In an archival format as it was a different format from the gemlog and I was too lazy to split this up and then merge it with the Media Diary I had going on.
For what I was reading/listening to/watching at this point, check out the Media Diary. Going forward they are merged.
Media Diary (formerly Online Reads)
6) Five ways to win my heart.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¡Ay, Mija! by Christine Suggs - This is a cute, coming of age and bilingual memoir graphic novel. I love the art style and coloring (blue, white, orange centric). I also like the flow of story. It bounces around various memories, while following the track of her trip. Issues come in such as featurism, feeling Mexican enough, immmigration, learning Spanish, her budding sexuality, fatphobia, her relationship to Catholicism and a lot of stuff I connected to as a very 'white-washed' latine.
I enjoyed this for the story and also working on my own terrible Spanish. I may try to get some younger bilingual books for practice.
Why Novels Are a Richer Experience Than Movies
I enjoyed reading this. I don't 100% agree but at the same time its an excerpt from a novel so maybe it makes more 100% context in the novel. Just on its own, it assume internalized stories are the best and movies are tend to be praised the more like novels they are. This thought in of itself made me think about the way I think about books and film. No concrete stuff yet, just the little hamster of my brain tentatively jogging on the wheel.
He is honest about his bias towards novels, so fair enough.
Weirdly enough I tend to prefer books to film, but moreso I just don't have the patience to sit through most 2-3 hour long affairs. Unless I am sucked in, it feels too passive. I love physical books and the turning of the page, the feel of the paper. That said, I do read online stuff too, but the time investment is much shorter.
I'm not anti-internal experience. I'd rather post on gemini than modern social media after all. But I like the external experience too, even if its subtle.
However, I wonder if this guy watches documentaries/mockumentaries because you can get pretty deep into someone's mental state. I wonder if its just a one to one comparison (novels are fiction). Probably my favorite recent example is Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go, a personal exploration of Climate Psychology and doomerism. An incredibly internal film, but also could connect to a wide range of folk and the external world at large.
Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go | PBS Short Film Festival
5) List five places you want to visit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I read an amazing graphic novel, Uncomfortably Happily by Yeon-Sik Hong with Hellen Jo (Translator). Its a memoir comic that ends up being easy to read yet a surprising amount of depth regarding Hong's mental state and growth. We follow the ups and downs of his and his wife's budding art careers, moving to a rural place, Hong finishing college, constant debt and eventually having to leave their home.
I also read the semi-sequel, Umma's Table by Yeon-Sik Hong with Janet Hong. Which is also a well done memoir, about later in his life. The death of his mother, the grief, the bills, also having a kid, along with building up another country home.
Umma's Table by Yeon-Sik Hong with Janet Hong
I found this comprehensive list of online SFF magazines. I am going through them to see what I vibe with.
Top Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazines 2023
4) Write about someone who inspires you.
I find a lot of people interesting. Currently I am inspired by Rosa Luxemberg. She accomplished so much when she had a lot of societal marginalizations (Jewish, not wealthy, disabled, woman, etc). Her writings are incredibly interesting. Example, she wrote about globalization before it was termed and other smart things. Wish I had learned about her at a younger age.
Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg by Kate Evans
Her writings hosted on the Marxist Library
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) What are your 3 pet peeves?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Write something someone told you that you never forgot.
Ugh my memory is so terrible that I can't really answer this one satisfactorily. I forget the words but remember the feelings. Intentions?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am trying out Capacities, which others have described as a baby between Obsidian and Notion. I am liking it so far. Its easy to add stuff and I like not worrying about hierachies.
I always drool over this but never buy it.
1) List 10 Things That Make You Really Happy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books
I found this android app as an alternative to ToDoIst. Its simple and effective so far. I've been dumping all of the floating tasks that I would like to get done this year. I can message/email a list of outstanding tasks so this is neat.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What happened to mobile as a platform? (A Rant)
How do I use a mobile phone?
I actually used to read a lot of articles on the phone, but have been moving that to laptop.
My list makes me wonder how difficult it would be to move down to a dumbphone and get a mp3 player. Then move my shopping to my laptop.
Its interesting to see a lot of us thinking about our mobile phone/computer use.
Mastodon is easy and fun except when it isn’t
This was both a fun and thoughtful read. I don't use Mastodon but tried to briefly. That said, I was never really into Twitter either so I think I just suck at the format rather than have strong, negative opinions.
