Notices by Rachael Ludwick (r343l@freeradical.zone)

I was making a mental list of the things my partner and I both do (political, community aid, etc.) and realized it is a lot. It is supported by me working full time in a good tech job while having a major health issue that is poorly understood (along with mental health issues that come with it).

I say this not to brag, but finding things to do to make the world better help me cope with existential dread. If you feel afraid, find a way to do something.

Mariame Kaba over on Bluesky has been sharing this list of ways to take action that aren't protests or voting which I think is fabulous:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OSWxykA1WHOi0vTPLAJDaCeVhR3uSfh7PhlCj4t4yT0/edit?tab=t.0

I also recently read this article on how to get started on getting started! https://grouphug.substack.com/p/how-to-get-started-on-getting-started?utm_source=pocket_shared

Also The Urbanist (a Puget Sound based media outlet) had a great article on why tool libraries are great: https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/03/15/op-ed-your-city-needs-a-tool-library

There's so much to do. You can try one thing and then try other things if that doesn't work.

@ai6yr @skinnylatte it is a funny thing. while I've certainly rode my bike for recreational reasons, it's always been predominantly utility. I need to get somewhere. I ride my bike (or walk or take a bus). Even hauling a kid to the playground is really utility. No one would describe driving a kid in a car to a park across town so they can go to a class as "recreational driving".

#monsterdon I love that the cat keeps disrupting breakfast table.

@skinnylatte Kind of dark to think Seattle downtown is closer to folks imagined form of a vibrant west coast downtown because it's also quite bleak in many ways.

My House representative is now using a new captcha that is wildly inaccessible. I literally had to ask for help to use it because I refuse to use hCaptcha and the images were indecipherable to me and the text "challenge" was incomprehesible. This captcha is now used for Rep. Smith's subscribe to email form, survey forms and to send comments form! #accessibility

Yes I wrote up substantial alt text because just WTF is up with this nonsense?!

Re last boost, I can't seemingly use download and transfer via USB right now. So, uh, glad I had already decided we aren't getting anymore ebooks from Kindle. https://freeradical.zone/@r343l/113994212097432170

#Monsterdon OMG. They are ansurdly making a reboot movie and Idris Elba is Man-at-Arms. What. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_the_Universe_(2026_film)

#Monsterdon Correction on previous toots: it's an enemies to lovers to enemies plot.

#Monsterdon Teela, woman-at-arms, has far better aim than any of the men present.

#Monsterdon Mysteriously Julie and He-Man can understand each other's speech. A thing I never questioned as a child but as an adult it is very stark in all scifi/fantasy media.

@tek Reports to ad team closed with no response. emails ignored.

@tek you have to wonder how many google engineers setting up a new laptop have literally used this source for their homebrew.

Gosh. What a leader to put on stage. https://toot.yosh.is/@yosh/113839712905012986

@tek @agiletortoise I had your action up as an example (along with some others) to figure out what I wanted for now. Lots of stuff I TRIED to coerce Apple Shortcuts & Notes into doing and always compromises or stuff I just had to live with. Also: so nice to be able to use a more readable font.

Thanks to @tek for recommending Drafts (https://getdrafts.com) several times because I now have a much more workable (for me) journaling system that fits my needs instead of just dealing with painful aspects of using Notes. I did some digging through "regular" journal tools and they all had major issues for me (usually privacy or usability issues or being too complicated for my journaling use cases which makes using Drafts extremely ironic).

@tek Shortcuts syntax and UI I usually find baffling and it often takes me so long to figure out how to do even simple things. But always glad to find programming tools for everyone built into computers these days since the trend is very much away from letting people do that.

@tek I am basically hacking together (duplicating & modifying existing actions) a workflow for me for a journal with it all archived off into monthly files and it is ... so much easier already? Also Apple should throw out Shortcuts and just hire these folks to making a working "visual programming tool". It has sooo many features.

@tek Sadly very fluent with javascript so it's fine. I imagine they picked it because so many folks know it well enough and likely easiest to embed in the app.

@tek Having gotten ceaselessly annoyed with Notes as a journal (and my hacky Shortcuts to make it more tolerable), I'm looking at Drafts. Which, unlike many other options includes sync via icloud by default and even has a default installed action for appending to a file in icloud drive (that is, aside from copying off of icloud drive, my "can I back this up under my control" requirement is easily met).