Speaking of Twitter…

After reading this article today, I decided to follow its suggestions and fortify my online presence a bit…because y'know I'm so famous and all I'm gonna get hacked.

Yeah, right.

Well, actually I did it because so much of my online life—like the article's author—is tied to my Twitter login. I'd hate to have to go through what that poor guy did if it was ever compromised.

So I enabled two-factor authentication and downloaded my archive. I opened the archive and started looking my tweets from when I joined the service in 2009. Much like reading my Journals from twenty-five years ago, all I can say is:

For the first few months I constantly referred to myself in the third person (because apparently that's what all the cool kids were doing), as in, "Mark Alexander…had a tasty piece of cherry pie." "Mark Alexander…is wondering if this day is ever going to end." "Mark Alexander…thinks having basic computer skills should be a requirement for employment in healthcare."

Well yeah that last one is still spot on, but seriously…

One other thing that stands out (besides my supreme social media naiveté at the time) is how innocent the service used to be. Like I posted yesterday, "It has mutated from a simple way to express pithy thoughts with your friends into a vehicle for psychic violence and unending hostility."

What's equally disheartening is realizing how many folks whom I once had vibrant online relationships with have simply disappeared from the system. And don't even get me started on the number of broken links in all those tweets.

That is something that's bothered me long before seeing it played out on Twitter. As I've mentioned previously, on this here blog thingie, broken YouTube links have been an ongoing thorn in my side. What good is recording your life and sharing cool stuff with the world if half of it is inaccessible after a year or two, and what does it say about us as a society that we're putting all our trust into recording our history now in zeroes and ones, only to risk having it all disappear in the blink of an eye?

At least the ancient Egyptians had the good sense to carve everything into stone.

Wisdom

A Break From Twitter Showed Me How Broken It Is

By Daniel Cooper, Engadget

In J.G. Ballard's novel High Rise, the residents of an opulent apartment block abandon the outside world. The building offers every possible amenity, from a supermarket to a bank; work aside, there's little reason to leave. A series of incidents turns the block's occupants into savages who spend their days raping and murdering each other. And yet, although the front door is right there, nobody wants to walk through it and escape to civilization.

Four decades later, and the world that Ballard predicted is here — it just doesn't take place in a tower block. Instead, 328 million people across the world spend their days plugged into Twitter, which becomes more of a nightmare every day. It has mutated from a simple way to express pithy thoughts with your friends into a vehicle for psychic violence and unending hostility. Which may explain why more than a million Americans have quit the service in the last three months.

I am (probably) Engadget's most prolific Twitterer, spending hours on the site each day and tweeting incessantly. I justify my overuse because it is the "people's news network," and we need to remain informed right now because there is a lot going on. After all, the US, UK, Russia, North Korea and China are ruled by despots who are actively leading us toward global war. Companies are destroying the fabric of our society, our civil rights and our planet in service of a fatter quarterly profit. Not to mention the annual game of avoiding Game of Thrones spoilers and shit-talking live sporting events with everyone else.

Cold, Blue Turkey

I decided to take a weeklong break from the platform to see if, like all those other quitters, life is happier on the other side. The day before had been a fruitful one, with a handful of my digital bon mots earning a flurry of likes and retweets. I don't doubt that every time I see Twitter validate my work, a minuscule hit of dopamine floods my brain. The delivery method may differ, but social media can be as addictive as hell.

It's a lesson that I'd learn just 10 minutes after making my resolution as, without thinking, my mouse hand-clicked the desktop shortcut for Twitter. I am such an obsessive user of the site that even the process for accessing it had been consigned to muscle memory. It took real self-control, and some degree of itchiness, to get past the initial stages of withdrawal the first day. It was only because I had the crutch that is Facebook, my least-favorite social network, that I could get on at all.

