essays of variety from xandra.cc
june 8, 2026 update: i have decided to put good internet on an indefinite hiatus. you can read more in the announcement here . with good internet magazine 's autumn/winter issue in the printers' hands, i thought this would be a great time for me to spend a moment doing a bit of a post-mortem after completing this volume of two issues. (if you haven't seen me talk about it, good internet is a print…
“It was not Hitler, Göring, Goebbels, Himmler, or whatever the others were called, who had me dragged away and beaten. No, it was the cobbler, the neighbor, the old man, the milkman, the postman, those without form suddenly given armbands and a cap on their heads and then they were the master race.” —Karl Stojka it's midnight and i'm not tired. i am beyond angry—i'm infuriated, down to my cells…
i am not doing well. this is, unfortunately, just part of my story that continues to rear its ugly head over and over again. thanks to some medical issues outside of my mental health, i've had to mess with my medication combination (after months of stability) that has left me reeling from mental whiplash. and while easing my physical medical issues, my brain has decided to revolt rather than help.…
A Halfway Checkpoint i consider the year i've had so far, and i can't feel more than the immense gratitude i already feel daily. i'm six months into my unemployment, stepping away from corporate life in an attempt to rediscover my relationship with work , and it's gone so quickly. i've launched one project while nurturing a side/learning project (in an attempt to upskill), breathing life into…
Moderating Communities is Not a Burden in light of the fosstodon discourse on the fediverse, fallout , and the subsequent leadership succession , there's a lot of talk of "lessons to be learned" without explicitly saying what those are. i'd like to offer some thoughts on what those lessons might be. the 32-bit cafe might be on the "newer" side compared to other tech-adjacent organizations, since…
Deep Focus, For Once i'm busier than when i had a job. i've been giving myself deadlines for personal projects that, frankly, just don't make sense and are completely unnecessary. this time is meant to allow me to feel like myself again, not crunch and crank out code. i'm having to remind myself of that. the focus feels very good, though. (might mean the meds are working.) i've been working on two…
Big Tech's Intentional Creation of Dependency molly got me thinking about why we felt like we needed tech oligarchs in the first place: these college kids, scrappy, hustle-culture entrepreneurs that we launched into the fiscal stratosphere with our data, our user-generated content. they needed us . it was always meant to make this—the internet, doing things online—convenient, easier, less…
A Love Letter to Me this is for the 32-bit cafe 's valentine's day 2025 event , where the theme was self-love! join us on the next one! this is somewhat of a letter to myself to be a bit gentler with myself than i am usually. happy valentine's day, alexandra! i think it's very easy for us to get caught up in things like projects, splitting time among the people who care about us, and the routines…
Blog Question Challenge 2025 my indieweb bestie and yin to my yang, flamed . tagged me in the tagged me in the blog question challenge , originally asked by ava. i'm hella late, but writer's block has been real lately. thank you, flamed! i'm gonna tag some 32-bit cafe members: cosy frills xo emma bekah and lucio ! Why did you start blogging in the first place? i think everyone should have a blog,…
Reflecting Over the Past Year this is for the 32-bit cafe's new year's 2025 event . 2024 was supposed to be our first year slowing down. my boyfriend and i agreed to cut down our travel, take things slower in the pacific northwest, and establish our roots. it couldn’t have moved faster. i became a homeowner. in august, we were officially owners of the house we put an offer in on. the first house…