Status of this blog and my online footprint

Hi. I haven't posted a ton here. I've been busy with the work related blog, which has done as well as Blogger blogs do these days. Am I going to have to join Medium?

But I sometimes miss this corner of my internet acre, and should probably tend to it more.

But what to write about? If there's one thing the world needs a whole lot less of, it's fat old caucasian men blathering about current affairs. People like that are what made the world such a mess lately. Anyway, my non-work twitter and Quora have eaten into that well of ideas.

That leaves...what? 

The occasional essay or short story (I'm not a poet, and I know it). I'm recording music again, finally, and will start posting it on my music YouTube (backing up to Vimeo, and of course mariocaiti.com). Animations and any visual arts I finish will go to Behance, with maybe some Instagrams because I want a reason to lurk there. I don't trust social media with my creative work, and neither should you.

So no plans here. But come say hi sometime.

I should update the blogroll function here, at least. Webrings and blogrolls are the cure for social media, so let's all do that.

Why are you a Democrat?Why are you a Republican?

Hello again. I've been reading a lot of grieving and wondering lately about how some people remain loyal to their political party, despite being around unsavory characters and ideas.
And I have some thoughts on that. Of course I do, that's why I'm here. Why else would I be?
You don't choose your party, your party chooses you. Where you stand on certain issues determines where you're going to land. (Insert Harry Potter witticism here. Gd forbid we not reference nerd culture during a serious discussion.)
Here's a quiz for you to demonstrate:

Is abortion
a) murder
b) a woman's inalienable right to choose
?
Are semiautomatic assault rifles
a) weapons of mass destruction
b) a citizen's inalienable right to defend their home
?
Are latinx migrants in cages on our southern border
a) trespassers on our sovereign land
b) refugees deserving of civil rights
?

I could go on, but you get it - you're answering these questions because they matter very much to you, and those answers determine which side of the political fence you will always be on.
So who's in that camp with you? It shouldn't matter, should it?
They're not going to be your friends, necessarily. As a member of the BAB+ camp, I wish I wasn't around people like Moby or Michael Moore, but that isn't going to change my core values. And people in the ABA+ camp probably don't like being in with people like Sheriff Clarke or Sean Hammity, but that's not going to change their core values either. Why would it?!
That goes all the way to the top. Me being in this camp with The Squad or them Clintons doesn't change my core values, and someone else being in the camp of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell doesn't change theirs. And you're going to see this proven as the elections grind on.
So that's a trope I'd like to see go away on twitter - "How can you stand to be in the party of ?" I won't hold my breath, though.


This blog is for random essay topics. For my formal blog about work stuff, go here. Thanks!

Unpopular Opinions: #walkaway is bullshit

I've dusted off this old blog because I have something to say about the upcoming election and current political climate. (Something about these times that's making that impossible to ignore, n'est ce pas?) In the bowels of the hell pit that is Twitter, something called the #walkaway (or it's more explicit variant, #walkawayfromdemocrats ) is being reported and promoted. It's the concept that Democrats are so in love with Trump because he created jobs, and so tired of Democrats because political correctness, that they're all going to vote for their Republican candidates.

Is this a joke? Of course it's not a joke.

#Seemslegit

For. The. Love. Of...
Because certainly, it's been a monologue I've been hearing all over my community. Yours too, I'm sure:

"You know, I was a liberal person with liberal values. But then I saw Dana Loesch and Sheriff Dave Clarke basically go full stormtrooper on social media, yelling about how much they would love to see gun owners massacre liberals in the streets. And I saw Stephen Miller literally leering at me from the podium on CNN, ordering the citizens to obey the President without question, and then heard he was delighted to see the suffering of children taken from their parents and thrown in internment camps - or left in the desert for traffickers to pick up and take away. And I read that Steve Bannon, his trusted Senior Adviser, really liked racist novels, and J. Beauregard Sessions, our Attorney General, thought the KKK were too softly liberal for his tastes.
"And I saw the President overseeing it all, conducting himself like a two-bit mafia boss, running the show from the luxury resort he still owns even though that's got to be against the law, right? And I saw him spend more time speaking/performing to his adoring crowds in stadiums, mocking victims of sexual assault and the handicapped, whipping them into violent frenzies against the press and anyone sort of liberal, than doing any actual governing.
I saw him basically tell police in Long Island they could do whatever they wanted to suspects because Latino gangs. I saw him give his personal cell phone number to a sworn enemy of the United States, defying the advice of his Secret Service and security force in general, while belittling the Prime Minister of Canada and The Pope.
"And I thought, "Wow! Trump conservatism sure is the way to go!"

