You may remember, at the beginning of February last year I said that I was done with Tile and that I couldn’t justify the cost. Well two things happened in that time, one being the obvious thing that Tile *had* to do to be in any way a viable product.
Firstly, Tile re-released their products with a battery-replaceable version. Absolute and total no brainer. I bought myself a pack of four as soon as I saw them if only to be true to my own logic for not having them before.
But in other news - in February my last original tile mate died. You’ll note the set of Februarys in this post. The tile started telling me it was time to be replaced in Feb-2018 (which was a year since activation - all as advertised so no worries) but then *went on working* for a full year after that.
On Sunday the 5th of August at 10am I was disappointed to discover that Devon Coffee, my favourite coffee shop on the occasions I find myself in Exeter, was closed. Nearby was the Boston Tea Party, that appeared to sell coffee too, and I thought why the hell not?
At the desk I was bamboozled to discover that they did not provide take-out cups. At all. The only option provided was to purchase a bamboo re-usable cup. Now, I had looked for one of these on Amazon some time ago and had seen costs in the region of £12. As well as the price, I had other misgivings about this. The reality is that bamboo isn’t the greatest thing for the environment either. Better than plastic, sure, but no saint. And in addition, like bags for “life” the reality is that the concept only works if you remain entirely mindful of the location of these bloody bags. Otherwise you just have shitloads of heavier duty bags. Again - not saintly by any stretch of the imagination.
Then I saw that the actual price of the bamboo cup was £4.50. Still a little pricey but, and maybe it was the caffeine craving talking, I thought “alright, I’ll buy this. But I’m going to use it religiously as I can”. And you know what, dear reader, I did.
And now we get to the most exciting part. I have now reached my 50th use of the cup in my morning coffee shop stop. Each morning thereafter, when I presented my little, orange, eight ounce cup to the barista, I received a 28p discount on my coffee. After nearly eight minutes of very complex mental arithmetic I was fairly sure I could have my £4.50 cup paid for in savings.
Fifty times twenty eight pence, my accountant tells me, is fourteen Great British pounds sterling. That puts me £9.50 in profit on my original investment.
Following a little bit of hype surrounding the Mastodon platform, I decided to give it a look. Touted (or tooted?) to be the brave new world of opportunity in social media, I was pulled in by the promise of a cooperative platform moderated in a federated model for a friendlier ecosystem.
A week later I’d unwittingly walked into a negative backlash that initially left me shocked and confused. But in reality I’d just missed the point of the federated model, and bought too much into the benevolence of the collective.
My first week using Mastodon was naff, but in that brilliant fresh way. A LOT of “tooting” about inane and innocent stuff. Burnt toast, cats and sunsets. I joined mastodon.technology, assuming techie stuff was the right place to start. Some git tips, go… a few genuinely interesting things. The local timeline (I eventually derived) was my mastodon.technology instance and the messages there were as I would expect.
Beyond this was the federated timeline, the collective view of all connected mastodon instances. This is where the image starts to distort.
The first thing I noticed was an enormous amount of negative attention towards Wil Weaton, apparently the first celebrity on Mastodon. For some unclear reason, I don’t really care to know, Wesley Crusher seemed to be a villain in this new world. Wesley?
Then, as it flew past in the timeline, I saw an inane complaint about “white men”. I investigate this further to find it’s an administrator of a mastodon instance. Hold up, says I. Aren’t these supposed to be the people making this a better place? Surely this sort of generalisation is what they’re seeking to avoid? I was then asked if I was a man and then blocked. Right.
I was then messaged by three or four other accounts saying I was part of the problem for attacking marginalised communities and arguing “in bad faith”. There is no utopia for scum like me I was told by these, in fact, white men and blocked for my presumed poison.
Then, a significantly wiser person than I, a white trans lady to be specific (since group membership seems very important in Mastodon), pointed out that in a federated world, I could expect a lot of instances that would have no problem casting generalisations on white men. I will quickly add that this was a relievingly pleasant dialogue.
And then the penny dropped.
