Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org
Retired SysAdmin living in the high country of Arizona, USA. I enjoy learning about physics, cosmology, genetics, neurology, and suchlike. Deeply confused by worldwide trends towards authoritarianism. I thought we'd already learned about that stuff. But I guess not.
Joined Nov 2022
@nlarson830 @tchambers
I can't decide whether to blindly flee in terror or just take a nap.
Andy Lowry
boosted
People don't fake depression, they fake being okay. Remember that and be kind.
Andy Lowry
boosted
Hi ! New to Mastodon, and flailing around a bit. I am totally blind and still adjusting even though it has been over 4 years. Previously I lived aboard my boat for over 10 years. I am a civil engineer/creative writer/Moth Storyteller.
#introductions #blind #liveaboard
@rtw3000
Very glad to have you here with us, Mr. Westcott! Living aboard a boat was a long-held dream of mine though I finally realized I'd never achieve it and wistfully let it go. I'd love to hear lots more about that, along with the new challenges you face after having lost your sight.
If you'd like to find some interesting people to follow to get started, I'd suggest adding both @donmelton and @harphat and then pick and choose people from those feeds whom you find interesting. Both users are quite prolific in booting intelligent, well-curated items that are wide-ranging enough to show something you'd want to follow further.
I don't know either of them personally, but accidentally started out with them somehow early on and now owe them both a huge debt of gratitude for promoting quite a few intriguing folks in many fields, be it scientific, humorous, literary, artistic, social commentary, et cetera.
I'll tag along with you for a time and let's see where we wind up!
Andy
@idoubtit
After having once seen it inside a house just before a thunderstorm, I've idly ruminated on whether or not I could create ball lightning. It was the only time in my life I encountered it (this was forty years ago). Let's figure out how to do that! Be a big hit at parties, I bet. It's got to be possible somehow. I guess you'd start with a #10 can of static electricity, and then I don't know exactly.
Andy Lowry
boosted
There is a political dynamic we all get, but that the mass public does yet understand.
Mastodon has cleaved from the monopoly sites a small but significant userbase. And here, we are able to *organize*. Because of the size of the community.
On ALL of those other sites, whether #Peertube #PixelFed #Lemmy, etc ... there simply aren't enough users to reach critical mass.
But there are here.
Here on Mastodon is a PURPOSE that has attracted a large user community.
Andy Lowry
boosted
Timeline of a new Mastodon user:
Day 1: this sucks servers are confusing and why is my feed empty
Day 2: why is there no quote tweet this is dumb
Day 3: mastodon better make some changes if it wants to compete with tw_tter
Day 7: hm, people are really nice here
Day 10: loving the no ads and real conversations
Day 15: THE WORKERS MUST SEIZE THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION AND EXECUTE CAPITALISTS 
I was a little confused by somehow having new and unfamiliar postoperative pain after 12 days, but figured what the heck, the lung surgery was done internally with lasers, so who knows how it can heal. I took some of my usual pain stuff and it got a little better.
Later in the day, I went to apply some lotion to my upper body and... SHINGLES! Lesson for the day: THINKING about getting a shingles vaccine does not have the same effect as ACTUALLY GETTING a shingle vaccine.
Please be sure to thoroughly wash your hands after reading this. We don't want to take any chances.
@noneuclideandreamer
Very glad to have you here! I think I'll follow you along for a while to see where this road goes. I'm interested to hear where your coding adventures take you.
I've never worked with Java, but have played around enough to write some tine utilities in C, Python, and Ruby, so understand the coding mindset at least. 😎
Andy Lowry
boosted
Andy Lowry
boosted
Ok. I’m 51 years old. Love language. Love learning etymology.
I just learned that what I’ve always thought of as “craft paper” because it’s used for crafting (as many kids learn to use it) is in fact “kraft paper” so named because it is the resulting paper from the “Kraft” paper pulp process, which produces a stronger product than other methods.
Butcher’s paper, paper bags, & so forth, all kraft paper.
Leading me inexorably to some questions regarding the production of Kraft Dinner…🤔
Andy Lowry
boosted
Terrific reporting by Rebecca Ellis at The Los Angeles Times on the scope of the card skimming fraud targeting people who receive state food and other financial assistance via debit cards (a.k.a Electronic Benefits Cards or EBTs).
The story makes clear again that the organized crime groups involved will wait until funds are deposited by the state onto these EBT cards. That happens early in the morning, and the fraudsters are hitting the ATMs with the cloned EBT cards just as soon as the funds are there.
From the story:
"Skyrocketing theft amounts
In 2019, Los Angeles County saw $25,227 in EBT benefits stolen, according to the Department of Public Social Services. In 2020, $340,891 was taken. In 2021, the number began to skyrocket: $914,003 was stolen, most of it in the last few months of the year."
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-08/ebt-fraud-la-county
I covered EBT skimming in a couple of recent posts:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/10/how-card-skimming-disproportionally-affects-those-most-in-need/
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/11/lawsuit-seeks-food-benefits-stolen-by-skimmers/
Andy Lowry
boosted
People, many many people, right now cannot tweet on Twitter. I know this because I checked and talked with folks on Mastodon.
As twitter’s systems degrade, their behavior will become more erratic, inconsistent & unpredictable. It is sand.
#Twitter #TwitterMigration
Andy Lowry
boosted
I enter the Library of Books You Read As A Child.
"Do you have... er. It was green, and there was a girl and a dog, and..."
The librarian nods.
"Of course. Which version do you want?"
"Version?"
"The one you read, with all flaws you didn't notice, or the one you remember loving?"
#MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic
Andy Lowry
boosted
Andy Lowry
boosted
True story: I was once invited on the board of directors of a feminist news outlet and I came to suspect that I wasnt there to be the "trans" voice but more to be the white voice against the black women. So I just shut up and voted with the black women. No one noticed me but it was my finest hour. For once in my life I managed to do good by being quiet. Shutting up is very hard for me, Im a chatterbox. But it can really pay off. I bet no one who was there remembers me at all. As Bilbo would say, thank goodness.
Andy Lowry
boosted
Sorry Twitter, I was deleting all my tweets and think I deleted a load-bearing one.
#TwitterDown
@ArmyGirl
I well remember that shameful episode, and I can definitely picture Rep Greene with a knee-whacking stick of some kind.
@sdosremedios
A lot of those stories would have involved incompetent drivers.
@MaRY1Fem
That looked like it would have been interesting to read. Too bad I don't have a subscription.
Retired SysAdmin living in the high country of Arizona, USA. I enjoy learning about physics, cosmology, genetics, neurology, and suchlike. Deeply confused by worldwide trends towards authoritarianism. I thought we'd already learned about that stuff. But I guess not.
Joined Nov 2022