Yeah, that's totally what happened.
Who believes this stuff?

...oh.
#thatsnotMelania



Know your history

Coming soon: Mario At Work (a new blechg)

One thing I'm consistently warned about is that everything I post on the internet is reviewed by future employers. (And sold to marketers and advertisers. Oh, sorry, I meant to say my data is mined. Same thing.)
I'm not ashamed of my sociopolitical opinions, but I would like to write about stuff I do that I can actually get paid for in a neutral setting. So I set up a blog for the following topics:

Programming Topics:
App and Site Development
Design
Science

Post-Production Professional Topics:
Animation
Visual Effects
Editing

General writing stuff can still go here where no one can find it. :p
UPDATE: It's live! Check it out!

Belief Grief

Much has been written about the Five Stages Of Grief. It is experienced with people when you lose them, but what about something even more important? A deeply held belief that, in many ways, defines you...and it's a lie. You're wrong, and you're caught.
Imagine how awful that must be. What goes through a person's mind throughout the transformation. Like fixing an addict or a cult member...who tend to show the same creepy, desperate characteristics of your least favorite online commenter or angry social media poster.
So you go through the five stages as follows. See if you recognize these from, say, social media:

Denial: There is NO evidence to support that! Also, the hundreds of links you've provided with detailed evidence in every single one is wrong because I don't like those sources because they are dumb and so there.
Anger: YOU DIRTY ROTTEN CUCKOLD! You're through, pal! Get me?!?!?! You'll never eat at a nice restaurant while I'm alive!!!
Bargaining: Yeah, well, YOUR side has jerks, too!!!
Depression: Oh my god...everything I know is a lie. Everything...they're all laughing at me, I'm a failure, kill me...
Acceptance:

Sorry, I've never seen any examples of that last one....at least not on social media.

Motivations

A wise man pointed out that motivation is bullshit: :) Sometimes it's not that simple, of course.
I like to hang out on sites where I am given prompts - questions to write long answers for, or projects to draw or code or whatnot - to create. When I don't get the prompts, I am truly useless.
Why is that?
If you have the same problem and you came here for advice, well...sorry.
I'm bringing this blog back to work through problems, and like you, I hope to solve them...but that is the always moving goalpost that life makes us score on.

Rock bands and startups: A Field Guide

Rock and roll, as it was once known, mutates and reinvents itself and reboots itself and fights day after day to keep up with a changing world. Just like small businesses, or as they're known these days, startups.
What kind of people go into a winning combo? Let's take a look:

Lead Singer/CEO

Talks louder than anyone in the room. Reads and plays your emotions better than anyone in the room. Doesn't always make sense, but everyone loves her/him anyway.

Guitarist/Developer

Builds the sound and vision by hand with almost supernatural skill and smarts. Is usually a douchebag.
(A lead singer is an asshole, which is different. A douchebag will snipe, spill sarcasm and undercut your dignity and confidence; an asshole will beat you up if you cross her/him, but have a beer with you later. Who would you rather hang out with?)

Bassist/DevOps

Nobody really pays attention to her/him, but you know what? Nothing gets done without her.

Drummer/Manager

Her or his big racket holds the whole ridiculous enterprise together. Ignore her or him at your own peril.

Keyboardist, DJ/Designer

What the fuck is s/he even doing? Search me, but s/he really ties the operation together.

Everyone has a job to do here. Sometimes you get a one man band,

or a guy who can do a whole lot of things well,

but those stars are rare. A great team is always a beautiful thing.