Author: Carl Setzer

A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.

Power lies not in control, but in connection

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I found the above image on Pinterest

In today’s world, so many in power are about controlling and manipulating others in order to get solely what they want. The powerful exploit, and the masses lose. Exploitation is not sustainable. One-sided economic growth is not sustainable. This leads, eventually, to collapse. I’ve long believed there’s another way.

Create a sustainable system, one that does not rely upon exploitation and the poverty of many. One that builds others up, that helps people grow. One that’s creative, not extractive. I’ve often simply called this “long-term focus”.

Leadership within this system would understand how people are motivated and how to use that knowledge to help them be the best people they can be. That’s how I see it, at least.

My hope is found in like-minded people, working towards these goals. And there’s great power in hope, don’t you think?

A rainy night haiku, April 2, 2026

Carl Setzer

after the nightfall

with the rain rattled rooftops

the darkness consumes

The IndieWeb

Carl Setzer3 Comments
data on a computer screen

I watched this video (below) yesterday, and it gave me all kinds of ideas. It’s mainly exploring the IndieWeb. I feel the best description is capturing the best elements of the “old” internet. Moving beyond the enshittified internet, beyond the grip of social media companies. Remembering the internet that was not heavily focused on maximizing profits, on selling as much stuff to everyone who has any disposable income.

As someone who is quite enamoured with the Open Web, things like Open Source and Free Software, this notion is captivating. And, the more I think about it, the more important I think these tools are, and how critical the IndieWeb will be for the evolution of the web. It’s a critical tool in wresting control back from corporations. I’m just starting to explore this in depth, so let me point you to Dan Gillmor’s post from 2014 about the IndieWeb. His post summarizes my ideas nicely.

I’m reminded about the ways we navigated back in the early days of the web. Before the days of Google, and the other webcrawler technologies, things like link pages, blogrolls (here’s mine), and webrings were THE way you discovered new content. In a world where search is dominated by paid placements, I think blogrolls and link pages are extremely important. (Side note: I just discovered Wiby, which looks like it might be a powerful tool in this as well. I’ll need to explore it further, though.)

This brought up another thing I’m now: WordPress vs Handcoded. As you’re on my WordPress site, you can check out my hand-coded page here. That one started when I was studying Web Development back during the pandemic. Anyway, I see a lot of value in taking full control of my content. But, with decades of life on WordPress, I’m unsure how much effort I want to expend in extricating myself from the WordPress ecosystem. Hmmm…I might explore doing a bit of both. Stay tuned.

Anyway, check out this video. It’s only 12 minutes and has interesting insights.

Typewriter and Tea

Carl Setzer3 Comments

I stumbled upon this image on Pinterest. It brought back some stuff for me. I have long had a fondness for typewriters. I have long valued my typing skills highly. Once, I could type over 100 words a minute with high accuracy. Well, my speed is still pretty high, but my accuracy has weakened. I chalk that up to, first, spell-check, and later autocorrect. The tools have made me lazy. I’m working on building that back up, as I still value this.

Anyway, though I first learned to type on a typewriter, they were electric (I’m not THAT old). My first typing experience was on the IBM Selectric. A lovely, if noisy, machine.

I used these heavily from high school all the way through the Navy. Then they faded from dominance, though I’d still need to use one on occasion (usually for government forms). By the 2000s, they’d vanished.

Now, though I liked the act of typing, I was also motivated by envisioning a future dominated by computers. Being able to use the keyboard would be a powerful, powerful tool. Clearly, I called that right!

Yeah, perhaps the image above is AI (I’m quite confident it is), but that’s not really the point. I found it fun and “enough”. Which might be AI’s main contribution: it’s enough. Mediocrity commoditized. But it’s enough to get me thinking, to capture a mood. Enough, I guess.

Some thoughts on transition

Carl Setzer2 Comments
minimalist shot of coffee cup in sunlight

I came across this little gem earlier today over on Instagram.

The one that most strongly resonated with me was the first one: “To get somewhere, you have to leave where you are…” As someone who is rather risk-averse and values comfort, this one speaks strongly to me. I do wonder if I might be a Hobbit.

Another one that spoke to me: “Stillness notices what distraction misses…” Living fully immersed in the distraction economy/society, but somewhat against my will. I feel a strong pull to work on this. Little things like spending time reading books, as in paper, not my Kindle, not blog posts, nor Tweets.

I like starting the day with some reflection, with challenging the ways society pulls us…sometimes against our will, sometimes like an undertow in the sea of numbed distraction.

