I learned many important, horrible, amazing, life-changing things in 2025, but they all pale in comparison to my realization that chipmunks are squirrels. #chipmunks #squirrels #chipmunksaresquirrels #seismicrevelations [via mastodon.social/@rakontisto]

"Gear is the mind-killer. Gear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my gear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the gear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." #JOMO

Writing about the difficulty of moving out of a place. last-night-i-dreamed-i-was-you.ghost.io/in-the-heart... #writing #philosophy #essay

I have an extremely handsome winter sweater, but I have a reluctance to wear it because of my fear of being mistaken for someone who might own skis. #classism #classascendancy #puttingonairs #skiingisgross #handsomesweaters

I was viewed askance in response to my opining that I preferred the sound of Québécois French to Parisian French because the former sounds pornier. #QuébécoisFrench #French #dialects #pornierdialects

It always makes me laugh when streaming video people open with "Hey, what's up everybody?" Are we supposed to talk to the screen like idiot children watching Howdy Doody in Ye Olden Days? #dimwitculture #youtubers

Funny how often literature is full of things that, if heard, seen, or known, would make you go insane. People sure were afraid of suddenly going insane back in the day. Ironically, they didn't seem to fear being ignorant panicky dimwits, though. #goingmad #lovecraftcliche #scificliches

Infotainment? Honey, my car *is* infotainment. I don't need screens and loud music to make a Citroën 2CV 'taining. I sing loud, laugh frequently, and smirk at the rest of the dingdongs stuck in their family trucks. #theinfotainmentscam #infotainment #Citroën #Citroen #Citroën2CV #2CV

On holiday conversations: last-night-i-dreamed-i-was-you.ghost.io/a-tip-on-tho... #lifeadvice #tobewry #difficultconversations #holidays

On 1980s audio production: mastodon.social/@rakontisto/...

I can't think of a single instance where anyone has ever looked smarter while wearing a ball cap. It's an entirely silly hat. #hats #ballcaps #dumbhats

It is really, really difficult to craft a ballad I can stand to listen to. It's my least favorite kind of song. I mean—there are some amazing ballads, but, they're rare for me. #ballads #theslowsong

I feel like I don't use the phrase "hurf durf" to describe the amusement of idiots nearly enough these days. @hurfdurf #thingsidiotsdo

On closed-up rooms. mastodon.social/@rakontisto/...

mastodon.social/@rakontisto/...

Ugh. The episode of #TheArchers for Friday included an ad for the execrable Ben Carson and fuck that guy for invading my happy radio drama respite from his ilk's malfeasance. #TheArchers #BBCradiodrama #objectionableads #fuckpodcastads #BenCarson #BenCarsonsucks #advertisingsucks

The first step is admitting that I am powerless in the presence of a quantity of candy corn. That waxy crack just grabs me by the dopamine and swings me around like a little girl skipping while holding her dolly by the leg. #stupidaddictions #candycorn #octoberisaspecialmonthforboys

I'm not remotely curious about what created the universe, what the meaning of our existence is, why I'm here, or what happens after we die, but I sure would love to know where the heck I put my three-hole punch, because I've been looking for it forever. #philosophy #thebigquestions #whyarewehere

I have to be honest & admit that I use my teasmade in a manner not envisioned by its designers. Rather than wake with a machine boiling water next to my bed, I keep mine next to my desk, set to 11:00 AM for a little pre-luncheon kick. #teasmade #teasmades #offbookuses #tea #repostfrommyMastodon

It's so weird how that insipid American far right spent the past forty years shrieking about jackbooted thugs and tyrants in power and yet here we are, and who's wearing the jackboots? Oh dear.

I find difficult conversations about contemporary issues easier when, instead of using synecdoche to simplify things (Israel v. Gaza, for example), I speak in specifics (Likud v. Gaza). Works for a lot of things and staves off the gotchas you get from people who just want to dig in and not ponder.

I contend that Ryuichi Sakamoto was the only person in the history of our species who didn't look stupid in a long coat. #everyonelooksstupidinalongcoat #longcoatssuck #badfashion

I'm reminded of something. youtu.be/p_g5Zjnp520?...

