Benjamin Reed (aka Raccoon Fink)
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rangerrick.bsky.social
Benjamin Reed (aka Raccoon Fink)
@rangerrick.bsky.social
1.3K followers 500 following 3.7K posts
F/LOSS geek • general nerdery • way too into collecting (and sometimes even drinking) whisky • I write electronic/ambient/dungeon synth music as Raccoon Fink • he/him

https://music.raccoonfink.com/
https://linktr.ee/RaccoonFink/
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rangerrick.bsky.social
What new name will they give HBO this time? I vote HBO Maximillian.
The robot Maximillian, silhouetted on a fiery orange background. From The Black Hole (1979)
December 8, 2025 at 5:49 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
When Google Reader died, NewsBlur was one of the services that popped up to fill the void and it’s been fantastic.

Considering how aggressively focused on its users it has been for over a decade, it’s disappointing to see this own goal on adding AI features.
NewsBlur announcement on a Fediverse post: New Ask AI feature just dropped on a Friday afternoon. It'll change your relationship to what you read. Only available to Premium Archive ($99/year) users. If all goes well, I'll open it up to premium users for demoing in a couple weeks. A screenshot of a user’s reply, and NetNewsWire’s response. ShaneIsGames says, “Hi! Subscriber since 2013 here. Unless you put in writing, in very explicit terms, that this bullshit isn't going to train on my feed if I don't opt in to that, I'm canceling immediately and recommending my friends do so as well.” The NetNewsWire developer’s response was, “no we don’t collect or use any data to train. We’re using off the shelf frontier ai apis, feeding the article the user is asking about as context. Honestly I’m taking a bit aback by all the negativity when ai is announced. I mean, everybody using RSS is an early adopter? I’m surprised by the vocal ai haters.” Attempting to be charitable, I responded: It’s easy to look at things like LLMs and only think of their utility as a tool. But that’s like watching the Manhattan Project come to fruition and going “we learned so much science, and they say this will stop war.” As interesting as LLMs are as a technology, they are fundamentally linked to the wholesale appropriation of the world’s creative output, and a huge acceleration of natural resource use when we’re already blowing through climate change inflection points. The NetNewsWire’s developer replied: eating meat and driving are the two biggest drivers of climate change. Fix those for yourself first, then we can talk about datacenters. There’s a lot of delusion going on around ai and datacenters My final reply has not received a response yet. He suddenly got quiet despite previously responding within moments of my posts. My last post was: I'm not talking about hyperbolic discourse over how much water they do or don't use. Heat management is a datacenter's primary cost & there is no denying we're building them faster than ever before just to handle AI load. Individual effort has little to do with systemic change, but if we're talking that, removing AI from your software is the same. Also I notice you didn’t address the “appropriating the world’s creative output" so I guess I know where you stand on that.
December 6, 2025 at 4:36 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
This one has always stuck with me too.
Headline is “Clinton Threatens To Drop Da Bomb On Iraq” and it features a photo of George Clinton at a lectern, as well as a complicated map and infographic on Operation Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication Storm.
December 6, 2025 at 5:11 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
My #WhiskyAdvent is off to a crackin’ start. A 21-year old Balvenie with a portwood finish. Very nice!
Small single-dram bottle of whisky
December 2, 2025 at 12:19 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
A sign that says: I LIKE PIG BUTTS & I CAN NOT LIE The façade of Malson’s BBQ in Kingsland, GA which features this sign
November 29, 2025 at 3:47 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
TFW you can’t imagine what went on in “show full thread” and are quite frankly afraid to find out.
a rahaeli post at the top of the thread saying “Literally EVERY parent should ban Roblox” then a “Show full thread” link then another rahaeli post saying “They are AMAZING. No-bullshit, scientifically-accurate, gender-and-sexuality-inclusive sex ed that covers social, emotional, and psychological safety in sexual activity as well as physical, teaches teens to recognize the tactics of abusers, validates that changing hormones can cause a fucking mess--“
November 25, 2025 at 4:21 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Every Buffalo Sabres game has us saying “CHIEF?” whenever they mention Ryan McLeod.
Still from MST3K with Joe Don Baker on screen, partially obscured by the silhouettes of Joel and the bots. Overlayed is the text “CHIEF?” in the upper-left, and “MCCLOUD!” in the bottom-right.
November 23, 2025 at 6:47 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Speaking of Bigfoot, just saw this literally yesterday while out driving.
partial North Carolina license plate, below it is a bumper sticker that says, “I met Bigfoot and he gave me a lil kiss”
November 18, 2025 at 8:59 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Daily breakfast affirmation: you can make anything into everything if you just have the right tools.
A shaker of everything bagel seasoning.
November 15, 2025 at 3:30 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Are you _sure_ you can’t think of anything, Apple? Not a clue?
A screenshot of me saying “here’s your metaphor, motherfucker!” except I typoed it as “mothet”. “mothetfucker” is highlighted and Apple’s pop up says “No Replacements Found”
November 13, 2025 at 4:03 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
This is your irregular reminder that there is a movie you can watch over and over again between Halloween season and Christmas because it fits both.

Nightmare before what? Huh?

