algorithms, physical media, and photos

idk how people feel generally about streaming and physical media, but recently i've been pivoting more towards physical stuff. i don't really have any streaming accounts anymore, aside from spotify - which i only still use so i can track my music listening - and i now mainly use dvds, cds, tape and vinyl for any media consumption at home. i was never really a huge kindle/ereading fan so i always bought books physically anyway.

i say this at risk of sounding pretentious as fuck (which i do anyway), but really it's part of my general growing distaste for pretty much any algorithm. i don't feel like they ever suggested me much that i actually ended up liking, and even if they did there's constantly so much put out to the user that it's just overwhelming. opening netflix and seeing thirty new shows i might want to have on in the background while i scroll through reels on a 'curated' instagram feed is honestly hell, and i end up not being interested in any of the content suggested to me. plus, so much of any algorithm is picked specifically for keeping users on a platform and not actually suggesting something they'd want to see.

that's why i've cut out every single algorithm (to the best of my ability) for suggesting media and art. instead, i'm gonna try to replace them with methods of discovery i actually might find something interesting with, like buying cds just for the cool album art (how i found slaughter of the soul by at the gates when i was like... 13?) and recommendations from other people. yeah, i know, "this is how we did it before that damn internet" but i literally grew up with the internet, so by time i was old enough to find new stuff for myself algorithms were basically the norm for most "mainstream" content.

i've actually already found some pretty sick stuff by cutting out algorithms too! turns out milan (the drummer of epicardiectomy, sick band) is credited for layout/design for a release by this band called putrefying cadaverment. they have an album out called 'indiscriminate butchery' and it's awesome, and i literally wouldn't have known about it through only using algorithms because they have about thirty listeners on spotify(!) go check them out.

semi-related, i went out and got some dvd's i've been looking to grab too. i got the sex and the city boxset my fiancee and i are watching, so we have all 6 seasons plus alternate endings and some bonus content, and i picked up the bluray for the first movie too - £5.50 in total which is wild. i got dvd's for shaun of the dead and the green mile too, both great movies i've already seen but wanted to have physically.

finally, i got a bunch of pics over the last week of having my flip phone, which i'll chuck a couple in that i think look cool, which you can find here on my site.

thanks for reading!"

Currently listening to: Myotonia by Myotonia