atomicpoet

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to reddit

Android Authority doesn’t get it.

Compared to #Reddit, #Lemmy sucks. And so does #Kbin. We all know that.

The #RedditMigration isn’t about any app being better than Reddit. It’s about a company that’s grown on the backs of volunteer labour now claiming ownership of that labour.

Reddit didn’t write those posts, draw those illustrations, make those videos. We did.

And Reddit sure as hell didn’t create those communities, nurture them, and moderate them. We did.

I agree with tech writers who say that the average person just “wants their memes”. But Reddit never made those memes. We did.

Content might be king. But who makes content? We do.

I have no doubt that the average person just wants content. But while we might be providing content for free, we’re not dancing monkeys. Who decides why content is made, how it’s made, and where it exists? We do.

The Fediverse doesn’t exist merely as an engine for content. It exists so that people can share what they love.

Why are people coming to the Fediverse specifically? Because we rightfully see ActivityPub as insurance for our content – which, again, is made by and for us.

Not Reddit. Not Big Social. Us.

If I’m giving my content away for free, then so long as it is federated, no one company can own it – putting up gates, demanding payment for my work. Instead, my work is out there, living on 24,000 nodes that presently exist.

Android Authority might dismiss this as “suffering the same fate” – what fate they perceive, I don’t know. But to me, the true “suffering” is when a company like Reddit claims ownership of my work, locking 3rd party developers out from API access.

For this reason, I’m locking Reddit out from my work.

Perhaps the author of this post, Dhruv Bhutani, doesn’t consider that he’s writing for a, well, blog. And that this blog exists on its own domain, with its own design, as its own property. He could have written this entire post on Reddit, but he didn’t.

Why? I suspect it’s because he believes his work has value, and Reddit simply doesn’t give him what he believes is his worth.

Same deal with me. I’m not looking to get paid for my work on Reddit. I do it for fun – always have. But if I’m doing something for fun, it’s still going to be on my terms.

Not all of us creatives are willing to be a cog in Big Social’s machine. That’s why I’m here on the Fediverse right now. I don’t give a damn whether the average person just wants memes. I create for me.

So yeah, Lemmy and Kbin suck. I can live with that – they will both improve. And I have no doubt that, with time, they might prove to be better than Reddit.

But this isn’t about how good Lemmy or Kbin are. Nor is this about the insatiable appetite for memes.

This is about my need to create on my terms – and I’m not alone here.

Decentralization is the killer feature here.

https://www.androidauthority.com/reddit-alternatives-lemmy-3335429/

@fediversenews

atomicpoet, 1 year ago to random

If Meta can kill ActivityPub, then ActivityPub doesn’t deserve to exist.

atomicpoet, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

The Atari brand is fascinating. Over the past 51 years, it’s been in so many hands that you practically need a flowchart to understand it.

But here goes. I’m giving it the old college try.

The original Atari only existed for 4 years, between 1972-76.

One year after Atari’s existence, it created a Japanese subsidiary called Atari Japan. Deemed a failure, a little company called Namco bought Atari Japan – becoming one of the first Japanese video game companies ever.

In 1976, the original Atari was sold to Warner Communications. This coincided with Atari reaching its commercial peak with the Atari 2600, 5200, and 8-bit family of computers.

But then the video game crash of 1983 happened, and Warner Communications no longer wanted Atari. But rather than spinning out Atari as one company, they split it in two.

The “home” division was sold to Jack Tramiel, previous CEO of Commodore who was out for revenge against his old company. This Atari became known as Atari Corporation.

The “arcade” division became known as Atari Games.

At this point, two different trees of Atari came to exist.

Atari Corporation continued to make home consoles and computers. They released the Atari ST, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, and Atari Jaguar. As well, they published several well known classic games. They were also the rights holders for several 2600, 5200 and 8-bit computer games.

After the Jaguar failed, Atari Corporation tried to pivot to the PC gaming market as a publisher, but the Tramiel family wanted out of the business. So in 1996 they merged with a hard disk drive manufacturer called JTS.

Two years later, in 1998, this version of Atari was sold to Hasbro Interactive.

In 2001, Hasbro Interactive was sold to French video game publisher Infogrames, and Infogrames renamed itself as Atari SA. For awhile, this version of Atari was one of the largest video game publishers in the world.

In 2008, this version of Atari entered a joint venture with Bandai Namco (remember Namco?). One year later, several assets were outright sold to Bandai Namco.

Then in 2014, Atari SA went bankrupt. Due to this, the started selling off even more assets including Deerhunter, Battlezone, Star Control and others.

