Links: Computers, community, books
To round off Blaugust I did a part two of my favourite Blaugust posts so check that out for 121 more great links. These links are a mixed bunch of computer and web stuff, books and writing, history, as usual.
Brennan has a guide to becoming a rogue scholar and the very fun Webmaster@ a manifesto for everyone
It is your innate human right to create. All of the above was pretext for this: You can be a webmaster right now. You can create a website right now. Yes, you. Your website can look however you want it to, and function in any way you want. It can have whatever you want on it.
Not dissimilarly, from Binary Digit, The Paused Web
it dawned on me that I might just need a home on the internet to have fun and have static content that I update now and again, rather than trying to make it dynamic by updating it twice a month and feeling bad about it.
Also, Ana on Towards a personal online third-space.
And Rebuilding the computer room from alexwlchan via BrittHub
One of my distinct memories of childhood is the “computer room”. When I was young, computers weren’t a ubiquitous feature of our lives; they were bulky appliances with a fixed location, and you had to go somewhere to use them.
On the surprisingly scientific methods of Bigfooters, Sasquatch science: The hunt for Bigfoot sounds like the opposite of good science, but those pursuing the creature are often serious empiricists. Which reminds me of the very sympathetic scientists in that flat earth documentary which fully changed how I approach such things.
whatever one thinks about whether Bigfoot actually exists as a biological creature, Bigfooting undeniably does. If Bigfooting is a community – or set of communities – that are collecting, analysing, sharing, validating and contesting evidence, then Bigfooting is a suitable object of sociological enquiry. And so, we went on our own hunt to track down Bigfooters and make sense of how they themselves make sense of the world.
Cherry's unfortunately i am going to have to read rachel cusk is succinct and relatable.
One of my favourite finds from Blaugust is lucky instar and Jakalopes has a list of nonfiction recommended books I will be checking out.
Lara loves Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid as much as I do.
VH Belvadi's excellent review of The Mulai, a book I'm still thinking about.
Curiosity by wry writer gets into the saying
If Curiosity Killed the Cat (so we’re told, by who, I have no idea) then curiosity for me, as a child and adult alike, enriched my life and made it fuller and more interesting than it would have been otherwise.
How I write by Gabrielle at The White Pube
I wondered why the act of writing was a sun to me, when for others it’s having kids or being the boss or climbing over dead bodies on Everest.
Topopa's thoughts on Making stuff really hit home:
How can art be so futile and so important at the same time?
James made Your tiny Gallery Guide (a zine).
Socially competent people by Sylvia at a parenthetical departure is entirely me
I am a skinbag filled with other personalities amalgamated into mine. It's hard to tell where they end and where I begin.
This is always a problem with being interested in history: the "good old days" were complicated as hell from the Typewriter Mechanic
I think a lot of us feel nostalgic for a version of the past that's encapsulated in movies like Grease or Back to the Future or shows like Happy Days. We know the diners, the cars, the clothes, the chrome. We know the red roofs and the neon lights. And, obviously, we know the typewriters.
In Search of More Friends by Lyteforce is something I'm always interested in
Now that's not to suggest that I don't have friends, as I'm pretty sure I do (maybe not as definitive statement as I'd like), it's just that I struggle to make new friends and then in turn stumble trying to foster them long-term.
This is something I'm always banging on about: Crime is falling – but the public doesn’t feel safer, study finds.
speculations on a d.i.y. board game culture from doruk balcı is something I think about in terms of the difference between ttrpgs and board games
I want to speculate about what a d.i.y. culture in board games could look like and what methods we could use.
You know when you find a tab you've had open for ages and you can't remember why anymore? This is mine today: Satan’s 19th-Century Bank Note.
I've been in the vibe and really enjoying the site Racing Nellie Bly all trailblazing history, weird science, natural wonders, and such.
Romanticon on How to be a Bard and the Druidic Revival.
Are not we all suckers for a good love letter? I Long to Read More in the Book of You: Moomins Creator Tove Jansson’s Tender and Passionate Letters to the Love of Her Life from The Marginalian.
I’m so unused to being happy that I haven’t really come to terms with what it involves. Suddenly my arms are heaped full of new opportunities, new harmony, new expectations. I feel like a garden that’s finally been watered, so my flowers can bloom.
Several weeping emojis.