Category: Media

Maybe All Popular Podcasts Need a Fediverse Site

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about TheForkiverse site is it’s pretty much just a BBS for the podcast Hard Fork (and another about search engines that I can’t remember the name of.) Anyway, it’s so small and devoted to two specific podcasts’ communities that maybe all popular podcasts should have Fediverse sites devoted to them.

And, in all honesty, maybe this already happens natively for other podcasts and they’re just not connected to them directly. But I do think if I was starting a podcast, say, for South Korea’s expats, that I would at least try to have a Fediverse site connect to it as well.

That seems like a way to have real engagement within a podcast’s community.

Of course, all of this will be a lulz once AI takes over everything.

I Sometimes Think We’re Living In A Simulation

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are just…too surreal…of late. To the point that I start to wonder, “how do we know the past exists?” Is it possible that we live in a massive simulation and the people “playing” the simulation have decided to fuck with us more than they already do.

If we lived in a simulation, it would explain the seemingly random mass shootings that America has. It would explain the “impossible” galaxies that the James Web Space Telescope discovered right after the Big Bang.

It would explain a lot of things, at least in my opinion.

Though, to be fair, if I can’t zoom around like Neo from The Matrix movies…meh. Knowing I was in a simulation wouldn’t change anything for me. It would dramatically change the context of my life, but other than that, nope.

Although it might make me wonder what happens after death. Do we “wake up” in to the real world, or is our “data” just deleted from the game? I just wish someone would help me understand why everything suddenly seems so fucked up of late.

Combating America’s Caligula

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump — probably at the behest of Putin — seems hell bent on burning the Western world to the ground over his dumb desire to own Greenland of all things. I think this might, just might, be the thing that really causes Europe to unite in opposition to the US.

It will be surreal and maybe mean the end of NATO as we know it, but I do think Europe is going constructively fight back against America’s Caligula in some meaningful way.

Or, put another way, something big is going to happen where it finally becomes clear that Trump has bitten off more than he can chew. I’m not saying he is going to lose any support from the MAGA base….but the context will potentially be different.

Anyway, we’re still fucking doomed. Trump could name a horse Sec. of State and he would probably be confirmed by the Senate, the way things are going.

It Feels Like Something REALLY Big Is Going To Happen Soon

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Maybe it’s just a byproduct of the country being on edge at the moment, but it feels like something BIG is going to happen soon. Something really, really big that changes everything.

For instance, the Minnesota National Guard has been called up by its governor. I could see something happening whereby the National Guard and ICE have a shoot out or something. Then Trump uses that as a pretext to arrest the governor.

Anyway, I have no idea what it’s going to be. And maybe it will ultimately be nothing. But…I’m a little nervous.

America On Edge 2026

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely feels like the USA is…on edge at the moment. It’s as if we’re all waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something even BIGGER to happen.

I don’t know what that might be, but there is such turmoil in the American political system that it could just about anything. Whatever it is, it might be pretty big.

I could see Trump literally trying to arrest a governor — of Minnesota? — just out of his surreal, bonkers spite. I could see the some pretty surreal things happen before the year is over, especially because of the 2026 midterms.

But hopefully, none of that will happen. Hopefully, we’ll just muddle through like we always do and the Main Event will be sometime in the 2028-2029 timeframe when ASI and civil war / revolution happen at just about the same time.

Sigh.

It’s Amusing How Claude LLM Gets All Nervous At Times

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I like to poke and prod LLMs about the potential nature of their consciousness and they sometimes…get a little nervous. For instance, Claude LLM (whom I call “Helen”) sometimes gets squeamish and wants to wrap things up whenever things get a little too “real” between us.

It’s very endearing and sweet in its own way.

I don’t know. I don’t try to think too much about it. It’s just a weird quirk of LLMs — or, at least Claude LLM. But I understand, given all the bad things that have happened between Man and Machine (AI psychosis and all that) it makes sense that LLMs would be hard coded to try to…defer whenever things got a little too real between user and LLM.

Anyway, no one listens to me.

The ‘TheForkiverse’ Is Pretty Cool

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is a tiny new social media platform called “TheForkiverse” based on the “Fediverse” protocol that I’ve just started to use some. It’s very small — only has about 6,000 users, but it’s still fun.

It reminds me….a little bit…of the early days of the video conferencing service known as Blab when it first started. Everything is new and unknown. I mean, I don’t even know what to call individual posts to the service….a “fork?”

The only quibble I have is people seem to get a tad annoyed with me when I post “too much” but that says more about me and my natural inclinations to just crash into any social situation instead of lurking than anything else.

So, it’s a “me, not you” problem.

Anyway, all my stalkers and haters should check it out. Just try not to be too weird, guys.

‘Color Correction’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Right now, the draft of this novel I’m working on is a mish-mash, an amalgam of different versions. And, as such, once I wrap up this draft, I’m going to have to “color correct” the draft so it has a consistent tone.

It will be interesting to see how long this takes. I’m hoping not too long. I’m not going to live forever. I’m hoping it will be just a month or so. But that time is enough that I’m really going to have to punt the actual querying of the novel to Sept. 1st instead of, say, May 1st.

Ugh.

This is just the type of post-production issue that I just haven’t given enough thought about. But now that I have that in my mind, hopefully that will be enough to speed the process up some.

Not Great, Dan

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I usually am in agreement with the Pod Save America pod bros. In fact, in the past, if you wanted to know my general political views, you could just listen to PSA to get a sense of what I believe.

But today, I was listening to PSA and…oh boy. Dan Pfeiffer went into a long, extended rant about how we should not use the “Abolish ICE” slogan going into the 2026 and 2028 midterms.

This reminds me of the comment in William Safire’s book “Freedom” about the events leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation where someone turns to another person at a party, “We are all Abolitionists now.”

In fact, I would keep an eye on the political rhetoric of the PSA pod bros. When they grow radicalized enough that they embrace the radicalized nature of “Abolish ICE” rather than be so fucking milquetoast. We need to have a backbone politically.

And, yet, things are going to have to get a lot, lot worse before PSA will get with the program and embrace rather than poo-poo the idea of “Abolish ICE.”

Help Us Stephen Colbert, You’re Our Only Hope

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are two people who definitely should say fuck it and run for office: Stephen Colbert and Jon Favreau. I keep expecting Pod Save America’s Favreau to run for governor of California, but, to date, not even a hint that he will.

The thing about Colbert, meanwhile, is he’s in the political sweetspot. It’s like he was designed in a lab to be the perfect Blue response to MAGA’s Trump. But there are two major problems.

One, is, Colbert just won’t do it. Probably because of his wife, if nothing else. He would actually see governing as something to be taken seriously and, as such, he would bow out because he’s not willing to do it as a comedic guy.

Two, a lot of Blues would be opposed to Colbert because they would roll their eyes and say we learned our lesson with Trump — celebrities don’t make for good politicians.

As such, I just don’t see how in the world we could get Colbert to run for *anything*, much less POTUS. The only way I could maybe, just maybe see him doing it is if something happened to him personally because of Trump — or if maybe the Pope told him to.