Today’s Haiku: March 30, 2026

Carl Setzer 
dawn's slowly rising
light gently touching fresh blooms
the juncos dancing

Today’s cover image was created with WordPress’s built-in AI image generator. The prompt was just the haiku. Kinda fun.

Emerald City Comicon 2026

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I went to Emerald City Comicon on Friday, March 6. I’ve been meaning to go for decades. There’s always something, some reason, some conflict. I finally felt compelled to go. It helped that I’d talked with several other folks, so had accountability partners, including my wife. I’m so glad I did. It was an awesome experience. Below are just a few thoughts on finally going.

Man, the cosplay! I love the passion of cosplayers. The artistry was so impressive. Understanding SO many references mad me feel that I was amongst “my people”. Recognizing so many characters and knowing their key lines made me able to validate others. Understanding the references just made it that much more wonderful for me. Valuing the same things is just so lovely.

Another thing I adored: the inclusivity. The boldly open affirmation of the LGBTQIA+ community delighted me, as did the way they embrace neurodiversity. Things like quiet rooms made the space safe.

The immensity, the scale of it all. My goodness, there was so much going on. So much space in use. So many people. It was perfect. All the vendors, and all the cool stuff was great, too. Floors of stuff.

I opted not to photograph much. Mostly just a few things that caught my eye. Nothing to share. It felt rather like a rather invasive thing to do. I’m probably overthinking that, but I REALLY wanted to be respectful. Maybe next year I’ll be more deliberate about photography.

My wife loves it as much as I did. She’s insisting that we go the full week next year. I’ll see if I can break away that long in 2027. And, who knows, maybe I’ll need to expand out to other cons.

Did any of you go? Or have you gone to a different Comicon? What did you think? What was your favorite part.

A quick note and a blog post recommendation

Carl Setzer

I’ve been following Mr. Wheaton ever since he launched his blog (dear God, I think it was the late 90s!}. Through all kinds of changes, I’ve read the posts, felt the stories. But this one is special.

seven mary three come back

I love hearing stories about childhood heroes living up to their legends. If you’re of my vintage, it features John and Ponch. Which makes it *chef’s*

So, my friends, enjoy this charming piece.

Some thoughts on WordPress

Carl Setzer4 Comments
man typing on keyboard while working on laptop

My friend, Pooj, over at Life’s Fine Whine, brought up some issues with WordPress in a recent post. There are many challenges with WordPress, but there are some seriously powerful elements, too. As Pooj points out, the community is perhaps the most powerful element, but it’s not the only one.

Now, I’ve been using WordPress for ages, but it’s not the only platform I’ve used. I started blogging on Blogger. When Google acquired them, I believed Blogger would be indomitable. Well, I was wrong. Blogger blogs look pretty much the same as back in the early 2000s. I don’t know what Google has done with the platform as far as development, but I expect it’s mainly security. Navigation, themes, all of it looks pretty much unchanged. It pretty much looks like Google has forgotten about it. Which I guess is preferable to some of the possible outcomes. I mean, there’s a whole website dedicated to their abandoned products. When Google took over this tool, I had no idea that abandoned products would be a key part of their legacy. Clearly, my belief that Google taking over something would be a great thing was a miscalculation.

Now, I have a degree in web development. I could just build my own site, and have built many. However, there is no community around it. Adding a RSS feed or email subscription feature requires even more code, along with configuring some other pieces. Thus, there’s no easy community building tool.

I’ve also studied Joomla, another CMS tool. It’s less well used as a platform, which I don’t care too much about. But, again, it’s lacking on the community side, too.

We have things like Wix and SquareSpace, which I’ve used extensively. I actually like these tools alot, but they’re a bit different. The ease of managing your connections is nice. You can build all kinds of email communications. But they’re proprietary. Each one a private company. They’re quite easy to design, though. They’re meant to be no-code. I do like that I can utilize some HTML with relative ease if I need some customization.

One of the things I like a lot about WordPress is that it’s Open Source. The surrounding community is something I value. It makes me feel a greater sense of ownership.

I do recognize that WordPress’s User Interface has undergone some radical transformations. I’m not much of a fan of most of it. The Block Editor, in particular, is something I loathe, but can cope with. (Don’t get me started on Elementator.) I do need to be honest, though, there have been many times that I’ve thought it would be easier for me to just code my own websites.

Ultimately, WordPress is powering over 43% of websites, which is a powerful thing. It shows the effectiveness and resilience of the platform. There’s a lot I would love to see done differently. But, at this point, I still appreciate it for what it offers.