Poise Under Chaos @poiseunderchaos@sonomu.club

(c) the holders of this account

Reminder to data scrapers that my rights online default to copyright protection, not fair use, in most cases. So if you think you're an exception, you're very likely not and "go fuck yourselves" in any case, you scamming piece of corporate bootlicking shit

other accounts:

we'll try to explain related political analytical things, but we have limits to our patience and available energy. it's a process, though! we get that.

this account:

if it's not related to the politics of music, writing or the surrounding cultures in relation to that? don't care *and* we're highly opinionated about such things *and* should really be spending this time writing new material instead. so, um, bye

this is presuming that leased or purchased cars aren't going to start having the same problems as shared ones, especially as used cars reach their end of life, and all that are left are "smart" ones. if that ends up being the case, which it easily could.

so if you live in one of those communiites, it's either have a car or be somewhat or completely stuck, and at the whims of other people, very directly.

the appealing part is troubling, though. "if you want (or need) to spend a lot of time in the woods, or just wandering, get a car" seems...wrong, somehow.

the messed up thing about this is that it makes owning a car a lot more appealing, if not necessary.

the necessary part is mostly taken care of by the services themselves, which aren't available in any number of places, and definitely not most remote, zero cell phone reception ones. (which is messed up for the same reason that not having high speed internet in rural communities is messed up, but here we are).

Having a gentle "I told you so" moment this fine evening

My smart car rental was a breeze – until I got trapped in the woods

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/18/smart-car-gig-rental-app-trapped

When I Took My Zipcar Into the Wilderness

In an area without cellphone reception, I was unable to open the car.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/zipcar-into-the-wilderness/597217/

producing work isn't the problem here, other people's bullshit at an industry level is.

but unlike having work get published, let alone making a living from that, there's nothing stopping me from doing things this way. so why not

what i'm thinking here is more or less this:

- write a manuscript
- serialize it in order, with PDFs attached if needed for formatting (which is one of the technical hurdles, especially for poetry)
- release the manuscript at the end of serialization
- have Patreon tied to it all along, but without it being paywalled
- repeat

obscurity is one thing, obscurity that has a proportional relationship to ennui is another 🙃 and it's really not necessary. at all.

(if your answer here is gumroad, smashwords or *shudders* Amazon, way ahead of you and also: no. same goes for etsy, although if i made limited edition art books, i'd consider it).

it can make considering publishing really daunting, because not only is it a sunk cost, it's sunk energy as well. it's like the more you do, the more enervating it becomes.

so seriously, why not just aggregate it, attach that to patreon and paypal, and be done with it.

seriously considering just pushing out all future manuscripts via RSS and blogs, because fuck it

some context:

one of the things i do is write postmodern poems, and experimental prose. this is sort of the equivalent of starting a noise rock band, except there's hardly any crossover and nothing that's actually like Bandcamp, for both technical and cultural reasons.

It's not like everything has the Linux problem, where it actually is harder. If anything, the mainstream aggregators for media consumption now make things harder and more expensive, while alternatives still exist. This is way before getting into additional bullshit like DRM.

So *shrugs* maybe don't assume that we're not doomed quite so quickly just yet, that's all.

Which is kind of how I feel when people get pissed (including myself) about how fucked up the internet is now. The public internet has only existed for 25 years, and social media, for around 15, give or take. Which is nothing -- and is a short enough time that all sorts of options still exist (like RSS and blogs), and new ones keep emerging (like DAT, meshnets and palm-sized open protocol computers).

I get home, hook it up, and...

nothing's wrong.

I move the box I'm using as a makeshift side table, stack a couple of books, rest the DVD player on it, and...problems, solved.

So I get in a huff about it (as I do), and won't let it go. So I go to America's favorite computer-based design ware emporium, and ask for an overpriced device, and I tell them a condensed version of this story. They're like *nods* "ok, then" and I get the thing.

Keep in mind that somehow, I've convinced myself that Time Marches On Even If I Hate It, and am planning for this not to work, and to have to return it, and aaaaa.

Because the cables are a foot long and can't reach to an adjoining table, or they require the USB ports to be set up in a way that typically isn't done on a laptop, or buying an entire new laptop to power a $25 device.

So I look on everybody's favorite retailer, industrial labor overseer and climate disaster change agent for an external DVD player, and it's a total shitshow of bad design. Like it's not meant for sitting in a couch or recliner, with a laptop.

Here's a story.

I hate digital streaming, but I love being able to watch things when I want. Also, I hate wading through ads and at least some previews.

But you know...I hate destroying the environment even more. ;p So I'm trying to work my way back to DVDs -- which aren't perfect either, but at least I can get them from a variety of different ways, including in ways that allow for sharing them, both paid and not.

Look at all the ways this is true.

- the corporate internet? not a requirement.

- the internet itself, as opposed to other already existing protocols? not a requirement.

- syndication via digital gatekeepers? not a requirement.

- whatever huge environmental footprint that is happening because of digital streaming? not a requirement.

This isn't a "things could be better, so why aren't they" situation. This is a "things are better period, so why keep acting as if they're not?" one.