This is not a brave new world, or a utopia. This is a collection of utopias built for an individual community. Where as I was hoping for somewhere that transcended politics and bias, what I found was something designed to focus those things. An eternal corridor of exclusive rooms in which people are free to debate without challenge, propagate negativity and intolerance towards whatever “them” they choose.
At best this is no better than twitter and at worst it is something far more damaging.
Oh no - I said “a little behind”! Does that constitute inappropriate content under the new terms and conditions?
I think I’m far too tame on the tamest end of the spectrum to even hope to be picked out by this sort of ban. Real-life genitals? I’m not even sure I could even sketch them accurately anymore. Haha. Am I right? Anyone with two kids in the audience?
So basically, in spite of this policy change, I think I’m going to go ahead and re-spark some of my impromptu blogging and stay right here.
If I want to see real life genitals I will very, very quickly glance at myself in the mirror.
I’m totally kidding, I haven’t been able to bring myself to do that since 2014.
Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect… like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.
Most often my reading is done on my iPad Pro. I subscribe to one news provider, I am using Apple News again with moderate success. For books, I use iBooks - and have been a big fan of this app from the day it arrived. I actually remember where and when I was the first time I switched from iPad to iPhone for a quick read on the tube, and found that I was on the correct page.
Aaaanyway. I have just finished reading Factfulness which is a truly exceptional book that I think every terran should read. I am also reading Seven Eves, though admittedly in fits and starts. Both of these recent reads have gone entirely unhindered.
Having looked at the cover for a long, long time I decided to crack open the physical copy of Caliban’s War leant to me by Daltman. I was no more than 35 pages in when:
Then, in high-twenties heat, she snuggled up to me. Snuggled. What manner of heat torture is this?! There’s almost a hosepipe ban, the polar ice caps are melting and my wife is snuggling me.
The Isles of Scilly is pretty much established already as the #TeamFish go-to holiday destination. It’s like a hybrid staycation, the best of both worlds.
So it would appear the final bell is about to toll on Pebble. The final tide shall swell over the Pebbles of the world. Fitbit made clear, from the start, of their intention to turn off the micro services at the end of June 2018 and I find myself staring down the barrel of that very date.
The Rebble Dev forum is quieter than a mute Canadian in a library. I tweeted to ask if the plans to introduce an alternative were on track and the extent of an answer was my tweet was liked. Long gone are the days that someone liking one of my tweets raised even a murmur of emotion from me, so that was a hollow gesture let me tell you.
*Very* quiet on the @pebble_dev front, given end of June is closing rapidly. Any news, @KatharineBerry? Is the revolution still on?
— @tin_fish (@tin_fish) 25 May 2018
I have now been wearing a wristwatch for a good few months, but have the Pebble Time Steel on for old time’s sake. Hello “Pebble: An unknown error has occurred”, my old friend.
At the same time I got an offer of a discounted FitBit smartwatch, for being a “loyal follower of Pebble”. Thanks very much, Fitbit, but you’re the Brutus of this little play. I’d rather wear barbed wire.
So what now? I have my Withings Go, which continues to serve all of my step/sleep requirements. But… is it finally… finally time for the Apple Watch?
This morning I spent a lazy, loved up, morning with Mrs. Fish. I ate a full english (oops) and then headed to the Gaia Spa in Boringdon Hall.
Drifting from steam rooms, saunas and pools - I happened to notice a cartoon-esque (sorry to offend but that’s just what I see: botox and giant eyebrows for instagram) girl who was also at the spa with a friend.
She swiftly moved through the place, friend in tow, taking selfies at each point and presumably furiously posting them to snapchap, bookface or instagran. That’s fine, but that’s literally all she did. Like being seen to be enjoying something has become more important than enjoying it.
I am not saying that all posts on social media should conform to a standard that I set - in other words abstract snaps of abandoned fruit, paddleboards or jokes - but just doing something to record it in a selfie?!
Just a bit sad. And I mean literally sad, not lame. What is also sad is how old I sound as I read this back haha.
blakekathryn
snowghoul
origamiaround
dededos
prguitarman