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Posted inBlog Post Posted in genresMisc. Thoughts & Brainspill

Burning Love

May 13, 2026

I know why some artists burn all their material near the ends of their lives.

I know when I go, I'm tempted to take everything with me. You see some sort of value in anything I did, you should given me some sort of good cheer for it, something I could take some satisfaction from in return, while I was alive. Otherwise, when I go, it goes.

Not that I'm thinking about checking out anytime soon. Or that I'll definitely delete everything before I do.

Perhaps feeling a bit unappreciated, though. I don't do much for anyone's approval other than my own, but enough shows of disinterest from the world at large do occasionally drag even the most self-sufficient of spirits down a bit. And lately, there've been a few.

And as I round the further corners of middle age, still feeling, rather more keenly than I'd prefer, the difficulty…

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Indieweb Movie Club May 2026 announcement: Network (1976)
Posted inSocial Technology Posted in genresBlog PostIndiewebMovie Reviews

Indieweb Movie Club May 2026 announcement: Network (1976)

May 3, 2026

Forgive the delay while I dithered whether to choose "Network" or subject you to a dizzying double-feature of "Resolution" and "The Endless", two little-known indie flicks (which I've only learned just this second were consecutive films from the same director and writer—do I know how to pick them, or what?) about desperate people traveling to remote locations in southern California where the time/space continuum doesn't work as expected.

I have decided to go with "Network", figuring mentioning the other two and leaving you to your own devices would be sufficient.

"Network" is my favorite movie, full stop.

This 1976 movie by Sidney Lumet ("12 Angry Men", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Serpico"), a pitch-black tragicomedy about a media conglomerate capitalizing on the unraveling mental health of one of its news anchors, predicted so many real-life media trends before they happened that it's astounding.…

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Blog Posts
Posted inBlog Post Posted in genresIndieweb

This is a test.

April 29, 2026

Once upon an Indieweb dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten CSS,
While I coded, nearly hacking, suddenly there came SYN ACKing,
as if packets gently attacking, attacking at my firewall ports,
"'Tis some webmention", I muttered, "SYN ACKing at my firewall ports,
only this and nothing less."

Eagerly, I wished the morrow, for in vain, I hoped to borrow,
from #Cafe, surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost IPv4—
For the rare and radiant spec whom the angels name IPv4—
This is only a test, please ignore.

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Blog Posts » Culture

Mastodon & BSky followers: I’m closing these current accounts—pls read for updated account info

A note to the very small handful of people who read and occasionally even repost the website blog items and articles that I've been syndicating from my website, where I'm currently writing this, to a small clickable link on a Mastodon post or a somewhat more human-readable excerpt on Bluesky:

As of today I will no longer be syndicating my content to my current Mastodon and Bluesky accounts at @michaelkupietz.com@michaelkupietz.com on Mastodon and michaelkupietz.com.web.brid.gy on Bluesky. This will likely be the last post to those accounts.

The reason I have to retire those accounts is that they're controlled by the syndication service I was using, and I don't actually have full access to them myself. I'm turning off that service, so I can't use them at all.

But, as apparently a small handful of people do have an interest in occasionally seeing links to things I write delivered…

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Blog Posts » featured movie reviews
Posted in genresMovie Reviews

The Monster (2016)

Slightly-better-than-it-should be tale of a mother and daughter breaking down on a lonely road and stalked by a monster. There's nothing here the experienced horror fan hasn't seen before—yet, for an assemblage of vaguely familiar horror tropes, it's a skillful assemblage, and the direction makes it stand out beyond what it might have been. Not a great movie by a long shot, but much better than it should be, but it's got a touch slower pacing and a few more character-driven elements than a b-grade horror movie usually does, both always a plus to me. And, pleasantly, it gets better as it goes along—the third act reflects back positively on the first two, as it goes for a slightly more quiet, thoughtful climax than the loud one many other movies of this sort would have gone for, even if it still never strays far from genre cliches.

And even…

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Blog Posts » Coffee
Coffee Among The Top 4 Most Consequential EU Imports

Coffee Among The Top 4 Most Consequential EU Imports

News that seems Indieweb-adjacent: according to a study reported on by investment strategist Joachim Klement, among commodity imports, only oil, LNG, and iron ore shortages have a higher impact on EU inflation than coffee shortages. https://klementoninvesting.substack.com/p/which-imports-really-matter-for-inflation

Source: Consonni and Magerman (2026) via Klement On Investing

No word on whether the effect is more pronounced in Scotland.

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New WordPress Plugin: Kupietools Usernote Shortcode Plugin

April 19, 2026

I've just posted an alpha of a small new WordPress plugin to my Github: KupieTools Usernote Shortcode.

Basically, I wanted to leave myself a note in a post, so I can see it on the front end when I view the post, but nobody else will. Now I can do this with [usernote]Note to myself here[/usernote]. It also allows specifying visibility by username or WordPress account role, like this: [usernote users="alice,bob" roles="administrator"]Note to Alice, Bob, and all administrators here[/usernote]

This is an alpha release, containing just the basic functionality I need this afternoon. In the future it will allow you to set defaults in a panel in the KupieTools admin settings page, like some of my other plugins. Right now you have to change them in the plugin code.