Miraculously Atari SA still exists and now makes 2600-inspired consoles, republishes old games, also publishes the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, sells NFTs, and is trying to get into the hotel business(?!)

Atari Games is the other Atari, and you can make the case it’s the most “real” Atari since the original Atari was all about arcade cabinets. This version of Atari became known for several classic arcade games such as Gauntlet, Paperboy, Marble Madness, Hard Drivin’, and Primal Rage.

Warner Communications spun out Atari Games as a joint venture between themselves and Namco, with Namco owning 60% of Atari Games.

But Namco got bored of Atari Games, so they sold a 20% stake in the company to Atari Games employees. As a result, Atari Games was owned 40% by Warner Communications, 40% by Namco, and 20% by employees. Since no one owned a controlling stake in Atari Games, it effectively became an independent company.

Atari Games noticed that the Nintendo Entertainment System was getting popular. But unable to enter the home market under the trade name “Atari”, they created a brand to publish games to home consoles. This brand was Tengen. And Tengen became known for a well known fight with Nintendo – that’s a different rabbit trail, though.

In 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc, becoming Time Warner. At this point, Time Warner decided they wanted a controlling stake in Atari Games, so they acquired it. Because of this, Tengen became Time Warner Interactive.

In 1994, Atari Games, Tengen, and Time Warner were all consolidated under the Time Warner Interactive Banner.

One year later, Time Warner decided they didn’t want to be in the video game business anymore. So they sold Atari Games to WMS Industries, the parent company behind Williams, Bally, and Midway.

In 1998, the video game assets of WMS Industries were spun off into a new entity called Midway Games which gained control of Atari Games.

One year later, in 1999, Atari Games was renamed Midway Games West.

Shockingly, Midway Games West continued to exist until Midway Games went bankrupt in 2009. At which point, Midway Games West (a.k.a., Atari Games) was sold to Warner Brothers Interactive, who decided to re-enter the video game market. So now Atari Games is owned by Time Warner again.

So with all this intrigue, who is the “real” Atari? I would say three companies can reasonably claim the Atari lineage:

1- Atari SA: they own the rights to Atari consoles and computers as well as several computer games, and still use the Atari brand

2- Time Warner: they own the rights to Atari Games

3- Bandai Namco: they acquired Atari Japan as well as several Atari assets over a period of many decades

Atari and its brand are complex and more interesting than I could have imagined.

atomicpoet, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to threads

De-federating #Threads does NOT prevent #Meta from accessing your public #Fediverse feed.

This is demonstrably false. Almost all servers that de-federate Threads still broadcast the RSS feed of your posts. This is available to everyone, even servers that are de-federated from yours.

If you don’t believe me, test this out for yourself. Append “.rss” to the end of your profile URL (exampleserver.com/@username.rss), and see what happens.

Hell, if I wanted to build a search engine for the Fediverse and not use ActivityPub, I could use RSS instead and I could index most of the Fediverse – whether you opt into it or not.

Let’s stop spreading the myth that de-federation by itself prevents Threads from accessing your public feed.

@fediversenews

atomicpoet, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to fediverse

President Joe Biden’s Threads account @potus is federating on the Fediverse!

And I’m following him from atomicpoet.org!

Wow! This is as monumental as Barack Obama joining Twitter! A truly historic day for the #Fediverse!

@fediversenews

atomicpoet, 10 months ago to random

I’m DJing at a house party. Tempted to live stream it but, you know, copyright and all that jazz.

I’ll be posting YouTube links so you can follow along. These will mostly be dance tracks with some rock music thrown in. Lots of obscure numbers with some will known ones thrown in.

Follow this thread for more!

atomicpoet, 2 months ago to random

Tonight’s movie is Murder on the Cape (2017) starring Jade Harlow, Josh Walther, and Heather Egeli.

Here’s the description:

Based on the true story of New York fashion writer Christa Worthington who has an affair with a man during a winter in Cape Cod. She returns two years later with his child. When she is murdered, a mystery unfolds within the community.

Just looking at the trailer, I already know that this is going to be a terrible, awful film. Everything about this is all wrong: the sound, the photography, the ACTING!

In fact, all day, I’ve largely avoided this movie because even I, a purveyor of awful movies, don’t want to see this film. It just looks too torturous and tedious to watch.

The only reason I’m going to watch this film is for the hilarious line, “If you want honey, don’t kick over the bee hive.”

