Title: Thankful
Date: 2021-11-04
Written On: TextWrangler on 2009 MacBook (Mac OS 10.6.8)
Mood: Worn out
Listening To: "Like Flames (Band Cover)" by Amelia
In the US, there's a mostly bullshit "holiday" called Thanksgiving, which is
more an excuse for people to eat large amounts of food than anything. But, one
of the aspects is talking about something you're thankful for.
I'm thankful for the tinkerer, hobbyist, and enthusiast community. The people
who keep "dead" tech running (gopher, ftp, http), or make new tech in the
spirit of old tech (gemini). The people who repair older computers instead of
letting them rot in a landfill, and keep things going even for those who can't
(or don't want to) be part of the relentless upgrade cycle of hell that we keep
seeing. The people who look at some poor sod of a flip clock in a second-hand
store and see beauty with a bit of TLC, instead of just passing it by as junk.
The people who will 3D print parts to revive something instead of tossing it
away.
I'm thankful for services like The Old Net, who make it possible to use older
machines when shit like the TLSpocolypse happens. For communities like SDF and
the Circumlunar colonies for providing people with spaces where they can enjoy
a simpler smolweb, instead of the hellscape of the modern social web. For
efforts like the Internet Archive, saving so much history in audio, video,
text, software, and more. For sites like Macintosh Garden, for saving and
archiving software and preserving it for future generations.
I just wanted to say that, because I don't say it enough.