I normally have Twitter's web client open during work, both for newsgathering and as a necessary reward during the day. Then, I'll check the site during bathroom breaks and while I'm trying to put my baby girl to sleep in the late evening. Losing it suddenly meant I had to concentrate on the human interactions around me, as well as get things done around the house. The first thing I found was that I had a lot more free time in my day.

Not the people's news network

For a site that professes to keep you connected to what's going on, Twitter does a terrible job of keeping you informed. It's easy to trick yourself into believing that you're getting the best version of the news, with experts in their field sharing things you'd never see in a newspaper. And there are plenty of smart, erudite folks whose opinions I trust because I know they are legitimately clever people.

But, equally, I'm not above nodding along with a 100-tweet thread written by someone who describes themselves as a national-security expert. It's all too easy to assume that whoever retweeted him or her into my feed has made the effort to ensure that what they're sharing is legitimate. Because I'm certainly not looking too hard at the author of these tweets, even though we should all be actively guarding our media consumption.

And here's the thing: My media consumption has gone up by an order of magnitude when I've been away from Twitter. It's just that I'm getting the facts from The Guardian, The New York (and London) Times, The Telegraph, FiveThirtyEight and Vox. The measured and even tone of those publications is a breath of fresh air if you've been listening to the neurotic commentary that rolls past in Twitter's bottomless feed.

Twitter is the enemy of calm

As much as we like to deny it, humans are herd animals with a herd mentality that can be sent into hysteria far easier than we think. The day I returned to the site, it was full of folks panicking that we were about to die in a nuclear holocaust. It could happen, for sure, but pissing and moaning about it on the internet won't do much about it beyond making everyone unnecessarily stressed. Rather than indulge, I closed the site and went about my day.

We know that social media has an uncomfortable relationship with our mental health, with addictive loops keeping us glued to our screens. But addiction is not the only issue we face, as Instagram has also been lambasted for being harmful to people's mental health. Services like this amplify anxieties about body image, lifestyle, wealth and the many other facets of our lives that we choose to broadcast.

Then there's the paralytic effect of this constant barrage of stress that means you feel as if you are incapable of doing anything. Twitter and Facebook have, perhaps unwittingly, become agents of the status quo — you spend your days flapping online instead of changing things. If I were an evil billionaire looking to suppress dissent against my adopted political cause, I'd write the social-media companies a big check.

Spending any time away from that Ballardian madness, however, and you start to notice changes in your own psyche. I was more effective, more decisive and I had more time in my day — because Twitter is designed to suck away the minutes in your hand. My head was clearer, my sleep seemed to be sweeter and frankly, I could swear that I was happier without its nagging presence in my psyche.

Coming back

My seven-day absence from Twitter has ended, yet I'm not back to using it anywhere near as frequently as I used to. When you've been away from something long enough you're suddenly able to see the flaws in a way you couldn't up close. I don't feel as constantly panicked as I did before, and I feel more effective in the time that I have each day.

If there's an easy way to explain this, it's like the ex-smoker visiting his office's smoking room to catch up with the daily gossip. The fug, to which you were immune before, now chokes your throat and blinds your eyes, and you resolve not to visit too frequently. You can go back every now and again, much like you can do many things in moderation, but not as your one source of connection with your coworkers. Because whatever benefit you get, the amount of poison you need to inhale to justify it is simply too damn much.

(Source)

I tried a week-long absence from Twitter myself, and I have to agree with everything this particular author wrote. I've returned, but I only scroll down about a dozen tweets or so, close the application, and go back to whatever else I was doing.

I quit Facebook cold turkey many years ago, and it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. The addiction to social media is real. I had to fight the urge on a daily basis to reactivate my account until it had been permanently deleted, and even then, for years afterward, I had to ignore the siren call to to return to the network. And I now realize that I had been using Twitter as my methadone to Facebook's heroin, and stepping away from that was much easier.

