Initial WTF Import

drafts/Meaningful.md

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+# "Meaningful"
+
+## Facebook’s “new” commitment for 2018 is not a concession and its CEO has never sought anything more noble than the continued liquidation of your attention.
+
+***SCRUBS***
+
+### Facebook is still your class enemy.
+Mark Fuck’s tradition of publicly announcing his annual “personal goal” yielded a surprising result for 2018: Facebook’s CEO intends to… do his job. Wading through his vague, cringe-laden language remains a torturous trial, but - perhaps just this once - it is worth finishing if one has the fortitude, all the while remembering, of course, that its author holds the keys to the single most intellectually powerful property in human history.
+A lot of us got into technology because we believe it can be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people's hands. (The first four words of Facebook's mission have always been "give people the power".)
+If it were ever appropriate for Mark to use “us” in this sentence, it was years ago - decades, even. Whatever his original intentions, he has become the most powerful centralizer who’s ever lived, directly empowering him over virtually all “people.” At the risk of echoing a dozen old men in your life, Facebook is a business, and so exists primarily to make money. “Connecting people” has been, is now, and will forever remain little more than a mostly-pleasant side-effect of the service’s operation as long as it maintains a form at all resembling its current one. Somehow, the important names in tech journalism have spent the past year acknowledging that Mr. Fuck deals primarily in attention - directing his company’s resources into developing and optimizing methods of keeping you present as long and as often as possible - while simultaneously expressing that they “like” him. Granted, many know him personally (and most are paid with advertising dollars themselves.) I do not.
+
+
+Last week, Facebook announced with a morsel more specificity its upcoming changes to its News Feed in keeping with Mark’s directive, this time relying on “meaningful interactions” as their new keyword.
+By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable.
+Oh, bless you, Fuck! How noble of you to show such generosity in this difficult time!
+
+
+The truth is, “meaningful engagement” is not a revolutionary new concession in the industry - it is a relatively rudimentary strategy as old as the advertising business itself, deployed as per SOP when your data says your audience needs more reason to… actually engage with your ads. Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect the public faces of a modern media company to be happy discussing bluntly all the ways it intends to profit off of its users, but the purple cloud of proximity to privilege hanging about the heads of those who should be holding them accountable has left the details catastrophically underreported. Last Fall, much of the general discourse surrounding Facebook was fueled by the disconcerting supposition that Messenger was using its access to smartphone microphones to “listen” in on day-to-day conversations in the interest of selling your most intimate & immediate wants and needs to its advertisers. Thousands of users experienced and documented bizarrely specific ads that were perceived to be far too timely to be coincidence, but advertising is anything but random. When Reply All investigated, they arrived - after discussions with ex-employees, concerned users, and industry authorities - at a disputed, but even more terrifying conclusion - the profiling techniques the service practices on its users are so thorough and complex, they supersede any need to actually overhear what’s being spoken. At any given moment, Facebook’s algorithms know more about the nuances of your consumerism than you could possibly state.
+
+
+Nobody outside of the company knows the precise extent of this unfathomably powerful collection of information and that’s fucking dangerous before any consideration of the company’s suspected role in the outcome of the 2016 election. Regardless of transparency or motive - even if Mark Fuck has happened upon some kind of guilt-catalyzing crucible and come away with a newfound commitment to sacrificing a portion of his company’s profit and/or influence for the sake of our “wellness” - it is, as always, way too fucking late. If you could devise a method of summing up entirely Facebook’s cultural and psychological consequences thus far in a collection of images - a slide show, let’s say - and project them behind him as he read his posts and press releases aloud on stage, he’d be swiftly decked in the face. His distance from the realities of his two billion daily customers is enabled by the silicon valley groupieism all too prevalent among those voices in place to be critical.

