Matt Ficke

@mattficke

Handyman DC, he/him

454 Folgt935 Follower3.548 Posts

Bluesky

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Matt Ficke@mattficke· 11d

That turns out to be pretty close to the ideal focal length for the stuff I shoot, but yeah it’s a bit of a weird camera. I love it, though.

A child wearing a pink parka and sunglasses while dancing. Shot with a Ricoh GR III

The US Capitol. Shot with a Ricoh GR III

Me and my kid. Shot with a Ricoh GR III.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· 13d

Yeah there’s a bit of a feeling of “welp, that didn’t work” in reading Federalist 51 with the benefit of hindsight

importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a commo interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure. There are but two methods of providing against this evil: the one by creating a will in the community independent of the majority that is, of the society itself; the other, by comprehending in the society so many separate descriptions of citizens as will render an unjust combination of a majority of the whole very improbable, if not impracticable. The first method prevails in all governments possessing an hereditary or self-appointed authority. This, at best, is but a precarious security; because a power independent of the society may as well espouse the unjust views of the major, as the rightful interests of the minor party, and may possibly be turned against both parties. The second method will be exemplified in the federal republic of the United States. Whilst all authority in it will be derived from and dependent on the society, the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· 14d

Losing it at the way “assless” is front and center for 1984

1984 neologisms, “assless” prominently displayed on its own line

Matt Ficke@mattficke· 22d

Tangential but this reminds me of a New Orleans-themed cafe I went to in Paris, which was so dedicated to authenticity that they translated “laissez les bons temps rouler” into English. It was very funny seeing centuries of cultural diffusion represented in one line on a chalkboard.

A chalkboard menu at “Po Boy Café” in Paris, which says “Let the good times roll” in English. In New Orleans this would typically be written in French as “laissez les bons temps rouler”.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· 26d

[DMX voice]

A children’s book titled “DIG, DUMP, ROLL”

Matt Ficke@mattficke· 28d

The statue outside of the FTC building downtown is one of my favorite examples of this phenomenon

“Man Controlling Trade” by Michael Lantz. A shirtless, muscular man is wrestling with a muscular horse. It looks like something made by Tom of Finland.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· 28d

This whole story is very funny. Also this guy feels like he belongs in a Safdie Brothers movie.

The books are roughly organized by topic: sports, eccentric geniuses, famous bridges, alcohol, the Chesapeake Bay. These are topics that interest the eccentric Mr. Johns, who has a view of that bay from the well-stocked tiki bar he built in his backyard. It features a large-screen television, ideal for watching sporting events.

Bill Johns, at his home on the Chesapeake Bay, got hooked on making books with A.I. after he retired. Actually writing a book is a "romantic" notion, he says, "but it doesn't make economic sense." Kyle Myles for The New York Times

Matt Ficke@mattficke· Jul 6

Ethan Hawke putting on an explosive vest in FIRST REFORMED

Matt Ficke@mattficke· Jul 1

Taking the EO at face value (lol), it attempted to require at least one parent to have a green card or be a citizen for a child born here to also be a citizen, not retroactively. Permanent status would become the main lever to control citizenship going forward, hence all the nonsense on that front.

Sec. 2. Policy. (a) It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons: (1) when that person's mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person's father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth, or (2) when that person's mother's presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person's father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth.
(b) Subsection (a) of this section shall apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· Jun 24

Whoops. First time making that mistake. I’m seeing this as a sign to take a break.

A California patch for drywall where I’ve mistakenly peeled away the front paper instead of the back paper.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· Jun 20

Thank you for reminding me of this @guan.dk banger.

guan tweet: “You don't "miss Jiang Zemin". You miss being in your 20s.”

Matt Ficke@mattficke· Jun 9

“Former Chicago resident”

Matt Ficke@mattficke· May 27

There’s something similar in JK Rowling’s big TERF essay from 2020 that I think explains a lot of her behavior. www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k...

The writings of young trans men reveal a group of notably sensitive and clever people. The more of their accounts of gender dysphoria l've read, with their insightful descriptions of anxiety, dissociation, eating disorders, self-harm and self-hatred, the more I've wondered whether, if I'd been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. I struggled with severe OCD as a teenager. If I'd found community and sympathy online that I couldn't find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he'd have preferred.
When I read about the theory of gender identity, I remember how mentally sexless I felt in youth. I remember Colette's description of herself as a 'mental hermaphrodite' and Simone de Beauvoir's words: 'It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex.
The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is rather to understand why she accepts them.'

As I didn't have a realistic possibility of becoming a man back in the 1980s, it had to be books and music that got me through both my mental health issues and the sexualised scrutiny and judgement that sets so many girls to war against their bodies in their teens. Fortunately for me, I found my own sense of otherness, and my ambivalence about being a woman, reflected in the work of female writers and musicians who reassured me that, in spite of everything a sexist world tries to throw at the female-bodied, it's fine not to feel pink, frilly and compliant inside your own head; it's OK to feel confused, dark, both sexual and non-sexual, unsure of what or who you are.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· May 5

I’m partial to “the Shadow”, after T.S. Eliot in The Hollow Men.

Between the idea And the reality
Between the motion And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the
Kingdom
Between the conception And the creation
Between the emotion And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire And the spasm
Between the potency And the existence
Between the essence And the descent
Falls the Shadow

Matt Ficke@mattficke· Apr 18

The Odd Lots episode where he was on with SBF is a classic example of this

Matt: (27:13)
I think of myself as like a fairly cynical person. And that was so much more cynical than how I would've described farming. You're just like, well, I'm in the Ponzi business and it's pretty good.

Matt Ficke@mattficke· Apr 13

The questions are a little more specific than that, they’re mostly about actual behavior. When they ask about subjective mental state it’s whether they worried they’d run out of food, not about food costs more generally.