Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Why does "objective truth" require deception?

    Remember those "infomercials" that would play on late-night TV? The spokesperson would make shocking claims about the product and how it could solve a problem that you didn't even know you had. When customers received these "too good to be true" products they'd be dismayed to learn these items couldn't be found in stores because once the truth was apparent all desire to own the product would promptly fade. The claims didn't match the reality of the item.[1] Why was the truth of these products hidden behind grandiose promises if the goal was anything other than deception?

    Portions of Christianity helped shape the perception of infomercials through frequent live presentations by televangelists. These scam artists and their "prosperity gospel" were frequently criticized by many Christian groups for distorting Christian tenets and misapplying Biblical verses without considering the likelihood of irreparable harm. Despite the outcry against televangelists, they continued to serve as very public representatives of the religion for years. Armed with often unfalsifiable and dubious claims of miraculous healing powers, telepathy, telekinesis, connections to a spiritual realm, and the ability to use these powers for the benefit of regular monetary supporters, they defrauded millions of their money and health and likely even lead some supporters to bankruptcy or death.

  • bask

    the spring brings a shift 
    soft light trickling down
    through naked branches 
    relentlessly illuminating 
    what's been hidden
    even before winter
    

  • What do you call Lego style bricks made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?

    It's not a joke. Now that any patents that Lego might have had have expired, there's been an explosion of alternative brick systems to Lego [1]. And it was from this video from Alyssa Grenfell [2] where I learned that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [3] have made their own Lego-style bricks called, and I am not making this up, Brick 'Em Young [4].

• Technology and Free Software

  • tarot decks i've made

    i'll flesh out each deck's description later!

    all links are external and lead to my mastodon account.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • tarot links

    • The Brazilian SYN attacks gave up on me?

      I'm risking jinxing myself by mentioning this, but a few days after giving up on blocking the Brazilian SYN attacks [1], they just stopped! It's been at least a week since I've seen them, so whether Brazil gots it act together, some botnet got taken down, or what, it's been quiet.

• Programming

  • Flutter

    It's been many years since I've played in a wind band, but started doing that again last year. The band skews young - I'm easily one of the oldest - and talking with one of my section mates between pieces, I felt a strange flutter of something. She's cute, but that's not it. I couldn't figure it out during rehearsal, too busy trying to hit all the parts I've been practicing the last couple weeks, but on the drive home, stuck in traffic, I realized it: she reminded me, so much, of someone I used to play with, decades ago, who was a little older than me then (maybe four or five years), smart and effortlessly cool with gorgeous, curly blonde hair.