Mitch's Blog

I made a disparaging comment about Los Angeles to an angeleno on a team call, and the angeleno agreed. Angelenos are usually willing to agree heartily with any disparaging remark you make about Los Angeles. Makess needling them less fun.

The smallest hill I’m willing to die on: I dislike virtual backgrounds that are representations of rooms. Virtual rooms are all bland and dystopian. Just use the blur effect or an abstract virtual background. It is acceptable to use a virtual room or some other real-world image if it is very, very clever — but they never are.

Reading “Lord of the Rings” continues. The scenes about the barrow-wights are pretty good. At least it’s not descriptions of eating or forests and Tom Bombadil doesn’t show up until the end.

If Back to the Future was made today, Marty would be going back to 1995.

Here’s something I saw while walking the dog: The Goodyear Blimp

Here’s something I saw while walking the dog: The first lawn Santa of the season.

I have decided to make a drastic life change: I am throwing out all empty boxes, no matter how sturdy, clean and perfectly sized they are (with the exception of the original packaging for expensive electronics). I will trust in the universe to provide boxes when boxes are required.

Please pray for me during this difficult transition.

"Transforming a human necessity (housing) into an asset is a *terrible* idea"

Transforming a human necessity into an asset is a terrible idea. Governments work to increase the price of assets owned by actors in their economy. But increasing the price of housing only benefits the minority who own houses, while everyone else – everyone who needs a roof over their head – suffers. For a comparison, imagine if our governments instituted a policy of making some other necessity as expensive as possible, say, food or water. Transforming shelter into an asset class was always going to end badly.

— How to fix the UK housing crisis, by Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr