To the People We've Lost to Indefensible, State-Sponsored Crimes

If you've read the news over the past hellish month of January 2026 while living in the United States, you've probably read lines of text you never thought you'd read. I've personally been mildly panicking about situations like these recent events since November 2024. These are the outcomes of those dreadful RNC signs that read "MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW" (🤢😡) that begat this "immigration policy" (if you can call it that) implemented by—and these are the best words I can come up with for them—murder clowns. 🤡🔪

Geraldo Lunas Campos should still be alive. Instead, while in an El Paso detention center full of unknown horrors, he was strangled and died from asphyxia caused by compression to his neck and torso. A fellow detainee heard him saying, "I can't breathe." (That sounds familiar.) May the others in his situation find liberty instead of death. May his killer find a fitting punishment.

Renée Nicole Good should still be alive. Instead, while trying to drive away, an officer of DHS shot her in the head three times in cold blood and called her a "f***ing b****". DHS denied a doctor access to help her while she was still alive. May her courage be remembered. May we all be good. May her killer find a fitting punishment.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti should still be alive. Instead, while protecting another civilian, he was pepper-sprayed, tackled, disarmed (I yield the people have a right to 2A even though I don't like guns), and then (crucially in this order) shot dead by multiple officers of DHS. DHS tried to keep local police away from the scene, likely to cover up their obviously heinous actions. I don't even like smartphones, but I respect their utility to bear witness and offer compelling evidence that the goons and their enablers are flat out lying. To even moderate eyes, this reads like an execution in plain daylight of a man who did nothing to deserve it. May his courage be remembered. May his killer(s) find a fitting punishment.

There are many others who are not dead but still terrorized, kidnapped, or outright disappeared. Shit's bad. There are a some GoFundMe fundraisers to support Minnesota families that can't go to work, get groceries, or otherwise go outside for fear of being abducted. I suggest supporting them.

I would love to keep writing about my DIY iPod and the Right to Repair and other ways to reclaim our ownership and identity in a consumption landscape (hellscape?) built for data-hungry machines and amoral billionaires. But I can't stay silent about the other events going on. I care about the decency and dignity of the people of my country, and I absolutely hate the armed goons involved in these horrors and their enablers and promoters. Those in charge who would defend these actions should be removed from office as soon as possible. (As a lighter aside, I would position "stat" > "PDQ" > "ASAP" in priority queue order. I understand I can't have "stat" or "PDQ".)

If Zach Woods (Jared from Silicon Valley, who allegedly can't stand watching himself on TV) can show up to a vigil and call this out for what this is,

YOU MURDERED A NURSE WHO TAKES CARE OF VETERANS TODAY.

then so can I. I also live in a cold place, and if the people of Minnesota can show up and stay vigilant in frigid temperatures, then so can I.

Tonight I plan to attend a vigil for Alex Pretti in my city. I also plan learn more about how to monitor, record, and bear witness to the future where ICE, CBP, and other DHS officials (in my esteem, the only real "foreign invaders") invade my city (or nearby) and commit further atrocities. What will you do?

A Rating System for Songs on an iPod

It's a new year, and as we continue to face this brave new world, I continue to look for ways to bring into the future good ideas from the past while adapting them to a present context. One such idea is that it is a privilege to be responsible for the things you actually own. There is an endless conveyor belt of distractions coming from the Internet, and those in charge want you to keep on licking it up, little piggy. You can instead manage a limited set of materials, devices, software, files, and Internet-powered connections, so that you (yes, you) get to be the one who decides your own entertainment diet. I'll have more to say on this broader topic in the future, and I'll continue to repeat Linda Ellerbee's iconic quote, "Ask yourself: who's in charge here?" For now, I'd like to focus on a specific subset of this entertainment responsibility: interacting with owned digital files on an iPod. (I'm looking forward to covering the material changes I've made to my iPod in a future installment, stay tuned!)

If you use the iPod stock software (version 1.3 since the late 2000s, still works!), you can click the center button of the click wheel a few times to access an affordance for rating the currently playing song, sliding the click wheel to a number of stars and clicking the center button again to apply that rating. When I was a young adult, I rated ★★★★★ to any song that felt like it "defined my identity". When I was a confused young professional, I began to see ratings as something that should fall on a bell curve, where I preferred ★★★☆☆ meaning "decent enough, does the job, average" instead of ★☆☆☆☆ meaning "I had a bad experience, so it's categorically bad for everyone" and ★★★★★ meaning "I hope this business or person or service succeeds". (You may have rated a rideshare driver ★★★★☆, and the company probably immediately reached out with, "Oh my god, are you OK? What happened? We're letting that driver go. What can we do to regain your trust to get back to ★★★★★?") Nowadays, I'm thankful that I've come up with a consistent system to rate songs on my iPod that doesn't need to worry about bell curves or identity. The rating system is below.

★☆☆☆☆: I do not actually like listening to this song. I should remove it from my iPod.

★★☆☆☆: This song is filler or an interlude for an album. It works in the context of an album, but I'll probably skip it while on shuffle.

★★★☆☆: Perfectly decent song. I'll probably let it play on shuffle. Connective tissue in the context of an album.

★★★★☆: A good song. I'll definitely let it play on shuffle. A highlight in the context of an album.

★★★★★: An excellent song. Will not skip on shuffle. A star in the context of an album. A song I could listen to any time in basically any situation.

Now, many songs will end up being ★★★☆☆, but that's good, because if everything is shitty or everything is amazing, then nothing is.

May your methods of evaluation adapt to your present circumstances,
Arthur Hovinc

Housekeeping: Old Blog Entries Are Migrating Here

Hello, dear reader,

This is a "metablog" entry to inform you that I'm in the process of migrating blog entries to this blogging service from an old blogging service I no longer use. Some entries may appear "new" in your feed, but they may in fact be [checks calendar] up to 17 years old. My goodness how time flies. May we record our journeys as they happen.

If you've kept up with me over the years, you know I've hopped blogging services more than once. Incidentally, I've been tempted by yet another appealing blogging service, but I think I'll stay here for the time being. If I can convince my other blog-writing friends to jump ship, you may see another entry about migrating to the new new service.

Anyway, I was a bit embarrassed with my low published writing count last year, and perhaps building the muscle memory of typing, formatting, and smashing "publish" (even on migrated entries) will help me churn out some more mildly interesting thoughts this year. I'll be pleased if I can tip the "produce vs. consume" scale to the former.

Yours,

Art