Anecdotal, but I grew up in the heyday of malls and my local mall was one of the largest, and is now one of the most famous dead malls. The mall was in decline when Amazon was still in its infancy, mostly still selling books. Buying clothes online was considered lunacy at the time because there was no fitting rooms to try things on. Still, vacancy was on the rise in the mall and once a few violent crimes started happening inside that was all she wrote. “Big Box” stores like Walmart became more of a draw than driving all the way to the mall.

I think the reasons for the death of the mall are more complex, just like the death of the department store. There were lots of weird tax incentives, both for developers, and for (mostly white) residents fleeing the urban core during the 90s. Those were not sustainable. Malls themselves were a bit of a private equity shell game which couldn’t last. The story of dead malls is more about capitalism and land use policy than just Amazon.

I’ll never forget Forest Fair Mall in those first years though. It’s 1.5 MILLION square feet, and it was absolutely packed, especially during Christmas. Humongous fountains, sand sculptures, live music… every single spot of its airfield-like parking lot was full. The only thing today that I think comes close, if younger people want the experience, is the main concourse of a top ten airport.

That sucks to hear, at one point I was really hoping it would become a viable yt alternative. Not that I ever expected their cryptocurrency to “moon” but it was at least an interesting idea to compensate people for seeding video.

I guess I can go to Rural King but honestly I doubt they’re better, but least-harm I suppose. When you live where I do you pretty much can’t avoid patronizing businesses like this, unless you can hear through the grapevine about some guy who’s selling whatever and is a fan of John Brown. We’re out here but we’re outnumbered and underground.

When I was a child in the 90s I somehow scored a voice role in a hotdog commercial for the radio. I was paid a king’s ransom for this, half of which my parents made me put in savings (wise), and half of which I spent on a brand new Sega CD (not wise).

The magic of postage stamp-sized full motion video took about three days to wear off, at which point all that was left was basically pure shit. They jacked me. At least I learned that lesson early.

The article doesn’t really do Tim justice. He’s a bodger who is basically a genius for what I can only describe as Goblin technology. His projects are as much about fun and experimenting as having a result. In the first windmill video he acknowledged that he could just buy a small electric windmill, but that’s not the point.

I mean, this is the dude who made a narrow gauge railroad and a compressed air locomotive to transport wood to his terrifying biochar chopper and crucible.

Yep, old shirts came out of the wash looking like a fucking Calabi-Yau manifold, even casual wear.

Every time I’ve gone to a beautiful place, (Kauai/Virgin Islands/Moab etc) I’ve run into former insurance salesman types who just said fuck it, and stayed, and now live in an old school bus and fix outboards or whatever. Often it was precipitated by a big life event like a divorce or a child leaving the nest but sometimes they just bounced. I get it.

Wait, it’s all just Arthurian legend? 🌍👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