darthmaclunkey

[darthmaclunkey]

is shaving defiance? is promoting plastic surgery girl's girl behaviour? is makeup self care? are heels empowering? is reading apolitical? is voting feminist? is giving up on your career freeing? is starting a traditional family with 5 kids my own choice? is having rights feminist?

[darthmaclunkey]

rings + art

[darthmaclunkey]

[darthmaclunkey]

having anti punitive justice morals sucks because you want to say "man that guy sucks he should get hit with hammers until he dies" but you also want to make it clear you don't think anyone should be put in charge of the 'hit people with hammers until they die" machine.

[darthmaclunkey]

More stupid Twin Peaks things I made

[darthmaclunkey]

twin peaks text posts pt. 2

[darthmaclunkey]

David Lynch as GORDON COLE Twin Peaks (1990-1992)

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COOPER! COOP! THE PEOPLE DOWN AT THE BUREAU ARE ACCUSING YOU AND THE SHERIFF OF SOMETHING KNOWN AS DOOMED YAOI. YOURE FUJOING OUT THEYRE SAYING. NOW I STAND WITH YOU COOP I AM A BIT OF A FUJOSHI MYSELF BUT THEYRE NOT TOO HAPPY ABOUT THIS DOWN IN WASHINGTON.

[darthmaclunkey]

(trying to give relationship advice) from a narrative perspective i think both of you dying together would be the most emotionally satisfying resolution but i’m guessing that’s not what you want to hear

[darthmaclunkey]

if you want to actually start to end homelessness, you need to give homeless people unconditional homes, including when we use them to do drugs or sit around drinking. either housing is unconditional or it isn’t

someone sitting at home alone, an active alcoholic, squandering your charity, drinking all day is better situation than a street homeless alcoholic. someone using drugs in your charity house is better than them doing the same w no shelter

most of you would not like most street homeless people, I definitely don’t and didn’t when I was street homeless. for every one person who uses unconditional shelter to turn themselves around, someone else will do jack shit and very slowly, if ever, work through the issues that made them homeless, will maybe never be able to live independently. still better than street homelessness, still worth doing. ultimately either you believe that shelter should be universal or you don’t

homeless people actually can’t be rehabilitated if you want to end homelessness. we either affirm the right to shelter for the worst drunken, lying, filthy, cheating, self destructive homeless people that exist, genuinely irredeemable wankers, or we concede that shelter is not a right

[darthmaclunkey]

we're halfway through the year, and so here's my roundup of everything I've read so far. where possible I have tried to note how the book was sourced, as I'm trying to track just how much of my library is bought new vs secondhand:

absolution by jeff vandermeer (signed first edition! bought new) - idk, I was very excited for this but it felt like a bit of a slog to me. I loved hummingbird salamander and annihilation, but I think the more esoteric & abstract jeff gets (which is clearly where he's happiest to be) I find myself glazing over and feeling like I need to attack the book with a pencil and sticky tabs to try and track down the clues I'm missing. this isn't a criticism, it just didn't do it for me in the same way those first two I read did, and I feel like I didn't need the extra context for the southern reach trilogy.

stories of your life and others by ted chiang (bought new, now donated) - I'm usually such a "book was better!!" purist but not in this case! I think arrival turned a good short story into an absolutely transcendent film. partly I felt the style of writing was far too matter of fact and didn't feel lyrical enough.

piranesi by susanna clarke (secondhand) - I devoured this! absolutely loved it.

the year of magical thinking by joan didion (bought new) - another one I absolutely devoured. cried my eyes out too.

abaddon's gate by james s. a. corey (audiobook, library loan) - I'm going to be real with you, I barely remember this one, mostly because I've listened to five other expanse books since then.

negative space by b. r. yeager (bought new, now donated) - this one was a huge letdown for me although I think I probably would have loved it when I was 13 (derogatory)

doppelganger: a trip into the mirror world by naomi klein (audiobook, library loan) - partly I loved this because I had a similar bizarre experience (sadly a story I can't tell without doxxing myself, but it involves me having had, in around 2014, a twitter handle that was one character off the handle of a vile UK rightwing journalist and getting all of her hate mail) but also because naomi klein really wonderfully unpacked the way the rightwing co-opts and distorts leftist messaging to sow further division.

i cheerfully refuse by leif enger (kindle) - SO beautifully written! adored this!

the seep by chana porter (bought new, now donated) - short & sweet and very funny at times.

the vegetarian by han kang (secondhand, now donated) - I feel like I didn't get the hype about this one. it got donated back to the local little free library when I was done.

queer by william s. burroughs (bought new) - a queer book indeed. had to read it after watching the film. definitely helps to know the context of burroughs' life to fill in all the gaps (which would probably be obvious if you were reading it blind - it's such a scant text and feels like it purposefully omits so much)

martyr! by kaveh akbar (kindle) - excellent, excellent book, such a gripping story told so poetically & brimming with beautiful imagery. definitely one of my top reads of the year so far.

the love hypothesis by ali hazelwood (kindle) - didn't expect to like this as much as I did, given that romance isn't really my thing, but I had such a good time with this & will be seeking out more ali.

cibola burn by james s. a. corey (audiobook, library loan) - ok this one just got funny towards the end because the principal cast went through SO much torture.

what feasts at knight by t. kingfisher (audiobook, library loan) - this didn't hit for me the same way the first sworn soldier novella did, but I don't think it helped that the audiobook narrator put on a terrrrrible scottish accent for one of the characters.

