2026-01-26 09:02:00
I recently read the wonderful "Don't Get Hung-up on Trending" by Becky. It addressed something that I've been thinking about for a while with my blog and the Discovery feed, and I wanted to add some thoughts of my own.
I mentioned in my post "On Being More Social" that I used to blog mainly with toasts disabled so my posts wouldn't show up on the Discovery feed. I did this for a couple of reasons.
First, I felt that I was writing mostly for myself, and my posts were centered on my personal life and things I enjoy. A lot of the posts I was seeing on the feed were about blogging or webweaving or tech or things like that, and I was over here writing about point-and-click adventure games and concerts I attended. I didn't think anyone on Bear would be interested in my online journal (even though I like reading about other bloggers' interests and life adventures).
Second, the Discovery feed had one of the things I was trying to get away from on social media: "likes" and the idea of "trending." I was tired of connecting my personal value with a number or with how visible I was in online spaces. I wanted a place of my own to practice web design and do the thing I love most (writing), and while I did want to meet like-minded people, I couldn't help but have a desire to hide because social media had worn me down.
I'm still not really sure how I feel about the toasts feature or having likes on blog posts in general. The Discovery feed has undoubtedly been a nice way to discover fellow bloggers whose writing I really enjoy, but on the other hand, having a like button is giving me that same niggling feeling that Twitter or Instagram did, that my worth correlates to a number ticking up.
And, to be brutally honest, I've run across some trending posts on the Discovery feed that I'd rather not have seen. I like that we have the ability to hide certain blogs, at least.
Regardless, Becky's post gave me comfort and reminded me that a like is nothing but a click of a button. What truly matters are the connections we make through being our genuine selves, and realizing that as long as we continue doing what makes us happy while keeping in mind that we are part of a community, other people will be there for it.
If you're watching what's happening in Minneapolis right now with horror and disgust, as you should be, please consider donating to one of the following organizations that are in the thick of it:
Midwest Immigration Bond Fund
National Immigration Law Center
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
North Star Health Collective
Leo Towing for ICE Victims
Women's Foundation of Minnesota
2026-01-26 06:55:00
If you don't get it now, you never will.
If you saw the execution of Alex Pretti and found some way to excuse the actions of ICE, you aren't a "free thinker", your take isn't "nuanced". You're at best slow, and at worse evil. The video makes it clear. He was disarmed, beaten, outnumbered, and executed.
I would call these masked thugs the Gestapo, but the Gestapo at least had the decency to only shoot a man once.
No state apparatus should have free reign to execute civilians, let alone extrajudicially.
Pretti wasn't a domestic terrorist, he was VA nurse. He was lawfully carrying.
I don't give a shit what excuse you give. Any excuse to dismiss the heinous actions perpetrated by ICE proves you are nothing more than a bootlicker.
There is no point in debating, there is no point in arguing.
If you are going to continue to defend this administration even after they tried to hide the Epstein files, after they destroyed any trust with our allies in Europe over Greenland, after raping Venezuela for their oil, after ICE, and now after this. There is no hope for you.
If you see all the Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Socialist, all protesting the actions of this administration in Minneapolis and still back Trump and his goons. You are lost.
This is the last blog post I'm making on the subject. Because if you haven't figured out by now how wrong all of this is,
You never will.
2026-01-26 04:46:00
I used to lurk a lot, mainly on twitch streams, I remember feeling like my comment wouldn't have any value, so why even say anything in the first place? But aside from streams with so many people that you can't read anything, the streamer can benefit from your comment, as well as you can benefit from their reaction to it (for example correcting something you said, answering a question, making a good joke about it). Surely that are a lot of trolls, ragebaiters and people who just want to bring the other one down, but just as well as someone can ruin their day, you can also brighten it up. You can say something funny or give some advice that helps them in some way, bringing more interaction towards the stream, everyone wins, or just be there, chilling, but present.
I see a reflection of that on bear. There's ragebait and bots, but there are also great posts that can actually help you in life, in the sense of reflections that you can relate to, or use it to see things more clearly, or "cozy" posts that bring a calmness to your day, like posts with nature pictures, or pictures of cats being silly and sleeping comfortably, or encouraging posts, they can all help you slow down your thoughts during a moment of stress or anxiety. There's also lessons and advice from people who have been through a bad (or good) experience or simply learned a better way to do something.
When I first started using bear I was just a lurker, I didn't think anything I could write could be like any of the above, but doing it made me feel better, brought me more mind clarity and is improving both my writing skills and creativity. It also lead to me connecting to other bloggers I like, and the interactions via email which have been recommended by a lot of bloggers do truly feel more meaningful.
So if you've been lurking, or have some draft that you're unsure of, I would appreciate if you published it, no matter if it has grammar mistakes, typos, or you feel like the post isn't "good enough", I want to read it! Even if it's just your thoughts (not even not thinking about anything is an excuse, you can put that on a post and elaborate from there). If you do, please email me the link, I would truly love to read it.