But I do think the way accounts work blows, and there are a lot of little janky things that possibly make sense code wise but are frustrating user wise. Hard agree with the dislike of the software itself. And heaven forbid trying to transfer an account. 💀
On the otherhand I liked the CW system unofficially just blocked almost anything and I could choose to reveal the text if I wanted to. I often did, but the heads up was nice. Its interesting that normal folk find, slowing down to curtail other's anxiety/PTSD, intolerably hostile. Its just life to me, so its a bit alienating and weird to be honest.
Also weird as there were a tooon of edgy instances to shitpost on, so I find that complaint weird.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scientists of Chinese descent leaving the US at an accelerating pace
Stuff like this makes me wonder if I should stay or leave the US as time goes on. Not that I'm some fancy hotshot scientist like those mentioned but if the people the military industrial complex should theoretically like aren't safe, the rest of us are fricked.
On the other hand as I get older and sicker, the harder it is imagining going to somewhere in Latin America or South East Asia (lol mixed) and being able to handle it. I'm weirdly sensitive to heat, which is worrying considering... projectecd future estimates of climate.
That's something I kind of resent of myseslf to be honest. I wish I had better heat tolerance so I can go outside and live a life.
Moved my media/online reading to the below link, unless I have some comprehensive thoughts on it.
Media Diary (formerly Online Reads)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm a complete noob when it comes to emacs. However being able to read books in emacs could be interesting if there was a way to integrate notetaking. Will need to investigate this.
Another thing to look into eventually. I have a smartphone, a Teracube 2e. Should last about 5 years so I don't need an mp3 player yet, but I might get a 'dumbphone' and a mp3 player once the Teracube kicks the bucket. The teracube is intentially not as good as what you get with the usual smartphone and its hitting me that I don't really want one anymore. But it feels wasteful to toss this one away when it works ok.
Back to the article, this one mentioned in the link is of interest as I can voice record, meaning I can voice record notes while I'm reading without having to sit infront of a microphone/boomstand.
To Read:
Reading:
Re: Starting my journal, so days don't just go by
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh and I also sunburned myself this past weekend. I had to get some gel for it, along with sun screen since I do want to go outside again. Its been awhile since I got sunburn!
I've been sucked back into booktube (people on Youtube who post about books). I want to have my own channel but everytime I try, its painful to record. My brain feels like its being ripped apart. Then getting everything on the laptop so I can edit. Then editing. Bleh.
Later... I've been thinking about doing a podcast on Gemini only. I feel bummed thinking about putting on web 2.0 but don't mind it being part of the smolweb. Would probably be a random babbles and then a book/media centric one. Update when I feel like it. No boxing myself into an algorithim. Now I have to figure out the logistics of hosting this.
Reading:
Technological Futures: A Letter to the Smolnet
A Response to Technological Futures
retro gaming against jevons' paradox
I don’t understand social media
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A bunch of books arrived. Books I've been wanting to read awhile. I started with Skyward Inn, its a small cast/small setting science fiction story about family drama and some larger aspects.
Later in the day and I finished Skyward Inn. It was not what I was expecting. Very much a WTF did I read? But also, I loved it. It was good sci-fi in the strange sense rather then the tech sense.
Reading:
Commercialism in Witchcraft by Ruby Witch
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Station Log:
Thoughts:
I keep thinking about the things in my life I thought were normal and not worth complaining about and see people complaining online. Should I have complained more?
Things like
I feel like I was supposed to be more upset by not being rich as a kid (I don't think poor is the right word in this case), and I wasn't. And I just feel weird. Like maybe this is weird.
Honestly the worst part was shit roommates. It DOES suck when you don't have much and people steal your food or destroy useful things like toilet paper. Yes I had a roomate's guest just toss an ENTIRE roll of toilet paper into the sink and run the water. No clue why. Luckily that person never visited again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Station Log:
Thoughts:
I've been enjoying Taiwain Quest, an online blog about a guy moving from New Zealand to Taiwan, learning Chinese. It focuses on lots of small moments. I started at the beginning and just click on the next entry. It feels like a story slowly unravelling. Very cozy.
I was reading a post by flatty about getting a RSS reader onto a Kobo ereader and then eventually not because its too much work. Honestly it confirms my thoughts about spending extra to get something like the Noox because several models are just Android and allow various apps to be downloaded. I don't currently use my Kobo because it stopped connecting to my library Libby service (one of the main reasons I got it) and I also couldn't get the RSS feed part to work.
Other cool things I like:
On Always Doing Your Best by Martin Rue
Psychic Newborn's Neocities Homepage - a surreal experience.