On Zombies and Humans

Condensed/edited from a thread I saw on the Tumblr:

There's something really terrifying about the concept of being pursued by something that can only walk slowly after you. Just slowly following. You can chill for a while if you get far enough away but it's still coming and won't. give. up.

That's called "persistence hunting" and it's how humans hunted all sorts of megafauna to extinction, as well as what let our species become so disperse and so numerous. Our existence is a horror story told from the monster's perspective.

Basically our hunting super power is that we are really smart, good at tools and can walk/run forever. 

My roommate Kait runs 20 miles 4 times a week.
Horses can only travel about 32 miles a day.

If my roommate ran 20 miles twice in one day (possible if she does one in the morning and one in the afternoon) she would out travel a horse.

She is not FASTER than a horse, but if a horse was walking away from her for 8 solid hours,  Kait could catch up to it.  She could probably also walk after it for an additional 5-10 miles after the run and then stab it when it got too tired to go on.

But Kait's athletic.

I, on the other hand, am a fatty fat who weighs 210 and never exercises ever.

I once—completely spontaneously because i had no money for the train—walked 17 miles in the winter from one end of Chicago to the other. I had also not eaten and was wearing a backpack. It took me 3 hours, but I accomplished it with ease. If I wasn't a chub goddess, had eaten, and it was summer and not wearing a backpack with a laptop in it, imagine how far and fast I could have gone.

Horses can only sustain a run for about 15 miles (at 8-10mph it takes them a little over an hour).

If my fat ass was walking towards a horse for 3 hours and it was literally running away from me. It would become exhausted after 15 miles and unless it can recover completely in 2 hours for another lengthy sprint, I can reasonably catch up to it and stab it. (not that i would ever stab a horse. horses are terrifying and should be regarded with suspicion, respect and fear)

The longest run ever was 350 miles over 80 hours without sleep.

We are endurance monsters.

Humans terrify me.

Labor Day

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer across most of the United States, although you'd never know it from the horrific temperatures gripping most of the western states. Here in Phoenix, even without taking the abnormally warm conditions into account, autumn really doesn't arrive until you reach the point that the air conditioning can be turned off for the season—historically coinciding with the end of Daylight Savings Time in the rest of the country.

The day after Labor Day was also traditionally the first day of school for those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s. That's now shifted; Ben's school district has been back in session for nearly a month, and they now have a week-long "Fall Break" in October, something totally unheard of when I was in school.

Our Labor Day holiday this year was uneventful. Ben had to conduct CPI training on Saturday. Sunday morning I got out before it was too hot and mowed our seemingly-quarter-acre of back yard (tracking app on my phone indicated I walked 1.5 miles during the process) that hadn't been touched in nearly two months, wiping me out for the rest of the day (afternoon naps are good—when the dogs let you actually sleep). And today we simply did a variation of our normal Sunday routine. Ben made breakfast, mowed the front yard, and we did our grocery shopping in the afternoon. We didn't even throw a traditional holiday pot luck like we have in years past.

Gratuitous Aaron Ashmore

I could've sworn his-also actor twin brother, Shawn, came out as gay a few years ago but I can find nothing online to back up that memory. Maybe it's just that he wants to play gay characters

Quote of the Day

We are leaderless. America doesn't have a president. America has a man in the White House holding the spot, and wreaking havoc as he waits for the day when a real president arrives to replace him." ~ Charles M. Blow, writing in The New York Times

Blow continues:

Donald Trump is many things—most of them despicable—but the leader of a nation he is not. He is not a great man. Hell, he isn't even a good man.

Donald Trump is a man of flawed character and a moral cavity. He cannot offer moral guidance because he has no moral compass. He is too small to see over his inflated ego.

Trump has personalized the presidency in unprecedented ways—making every battle and every war about his personal feelings. Did the person across the street or around the world say good or bad things about him? Does the media treat him fairly? Is someone in his coterie of corruption outshining him or casting negative light on him?

His interests center on the self; country be damned.