And I know this line is there because it’s in the trailer. So at least I have that to look forward to. Even if this whole movie is actually worse than I assume, it will be worth it for that one line.

On another note, if this movie is really that bad, I can’t believe Jade Harlow still has a career. I don’t know how anyone survives being in this film. But hey, I often say this about Asylum films as well.

iMDB rates this movie a 2.8. Do you realize how bad a movie must be to get that kind of rating? This can only be a train wreck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FnetHomYEU

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Tonight’s movie is The Surrogate (2013) starring Annie Wersching, Cameron Mathison, and Amy Scott.

Here’s the description:

A married couple, struggling to have a child, hires a young woman to be their surrogate, but soon discovers she has a bizarre and deadly agenda.

Brought to you by the same production family that made A Mother’s Instinct, this is almost certainly going to be a terrible movie. I hate to already judge a film before I see it, but I don’t know if Johnson Production Group has a good movie in them.

Based on the trailer, this is about a deranged stalker who’s obsessed with a novelist, finagles her way into being a surrogate for the novelist’s wife, and then does incredibly evil things – while pregnant. The couple are going to tolerate this crazed lunatic while she carries the baby to term. But in the meantime, the surrogate is going to do lots of damage.

iMDB rates this a 4.6 while Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t even bother with a rating.

I expect lots of scenery chewing and ACTING! Join me as we explore the problems with getting an obsessed stalker pregnant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBW1JYEg660

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to Futurology

Federation with #Meta actually hurts Meta.

It is an existential threat to the very core of Meta’s social media monopoly. Surprisingly, if the goal is to fight against Meta’s hegemony, the most effective strategy may be to federate with them.

“But Chris,” some of you might state, “Even you agree that it might be better to defederate Meta – and you’ve even set up notmeta.social for expressly this purpose.”

Yes, because it’s not everyone’s objective to fight Meta, and there should be spaces where fighting Meta isn’t top of mind. Not everyone wants to be part and parcel of a fight, and that’s okay.

Let’s first acknowledge the technology through which federation happens. #ActivityPub is an open standard protocol that enables the decentralized social networking that powers the Fediverse. It allows different social media platforms (#Mastodon, #Calckey, #Kbin, etc.) to interoperate, meaning that users on one platform can communicate with users on another platform. Federation is the process by which these platforms connect and share content, forming a decentralized network.

The most important thing to understand about ActivityPub is that, more than a technology to merely send and receive messages, it’s also a common ruleset – a gentleman’s agreement that everyone will play nice when sending and receiving messages.

Now when Meta opts to use ActivityPub, they’re abiding by the agreement: to play by the same rules as everybody else. Should they renege on this agreement, they are no longer using ActivityPub. They’re using something else.

But let’s assume for a moment that Meta is abiding to use ActivityPub, and they indeed will play by the same rules. Knowing Meta, this is a tall order – but still, let’s assume.

ActivityPub means that whatever of Meta’s userbase that’s exposed to federation will diversify into other platforms. This is because, through ActivityPub, smaller platforms can connect with each other and offer a combined user base that competes with Meta’s centralized network. This diversification reduces the dependence of users on a single platform, giving them more choices and potentially drawing them away from Meta.

This creates an erosion of Meta’s network effects. Meta’s entire monopoly is based on ownership of their platforms’ network effects, where the value of the platform increases as more users join. Suddenly, by federating, Meta no longer own the network effect. This is because federation challenges this by breaking down barriers between platforms, allowing users to interact regardless of the platform they are on. This reduces the exclusivity and advantage Meta holds, as the network effects become distributed across multiple interconnected platforms.

Federation also gives Meta’s users power that they never previously had. Federation promotes decentralization by giving users greater control over their data and interactions. With ActivityPub, users have the freedom to choose which platform they prefer without sacrificing connectivity. This user empowerment threatens Meta’s control over user data and engagement, potentially leading to a loss of influence and advertising revenue.

ActivityPub poses a tangible threat to Meta’s monopoly on social media. By choosing to federate, Meta might be opening Pandora’s box. The moment Meta’s users receive a message from a server not owned by Meta is the moment they’re exposed to something else beyond Meta’s control. Inevitably, this will create more diversity of ActivityPub-enabled platforms – not less. This will erode Meta’s network effects. For people who use Meta, the power of decentralization – giving them more freedom – will prove revelatory.

Of course, this is a fight. And just because Meta federates doesn’t mean it’s game over. In the next post, I will explore what Meta is hoping to gain by joining the #Fediverse.