2026-01-25 23:03:48
We live in an age where everything demands a response. Immediately. Publicly. With conviction.
Silence is suspicious. Hesitation looks like weakness. And not having an opinion is almost offensive.
Which is odd, considering how many opinions we already have and how little they seem to help.
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Most of us don’t suffer from a lack of information. We suffer from an excess of reaction.
We react to news we barely understand, to people we barely know, to thoughts that appeared in our head five seconds ago and somehow already feel like our personality.
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What if the problem isn’t what we think, but how quickly we think it must be expressed?
Karl Popper once suggested that certainty is often the enemy of truth. Camus reminded us that the world is absurd enough without us trying to straighten it by force. And Jung quietly warned that what we refuse to see in ourselves has an annoying tendency to show up everywhere else.
None of them suggested yelling.
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There is a strangely radical idea making a quiet comeback: pause.
Not to withdraw from the world, but to meet it without immediately rearranging it.
To notice irritation without turning it into a post. To feel desire without mistaking it for an obligation. To encounter beauty without trying to own it. To sit with discomfort without upgrading it into outrage.
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This is not about becoming passive. It’s about becoming precise.
Reacting less does not mean caring less. Often, it means caring better.
Listening before replying. Allowing uncertainty. Accepting that the other person might be wrong — and still human.
A shockingly underused combination.
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In a culture that rewards speed, slowness looks suspicious.
In a culture that worships identity, changing your mind looks like betrayal.
But maybe maturity is simply the ability to hold an experience without immediately turning it into a statement.
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We don’t need better slogans. We need better attention.
We don’t need louder voices. We need more space between impulse and action.
And no — this will not save the world overnight. But it might prevent us from making it worse before breakfast.
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If there is a quiet form of responsibility left, it might be this:
To react a little less. To listen a little more. To take ourselves slightly less seriously without taking life any less seriously.
Which, given the current state of things, would already be a significant improvement
2026-01-25 19:37:00
Lately I’ve been experimenting with making a new ultra-minimal theme for my blog. I’ve also been doing some writing in Swedish, and played with the idea of starting a blog in Swedish.
All this seems familiar somehow. Like I’ve seen it somewhere before. Ah, right, it’s the pattern that comes right before I delete my blog.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve done it in the past. And not once have I been able to give a true answer to why I’ve done it. Not because I’m hiding it, but because I really don’t know.
I have answers and explanations each time, both to myself and others, but they never really feel honest, not even to myself. It’s just something I come up with. Something that could be true, something that makes sense, because a why needs a because.
I’ve been giving it a lot of thought over the last couple of days. Trying to find the real answer, and maybe this is it:
Believing and expecting blogging to be something it’s not. A substitute for something missing, or an escape from something that hasn’t been given the attention it deserves. An escape and a longing for home at the same time, in all its contradictions.
Or maybe it’s just me overanalyzing things. Again.
One positive development in the midst of it all, though, is that I haven’t hit “Delete” on this blog yet. Hooray for that!
Will it last? No idea.
2026-01-25 18:13:00
A lamp is always nice.
Hello, again. It has been a while. I haven't published anything on this blog page I have for quite a long time. I don't know exactly why and I particularly don't care to figure it out or explain. But I am back? More than ever before.
So, the plan is as follows. I will be publishing one blog post that I have written in the morning of each day, hence the name Dawn notes. I have done this before, but in paper form in my own notebook, oh and I did try to start something similar more than a year ago, with The Dawn Circuit. But that didn't go anywhere.
So, I am starting this daily section of this blog with this post. What will I write here? Depends on whether I have something to talk about, or an idea I want to share, maybe progress on some projects. I will let the writing speak for itself. But I will also keep these relatively short. I think at least.
Well, yes. But also why not now? I can decide to do anything at any time. I can start practicing whatever I want, whenever I want. And waiting for a new year is quite a long procrastination period. So, you as well! Start doing the thing you've wanted to attempt before! See where it leads you. It might suck. But from that you can learn and become better.
Sure, this can be a section. I have written a first manuscript (I think that's what you call them) of a short story, my first "serious" text. I think it turned out great, but that is me speaking, while I haven't read it through after finishing. I did share it with my girlfriend, and she will definitely give feedback. Then it is editing, and showing more people and editing some more. In parallel I want to write a few other stories, that are related to this one. The premise is really cool. I have had these dreams about a place, that I am trying to describe with the stories. Yeah, so maybe the plan is to have a collection of short stories. But first let's see if the first one is any good.
I might be right. Okay maybe this is it for the inaugural episode. I will see you tomorrow. Damn it, my tea got lukewarm.
P.S. I will probably change the look of this page soon enough, I want a more Serif font.