The problem with audio gear is that it’s super easy to spend lots of money on incremental gains—at a certain point, you got to be okay with where you’re at.
I own three cassette decks. That’s right three: a Sound Track, a Pioneer, and a JVC. Once I got full logic control, I knew I needed to stop the madness.
I own a Panasonic reel-to-reel tape deck. I was lucky to get it—fully working—for $50. It only does 7” reels and tops out at 7.5 IPS. Every day, I’m tempted to get the ones that do 10” reel and go up to 30 IPS. But that’s way too rich for my money.
I look at my Yamaha subwoofer. Getting something better is a bad idea because my wife complains about the current one as it is.
At a certain point, you just have to make do.
Esta é a minha música brasileira favorita: Tempo de Amor, de Vinicius de Moraes e Baden Powell. Tenho essa música em vinil.
Mas não estou por dentro da música popular brasileira atual. Então, amigos brasileiros, o que vocês me recomendam de novo?
Amici italiani, sono un grande fan della vostra musica dance. Ho molti album di Giorgio Moroder, Alexander Robotnik e Den Harrow nella mia collezione. Ma quale musica dance italiana ascoltate e mi consigliate?
سلام دوستان ایرانی، آهنگ رقص مورد علاقهتون چیه؟
嘿，中国朋友们，给我推荐一些音乐吧！要那种活泼、适合跳舞的，拜托，别是慢节奏的钢琴情歌哦！
It’s funny, I’ve been called “right wing” because I believe redistribution of wealth should be achieved through volunteer-run co-operatives.
Meanwhile, a lot of people would deem that view “extremist left”.
I personally believe the term “far-right” should be reserved for right-wing authoritarians who oppose liberal democracy.
That’s not to say garden variety “right” can’t be bad—just that this gives more clarity to what, exactly, “far-right” means.
Clarity is what’s required to accurately explain the precise threat.
I know the struggle. One of the hardest things to quit.
More countries should be like Nigeria—stay away from those cancer sticks. 
Ultimately, I think the whole “would you rather encounter a bear or a man in the woods” discussion was awful. Here’s why.
I have, in fact, encountered a grizzly bear in the woods.
I was six-years-old when it happened. Meeting a bear was singularly one of the most terrifying events of my life. You want to know how insignificant you are? Meet a grizzly.
Let me tell you, the only reason I survived that day was because my school told me that, if you ever see a bear, play dead. Which I did. I even convinced myself I was dead—which I had to do if I didn’t want to actually be dead.
Here’s what I know about bears: there’s no reasoning with them. They don’t talk back. They’re a force of nature, and you are nothing compared to their force. The only thing you can hope for is that they’re not interested enough to kill you.
Now the point of the original discussion is that encountering a man is literally like encountering a bear. Except every bear *will* kill you if it’s hungry and sees you as a food source.
I am not dismissing that a man could kill you. I understand we can be terrifying.
But I’m telling you—you will be *more* terrified if you meet bear.
Here’s the story about how well-intentioned progressive ideals almost pushed me into the far-right social media sphere.
Now I’m wasn’t totally an innocent party, but hear me out.
It was December 2011, Christmas. I was on Reddit, specifically on the AskReddit forum. I made an off-color joke—edgy and, in hindsight, not a good joke. I’m not repeating it, but at the time, I thought it was just that—a joke.
That joke somehow ended up on a left-leaning political subreddit. I won’t name it because that subreddit is dead now, and I’ll explain why later. At first, I thought it was strange that people were tagging me and discussing my comment in a thread. I messaged the moderators, admitted the joke was inappropriate, removed the original comment—and asked moderators to take the thread down.
They didn’t.
Over the next few months, people from that subreddit followed me around Reddit. They wouldn’t let it go. These were very progressive individuals, and it became clear that nothing I said or did would make them happy.
That’s when I started to get angry—really angry.
These people were calling me a Nazi. Let me be clear: the joke was off-color, and I own up to that. But I didn’t say anything racist, sexist, or homophobic. Being called a Nazi hit particularly hard because I’m Jewish. Calling a Jewish person a Nazi is deeply offensive—it’s not just an insult. It cuts at the core of my people’s history (not that Jews can’t be Fascists, but that’s a different story).
But they wouldn’t stop. These progressive Redditors followed me, pinged me, and called me a Nazi over and over. It felt like harassment.