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Today’s movie is A Mother’s Instinct (a.k.a., Her Own Justice) (2015) starring Josie Bissett, Spencer Drever, and Sarah Grey.

Here’s the description:

When a woman’s son goes missing and the prime suspect is released due to lack of evidence, she and her teenage daughter decide to play vigilante.

This looks like a tale of a pair of WASP-y blonde women against the town’s local emo boy. This looks both cheesy and trashy, and I’m here for every moment of it!

That’s to say that I’m not expecting high art here. Just a made-for-television movie about the dangers of creepy teenagers and the moms who seek revenge against them.

If Josie Bissett looks familiar for you, it was because she starred in Melrose Place. She’s also been in a lot of silly made-for-TV Hallmark movies. I hope she chews lots of scenery in this film.

iMDB rates this a 4.8 while this movie got no attention on Rotten Tomatoes.

Join me as I comment on what is likely to be a terrible movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxJRRA7hjKE

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Tonight’s movie is Living with the Enemy starring Sarah Lancaster, Mark Humphrey, and David McIlwraith.

Here’s the description:

Allison is quickly swept off her feet by the dashing, loving software billionaire, Phillip. They marry quickly, and her life seems unbelievably perfect. Then, although she doesn’t want to, she begins to suspect that Phillip may have been involved in the death of his previous wife. As Allison follows the trail left by her, things become complicated… and dangerous.

Thematically, the Fediverse should love this movie since it’s about an evil tech billionaire who, I suspect, will get his comeuppance. Practically, though, this is probably a badly produced TV movie.

Sarah Lancaster was a series regular on Saved by the Bell: The New Class, and was also on Everwood for 20 episodes. The other two actors have basically made their bread an butter off of TV movies for a long, long time.

I suspect this movie was made in Canada. I’m from Canada, and usually my suspicion is correct.

iMDB gives this a 5.3 rating while Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t know it exists.

Well, I’m going in. Wish me luck!

atomicpoet, 2 months ago to random

Today’s movie is Forbidden Secrets (2005) starring Kristy Swanson, David Kelley, and Christopher Bondy.

Here’s the description:

Alexandra, in the midst of a divorce from her controlling husband Dan, moves back into her family home with the help of an old friend of the family and psychiatrist; Sam. She has not been back home since she was six years old, to the place where tragedy struck her mother and beloved aunt. Haunted by her memories of the past, strange things begin happening.

Yet another feminine thriller, this is the five movie I’ve seen that has a blonde white woman as the protagonist. Why are there so many blondes?

This specific blonde woman is played by Kristy Swanson. You might recognize her as the original Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No, not the TV show but the movie. People often forget about the movie.

Forbidden Secrets is pretty obscure. I wasn’t able to find a movie trailer, and the posters are pretty low quality. I did find out that it was issued on DVD.

This is a Canadian-made film, though. Being a Canadian, I have a certain expectation with these TV movies. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some good movies made in Canada. For example, anything made by David Cronenberg. However, most stuff made for the international market (meaning USA) will probably be trash.

iMDB rates this a 4.9. On Rotten Tomatoes, it doesn’t even merit a rating.

Well, I’m going in! Wish me luck!

atomicpoet, 2 months ago to random

Oh man, with @potus joining the Fediverse, there’s been an outpouring of salt. 😆

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Today’s movies is Home Sweet Hell (2015) starring Katherine Heigl, Patrick Wilson, and Madison Wolfe.

Here’s the description:

In this black comedy, Don and Mona are the perfect marriage. But when Mona learns that Don cheated on her, she will prove that she is not above murdering the competition to preserve her domestic bliss.

I’ve postponed this moment but it’s happening. No, I don’t want to watch this. Having seen the trailer, it looks every manner of awful.

But since I’m a masochist, this is what I’m doing during my Saturday afternoon. Other people do actual fun things like visit a bowling alley or go for a nature walk. Me, I watch terrible Katherine Heigl comedies.

Honestly, I have nothing against Katherine Heigl. Quite the opposite. Sure, I’ve seen her movies but she had to make them.

Now I haven’t seen this movie yet, so perhaps I’m being unfair. iMDB scores this a 5.5. Maybe it’s not that bad. But then on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 5% positive rating. 😓

Nevertheless, I’m going in. Wish me luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbuvFMvytu4

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Tonight, I’m watching Sweet Sunshine (2020) starring Savanah McMahon and John Way.

From what I can tell, this is not a rom-com but it’s an “inspirational” and “feel good” film. Here’s the description:

After his rise to fame causes a rift with his father, a young superstar suffers a tragedy that will change his life forever. Can a chance meeting with a talented young woman give him the strength he needs to believe in himself?