What is the point of a 300-character limit? Particularly when Mastodon gives me 500-characters so I can express a complete thought now and then, it's just stupid. Fuck this stupid same-as-Twitter non-Twitter. #badasTwitter #blueskysucks

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

It's still commerical and therefore destined for enshittification, but this is still (at the moment) better than the other one. If we can establish ourselves as social media nomads, bailing out of dead communities for new ones, there's hope. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

I officially coin "psnake oil salesman" to denote anyone selling faux psych self-improvement nonsense because the world needs this portmanteau. #coinage #portmanteau #psnakeoil #schlock [ reposted from my Mastodon: mastodon.social/@rakontisto ]

The nice thing about being a stand-up autobiographer and reliably unreliable narrator is that I'll never have to sit down and write out my memoirs. #standupautobiographer #raconteur #unreliablenarrator #writing

My physical therapist found it intensely amusing that my primary fitness goal is to be able to do a flawless slickback step. #PT #physicaltherapy #fitnessgoals #slickback

I contend that Philip Johnson's twee Glass House is the story of the emperor's new clothes rendered as architecture, or possibly that it's the box his ego came in. #glasshouse #philipjohnson #twee #architecture [reposted from mastodon.social/@rakontisto]

All these so-called "AI" summaries just remind me of how annoying it is to have some dumb five-year-old try to tell you what a movie they saw was about. It's all just a lot of words, "and then and then and then" and honestly I'd rather just read the damn thing. #AIhype #fakeinnovation

9 things I own a sufficient quantity of: • Bicycles • Mechanical pencils • Synthesizers • Manual typewriters • Small blank notebooks • Electric fans • Antique escritoires • Tape recorders • Woks #inventory #objects #collections #myjunk

It's 2025 and movies, even loaded to the gills with CGI and "AI," still can't begin to touch the depth of visual imagery possible in radio drama. Give me #ArchOboler, #DirkMaggs, and #ZBS over glossy blockbuster schlock any day. #audiodrama #radiodrama #HHGTTG #deepsound

There's no better predictor that a hurricane of bullshit is heading your way than a Hollywood writer citing Schrödinger's Cat, quantum mechanics, or "multiverse." Best hunker down, y'all. #badwriting #scifisucks #lowstandards

The hardest thing about finishing a book you started decades ago is not rewriting what was already good. Still, it's okay to accept that you couldn't finish it sooner because you needed more life experience to fully understand the stories you set out to tell. #writing #storytelling #finishingthings

One of my biggest frustrations is that amazing computers for the people like the Raspberry Pi and others exist, but I'm not clever enough to do much new or interesting with them other than to use them to make music. Mind you, I'm not into IOT all that much, so alas. #RaspberryPi #RPi #lackofskills

Speaking of red flags, what is the opposite of a red flag?

Golf will never be anything to me but an immense, flapping red flag, billowing its warning messages to the world below. A thoroughly vile habit. #golf #golfsucks #redflag #enoughwiththegolfalready #mincingtwitsonturf

I contend that the main Lovecraftian Horror™ in Lovecraft is his drearily florid, overwrought writing, compounded by his berserk racism and antisemitism. #Lovecraft #Lovecraftianhorror #overwroughtwriting #pomposity #badwriting #yawn

Finally saw Hamilton. Didn't like it, found the songs infectious in the way that advertising jingles are, rather than being songs I *want* to sing, but don't mind that other people love it. Heck, if liking Hamilton irritates idiots, I'm all for people liking it. #musicals #Hamilton #meh

I think I'm suffering from literary anhedonia, in that I am not enjoying anything I read. Old familiar books are fine, so I'm revisiting them, but I hope this passes soon. #literaryanhedonia #reading #badbooks

If you ever catch me wearing those stupid round glasses architects wear because they think they look like Le Corbusier, I officially give you permission to slap them off my face. #lecorbusier #pretentiouseyewear #roundspectacles

Hearing my kid detail what she'd do with ten million dollars was a sobering reminder of how much cultural deprogramming I have to do to get her off the sick valorization of wealth that is epidemic in my culture. #wealthworship #fauxluxury #illnumeracy #humanist #humbleliving #simpleliving

Is it wrong that I sometimes wish I knew more stupid people so I could read them for filth and then shun them? #readforfilth #shunningidiots #scratchingpost

There is no video so heartwarming, uplifting, tearful, or entertaining that will make me overlook the presence in the frame of an unforgivable couch. #unforgivablefurniture #awfulotherlives #drearychoices

I think it's a telling sign about the passenger volume for my local train station that, when I parked there this morning, I doubled the number of cars in the parking lot. #trains #commuterrail #MARCtrain #StDenis #transit