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Blog Posts » featured movie reviews
Posted in genresReviews

Paradise (TV series, 2025)

Somewhat derivative but reasonably watcable sci-fi thriller. In a world that is "The Walking Dead" with an ecological apocalypse instead of a zombie one, the remains of the government live in an artificial underground town somewhere between "Wayward Pines" and "The Truman Show", where everybody just loves crappy '80s Top 40 music.

The first season is a straight government/secret agent whodunnit thriller with a slight spritz of sci-fi, the second is a little more expansive, showing more of the world and the lead-up to the ecological disaster (refreshingly, a fairly well-done global tsunami and weather crisis caused by a volcanic eruption in Antarctica, not the result of human foolishness.) I enjoyed the second season a little bit more, although they're both decent at worst...

...except...

...for the '80s music. It's intrusive, and initially, very annoying, particularly that many episodes end with gratuitous, grating "slowcore", alt-folk, or dreary…

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Blog Posts

Hampshire College Is Closing

April 14, 2026

Coming from an alternative education background, I'm saddened to hear that Hampshire College is closing. I looked at attending Hampshire, and the friend of mine who I heard the news from went to the same orientation as I did and wound up going.

I didn't end up going there but always felt an affinity for the place. I believed in the model and in the need for small, funky schools, offering more self-directed education than traditional schools, for students like myself who didn't thrive in more conventional educational settings. (AKA "underachievers". I believe I'm the only person I know with a C average in high school, a teenage arrest on my record, and a degree in physics. Cowabunga, man.)

Obviously this is the result of bigger economic and societal currents that I have no wish to comment on. But it's a loss.

Link: CBS News: Hampshire College…

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Blog Posts
Indieweb Carnival March 2026 – The Soap Lady, And Other Museum Memories
Posted inSocial Technology Posted in genresBlog PostContest & Challenge SubmissionsIndiewebMemoirs & Reflections

Indieweb Carnival March 2026 – The Soap Lady, And Other Museum Memories

March 31, 2026

Once a month, someone in Indieweb hosts the "Indieweb carnival", a monthly theme which a bunch of bloggers all write about the same theme, and the links to posts are collected in a page together. This month's theme: Museum Memories (see the announcement post, and the roundup and recap of all submissions.)

Like many people, I have many fond memories of museums. Here are some recollections.

Sections:

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Blog Posts » Tech » Artificial Stupidity

Gmail Pushing My Emails Out Of The Way To Tell Me What My Emails Say

March 16, 2026

Well, this is a new one. Today my gmail has started moving my emails out of the way to prioritize giving space to "AI Overviews" telling me what the email says. The summaries are longer than the actual email.

Imagine I started this three-sentence post with a "summary" that spent four sentences telling you what the post says. That's about how this strikes me.

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Blog Posts

Thoughts following “The Colonization of Confidence”

March 14, 2026

This is a draft. Almost done. Check back in a few days.

I just read the piece "The Colonization of Confidence", a short story by Robert Kingett about the homogenizing effect of relying on technology for "cheap, fast, and easy" artistic expression, and it reminded me of a few things. What's interesting is that there is a strong parallel here to things that have happened before.

The most immediate thing that leapt to mind is the 13-page '80s Alan Moore comic book story "In Pictopia", which you can happily read in full at Forgotten Awesome, a response to that era's commercialization of comics, in which the residents of a seedy comic Metropolis full of superheroes and cartoon animals are one-by-one either removed or replaced by slicker versions of themselves, as an ominous, dark industrial mass closes in on the horizon.

The second is the work…

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Blog Post

November 21, 2025

I hate to complain, but, I dunno, just very lately, I'm feeling something I haven't felt in a solid 4 decades: I'm bored. I'm telling you, that hasn't happened since I was 17, and now I'm 56 or 57 or something. I literally forgot all about boredom for 40 years. And now, I'm like, "Why is life like... what is it? Cardboard? Wait... it's boredom! Holy cow, I forgot about that!"

Seriously. This is weird. Like, I'm suddenly able to understand why people get married and get jobs and things like that. It must be to avoid feeling like this. Like, ok, what do I do, I've already played my lyre, my saxophone, and my guitar twice today, my website is up to date, I'm too hyper to read, what do I do now? Hey, maybe I should find a girlfriend and get married!" The whole picture suddenly makes…

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Blog Posts » featured movie reviews

Spider-Man — Homecoming

It's a Marvel superhero movie.That generally says it all, in my experience.

Somehow these big Marvel superhero movies remind me of Michael Jackson's adult career: get a bunch of big-name luminaries together with a big budget to expertly craft something that screams "blockbuster", and yet still, somehow, manages to be less than the sum of its parts—the writing just isn't exceptional, it's formula dressed up with big names and glitzy production. . And everybody for some reason thinks it's great, except me.

Basically watchable, for a special-effects superhero action blockbuster. But for as much talent was involved in making this movie, that's a crime.

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Blog Posts

Welcome To My Blog Feature!

November 9, 2025

This post is my very first "blog only" post on this site.

This site was originally intended as a static showcase of my creative art, but for while now I've considered adding more social-media-like features to the site. So now, I've added a Blog Feed page under the Home menu, presenting the site in more of a blog format. This will include all articles from newest to oldest, much like the /Latest slashpage and newest articles readout at the bottom of the home page, but also may include what I've called "blog posts", brief or timely posts not deserving to be permanently included in this sites collection of articles. This Blog Feed page is the only place those blog posts will appear.

This will enable me to begin to include more social features on the site, probably eventually including webmentions, which will allow this site to…

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