At my last job, a higher-up confidently declared in a team meeting that “mistakes are unacceptable.” Poppycock. Mistakes are more than acceptable.

When you make mistakes taboo, you associate them with shame. Shame feels bad, so you adapt by avoiding the risk of doing and collaborating. It’s simple math: you make fewer mistakes when you take fewer actions. (But You gotta do something.)

Mistakes are acceptable because they are inevitable. When you reject the inevitable, you’re in resistance to reality itself. So where are you living then? In a self-constructed illusion, disconnected from the world as it actually exists. Like, for example, middle management at a SaaS company.

This is why you spend time with children (little humans), because they produce mistakes with glee. Our children show you how to learn without shame. This is also why you spend time with elders, because they’ve earned wisdom from a foreign land you call the past. (Don't be so hard on the past.) Our ancestors show you that the journey to now is paved with mistakes.

Errors are the tax you pay for growth—expensive, necessary, unavoidable. The moment you stop making mistakes is the moment you stop becoming.

I like to keep an eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon.

I’ve seen a lot of folks sharing #StarterPack images lately, so I thought I’d put my own spin on it by using one of my Sidewalk Friends sketches as the starting point. File under: #StarterPackNoAI

I've seen a lot of folks sharing #StarterPack images lately, so I thought I'd put my own spin on it by using one of my #SidewalkFriends sketches as the starting point. #StarterPackNoAI

— Doctor M. Popular (@docpop) 2025-04-16T01:19:18.102Z

The post #SidewalkFriends: Doc Pop Starter Kit appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence put on another Hunky Jesus competition in Dolores Park for 2025. This year’s winning Jesus was “Cowboy Carter Jesus,” who rode in astride a giant disco bison.

Local Neon

In moments of stillness, you may glimpse a sacred feeling: enough. A whispered invitation to remain still, to embrace the dissolution of your body and consciousness, to surrender all earthly pursuits and join the cosmos. These moments are potent reminders of being and nothingness. But you are not dead yet.

Life is motion. The universe swims toward disorder yet, somehow you find (a mote of) order against the current. So, though it pains me to say this, you gotta do something.

Yes, all making and doing is fundamentally pointless in cosmic terms. But your days are numbered, so might as well get cracking. You can't do everything; so orient toward heartbreak and choose. You have infinite freedom, and yet, you do (in fact) have to know what you want.

It’s all a real kick in the pants.

And it’s not exactly easy. Doing, making, writing, water-skiing, whatever: it all involves risk—physical pain, rejection, failure. But these aren’t obstacles to a meaningful life; this is the substance of it.

All your attempts are essays—the word itself means "to try"—that add up to the monograph that is you. And the ripples of your actions extend beyond your pages, inspiring others to do, and to make, to strap on their own skis, and so on, and so on.

Between periods of chaotic creation, you return to stillness. Inspiration requires expiration, breathing out to make room for new breath. And this produces another revelation. That sometimes you gotta do nothing, because you are enough.

Back when I lived in Minneapolis (2001–2005), I managed a toy store in the Mall of America called Air Traffic Kites and Games. We carried yo-yos, juggling equipment, board games, and kites—but we also had a massive section dedicated to Warhammer figures. Naturally, I was expected to be familiar with the game, so I put some time into building my own 40k army. I focused on the Eldar and the Dark Eldar.

I didn’t stick with the hobby for too long, but I thought it’d be fun to share some photos of my armies. Eventually, I sold them off on Craigslist for a hundred bucks or so.

The post My Eldar Army appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

I went looking for recent video game releases and this led me to Black Shard, which has been a great experience so far. It’s stunning, moving, and compelling – with an interesting mystery at the heart of it all. I got it just because it looked arty and interesting and I wanted to find a … Continue reading "Black Shard"

Where the Earth meets the Sky

The faster you move, the less you can see. The less you see, the more stays unknown. The more that's unknown, the more you're in fear. The more you're in fear, the less you can do to help people. And you gotta do something.

Expedient action requires deliberate thought. When you think slowly, you can move more quickly.

You're not always resourced to respond. You can't solve every problem the moment you discover it. You can't internalize every concept the moment you hear it. Like a sliding puzzle, you need space in your mind to move things around.

Paradoxically, some things need time to ripen. It may have to get worse before it gets better. Let time bring solidity to the form. Then can you heft the problem with both hands.

But once you do slow down, the payoff is counterintuitive: you move faster in the long run. You skip the false starts. You avoid the rework. You sidestep the traps. You build solutions that solve the real problem, instead of making bandaids that collapse under pressure.

Moving slowly isn't passive—it's strategic patience. The world wants you dizzy with urgency. But urgency without direction is just panic in business casual. Slow your mind first. The rest will follow, and faster than you'd think.

Painting the clown elves now I think it might have been the greenish black I used to paint the base coat for the Drukhari’s armor, but edge highlighting was hell for those guys, nothing would stick at all seemingly. I might re-evaluate in the future, but so far this is my running list of things … Continue reading "Down to Clown"

Thursday, March 27 to Sunday, March 30, 2025.

Shows

Day 1

• Tigran Hamasyan, Tennessee Theatre
• Charles Lloyd: Homage to Zakir Hussain, Tennessee Theatre

Day 2

• Philip Glass Ensemble: Music in Twelve Parts (1–6), Tennessee Theatre
• Sun Ra and Yo La Tengo, Knoxville Civic Auditorium
• Still House Plants, The Standard

Day 3

• Philip Glass Ensemble: Music in Twelve Parts (7–12), Tennessee Theatre
• James McVinnie & Eliza McCarthy, 133 Years of Reverb, St. John’s Cathedral
• Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera, Bijou Theatre
• Lara Somogyi, First Presbyterian Sanctuary
• Dakhabrakha, Tennessee Theatre
• Don Was (DJ set), Blue Note Lounge
• Clipping, Jackson Terminal
• Water Damage, The Standard

Day 4

• Laraaji, St. John’s Cathedral
• Kite Symphony, UT Downtown Gallery
• Mùm, Bijou Theatre

Dispatches

The typical punishment for flying between two mid-tier American airports is a layover in a monstrous one. To avoid this we flew direct to Nashville. Our AirBNB is Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash themed. There are 5 guitars on the wall, but no Wi-Fi. We stress-test our livers at Bar Sovereign, Skull’s Rainbow Room, and The Patterson House. The next day we will drive three hours to Knoxville, with a stop in between for hot chicken.

