iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A standard thing that one learns in communications is that when baby food was introduced to people in Africa, they were horrified. With low literacy rates, they counted on labels to show the contents of the container, and those containers showed babies!

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The washing machine at our old apartment had three load settings: Extra Small, Medium, and Extra Large. I think about that every once in a while. What was the string of decisions to make those labels? And why did Medium get left out of being Extra?

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is an extension of the larger project to convince people that voting is a permanent power transaction rather than a temporary delegation. Politics in the West (or North) would look vastly different with a reassertion of this tenet: people only lend their power; they never yield it.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I hope Cornell University is getting absolutely blasted by all their alumni right now. The university knew, and swept it under the rug. This revelation taints every single degree that that university has granted. What else do they know? What else are they ignoring? What else are they covering up?

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

One silver lining: populism only works when it's popular.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I grew up in a time and place where elections were scary. Literally, we'd make plans to be out of that country every time election time rolled around. It's not as scary in Canada yet, but it there is mounting tension. Right-wing fear-mongering and outrage politics are having a pronounced effect.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The average podcast guest: Everyone laughed at me, and said it couldn't be done! Narrator: Actually nobody cared or even noticed until said person did something they found meaningful.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The Affinity app now includes a blend tool. That's been one significant feature that it's been missing. It's surprisingly useful for all kinds of design functions, and I'm glad they added it.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

When I was in my 20s, I was in an audience where the speaker was giving career advice. He asked how many people were doing job that didn't exist when their parents were their age. In that room ~30yrs ago, it was about 40%. What would it be now?

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

All the news organisations in the world have unlimited access to platforms they could use to teach their audiences about journalistic ethics and best practices in record time. But they haven't been doing that, despite all the ways that their credibility is being trashed. So...why not?

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A thorny irony to navigate is that if people do not perceive an individual to be safe, they will not disclose their pain to the invidual. So the individual is left to assume their pain doesn't exist. While safe people are increasingly, inescapably aware of unfathomable pain. So the chasm grows.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I just knew if I clattered and banged loudly enough, for long enough, I'd be able to find some cough candies in my desk. (Apparently it's that time of year again, already.)

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I started Oblique Media with the intention to diagonalise some problems that felt too head-on. I've since realised that our current problems are already diagonalised. "I thought I'd work my mojo to counter their mojo, we got cross-mojonation, and their heads starting exploding, y'know..."

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

North America's so-called left has been relatively stable, while the right has adopted an array of untenably extreme positions. Their ideas resonate ("We're losing control!"), but they scrambled the details so thoroughly that the people they trusted to fix everything have made everything worse.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Particularly this season, but also in general, Reacher is terrible. Like, on every level. Technical? Writing? Pacing? The entire premise? All bad. Any popularity it achieves is an indictment on our culture's lack of appreciation for quality, competence and taste.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Watching how people have responded to the soaring prices of computer parts, and our relationship to the power of tech companies, cyberpunk is no longer just an aesthetic -- it is our current reality.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I use Fox-It to view pdf files, so I don't know if this applies to other pdf readers. If you go to files -> properties, the software will show all the fonts contained in the pdf. I discovered this with a search that landed me on a Reddit thread. I'm not on Reddit, so thanks to Slyck1677 for this!

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Someone recently said that the primary thing modernism offered was stability. In reality, modernism's illusion of stability came at a cost that postmodernism is just starting to contend with. Outside of the superpowers and their allies, modernism rendered people's lives very unstable.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The inclination to glaze someone as soon as they die is weird. The inclination to take cheap shots at people who are doing that as part of their grieving process is weird. I don't know, just, people are weird.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

"The changes you're asking for require sweeping systemic change, so they're impossible." -- people who don't yet begun to grasp how much systemic change is urgently needed.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Which is more serious: corruption or stupidity? On any given day, it's really hard to know.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

When people are getting juice out of contrarianism, you can't solve anything by addressing their supposed grievances.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I've reached the age where I'm happy when I forget that I'm wearing my reading glasses up on my forehead, but hey! there they are, right when I need them! I never thought I'd live this long.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

In this era, fringe extremes can become mainstream rapidly when their narratives intersect with new information, especially when it presents from within a crisis. And seeing as we are living in the polycrisis, that particular box is perpetually checked.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I just saw an artist here on Bluesky trying to use his account to get a rise out of anyone left of Adolf Hitler, complaining that there's no engagement on this platform. This is the way.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Google's credibility just took another big hit with the whole renaming Lake Ontario bit. I wasn't sure it could go lower at this point, but, leave it to Google -- those people found a way.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Using genAI to create even the most tedious document is dangerous because it doesn't see the contextual connections that are inferred, or understand what things need to be consistent, and which are variable. It is algorithmically predicting, and synthesising. It is not thinking.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I've been disconnected from some aspects of pop culture over the years, and I'm playing catch-up. The intro sequence to Westworld (2016) is like a horror short all on its own. Wow! And yikes!

