Notes for July 18, 2026

Online Friends Are Real Friends via Absurd Pirate

For my whole life, there was always this stigma towards online friends, honestly just people online in general. Having more friends online than real life seemed like a trait a complete loser would have. While I think that stigma still exists, it exists to a lesser extent. Especially with younger generations who spend a lot of time online.

I remember those days of people cringing from a mile away when you said you "met someone online" lol it's definitely changed a lot, and I agree people's perspectives on "online friends" has too.

I've got friends all over the world, and I think that's beautiful. My friends from Germany, Austr(al)ia, the South, Hong Kong, or Italy are just as real to me as any of my other friends. I value all of them because they're all lovely people.

That's is what's beautiful about the internet. Sure, there are terrible places here too, but someone from a couple generations ago never could've imagined the luxury of being able to meet people from all different cultures and backgrounds, anywhere on Earth from a little rectangle in your pocket. Especially when you live somewhere that's hard to find likeminded people, or if you're stuck at some dumb ass job all the time to survive. Online friends keep me sane, and that's worth something.

i don't want to be defined by only one thing via RNOTTÉ Animation

and neither should we be defined by what we do for work. i like that i discuss a variety of things on my own blog. i like various art forms, retro computers, the indie web, flower photos, and cute things. sure, i bring up my music video animation business every now and then on this blog, but that doesn't mean that's all i want to talk about.

So many people let their jobs define them. That's one thing I hate about working in sales. Every sales manager tells you to "always be selling; tell people who you are and what you do!" as if your entire life revolves around work.

That's also one reason I quit trying to make a niche blog and got into personal blogging. That's why I loved Tumblr so much back in the day, too — it's this scrapbook of things you saw and said "hm. That's neat" so you reblogged it. Added it to the collection. Regular blogging can be that way too. Talk about what you wanna talk about and don't worry about cramming yourself into a box ❤️

I sketched out a joke about doomscrolling via JetGirlArt

I Spent an Hour Learning Who DHH Is. That Was Enough. via Ewan’s Blog

Tl;dr Omarchy is racist Linux

Local Home Depot's Sign Change Upsets Customers

In related news: there are a lot of loudmouth dipshits like the Omarchy guy living in Michigan. It hurts no one to add an extra language to store signage. Especially when so many of the locals speak it.

7 Reasons Why Standard Reader Is My Choice via mochott

It is the Google Reader of the ATmosphere network. If the classic Google Reader read syndication feeds based on the W3C Atom standard and the old RSS format, Standard Reader reads and displays Standard Site data.

When I wrote my post about the Atmosphere yesterday, this didn't even dawn on me. It's so true though. Back when Google Reader was at its prime, most RSS feeds looked great. Nowadays, almost every commercial website on my feed is just a short, one sentence summary and a link to read more. Or sometimes there's no content at all, just a link to the article and some garbled social media links and blank bullet points. Every personal blog lets you fetch the full feed, and it's the same with sites on ATProto. The irony is that with most blogs, I'd actually rather read it on the website to see the author's style. Standard Reader lets you set things up that way, if you prefer.