Ben Kickert

“It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living. I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.”
~Augustus McCrae

From Linux projects to Wikipedia and the Internet Archive, I am happy to support those doing excellent work for the greater good.

Most of my annual business expenses come up in December and January. I have to pay the for-profit companies, but I also choose donate to all the non-profits and open source projects that help make my life and work easier.

This Flock Camera Leak is like Netflix For Stalkers YouTube video by Benn Jordan

Big Brother is watching and it is scary. Camera systems billed as being for "public safety" are vulnerable and can be used for privacy invasion and nefarious purposes. The "benefits" are not worth the cost.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1-...

Halloween is always such a great learning experience for my kids. They get to learn so much about economics:

Taxes: Gotta pay me a percentage of the candy haul

Currency Exchange: 1 airhead = 2 nerds boxes = 10 bubble gums

To all the other geriatric millennials and young Gen-Xers who are saying WTF is 6️⃣7️⃣, just remember:

All your base are belong to us

Staten Island.

Took me several attempts to even figure out what it was supposed to be.

View from my front porch the last year: Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, hail, cicadas, wildfires, downed trees.

What's next? It's frogs isn't it.

I no longer read CNN because of how much is pay walled.

100 Days of Attacks on the SDGs The Devastating Impact of Trump’s America First Policy

In the first 100 days of his presidency, Trump has not only formally rejected US support for the #SDGs and the #2030Agenda, he has actively worked against all 17 of the #GlobalGoals.

We break down all the attacks and offer guidance on what you can do to fight back:

medium.com/sdg-counting...

I'm an American citizen who has previously been inappropriately detained in a foreign country due to a "clerical error" in my immigration paperwork. The fact that people aren't up in arms by what is happening with Kilmar Abrego Garcia is stunning to me. Due process is an essential part of democracy.

I never thought the NHL goal record would fall. Congrats to Ovi on an incredible accomplishment. What is even more incredible is if you took away all his goals, Gretzky would still own the all-time points record. Unreal!

One year of market growth... gone.

I wasn't planning on waking up to see the #LunarEclipse, but exactly at maximum totality our dog started going crazy in her crate.

#DogsAreSmarterThanHumans

Y'all still using the cap? Just give it a couple glugs straight into the machine and be done.

(Side note: when my wife does laundry, she used the cap and then throws it in the machine to clean, but she only started doing that when we moved to the big jugs with the push button spout)

Bluesky's CEO on the Future of Social Media | SXSW LIVE YouTube video by SXSW

So many cool features and philosophies of this #BlueSky app that I wasn't even aware of!

It is well worth listening to this #SXSW talk with @jay.bsky.team and @mmasnick.bsky.social on the vision and possibilities of this platform (protocol).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Ow...

Thinking about every issue as us-versus-them without nuance brings us all to a worse place. Reject the all or nothing thinking and don't applaude the demonization of half our country.

But listening to DJT speak tonight you'd think everything is binary. This is incredibly dangerous thinking. It's divisive and ruining our country.

I am a democrat living in a predominantly republican precinct in a liberal county in very red region of a purple state. After Helene, it didn't matter what letter was next to your name on your ballot. We care about our neighbors more than our politics when the rubber meets the road.

If you buy in to this binary thinking then unfriend me now. There is no way we can have a meaningful conversation if everything is reduced to us vs. them.

If you have ability to send from a .gov account you would have a better chance of it avoiding automatic spam filters.

a man in a purple shirt is saying yeah that 's the problem ALT: a man in a purple shirt is saying yeah that 's the problem

I have been dragging all morning and couldn't figure out way. Afterall, I had gotten a pretty good night's sleep. Went back to the house to pick something up and saw my full coffee cup sitting on the counter.

Trump promised lower prices, yet his policies have the opposite effect.

Tariffs make all foreign goods more expensive.
Bullying for lower interest rates will be inflationary.
Immigration crackdowns increase the cost of labor.

It's like people have never listened to @kairyssdal.bsky.social before.

It is freakin' cold in Asheville this morning!

How cold? Well I took a shower and then walked over to the main house. In the time it took to walk those 150' the residual moisture in my beard froze!

Wow! Where did you find a save button?

Oh for sure. It is actually one of the reasons I don't like using battery saws when working with my trail crew... the sound of a two-stroke running lets people know there is something dangerous going on.

Truth be told, all my injuries could have been prevented / lessened if I just wore gloves.

I have sustained multiple chainsaw related injuries since "The Storm." Ironically, they have all come during maintenance. Most recent example: stabbing a file into my palm trying to put a handle on it.

Embarrassing.

I only know my "regular" sign, but straight Gemini seems to fit me just fine.