2026-04-19 22:22:00
I’m new to blogging, so I was a little shocked to see one of my recent posts about eggs appear on the Trending page of the Discovery feed.
Not only that, but I got a handful of wonderful email replies from people all over the world sharing their experiences with eggs for breakfast. One of them even turned it into his own post and made it on the Trending page too!
One thing I’ve learned from this experience is the benefits of friction in online communication. If it’s costless to interact, there is no bar for quality or intention.
Take a look at the comments section on any social media site. What you see:
One approach to combatting these behaviors is charging $$ to interact. Many writers on Substack paywall their comments section. Some big accounts on X actually paywall their replies as well.
While it’s effective, it feels against the spirit of the Internet to charge a toll on participation.
But there’s good news. Turns out you don’t have to charge money. You just have to make people fight through a little bit of friction.
One example: A well-known public intellectual was asked how he was able to get protesters to stop showing up at his talks and disrupting his events. He chuckled and said he simply shifted to hosting his events in the morning. His protesters weren’t willing to endure the small cost of just waking up early to disrupt his talks!
It’s the same on this blog. With no comments section, any reader has to take a couple extra steps to participate. They had to open their email client, enter my address, write a note, and send it to me privately.
The results are terrific. I’ve received only thoughtful, friendly correspondence with no performance and no malicious intent.
2026-04-19 15:05:35
It is Saturday night. Technically, it's Sunday morning. Houston, for once, seems quiet.
I was delaying sleep after a night of intoxicating substances when I felt like finding some soundscapes to listen to. I happened to find one I used to enjoy before I realized how many of these videos across YouTube were AI generated. I was pleasantly surprised to find a video of the content creator on camera, showing his work process, including his keyboard and software. I suppose that also could have been faked, but it seemed real enough to where I felt I could indulge myself again.
And this got me thinking about Bear Blog. I fired up my blog on a whim last October. I had a story I wanted to tell, and just needed some where to throw it out there so that maybe someone would catch it, and we would share a moment of connection out there in the increasingly lonely internet. Since then, my mood has generally improved. I have an outlet for my thoughts and for all the writing ideas I have.
Rather than doomscrolling when I am bored, I have been making an effort to read more intentionally. This includes my copies of Texas Observer or National Geographic I get from the library and the Discovery page here on Bear. I almost never comment on anything, but I enjoy just picking a few by title, and then closing my eyes and picking some at random. Sometimes I find something enlightening. Sometimes I learn about a person's day. Sometimes I have no idea what I am reading.
Either way I always come away feeling better. It is nice to know I am not alone out here in the darkness.
2026-04-19 04:16:28
I didn't sleep that well last night, but eventually fell into a slumber that felt renewing in the early hours of pre-dawn. I was kept awake (and has been the case for the better part of the past few months) with thoughts regarding my general purpose in life, this world, everything. I love being here in Richmond, and have made some really wonderful friendships, gained a lot of professional experience, but I still don't feel at home here. I'm constantly feeling homesick for New England (as I've written vented about here many times).
When I feel like that, homesick and lonely, and aimless, I try to remember small rituals. These small rituals remind me who I am. Things like sitting in my favorite chair, positioned away from all electronics, on a weekend morning, reading escapist fiction (currently the Outlander series, much different than the TV series too, read them!) and drinking my morning coffee. Typing on my typewriter, record shopping, getting a nice haircut at a barber who gives you a beer and chats with you the whole time. These are all things I love that I can easily forget to keep up with, instead entering into a seemingly endless spiral of anxiety.
Its so easy to fall out of these small rituals. Its easy to get sucked into the mundane ritual of going to work, coming home from work, and doing this over and over, while the turntable collects dust, my bookmark stays on the same page, and my morning coffee makes it to a travel mug before the favorite ceramic Cafe Du Monde mug I've been using for decades.
I'm looking forward to the rain we're supposed to have tomorrow too. We've been in a dreadful heatwave the past week and it saps all the energy out of me. It'll be nice once things cool down.
This post is a reminder to myself to stay true to all the small rituals that keep me feeling me, and when I'm not feeling good, make a list of all the things I haven't done. If I'm feeling anxious, or depressed, and I find that I haven't listened to music, or played guitar, or read for hours, then I know why I'm feeling bad.
2026-04-19 03:24:00
To premise this, and what started this; I got laser on my wiener, balls and butthole a little while back.
Never have I known such smoothness.
It was beautiful.
The first shower was almost pornographic.
The first poop only took 2 or 3 wipes.
But I needed a way to get my balls not to stick to my legs. So I bought a thong and a jockstrap.
