Maerman

So I have a story related to this. I teach English in Korea. One time, two 11-year-old students chose kopi luwak as a topic for their in-class (no research) project. I asked what that is, as I had never heard of it. They explained in pre-intermediate English that there is a cat that poops coffee beans. I didn't believe them at first, because it sounded so silly. But they urged me to look it up. At first, I got confused between 'kopi' and 'coffee', because Korean has no 'f' sound and substitutes a 'p' sound. But when I finally found the Wiki page, I was blown away. The fact that this is real would be so funny if it weren't for all the abuse another user pointed out.

It used to be very popular, so I don't know if this qualifies, but I watch a lot of noir and neo-noir. Specifically, I like the ones told from the criminal's perspective. Films like Double Indemnity, Body Heat and The Postman Always Rings Twice are great places to start.

My latest album. Cue shameless self-plug:

https://eddiehyde.bandcamp.com/album/heimwee

They shoot horses, don't they?

Good on you. You can teach your son some valuable perspective, while getting in some quality time as well. Please let us know how it goes, if you don't mind. I feel invested now.

You make some good points there. I remember LAN parties in high school where we would spend hours troubleshooting network problems and calling older brothers for advice. I learned a lot from those experiences, because I was forced to. I think a big part of the changes we are seeing in computer literacy is what I would call the Apple philosophy: if a toddler can't use it, we need to simplify. Basically, as you said, things are getting simpler with less granular control. Of course, Apple is far from the only company doing this stuff, but they seem to be industry leaders in the sense of 'dumbing down' tech.

I recently had a friend say that privacy is a luxury these days. My first thought was that there is nothing luxurious about it. It takes hard work, inconvenience and savvy. And I'm not even close to Stallman levels of privacy paranoia. I know just enough to acknowledge that I know nothing. I feel similarly about tech in general. I have been using Linux for ten years, I use VPNs, I have played around with DNS settings, et cetera. But I realize that I have barely scratched the surface of what is possible and available to those willing to spend the time and get it done.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. Thanks for replying thoughtfully, and thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Hi. The album was just published. Check it out:

https://eddiehyde.bandcamp.com/album/heimwee

Ass Ponys. When you search for them on YouTube, be sure to search for "Ass ponys band." Otherwise you'll find a lot of softcore My Little Pony porn.

Thanks. Luckily there are some people here who have a smidge of empathy. They are few and far between, but not nonexistent.

I'm in Daegu myself. Enjoy the relative progressiveness of the capital city. Down here that guy would get beaten.

Never spend time in South Korea. They put corn and sweet potato on pizza. And that's just where it starts.

Another update: Seeleeu Leipoldt replied to my Facebook message yesterday. He says all he wants is songwriting credit. So it's going on the album. I'll post a link here when it's ready to publish.