December 2018

George Bush, Who Steered Nation in Tumultuous Times, Is Dead at 94

I like this Bush obit as a crash course on the political forces that shaped the world during my formative years.

24 Ways

Always delighted to see this advent calendar of web design articles light up my RSS feed every December.

The Fun Is Back in Social Media…Again!

TikTok probably feels a lot like Flickr or Twitter in the early days, where everyone… See more →

Did my last-minute year-end donations. If you’re looking for suggestions, I gave to @ACLU, @GDIGM, @internetarchive, @splcenter, @Wikipedia.

Close out 2018 by learning about glitter. nytimes.com/2018/12/21/sty…

“What’s gone from the internet, after all, isn’t ‘truth,’ but trust.” nymag.com/intelligencer/…

“It’s okay, everybody! Mom and Dad’s imaginary friend and the kids’ imaginary friend are the same guy!”

The song tries to reconcile religious Xmas (Jesus) with secular Xmas (Santa), and the result is essentially “Santa = God.”

Never really listened to the “Here Comes Santa Claus” lyrics before. They’re… creepy. genius.com/Gene-autry-her…

If you’ve ever endured one of my diatribes about the sorry state of music metadata, these are the kinds of explorations good data enables. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

I’m so into @CarniDC’s “Visualizing the History of Fugazi.” I wish every band could be this well documented. carniklirs.com/project/fugazi

I often wonder if the laborious passion project I’m working on is a waste of time, but projects like @lynnandtonic’s push me to keep going.

This makes my brain hurt so good. A thoroughly inspiring peek behind the curtain of @lynnandtonic’s genius. twitter.com/lynnandtonic/s…

The amazing thing about babies is that every single one of them is in the 99th percentile for everything.

“Institutions that do not have a history of unilateral, proactive transparency” is a weird way to euphemize “rapist safe houses.”

In lieu of forcefully venting my extreme anger, I’ll just say I am, as always, amazed at how it coexists with a complete lack of surprise. twitter.com/nytimes/status…

“You may forget Facebook; it could happen sooner than you expect. But it’s not likely to forget you.” nytimes.com/2018/12/12/mag…

something something influencers something something orwellian theatlantic.com/technology/arc…

please stop

I dreamed of a gentler version of Earth Crisis’ “Firestorm”:

v̶i̶o̶l̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ kindness
begets
v̶i̶o̶l̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ kindness
let the
r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶u̶p̶s̶ kind acts
begin

🌈

I had no idea @bjork did so much before she was in The Sugarcubes! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Björk#196…

Today I learned that @bjork recorded her first album in 1977, at the age of 11. youtube.com/watch?v=3du0Gp…

Seeing 2018’s YouTube Rewind backlash, thinking about the conflicting motivations of creative communities, attention economies, gatekeepers.

During its first run in theaters, I saw Pulp Fiction seven times. twitter.com/IMDb/status/10…

I like this idea. Lately I’ve been moving my Sass math into calc/variable configurations like the ones @chriscoyier describes here. twitter.com/css/status/107…

This image fills me with awe and dread. 200-million-year-old creatures from a real-life H.R. Giger world. nytimes.com/2018/12/07/sci…

Best dance sequence since Ex Machina.

Someone make an app that lets you congratulate new parents by superimposing their faces onto Scott Stapp in the “With Arms Wide Open” video.

What a time capsule. A 1968 high school faculty struggles to maintain the conformist status quo with a changing world beating at the door. When Vietnam finally comes to the fore after hovering in the background for much of the film, it’s a wrenching indictment.

Whatever I did to make Google think I ought to have repeated exposure to this ad, I’m sorry.

i listened to cat power all day and did not kill myself what do I win

Blah. RIP Pete Shelley. 💔 twitter.com/Buzzcocks/stat…

can’t wait til we’re using our phones as walking sticks twitter.com/forgottentowel…

Opened Photoshop. Discovered that proportional scaling with the Shift key is broken. Closed Photoshop.

🎶 It’s the mooooost wonderful tiiiiiime of the yeeeeeaarrrrr twitter.com/lynnandtonic/s…

brb skipping across town from an apocalyptic jazz show to a film noir screening at 10:14 on a monday night #iloveny

Delighted to see @24ways lighting up in my RSS reader again. 24ways.org

Mostly irredeemably sadistic trash, but its periodic flashes of artfulness—and Meiko Kaji’s withering glare—are enough to recommend it.

I like this Bush obit as a crash course on the political forces that shaped the world during my formative years. nyti.ms/2DU2iwe