I’m not going to lie. The movie poster looks like a bunch of country music superstars wandered into a Thomas Kinkade painting. Usually, this indicates a bad movie.

However, iMDB rates this at 6.7. So maybe this is a good movie that manages to be inspirational without overdosing me on corn syrup sentimentality.

Will this be a good movie? Or is everyone on iMDB wrong?

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Tonight’s movie is The Quiet (2005) starring Camilla Belle, Elisha Cuthbert, and Edie Falco.

Here’s the description:

Following the unexpected death of her father, a deaf and mute teenager moves in with her godparents, where she discovers the cruel behavior of their daughter may be indicative of a dark secret within the family.

This movie deals with heavy subject matter of abuse, including rape and incest, which is why the rest of my commentary will have a content warning.

The movie poster indicates some LGBT themes, but I’m not sure if that’s just marketing. After all, it was the 2000s.

Nevertheless, since this was produced by Samuel Goldwyn Films, I’m expecting this movie to be a well-shot and artsy affair. However, just because a movie looks good doesn’t mean it is good.

iMDB rates this a 6.1 but Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 22% positive rating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAXi9ITMpOw

atomicpoet, 2 months ago to random

Tonight’s movie is Swerve (2011) starring Jason Clarke, Emma Booth, and David Lyons.

Here’s the description:

Colin happens upon a road accident where he finds a dead man, a beautiful woman, and a suitcase full of money. After trying to do the right thing he soon finds himself caught up in a dangerous scheme.

This is an Australian-made thriller that compares itself to Hitchcock and Coen Brothers films. Whether or not it can live up to those comparisons is a different question entirely.

In keeping with this films 18+ rating, I expect lots of violence and sex. There will likely be double crossings, and double crossings of double crossings.

Looking at the trailer, I saw a car chase seen that takes place in the outback. I realize Australia just kind of looks like that, but still, it reminds me of Mad Max films – even though this is probably not like Mad Max at all.

iMDB rates this film 5.4 while Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 37% positive rating. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad film, but since this is an indie-made Australian film, I’m not expecting Hollywood production values.

Wish me luck! I’m going in!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTkF5PKSvUE

atomicpoet, 2 months ago to fediversenews

Barack Obama (@barackobama) is on the Fediverse!

How cool is that?!

@fediversenews

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to RedditMigration

The #RedditMigration just got spicier 🌶

#Lemmy now has 135,369 accounts. That is tracking with my expectations.

But while #Kbin had ~7,000 accounts yesterday, it’s just shot up to 30,930 accounts today.

While Lemmy is the 5th most used server software on the Fediverse, Kbin is now in 10th place and it’s growing at a faster rate than Lemmy.

A few days ago, I predicted that the #RedditMigration would result in 150,000-300,000 new accounts being created on the Fediverse. That expectation has already been met.

This #RedditMigration is fundamentally changing the course of the Fediverse. It’s moved the Fediverse from being primarily about microblogging to having more eclectic use cases.

While the #TwitterMigration validated that decentralized social media can appeal to millions of people, the #RedditMigration has validated that decentralized social media has man varied applications – both in the software and use case sense.

SOURCE: https://fedidb.org/software

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Today’s film is Uncaged (a.k.a., Prey, a.k.a., Prooi) starring Julian Looman, Mark Frost, and Abbey Hoes.

Here’s the description:

A zoo veterinarian is caught up in a grisly adventure as she leads the hunt for a monstrous lion terrorizing the Dutch capital of Amsterdam.

This is a first for me! I’ve never seen a shlocky Dutch horror movie before. I’ve seen lots of art-house Dutch films, but never something that’s a blatant B-movie.

The original film is, of course, in Dutch. But I’ll be watching the English dubbed version. I would watch it in the original Dutch with subtitles, mostly because I like hearing a language that sounds like English but isn’t. Alas, Dutch is not an option. 😞

I’m looking forward to this film. The notion of a murderous lion ransacking Amsterdam is downright silly to me.

Here in Vancouver, we don’t have lions but we definitely have cougars (meaning the literal animals) that have occasionally skulked about the suburbs. A few times, some of them have found themselves in basements – and residents get a nasty surprise. Animal control gets called, the cougar gets sedated, and then they release the poor cougar hundreds of kilometres away from human civilization.