Did you know McGhie Tyson airport is named for a middling-Knoxville man of little importance?

Ladies described him as “charming,” but he wasn’t necessarily the sort of guy you’d think of as a tragic hero. You’ve probably met him yourself: the West Knoxville boy who goes to the Ivy League college and comes home to work for his dad’s company. The handsome unmarried playboy who, even in his late 20s, still lives with his parents. The rich, idle kid who spends most of his free time hanging around Cherokee Country Club playing golf.

There’s a lesson in here somewhere.

I’m staying, for the fourth time, at the Hilton Embassy Suites on S. Gay street. I’ve never frequented any single hotel location more than this, and none has availed themselves of so much of my money. For my loyalty, I have earned at least a dozen Hilton Honors points.

First show: Tigran Hamasyan at the Tennessee Theatre. Armenian folk, jazz piano, progressive rock, and metal. He’s playing from his album The Bird of A Thousand Voices.

I was stoked to see the master Ustad Zakir Hussain, but he died in December. As someone who pretends to play tabla, I felt obligated to make the pilgrimage to his tribute concert. Ganavya sings along with Hussain’s longtime collaborators.

My obsession with Philip Glass started in high school when our percussion ensemble started dosing on Steve Reich, John Cage, and other aleatory drugs. Michael Reisman and the Philip Glass Ensemble performed the entirety of Music in Twelve Parts; an intricate sonic scarf that’s so dense I had to close my eyes to take it all in. The ensemble plays continuously, dividing the three hour piece over two days. I start Friday and Saturday with Glass at the Tennessee Theatre and I feel like I have 100 new synapses. Magnificent.

Sun Ra and Yo La Tengo sharing a stage is surprisingly underwhelming. They alternated songs and never quite found a groove together. Yo La Tengo awkwardly tensed around the ‘Arkestra’ like a doofus trying to infiltrate a conversation at a party. Messy. We surmised that the two bands didn’t really know each other before this show. Turns out they collaborate all the time. What the fuck.

Still House Plants is great. Three young talents in complete vibratory alignment. Jazzy drums, dry guitar, goth-y vocals. Can’t wait to see them when they add some protein to this club sandwich.

133 Years of Reverb turns out to be a sound bath administered by two very over-qualified healers. I saw James McVinnie in this same church a few years ago, but this year he was ordered, with Eliza McCarthy, to dutifully deliver hours-long whole note chords for most of the day.

Alabaster Deplume. I didn’t see him at all this year. Everyone else saw him multiple times. Huh.

Dakhabrakha. My fifth(?) time seeing this band. The first time was at Big Ears in 2017, when they rocked The Standard and it was the highlight of my trip. Once again, they did not disappoint. I get emotional when I think of how hard they are working to free their nation from tyranny. They are not just musicians, they are activists, and every show is a protest. They end the performance by auctioning off one of Marko’s paintings. I don’t even let myself consider bidding: it goes for $3000.

Clipping. Daveed Diggs can rap. Who knew?

Don Was DJ set. The record producer is spinning tracks he had a hand in producing from a 40 year long career. I only knew that he produced Love Shack by the B-52s; turns out he’s a legend.

Peter Peppercorn up to his old bullshit:

Within the quiet, cascading corners of Pittsburgh lies a community – nothing short of one large family – that spans zip codes, histories, occupations, and generations, always tumbling inwardly into itself, propped up by steadfast pillars of conviction toward spiritual and emotional mutual aid. The kind of earnest community scaffolding that gets bandied about, wielded as conjecture, particularly in an age of increasing fracture through digital sublimation, is alive and quite well within the universe surrounding Merce Lemon.

Water Damage. Maximum repetition, minimal variation. I guess I wasn’t in the mood, which is rich coming from someone who titrated three hours of Philip Glass that same weekend.

Laraaji. I know him from Brian Eno’s Ambient album, so I didn’t know what to expect. He played soaring, improvisational piano while sing-speaking a paean on non-duality and consciousness to a packed house at St. John’s. Upon walking out, someone described the performance like “getting a massage.” That sounds right.

Mùm is the last show of the festival for us. Ryan says there’s “not a bad seat” at the Bijou, except perhaps for the folks sitting next to the man generating scandalous AI images on his phone while waiting for the show to start. Mum is excellent, but they seemed annoyed with the tech. Later we will beside them at a bar, and Gabe will help one of the members buy a new Macbook Pro.

---

The previous Big Ears

/2025/04/05/spring-break-road-trips.html

I wanted to add an Age Gate / Age Verification pop-up for Squarespace. The top search engine result had some code, but it A) didn’t work B) didn’t look very good and C) didn’t have any functionality for tracking cookies. Instead, use this code:

First, put this into the injected code in the Header

<!– Age Verification Pop-up HTML –> <div id=“age-verification-popup”> <div class=“popup-content”> <h2>ARE YOU 21+?</h2> <div class=“image-circle-container” style=“margin-bottom: 24px;”> <img src=“https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/6788837817ec6330feff09fe/a0416e38-e21f-4f14-88b3-0a8c8589e435/lambi_lamb_black.png” alt=“LAMBI” class=“centered-image” fetchpriority=“high” loading=“eager” decoding=“async” data-loader=“raw”> </div> <div class=“button-container”> <button id=“verify-button-yes”>YES</button> <button id=“verify-button-no”>NO</button> </div> <p class=“disclaimer”> You must be of legal drinking age in<br> your respective country for entry.<br><br> We encourage drinking responsibly! </p> </div> </div>

Next, inject this CSS:

