December 2024 – HELLO, I'M SETH WERKHEISER

GARBAGE TRUCK JESUS

From ‘The Photos I Took in 2024 That I Liked‘ by photographer Dina Litovsky.

BENCH AND BUTTONDOWN

Well, Bench is back. Bought by another company, apparently.

I didn’t want to just download my data from them, because I heard it’s not a very “transportable” format, so I’m hooked back up with Bench at least until I can get my 2024 books settled and my taxes filed, then I’m out.

Also spoke with Buttondown today about moving Social Media Escape Club. I just wanna send emails, you know? Yes, I love the ability to embed video right to the site, and the audio functions, but Substack is very much social media these days, and it doesn’t make send to have Social Media Escape Club to exist on a social media platform.

MAYBE CENTRALIZED KINGDOMS OF POWER AND INFLUENCE AREN’T THE ANSWER

I wrote this almost a year ago, about how waiting for the tech-bro overlords to deliver us a better app isn’t the answer.

Why have we become compliant little pawns in all this?

Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?

And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.

I speak of this in regards of course to the creative community (artists, writers, photographers, bands) expecting something to be like early social media, so pure and good (read: let people click my links).

But everything requires jumping from platform to platform. Telling all your friends to sign up for this new thing, which is better than the other things, until the new thing turns out to be a dud, until another new thing comes along.

It’s Mastodon. No wait, Post. No, it’s Bluesky!

Going to a new restaurant in town doesn’t require that you sign up for a new account, you just go there and pay with your money.

This is how I equate email newsletters and websites.

Every smart phone ships with an email app and a web browser.

Yeah, but Seth, email is crazy, and nobody goes to websites anymore.

Okay, fine, admit defeat and bow to the rich tech megacorps – they’re surely the answer.

Or, we just go back to local scenes. Zines in the mail. Websites that we discover because our friend sends us a link, or we know the two people who run it.

Bring back directories, blogrolls, and webrings.

The allure of “everyone is on it” was a lie, made up of bots and people who didn’t care, but the platforms inflated everything to make you think they were on your side.

Buy a domain name. Set up an email list. Update your website.

It’s nearing 2025, and we’re tired of the platform game.

NIGHT WALK

A warm night with a bit of drizzle, perfect for walking around town and taking pictures with the NOMO Cam on my iPhone 14.

REMEMBER, NO ONE READS BLOGS IN 2024

If blogs are dead, explain this. I mean, someone is reading it, right? This isn’t some lead magnet, and I’m certainly not getting brand deals from it, but this is pretty cool.

Like, legit – I get maybe a few emails per year about anything I write. Nothing is moving any needle here, but… it is so delightful to be able to click back through 2020, during the pandemic, and see where the heck my head was at. And it’s been fun to mine some old photos from Flickr and put them on here, or unearth old text files I have on external harddrives and republish them here.

But remember, no one reads blogs anymore.

Have you seen what John Gruber is charging for ads on his blog?

My response to anyone who says “no one visits websites anymore,” is always “well, no one visits your website!”

BENCH GOES DARK

I used Bench to manage my books and take care of my taxes the last few years. They charged about $430/mo, too. Not cheap. And then I see they charged me $528 on December 24th, and today, three days later, they completely shut down.

Apparently I can download my data on Monday. Gee, thanks.

I swear, these online platforms are poison. Today I clicked around and talked to some people, and signed up for Wave. We’ll see how that goes.

Around the web:
Vancouver fintech company Bench Accounting announces sudden shutdown

“They still haven’t finished my books for the year. And I paid in advance.”

Long-time local tech startup, Bench, shuts down and lays off all its employees.

CHRISTMAS

The holidays ring different when you’re nearing your 50s, your parents are gone, and you’re single. To date I’ve had 48 Christmas mornings, as a child, a teenager, with a wife and girlfriends at various points in life. What an adventure, huh?

But that’s life. I probably don’t have 48 more Christmas mornings in me, but maybe 20 or so? That looks weird when I write it out, but that’s the reality. I guess 20 would be great, but shit happens. Maybe it’s only 10. Maybe this was my last Christmas. No one knows such things, I guess.

But today was a day, a cold Wednesday, overcast and grey. Tomorrow is a new day, but that’s about all I know at this point.

NIGHT WALKS

I love this time of year when it’s cold and drizzly, and finding the random bits of light to make a photo like this. I was out twice tonight, actually, but finally got something that I thought worked.

Doing my best to actually slow down my walking, too. It’s the holidays, the work is done, and there’s just no need to rush.