Around this time, I noticed there was a counter-community forming—a group of people who were also being targeted by this progressive subreddit. This group identified as the “anti-SJW” (anti-social justice warrior) crowd. They claimed to be liberals who believed in anti-racism, egalitarianism, and anti-homophobia but opposed the tactics of the “SJWs.”
At first, I bought into it. I thought, “Progressivism is good, but these extremists are taking it too far, and someone needs to stop them.”
But over time—about a year—I began to notice cracks. Slowly, I realized many in the anti-SJW crowd weren’t as liberal as they claimed. They were wearing masks. Eventually, the truth became clear: some of these people were actual Nazis. The original SJWs weren’t wrong to call them that.
It was a slow realization, but one day, I looked around and thought, I’m in a room full of Nazis. Am I a Nazi? No, I wasn’t. I wanted nothing to do with Nazis or anyone who would harm me for existing.
The anti-SJW crowd had presented themselves as allies, but over time, their true colors showed. They were using identity politics just as much as the SJWs—they were just better at it. They thrived on radicalizing people like me, people who felt attacked and wanted to fight back.
Meanwhile, the original progressive subreddit that harassed me fell apart. It turned out one of their moderators was problematic—engaging in discriminatory behaviour, sexualizing people without their consent, and even illegal activity. When their user base found out, they revolted. But the moderators defended this person, leading to a civil war within the subreddit. That community is now defunct.
But the anti-SJW subreddits? They’re still around. Still kicking, still complaining about SJWs. Over time, the term “SJW” has lost its original meaning. It no longer refers to extreme leftists—it now refers to anyone left of far-right, even moderate conservatives.
Here’s what I’ve learned: playing identity politics doesn’t lead to meaningful change. Using shame as a tactic doesn’t work—especially against people you think are extremists. When you attack someone, they double down. I know because I doubled down.
When you feel attacked, you have two choices: you can delete your account and walk away, or you can fight back. I chose to fight, and in doing so, I lost sight of truth and right versus wrong. It became about winning.
What ultimately pulled me out of the anti-SJW sphere was the realization that the people there weren’t my friends. They didn’t care about me—they saw me as a pawn in their game. Once I understood that, I left.
Now, I believe that if we want to create positive change, we have to focus on unity. We have to show people—even those we don’t like—that we’re all being screwed by the system. That guy working a blue-collar job? He’s being screwed too. He just doesn’t realize it because all he sees are people attacking him for who he is, and so he doubles down.
But when he needs help, those so-called “friends” of his won’t be there. They’re just using him. Hopefully, one day, he’ll wake up and realize the goodness in those he deems “other”.
Identity politics—it’s dangerous.
“Biometric Portrait (Nathalie)” (2022) by Edie Nadelhaft, oil on canvas, convex glass
If you work in the tech industry, this painting probably gives you Eye of Sauron vibes. Because this, right here, is where the future is headed.
鮭はすべての魚の中で一番おいしいです。はい、マグロよりもおいしいです。そしていいえ、私はこの強い意見を謝罪しません！！！ 😳
Something we don’t talk enough about:
How non-English speakers use Google Translate or DeepL to interact with English speakers on social media.
More than once, a Spanish speaker will reply to a post of mine in Spanish because they assume I’ll use a translator to understand them. (Which is true, but interesting.)
Something I wish liberals of the 2010s knew: when you play identity politics, conservatives almost always win.
And that’s because conservatism is—in its most elemental form—about identifying in-groups and out-groups.
As predatory as VC funding can be here, it can’t hold a candle to how predatory it is in China.
Fail? They’ll come after your personal assets and get you on a lender blacklist.
Stop giving advice to stop using em-dashes because “humans don’t write like that.”
I write like that—have done for ages.
I ain’t getting rid of perfectly good punctuation just because LLMs use ‘em. They use semicolons too; so what?
Call me weird, but maybe concert tickets shouldn’t be sold online—especially when you consider that humans aren’t buying them.
At least, tickets shouldn’t be bought online until there’s some sort of human verification system in place.
Can’t be done? Stop selling them online.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10950249/man-introduced-concert-ticket-buying-bots/
Street Hassle - Lou Reed
This is my favourite Lou Reed song ever—the storytelling is first rate, and really highlights the tragedy of people living on the margins. The strings are incredible. Lou often gets flack for not being able to sing, but he’s amazing here.
Just the Three of Us - The Superhighway Band
Smooth jazz is only good so long as it has thick and funky bass grooves. If it ain’t got the bass, then it got not place.