Anyway, let’s see how these Dutch veterinarians handle a big cat!

iMDB scores this film a 5.3 while Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t even give it a score since no reviewer bothered with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2s8dCzp7zg

atomicpoet, 11 days ago to random

There’s certain technology that I earnestly wonder why we abandoned it. For example, digital audio players (DAPs).

These devices provided something smartphones don’t: a distraction-free way of playing music.

And they were way more personal because everything on your DAP was put there by you! They were a collection of your genuine taste!

atomicpoet, 3 months ago to random

Today’s movie is Stalked by My Neighbor (2015) starring Amy Pietz and Kelcie Stranahan.

Here’s the description:

A mother and her 18-year-old daughter move to suburbia to help recover from a traumatic home invasion, but a sinister shadow seems to be stalking them.

This film was made by Johnson Production Group. During the ‘10s, they made a lot of Lifetime TV movies, and this is one of them. It will be the third such movie like this that I will be seeing. At this point, I already know what to expect.

There will be lots of torture, yelling, and character actions that defy all manner of sense and logic. Lots of plot holes are forthcoming. I guarantee there will be an abrupt ending that will leave me shouting at my TV.

But then again, how dare I be so judgemental about a movie I haven’t seen. I should give this a fair shot, right? Right?!

Having watched the trailer, Stalked by My Neighbor looks like a dating sim about romancing the cutest stalker. If you think this is offensive that’s because it probably will be. The stalkers in the Johnson Production Group universe never behave like actual real life stalkers.

I’m fully expecting Stalked by My Neighbor to be a thinly veiled BDSM fantasy that is just tame enough for TV viewing.

iMDB rates this a 5.2 while Rotten Tomatoes didn’t bother giving this a rating at all. Make of that what you will.

Journey with me as we watch the sheer depravity that will be Stalked by My Neighbor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zn3_QHzdI0

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

Someone literally just reported me to me—to my single-user server—for the crime of saying nothing can be done about Meta using ActivityPub.

Which is a 100% factual statement.

So I guess I should ban myself for saying something blatantly true.

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

What’s with this pervasive, all-consuming obsession with poutine?

It’s like every restaurant I visit is hell-bent on serving a thousand variants of this dish. Bacon poutine, miso poutine, chocolate poutine, tofu poutine… the list is unending, and frankly, it’s gotten way out of hand. You can’t even escape it when you go for brunch! They’ll sneak a poached egg onto it and call it breakfast poutine. Is nothing sacred?!

I get it, I really do. Poutine is a comfort food. It’s familiar, it’s filling, it’s savory and indulgent and people go gaga over it. But really, is it THAT good? Does every single dish need to be a riff on poutine? It’s like chefs have collectively forgotten there are other ways to serve potatoes! Mashed, fried, baked, scalloped – these are all valid, delicious options. Yet, we’re stuck in this purgatorial poutine pandemonium where culinary creativity has been stifled!

And let’s talk about the absolutely unholy concoctions some places are serving up in the name of poutine innovation. Chocolate poutine? What heresy is this? Who woke up one morning and decided, “Yes, let’s combine french fries, gravy, cheese curds, and chocolate. That sounds like a good idea.” Is there no line? Have we lost all sense of taste and decency?

Moreover, don’t even get me started on the health implications. Cheese, gravy, fries - that’s not exactly a heart-healthy diet. And no, slapping tofu on top doesn’t magically make it a health food. That’s like sticking a single carrot on a triple-layer chocolate cake and calling it a salad.

It’s become a challenge to find a restaurant that isn’t strangled by the omnipresence of poutine. It’s almost as if chefs are too afraid to deviate from the norm, too timid to venture beyond the established, greasy paths of poutine glory. I’ve had enough! Can we please explore some new territory in the culinary world? Can we possibly come up with other creative, delicious meals that don’t include soaking fries in gravy and cheese?

I don’t need to see any more hipster bars trying to outdo each other with the most outrageous poutine variant. I don’t want to live in fear that my favorite desserts might one day be infiltrated by this poutine madness. So here’s my plea to all the restaurateurs out there: It’s time to let go of the poutine reigns. Embrace variety. Embrace originality. For the love of food, set the poutine free and let us enjoy a diverse, poutine-less menu!

atomicpoet, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago) to bluesky

I’ve told everyone who would listen that P92 (a.k.a., #Barcelona) was a bigger deal than #Bluesky, and the Fediverse needs to prepare for its arrival.

As @chrismessina notes, if you look very closely, there’s a mastodon.social username in the screenshot. Which means they have ActivityPub integration baked into the app.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754304/instagram-meta-twitter-competitor-threads-activitypub