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In my last gemlog post I wrote about my new mechanical keyboard, Signal's stories, Thunderbird, and Gemini Gatekeeping.
My capsule has now officially become my 'home' on the web. I've moved whatever pieces I had from my http blog over to a new part of my capsule and will continue writing my longer thought pieces there in the future.
It's kind of crazy how far my capsule's come since I booted this baby up earlier this year. Once in a while I'll take a second and go through the different pages and folders on my capsule and see how much I've written. Now that this is my official 'home' on the web, I plan to add even more content, from current projects to more pages of interest and reviews.
I likely won't have an Atom feed for every section of my page, but I'll try to keep things as organized as I can as I go along so if there is something you're interested in finding or keeping updated on, it'll be easy to find.
I've been paying for Spotify premium for years, and I can't say I regret a single minute of it. The wide variety of music, discovering new artists, and having it all available at my fingertips has been a game changer in my music consuming life. However, as I move through this world and try to be a more aware and conscious consumer, I knew eventually I would have to drop my beloved Spotify.
There are a number of reports and articles that go through the litany of reasons why Spotify is detrimental to the music industry and artists in particular. They pay next to nothing to artists for their streams and they are almost entirely driven by algorithms in their recommendations, radios, etc. I've opted out of algorithmic manipulation in my consumption of content online, and I should strive to do the same with my music consumption.
But this is really, really hard y'all. I love finding new music through the algorithms. It's so easy to just open the app, throw on some random playlist and add songs I like to my ever-expanding list of saved songs. But my conscious is growing more impatient by the day, and I just had to make a change.
So, I uninstalled Spotify from my phone. I've turned instead to streaming online radio stations through VLC. The music has been stellar and I've not missed my Spotify algorithms at all. It's only been 2 weeks, but things are looking up!
I'll continue documenting my journey somewhere on my capsule soon, including a running list of all the radio stations I'm listening to. I'll also talk about different sites and tools I'm using, as well as share some of the successes and struggles I experience along the way.
Wish me luck!
I love fantasy novels. My favourite series is the 14-book epic The Wheel of Time. It's so incredible and my desire to read it over again is so strong that I fear if I do not resist the urge to crack open the first book again, it will be the only novels I read for the rest of my life. In an attempt to stop myself from starting that series again, I'm trying to read the OG fantasy series, the Lord of the Rings.
I just finished the first book essentially over a weekend, and I gotta say, it's pretty dope. I love the movies and I really enjoyed the new series on Amazon, so I know what's going to happen and who the main characters are. However, the books are quite different from the movies in pacing and depth, so reading the books has been it's own unique and rewarding experience.
I'm going to start the second book today, excited for the adventure to continue!