A bit behind on the times but I just learned about Reddit killing RSS and Old Reddit today.
\nI don’t necessarily feel like I can add anything new to this conversation, if I’m honest. But I figure I’ll just chime in with my own two cents.
\nIt’s no secret that Reddit has been extraordinarily hostile to its users for years, with the API rate limiting stuff back in 2023 being one of the most callous and blatant examples.
\nIt sucks that there doesn’t seem to be a decent alternative to Reddit. But it’s also been a shell of itself for a long long time. I’ve used Reddit since high school. My oldest account, had I not deleted it, would probably be about 15 years old. I remember when Reddit felt like a place where you could actually discover new things or have some random person give you well-thought-out, well-articulated advice.
\nNowadays, the culture feels like a lobotomized version of its old self. It also feels distinctly somewhat cruel. I’m not sure why I’ve been unable to leave it over the years. Dopamine chasing, I guess?
\nI think I’m going to try and make a real, genuine effort to quit this time. I tried back in 2023 out of moral outrage and that didn’t really work out. But nowadays, I don’t find much value in the product whatsoever. Browsing Reddit sort of just makes me feel… worse.
\n", "date_published": "2026-10-06T01:07:36-05:00", "url": "https://msnws.online/2026/10/06/fuck-spez.html" }, { "id": "http://msnws.micro.blog/2026/10/03/an-ode-to-lab-monsters.html", "title": "An Ode to Lab Monsters", "content_html": "I’ve been away from Street Fighter 6 for a while and, as I’m getting back into it, I’m exploring the roster. Basically hitting random and playing whoever it lands on for 100 matches minimum. I played some Manon and I’m about to start on A.K.I.
\nAll I will say is that the Manon community needs to lab more/document their findings better. Frankly, I think A.K.I. might have some of the most complete and comprehensive tech documentation I’ve ever seen.
\nI guess it makes sense now why every random A.K.I. player I’ve fought since gold seems to know her optimal routing.
\n", "date_published": "2026-10-03T13:56:57-05:00", "url": "https://msnws.online/2026/10/03/an-ode-to-lab-monsters.html" }, { "id": "http://msnws.micro.blog/2026/09/30/no-country-for-old-men.html", "title": "No Country for Old Men", "content_html": "I finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men this weekend, having practically binged it over the course of a few days. The tl;dr version of my thoughts are basically that I found the book to be extremely gripping. Basically, every scene with Chigurh had me asking “what is this crazy fucker gonna do next?”
\nI’ve never actually seen the movie, though I’ve obviously heard great things about Javier Bardem’s portrayal of Chigurh so, that might be next on my list. In addition to never having seen the movie, I’ve also never read any of McCarthy’s other work before this one. At first, I was genuinely confused about the way he wrote dialogue, but I actually grew to really enjoy his approach as I got further into the book. McCarthy’s prose and dialogue feel like they become this singular, coherent voice; almost a stream of consciousness in a way that feels somehow both casual and strangely immersive? Was it hard to follow who was talking a few times? Yes. Mostly because a majority of the southern/Texan characters speak the same way. But the unpretentiousness of the dialogue was honestly pretty refreshing.
\nAs far as plot goes, No Country didn’t go where I thought it was going to go in the slightest. The first half of the book points to what I thought would have been a fairly explosive final act. Instead (and I’ll be as light on spoilers here as possible), the final act ends with a very intentional whimper followed by an almost meditative denouement. As someone who largely reads for theme, I found the ending to be just right, but I can imagine some people being pretty put off by what happens.
\nAnd now that I’ve mentioned theme… I want to dig in with some of my gut-level thoughts on just that.
\nWhile I was reading, I was reminded a bit of East of Eden by Steinbeck. From my perspective, both books really try to investigate the idea of legacy, and do so through this lens of examining the changing of American values across generations. Both books identify a sort of mythologized “older America” that is rapidly becoming a corrupted “new America.” Then, both books reject that premise outright.
\nEast of Eden does so in a way that feels deeply personal. Steinbeck places the center of this investigation firmly within the Trask family tree and uses the cyclical nature of their lives and draws parallels to the Book of Genesis to examine the idea. The ultimate catharsis of the book,“Timshel,” becomes the single idea that rejects the notion of some inherent corruption both within the characters and the world around them as it aims to impart this sense of individualized free will onto everyone. In that way, Steinbeck highlights how America’s history has always been about the actions of individuals, and the argument effectively becomes “we can save our own nation from corruption through our own actions.”
