Remote

Ride Theory

@ridetheory@mastodon.social

mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06

💉x 10 + 😷 indoors = Novid (🤞)

#Stereoscopic #photography, #Ebike, #NonFiction, #Science, #Postcards #MailArt #Cats #SecretBushmillerSociety

"Go very lightly on vices such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful." -- Satchel Paige

(Banner and avatar: an antique lithograph of a chimpanzee in a brown plaid suit and tweed flat cap riding a bicycle.)

301 Followers

94 Following

50 Posts

Joined April 04, 2017

Rambling Readers profile:

@ridetheory@ramblingreaders.org

Stereoscopic Photos on Pixelfed:

@RideTheory@pixelfed.de

Old-Time Radio Podcast:

https://www.ourshowofshows.com/

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop

Replying to

The #Dilbert gauge never failed me. The more Dilbert comic strips I saw, the nastier the place was. I worked at a one place where Dilbert was banned. Specifically, just Dilbert. Sounds extreme, but the bosses knew exactly what #ScottAdams was peddling, and they didn’t want any. That office ran smoothly and was among the nicest. 5/9

228

57

61

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 2w ago

I was ALMOST fooled by an AI the other day. I called a local restaurant to put in a to-go order, and I made the mistake of using the number on their #Yelp page. It became increasingly obvious the woman on the phone was not a real person, and the restaurant sounds in the background didn't sound right. I ended the call when "she" asked me for payment in advance, to which I replied "No, no, no..." and hung up.

mastodon.social

2

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop

Replying to

Whenever I saw a disproportionate number of #Dilbert comics in one cubicle, I knew to avoid that person. They were clearly the asshole in the office, and they were usually on a hair trigger. I once saw a cubicle that was practically wallpapered with Dilbert comics, including several where he had labeled the characters with co-workers’ names, and then pinned them on the OUTSIDE of his cube. Yikes! Steer clear of that dude! 3/9

138

59

27

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

So I guess the moral here is: #ScottAdams was a thin-skinned, egotistical monster who wrote and badly drew a hateful comic strip called #Dilbert, and all his “humor” punched down, and he used sock puppet accounts to brag about his own genius, and was a racist, and he thought Donald Trump was great... 7/9

132

52

26

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

...but for all that, if I were forced – I donno, at gunpoint, maybe -- to utter one nice word about #ScottAdams, I guess I’d say that for a few years, he was... USEFUL. 8/9

129

46

12

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

So #Dilbert was my canary in the coal mine. I can’t think of another comic strip that functioned like this. Cathy was drawn almost exactly as badly as Dilbert, but the only thing I learned from seeing that strip in an office was the person pinning it up had body image issues. Peanuts meant the person had self-esteem problems. (Or, contrarywise, they identified with Snoopy.) 6/9

125

56

26

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop

Replying to

If there was even one #Dilbert comic pinned up to a communal bulletin board, watch out! The hatred went from workers up AND management down. God forbid someone had used the photocopier to enlarge it; that meant they wanted everyone to see how much they hated everyone. In this last situation, I would usually call my agency at the end of the day and ask if they had any other assignments. If I saw Dilbert plush toys, I’d just tell my agency I couldn’t continue the assignment. 4/9

103

58

13

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop

Replying to

If virtually every cubicle had more than one #Dilbert comic pinned up, I knew everyone working there disliked each other. The atmosphere probably wasn’t going to be too terrible for me as a temp, but I wouldn’t want to work there permanently. 2/9

96

60

12

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

(OOPS: I wrote this on LibreOffice, and missed a paragraph when cutting/pasting to Mastodon... here it is...) If anyone had ever pinned up a Mutts strip or Zippy the Pinhead or Nancy, I would have wanted to hang out with them in the lunchroom. Even Tumbleweeds might have been a welcome change. Sadly, it was almost always fuckin’ #Dilbert, all the way down. 10/9

79

30

6

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

Further reading: “The trouble with #Dilbert : how corporate culture gets the last laugh” by Norman Solomon https://archive.org/details/troublewithdilbe00solo_0/mode/2up 9/9

Internet Archive

The trouble with Dilbert : how corporate culture gets the last laugh : Solomon, Norman, 1951- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

67

44

10

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

BTW: I wrote this months ago, and it's a total coincidence that the last word of #ScottAdams's last public statement was also "useful."

47

13

4

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@pluralistic He's been a disappointment to me ever since he proposed all non-believers start calling themselves "Brights." I remember thinking, "Well, at least I'm smart enough not to do that!"

16

0

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like had it learned anything from the pandemic.

Anything at all.

13

0

4

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Natasha_Jay @pluralistic I worked for Flexcar back in the day, and when they went out of business, I converted my work jacket with these patches...

13

0

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@amydiehl@mstdn.social I love articles that start with "When the pandemic came to an end..." as if we weren't in the endemic period.

