good things are happening, y'all. i'm wearing pants indoors! i've been able to drink my coffee hot this week. the evenings come earlier and the candles have been going. well, one candle, in my little golden holder that makes it look so cozy and warm. a cup of shimmering honey.
i've been brave and started exploring gopher and gemini, it looks like a lot of fun. i changed my font to look like an old school pixel monospace and the client looks very nostalgic, like in my days of exploring MUDs and MUSHes. i'm really hoping it doesn't become another extra place but perhaps the primary place for me, while others fall slowly away?
so far i spend some time every day looking for active capsules, playing a game here and there. i think since it takes some work to find something both active AND relevant to me it has the potential to be a great "internet time" alternative for the laptop. even if i allow myself as much time on there as i want, it quickly feels like work and i'm disinclined to prolong it hehe. maybe it would even motivate me to set up an email client, then i wouldn't have to open up a browser at all...?
i'm conflicted about potentially leaving mastodon. i enjoy the company there! leaving would feel like shooting myself in the foot, socially. at the same time i never really thrived in such places. it seems like it's primarily to use on the phone? posting photos, tooting short-form, fleeting interactions. except i hate using my phone, it gives me tendinitis. people are friendly and it feels supportive, just seeing people being people, buzzing around. but idk, it's like the equivalent of small talk or sitting at a park watching people go by. but then i did meet some real friends there, too, so it's definitely not nothing! but then i could also meet people here... and i keep up with those friends via signal and email, not actual mastodon. i'd just miss the comfort of familiar faces, exchanging likes with the same names...
i'm also wondering if text-only is exactly what i need, or does visual social media - a stream of images - do anything good for me at all? i do enjoy tumblr quite a lot. i've filled my dash with a mix of queer stoff, aesthetic and cute stuff, shitposts, art, some bits of fandom, archeology, witchcraft etc. smart people raising real issues. there's something to that juxtaposition of completely different types of posts/elements. but is it a constructive, inspiring stimulation? or perfectly captivating into non-activity? i managed to not have a tumblr for a while (i don't perceive time very well, might have been years or only a few months) despite being on there since idk 2012. so something must have drawn me back to it. what exactly was it?
and recently - as i've mentioned - pinterest has snuck in as a replacement activity that i never used to do. there's the rationalization that it's inspiring. kind of makes sense for that type of stimulation to be useful for a visual artist... but is it? i think i re-started my art practice before i started mindlessly reaching for pinterest... and for some reason our network adblock doesn't work consistently on the ipad so sometimes there's more ads than real pins on the screen at any given time. i think i'd like to let go of that one for sure, even if tumblr remains a thing.
this has been the latest issue of working out my thoughts in public re: ideal internet experience... these probably should have gotten their whole separate category...