The thong was comfortable, but I looked like a jackass wearing it. I am not an underwear model, but a normal man. My profile was as if an uncooked roll of biscuit-dough was wearing a thong.
The jock is great, and keeps everything from sticking. After getting used to it, I have an appreciation for these things now.
It also leaves my whole ass exposed to the elements, Mike Tyson style.
Not a fart is silenced; nor a piss-drop uncollected.
Honestly, it makes me feel a bit more confident with the way I look. Even after giving up on laser and growing my hair back, the jock keeps everything in check; like a guardian angel cupping my balls, and scooping my butt cheeks.
Thanks, strangely-fetishy yet utilitarian underwear.
I've been running the D&D campaign "Curse of Strahd" for around 4 months now. This is my first serious time DM-ing for a long term campaign, so I've learned a lot along the way.
Context: Strahd is a vampire, he rules the land that the story takes place, and lives in a big ol' castle. Everything is gloomy/bloodborne-esq., and I have Strahd act like a arrogant chud to encourage player hatred of him.
We have a party of 6 people who all gather on discord. I don't do a lot of prep for visuals, like minis and maps, so the majority of the campaign has been theater of the mind.
Besides making sure everyone has their turn in the spotlight, and preparing some semblance of encounters for the week, it's fairly easy to DM. Though, I kind of dislike the theme of Curse of Strahd, because so it's dark and gritty.
Notable player moments:
I've done a few one-shots as well. I much prefer doing a homebrew campaign because of the dumb horseshit I can put in for no reason. It was a good way of recognizing what I need to do in my main campaign to maintain novelty.
Also rolling for dick length was cool. Everyone rolled way above average wieners. Smallest dick so far was a 5-incher on a priest NPC.
Largest dicks are Strahd (nat 20-incher), and a player (19-incher).
2026-04-19 03:06:55
It's really just been 4 years of "you're going to lose your job" "have fun starving" "you're obsolete" "you're gonna die if you don't buy into it" Maybe it's because I'm new to the adult world, but it's the first time I see something pushed so hard with basically no >prestence of goodwill, it's just threats.
a comment* on the tech report video.
this is so true! the discourse is so hostile, nothing about AI development has been positive. the AI itself can be useful -- i am talking about its presentation. in my company, people are fearing being left out. we are in a collective abusive relationship with sam altman and dario that we (esp if you work in tech) cannot escape.
why are the tech ceo's fear monger so much? is it because they have not, in 2026, still defined what an AGI even is? you do not fear monger if you are offering a product that will improve people's lifes.
i am so turned off by their hostility and i think this is an illuminating insight into the group psychosis that we are now in. dude.
i do not mention the person's username on purpose to preserve anonymity. this is how i would have wanted my anon comment on a public forum to be handled.
2026-04-19 00:16:00
today at the library, a man was wearing my hat. i should clarify: he wasnt wearing the same hat as me; he was wearing The same hat, as in, my hat - a hat i had lost three years ago. the hat was a blue and red hat from the 1980s, a hat they sometimes call "a cap", and on the front of the hat was a german word, the german word being "Budweizer", which in english translates to mean "tub of wheat", and the hat, i always wore the hat because it suited the shape of my head, it still would suit it today, and i saw that my hat was still encrusted with the same white crystals, crystals of ocean spray, spray from the time i slept on the beach pontoon, the time i woke wet and red raw, salt all over my hat, and so it was clear that this man was not only a thief, he was also a slouch, a slouch too lazy to wash the salt off my hat, and so it was clear even more, this man was not only a slouch in hat keeping, he was a slouch in all areas of life, for if i were to describe the man in one word, i would say "unkempt", not just his clothes and beard but even the newspaper he was reading, it looked as if it he had found it in a puddle of road water and dried it on the roof of his shack, and then to describe the man in another word, i'd describe im as "old", he looked about 90 with a patchy white beard that looked as if pecked by birds, and the man, he looked so old and unkempt that i started to doubt my urge to go over and take my hat back, and just as i was coming to the decision that i had every right to so so, the man looked up and met my eye, and without even meaning to, i gave him a sharp look with the eyebrows as if to say "enjoying my fuckin hat?" and the man, he instantly looked down as if sad or ashamed, i don't know what, his bottom lip was shaking, and all i knew was that i had no desire to reclaim my hat any more. when i got home, i had the sudden worry: what if it wasnt my hat. i went through all fourteen of my bedroom drawers and then looked under my bed, and there covered in dust, was my hat, still with the same stains of salt. i couldnt come to any conclusion as to why it was here, but also, there. i just knew i had to change my lifestyle. i changed the sheets and washed every dish lying round in my room and put on a load of laundry, throwing in the hat.