4

2

2

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@cmconseils@mastodon.social TIL why it's called "2001: A Space Odyssey."

2

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Every time I see this picture of Nina Simone, I think of...

2

0

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@mikecane@mas.to @pluralistic@mamot.fr Literally everything on my antique Kindle is from @gutenberg_org@mastodon.social, and I have a library card, so I'm good.

4

1

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Just thinking about when that cruise line used Iggy's "Lust for Life" in their ads, leaving out the bits about liquor & drugs, torture films, sleeping on the sidewalk and having it in the ear before.

They might have at least left in the line "Hey man, where'd you get that lotion," but no.

3

0

2

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 11mo ago

Replying to

@DamiaB@peculiar.florist @vagina_museum@masto.ai KARI BYRON: "No. Just no. Absolutely not."

11

1

3

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social

When it's butterfly season, oooh, I go all Eustace Tilly.

1

0

2

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@noodlemaz Sorry, I didn't mean to give him a pass on that, but there was so much awfulness in that guy, it's tough to capture it all in a single Mastodon thread...

5

0

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

@HarrySKeeler@mastodon.social This reminded me of your comic art:

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/30328/pg30328-images.html

3

1

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@_slotek_ NAILED IT!

3

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@wesdym@mastodon.social Clearly, they're talking about enemies not of Esperanto but of the IDEA REPRESENTED by Esperanto. Had those shadowy forces learned about the jet stream in the 1920s, I guess we'd all /not/ be speaking Esperanto now. Or something.

1

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place @wesdym@mastodon.social I shudder to think how history might have played out if the enemies of the idea represented by Esperanto had learned of the jet stream in the 1920s.

1

3

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 11mo ago

Replying to

@cmconseils@mastodon.social Before my wife and I figured out how to shut it off, we referred to the Google assistant as "Gargoyle."

4

2

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Richard Dawkins has been a disappointment to critical thinkers for decades, therefore his uncritical take on AI comes as no surprise at all.

I mean, if he had been alive in the 18th century, he would have believed the Mechanical Turk could play chess.

1

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Had to make a business phone call today, and the young person I spoke with said "Perfect!" and "No worries!" a lot. A lot.

1

1

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Nashville 5, Charlotte 1

1

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@HiMYSYeD@mstdn.ca @scalzi@mastodon.social Hollywood takes stories about brown people, casts white people, and calls the result Science Fiction. Bladerunner, for example, is a story about runaway slaves.

1

2

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@scalzi And get outta town with that "Episode IV" stuff! Feh!

1

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@paka ...aaaand, of course, the masks in the photo are baggy blues. Better than nothing, but just barely.

2

1

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 23mo ago

Personally, I want generals like FDR had.

9

0

4

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 11mo ago

Replying to

@grickle@mstdn.social Could be worse; could all be true crime books.

2

2

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 20mo ago

Replying to

@kimlockhartga@beige.party

2

0

1

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@thelinuxcast I got this at Harbor Freight for about $14. They usually sell for $18.

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXnyKVHPamQ

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Today in Why-Can't-They-Both-Lose news:

"Judge tosses Laura Loomer’s lawsuit, says Bill Maher joke wasn’t defamation"

https://lite.cnn.com/2026/04/22/media/laura-loomer-bill-maher-hbo-defamation-lawsuit-dismissed

Judge tosses Laura Loomer’s lawsuit, says Bill Maher joke wasn’t defamation | CNN Business

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt Thanks, humans. Thumans.

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

I like this idea for compact #baseball scoring -- just draw a line under each inning, start the next inning in the same column. Hmm. I'm considering a DIY version...

https://store.72doubleplay.com/product/small-ball-scorebook-green-cover

mastodon.social

Mastodon

0

1

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@rail@social.flufftech.net I assume this is where the Strip-O-Gram cops come from.

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Knight's stream has no ads between innings, though I don't care for the play-by-play. I'm switching back and forth to avoid the ads on WBUZ's superior p-b-p by Jeff Hem.

0

1

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

I'm liking Jeff Hem, the Nashville broadcaster. He mentioned all the kids in the stands, and the P.A. playing "Baby Shark." "You want to hear it? Okay. (PAUSES TO PLAY BABY SHARK). All right, I think that's the quota..."

0

1

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

This is some seriously brilliant sports merch from the Pirates' affiliate Bradenton Mauraders.

#MinorLeague #baseball

https://marauders.milbstore.com/collections/novelties/products/marauders-foam-hook-hand

mastodon.social

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 15mo ago

Replying to

@Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt Also: "...there were plants and birds and ____ ____ things..."

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@unikitty@kolektiva.social @jasongorman@mastodon.cloud

0

0

0

0

Ride Theory @ridetheory@mastodon.social

· 2w ago

XKCD: What if a baseball were thrown at 90% the speed of light?

https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

what-if.xkcd.com

0

0

0

0