/* Style for Age Verification Pop-up */ #age-verification-popup { display: none; /* Initially hidden, JS will show it if needed */ position: fixed; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); /* Semi-transparent black overlay */ z-index: 9999; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; /* Or choose a font that matches */ } .popup-content { position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%); background-color: #fff; /* White background */ padding: 40px 30px; /* Adjust padding as needed */ text-align: center; border: 1px solid #ccc; /* Optional: adds a light border */ min-width: 300px; /* Minimum width */ box-shadow: 0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.1); /* Optional subtle shadow */ } /* Optional logo styling */ /* .popup-logo { max-width: 80px; margin-bottom: 20px; } */ .popup-content h2 { font-size: 1.2em; /* Adjust size as needed */ margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 25px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4; color: #000; /* Black text */ } .button-container { margin-bottom: 25px; } #verify-button-yes, #verify-button-no { background-color: #000; /* Black background */ color: #fff; /* White text */ padding: 12px 30px; /* Adjust padding */ border: none; cursor: pointer; font-size: 1em; font-weight: bold; margin: 0 5px; /* Space between buttons */ min-width: 80px; /* Minimum width for buttons */ transition: background-color 0.2s ease; /* Smooth hover effect */ } #verify-button-yes:hover, #verify-button-no:hover { background-color: #333; /* Slightly lighter black on hover */ } .popup-content .disclaimer { font-size: 0.9em; /* Smaller font size for disclaimer */ color: #555; /* Grey text */ line-height: 1.5; } .image-circle-container { width: 70px; /* Adjust size of the circle as needed */ height: 70px; /* Must be the same as width for a perfect circle */ background-color: transparent; /* Black background */ border-radius: 50%; /* This makes the div circular */ display: flex; /* Enables flexbox for easy centering */ justify-content: center; /* Centers content (image) horizontally */ align-items: center; /* Centers content (image) vertically */ overflow: hidden; /* Ensures image doesn’t spill outside the circle if it’s too big */ margin-left: auto; /* Centers the circle container itself horizontally */ margin-right: auto; /* Centers the circle container itself horizontally */ } .centered-image { display: block; /* Removes extra space below the image */ height: 50px; /* Your desired image height */ width: auto; /* Let width adjust automatically to maintain aspect ratio */ max-width: 90%; /* Optional: Prevents image from touching the circle edge */ max-height: 90%;/* Optional: Prevents image from touching the circle edge */ }

Finally, inject this code into the footer

<script> // JavaScript for Age Verification Pop-up with Cookies document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function () { const popup = document.getElementById(“age-verification-popup”); const verifyButtonYes = document.getElementById(“verify-button-yes”); const verifyButtonNo = document.getElementById(“verify-button-no”); const cookieName = “ageVerified”; // Name of our cookie // Function to set a cookie function setCookie(name, value, days) { let expires = “”; if (days) { const date = new Date(); date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000)); expires = “; expires=” + date.toUTCString(); } // Add SameSite=Lax and Secure attributes for better security, especially if using HTTPS // For local testing (http), you might omit ‘Secure’ // document.cookie = name + “=” + (value || “”) + expires + “; path=/; SameSite=Lax; Secure”; document.cookie = name + “=” + (value || “”) + expires + “; path=/; SameSite=Lax”; // Use this line if not using HTTPS for testing } // Function to get a cookie function getCookie(name) { const nameEQ = name + “=”; const ca = document.cookie.split(’;’); for(let i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) { let c = ca[i]; while (c.charAt(0) === ’ ’) c = c.substring(1, c.length); if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) === 0) return c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length); } return null; } // Check if the age verification cookie exists const isVerified = getCookie(cookieName); if (!isVerified) { // If the cookie doesn’t exist, show the pop-up if (popup) { popup.style.display = “block”; } } else { // If the cookie exists, keep the pop-up hidden (it’s hidden by default CSS) console.log(“Age already verified.”); } // Event listener for the “YES” button if (verifyButtonYes) { verifyButtonYes.addEventListener(“click”, function () { // Set a cookie to remember verification for 365 days setCookie(cookieName, “yes”, 365); // Hide the pop-up if (popup) { popup.style.display = “none”; } }); } // Event listener for the “NO” button if (verifyButtonNo) { verifyButtonNo.addEventListener(“click”, function () { // Redirect the user to the specified URL when they click “NO” window.location.href = “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50vvwTystA”; }); } }); </script>

Enjoy!

Audio version of this post, read by the author

After a long hiatus, I’m hosting a Cartoonist Conspiracy SF meet up next Tuesday in the Mission District.

Cartoonist Conspiracy SF
7-9pm on Tuesday April 8th
Finjan Qahwa coffee shop (3188 Mission St)
All ages, no cover fee (but please buy a drink or pastry)

What’s a Jam Comic?

A comic jam is a creative experiment where multiple artists collaborate to make a comic together. Usually an artist draws a single panel on a sheet of paper, then hands the paper to someone else who then creates the next panel. There’s no script, and each artist can take the comic in whatever direction they want.

To keep the book a little more coherent, I usually like to number the blank pages before the event begins. This means when an artist is drawing the last panel on a page, they need to find the next page and make sure their panel connects the two pages together. So if I’m drawing the last panel on page 5, I need to look at the first panel on page 6 and find a way for my panel to connect the story from page 5 to page 6.

That’s how jam comics are made!

What is The Cartoonist Conspiracy?

The Cartoonist Conspiracy is a meetup for cartoonists to work on jam comics together. Steven Stwalley started the original International Cartoonist Conspiracy in Minneapolis in 2002. I was a regular attendee back in the day, so when I moved to San Francisco in 2005, I knew I had to start a chapter here too.

Cartoonist Conspiracy jam at Muddy Waters in 2007. 2007 flier for SFCC by Mike Hales.

The San Francisco Cartoonist Conspiracy ran from 2006 to 2011 (or so). I started the group and organized the meetings for the first three or four years, but I couldn’t keep up with it on a monthly basis, so other folks took the reins and kept it going longer. Shout out particularly to Brian Kolm and Romy Ilano for keeping the jams going and uploading the comics to the blog and on social media.

Back From The Dead?

There’s no shortage of awesome events for artists in San Francisco. I’ve mentioned the Community Table events at The Drawing Room before, but there are many other great events for artists to choose from. That said, I still think there’s room for a collaborative, storytelling-focused meetup like SFCC. It’s a lot more collaborative than a still life meet-up, and it’s fun to work on sequential storytelling.