\nIf East of Eden is The Book of Genesis, then No Country for Old Men is the Book of Revelations. While Steinbeck argues that the corruption of a mythologized, better world can be stopped by individual action, McCarthy seems far more interested in rejecting any kind of “mythological past” altogether. He goes to great lengths interrogating the idea that the past was some shining, glorious thing, and that goodness, decency, moral corruption, greed, and desire are all simply sides of the same coin.
\nMore than that, however, McCarthy brings this sort of deterministic, interdependent view to the table. All throughout No Country, characters remark that the places we arrive to in life are a result of both our individual actions and the circumstrances around us. The freedom Timshel might afford someone becomes increasingly more narrow as circumstances pile on top of circumstances. Chigurh kills his victims because his actions and the actions of countless others have brought him and his victim together. He still pulls the trigger, yes. But their death is seen, in his eyes, as almost nothing more than “bad luck.”
\nIn No Country for Old Men, the world is painted in shades of gray. Every action we take muddies the picture further. The book wants us to stop and ask, “is this action mine, or a byproduct of circumstance?” McCarthy doesn’t really lands on an answer, allowing even that to be a shade of gray, and I think the book is better for it.
\nAnyway… since this is my first review/discussion of a book, I felt inclined to give it a rating. But I’m realizing that this would probably be reductive. I’ll say this much instead: I enjoyed No Country for Old Men quite a bit, and I’ll probably read The Road soon too.
\n", "date_published": "2026-09-30T10:54:46-05:00", "url": "https://msnws.online/2026/09/30/no-country-for-old-men.html" }, { "id": "http://msnws.micro.blog/2026/09/24/an-introduction.html", "title": "An Introduction", "content_html": "Hello there! I’m Mason and this is my blog.
\nWow. I feel like I’m on MTV’s Cribs but in a much more digital and far less lavish way.
\nFor now, this site lives on micro.blog. As I write this, I’m even using a default theme.
\nYuck.
\nNone of my setup at the moment is ideal, but I think it’s best for me to accept the tradeoff for now. I’ve thought about starting a blog for a long time. But every time I thought about it, I found myself putting up a million roadblocks.
\nI finally realized that I didn’t need to create a beautiful site in Astro or Eleventy with a full Sveltia dashboard to start writing. That could be a later project, and is likely one I’ll document here one day in the future.
\nSo, for now, my site will have to rely less on the personality cool aesthetics might afford it, and more on the personality found in the written word itself. Maybe there will come a day where this blog will have a totally unique appearance with custom interactions and be fully within my control with regard to hosting and whatnot, but today is not that day.
\nI’m 32 and live in Chicago with my partner and our dog, Sophie (both of whom I absolutely couldn’t do without). I work as a graphic designer at an in-house creative agency within a mid-sized company. Beyond that, I have what some might call an “excessive number of interests.” I’ve been referred to in the past as a “multipotentialite.” I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that term, myself. However, what I can claim with confidence is that I like to go deep and wide on a variety of\nsubjects.
\nI’m going to refrain from saying “whatever I want” here. I mean… it’s the truth, but it’s not helpful. Below is what you can probably expect to find here. I’ll cover everything I can think of, but know that this list will absolutely grow and possibly change over time.
\nI could probably keep going, but I’ll stop here. If anyone reading this is like “wow… that’s too much,” my response to them would be, “yes it is.”
\nBut just like me, this blog isn’t meant to be something with a lot of focus. Instead, I hope to provide my own unique perspective. I have a lot of thoughts buzzing around in my head. I’m also the kind of person who often makes things but never shares them. This has been kind of an isolating form of self-expression for me in the past, so I’d like to push my own boundaries and get better about sharing my creative projects, thoughts, and life in a more public setting.
\nI don’t know. I think I might start by looking at the bulleted list above and going line by line, and creating posts about something specific that has captured my interest recently in each of those domains.
\nIn all likelihood, I probably won’t stick with that all the way through. But it’ll at least give me something structured to start with until I become more comfortable with writing stuff here.
\nIf anyone is reading this, I hope you stick with me for a bit! But if no one’s reading, then that’s honestly fine too. Either way, I’m just happy to be writing.
\n… even if it is on a bland, default template type of site. Yuck.
\nUntil next time!
\n", "date_published": "2026-09-24T10:36:56-05:00", "url": "https://msnws.online/2026/09/24/an-introduction.html" } ] }