Canned Dragons

I have been growing increasingly frustrated with Apple lately. Apple is a giant company now, as compared to the scrappy upstart they were when I started using their computers in 2005 upon my return to college. A lot has changed. Their workforce and market cap are massive. They are always plowing forward at breakneck speed now, sometimes at the expense of their users and their products. Screen TimeThe first thoughts I had following the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference Keynote this week centered around iPadOS 16.

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A colleague was just telling me about how he hasn't watched the news in approximately three years. He found himself getting so agitated by both sides of the political spectrum and the way the news was presented, that he just quit cold turkey. He feels like he's much happier for the change, and his wife fills him in if something major happens. It seems as if I'm hearing about more and more people who decide that giving up social media is not enough to keep their frustration in check.

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Lumenette is a new musical project from Christine Byrd (Hammock contributor and wife of musician Mark Byrd). “I’m a Sensory Explosion” is the first Hammock single to credit Lumenette as a cowriter. The song is a beautiful, elegiac exploration of opening your senses to the sometimes overwhelming weight of the natural world. The textures of the song are soothingly familiar to long-time Hammock devotees and Christine’s vocals add a traditional 4AD/shoegaze sound.

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I have a Kobo Libra 2 ereader, and it’s one of my favorite devices. Of course, it is used for reading books, but I spend just as much time reading articles saved from the internet. I find I have a much greater capacity for reading long materials passed from the internet on an e-ink device. I’m using Pocket as my read-it-later service, and it syncs well with the Kobo. It’s a 2-way sync, so you can favorite and archive articles from the device.

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Inspired by Derek Sivers, this page includes a sample of what I’m thinking about and working on right now. Last updated November 6, 2023.I’ve always wanted to experience a tiny house, which, to be clear, is different than wanting to live in a tiny house. I read somewhere recently that over half of the people who bought tiny homes a few years ago when their popularity peaked had converted them to Airbnb rentals.

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Stray Fossa is a band that Apple Music kept pushing on me until I realized that I really liked them. Combining hushed tones and gentle atmospherics with chillwave sensibilities, they appeal perfectly to mid-life me. At this period in my existence, I'm looking backward and forward in equal measure. Music that contains a sense of restrained nostalgia with a nod to retro-futurism speaks to where my mind finds itself. I can imagine walking through an urban landscape with ear buds in, going from classic architecture to the most modern of skyscrapers and beholding all with a fascination brought about by realizing harmony in contradiction.

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A lot of times, when I watch movies that pit good vs. evil in easily distinguishable sides, I wonder about someone actually choosing a path that is clearly evil. Take Star Wars, for example. Why would someone choose to be on the dark side, with all the available evidence that it's just evil? There are moments when I have trouble suspending my disbelief. George Lucas tried hard to make Anakin's descent into the evil persona of Darth Vader believable, but it was still rough around the edges.

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Covers by Mint Julep The 1980s was a decade that started with an album called The Age of Plastic. The band that released the album, the Buggles, captured the spirit of the age by announcing “Video Killed The Radio Star” in a nod to the rise of MTV (Music Television). They had their fingers on the pulse of the American music scene that was springing up in the wake of disco and the long tail of the rise of punk.

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This post was originally published on Medium — December 13, 2015. Unfortunately, due to the incapacity of US politicians to tackle the issue of gun violence, it remains an evergreen post. A couple of weeks ago, the NY Daily News, after yet another mass shooting in the US, posted a provocative cover blasting politicians for offering prayers instead of concrete action.The cover featured tweets from Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan, offering their prayers for the victims and families affected by the shooting that occurred in San Bernadino, CA.

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A new book entitled Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia examines how more conservative and even far-right Christians are flocking to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). The phenomenon is detailed by Odette Yousef in the NPR piece Orthodox Christian churches are drawing in far-right American converts. Those who have followed the influx of extremists into American Orthodoxy agree that those individuals are fringe within the church and are mostly concentrated in newly founded ROCOR parishes.

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