Mine In Mono

Written by Robert, a Christian, aspiring minimalist, inveterate notetaker, budget audiophile, software dev manager and paper airplane mechanic.

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  • The Jesus Juke That Wasn’t

    My brother-in-Christ was talking about the best ways to secure your household goods from potential burglars the other day. I reminded him of these words from Jesus:

    Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19–21)

    Sure, it was a Jesus juke, but there was also a heaping helping of sincerity.

    I’m not tempted to collect much these days. When I am facing the allure of physical media for music, though, I do feel the urge to splurge. I see those candy-colored vinyl records from bands whose output I most enjoy and I’m quick to open my wallet. It doesn’t help that I know independent musicians are often struggling to make ends meet while creating their art.

    In a sense, though, it feels like the acquisition of physical goods binds us to the transitory treasures. Increasingly, I’m finding myself inclined to the ephemeral. Especially since there are so many options for having a life rich in art and beauty while still traveling lightly. I downloaded my Kindle purchases since that will shortly no longer be an option, but I’m not sweating it a great deal.

    I’m looking at a Synology, but I’m not building bookshelves (I don’t have the room, anyway).

  • Damnable Things Afoot

    Regular readers know that I attempt to hold together two theological commitments that sit in tension. First, a hopeful eschatology where God, in the end, is “all in all.” Second, a fierce prophetic conviction that what we do here on earth matters and that God will judge the evils, injustices, and oppressions at work in the world. There are damnable things afoot, and much of it involves people who claim the name of Christ.

    – Richard Beck

  • Making Lemons Into Lemonade

    In the making lemons into lemonade department, I’ve got something to teach my son nearly every day about what happens when you elect immoral, incompetant people to run your government. My son is a sysadmin for a Minecraft server with an interest in technology. On Friday, I was able to use a very visually demonstrative example of how your cybersecurity is impacted when people who don’t know the slightest thing about what they are doing take over.

    I’m not suprised that a government agency named after a memecoin and its juvenile employees can’t secure a basic website, but it’s definitely concerning when those people illegally gain access to the Treasure Department systems.

    Today comes news that the memecoin infantilists fired critical nuclear weapons workers and are quickly trying to bring them back. I keep hearing what a genius this Elon Musk guy is and apparently people want him to do to the government what he did to Xitter. Xitter lost 80% of its market value in just two years after the guy took over. It does take quite a magician to make value disappear so quickly. Alakazam, baby!

    I almost forgot about Musk spreading the false rumor that the Social Security Administration was giving benefits to 150-year-olds because his crew didn’t understand the COBOL systems.

    There will be lots of teachable moments for my son. I just hope the country he lives in won’t have collapsed by the time he is old enough to put them into use.

  • Mario Icons

    A colleague recently named her AI Hackathon team “The Pipeline Plumbers,” due to their work with YAML-driven build pipelines. I told her it reminded me of Super Mario. Since she loves Mario, she decided to do a Mario-themed presentation (I wish I could embed it here).

    I came across another Mario-themed artifact this weekend. The always talented Louie Mantia, who produced icons for the Icon Factory for years, just created a new set of drive icons with a Mario theme. These are gorgeous.

    lmnt.me

  • A Custom Collection

    A few years ago, my wife’s company had a get together at CAMRaleigh, the modern art museum. After some mingling, the boys and I camped out in the staff offices. The desk where I sat had numerous pictures of Karl Lagerfeld. I might have felt a little uncomfortable at the man’s ubiquitous gaze, but his surgically attached sunglasses prevented that.

    I don’t have much to say about Lagerfeld’s life or work, but apparently he had excellent taste in iPods. Check out these custom Nanos.

    sothebys.com

    Macstories covers the estate sale from Sotheby’s where Lagerfeld’s collection is being auctioned. Like John Voorhees, who wrote the piece, I’ll always be a big fan of the iPod. I harbor the same irrational hope that one day Apple will bring it back to please those of us who love single-use devices. In the meantime, I suppose I could put in my bid for one of Lagerfeld’s over 500 that are being sold.

  • Studio – West Coast

    The record label Ghostly International just reissued West Coast, the 2006 album by Studio, a collaboration between two musical auteurs from Gothenburg, Sweden. Ghostly spent months hyping the release, and it has garnered critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, which labeled it a best new reissue. Bandcamp selected West Coast as their album of the day near the end of January.

    Louis Pattison’s review for Bandcamp Daily focuses on the balearic influences that feature prominently on West Coast but what struck me most was the sense that this album fit right in with much of the disco (dance) punk revival that permeated the musical landscape in the aughts. Even the heavy reggae vibes coming from the slow staccato guitars on the expansive (almost 16-minutes long) “Out There” wouldn’t sound out of place in some of the first wave experiments in dance punk.

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