I’ve started painting again and I’m not sure why I stopped, exactly. That’s not entirely true. I do know one of the reasons why: my taste is more finely tuned than my ability and I am really terrible at sticking with things I’m not good at, really really terrible. And I’m not sure how to get past that particular roadblock and I’d really like to, as it’s starting to pop up in some other areas of my life, too.
But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy splattering paint on paper.
- It me: I don’t know how to waste time on the internet anymore.
- “Facebook is an emotional labor machine, and if you want to leave it, you’re going to have to start doing a lot of work.” Sorry not sorry to everyone I never wish a happy birthday to on Facebook.
- Brigid Schulte: Why time is a feminist issue. This is a bit old, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot as Cal Newport apparently has a new book he’s flogging so I’m seeing and reading a lot about deep work and no one seems willing to point out all the invisible labor which is done in support of all those hours Newport sits around thinking deep thoughts. Labor which is likely done by his spouse and departmental support staff (who are probably mostly women). And the fact that Newport is privileged enough to offload that work onto others undermines the entire system he is promoting. (A year after reading the book and I’m still het up about it.)
- The fall of fandom etiquette and the rise of the ship war This is kind of an amazing article but I’m not sure I agree with the idea that fandom was less fractious in the pre-Harry Potter days.
- “We’re like a faaaaamily.” Listen to Marissa. Marissa is smart and is saying smart things about this particular bit of rhetoric.
- A vor never sleeps. Holy shit, that’s where Bujold got the prefix from.
- Neopets’ quiet relationship with Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. Mind. Blown.
- AAR’s Top 100 Romances List: Diving into the Data. This is a super analysis of the biases inherent in the AAR list. Well worth your time.
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Thanks for linking to my post, Natalie!
Oh man, that first link. It is so, so true. The internet is far more necessary and far less enjoyable than it has ever been.
I also think that post is connected to the ship wars post. It was never all rainbows and kittens (I still remember the great Buffy-Angel Alt.tv board fights), but it seems worse now, maybe because the internet is just so unpleasant. It’s partly that so many platforms are so good at rewarding performative anger, but it’s also that everyone seems so entrenched in their positions.
Honestly, the “vor” thing is a coincidence. Bujold has written about it — when she made it up, she hadn’t realized that her Russian-descended nobility-by-force prefex already existed as an organized crime term. She was thrilled when she found out, and has retconned it in as either deliberate-ish, or at least, recognized and commented on by other people in the books — but it’s actually one of those amazingly wonderful coincidental things that happens that makes a story even better.
That makes it even better!