mathw

mathw

@mathw.bsky.social

Programmer, linocut printmaker, aikidoka, early and folk musician, cat person, he/him

151 followers114 following391 posts

Wonderful, wonderful gig seeing Leveret on their all request tour last night. Every tune I requested got played, too! In all of what is going on in the world today it's still important to sit back and bask in art for a while.

mathw reposted

Yeah, I've been a tech nerd for decades but all the "AI" stuff really does feel like "Sooooo we're taking a type of computation that's actually bad at most things and putting it in a whole bunch of stuff to make it work worse because... if we don't the whole economy's going to crash or something?"

Chris Kluwe, adjudicated poaster@chriswarcraft.bsky.social

I like to consider myself an “enthusiastic tech realist,” and currently we’re being sold magic beans

I have never before been so happy to hear the sound of rain. Not much rain but at least the world still remembers how to do it. It smells glorious.

Fire services all over saying don't have fires be careful with cigarettes etc. etc. and someone near me decided to have a fireworks display last night. It just takes one spark right now! Aaaargh.

It's far too hot for late night loud music. We cannot shut our windows! If they don't stop at 11 they will officially be deemed inconsiderate.

The idea that you can resign as MP and then stand in your own by-election is just bizarre. Almost as bizarre as Farage thinking it's a good strategy.

mathw reposted

Replying to @scalzi.com

Anyway, support actual human artists and creators because they need to eat, and Sam Altman, Elon Musk and everyone else profiting from the wholesale theft of creative work to churn out "AI" nonsense already have too much money

Still don't really understand what Farage thought he was going to get out of this stunt. It wasn't an election campaign with Count Binface as his only challenger I am very sure. The universe where Count Binface wins is going to have a me in it who's incapacitated with laughter for at least a week.

mathw reposted

still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them

It's pretty awesome watching live things from the Artemis 2 crew conducting observations as they fly around the moon. It's a shame we can't seem to do this cool stuff without also completely ruining everything here on Earth over and over and over again.

mathw reposted

This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew. Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right. Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman

Things I did not expect to use my aikido training for: holding a cat so I can administer eyedrops for her conjunctivitis. She doesn't seem too upset yet but we're only two doses into a week long course...

I am of course not using joint locks and things on my cat! It's just realising how to keep her in place without hurting her and that this knowledge comes from 18 years manipulating my weight to disadvantage other humans at the dojo.

mathw reposted

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Oh another awful Conservative MP defects to Reform. I thought they were promising change and good things not a reheated version of what the Tories foisted on us while Braverman was in the Cabinet. I mean obviously Reform's plans are nuts, but they surely need to at least claim to not be Tories.

I know snow isn't common where I live but if people could just use a little bit of their brain and realise their van wheels are spinning because low gear and high revs is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing that would be great.

It would be really great if more people remembered the thing about driving in the rain and stopping distances and occasionally pondered just how bloody dangerous motorways can be.

mathw reposted

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised but our right-wing press chastising the PM for not backing Trump's warmongering is utterly bizarre. I hope Starmer doesn't listen to them. I hope he's a better man than that.

Quite impressed with how confusing and difficult cancelling a car insurance renewal with Admiral is. If you wanted to make something incredibly annoying that doesn't quite block the user from doing what they want, take inspiration from it.

Next layer on my #linocut! Pondering where to go from this point. One thing I love about reduction prints is the ability to change direction a bit at every single stage. I could even not cut anything and just add more inking for the next layer if I wanted! I don't think I'm going to do that though.

Lovely to discover this feed with some excellent, thoughtful and inspiring work on it in many forms of print. Really feeling like these custom feeds are BlueSky's absolute killer feature.

Jenie Gao@jeniegao.bsky.social

PrintSky is one of my favorite feeds to maintain. I've found many cool artists and love seeing the #printmaking community grow here. The feed searches for a lot of print-related terms and filters out AI. You can also use #printsky to be featured. Follow and enjoy the work of great printmakers!

This block nearly ready to be printed. Hopefully this fine gentleman will print nice and cleanly. For some reason I'm always more nervous printing black than if I'm doing a layer in a reduction print. #linocut #reliefprint #workinprogress

Printing with a very thin layer of Payne's Grey relief ink today. A different effect to mixing with extender. This little experimental #linocut is nearly done!

mathw reposted

1000 women's voices is building up nicely! But we have room for more! Do you know any women who speak another language? Please send me a recording of them saying "A Thousand Women's Voices" in their language! Please send to 1000womensvoices@gmail. Thank you! Gracias! Merci! Tak! Diolch! Hvala!

Changing the foreground design for my current little #linocut with the aid of a red Chinagraph pencil. Can't get the original Indian ink marks off the block, so I just have to go over them with something I can tune in to while I'm cutting. Speaking of which, bring out the gouges!

I realised I didn't post this print to BlueSky when I finished it. An imaginary landscape, just trying to ease myself back into finishing prints rather than ditching them halfway through in disgust. Reduction #linocut in oil based inks (Hawthorn and Cranfield) on Fabriano Rosaspina.