Author: Mark Alexander

Posted on

Casa Praxis, Mexico (1975) by Agustín Hernández Navarro

Brutalist icon

Agustín Hernández constructed his architectural office in Mexico City like a tree. Access to the building erected in the early 1970s is via a gangplank.

by Carsten Krohn | 12/20/2018

When asked what inspired him to create this building, Agustín Hernández replies: “The pre-Columbian architecture of Mexico.” He speaks softly and exudes happiness. The path through the building is dramatic and accessing it is not hazard-free, as the gangplank is built without a railing and there is thus a drop of several meters either side. The metal entrance gate slides into the wall in a manner distinctly inspired by sci-fi, and then up spring-mounted steps visitors reach a cavernous room with the same concrete surfaces found on the exterior. Models that look more like sculptures than houses are scattered throughout the space. Hernández explains the architecture of a military academy with the aid of one of these. He built the facility in reference to the monumental pyramid cities of Chichén Itzá, Monte Albán and Teotihuacán. He points out how a pyramid-shaped structure forms the end point of an axis one kilometer in length. The abstract mega-structure appears at once archaic and futuristic. [more]

0 comments

Posted on

Nobody Cares About Your Blog

 

From Alex Molas:

I started writing on my blog some years ago, and since then I’ve had a lot of reasons to stop writing. Here’s a list of why nobody cares about your blog

    • Your blog is not original. There are hundreds of blogs out there, what makes you think yours is different? You’re just probably repeating things you’ve read in another place.
    • You’re not an expert in your field, otherwise you wouldn’t be publishing in a blog, but writing papers and giving interviews.
    • You are only showing the world how stupid you are. If what you say is not better than silence, you better shut up.
    • If someone, at some point, cares about your blog will be only to criticize it. Your work is trash, and exposing it will make people notice you’re trash as well.

But all of these things are not a problem, because you shouldn’t care even a little bit about what other think. Here are my reasons about why you should care about your blog

    • You can use it as notes to your future self. After some years you’ll have a nice journal of how you have evolved over the years. Rereading your old texts is like communicating with your past self.
    • To release ideas that you have in your head and that you need to get out. Even if nobody else cares about them, writing them down can be a cathartic process.
    • To learn to write and express complex ideas. The best way to learn is to teach (even if nobody is reading you). As Paul Graham says 1, writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn’t know it as well as you thought.
    • Even if the ideas you’re sharing with the world aren’t original you can enrich them with your personal view. As Bill Thurson said 2 all of us have clear understanding of a few things and murky concepts of many more. There is no way to run out of ideas in need of clarification.
    • If you have lost time solving a superspecific problem then you need to write about it, it can happen that you end up being someone hero some day. It can also happen that you’ll have the same problem again and then you’ll be your own hero.
    • It’s cool to maintain a blog, even it’s only from the technical perspective. The feeling of complete ownership over something is really fulfilling, even if it’s just some bytes on a remote server in this ethereal world.
    • You can say whatever the fuck you want. It’s your blog, you don’t need to follow any rules. I just cursed and you can’t do nothing about it, because this is my blog and I do what I want. This will give you a sense of freedom that’s really cool imho.

PS. I was just about to publish this post, and then I started to think “why should I publish this text? Who is going to waste their time to read this crap?”, but you know what? I just don’t care what you think, here’s my post and you can do nothing about it ????

4 comments

Posted on

Midweek Tiedrich

that he can’t ever have an appropriate human response to anything. you’d imagine that every now and then he’d stumble into decency by accident, but no. somehow, in every situation, he always manages to be the worst person possible.

look at this. Donny can’t even perform the simple ceremonial act of pardoning a turkey without being a ginormous piece of shit.

“instead of pardons, some of my more enthusiastic staffers were already drafting the paperwork to ship Gobble and Waddle straight to the Terrorist Confinement Center in El Salvador.”

