Benjamin Sharma 🇨🇦 🇺🇸
@benjamin.bsky.social
Torontonian by birth and residence. Canadian and American by nationality. Fan of history, liberal democracy, and our constitutional monarchy. Also a fan of the Leafs, Jays, Bills, and Raps. Plays video games from time to time.
It is, but I like the granularity of setting things up myself.
Whenever I’ve used it, it hasn’t felt like it’s mine.
Had the Steam Deck running Dreamcast stuff fine before I wiped it before (I thought) selling it, after I got the Ally X. Then changed my mind when I saw the market prices. :p
Whenever I’ve used it, it hasn’t felt like it’s mine.
Had the Steam Deck running Dreamcast stuff fine before I wiped it before (I thought) selling it, after I got the Ally X. Then changed my mind when I saw the market prices. :p
December 5, 2025 at 9:36 PM
It is, but I like the granularity of setting things up myself.
Whenever I’ve used it, it hasn’t felt like it’s mine.
Had the Steam Deck running Dreamcast stuff fine before I wiped it before (I thought) selling it, after I got the Ally X. Then changed my mind when I saw the market prices. :p
Whenever I’ve used it, it hasn’t felt like it’s mine.
Had the Steam Deck running Dreamcast stuff fine before I wiped it before (I thought) selling it, after I got the Ally X. Then changed my mind when I saw the market prices. :p
(The Wikipedia article for the Mandela Effect suggests that people mixed up Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko, which I think is the likeliest explanation of the whole thing.)
December 4, 2025 at 4:08 PM
(The Wikipedia article for the Mandela Effect suggests that people mixed up Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko, which I think is the likeliest explanation of the whole thing.)
The thread gets funnier as it goes, but this reminded me that in the 1980s and 1990s there was a lot of “secret information” about getting ahead that did not survive society’s transition to having easy access to search engines.
bsky.app/profile/crai...
bsky.app/profile/crai...
He has an older son who has been a lawyer in Chicago for many years. I was in my office once when that son, then maybe a second or third-year associate, was in town visiting. I overheard him telling his son, "tasseled loafers. If you want to be taken seriously, wear tasseled loafers."
December 4, 2025 at 12:40 PM
The thread gets funnier as it goes, but this reminded me that in the 1980s and 1990s there was a lot of “secret information” about getting ahead that did not survive society’s transition to having easy access to search engines.
bsky.app/profile/crai...
bsky.app/profile/crai...
First exposure to that particular desire-set was the webpage of the woman who claimed the Berlin Wall had been her husband for decades. (Think I saw that in the 1990s?)
December 2, 2025 at 11:32 PM
First exposure to that particular desire-set was the webpage of the woman who claimed the Berlin Wall had been her husband for decades. (Think I saw that in the 1990s?)
But there’s a big distance between temporarily changing one’s vote and changing which ostensibly non-political long-term projects one advocates for.
December 2, 2025 at 10:29 PM
But there’s a big distance between temporarily changing one’s vote and changing which ostensibly non-political long-term projects one advocates for.
The current situation has me voting very differently than my end-of-2014 self could have envisioned, with almost zero differences in my first principles. This is a big deal! (And a big source of personal crankiness.)
December 2, 2025 at 10:27 PM
The current situation has me voting very differently than my end-of-2014 self could have envisioned, with almost zero differences in my first principles. This is a big deal! (And a big source of personal crankiness.)
Post-script: a big question is, at what point does context come to be as important as text? If it always does, you’re in a Manichaen world forever.
There are clear times: the 1940 showdown with fascism, and the early Cold War confrontation with communism.
The current situation? Maybe!
There are clear times: the 1940 showdown with fascism, and the early Cold War confrontation with communism.
The current situation? Maybe!
December 2, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Post-script: a big question is, at what point does context come to be as important as text? If it always does, you’re in a Manichaen world forever.
There are clear times: the 1940 showdown with fascism, and the early Cold War confrontation with communism.
The current situation? Maybe!
There are clear times: the 1940 showdown with fascism, and the early Cold War confrontation with communism.
The current situation? Maybe!
A theoretically sound argument can become a shelter for malignant actors in a particular context, and that is one of Mike’s positions here (which I sympathize with).
Example:
A big peace movement in the context of a Cold War staredown between the liberal and totalitarian world was not neutral!
2/2
Example:
A big peace movement in the context of a Cold War staredown between the liberal and totalitarian world was not neutral!
2/2
December 2, 2025 at 9:41 PM
A theoretically sound argument can become a shelter for malignant actors in a particular context, and that is one of Mike’s positions here (which I sympathize with).
Example:
A big peace movement in the context of a Cold War staredown between the liberal and totalitarian world was not neutral!
2/2
Example:
A big peace movement in the context of a Cold War staredown between the liberal and totalitarian world was not neutral!
2/2
I never hit anyone, obviously, but the way those traffic signals are set don’t seem to have adjusted for the reality of more bicycle traffic.
December 1, 2025 at 3:34 PM
I never hit anyone, obviously, but the way those traffic signals are set don’t seem to have adjusted for the reality of more bicycle traffic.
Turning right from University to Elm (to park at lots on Murray for hospital row, when my dad was dying) was always a bit nerve-wracking because I’d be waiting for a break in pedestrians, finding it, and then RIGHT THEN a cyclist would inevitably be going full tilt towards the intersection.
December 1, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Turning right from University to Elm (to park at lots on Murray for hospital row, when my dad was dying) was always a bit nerve-wracking because I’d be waiting for a break in pedestrians, finding it, and then RIGHT THEN a cyclist would inevitably be going full tilt towards the intersection.
It might be a mix of the way lights at Avenue/Davenport work plus giving pedestrians a scramble signal instead of walking at regular greens.
December 1, 2025 at 3:30 PM
It might be a mix of the way lights at Avenue/Davenport work plus giving pedestrians a scramble signal instead of walking at regular greens.