Michael Toler (@casbahmike) • Collective gay friends app

Michael Toler @casbahmike

Just an average guy working in academia. Kinda shy! Looking for conversation. What are your favorite cities, books, songs, architects, movies?

An update on the cosmos: The day before yesterday I measured the tallest ones. They were 228 cm high. Today they are at least 30-50 cm taller! They have blossoms, but still haven’t bloomed. You can’t really see the top in this picture, and I circled it. The arrow points to the top of my head!

Feeling a little silly on campus.

Still one of my favorite songs from a musical!

This arrived in July four years ago! A great album!

A scholarly cat!

View across Killian Court from Building 10 on the MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA, USA

Can’t believe how close this handsome fella got to us!

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

An intense piece of music!

A hypothetical: You have been condemned to spend 20 years in solitary confinement. All your basic needs will be met, but you will not have any human contact. There is a large television and a DVD player, but you can only have 1 DVD to watch for the next 20 years! What is it?

The cosmos are actually quite a bit taller!

It’s official, our zinnias are as tall as me! That’s roughly 177 cm (5’9”)!

This song is from the 1967 anti-war musical HAIR, but this magnificent, heartrending version by Jennifer Hudson was recorded in a 2005 benefit performance. It played as I read the news today, making me realize how it remains as relevant as it was 20 years ago & as it was 58 year ago when released!

It’s International Day of Peace! While the world is far from peaceful today, we may bring it closer to reality if we do our part, however small, to bring about a more just and peaceful world.

Monarch butterfly!

Interior of Bab ar-Rwah, Rabat, Morocco

Qatar National Museum, Doha

A powerful song from an astonishingly good musical about the need to be strong when we don’t think we can!

From the garden

Fawns at the local park!

LOVE this song! People watching is one of my favourite pastimes!

The zinnias are up to my shoulders!

Back pages of the most recent Bitter Southerner magazine!

The one thing that frustrates me the most about this app is that I can’t find posts I saw in the discovery feed but wasn’t able to respond to if I leave the app. If I go from the app to something else, even if I don’t close the app, the feed refreshes and it’s completely different. Without a search function, the post is lost to me. I wouldn’t mind if the feed just added different posts at the top so I could just scroll down to see what was there. I also wouldn’t mind a complete refresh is there were a search. Anyone else feel this way?

“I knew he believed in something that none of us ever do anymore. He believed in the nastiest word in the world. He believed in KINDNESS. Please tell me you remember kindness. Please tell me you remember kindness and joy, you cool motherfuckers.” -Scott McClanahan

I’m curious how this app chooses who to show with a “you might like...“ notification in our feed. Does anyone have insight into that? How often does it get it right for you?

Qatar National Library in Doha

Sunset on the lake!

One of the most frustrating things about this app is trying to find posts you’ve scrolled away from, by mistake or on purpose, and want to get back to. Anyone know a way around that?

Rainy Sunday reality shot. Me in the basement doing laundry! 😖

The box set of the TRANSA recordings from the Red Hot Organization finally arrived! Even the cardboard shipping box is a work of art. Sorry for the shadows and busy background, but I wanted to spread it out. Even in this photo, I didn’t show that each disc has a different cover!

I think it was Ella Fitzgerald (who I happened to be fortunate enough to see live in NYC) who said something like if you want to learn to be a great Jazz singer, listen to Sassy’s music. This track is unusual in that it it’s purely a demonstration of her voice without conventional words!

“Don’t believe our outlines, forget them and begin from your own words. As if you are the first to write poetry or the last poet.” -“To a Young Poet,” Mahmoud Darwish

Reading now. It’s a fascinating reminder that identities are complicated.

Storm coming. Just me and the bunny still outside.

Resting in the hammock after a busy day in the garden!