drafts/Minolta Weathermatic-A.md

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+# Minolta Weathermatic-A
+
+## THE RUGGED SON
+
+
+
+Discovering a forgotten need.
+
+For the past few months, [Hawthorn](https://twitter.com/hawthorn_jr) has been unironically and unconceitedly introducing me into the World of Film photography. I’ve taken a lot of photos in my lifetime, but almost exclusively in digital save for some pre-adolescent [experimenting](http://bit.ly/dbstylus) with a 35mm Olympus point-and-shoot, so let me disclaim this *review* as perhaps not the most useful to old time film nerds. For them, other resources like [*Forgotten Charm*](http://www.forgottencharm.com/minolta-weathermatic-a-110-pocket-camera/) or [Michael Butkus](http://www.butkus.org/chinon/minolta/minolta_weathermatic/minolta_weathematic-splash.htm) would better inform a buying decision.
+
+
+
+Kodak’s 110 Instamatic film format led to a surprisingly diverse variety of “pocket cameras,” and a great many of them are exceptionally beautiful examples of design. Despite its original, limited intended function, the industry pushed 110’s limits in the 1970s and 80s, from keychain [microcameras](https://www.lomography.com/magazine/90713-micro-110-key-chain-camera) – little more than an aperture mounted on the cartridges themselves – to [SLRs](https://blog.jimgrey.net/2012/10/05/minolta-110-zoom-slr/) with adjustable focus, exposure, and interchangeable lenses.
+
+> omg you guys I just got my pentax auto 110 and ITS SO SMALL!!! i'm legitimately too excited to clean it off so take a big look!! [pic.twitter.com/25Hk1G8E7h](https://t.co/25Hk1G8E7h)
+>
+> — ![📸](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.0/svg/1f4f8.svg)HAWTHORN_JR![🐚](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.0/svg/1f41a.svg) (@hawthorn_jr) [January 2, 2018](https://twitter.com/hawthorn_jr/status/948305945293025280?ref_src=twsrc^tfw)
+
+
+
+[siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Image_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget]
+
+The second great explosion of American Buddhism occurred in the nineteen-fifties. Spurred, in large part, by the writings of the émigré Japanese scholar D. T. Suzuki, it was, in the first instance, aesthetic: Suzuki’s work, though rich in tea ceremonies and haiku, makes no mention of Zazen, the hyper-disciplined, often painful, meditation practice that is at the heart of Zen practice.
+
+
+
+The Buddhist spirit, or the easier American variant of it, blossomed in Beat literature, producing some fine coinages (Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums”). Zen, though apparently an atypically severe sect within Buddhism, came to be the standard-bearer, so much so that “Zen” became an all-purpose modifier in American letters meaning “challengingly counterintuitive”—as in “Zen and the Art of Archery” or the masterly “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” where you learn how not to aim your arrow or how to find a spiritual practice in a Harley.
+
+
+
+It was this second movement that blossomed into a serious practice of sitting lessons and a set of institutions, the most prominent, perhaps, being the San Francisco Zen Center.
+
+
+
+Though separated by generations, the deeper grammar of the two Buddhist awakenings was essentially the same. Buddhism in America is simultaneously exotic and familiar—it has lots of Eastern trappings and ceremonies that set it off from the materialism of American life, but it also speaks to an especially American longing for a publicly productive spiritual practice. American Buddhism spins off museum collections and Noh-play translations and vegetarian restaurants and philosophical books and, in the hands of the occasional Buddhist Phil Jackson, the triangle offense in basketball.
+
+*Orbital plane, the rain stays the same. Make mine a regex and yours will be pain.*

