By the way, this week of June 9th to 15th is national forest week. I meant to send out that reminder for fellow nature-lovers a while back but I forgot since I've been busy working on a project. Anyway though: I've always found that nature is the most reliable source of peace and comfort. Enjoy it!

I wrote a ~10 page article on my thoughts on the state of modern (often user-hostile) user interface design and my suggestions for Linux disros and desktop environments.

The past 2-3 months I've been testing out distros and identified seven that seem to me to combine ease of use with freedom best.

Perhaps instead of referring to our modern devices as "Personal Computers", we should start referring to them as "Devices for Installing Spyware and Controlling Others" (DISCO). That would seem to more accurately reflect what they have become. Done much computing with "your" "computer" lately? 🕺🪩

I have a serious #Bluesky question for everyone: Does it matter if I use #underscore_tags versus if I use #CamelCaseTags?

Personally, I find underscore-based tags to be vastly easier to read honestly, and more flexible too.

If I had my say then the two tag formats would be equivalent on #bsky! 💡

Who else here misses traditional #forums such as #phpBB based ones and such? I certainly do. I feel like the environment of forums is more conducive to in-depth and nuanced discussion and builds stronger communities. Coincidentally, I also wrote an old PDF article about this same thing a while back.

I wrote an interesting #article a few days ago about the ways that #minimalism and #censorship overlap in modern #society in ways that harm #diversity and #freedom. The article is called "Oneself as Intended, Not as Packaged" and is under "My Creations" on my site. I really like how it turned out! 🦉

It's been "interesting" how my #trust in #technology platforms in recent years has plummeted and is now ~0 (or negative, arguably). There's been this uncanny pervasive sense of #censorship and #narrative_control. I didn't used to remotely feel that way. Good outcomes for humanity require #freedom.

One square mile of forest contains more true wealth than any person’s wallet ever could. All of time — eons of life’s resilience — is etched on every fiber of every rustling leaf.

Life itself is the only real thing we have.

So, remind yourself what real wealth is.

#EarthDay #EarthMonth #Nature

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄🎁

I hope you all have some wonderful and refreshing holiday time this year! 😄

Google's search monopoly endangers humanity's freedom. Here's some #AlternateSearchEngines I've been trying lately: Mojeek, Stract, Greppr, Marginalia, SearchMySite, Teclis, OldaVista, Wiby, The Old Net, IndieSeek, Alexandria, Right Dao, DDG, FrogFinder, and Ecosia.

Less Google → more freedom! 🔎💾🌎

Here's another #PixelSculpture (hybrid #pixelart + #sculpture) for you all, entitled "Hellish Pseudo-Staircase".

I make these by first creating a digital sculpture (in #3DCoat in this case, but #ZBrush or #Blender sculpt would also work) and then resizing and using Krita's "palettize" filter. 🎨

I'm reuploading a new version of the prior #PixelSculpture post here because the prior pixel art became blurry. Bluesky seems to apply filtered rendering to images, which wrecks #pixelart. Thus, this time I've upscaled the image but kept it blocky (via nearest neighbor) and that should fix it. 🍀🗿

I am wary of posting my art online (b/c of AI-based #plagiarism), yet have little choice for sharing creations with a broader audience than to do so. At this moment I wish to share a special hybrid art style— #pixelart + #sculpture: #PixelSculpture. Want to try too? Resize + Krita "palettize" helps.

In general though, my account isn't intended to be limited to philosophy. I am a creative generalist and I intend my account to likewise cast a wide net onto many subjects, but usually of a creative, intellectual, and/or wholesome nature. I've published books, coded, sculpted, dabbled in art, etc. 🎨

My 2nd post will be #philosophy too, but #Stoicism. I recall reading a phrase from (if I recall correctly) Marcus Aurelius's Meditations: "A rock thrown in air / gains nothing rising up / and loses nothing falling down". That struck me as the essence of confidence, though it was not framed that way.

This is my 1st ever post on BlueSky: I shall make it something that embodies a key value to me: peace and the ability to sense and savor the value in all things. A poem from a book (365 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao): "A solitary crane / in winter snow / needs no jewels.". Inner peace is like that! 🦉 #Taoism