Erik Harris

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. From Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Aside from the seeming departure from isolationism on the populist right, what the heck is "practitioners of the 9/11 generation" supposed to mean? One isn't a practitioner of being alive during an event.

"Biology is a shitshow. Please be kind to people."

A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #675,655, Erik Harris ‪@erikharris.bsky.social‬, joined on Aug 22, 2023"

Bluesky's now has over 10 million users, and I was #675,655! I'm surprised my number isn't a whole lot larger than this. I was a latecomer in the "invite only" days, just waiting around while others worked really hard to secure invites from others.

Zhanna, a small mackerel tabby cat, sitting on a scratching board

Our cats get treats if they scratch on the scratching board. Zhanna is lovely, but not so bright. She's figured out that the board is the key to getting delicious treats, but NOT that she only gets treats when scratching.

She spends a LOT of time sitting like this, looking expectantly at us!

Who ever would have guessed?

Myshko is determined to catch the Windows Update circle! #CatsofBluesky #mischief

Zhanna and Myshko (two cats) sitting on my lap

At this point, I'm basically just a piece of furniture. I took this picture 15 minutes ago, but they're both still there. It's not very comfortable (for me), but I do feel awfully loved! #caturday

Erik changing a power outlet, with two cats, Myshko and Zhanna, pawing the outlet as it goes into the wall.

Clearly I needed help replacing the power outlet, even if I didn't realize it!

Zhanna, a mackerel tabby cat, lying on my lap, with all four paws in a row, showing off her pink and black toe beans

Pawpawpawpaw!
Zhanna is slowly becoming more of a lap cat, and on Sunday, she was showing off all of her pink-n-black toe beans!

Myshko, a white and orange cat, sleeping on (human) Erik's lap, lying on his back with his chin exposed, and his teeth partially showing.

Myshko, sound asleep in my lap this evening

Thanks, good to know. I was referring to people being able to join, though, not have replies seen. Lots of bots, but real people wait for months before they can get accounts.

BlueSky is off to an auspicious start. I only had a single seed post on my account, and I'm getting all sorts of follows from random bots. So much for the invite model limiting that. It seems to only limit actual human participation!

Just a seed post for my new account (a week or so after creating it)... Still not sure the sky is bluer on this side, as compared to Firefish (or Mastodon; i.e. something Fediverse-accessible, not stuck with a single site, opening us to the same problem we see now on Twitter)