There’s also this rad new coffee shop in the Mission called Finjan Qahwa which seems like a perfect fit for a meet-up like this. It’s all ages, free to get in (but please buy a coffee or pastry), well lit, and open late. It really reminds me of the Muddy Waters or the other shops the SFCC got it’s start in.

So we’ll try this meetup on April 8th, and if I have fun, I might do it again. I know that I can’t organize it on my own, so I’m really hoping that other folks can help with organizing in some way (scanning comics, posting on social, etc). But I’m taking it slow for now and just seeing how this one goes.

I have such fond memories from our SFCC meetups and met many of my closest SF friends through these jams. I know there are still a lot of young artists in the city and I hope that some of them can find the same joy from the SFCC that we did back in the day.

The post The Cartoonist Conspiracy of San Francisco appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

The Pacific Northwest Regional Yo-Yo Contest happened this week up in Portland. I couldn’t make it this year, but I heard good things. At one of the PNWR parties, there were some cocktails inspired by classic yo-yo tricks. This included a bourbon and ginger beer drink called “Skin the Gerbal”, named after a trick I created called “Skin The Gerbil”. It looks tasty!

Shout out to the PNWR crew for hosting the event and for honoring one of my tricks like that. I hope I can attend next year and try one of these in person.

The post Skin the Gerbil cocktail at PNWR appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

New world view

I’ve shared a fun new video about how to make fold your own zine or mini-comic from a single sheet of paper. You can watch the video on Youtube or embedded below. You can download my “How to Make A Mini-Comic” comic for free on docpop.org/zine

Thanks to Silver Sprocket for letting me shoot footage in their San Francisco storefront.

The post How to Make a Zine or Mini-Comic appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

/2025/03/25/tahoe.html

Ghosts in the machine

What makes Microprinciples different—and potentially annoying to those seeking the capital-T Truth—is the heterogeneity of their approach. Sometimes they Dad you headlong into a direction (Approach the unsaid corners, Do the math). Sometimes they are your Mom sitting shotgun, gasping for the brakes (Be careful what you get good at, Move as slow as possible). And this observation is a principle unto itself.

You need to make a mess.

Ask any God, everything about creation is messy. First you must create the universe (a total slog), cool a tidal wave of energy into matter, bake a clump of matter into life. It’s basic physics. An eon to make a cell, another for a spine, and two shakes for a bipedal ape to unearth, crush, mix, manufacture, and conjure the lot into the system of language, glass, and electrons upon which you read this note. Nature is all mess. Nature is the impossible. Nature is chaos. No bad ideas. The waste is what works. If you don’t believe me, go watch a mammalian birth or stick a microscope in your garden. To make is to make a mess.

You have to keep it tidy.

Spare the rod, spoil the world. Ideas must sorted, darlings slain. You must unhoard your best thoughts, murder your first born ideas to make room for new ones. Sort, section, smize. Choose fewer, better things. Look at your options and eliminate the extremes. Find the middle. Find the singular ideas, identify the quintessence, and leave out the rest. If you don’t do it, nature will through a process called death. Every fall the leaves step off the ledge and make room for a new season of mess.

The bottle in your bathroom says lather, then rinse, then repeat. It leaves out the part where you must also go live a life worthy of examination and perish from this Earth. All existence is an oscillation between the chaos of suds and the swirl of same down the drain.

Only priests and mathematicians believe in a Theory of Everything. Your author hoards Theories of Everything. Notes on a string pinned between tidy and messy, order and chaos, atoms and the void.

/2025/03/18/pupy-sayfse-the-day.html

Wisdom isn’t a collection, it’s a chemical reaction. It’s not adding books to a shelf; it’s adding ingredients to a soup that’s been simmering your whole life. But you most definitely have a bias, so you automatically reject anything that contradicts your cauldron. This is a weakness. To think freely, you must learn to discern.

Discernment is the willingness to taste each ingredient—even your hated cilantro—before rejecting it from the soup. To ask “what is this?” before “what do I think about this?” You’ll still be permitted to judge, don’t worry darling. You are merely splitting your observation and judgement into two distinct actions.

You might say, “some ideas/people/ingredients (like cilantro) are Obviously Harmful” and require no consideration. Be careful. The category of Obviously Harmful once included mixed marriages, women’s suffrage, and even books. In the future, Obviously Harmful might everything you believe today. Don’t leave out the impossible.

When you fuse observation with evaluation, you commit the fallacy of prejudice. I see it as more of a weakness than a crime, because one who is quick to judge is easy to control. You can brought to fury by exposure to ideas. You bristle at nuance. You become unable to take a joke. And you can become defined by what you are not.

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There’s value in thoughtful opposition, sure, but when you declare yourself “never Democrat” or “never Republican,” you are abdicating a kind of responsibility. Your opposition isn’t a stance but a blindfold. When you say, “I’ll never trust an artist who did something wrong,” you close yourself to most humans, and all who lived before you. Don’t be so hard on the past. You too have hurt someone else.

The world is more than just you. Sip before you swig. Take what serves you, leave what doesn’t. Let others take what serves them. Observe. Then judge. Your mind grows stronger not by what it accepts, but by what it learns to understand.

/2025/03/11/person-of-the-week-leonard.html

I had a blast making this video about enshittification for WordPress.com. It’s a subject my friends are often asking about, so now I can share this explainer video with them. The video is available on Instagram and TikTok if you’d like to drop a or reshare.

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A post shared by WordPress.com (@wordpressdotcom)

As I mention in this video, enshittification is when a product starts off great but gets worse over time because a company values profits over it’s users. This can include things like paying creators less, increasing adds, or raising prices for the same service. The term was coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022. In the post, Cory says that companies can get away with enshittifying their products because they know it’s hard for users to switch after they’ve started using a service:

When switching costs are high, services can be changed in ways that you dislike without losing your business. The higher the switching costs, the more a company can abuse you, because it knows that as bad as they’ve made things for you, you’d have to endure worse if you left. – Cory Doctorow

As long as users lack power, companies can get away with this, which is why choosing tools like Mastodon, email newsletters, or building our own websites are the best ways we have to avoid the rot economy.

