MiddleTwig
Obedience to law is the dry husk
of loyalty and good faith.
Opinion is the barren flower of the Way,
the beginning of ignorance.
-- Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching (Ursula K. Le Guin)
To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
Everyone Takes the Picture
03-10-2025
The modern world is overrun with people taking pictures and videos on phones of the things considered interesting by them and their friends, so they can be interesting among their subscribers, as the corner coffee shop is now a cam in your bedroom, complete with subscribers.
Modern people are not taking pictures, they are scanning the material world, aka what they think, or have been suggested, is important to capture digitally. I guess some people look at a fraction of what they capture, while I am confident many others are squeezing every last iota of information they can. I imagine most images are taken and never viewed by another human. Taken in an attempt to stave off death, or at least not being forgotten this week. The ego so attached it protects the connection between the collar and the chain, missing the whole point of being human. Maybe you will look back at the pictures, and yes, you have given yourself the opportunity to do that in the future, so there is that. Wouldn't you rather just stand and imagine the place a thousand years before, without selfie sticks and ignorant short sightedness. Just for a minute, in your head transcending time and marveling at the peace and quiet.
As people who know that burning fossil fuels is killing the planet, and everything we do requires burning them, you would think we should consider this in our activities? Travel is killing the planet for sure as the highway is packed with millions of gallons of gas being burned under the airlines crossing the sky and reducing the future. Do we have to keep ourselves occupied with new and fresh in order to live? Are we unable to occupy ourselves right here? Wouldn't right here be better if you invested those trips into tangible changes in your everyday life, or extending the length of time our descendants can potentially survive going forward? Feeding the machine that is eating our world starts by turning on the phone. We are all guilty. We would be happier doing it less, as would the planet, but the algorithms disagrees.
Slow the robots learning! Stop the sucking of excess attention driving us into splintered tribes through algorithmicly narrated feeds constructed to keep us engaged with the device, leveraging previous engagement to entice. People look at news stories and then AI generates a similar video or meme based on the story from a pixel bought your info and is tracking your content and waiting for an opportunity to inject a persuasive piece of content that will trick you into thinking things are not as they are. Luckily a wink and a nod can start a revolution. Unplug and kill a robot.
"Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?"
- Lao Tzu
Command Line Text Editor
03-09-2025
Linux is not super easy to use, certainly when something is broken. If you are going to use Linux you should learn how to use the "command line". A command line is also know as a "terminal prompt." In MacOS they have the concept of a Terminal. In Windows they have "Power Shell". Linux has a bunch. All of these open a window and give you a "prompt" where you can enter commands and run programs. In the GUI world of "point and click" the terminal is secondary. It is the original interface for interacting with a computer, if you are old enough to remember such things.
In the world of Linux almost all programs can be run from the command line or launched into the GUI. The command line also allows you to edit config files or write a manifesto. Being able to open, edit and save a text file is a super power in the Linux world. Of course like a lot of things in Linux they are assumed or overlooked, but the ability to do this will allow you to do things and understand things better.
There are many "command line text editor" and one of the biggest debates in Linux is "vi" (Vee-eye) or "Emacs" (EE-max). I am a vi guy as is every correct thinking person. Nano is also an often mentioned editor.
To open a file you run something like this, "vi filename.txt". This will give you a view of the file. It will create a blank file if none exists. The colon (:) allows you to enter a command. ":q" will quit. ":w" will write the file. You can hit escape to get back to the standard mode. Here you want to put the application into "insert" mode by entering "i". In the bottom left it should say "-- INSERT --". Hitting escape will get you out of that.
Learning vi or vim (vi improved) will make so many things easier on a Linux (or any UNIX) based computer. Even MacOS and I hear Windows too.
Do not fear the prompt.
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
- George Orwwell
Influencers are Not your Friends
02-11-2025
If the word "influencer" doesn't trigger your threat analysis we are wired different. Not that they are truth tellers or have any special gifts usually, other than the grift of the moment. Social media companies are the biggest of all, in that they will do whatever it takes to get clicks and likes, and in the end, money rfom all of it's users. Who can blame them, I mean just like a hustler on the street with a pair of dice and a fist full of twenties, you want some of that, and think you are going to somehow beat someone who spends their time hustling.
Several come to mind as people nobody should really be listening to for facts or god forbid voting advice, and yet millions tune into a podcast where they make a gazillion of dollars with your ears, eyes and dollars. Influencing you to do things you would probably not do otherwise, but since they said it was true, why not?
"If the sun rises in the west, the bodhisattvas has only one way."
- Suzuki Roshi
The Consumer is killing the planet
01-10-2025
The fact of the matter is that economic growth and consumers endless hunger for stuff is killing the planet. Group you purchases so the amazon truck comes once a week instead of the next day is still forcing the product to be driven or flown great distances from where they are made to the end user. The items have to be packaged, so trees, or at best recycled cardboard is needed. And int he end most things people buy end up in landfills sooner than expected.
Getting people to stop ordering stuff seems impossible. It is part of our society, a part that needs to be amputated.
Advertising or marketing is to blame, supercharged with the Internet and data collection making target marketing as accurate as a laser pre-staging product for when the ads run and people click, transferring their money for the material. For the fossil fuel burning transportation. For the tree based packaging and god knows what it takes, slave labor, child labor, robot labor to make.
Go order a new tee shirt to show you support the climate. Can you see how wrong this is? Fashion should be criminalized. Do people need fake plumes of feathers to attract mates, or can we just be reasonable and admit people fuck and get on with it. Personality should be your measure, not the size of the house or car or closet a coupling will bring.
Read a book instead of doom scrolling sparkly funny flashy displays convincing you always to buy something. What would the Internet be without commerce?
Obviously people need to eat and be clothed, but should some people's resources and habits be able to ruin the planet for all?