Goodbye Cassini

In less than two weeks, the Cassini probe will transmit its last data back to Earth as it plunges into Saturn's atmosphere, bringing to an end its astounding fourteen year mission to the ringed planet and its moons.

It will be missed. There are no plans (or public till to provide funding) for any new probes to revisit the outer solar system, and this saddens me no end. So much potential for our species, and yet we can't get beyond our bickering over skin color and beliefs in imaginary sky gods.

(Be patient, it takes a while for the video to load.)

"At Least Make It Reliable!"

My thoughts exactly.

I haven't had any further issues with the keyboard on my MBP—only because it's been covered with a silicone keybaord skin, preventing anything from actually coming in contact with it.

And I hate it. The things never fit properly (I've tried four so far), always tending to bunch up on one end or the other, and much like putting a case on an iPhone, what's the point of Apple going to such lengths to create something that you want to touch, but is obviously so prone to damage you never actually get to?

After living with this computer for three months now and knowing what I do, if I had a chance to go back to last May, I definitely would've purchased the 2015 model—with the old keyboard design and no Touchbar—when I had the opportunity. The Touchbar remains of dubious utility and the fact that I have to put a condom on the keyboard to ensure that it works when I need it to work is ridiculous.

(audio source)

Memories of San Francisco

Hogg & Mythen Architects, Part Four

LEARNING THE IMPORTANCE OF BACKUPS

I have a ready answer whenever I'm asked that infamous interview question, "What was the biggest mistake you ever made at work and how did you fix it?"

H&M did a variety of work, but our bread and butter income came from tenant improvement projects (a client leases space in an existing building and creates offices to their design specifications). Of these, the building at 30 Van Ness (at the corner of Market and Van Ness) was primary. One of the first CAD-intensive projects we undertook was to completely measure and draw up all four floors (plus underground parking garage) of the building since these shell drawings could be easily used again and again when it came time to build out any particular area.

I don't remember the exact circumstances, but I must've been fucking around with something on my system (the one where all our drawings were stored) one day and all that work was gone. Might've reformatted the hard drive, or updated the OS or god knows what, but all I knew was that all that data was no longer there. I checked for copies on the other two machines where we had AutoCAD installed and came up empty handed. I was in a panic. After scouring every location I could think of, I put my tail between my legs and told Nick.

Surprisingly, he wasn't angry. All he said was, "Well, you'd better get back to work and recreate them." Wow.

Fortunately, we still had all the measured sketches we'd done, so it wouldn't involve physically measuring the building again, but I was looking at a lot of work nonetheless. I sucked it up, went back to my desk and started drafting.

I happened to glance over at a stack of banker boxes against the wall and noticed the FedEx mailing envelope we used to take diskettes back and forth to the blueprinters (this was before we had own own plotter on site). I walked over, looked inside, and let out a yelp that was undoubtedly heard down the street. In that envelope were three diskettes containing all the plans of 30 Van Ness. They were several days out of date (we'd started a new TI project), but damn…a few days out of date was infinitely preferable to having to recreate months of work.

My ass was saved.

Immediately thereafter, we bought a tape backup for each of the PCs and began a thorough backup routine.

SEOUL

The biggest project H&M was ever involved in was the design and construction of a new school in Seoul, South Korea. I've long since forgotten how this particular project fell into our lap, but it was the one thing I am most proud of during my time at the firm. Jack and Nick were pretty much hands-off as far as design was concerned, giving Neill free reign and he definitely thought outside the box on this one. Very "post modern" (it was the mid 90s, after all) I remember the main multi-story facade being a diagonal black and white checkerboard with horizontal red brick accents. The client loved it.

I didn't travel to South Korea with Nick, Jack, and Neill even though the invitation was extended because—reasons. I didn't have a passport, dreaded the thought of a twelve hour flight over the open ocean, and frankly, simply didn't want to be away from home for the two weeks this visit was projected to take. So along with Cerese, I stayed back and "held down the fort" until they returned.