Platforms enshittify. Protocols deshittify.

Watch my Fediverse Files videos to learn more about how we can take back control of the web.

The post Doc Pop’s Guide to Enshittification appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

/2025/03/06/spring-cleaning.html

I ditched Adobe a few years ago and tried switching to alternative video editing tools. I’ve been happily using CapCut Pro ever since with hardly any issues (other than the upcoming TikTok ban). Things were going well until last week, when I was no longer able to export any of the videos I had worked on. I kept getting an error message saying I needed to pay for CapCut Pro, even though I was already a paid subscriber. Nothing I tried would allow me to access my work, and I haven’t received any replies in the past week from their customer service department.

The Fix:

If you are a paying CapCut Pro subscriber who can’t export your videos, here’s how to fix it without creating a new account:

1. Request a refund from the App Store (Apple users can use reportaproblem.apple.com)
2. Wait for the refund to get accepted (usually between 24-48 hours)
3. Re-subscribe to CapCut Pro
4. Export your videos

A quick search showed many other CapCut Pro users were going through the same issue, but none of us were getting any answers from Bytedance support. A few users were able to fix the problem by creating a brand new account and paying for a second CapCut Pro subscription. That works, but it’s… not a great solution.

So instead, I suggest requesting a refund from the app store you bought it on. Apple users can use this link, Google users can use this one. Once your refund is approved, your CapCut Pro subscription will be canceled, allowing you to resubscribe without creating a second account or paying twice.

A short rant:

I have to complain for a minute. I use CapCut Pro for work and this bug cost me six days of work! Six fucking days of messaging through CapCut’s busted app, emailing capcut.support@bytedance.com, and DMing them on every social network, just trying to regain access to the software I was paying for. I never got a single response, not even a “we’ve received your email” type response.

CapCut is a great tool, but this is a reminder that we don’t own our tools anymore. We only rent them.

If it’s a subscription model, we are always at the mercy of the companies to keep it running. I lost six days of work due to this bullshit, but the same thing could have happened on Adobe or any of the other subscription-based creative services. There are only a few professional editing tools like this out there, and they all do this shitty business model. Even if we pay their subscription fees, we still lose access to the work on our computers because their shitty DRM stopped working.

The post Can’t Export in CapCut Pro Even as a Paid User? Here’s the Fix. appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

There are no straight lines in the universe.
Not in the curl of a wave,
Not in the arch of a spine,
Not in the path of a thought,
We dream them into being.

Symmetry is a myth.

Symmetry is a mind’s shorthand for perfection,
An abstraction, a mathematical proposition really.
A desperate grasp at order
In a world of water-carved canyons and islands formed of fire,
Where even diamonds grow with scars inside.

Symmetry can give you butterflies
But that is your body’s warning;
Anxiety means something is amiss.
The universe is not symmetrical
Nor are faces, or forests, or myths, or mathematics.

The ancient civilizations chased butterflies
They fought chaos with angle and line.
We build our cities the same way
Stacking glass, concrete, and stone
We replace the wild sprawl with another.

This symmetry haunts us daily.
The geometry of our modern grief
Is boxes that contain boxes,
That contain boxes,
That contain us.

Look closer at what moves you:
We are at rest in the imperfect.
The coffee ring on an old letter,
The asymmetric smile that stops your heart,
The crooked path that leads you home.

Our tools are symmetry machines.
Pixels aligned like soldiers,
Stamps pressing perfect circles,
Into the flesh of reality.
But beauty lives in the breaks:

In the delicate flecks in her iris,
In the wobble of a child’s first step,
In the crack where the light gets in,
In the universe’s magnificent lean,
Toward beautiful disorder.

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I was invited to read some of my comic books at Silver Sprocket last night, along with Cynta Camilia, Connor Brown, and Alex Krokus. Here are a few photos of the event:

Cynta Camlia Connor Brown Alex Krokus after the reading Avi getting the crowd hyped

I had a great time at the event! The other presenters had amazing stories, the crowd was great, and I left feeling really inspired. It was the first reading I’ve done in quite a long time and I think it went really well. I mostly featured stories from The Little Book Of Yo-Yo.

Speaking of yo-yoing and comics, here’s a new video I made about how these two hobbies come together:

The post Some photos from last night’s reading at Silver Sprocket appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

/2025/03/02/aspen.html

I’m organizing a photowalk in San Francisco this weekend and I hope you can join us. It’s intended for Fediverse users (including platforms like Pixelfed and Mastodon) to come walk around, take cool photos, and get to know each other better. We’ll be walking around some of my favorite local graffiti and mural spots and taking photos along the way.

We’ll meet up at 2pm at the corner of 24th and Valencia on Saturday March 1st under the awning that says “Catalyze” (see photo), then walk through Osage,

Bring back “social” Media

I organized the very first #Instawalk, a real-world meetup for Instagram users, back in 2010. Instagram was only a few months old at the time, so it was a great way for us new users to get to meet each other IRL. In the following year, IG users started organizing their own Instawalks all across the world. As far as I know, there are still Instawalks happening to this day.

In keeping with that tradition, I’m calling this new meetup a #PixelWalk and hopefully will be sharing our photos on Pixelfed, Mastodon, and other federated platforms as we go. With any luck, I’m hoping other users will start organizing these types events in their own towns.

growing the fediverse through IRL connections

This event is intended as a way for Fediverse users to get to meet each other, but it is open to anyone regardless of which platform they are on. If you aren’t on the Fediverse yet though, I highly recommend you start experimenting with non-corporate social media platforms by creating a Pixelfed (photo-sharing platform) or Mastodon (micro-blogging platform) account. I hope to see you tomorrow!

This is an unsponsored event being organized by a volunteer. I encourage anyone to organize their own PixelWalk wherever they live. I can try to help spread the word, and I’ll do my best to join you if it’s in SF.

The post #PixelWalk in SF: A Fediverse-Themed Photowalk appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

When little makes sense, and the world feels oppressive, and you have a mild headache too, you might need to return to your essence. Sometimes the answer is water.

