and at worst makes it impossible, since the owners of the silos don’t want you to leave. To them it is critically important that you stay on their site. This fact has gone a long way toward ruining the internet, but not quite! The old internet is still there, the old ways are easier than ever to learn and do.

Anyway, on this blog, when not simply composing some irrational screed, I try to hyperlink to relevant pages. I tend to link to Wikipedia a lot. When I heard that Musk apparently said bad things or some other shit about Wikipedia the other day I donated for the first time. Hey, I’m a reference librarian approaching my 30th year in the profession so I understand the limitations and problems of Wikipedia, but it’s pretty useful if you are just needing info on the first Godzilla movie you ever saw or something.

Here’s the thing. It isn’t a web if there are no connections. Linking to other interesting sites, pages, or whatever is what makes the World Wide Web a web. So LINK!!!!!!

Manifesto?

OK, I know it seems like I’m going off the deep end, and I may be, but I updated my “About” page. It’s not quite a manifesto – YET. I’m working on it.

I added my static skate clips site, which I generate with Jekyll, to the navigation menu up top. I don’t now if I’ll stick with Jekyll, but so far it is working. There are a few issues I want to work out, but I do love the art gallery look of it.

Honestly, if I can get the issues worked out with Jekyll, or find another static site generator that solves those few problems, I may work on moving this entire blog to a similar setup. WordPress has been good for many years, but it is becoming bloated. I feel like the complexity of the mySQL/PHP stuff makes it vulnerable to hacking. I mean, I know this is the case. Worst, the themes in WordPress are becoming very hard to customize, absurdly complex, and almost all of them suck. The complexity issue means it is really not a great use of my time to create my own.

I do love using micro.blog for my other skateboarding blog. It is based on Hugo, another static site generator. Micro.blog is really a pretty amazing blogging platform. Still, I’m increasingly drawn to building everything I need myself. The transition will take time though. I have lots of other things I’m working on. I think ActivityPub is very cool, but really, I’m getting to the point I’d rather just have people follow the site by RSS and email me if they have something to say. I’m feeling less need to share it everywhere.

I’d hand-code everything and use SSIs IF I could easily create an RSS feed for it. I’m just not there.

 

The Revenge of Frankenstein

Tonight I watched the 2nd of the Hammer Frankenstein movies, The Revenge of Frankenstein, with Peter Cushing of course as the kindly doctor.

I love that there’s a continuity so far with these movies. Keeping Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein and actually following his life through six movies is pretty cool. Other than the classic universal monster movies I’ve really never been much of a horror movie fan. Much more into science fiction. I’m aware that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel is really considered to be the first work of science fiction and literature, but let’s face it. The movies really are about horror. That being said these films aren’t exactly scary or even that shocking by today’s standards. But there is something disturbing about them. And they’re tremendously fun.

I’ve actually had to watch these films on three different streaming services. Tonight I watched on Apple TV. Not sure where I’m going to pick up the next one.

Walking the Dog

Not the skateboard trick. This post is actually about walking the dog.

Our dog is about 2 years and 3 or 4 months old. I have always loved him, even when he was 9 weeks old with needle teeth and peeing in the house. I loved him, but I didn’t really love being a dog owner at that point. I’d never had a dog before. Neither had my wife. We were new at it. Luckily my wife is super smart and she did a fantastic job training him, and getting professional training for him as well.

Today I worked from home. She’s out of town so it was just me and him and the cat. I had to go into work for about 3 hours this morning. He was in his crate, and of course he was great.

Anyway, I took him out for about twice as long a walk as he gets on a normal afternoon because he’s been so good. It was a really nice day here, so we walked down to the neighborhood park so he could watch the kids play, which he likes. It was nice to have the freedom to do that. I hate that I can’t do that with him every day. Soon, little guy, soon we will all go for great walks all the time. We’ll go to the nature preserves a few times a week. It’s going to be good, little buddy.

beautiful sheltie dog
Riley, at the park, on a beautiful day. What a good boy he is!