drafts/The Honks that Fell Silent.md

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+# The Honks that Fell Silent
+
+Technically, my automotive web show only ever published 5 episodes (plus [the Toyota Avalon video](https://youtu.be/vC2-RAhBqu0),) but the amount of unpublished *Honk* material should just about match what’s available now if/when I’m able to gather the required funds and external drives to outsource the editing work. 6 years and two days ago (are you getting tired of the milestone thing, because *I* certainly am,) we recorded my thoughts on the [2011 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS Spyder](http://www.extratone.com/shife/driving-a-mitsubishi-eclipse-culture-cheapens-by-the-second/) (or something ridiculous like that) – the then-latest manifestation of an automotive product which we’d literally spent years disparaging as the lowest of the low in the design, cultural, and practical senses. Unlike the Juke or Versa, the Eclipse did nothing but affirm its crucifixion – I still vividly remember the sensation: operating the Eclipse feels like you’re driving an enlarged plastic pedal car.
+
+I distinctly recall several car mechanics from different shops in a handful of separate municipalities independently making a point to emphasize how important it was that I buy *just about anything* but an Eclipse when I was going on 14 and prone to those premature conversations about buying my first car. Lewis – the talented mechanic my stepdad hired to restore the machine that would become my first – my brother-in-law’s early-90s extended cab Toyota Pickup – included something like “at least you didn’t end up with an Eclipse” in that last conversation before we drove it home, a thousand-yard stare of sincere trauma on his face.
+
+> **There is nothing redeemable about the Mitsubishi Eclipse**. This I have suspected for years, and now confirmed. It is vulgar to look at, depressing to be around, and genuinely demeaning to drive.
+
+But what was the purpose, exactly, of such an embarrassingly bargain-bin coverband of a vehicle? For a tiny, performance-oriented company like Mitsubishi to have survived the SUV and (now) Crossover eras thus far in the 21st century, they needed a popular sell. Yes, for the opportunity to have enjoyed that glorious Evo X, I must in large part thank the Eclipse, which has been [killed](https://web.archive.org/web/20110427085719/http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110425/CARNEWS/110429917) since and succeeded by the Eclipse Cross as the [Brand’s Breadwinner](http://www.thedrive.com/news/20738/mitsubishis-makeover-gives-sales-a-boost). 
+
+Shortly after filming with the Eclipse, a curious theory smacked down upon me: what if the **entire existence** of these products with their mighty names had always been **a grand, century-spanning industry joke at the literal expense of the West’s most ignorant car buyers**? Malignant, maybe – but not malicious. What if Mitsubishi simply knew that America’s tasteless young men and women had long existed in a foul, rabid state of hunger for their dearly-beloved Wally World✪ Car? What if they recognized this weakness as their one opportunity to capitalize on the market trend they were least-equipped – even least-willing, perhaps – to survive?
+
+Though a banker may suppose otherwise – as per their historically-pale market share – Mitsubishi is more than capable of such a plot, intellectually. The Lancer Evolution is a marvel of suspension and powertrain design.
+
+✪ *Wal-Mart*

drafts/The Psalms' 2020.md

@@ -39,9 +39,7 @@ Beginning with today's changes,
 - [ ] [October 18th, 2018 Capture](http://web.archive.org/web/20181101000000*/bilge.world)
 - [x] [May 1st Capture](https://web.archive.org/web/20200501203946/https://bilge.world/)
 
-![Bilge, 05-01-2020](https://i.snap.as/VocaJCt8.png)
 
-![Bilge, 05-01-2020](https://i.snap.as/5kLMVMds.png)
 
 - [x] "[You Know I'm Blogging](https://bilge.world/you-know-im-blogging)" - April 17th
 - [x] "[Dirty Dave's Poweruser Tips](https://bilge.world/poweruser-tips-software-shortcuts)" - April 21st
@@ -54,12 +52,13 @@ Beginning with today's changes,
 - [x] "[Craig Toomey's Coronavirus](https://bilge.world/the-langoliers-stephen-king)" - May 20th
 - [x] "[Discord is Better Than Slack](https://bilge.world/discord-slack-comparison)" - May 24th
 - [x] "[Star Trek Online Lives](https://bilge.world/star-trek-online)" - May 25th
-- [ ] "[Excerpt: Blimp's Burden, Chapter VI](https://bilge.world/blimps-burden-chapter-6)" - May 26th
+- [x] "[Excerpt: Blimp's Burden, Chapter VI](https://bilge.world/blimps-burden-chapter-6)" - May 26th
 - [ ] "[Changes and Updates](https://bilge.world/changes-updates)" - May 27th
 - [ ] "[Google Is Not God of The Web](https://bilge.world/google-page-experience)" - June 1st
 - [ ] "[Email and I: An Abridged History](https://bilge.world/hey-email-history)" - June 22nd
 - [ ] "['Greyhound''s Top-Side Pot Shot](https://bilge.world/greyhound-tom-hanks)" - July 29th
 - [ ] "[Indulging Once More in Digital Excess](https://bilge.world/digital-excess)" - September 24th
 - [ ] "[The Social Dilemma's Dilemma](https://bilge.world/the-social-dilemma)" - October 19th
 - [ ] "[Software Thanksgiving](https://bilge.world/big-thank)" - November 25th
-- [ ] ~35,000 words, ~2 hours of reading.
+- [ ] ~35,000 words, ~2 hours of reading.
+- [ ] Most Overdue Drafts!