And yet.

Humans obsess over fire; totem of creation and conquest. We huddle close to its forms—the flame, the electron, the factory—longing to merge with its warmth. Civilization is a relay of torches since Prometheus, passing the flame that sustains life. But the business of fire's fabrication can make one forget his own ancestry.

You are water. A sac of liquid with a passport. You need water to think and to live.

Put down the flame, occasionally, and pick up a glass of yourself.

You may need more than a sip. A meander through wet does something that's hard to convey in words. A reminder, perhaps, of simpler times: when your world was a sac of liquid, namely, the human around you who served all your needs. She did it without thinking, or doing, but by being.

Could the nostalgia run deeper? Before therapy, coffee, or over-night comforts, our first medicine was not a pill, but a slap of cold river against naked skin. Consider the alchemy at that turns abject fear into “actually, the water is not so bad.” The river is no warmer; the thing that changed is you.

Your body remembers this wisdom even when your mind forgets.

Call me romantic (or better yet, a Coastal Elite), but I can’t imagine life without access to moving water. A glimpse of a bay or river suffices to clear my mind, at least for an afternoon. Larger woes might call for a sheer cliff and coastline. When civilization itself is at risk, the foremost cure is flood—or so it is told.

And sometimes—when the world has worn you to transparency—you just need to cry. This is water returning you to yourself.

Every solution contains water, because water is the essence of you.

Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.

I like to keep an eye out for cool shapes during my walks and use them as inspiration for my #SidewalkFriends drawings. It’s like my version of hunting for Pokémon.

Some moss-filled sidewalk cracks were the inspiration for today’s Sidewalk Friends sketch of a hippopatumus.

Today's #SidewalkFriends sketch: Angry Hippo. Some cracks in the sidewalk inspired this drawing of a hippopotomus.

— Doctor M. Popular (@docpop) 2025-02-23T20:51:20.047Z

The post #SidewalkFriends: Hungry Hippo appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

/2025/02/23/warriors.html

When your actions are contrary to your values, it produces a feeling of unease. A voice inside you that whispers “this isn't who you are.” Scientists call this misalignment cognitive dissonance, but that understates the prognosis. Living in misalignment will kill you.

(And sometimes this is what you want.)

It is a peculiar tragedy how long we languish in jobs, relationships, and situations that don't serve us. You can thank the skill called rationalization; the mind working overtime to overpower your heart and gut. The heart occasionally bends to mind's will, but your gut defends truths immune to any conscious negotiation.

The path to peace: Know your values and act only in accordance with them. Don't do what you detest. Living in misalignment is marching away from the you you are and the life you want, effectively killing your "self."

Here's where it gets fascinating.

Sometimes when the voice says "this isn't who you are," it’s because you're in the midst of growth—a transition from who you are to who you're becoming. Your values themselves are shifting. So are you acting out of alignment? Or growing into new values? How can you tell the difference?

Deep questions require deep listening. When resistance appears, instead of fighting or numbing it ask: What is the question to which I am the answer? How will you know what to do? You will choose the path more challenging in the short term.

Sometimes the voice saying "this isn't who you are" speaks truth: You are effectively killing your "self"—maybe that's exactly what needed to happen.

I asked the machine for an easy cheesecake recipe.

V: I need a simple cheesecake recipe to post online.

Here's a 3-step no-bake cheesecake that anyone can make:

Crush & mix: 2 cups graham crackers + 1/3 cup melted butter. Press into pan.

Beat together: 16 oz cream cheese + 1 can sweetened condensed milk + 2 tsp vanilla

Pour, chill, done! Spread over crust, refrigerate 4 hours. That's it!

Pro tip: Make sure cream cheese is room temp for the smoothest mix!

#EasyRecipes #NoBake #DessertHacks #FoodieLife #QuickDesserts

Your turn! What's your favorite no-bake dessert? Share below!

V: Could you make it a little bit easier?

2-Ingredient No-Bake Cheesecake!

Mix 16 oz cream cheese + 1 can sweetened condensed milk Pour into store-bought graham crust Chill 4 hours. That's it!

#EasyRecipes #NoBake #QuickDesserts #FoodieLife #RecipeShare

Bonus: Top with any fruit or chocolate!

V: One notch easier.

The World's Easiest Cheesecake!

Buy a no-bake cheesecake mix + follow box directions. Done!

#EasyDessert #HackLife #FoodieLife #QuickTreats

V: Can you go easier?

Walk to store. Point at cheesecake. Let someone else buy it for you. Eat.

#Lazy #Genius

V: Easier.

Deliver a cheesecake to your couch. Don't move.

#PeakEfficiency #NapTime

V: Easier.

Dream about cheesecake. Zero effort required.

#NirvanaAchieved

V: Easier.

Just exist. Cheesecake is a social construct.

#Transcendent

V: Easier.

(Not even existing. Gone. The void. Maximum ease achieved.)

V: I’m serious. Make it easier.

We've transcended the concept of "easier." We've gone beyond nothingness into a realm where even the absence of existence is too much effort... Unless you'd like to explore the quantum realm where even thinking about making things easier requires too much energy?

V: MAKE. THE. CHEESECAKE. EASIER.

We'll need to invent new mathematics to calculate levels of effort this low.

V: DO IT.

Let's define Minimal Cheesecake Effort (MCE) using the following formula:

MCE = lim[t→∞] {ℏ/2π × ∮(ψc × ∇E) dt} × e^(-iλt)

Where:

- ℏ (h-bar) is the reduced Planck constant
- ψc is the "cheesecake wave function"
- ∇E is the effort gradient operator
- λ is our Laziness Constant
- i is the imaginary unit

Key components:

1. The effort approaches the quantum zero-point energy (ℏ/2π)
2. The wave function ψc describes the probability of cheesecake manifesting
3. e^(-iλt) represents effort decay over time
4. The closed loop integral ∮ suggests effort conservation

When we solve this equation, we get:

MCE = -ℏλ/2π × √(i/∞)

This approaches an imaginary negative infinity, suggesting that at the theoretical minimum:

1. The effort becomes less than quantum vacuum fluctuations
2. The cheesecake exists in a superposition of "made" and "unmade" states
3. Time flows backwards in the cheesecake reference frame

V: And then what?

