What If Google Suddenly Locked You Out of Your Digital Life?
On Squidward's nihilism, bioflourescent platypii, and well-executed live electronic music.
Heto na.
It's election day in the United States. So instead of getting stressed over electoral results and fake news, I'm assembling my humble roundup.
Because... strange news is better than fake news. Or disappointing news. Or stressful news.
Digital Wake Up Call
What would you do if you found out Google had locked you out of all your Google services: Gmail, YouTube, Google Keep, Google Photos, even logged you out of the Chrome browser? That's exactly what happened to this one developer — and it could happen to any of us without warning.
Doesn't even have to just be Google. What if the same happened to you on Twitter or Apple or Facebook or Amazon or Evernote? What would you lose? And do you have a system for getting your data back? If you look around on social media, you'll see it happening left and right.
A few years back, I wrote something about using a notes app that lives on your choice of server instead of being tied to one service where you have no control. (Read it if you want some tips on finding an Evernote alternative.)
If you haven't thought about it yet (or haven' committed to it yet) it's high time to think about actually paying for an email service, for a calendar, for file and photo storage/backup, for a secure and open source messaging app, for a way to store and access encrypted notes.
Because you don't want to lose access to your digital life all of a sudden.
Real Life is Stranger Than Fiction
Cities have always fascinated me as living organisms and environments of both diversity and decay. So this headline screamed out at me ("The YouTuber Who Treats the Inner City Like a Safari") and introduced me to an entirely new type of Youtube video: the inner city safari.
And speaking of safaris, did you know that the platypus actually glows in the dark? Their fur glows green or cyan under UV light, apparently.
More proof that corporate life is scary: an Italian woman was recently sentenced to 4 years in prison after admitting to spiking a colleague’s drink with sedatives, so she would underperform. Nice work culture you have there!
I guess it's better she merely spiked the coffee than actually turned the coworker into raw materials for making books with human skin in them — a process known as anthropodermicbiocodicology, AKA "making human skin books."
But if you prefer a lighter topic, here's the opposum lady on Youtube and her recent video regarding the origins of Halloween. Her pet opposum, Bitey, eats like a starving artist all throughout the video. Strange and quirky.
Meanwhile, in case Twitter and Facebook aren't depressing you enough, there's actually a subreddit dedicated to all the most horrible headlines and the most depressing news in the world for you to get your doomscrolling kicks. From hurricanes and natural disasters to massive layoffs and political unrest. Aptly enough, it's called /r/collapse.
Long Form Stuff
In the mood for some long form entertainment? Here's a smorgasbord of odds and ends.
How Spongebob Explored Existential Nihilism. A video essay on one of the most philosophical episodes to ever air on a children's animation show, ever.
Did you know there's a legal war going on in the niche romance writing genre known as the Omegaverse (AKA werewolf romance)? I have neither interest nor inclination to check out the genre, but the legal antics and egos of its writers (well, really only one writer) is captured in all its horrible glory in this expose by the talented Youtuber, Lindsay Ellis. Entertaining!
Ear Candy
My favorite new discovery of the past few weeks has been Ortopilot, a massively talented Twitch streamer who creates live looping cover versions of popular songs using his home studio. One of these days, I'll have the guts to try my hand at doing this, but till then, this remains my northstar: Ortopilot doing a live looping cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop."
Remember Thomas Dolby? That nerdy 80s synth artist who made it big with "She Blinded Me With Science?" Here he is explaining, then actually performing the song live for an audience in 2018. 11 minutes of pop perfection.
If you like powerful stuff, I chanced upon this cinematic drum-and-bass track by London Elektricity.
And then there's Four Tet, the electronic musician who performed at the Sydney Opera House just this past October. Here's the hour long live set. And it is a glorious downtempo journey into the unknown.
Eye Candy
One man. A ballpoint pen. A large piece of cardboard. And two years of work. End result? Possibly the most intricately drawn maze you've ever seen -- and one that actually has 5 solutions. It took two years to finish. Talk about dedication.
Meanwhile, soft, fuzzy Tetris, anyone? Somebody make this into a real game, quick!
What I've Been Busy With
Personally, I've been playing with many free ‘80s virtual synthesizer plugins on my audio computer and producing some good ol' synthwave music for fun and sanity. (It's honestly the only way I can stay sane in this crazy new world we live in.)
Here's the last 2 minutes of a 5-minute track I've been working on. It sounds like Orbital mixed with some Pink Floyd. And I've entitled it "Lost Horizon." I'm thinking of releasing a bunch of these in the next month or so via Bandcamp.
Anyway, we've come to the end of this long journey.
Wish us luck.
Hopefully no riots pop up in the streets of America.
Cheers,
~ Lionel
Thanks for the intro to OrtoPilot on Twitch