...

I got reminded by multiple friends that it was on this night 20 years ago that we gave our Demosthenian farewell addresses.

And that's hitting me more right now than... I don't know. The fact that I've lived in this city for 20 years and I never thought that'd be true. The loss of someone really important in my life this year. The loss of so many people over the past few years. Getting to see a friend again who I realized I've missed a lot more than I thought I did for a really long time.

Feeling like I'm starting my career over from scratch much more intensely this year than even in the immediate aftermath of the Covid shutdowns.

Or maybe just... on top of all of it.

I don't know.

adults are always talking about how “kids will do anything to get out of school” and okay, first of all that’s not true, but I think we really need to ask why that idea holds so much sway.

children’s brains are hard-wired to take in new information and acquire new skills. consider, for a moment, just how thoroughly our society had to fuck up the concept of education for it to be a normal thing to assume kids are universally desperate to avoid learning.

I love animals that are, like, the opposite of cryptids: we know for a fact they exist and have a clear idea of what they look like because we have photographs and individual specimens, but we haven’t the faintest idea where they’re coming from - they just keep showing up out of nowhere, and the locations of their actual population centres are a complete mystery.

"Maybe it’s because our political discourse swings between deranged and abhorrent on a daily basis and we would like to combat our feelings of powerlessness by insisting on moral simplicity in the stories we tell and receive. Or maybe it’s because many of the transgressions that flew under the radar in previous generations — acts of misogyny, racism and homophobia; abuses of power both macro and micro — are now being called out directly. We’re so intoxicated by openly naming these ills that we have begun operating under the misconception that to acknowledge each other’s complexity, in our communities as well as in our art, is to condone each other’s cruelties."

pros of corded headphones:

Cant lose phone

dont need to charge headphones

they look cool and are amazing

cons of corded headphones:

Every doorknob in existence is now out to get you

most people watch the x files because they either want to see aliens or watch mulder and scully kiss. coincidentally the x files is a show that is well known for avoiding showing us aliens at all costs and also not letting mulder and scully kiss.

-One pair of decent-looking, newish jeans

-One worn-out pair of jeans

-Paint jeans. For painting.

-Heavily patched and visibly mended pair of jeans

-Black jeans for work

-Purple corduroy pants for whenever those are appropriate

-Pair of black stretch pants that are basically my pajama/lounging around the apartment pants now

Idk, this doesn't seem like an outrageous number of pairs of pants, and I live in a SMALL apartment. Like that is one drawer's worth of pants, effectively. And one that's usually hanging over a chair.

this does not apply if you wear exclusively leggings. Those things tear all the time you need like a million on standby

"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.

It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).

Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.

One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.

*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.

Well, there is a first time for everything, I guess.

Just called the postal inspection office.

This floral bat baby is Gerald 🌸🦇🌺

Earlier spring.

No more sarcasm.

Earnest is in.

so I realize all sci-fi is ultimately a parable for the human experience but even within those parameters, the way Mulder and Scully experience defeat and loss is so human. most other genre shows (many of them great–the show I’m thinking of is Fringe, which did this at top level) throw roadblocks in front of their characters like time travel or alternate-universe doubles. for Mulder and Scully it’s cancer, it’s losing a child or the government taking your job. even abduction is treated like a missing person’s case. they investigate realms of extreme possibility but exist in the world of actual possibility and I think that’s part of why they’ve stuck with us. this job takes from them in the same way the world takes from us. we speak the same language

American Crow on the fence by my house

Photo by me, taken on FujiFilm X-T30 II

idk guys. have you listened to/read the things txf writers have said?? i think a lot of what we notice is intentional. whether they decided to go back & use something because it worked for an idea, or even if they didn't think about certain things as deeply as we do...writing is often very intentional. just because we think something could have been better or should be more explicit....doesn't mean they felt the same.

i'm here saying again txf writers don't treat their audience like they're stupid, they expect that we can read between the lines & make connections & identify unreliable narrators etc etc.