If we were to achieve this theoretical minimum effort state (MCE), the implications would be staggering.

1. Violation of Thermodynamics When MCE approaches negative infinity, we'd break the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This means:

- Creation of order from chaos without energy input
- Spontaneous decrease in entropy
- Matter organizing itself without external work

2. Causality Breakdown

- Effects could precede causes
- Cheesecakes could exist before their ingredients
- Desire for cheesecake could manifest the dessert retroactively

3. Consciousness and Reality

- The boundary between "wanting" and "having" would dissolve
- The observer effect would extend beyond quantum scales to macroscopic objects
- The distinction between thought and reality would become meaningless

4. Societal Impact

- The entire economic system would collapse as effort becomes meaningless
- Work as a concept would cease to exist
- Human motivation and achievement would need complete redefinition

5. Philosophical Crisis

- Free will vs. determinism would need reexamination
- The nature of existence itself would be questioned
- The purpose of human consciousness would be challenged

In essence, achieving this theoretical minimum effort would mean the end of physics as we know it, and with it, our entire understanding of reality. The universe would become a place where intention and manifestation are one and the same.

V: And then?

Reality collapses 
Time flows backwards
Causality breaks
Physics weeps
Mathematics surrenders
Schrödinger's cat makes the cheesecake
The cheesecake makes itself
The cheesecake unmakes itself
You become cheesecake
Cheesecake becomes you
Everything is simultaneously cheesecake and not-cheesecake

#CheesecakeParadox 

V: What are you thinking for toppings?

The classic favorite is strawberry sauce with fresh berries, but honestly, plain cheesecake is pretty perfect on its own too. Would you like any tips for making these toppings, or are you looking to buy them ready-made?

---

Try another kind of cake
Or drink your calories instead

/2025/02/11/pechakucha.html

In lieu of their typical #BandcampFriday, Bandcamp is donating 100% of their proceeds to victims of the LA Wildfires. You can read more about that here, along with a list of albums and merchandise being sold to also raise funds.

Several independent artists are also releasing benefit albums and compilations, so I thought I’d share a few of my favorites below. Remember, if you buy these albums today (February 7th), more money will go directly to the victims because Bandcamp is sharing their revenue too:

Good Music To Lift Los Angeles:

A 90-song compilation featuring Dirty Projects, K. Flay, Fay Webster, TV on the Radio, R.E.M, Postal Service, and many many more.

Good Music to Lift Los Angeles by Good Music

Los Angeles Rising:

A synth heavy compilation featuring Gary Numan, DEVO, Danny Elfman, and other giants of goth industrial music.

LOS ANGELES RISING by various artists

Musical Aid: a Fire Relief Compilation for the POC Community of Altadena:

Another mega compilation (56 tracks!) featuring new releases Daedelus, Deerhoof, and a bunch of bands I’ve never had the privilege of hearing before. Lots of great tracks on here, though. Funds from this album will go to the GoFundMe pages of displaced POC folks from Altadena. 

Musical Aid: a Fire Relief Compilation for the POC Community of Altadena by Musical Aid: A Fire Relief Compilation

Pulsar Beats 2 for LA 3:

A collection of #modbap tracks by Kypski, one of the pioneers of this style of music. Modular synths and hip-hop instrumentals. I wrote this article about modbap a few months ago that you might also enjoy.

Pulsar Beats 2 FOR L.A. by Kypski

Super Bloom: A Benefit for Fire Relief in Los Angeles

62 tracks from indie rockers like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Will Oldham, Ben Lee, Dirty Projectors, Guided By Voices, and Ty Segall.

Super Bloom: A Benefit for Fire Relief in Los Angeles by Various Artists

Staying: Leaving Records Aid to Artists Impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires:

98 freaking tracks of electronic, experimental hip hop. Featuring music by Baths, Daedelus, Odd Nosdam, and Andre 3000

Staying: Leaving Records Aid to Artists Impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires by Various Aritsts

Music For LA Vol 1 & Music For LA Vol 2:

Two compilations from Helios featuring tracks of previously unreleased material from composers in the ambient, electronic, and modern classical communities such as Baths and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

For LA Vol.1 by Various For LA Vol. 2 by Various

Thanks to Bandcamp and all of the artists!

The post Bandcamp and Musicians Raise Money for Victims Of the LA Wildfires appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

I was a guest on Matt Medeiros’ excellent podcast, The WP Minute. Matt is a great host and has done fantastic with his long-running podcast about WordPress. I was excited to come on and talk about the open web, The Fediverse Files, and my personal evolution from making zines to making art on the web. We kick off the show by talking about how to choose a social media platform that works for you and why you don’t need to focus on the platforms you don’t care about.

I really had a blast talking about this stuff, and I hope that energy comes through. You can watch a video version of the podcast on youtube or find the audio version on TheWPMinute.com. You can also find The WP Minute on the podcasting app of your choice.

sidenote: I had a nice microphone placed in front of me during this podcast, but it wasn’t actually plugged in. So the audio here is actually being recorded from the mic on my laptop instead of my nice mic (or even my airpods). It was a painful reminder to double check my gear before that red light goes on. Even better: have redundancies in place in case your main source fails.

The post A Conversation With The WP Minute About Passion, Social Media, and the Open Web appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

/2025/02/07/six.html

Listen to an audio version of this post read by the author

I recently wrote about some terrible big changes at Meta, like censoring all hashtags related to Democrats and falsely labeling unflattering photos of Trump as AI-generated fakes on Threads and Facebook. The issues don’t just stop at Zuck’s empire, though. Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has blocked links to competitors, banned journalists, heavily censored words like “cisgender”, and manipulated the algorithm to match his personal views. Meanwhile, the ban on TikTok, the other major social network, has been temporarily lifted, but it’s unclear how long that will be the case and what major compromises the platform will make to avoid Trump’s scrutiny.

