Alex Weston (he/him)

Public Historian and museum educator in Minnesota. Areas of focus: Minnesota history, Gilded Age, railroad history, settler colonialism in the American Midwest, film history and criticism, folklore. Occasional lecturer, filmmaker, artist, and writer. Full-time nerd. Views expressed here entirely my own.

Public Key

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NIP-05 Address

NorthByNorthWeston@historians-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

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Publishing to

relay.nostr.band

Author Public Key

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Last Notes

2024-12-10 02:53:59

The stuff that our evolutionary ancestors faced that conditioned our stress and fear responses is so out of whack with the things that provoke stress and fear in our lives right now.
I know its not rational, but I would so much rather face down a saber-toothed tiger than a budget spreadsheet.
#anxiety #panicattack

2024-11-25 16:02:37

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@nprofile…3uxx Given that they filmed the desert portions of ‘Raiders’ in Tunisia, I’m guessing that the prop master simply picked up some local drinks that looked right.

2024-09-14 03:01:38

I recommend googling random hobbies every now and then, just to keep the advertising algorithm on its toes.

2024-09-12 03:23:12

#writerscoffeeclub 12. How do you visualise a scene when writing it?
I can only write what I have already seen in my head in cinematic form. All my storytelling begins as little mental movies, complete with camera placement, lighting, editing, etc.
This is why I’m mostly drawn to screenwriting. But I sometimes write prose fiction as well, still envisioning a movie, then adapting it for a non-visual medium by adding in characters’ thoughts, etc, as if writing the novelization of a film.

2024-09-11 01:18:06

Kamala is giving us a treasure trove of useful reaction gifs.
#debate2024 #presidentialdebate #USpol #Harris2024

2024-08-18 17:37:32

Reading a biography of Karl Marx, and finding that he spent WAYYYY more time and energy getting into petty flame wars and trash talking other communists and socialists than he ever did developing his own ideas or critiquing capitalism.
Which is somehow both depressing and oddly reassuring that Leftists have apparently always been this way.
#Marx #leftists #philosophy

2024-08-17 23:42:39

Peeling off an old cracked screen protector is sooooo satisfying. It’s like the tech equivalent of picking at a scab.

2024-08-10 18:18:05

I decided to start doing one piece of art every day. Today: an ink drawing of a Dromaeosaurus skeleton on top of a Centrosaurus skull. Based on a display at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
#dailyart
https://media.historians.social/media_attachments/files/112/939/098/734/977/667/original/a1a8dc62c14a5a9a.jpeg

2024-08-10 02:39:22

#writerscoffeeclub #writing
10. What's your favourite summer read for a getaway/holiday/vacation?
My go-to is Agatha Christie. Any Agatha Christie.

2024-08-10 02:39:22

#writerscoffeeclub #writing
10. What's your favourite summer read for a getaway/holiday/vacation?
My go-to is Agatha Christie. Any Agatha Christie.

2024-08-09 18:00:38

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Politicians and pundits have always twisted facts, misrepresented their opponents, and lied by omission. But a distorted and misrepresented fact still begins as a fact. Our current political discourse has abandoned even this pretense, and just drifted into pure fantasyland.
🧵5/6
#timwalz #uspol #harriswalz2024 #ballstothewalz

2024-08-09 17:59:40

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As someone who has lived under Tim Walz’s leadership for years, I find it absurd and laughable to see this ultimate moderate suddenly portrayed as a Marxist radical hellbent on dismantling America. Walz’s whole deal is he’s an affable centrist.
🧵4/6
#timwalz #uspol #harriswalz2024 #ballstothewalz

2024-08-09 17:48:04

It’s an interesting time to be a Minnesotan. Until a few days ago, most of the country had never heard of Tim Walz. And immediately after the announcement that he was Harris’ pick, the right-wing internet bullshit machine geared up to full speed. The amount of just completely made-up lies flying around the meme-osphere that I’ve encountered in the last few days is truly staggering.
🧵1/6
#timwalz #uspol #harriswalz2024 #ballstothewalz

2024-07-26 18:30:05

It's definitely a choice for the Paris Olympic committee to lean hard into every single French stereotype during their opening ceremony.
Can-Can! Pink fan dances! Phantom of the Opera does parkour! Les Mis! Singing decapitated Marie Antoinette! Ménage à trois!
At some point this is going to segue into "The French Mistake" from Blazing Saddles, followed by an interpretive dance by Pepé Le Pew.
#olympics #Olympics2024 #paris2024 #OpeningCeremony2024

2024-07-06 17:29:25

It’s not a revolution if it’s conducted by a small group of powerful people trying to keep out of the public spotlight.
The word for this is ‘coup.’
#project2025 #DefeatProject2025 #vote #ChristianNationalism
https://media.historians.social/media_attachments/files/112/740/726/442/661/765/original/af5f13465ce44788.jpeg

2024-06-26 13:24:10

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@npub189c…4hv2 The answer is:
C. The screenwriters.

2024-04-17 17:49:51

This morning in 'Adventures in Sleep Deprivation':
I pour my cereal into a bowl.
I pour milk onto my cereal.
I get out the coffee grounds to brew a pot of coffee.
I measure the coffee grounds in a little measuring cup.
I dump the coffee grounds into my cereal.
#tired #NotAMorningPerson #coffee

2024-04-05 16:21:18

Got an email asking for help finding a cited source. The source was "The Autobiography of Alexander Ramsey." Now, Ramsey is at the center of my professional research, and I know that no such autobiography exists, so I asked for more information. They said it was cited in a ChatGPT request for more information. I had to inform them that ChatGPT is notorious for making things up.
More and more people are going to use AI for "research assistance." And this terrifies me.
#AI #ChatGPT #histodons

2023-06-27 12:51:08

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 It would 100% lie, since machine intelligence is basically trained to mimic people. It’s a set of instructions that boils down to it using all the examples fed into it to try and replicate how a human would respond to a given prompt.