HA HA HA HA HA, GET IT? Donny was going to send the turkeys to the same slave-labor torture-gulag into which he disappears innocent migrants. gross human rights violations are so fucking hilarious, am I right?

what kind of sick ghoul even thinks of such a thing to say?

also, ‘Gobble’ and ‘Waddle’? they named the turkeys after the way Donny eats and walks? do you think they intended to name them ‘Goebbels’ and ‘Wehrmacht’ but decided at the last minute it was too on-the-nose?

how dare this corrupt fuck even joke about granting pardons. he’s made a mockery of the whole process. he’s pardoned war criminals. he’s pardoned cop beaters. pedophiles. political cronies. business partners.

stuff a sock in it, Donny. after all that shit, no one’s impressed that you’re pardoning birds.

if Donny had any decency at all, he’d have hidden himself away in shame, and gotten Joe Biden’s autopen to pardon those turkeys. but silly me, for even imagining some farcical version of Donny that has the ability to feel shame.

no, Preznit Fuckwit has no shame — and so he’s out here making sick jokes about disappearing Goebbels and Wehrmacht into a Salvadoran torture prison.

and then he turned the whole thing into just another MAGA rally speech, where he praises himself for all his imaginary accomplishments, and takes gratuitous swipes at his political enemies.

“[JB Pritzger] is a big fat slob.”

fact check: shut the fuck up, Piggy. do you even own a mirror?

it was so fucking ludicrous — and so inappropriate — that even the lapdogs at the Washington Post couldn’t help but commit a journalism and point out the absurdity of it.

while that was going on, Krazee-Eyes Kash Patel’s FBI was busy harassing the six Democrats who committed the high crime of reminding our armed forces to obey the Constitution.

The FBI has requested interviews with six Democratic members of the U.S. Congress who in a video message told members of the military they can legally refuse to carry out unlawful orders, a Justice Department official told Reuters on Tuesday.

what a super-appropriate use of government resources, to send law enforcement to intimidate political opponents who had the temerity to annoy America’s Mad King.

these six Democrats committed no crime, and everyone knows it. this is pure authoritarian bullshit. Dear Leader wants us all to be too terrified to open our mouths in protest of his evil fuckery. yeah, well — here’s a free clue for you, Donny.

we’ve become the very thing we used to mock — a tinpot third-world autocracy being mismanaged into the ground by a dangerous lunatic.

lucky us.

look who Piss-Drunk Pete Kegstand, Secretary of Who Gives A Shit What He Calls It, is mad at today.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is planning for the military to sever all ties with Scouting America, saying the group once known as the Boy Scouts is no longer a meritocracy and has become an organization designed to “attack boy-friendly spaces,” according to documents reviewed by NPR.

apparently the Scouts have come down with a bad case of woke.

In a draft memo to Congress, which sources shared with NPR but which has not yet been sent, Hegseth criticizes Scouting for being “genderless” and for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

genderless! oh noes! someone wake up Nancy Mace.

Last year, as a Fox News host, he complained about the Scouts changing their name and admitting girls back in 2018.

what is Piss Drunk Pete afraid of here. the boys are going to get cooties?

His memo to the House and Senate Armed Services committees argues the Scouts have strayed from their mission to “cultivate masculine values.”

what are these ‘masculine values’ that SecDef Kegstand is so hot to have the Scouts ‘cultivate’? is it getting ahem allegedlyblackout drunk and then paying your victim to shut the fuck up about having ahem allegedly been assaulted?

tell me more about these ‘boy-friendly spaces.’ does Piss Drunk Pete imagine himself living inside a Little Rascals short, in which he’s a proud member of the He-Man Woman Haters Club?

maybe if Piss-Drunk Pete is so hot for ‘boys’ to have their own ‘spaces’ where they can learn ‘masculine values,’ maybe he should start his own club. a government-sponsored youth group, complete with its own uniform. a group where boys can learn to be loyal patriots, working to better their lives in service of Dear Leader.