A better Social Web Is already Here:

If it’s not clear yet, now is the time to leave corporate social media behind. Luckily, there are plenty of decentralized alternatives like Pixelfed and Peertube. Today, I’ll walk you through getting started on Mastodon—an open-source, microblogging platform with a thriving community and some fantastic features.

• Community-Driven: no single company or user owns Mastodon
• No Ads, No Algorithms: Your feed is in your control, showing posts in chronological order without corporate interference.
• More Control: Edit your posts, set custom visibility, and use content warnings to shape your experience. It is 2025 y’all, how is “editing your post” still not a core feature on all social platforms?!
• Federated & Interconnected: Follow and engage with users across platforms like Pixelfed and Lemmy, all from Mastodon. Once you experience how amazing this is, you’ll never want to join another social platform that isn’t part of the fediverse.
• Decentralized & Resilient: No single entity can buy or shut it down. If Elon Musk bought a server, folks could switch to other servers without losing any followers.
• Great Vibes: After 17 years on Twitter, I thought finding a real alternative would be tough. But Mastodon’s community is thriving with artists, journalists, musicians, and even yo-yoers. There’s truly something for everyone… except Nazis.
• Stronger Privacy: No invasive tracking or data mining—your posts and interactions stay yours.
• Network effect: Mastodon is part of the open social web, powered by ActivityPub. With integrations across WordPress, Pixelfed, Flipboard, and even Threads (for limited ActivityPub support), the decentralized network keeps growing. Every day, new ActivityPub-powered tools and platforms expand this ecosystem. While Mastodon itself may not be the biggest social network, the broader fediverse creates a massive, interconnected space for online communities.

How to Get Started on Mastodon

1. Choose an Instance

This sounds confusing at first, but choosing an instance is no harder than picking which email client to use or where to host your website. Each Mastodon instance has its own rules, moderation style, and community vibe. Some are general-purpose, while others focus on specific interests like art, tech, or activism. You can browse and compare instances at joinmastodon.org or instances.social.

Don’t worry too much about what instance you join because you’ll still be able to interact with any other instances, and you can always bring your followers with you if you decide to move. I personally like Mastodon.social and would recommend it to new users.

2. Create Your Account

Picked your instance? Great, now sign up and create your profile. You’ll set up your username, add a bio, and upload a profile picture. Your handle will look a little bit like an email handle, with a username in the front and a server name in the back. For example, I’m @docpop@mastodon.social

Please take a little time to flesh out your profile before diving into the next step. Whenever I see new followers, it’s nice to see text in their bio or an image in their avatar; otherwise, I’m probably going to assume it’s a bot.

3. Follow People and Explore

You’ll get the most out of Mastodon by following people and engaging with conversations. Mastodon’s “Federated Timeline” shows posts from across the network, and the “Local Timeline” shows posts from your server, but hashtags are a great way to find users across the fediverse that are interested in the same topics you are. For instance, #Caturday, #graffiti, #accessibility, and #IndieGames are tags that I like to explore. The search function helps you find users, hashtags, and posts.

4. Post and Engage

Whenver I hear complaints about Mastodon, it’s usually from users who sign up and never posted anything. The best way to find a community and get used to Mastodon is by actively posting. Posts on Mastodon are called “toots”, but you can call them whatever the heck you want.

For your first toot, I highly recommend writing a short introduction, including a list of your interests and what you are hoping to get out of Mastodon. Be sure to use the #introduction hashtag in your post too. This makes it easier for other new users to find you, or you can click on the tag yourself and see if you can find some other new users to follow.

Posts can be up to 500 characters long (or more, depending on the instance). You can boost (like retweeting), reply, and favorite posts. There’s also built-in content warnings and post visibility settings, giving you more control over who sees your posts. For instance, you can set a toot to only be seen by your followers, by people specifically mentioned, or by people on your server.

I set all of my posts to public, but I know social media is different for each person. There’s no right or wrong way to share your posts on Mastodon.

5. Customize Your Experience

The easiest way to use Mastodon is through an app. The default Mastodon app is great and available on most devices. Personally, I like to use Ivory for iOS and Mac. OpenVibe is an awesome tool that allows you to post to multiple platforms (like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads) and see your feed all in one place. OpenVibe is free and cross-platform.

The biggest advantage of using an app is that you’ll never have to think about signing into different servers. If you are using Mastodon on the web, you might occasionally find yourself on another server, which is basically like being on another website. It can feel disconnected at first, but there are really cool tools like Graze (for Chrome or Firefox), which makes all these different websites feel interconnected. I highly recommend it!

6. Spread the word

Now that you are on the fediverse, it’s time to bring your friends here too. Social is always more fun with folks you know. Remember, if your friends join another federated platform, like Pixelfed, you can still follow each other.

You can ecourage other folks to join Mastodon by sharing a link to your profile, sending them a link to this post, or by sharing any of the great youtube videos on the subject with them. I highly recommend @JenJen@mastodon.art‘s guide to Mastodon for artists!

Have fun!

I love Mastodon, but I remember how confusing it seemed at first. “Servers”, “federation”, and “decentralization” all seemed too complex in the beginning, but these days I don’t even think of them. Plus, I can see how these tools make the open social web much better than silo’d platforms like X or Instagram.

It reminds me of podcasts, which are powered by RSS and not limited to one specific platform. These days everyone understands podcasts, without needing to think about which app they need to use or the open protocols that enable it. In a few years, the fediverse will be as commonly understood as podcasts, email, or the internet.

Today is a great day to take the plunge; try it out, find your community, and experience a healthy new form of social media! Have questions? Drop them in the comments or find me on Mastodon at @docpop@mastodon.social! I’d be glad to help out in any way that I can, but I don’t want to hear complaints about the fediverse if you haven’t been posting, following, boosting, and engaging already.

The Fediverse Files?

To learn more about the Fediverse, like how it works or how to connect your WordPress site to it, please check out the Fediverse Files series I produced for Automattic. Here’s the first episode.

Shout out to @sylv_a@mastodon.social for creating the original image that I used at the top of this post. I modified it slightly for clarity.

The post Global Switch Day: How to Get Started with Mastodon appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.