I just emailed Nick, hoping that he has some photos of the project he can send me. If I hear back from him I'll post them.

SAYING GOODBYE

August 1994. I'd reached the end of my rope with many aspects of life in San Francisco. Still smarting from the breakup with Rory a year earlier, it seemed life in The City had lost all the magic it once held. Two unplanned trips back to Phoenix to deal with parental health emergencies showed me that life in Arizona really wasn't as bad as I'd remembered—although I still had no real desire to move back to Phoenix; if I returned to the Grand Canyon state I'd definitely head south to Tucson. After much thought a particularly nasty run-in with a meter maid downtown (the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back), I decided it was time to leave. I gave notice on my apartment and at work.

They were devastated.

During the following two weeks while boxing up my life (Annie Lennox's Diva is forever burned into my mind as the soundtrack for those weeks), strange things started to happen. San Francisco was not going to give up her grip on me so easily. The magic started returning: a cool ocean breeze, fog spilling over Twin Peaks, friends all but begging me not to leave, more than one encounter with a handsome stranger after exchanging glances…and discovering the joys of a newly-opened sex club South of Market called The Playground. (Pet Shop Boys' Relentless will forever associated in my mind with that place and its wonderful wanton memories.)

I suddenly found myself wondering why the hell I was leaving San Francisco.  Was it really too late?  My buddy Stan was fond of telling me it wasn't.  I wondered if he might be right.

One evening I sat down to write in my Journal, hoping to sort this all out, but I didn't get more than a paragraph completed.  I started writing about everything that had happened during the previous week; the men, the realization that I really did have friends there who didn't want me to leave, the magic that had come back into my life in various forms—and I wrote, "I can't leave!"  I broke down and cried.

And then, at 12:15 a.m. that night, I made a decision.  I wasn't going to leave.  No matter what it cost, I was not going to say good-bye to my beloved San Francisco.  The only problem was the financial Catch-22 I found myself in.  I had to leave Hogg & Mythen in order to remain in San Francisco; I needed the severance money they were going to be giving me in order to pay the two month's rent I now required in order to stay in my apartment.  I didn't relish the thought of leaving the guys, but at the same time I knew from my conversation with Nick a week earlier that because of the however-misplaced sense of betrayal was feeling, staying on was probably not an option.  No matter.  It would force me to find a position doing more computer and less (much less) architecture, which was my ultimate goal.

What I was not prepared for when I told him of my decision to stay was the fact that he wanted to keep me on—and—would be willing to loan me the money to pay my rent so I could stay.  Now that is something you just coudn't find in any workplace. Needless to say, I accepted.

Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on your perspective, this magic didn't last. It was all a ruse by San Francisco to get me to stay. Once I'd signed that dotted line, life returned to "normal." A year later, I was packing again—and this time it was for real.

The only picture I have of the four of us together. Amazing, considering I worked with those guys 8 years!

The folks at H&M at first didn't believe me, but as the clock ticked town to the last couple days I think it finally sank in that this was goodbye. On my last day, we all went out to lunch and returned to the office where we had a very tearful goodbye. They even let me keep the infamous bright red desk chair that I'd picked out a year earlier…

Tucson lasted only six months (another story for another time), but when I found myself back in San Francisco again—and gone, and then to return again—I didn't approach H&M other than to offer my services as an independent contractor. We'd all been through so much, and if I was ever going to make a clean break from architecture, this was the time to do it. As it turned out, I ended up at a major architectural firm for a few months following my first arrival back in The City out of necessity, but thankfully that gig was cut short by an opportunity to dip my toes into the then-exciting career of PC Support. By the time I'd left San Francisco and returned again three years later, my previous architectural career was already but a fading memory.

Would I go back and change anything if I could? Not a thing. Everything that's happened in my life has brought me to the place where I am—and who I'm with—now, and I wouldn't have it any other way.