Welcome to my Linkblog where I share interesting articles and blog posts I found about social media, Indieweb, geopolitics, Chinese and Malaysian stuff, cute cat videos or anything funny and interesting I find online.

FYI: I also share links in the “Weekend Tales” of my Substack newsletter, Tai Tales. The newsletter is geared towards Chinese and Malaysian culture.

PS: I felt it was appropriate for this issue to use AI-generated imagery 😉

Something beautiful

Watch this, I promise you it’s worth it.

I wrote about this performance in Chinese New Year, Spring Festival Gala, Flower Deities in Tai Tales recently.

This 5-minute Spring Gala Festival performance had everything I loved about Chinese culture: poetry, dance, beautiful hanfu and CDrama actors. However, one needs lots of context to truly appreciate this performance. I’m here to provide the information about the 12 “flower gods” and the stories of the real historical figures behind them.

Technology

AI ‘slop’ is transforming social media – and a backlash is brewing

AI “slop” is transforming social and there’s a backlash.
Actually I don’t mind if everyone ends up abandoning it and eventually it is just AI interacting with bots.

Our own private Laconia

“when I see folks piling on erstwhile friends because they didn’t pass a purity test, it really bums me out, because some opinions being more equal than others is just the kind of ideological inbreeding that invites intellectual entropy.”

First, I absolutely adore the Expanse series. Second, having been on the reception of such purity rages just because I wasn’t pure enough nor do I want or even care about abandoning a platform or tech because it’s evil, a Nazi bar whatever, I appreciate this.

Well, anyway. Pure platforms and tech do not exist. Shaming others for using tech you consider evil is not productive, especially since there’s no black and white in the world.

The puritanical pursuit of platform purity

By yours truly. I noticed cycles of one platform after another being condemned for some societal ill after another. Frankly, it’s exhausting trying to be so “pure” in an age where purity is just an illusion.

This is goodbye

Also, I use AI for my work and writing. I still post on Facebook occasionally. Hell, I promote my blog posts on Threads and X sometimes. I don’t care what people say. I am moving beyond the rants and polemics.

I relate to this so much. The internet and the portals that dominate had made life hellish for creatives. That said, being an electrician is soooo cool. I did something like this in my mid thirties when I got so disillusioned with my journalism/writing career that I turned to nursing. While it didn’t work out it made me realise that going all in as a creative, making my art support my life isn’t for me. Now I work in tech and it supports my writing and I am happy.