Slow Notes
Do not despair
All of this, the climate change, fascism, llm bullshit, greed and all, is making good people feel hopeless and exhausted. You see social media and blog posts by people who feel all hope is lost and there's nothing to do. The despair understandable, yet something to get over with. The despair is by design. All the doom and gloom and mixed messages make you exhausted and confused. The more exhausted and confused you are, the more likely you are to comply. This is an age old way to control people, to make you malleable and easy to manipulate. You will start feeling they have already won....
How to make time for art
You are a very busy person. So am I, and so is the person next to you. Life gets in the way, work gets in the way, you just cannot draw every day. That's how I used to explain myself why I wasn't drawing daily or even weekly or monthly at one point. I had to wait for better time and for that elusive inspiration to strike. I needed better art supplies and less shaky hands. So I drew less and less. A few years ago I made a decision to draw more. It was a bit of a tool driven decision. I had bought a tablet, stylus and a drawing app. I felt I had to use those, since they weren't exactly cheap...
Control, not protection
Social media has been around for a short life time. Internet much longer. The attempts at control started early on, and they never really worked. In early 2000s there were attempts to protect children from the scares of Internet by automatically blocking access to certain websites. Some of the results were rather hilarious: I remember rumours of the websites of munincipality of Pornainen here in Finland getting caught in parental controls due to the name of the place. Nasty! All spam and scam filtering tends to create false positives. They don't really work, since eventually the spammer...
Isä (dad)
Yesterday my dad passed away. He was very ill for a while, so in that sense it was a relief. No more pain, no more feeling bad. That doesn't stop me from mourning. I would have loved to have my dad here longer, if only he had been well. Dad enjoyed good oldies music and liked animals of other species. And they liked him back. If you gave dad some wood and a few tools he could make you a wooden ladle, a table, or even a house. I'm writing this on a desk he made me over 30 years ago. Sometimes he played his harmonica, sometimes a game of solitaire. He even taught me the basics five card...
Rewilding the internet
As I was reading an article on rewilding the internet on Noema magazine I started thinking this website as a little wild and unkempt meadow in between all the neatly cut, boring and soulless lawns. The lawns don't sustain anything beyond the grass. But meadows, they bring in the buzz. I have had concerns about centralisation of the internet for a while. Independent blogs and portfolios still exist, but lots of people have moved their writings and art to other people's platforms. Instead of making your own art site, you might think your Instagram works as the portfolio you need. And some...
How to give a crap (in a world full of it)
Approximately ten years ago I asked you a question: Do you care? I was worried about the harsh things people were saying, about the cynicism and how people were trying to ignore important things. Well, it doesn't seem to be any better today. Remember all those books about how not to give a fuck or shit or other profanities? Back when those where all the rage I already found them concerning. Now yes, the message of those was not to get too invested in all the small issues in life. Not to be so overly sensitive that you are constantly thinking about what other people think about you. You kno...
A quick announcement about my newsletter
Before the pandemic hit, or maybe around that time, I made a huge deal about starting a new email list, "Dreaming out loud". And then things went... well, I know how things went. So many things have happened and somehow it's now four years later. During this time I have restarted my YouTube channel and changed things a lot at Patreon. And now Patreon has given the opportunity to share posts restricted to free members only or to all members, including free ones. Which has moved me to make a decision: For now I will only share newsletters with my Patreon members, or Patrons. This inclu...
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