Llanoland

The Port Jefferson LIRR is one of the few lines left if not the only line that relies on diesel locomotives to operate. There are a lot of reasons why the line can't be electrified, which means service is very slow and pretty cumbersome. 

Here's the Port Jefferson train arriving at Hicksville station to pick us up to take us off the electrified rails to Port Jeff. Once I arrive there, it's still a 20 minute drive out to where I live. 

I think within the next few years we will move closer to NYC but until then this is one of the lifelines I depend on to get to and from the city. Luckily I just drive to my work in Queens, but for some people this train is an everyday necessity. 

This album sounds so good to me it's difficult to describe it. The phrase "so good" isn't really enough because the album isn't exactly pleasurable or comfortable to hear, it's just a good thing to hear although it's rather uncanny all over the place.

I find it to be really amazing and will probably obsess over it for a lot this year. I fully expect it to dominate my listening charts on last.fm when December rolls around and I'm looking at my annual stats. 

I think it's just hitting at a perfect time when I'm getting a little tired at some of the repetitive harmonies of trance and dance music, and listening to a lot more atmospheric and minimal stuff.

This album is really, really short too. Which I typically don't like. But it doesn't feel short at all. 

She loves it, but it's kinda cold out here.

Typically we'd see some wildlife but I think they are all hunkered down today!

Is there a correlation between the strength and extreme tone of a political post and whether it's set to friends only or public?

it's so strange to me that so many thoughtful, timely, and powerful political arguments, positions, and ideas are hidden behind the freinds only status on social media. 

This is a waste. Wouldn't you want your strong political arguments to be seen by people unlike you, who see things differently than you? This seems to be where the most impact could take place.

Thinking of my own friends list on social media sites, it's pretty wide and there are a lot of people on there I don't know too well. I suppose others could have a list like this but I imagine it is people who already share your political and social views. They can just hype you up with their already extant agreement in a comment, but there's little development of their point of view or, maybe more importantly, yours.

I suggest that one of the best reasons to make an argument is to improve your own position through the feedback you get. If the audience is curtailed to a group of like-minded people you might not get a lot of push or any pressure on your position. 

Plus you aren't making much of an impact there. It does feel like you are doing something powerful and good, and that's important in times of political instability and uncertainty, however there should be a balance.

I'm all for adapting your message to the audience - that is the study of rhetoric after all - but why are we speaking on social media to the "world" but behind the walls of a compound of our own design, with our friends and allies? 

This slippage is dangerous as it might, in the terms of Freud, be a form of repressive desublimation where we enjoy the release of the frustration before it's ready to boil over and push us to create a new or aberrant or artistic expression for the world to see. Perhaps the relief we experience isn't the positive good we get from political engagement, but pleasure only. Maybe there's a way to use social media posts to keep a positive vibe, do something meaningful, and release some of the frustration that moves us to the keyboard in the first place.