I’m loving this idea.

of course, this new org is going to need a name. how about the Shitler Youth? those two pardoned turkeys, Goebbels and Wehrmacht, can be the official mascots.

or is that too on the nose?

where does Plastered Pete even find time for this penny-ante shit? he’s running an entire branch of the government. he’s responsible for millions of employees. there are only so many hours in the day.

but here he is, drafting memos about whatever stupid bug has wedged itself up his ass on any given day. way to focus on what’s important, you drunk-dialing national security nightmare.

seriously, Donny and all his henchmen are wrecking everything — from the big shit like geopolitical relationships, all the way down to tiny things like what the Scouts call themselves.

it’s all so fucking petty — and, as always, embarrassing.

other countries are laughing at us, when they’re not recoiling in horror.

when these shitsticks leave office, there are going to be so many broken pieces to glue back together. please don’t scream at the next Democratic president when they don’t have everything fixed after three months. it’s going to take years.

let’s go out on a high note. you may think you already know everything there is to know about Mark Kelly. he’s a veteran. a devoted husband. a patriot. a senator. an astronaut. hell, dude’s even worn a gorilla suit in space.

but here’s another thing you may not know about Mark Kelly: he’s a skateboard whiz.

I shit you not. here’s Mark back in 2022, at the Navajo Nation Parade. check out these moves.

look at Mark go! let’s gif that shit for posterity’s sake.

now let’s compare and contrast.

this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:

practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.

to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.

we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.

 

0 comments

Posted on

Jammin’…

…to Kraftwerk’s Radioactivität on my black beauty.

1 comments

Posted on

Tuesday Tiedrich

Donny’s whole deal during his second reign has been ‘go fuck yourself, I’m doing whatever I want’ — because let’s get real: working within an established system of checks and balances isn’t how Mad Kings roll.

Donny already knows more about governmenting than all the governmenters — so go shove that advice and consent straight up your stinky patoot, Congress. we’re gonna do things the Donny way.

consequently, he’s been pulling shit like inflicting tariffs via executive orders — even though levying taxes is the House’s job. he’s been declaring imaginary emergencies so he can send troops to occupy Democratic cities. and he’s been using ‘interim appointments’ to install low-wattage lackeys like Lindsey Halligan, a dunderhead who had a snowball’s chance of passing the Senate approval process.

up to now, the establishment GOP has been happy to let this all play out. why not? collecting a paycheck for sitting on your ass all day while Dear Leader consolidates power is a pretty sweet gig.

but — holy shit! — there’s every indication that Republicans have finally grown tired of being marginalized, and that Donny’s system of government-by-go-fuck-yourself is coming to a swift and ugly end.

check out this dumbfuckery.

yesterday, Donny’s handlers announced that at 4pm, Dear Leader was going to hold an Oval Bordello dog-and-pony show wherein he would announce that he finally had the framework of a sketch for concept of an outline for a proposal of an almost-a-plan for healthcare.

halfway through announcing that mouthful, CNN’s host had to interrupt herself — because, no, the whole event was abruptly canceled.

“I’m sorry, this has actually been— sorry, we’re getting breaking news while I’m talking to you, I have learned that the White House has postponed its expected unveiling of a new healthcare proposal.”

here’s why that announcement got shitcanned: because congressional Republicans caught wind of it, and were all ‘the fuck you are, pal.’

NEW: White House to delay healthcare proposal after significant congressional backlash.

According to two White House officials the announcement has been delayed, with one of those officials citing strong congressional backlash to Trump’s proposed plan.

Trump planned to make an announcement as early as Monday proposing a framework to address health care costs which included an extension of Obamacare subsides.

of course, Republicans were objecting to Donny’s not-yet-a-plan for the most fucked-up of reasons: because they’re heartless shitwads who want the expiring Obamacare subsidies to stay dead.

but the fact that they openly defied Dear Leader is remarkable.

now, couple that news with this bombshell.

A few other GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term.

Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican:

“This entire White House team has treated ALL members like garbage. ALL. And Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. That is the sentiment of nearly all — appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened. They don’t even allow little wins like announcing small grants or even responding from agencies. Not even the high profile, the regular rank and file random members are more upset than ever. Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms.

“More explosive early resignations are coming. It’s a tinder box. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out.”

I know, this sounds too good to be true — but Jake Sherman is the founder of Punchbowl News, which is an extremely reliable source for inside dirt on Capitol Hill. so this news has the potential to be fucking explosive.

we all knew that Donny was going to overreach, and that it would lead to his downfall. it was just matter of when.

as with all-things-Donny, it’s all so stupid — and self-destructive. there was no need for any of this to happen. Congress would have been happy to rubber-stamp almost anything Dear Leader had asked for — tariffs, emergency orders, appointments — but Donny wanted to playact as king, and do everything his way.

yesterday, Donny was the all-powerful Dear Leader. today he’s just a very naughty boy.

the wheels are coming off Donny’s presidency. he’s suddenly vulnerable, and Republicans smell blood in the water. they got their asses handed to them during the election three weeks ago, and they’ve gone into self-preservation mode.

nobody but the hardest-core cultists are taking this “Donny 2028” shit seriously any more. Donny’s now a lame duck, and even normally-craven dipshits like Ted Cruz are coming out of the woodwork to announce a framework of a sketch of a plan to run for president.

none of this shit would be happening if Republicans thought there were any chance of Dear Leader actually becoming King for Life.

boo fucking hoo, Donny. enjoy your increasing irrelevance, you unpleasant piece of shit. you built that.

okay, let’s not get irrationally exuberant. it’s still a long way out of the woods, and there’s a lot of pain and suffering that Donny’s going to try to inflict as he attempts to hold onto power. a rat is most dangerous when it’s cornered.

but I promise you, there is light at the end of the tunnel. someday, this war’s gonna end.

now, are there any more metaphors I can mangle?

here’s another particularly delicious way that Donny’s government-by-go-fuck-yourself has come back to bite him in his flatulent ass.

 

yesterday, the indictments of James Comey and Letitia James went fuckity-bye. so did beauty-queen-turned-insurance-claim-lawyerLindsey Halligan’s short-but-not-short-enough stint as a US Attorney.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie of South Carolina today dismissed the indictments of former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that President Donald J. Trump’s appointment of Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid.

now, I don’t know dick about how interim appointments work, but Heather Cox Richardson has a great write-up explaining exactly why Donny’s appointment of Halligan violated the Constitution in her latest post — because of course she does. she’s Heather Cox Richardson.

the important thing is that once again, Donny insisting that he gets to play by his own rules, do an end-run around Congress, and install an unqualified lackey to persecute his political enemies has blown up in his big, dumb pumpkin face.

now comes the part where we all throw our heads back in laughter. ready?

this is some bullshit right here.

In a statement on Monday on social media announcing the investigation into Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran, the Pentagon cited a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court martial or other measures. Kelly served in the US navy as a fighter pilot before going on to become an astronaut. He retired at the rank of captain.

why is the Pentagon taking such extraordinary measures to discipline a veteran? because Kelly was a part of that video in which members of the military were reminded that they had a sworn duty to obey the Constitution. the horror!

it’s a chickenshit move. a dunk tank clown going after a war-hero-turned-astronaut? are you kidding me? fuck straight off with this nonsense, you piss-drunk excuse for a human being.

which brings us to our hero of the day: Senator Reuben Gallego, who has a personal message for the dunk-tank clown.

“you will never ever, ever, ever be even half the man that Senator Kelly is. you, sir, are a coward — and the fact that you are following this order from the president shows how big of a coward you are. and I can’t wait until you no longer are the secretary of defense.”

I stand with Ruben Gallego. let’s all stand with Reuben — and with Mark Kelly, and every other victim of Donny’s fucked-up presidency.

someday this war’s gonna end.

this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:

practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.

to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.

we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.

0 comments