Loaded for bear. What do you want to know? How about how fragile the American political left seems when you make any criticism? How about an AG23 mailing update and the status of the USPS? Maybe you want to know how disconnected American college students really are and how I know so much? And what about my thoughts on Kamala, Top Gun, and the beauty and destructive skill of the average tick? Welcome aboard.
Create: For What It’s Worth Episode 041
Comments 13
Dan, you think youtube is okay and the other two are evil? There is just as much disinformation on youtube as the others. I can at least access IG without ads and suggested crap I have no interest in. Your stance on this confuses.
Interesting point. I deleted FB, IG, and Twitter a while ago. (I think Twitter is the absolute worst, except as a means of being able to document interactions with law enforcement.) I like watching Dan’s videos and a few others, and you really can learn just about anything on YouTube, but man, it’s painful opening YouTube. So much crap. It’s an ugly site.
Author
Scott,
Talk about fake news. YT is a blizzard of phony humans conning people lost at the digital sea. Yes, it’s a horrible looking site but man does it work. The consumption rates on YT are so far beyond anything I could imagine it’s still difficult to believe even after reading the stats again and again. It’s the elephant in the room of online content. It’s fake, it’s phony, it can be very destructive but also informative for things like how to fix a broken spoke or turn a tire from tube to tubeless. I’m reading Ready Player One to keep myself distracted.
Scott, the only way I can stomach YT is by clicking straight to my subscribed sites and staying away from the rest.
Author
Chuck,
It’s all bad but I think FB in particular integrates at a DNA level more so than YT and we’ve seen evidence of this, at a high level, going back many years. IG is fine for some people and not for others. Apple, Google, etc. All part of the same connected issues and harm. If YT was not part of my job I would have nothing to do with it. Same for Twitter. I got rid of what I could but have to maintain the rest if I’m going to maintain my current role. I’ve said this many, many times in many, many places. I’m as guilty as anyone but I admit my guilt upfront. I don’t deny and make excuses that these networks aren’t causing damage just because I find them entertaining.
Dan,
I get that. Quit FB, the worst in my opinion. IG allows me to share to friends and family and local arts people, not a professional, no website, no seeking hashtags, etc. Enjoy your site and youtube’s.
Author
Chuck,
Whatever works for you. I don’t have any right to tell anyone else what to do. IG was invasive for me. It crept into my mind like it does with MANY of my friends who have no real reason to use it but they can’t seem to stop. Same people will never admit it’s an addiction. I find that same time put toward this site, my Blurb work, AG23, and adventure is more important.
“A glorious well of cinematic bliss.”
The FWIWs are easily my favorite part of the Shifter.Media Empire.
I grew up in Arizona. I was a typical dumb suburban kid. I probably haven’t come too far. My inexcusable ignorance about native American history embarrasses me still. Oh awesome, it’s Indian Fry Bread day at school next week, we get to sit in a teepee! I won’t blame my teachers. I’m sure a lot of them looked out on the classroom and their first thought was “these kids are oblivious, when can I tuck into that flask of vodka”. But there were a few teachers (coaches) who just came into the classroom and turned on the movie projector. Remember those things from the ’80s? They looked like a microscope? I haven’t seen one since the 80s. Did they vanish? I want one.
I didn’t learn about the uranium horrors until I read Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang. Thank goodness I read that book. I credit it with making me a little less stupid. After reading that book I laugh (cry uncontrollably) every time the government and corporations release studies about the safety of X pipeline. Man, that’s a cushy gig. You just have to recycle the previous “safety” assessments, do a global find and replace, submit, and hope you can collect your huge bonus and switch jobs before that first, inevitable accident. The accident PR folks have it a little tougher. They have to downplay the accident or spill for the 72 hours to 1 week that will remove the accident from the news cycle. Their jobs are getting easier daily.
Interesting point about the shipping. I’ve never thought about it, but I guess those of us of a certain age (old) just always assume we’ll have to pay for shipping. My marketing and psychology skills are zero. I’m sure some smart, hanging on to the last of their innocence MBAers have looked at whether it’s better to just jack up the price to the headache reducing point of being able to say shipping included. This product was going to be $50, with $8 shipping. I don’t want you to deal with that. I’m charging $60, and I’ll take care of the shipping for you. You’re welcome.
Very much agree about the sensitivity. I talk about the election with a few childhood buddies. We all want Trump to lose. I think at 77 Biden is in obvious cognitive decline. It happens to all of us. It’s happening to me. I mention it, and one of those friends gets angry every time, telling me I’ve bought into the hit job, and that I should also talk about Trump’s faculties. No, at my age, I have enough case studies to make an independent assessment of when things take a turn. Yes, Trump hides his with bravado and generalizations. A good reason why we shouldn’t choose candidates in their late 70s. Why can’t we have a Jacinda Ardern. (Prime Minister Ardern, if you follow the Shifter.Media Empire, I’m a flailing documentary photographer who would love to document your country’s handling of COVID for the next 2 years, with a subsequent 2 year stay necessary for the editing. Probably easiest if we just call it a residency visa.)
Author
Scott,
I love that idea. Jacinda…oh Jacinda. Yes. Intelligent, good speaker, sense of humor, interested in history and global events. Probably never work here. Monkey Wrench ended up being a pivotal book in the enviro movement. I read it too and loved it. Not that I’m going to go vandalize anything anytime soon, but there are other ways of making a point. I wish we could do a better job of educating kids in regard to the natural world. I fear we are passed the point of no return but I still dream about it.
Listening to you today I remembered my photo internship at the San Antonio Light, many many years ago…ahhh good times.
Author
Jim,
I think my roommate in college interned there. I once spent a day with Andy King, riding around with him during assignments.
AG23 shipping: Take an hour drive south to ABQ and ship from there.
Top Gun: The Star of that film was the Grumman F-14. The new film’s trailers show some dynamite F-18 flying that I understand is mostly non-CGA. Looking forward to next year’s release.. Oh – I lived on a carrier for 4 years and had F-14s landing on the roof of my bedroom, FWIW.
Nukes: part of the reason why our Cold War foreign policy was so screwed up was to retain access to strategic resources: titanium from South Africa and lithium (the dry fuel for H-bombs) from South America.
Keep up the good work, Dan.
Author
Joe,
Drive to ABQ and avoid the entanglement that is USPS SF? Never. Yes, the Tomcat was awesome. I’m bored with the F18, but at some point I’ll explain why. I do love the F15 however, the Typhoon and the F35.