Milcom Miasma∙ Old computer nerd who used to break computers for a living
∙ Retired in a small town in a big state with no people. That can't be coincidence
∙ Wondering what's next - I hope it's something
∙ I love #books, especially #bannedbooks
∙ Disquieted observer to the human condition
∙ #Atheism because applied religion is toxic
Banner picture: Bighorn mountains, northern Wyoming
Avatar picture: Oscar - he was judgy but I miss him
#nobot
#noai
Milcom MiasmaMy favorite quote for today:
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Note on the photo: The chair has been in my wife's family for close to eighty years and was traded to my wife and I by her grandfather for a bottle of his favorite scotch. I think we got the better of the deal.
#Quotes
Milcom MiasmaLate last year I decided that I needed to read the 100 most banned and challenged books from the last decade (2010-19).
https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019
I want to understand why people want to ban them. After reading a book on the list, I write a very short review (500 characters) and post it in #BannedBooks. My friend and author @wasootch@mastodon.sdf.org has been kind enough to post all the reviews on her blog at:
https://lkinley.com/milcom-miasmas-reviews-of-top-most-banned-books/
Please follow along or better yet, join in.
Milcom Miasma"Well all the time ya spend trying to get back what's been took from ya, more is going out the door. After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it."
--Ellis, "No Country For Old Men"
I have a friend who was the funniest and most adventurous person in his twenties.
In his sixties now, he's had some health scares and rough breaks that have left him vulnerable and deeply suspicious.
Watching him retreat from the world has been heart-breaking.
#OldPeopleOfMastodon
#SoItGoes
Milcom MiasmaOther than music, what's your favorite sound?
Mine is when we were kids tucked in the back of a station wagon early in the morning on the road to visit grandparents. My pillow rested on the window and vibrated with the car's engine and I was cozy under a blanket.
I could hear my parents hushed murmurs from the front seat. Their voices, the smell of dad's coffee and mom's tea still echo in my head.
I think that's why I listen to stories now to fall asleep.
So, what's yours?
#FavoriteSounds
Milcom MiasmaIn keeping with the spirit of yesterday’s post I present fifteen seconds of sound brought to you by the Goose creek, local birds and the freight train rattling by in the distance.
Wallup park in Sheridan, Wyoming.
Milcom MiasmaOther than music, what's your favorite sound?
Mine is when we were kids tucked in the back of a station wagon early in the morning on the road to visit grandparents. My pillow rested on the window and vibrated with the car's engine and I was cozy under a blanket.
I could hear my parents hushed murmurs from the front seat. Their voices, the smell of dad's coffee and mom's tea still echo in my head.
I think that's why I listen to stories now to fall asleep.
So, what's yours?
#FavoriteSounds
Milcom MiasmaSome of us never outgrew the need for a good bedtime story.
I finally snapped when youtube inserted a 30 minute commercial about bowel cleansing into the British panel show I was listening to to fall asleep.
LibriVox -
It's free, there's a lot of content (read by volunteers who are surprisingly good at it) and it streams nicely to a browser.
I'm listening to Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat."
I definitely would recommend.
https://librivox.org/
#AudioBooks
#AudioStories
Milcom MiasmaStrange Days (1995)
The script was written by James Cameron and it was directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
It was a colossal flop at the box office. I think the reason it failed was because it was about 25 years ahead of it's time.
"One man's mundane and desperate existence is another man's Technicolor"
--Tick
"Paranoia is just reality on a finer scale."
--Philo Gant
"The issue isn't whether you're paranoid, but whether you're paranoid enough."
--Max Peltier
#Movies
#BetterWithAge
Milcom MiasmaThis man is a bona fide hero is what.
"He’s Saving 20,000 Tapes of Underground Music and Making it Free to All"
https://www.kqed.org/arts/13979518/sacramento-music-archive-shayne-stacy-punk-metal-cassettes-vhs-demos-concerts
#Music
#MusicArchives
Milcom MiasmaICE-anon.
Do you ever wonder if ICE agents admit to being ICE agents in off-duty social situations?
I'm thinking that kind of information is probably a date-killer among the sane and compassionate mainstream in any dating pool.
I like to make myself feel better by hoping it is, anyway.
Nothing but re-runs and lonely TV-dinners for you, ICE-boy.
#ICE
#UglyPeople
Milcom MiasmaThe early XY advantage.
A friend in education relayed some direct experiences they had with two children from the same family.
The girl needed some additional resources to get to the reading level she needed to be. The parents answer was "nope, she doesn't need it."
A couple years later, their boy comes through the same classroom and receives the same assessment. "Get him everything he needs to catch up" said the parents.
Subtle oppression, anyone?
#Education
#GenderBias
#WhatTheHell
Milcom MiasmaDonut for your troubles?
We're providing the food for tonight's banned book club meeting. Mrs. Miasma found this website that tells you the food mentioned in your favorite book, so we let that be our guide for tonight's fare.
Donuts
Strawberries
Cheese
Bread
Apple Juice
Orange Juice
Red Wine
White Wine
Red plates and plastic utensils
White Napkins
All for the most depressing book I've ever read: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
http://www.bookmenus.co/search?q=A+Handmaid%27s+Tale
#BannedBooks
#Books
#Food
Milcom MiasmaHair Trigger.
I have a memory of my little sister, Malacophonous Miasma when she was in middle school.
She was standing in front of the bathroom mirror desperately to get her hair to cooperate with the brush when a look came over her face that said "this is just like all the other unimportant bullshit in life."
I still remember that look and my realization that she was smarter than the rest of us.
Unless you hair's in your eyes, be like Malacophonous.
#Siblings
#OldPeopleOfMastodon