No, I'm of course talking about Rare Exports, the extremely normal Finnish Christmas movie! Kids will love it!
A screenshot from a media player describing Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. It's categorized as Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror, and has Finnish audio (and English subtitles). The description for the movie says: In the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains, 486 meters deep, lies the closest ever guarded secret of Christmas. The time has come to dig it up. This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus.
November 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Scrolled way down and I’m so disappointed no one did this yet. On Bluesky, of all places!
“Shumway for Melmac” in the Mamdani poster style.
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Can't even escape MAGA grift in my *whisky* hobby.
An ad for 4547 "Patriot Edition" whiskey. The copy reads: Premium American Whiskey America has been waiting four long years for this. Finally, after patiently and meticulously aging to perfection, 4547 American Whiskey is here to win the day. Discover the spirit of freedom in every drop. This award-winning, small-batch whiskey embodies the determination and ingenuity that makes America great. Sip it neat to savor the oaky notes and subtle sweetness or mix it into your favorite cocktail for a patriotic twist.
November 3, 2025 at 3:42 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Halloween is a night of monsters, but tonight, I… *I* am the _real_ monster.
A picture of a full-sized, 4-bar KitKat bar. I have taken a giant bite out of it that takes a significant amount out of 3 bars.
November 1, 2025 at 12:14 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Made a Raccoon Fink pumpkin this year. We always carve ours Halloween night.
Night shot of the pumpkin, glowing with candlelight. My logo, a stylized raccoon fink, rendered in pumpkin negative space. Earlier daylight shot of the pumpkin, shortly after finishing carving. My logo, a stylized raccoon fink, rendered in pumpkin negative space.
October 31, 2025 at 11:04 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
well *that’s* a hell of a phone number to send a “house majority PAC” text from
a text purportedly from "hmpac" that's from the phone number: 1 (435) 255-1488 (1488 is a common dogwhistle of nazis)
October 27, 2025 at 9:02 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
So we already knew about Brent Burns and then Trent from Kinetico. But is… is there a THIRD clone we didn’t know about???
Picture of the back of a pickup truck with a logo labeled “The Shingle Master” The logo is a plain green shield with a black stylized head with a large bushy beard that looks a lot like Brent Burns. Behind the head is a set of crossed hammers.
October 27, 2025 at 8:25 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Sexy @sandeepparikh.bsky.social

(I was looking up @jococruise.bsky.social guests)

Kinda redundant though. I'm a cis hetero male so while he's not my thing, Sandeep is objectively sexy. I'm not blind.
headshot of Sandeep from the JoCo cruise guest page
October 24, 2025 at 1:44 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Classic Gary Larson Far Side comic: Panel 1 is a series of folks in line standing on fluffy clouds. An angel is handing something to the first person in line and saying, “Welcome to heaven… Here’s your harp.” Panel 2 is a similar line of folks in a cave with flames in the foreground. The devil is handing something to the first person in line and saying, “Welcome to hell… Here’s your accordion.”
October 20, 2025 at 3:32 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
In the 19 years I’ve owned this shirt, it’s gone from being seen as a nerdy play on words to being a clear symbol of my anti-government communist sympathies. 🫠
A picture of my t-shirt. It’s red, and it’s from Threadless. It’s called The Communist Party. It has two weathered horizontal yellow lines which end in a hammer and sickle with a star. In the foreground are five famous historical communist people, most of whom are holding a red solo cup. Karl Marx is throwing horns with both hands and is wearing a lampshade on his head. Lenin and Stalin are both wearing striped cone-shaped hats. Behind them are Mao Zedong holding his cup in front of him, and Fidel Castro holding his cup up in the air.
October 19, 2025 at 12:29 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
NC DMV
Popular meme template, set in a boardroom. Panel 1: boss saying “We need to improve DMV wait times!” Panel 2: suggestions from other people: “make an app!” “DMV kiosks!” “hire enough staff” Panel 3: person who suggested “hire enough staff” is thrown out the high-rise window
October 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Highland cows (coos) are the really shaggy adorable ones though.
A highland cow with shaggy hair hanging over its eyes like a scruffy teenager. It is licking its nose.
October 11, 2025 at 3:08 AM
rangerrick.bsky.social
I got an email from my prostate. Weird that it doesn't use my own domain.
From: your prostate <support@lifsfer.shop> To: Benjamin Reed Subject: Ancient biblical tonic flushes hidden prostate toxins?
October 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
Someone on the fediverse pointed out that this is missing markdown, so here you go: Markdown Wahlberg
a photo of Mark Wahlberg Above it is the text: # Actors Who Have Tech Memes ## Markdown Wahlberg
October 9, 2025 at 6:02 PM
rangerrick.bsky.social
For the uninitiated:
Jason Statham looking either confused or annoyed (aka, his default state in most movies) with curly brackets around his head. It's labeled "JSON STATHAM" A photo of Mark Hamill that has been modified to be broken up into horizontal chunks. The top and bottom chunks are normal, the next layers in are offset to the right, and the inner layers are offset twice as much as the previous. It is captioned, "Mark Yaml"
October 8, 2025 at 4:46 PM