Notes on who I am, what I'm doing right now, and the gear that makes it happen. Updated when something meaningful changes, which turns out to be more often than you'd think.
I’m Kai. I live in Las Vegas, in the desert, at 36.17° north. I was born in Vermont. I’ve seen enough of the world to know. I’ve been an anarchist (I’m technically a post-left post-anarchist if you’re that kind of knowledge perv) for longer than the word has meant anything coherent to me, which is to say, for a very long time - fuck I’m old. I’m here because the rules don’t work. I’m here because we’re the ones who have to do it.
Not the state, not the party, not the professional talking heads that’ve built careers sounding outraged without ever getting up from the table.
Us. The people in the room. Direct action isn’t a slogan to me, it’s the only method I trust, because it’s the only one that doesn’t need permission to work.
Most weeknights I’m on a stream.
When there’s organizing to be done I show up, and I bring what’s useful…the time, the voice, the camera, whatever the moment is asking for.
I write, because systems critique has to be legible before it can be acted on, and because receipts matter.
I photograph, which let’s me see the world in a way I normally don’t.
I’ve been an ordained minister for twenty-plus years despite not believing a word of the theology, because sometimes the people who love each other need someone to stand up and say it out loud, and the paperwork shouldn’t get in the way of that. The through-line in all of it is comrades. The thread continues because we keep carrying it, together.
The shorthand people want is a job title, so: I’m a streamer, a writer, a photographer, a part-time student, a full-time malcontent. I run a show called Proudly Radical most weeknights. I photograph the desert when the light’s right (and the ADHD is focused), which is rarely and on its own schedule. · · ·
This site is infrastructure. It’s built, from Python and Jinja and markdown files, because I like being able to work on my own house. It’s deliberately low-tech: no tracking, no cookies, no bullshit, RSS over algorithm. If you found your way here, you found it on purpose, and I think that’s a vision of the Internet worth keeping.
A living page. Updated when something actually changes, not on a schedule. If something here has been the same for six months, it’s because I meant it (or the ADHD has won and I forgot to update).
These days most of my spare reading is studies. Feel free to follow along, here’s a pair: “Inequity in consumption of goods and services adds to racial-ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollution.” https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1818859116 “Combating HIV stigma in low- and middle-income healthcare settings: A scoping review.” https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25553
The Pineapple Thief has recently been in rotation in addition to the ever present electronica.
Nothing new TV/movies-wise but check out Brenna Perez, Splattercatgaming, and Sorted Food on YouTube!
I currently working on the next phase of Toolkit content to deploy. I’ve got some ideas but unsure what direction I want to take it. Keep an eye out for new content all the time!
Everything. Nothing. The voices rarely shut the fuck up.
Everything here earns its place or it goes. I make when I can, repair when I can’t, and I’d rather run one good thing for ten years than three mediocre things in the same span. None of this is a recommendation. It’s just what I use. Your workflow will want different tools.
The stream rig is a custom built rig. The writing and photography setups are deliberately boring: I don’t want my tools competing with the work. The site infrastructure is the other direction. I do want to think about it, because doing your own wiring and plumbing is part of the point.
build.py.
upload.py
Mtime/size sync. Boring is the point.