While staying vigilant, we’re embracing the chance to catch our breath and to start healing. The city right now has a bit of the feeling of the days after a natural disaster: there is so much damage to repair. Thousands of people are still sheltering at home, understandably reluctant to go to work and/or school. Thousands are facing imminent eviction when March rent comes due.
There’s organizing around rent relief, talk of a rent strike. Food delivery is still in full swing. Mutual aid is not letting up.
9/
I don't think I'm ever going to enjoy gifts.
I can get why people would give them to children. After all, children don't have their own budget. However, I'm talking about occasional gifts, not a new toy every second week, because "we must outcompete the other grandparents". But to adults?
Once I've heard that you should gift people with what they won't buy themselves. Well, that's won't work for me. I'm a minimalist. If I don't need something, I don't want to have it. Unnecessary junk is only emotional burden to me.
I can get why you'd enjoy something handmade. But something people bought? If I need something, I can buy it myself, when I need it. And I definitely don't need people to prove to me that they never cared to learn who I am, and just buy whatever they like or whatever is "fashionable"; which usually means exactly the opposite of what I'd prefer (i.e. something minimalistic). Or even worse, I don't need people manipulating me through gifts.
Sweets? Besides my diabetes, I don't really enjoy expensive shit that people generally buy because it's what's advertised. For the money they waste on it, I'd buy three times as much sweets I'd actually enjoy.
Gift cards? Oh yes, "you aren't supposed to give money, so let's just give the equivalent of money that's actually worth less than money". Actual money? And here we reach the true nonsense; we exchange the same amount of money, so it's just pointless gesture. Unless one of us gives less money…
What I'd really like, as a gift? Maybe that people would finally bother accepting me as who I am. The absolute minimum of caring that I hate consumerism, and not fueling it "for me".
#AntiCapitalism #minimalism #ActuallyAutistic
Welp, after a day or two of fermentation and a few hours preparing the accompaniments, like the potato filling, the 'gunpowder' to sprinkle over it, and both tomato and coconut chutneys (all made from scratch, even involving cracking a fresh coconut!), I've made my first ever dosas. I'm quite chuffed by the result. It's a lot of work for a one-off...
If you watched cartoons in the 90s or early 2000s, you probably heard some of Guy Moon's amazing theme songs and scores. Guy passed away earlier this month after injuries from a car accident- I wrote this short piece over at Animated TV Blog to commemorate his work: https://animatedtvblo…
Sources: AI legal software startup Legora is in talks to raise $400M at a $5B valuation, after raising $150M in October 2025 at a $1.8B valuation (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2026/02/17/legal-…
Chinese crypto scammer sentenced in absentia to 20 years after fleeing US https://therecord.media/chinese-crypto-scammer-sentenced-after-fleeing-us
Feeling very inadequate after watching 7Asian craft an entire floating village by himself. Watch 1 year of amazing engineering & hard work in just 1hr.
▶️ He Left Civilization to Build a Floating Self-Sustaining Island | by 7Asian
https://youtube.com/watch?v=AJSXVUd819
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has so far been unable to access data from a Washington Post reporter’s iPhone
because it was protected by Apple’s "Lockdown Mode"
when agents seized the device from the reporter’s home, the US government said in a court filing.
FBI agents were however able to access the reporter’s work laptop by telling her to place her index finger on the MacBook Pro’s fingerprint reader.
This occurred during the January 14 search at the…
Thomson Reuters' CEO says AI cannot easily replace the company's legal-research expertise, after its stock fell following the release of Claude legal work tools (Alexander Osipovich/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.
PwC's US boss Paul Griggs says PwC decided to "lean in" to crypto work after years of taking a more cautious stance, following Trump's embrace of digital assets (Stephen Foley/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/5e1448bc-11a2-4229-bb5c-1a322a7ad217