drafts/Through an iPhone 4's Lens.md

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+# Through an iPhone 4's Lens
+
+## Seven years ago, the fourth generation of Apple’s iPhone instigated a change in our perception of digital photography. Now – thanks to Google Photos – I’d like to reflect on my favorite shots of mine.
+
+When iPhone 4 handsets began shipping in the Summer of 2010, I’d been carrying my first generation for three solid years – since its now history-stricken release, in fact – and its age started to become a problem. I’d drop it screen-down on a rock in the airport parking lot just before going back to school for my Junior year, splitting a crack in the screen that wouldn’t quite kill it – it was the demands of iOS 4 on its 412 MHz CPU and meager 128 MB of RAM that would ultimately cease its usability.
+
+The single 2 megapixel rear-facing camera would surprise one at times, but was never lauded as anything but what it was – a mobile phone-bound sensor capturing very cellular-looking* images, but Steve Jobs wasn’t [three minutes in](https://youtu.be/z__jxoczNWc?t=2m10s) to his iPhone 4 presentation at the June 2010 Worldwide Developer’s Conference before he pronounced the design’s closest possible “kin” to be “an old Leica camera,” associating his device with photography in its first impression. The equivalent of the first generation’s rear-facing camera could now be found facing *you*, and the fourth’s primary sensor now shot at 5 megapixels (2592 x 1936) with autofocus and 5x digital zoom, setting a fundamental smartphone sensor configuration [standard](https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6125849/iphone-history-pictures) that’s still adhered to by the industry.
+
+After unleashing Google Photos upon the ~15,000 images on my home machine’s hard drive last year, I have been constantly reminded of my own photographic history – for better or worse – and regularly shown five, six, seven-year old snaps in a manner that wouldn’t have been possible (or have made any sense) before. Recently, I was astounded to find that I took many of the better shots with my iPhone 4, so I thought I’d share a few from my high-school days in loving memory of my trusty little rectangular companion.
+
+ <a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidblue/albums/72157687536399666" title="iPhone 4"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/4421/36537436746_a0b977fbd4_z.jpg" width="auto" height="auto" alt="iPhone 4">
+
+*All taken with iPhone 4, left unedited. View more on* [*Flickr*](http://bit.ly/davidblueip4)*.*
+
+#hardware #photography

import/wtf/2016-03-04-soul-water.md

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+---
+title: "Soul Water"
+date: "2016-03-04"
+---
+
+_A poem about alcohol originally published in_ Feebles in Night_._
+
+Movement  
+in bitter  
+vibrations  
+about  
+weighted clique  
+in the sooted  
+pit
+
+Selling whatever  
+and approaching some place to be saved,  
+surreal  
+or left  
+or dead  
+but included
+
+There's a love of  
+the upset condition  
+of leaving the bitterness in the bathroom
+
+Fool me,  
+but it's expensive  
+seeking and gluttoning the  
+spirit medicine  
+The muse of a thousand obstructions  
+frighten amassed  
+pulled anatomy of cowards to  
+the drudged rhythm
+
+Open something unwanted for  
+wilting wanters  
+tonight
+
+Take it  
+and you'll thank everything  
+give it all away