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The entire schtick of the right is to claim to be opposed to ideology, yet what it determines to be ideological is identified on purely ideological grounds. This phenomenon I watched develop over several years on Twitter as a quirk of self-unawareness has now swept through it as a mandate.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Back when Twitter was (mostly) fun, I remember seeing an opinion expressed that Europe was subject to abject tyranny because of its many rules and regulations. It speaks to the fantasy that, given freedom, people will consistently make ethical choices. Sadly, we don't live in that fantasy.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

As AI companies gobble up all the computer hardware, software developers are going to face increasing pressure to make their code run faster and lighter. This is going to be part of the current tech shake-up.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I've arrived at the age where I have to put on my reading glasses to pluck the hair growing out of my ears.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Way back in university, I remember being in a conversation where we started inventing phrases like "whatever floats your boat," just swapping in other special interests or hobbies. But "fill your boots" is an objectively strange way to express that. And "knock yourself out" is even weirder.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

In this article, Noah Davis describes the internet as it is now "frictionless surveillance" -- feels apt, and worthy of greater awareness and public intervention. webdesignerdepot.com/who-owns-the... We keep trading in our autonomy for convenience at our (individual and collective) peril.

webdesignerdepot.com

Who Owns the Web Now? Centralization vs. Decentralization in the Age of AI

The web isn’t just centralized—it’s now *thinking* for us. In the age of AI, a handful of companies don’t just own the platforms—they shape reality itself. If we don’t reclaim control soon, the future...

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

These days, when a photographer is asked for their camera settings, how often is the inquirer really just making sure the image is not AI? Probably a lot. Of course, I'm sure chatgpt can generate credible-sounding camera settings, so whatever.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

"The process of enclosure, of carrying out our activities within these private platforms, changes us, including how we relate to one another and the underlying purpose of those relations." -- Naomi Klein, Doppelganger

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Masters of the Universe is the best movie of the summer. No, *you're* being sarcastic.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Recognising human rights is the most basic building-block of "love you neighbour as yourself."

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

In a democratic system, there won't be a meaningful intervention against climate change until it's obvious to the majority that it's a clear and present danger. When the sky is filled with smoke, that should be a legitimate, actionable sign.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I just heard a new-to-me term: "motivated reasoning" means to defend a pre-established conclusion rather than following evidence and logic to their natural conclusion.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Back on the bird site, I remember seeing a prominent evangelical influencer post: 'If you don't indoctrinate your kids, someone else will." This hints at two related truths. They don't know what words mean, and/or they *are* in favour of indoctrination. Which is worse? I'm not entirely sure.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

One inintended thing that a loud (or no) muffler does is reveal to all the people who can hear it just how little the driver knows about driving.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

People who talk about diversity pejoratively are telling the world that they're rigid thinkers, and they want to the world to conform to their ideas/ideals/ideology. In general, they want to map their identity onto their in-group, rather than allow their in-group to accommodate diversity.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I just watched an ad showing off the colour and resolution of a new TV. It reminded me of the DVD ads they used to put on VHS tapes.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I've arrived at the stage of life when a whole bunch of my joints crack every time I get up from the couch...but not all the ones I need to. Sigh.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I think we need to (re)build our society's understanding of the meaning (and value) of democracy. My whole life I've seen people warning about taking voting for granted -- your vote: use it or lose it -- and now that is a very real, pressing danger. What democracy fixed, we don't want to revisit.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Being for human dignity means being against all oppression. Many people have a serious disconnect here. They want a system that oppresses the people *they* think deserve it, and don't realise that this makes them effectively the same as the people they pit themselves against.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

People need to understand that democracy isn't a permanent decision to yield power. It's delegating power temporarily. Within democracy, you still have your power. If your power is taken away, then it's not democracy any more, and you should feel that deeply. That intent defies the social contract.

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Oblique Brad @obliquemedia.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

At a key point of the Cold War, soviet leaders visited the US and conceded that capitalism's standard of living was better than communism's. Now people in the US are learning that socialism's standard of living is better than capitalism's, and it's throwing the country into chaos.

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