On Vi Hart

From Twitter, she's a

Mathemusician and Strategist.

They also link vihart.com, but it seems to be down right now (11/09/2022)

Vihart's youtube videos were some of my favorite early youtube finds.

From interesting and unique musical instruments and compositions, to cool math and paper projects, I always looked forward to whatever cool stuff I'd be introduced to next.

The way Vihart made math accessible and interesting and fun was always inspirational. Whenever I try tutoring or teaching, I try to make learning as effortless as watching their videos. I try to show students how things work and why they matter - ie. why they're cool - without the other person even realizing they're getting smarter as we speak.

I loved the early Doodling in Math Class series, I've got some braided snakes colorful sharpied on my childhood desk. Some of them even demonstrate dialectics in nature very well, though I had never heard that dialectics in middle school. And it's very cool to see videos still coming out (more rarely now), ten years later.

Tweets

The urgency of this article, I suppose, is this tweet from @vihartvihart

On the fall of twitter - Nov 9, 2022 (src)

I can't remember if I actually said this or if it weren't obvious enough, but yes I will be deleting my twitter.

First I gotta get my data archive, then confirm deactivation, then not touch anything for 30 days, and then eat a celebratory doublesnack

I've been trying out Mastodon and I like it, but who knows how things will shake out. mastodon.social/@vihart

I don't remember how long this account has been private, but it's basically been the same group of us for years (perhaps slowly shrinking). Private twitter is definitely best twitter, thank you for being part of it. I've had a better experience here than a lot of people.

I don't have any particular grievances with twitter, I just don't trust them with my data. I've worked in tech long enough to know how much data they have on all of us and what they could do with it if they wanted / if it were legal. And what money/lobbying could make legal.

Elon Musk is not afraid of using his money and influence in politics. Twitter will not be profitable through direct advertising or subscriptions, but he has every click, swipe, search, video play, and private message made by you, and celebrities, and political opponents.

If twitter were more important to my livelihood or social life or hobbies, maybe I'd weigh its benefit against the risk differently. As it is, for me, I'd like my data to be deleted as soon as I have the legal right to, and not risk future twitter/gov't policy changes.

I also want to delete all my twitter data for the sake of anyone notable who has ever sent me a really stupid private message. You may all sleep a little easier. In 31 days.

To be clear here: the future I see as most likely is one where Elon Musk uses his influence to erode privacy laws and prevent new ones from passing, so that he can make twitter actually profitable by leveraging personal data you don't even realize twitter can track about you.

Sure there's explicit data on twitter of concern. Like, what if your state gov't could use something you tweeted/dm'd about abortion to prosecute you or someone you know. But twitter can also know if you clicked on info about abortion, or paused to look as you were scrolling past

and use location data from your phone, and etc etc. Especially given Elon's tweet asking people to vote Republican in yesterday's US election, I've worked in tech policy long enough to know the kind of things Republican gov'ts partnered with Elon Musk would think of.

Game recs

My most played games, with hundreds of hours on record are Team Fortress 2 and Mountain. But I haven't played either in many years so let me put together a random list of more recent favs:

Hades: perfect roguelite

Celeste: perfect platformer

Hollow Knight: perfect metroidvania

Potionomics: it's new and has potions

Vampire Survivors: it's new, $5, and a single-stick twinstick

Moon Hunters: my go-to when friends stay over

Kingdom Two Crowns: I like it

Eastshade: yes

I have a special place in my heart for purely one-thumbstick gameplay. Maybe I am holding a beer, or petting a dog, or my wrist hurts. So that's why Vampire Survivors intrigues me. For one-thumbstick multiplayer arcade party time, Particle Mace is fun and little known.

I enjoy a deckbuilder, or something with the flavor of deckbuildery. Potionomics was extra fun for that reason. Also:

Inscryption is an excellent game in every way

Ooblets is cute farming pokemon deckbuilder

Iris and the Giant and also uh nope I forgot the names of all games

Sometimes I like a game where you type words out of letters real fast, or real slow. Bookworm Adventures is a beautiful classic. But I will play any game, even bad games, where I get to come up with funny words

Spellspire

Words for Evil

Highrise Heroes

God of Word

Alphabear

Something I like about slow spelling games is that they can instantly become co-op games, and people can get in on helping find good words at any time, without having to do gaming controls or commit to playing the entire game with you.

I've been hooked on twinsticks since the original Crimsonland, and have and will play anything 10tons ever makes.

index tags: Twitter, Backup

category tags: Modern Authors