the vaster wilds by lauren groff (bought new on a recommendation from a waterstones bookseller, now donated) - this was good, I don't have a whole lot to say about it. very poetic & all but it is kind of just a long jog from start to finish, and even if the ultimate conclusion is realistic, it felt like it went out on a bit of a whimper.

sunrise on the reaping by suzanne collins (kindle) - the long awaited haymitch prequel! I am and always will be a hunger games stan, but I did find it funny how this one opened with three PARAGRAPHS of quotes from david hume et al to beat you over the head about what the message of the novel will be.

conclave by robert harris (kindle) - no notes. refreshingly zippy pace and straightforward prose. I like the implicit suggestion that cardinal lomeli may not be entirely straight.

nemesis games by james s. a. corey (audiobook, library loan) - probably my favourite of the expanse series so far. I've always begrudgingly gone along with holden as the main protagonist despite finding him kinda dull, so I LOVED that we actually got a set of interesting & complex backstories for the rest of the roci crew in this one.

granta 170: winners (magazine subscription) - my first granta (my dad was a subscriber for years, my childhood home had an entire bookshelf stacked with them) and it was a bit of a dull one.

granta 169: china (magazine subscription) - my second granta, by contrast, was excellent! I've had so little exposure to chinese literature in translation, and this was an amazing collection.

babylon's ashes by james s. a. corey (audiobook from apple books - library didn't have it) - marco inaros, possibly the worst character in space opera history? I was like 😠 everytime he was mentioned.

against a dark background by iain m. banks (secondhand) - not my favourite iain m. banks, but I still believe he's the best sci fi author of all time. nobody else does worldbuilding segues like him. life is so cruel and unfair; he should still be with us.

hunchback by saou ichikawa (bought new, now donated) - this was short! I read it in one (1) lunchbreak! it was interesting, but I feel a weeeeeee bit cheated that I paid £10.99 for something that only took an hour to read.

whale fall by elizabeth o'connor (bought new, now donated) - very well written and with a really interesting protagonist. loved the contrast of the day-to-day of manod's life with the looming background of mainland fascism, and her perspective on cultural exploitation.

luckenbooth by jenni fagan (secondhand, now redonated) - very sorry to everyone who likes this but I thought it SUCKED. riddled with weird inaccuracies that took me right out of the text (a character "stealing wifi from the coffee shop down the road" in 1999?) and the inclusion of william s. burroughs as a character was so bizarre, especially when you make him say something like "I don't care who loves who...as long as everyone is an adult and consenting" babe he would not say that!!

the state of the art by iain m. banks (secondhand) - welcome back ms diziet sma! great collection.

persepolis rising by james s. a. corey (audiobook, apple books) - really enjoyed clarissa mao & santiago singh as characters in this, felt like foils of each other to me as people who have done wrong, but with very different outcomes (clarissa finding redemption, santiago...not)

star wars: the mask of fear by alexander freed (kindle) - this took me ages to finish, I just couldn't get into it. despite having an NB character the book seemed allergic to any use of the singular they pronoun, constantly using the character's name even when it read weirdly. although, knowing how these star wars books are commissioned, I don't want to point the finger at the author for this in case it was a editorial choice.

tiamat's wrath by james s. a. corey (audiobook, library loan) - good god what an arc for amos!! currently got a hold on leviathan falls via the library so I can finish up this series.

station eleven by emily st. john mandel (secondhand) - good, but some of the story choices felt kind of...anticlimatic? I'm thinking of the ending in particular. I also felt like the second half of the book potentially focused too much on arthur in the past rather than kirsten in the present.

camp damascus by chuck tingle (kindle) - this was great! really strong voice for rose as the protagonist, it felt very authentic.

ascension by nicholas binge (audiobook, library loan) - booo corny tomato tomato tomato! the finale was a straight up ripoff of interstellar, and it was absolutely laughable that the big reveal of one of the characters being an alien hinged on their name spelling I AM ALIEN backwards. I had to pause it at that point because I was laughing too hard.

currently reading: woman on the edge of time by marge piercy (secondhand)

[darthmaclunkey]

[darthmaclunkey]

It has social anxiety okay ;-;

[darthmaclunkey]

Thinking about how Anakin canonically both touched grass and got laid and was still Like That.

[darthmaclunkey]

It is your sworn duty, when you're in your 30's, to do something every day that would have gotten you viciously bullied in high school.

[darthmaclunkey]

friends, if I can give you one piece of advice for those of you who are new to work, or are about to enter the workforce, especially if you have any sort of office job:

Do not work on your days off.

"But--"

DO NOT WORK ON YOUR DAYS OFF.

[darthmaclunkey]

Microsoft Office, like many companies in recent months, has slyly turned on an “opt-out” feature that scrapes your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems. This setting is turned on by default, and you have to manually uncheck a box in order to opt out.

If you are a writer who uses MS Word to write any proprietary content (blog posts, novels, or any work you intend to protect with copyright and/or sell), you’re going to want to turn this feature off immediately.How to Turn off Word’s AI Access To Your Content

I won’t beat around the bush. Microsoft Office doesn’t make it easy to opt out of this new AI privacy agreement, as the feature is hidden through a series of popup menus in your settings:On a Windows computer, follow these steps to turn off “Connected Experiences”:

File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Optional Connected Experiences > Uncheck box: “Turn on optional connected experiences”