The Book Reviews - YTD
Published on November 1, 2024I'm only going to include the novels I read, not any of the graphic novels. I unfortunately did not review Foundation and honestly I don't feel like it.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu 
"This book is simply the stream of consciousness of a man's reflection on his relation with his father. Which is somewhat self-evident based on the book description, but I want to reiterate; this book is about growing up and reflecting on your past, and secondly a science fiction book."
Come as You Are by Emily Nagoski
"A great book that I think should be required reading for young adults (and not just women, but for everyone). It is certainly too repetitive and could be halved in length, but you can skim repetitive bits if you wish."
Foundation by Isaac Asimov 
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
"earthly, yearning, hopeful, despondent, and sensual"
Endgame by Samuel Beckett 
"old man belligerently speaks to butler/lover and two ghosts of a trashcan dormouse (Alice in Wonderland) drivel to one another. nothing much happens."
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande 
"Gawande's perspective on how we have failed the old and terminally ill is insightful and frank. It is not all dark times: there is hope here and there. I will note I feel better prepared to handle my parents death, as well as my own. A raw read, truly."
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
"Poor Berniece dealing with these annoying ass men. If you thought any man in the story would have something of substance to say (men account for 90% of the dialogue), well that's too damn bad. Good point made? It's undercut by dumbassery about the piano or male bravado.
Now this is a great period piece about the black experience. August Wilson is a phenomenal writer. But. Just give me Raisin in the Sun or Fences. I can't listen to these men yap anymore."
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
"a happy pride month to these two instruments of war"
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut and Adrian Nathan West (translator)
"Renowned physicists and mathematicians are little freaks. Some of the things I learned about the physicists you find in textbooks felt akin to casually learning your dad had his own episode on a talk show. The book often lacks smooth transitions, but I'll attribute it to the audiobook format. It's giving a cross between E=mc^2 and The Body Builders."
If You See Me, Don't Say Hi by Neel Patel
"I have a penchant for collections of stories with a central theme. The unifying idea here is messy lives, but the underlying theme is hiding yourself. Either from the judgement of the greater culture (this book is about ABCDs) or from judging yourself. I would not say there's a lot of confrontation in this book, internally or externally. The morality of these characters is left to your hands. Overall, a good book, I like how the author writes and I found the stories to all be a good length. There are certainly aspects of this book I would change, but nothing that soured my reading experience."
Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
"A solid story and a great insight to old FL and taxidermy. It made me deeply nostalgic for the years I spent in Hastings and High Springs, back when old FL was as tangible as it is in this novel."
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
"Witty and engaging. The end is a bit grand for the follower mentality of the MC. A good debut for the author. I look forward to her other works."
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
"Great book to listen to in the car."
Quote Dump 2
Published on August 11, 2024We're back.
"Do not kill yourself. You just need to go to the store and buy a beverage you've never tried before. Do NOT kill yourself"
- sanpellyenjoyer, Twitter post
"staring into the bathroom mirror gripping the sink and telling myself 'you are not uniquely horrible you are literally just some guy'"
- valtsv, Tumblr post
"If life is a never ending loop of dirty dishes and laundry then that means life is a never ending loop of home cooked meals and comfy clean clothes"
- maudiemoods, Tumblr post
"being as i am an idiot, and having been one my whole life, i just wanna say that i find it very easy to do nothing, and go nowhere. i eat chocolate late at night in the dark. i stand in the garden also. and i'm often waiting for something to happen. and i'm stupid."
- truelovevip, Tumblr post
"stories is an animal. theyve got bones and meat and connective tissue. they bleed when u bite them. u bleed when they bite you"
- the-ipre, Tumblr post
I moved
Published on July 24, 2024I took a leave of absence from anything creative/personal since I just moved. I'm thinking of remixing some italian recipes, or, getting more into baking...?
neocities, what have you done...
Published on June 28, 2024If you were to only look at the dates of all my posts, you would think I was fairly inactive on here. But I am on my third redesign of the site (I have remembered to save old copies for my memories). All day, I learn color theory and place little pixels. At night, I dream of CSS and responsive web design. Website making has perfectly combined two things I love, a certain sense of creativity, and the logic puzzle of coding. I imagine I will spend most of tomorrow working on my major overhaul, because I saw Aegi's cafe and became obsessed with the idea of a non-standard menu. And also I wanted to learn pixel art. I'm sure making that making the site responsive will be challenging (imagine me like the freak outside the window saying "yes!"). Okay I'm eep and I bet there are words missing in here, goodnight :)
Quote Dump 1
Published on June 20, 2024I've been collecting these quotes because they make me feel a certain type of way.
"He makes me feel arousal in such a way that makes me want to blow my brains out"
- k1ngoftheward, TikTok comment
"'Oh, she says, well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?' And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And see some great looking babies. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And I'll ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is - we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And it's like we're not supposed to dance at all anymore."
- Kurt Vonnegut, PBS interview
"As my friend Julian puts it, only half winkingly: 'God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason God made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine, so that humanity might share in the act of creation.'"
- Daniel Mallory Ortberg, "Something That May Shock and Discredit You"
"Focus more on fun stuff than bad stuff. Pain will find you when it's time for it to. You don't need to lay out the welcome mat and keep vigil for its arrival."
- someone's mom
"You are in my blood. I can't help it. We can't be anywhere except together."
- Francesca Lia Block, "Weetzie Bat"
"I avoid my gaze in the mirror; I have no interest in learning what it feels like to meet my eyes."
- Jayson Greene, "Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir"
"if you promise to stay alive just a little bit longer I promise that we are going to make this world a place worth living in by any means necessary. I ain't giving up. I swear"
- anon, graffiti found in Clackamas, OR
"doomed by the narrative AND haunted by the narrative AND a secret third thing (mourned by the narrative)"
- moonbends, Tumblr post
"Yeah, I think she's using a certain type of honesty as a weapon of distraction. She talks very openly and honestly about sex so you feel like she's being open with you when, actually, she's completely hiding by doing that. She's distracting you from a completely different side of her, which is the side that's traumatized and in pain. I think in being honest to a 't' about one aspect of your life, you can give the illusion that you are confiding in somebody. She's using it to be dishonest in a different way, by hiding."
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paste magazine interview
"No one will know the violence it took to become this gentle."
- retroowl8, Tumblr post
"i made your favorite dish. i made you something you've never tried before. i love you. i spent twenty minutes chopping. my grandmother made this for me when i was little. i made this dairy free for you. i love you. i want to eat together. the onions made me cry. i love you. i learned this recipe for you. i love you. i made this special for your birthday. i love you. i know you don't like peppers. i love you. i love you. i love you."
- lesdemonium, Tumblr post
"Because do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from somebody who already exists in the margins? It's not humility. It's humiliation."
- Hannah Gadsby, "Nanette"
"I used to rebel by destroying myself, but realized that's awfully convenient to the world. for some of us our best revolt is self-preservation."
- Mitski, Twitter post
"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
- Audre Lorde, "A Burst of Light and Other Essays"
"your 2nd priority should be bringing joyful and loving energy to those around you. your 1st priority should always be committing to the bit"
- jewishbuckley, Tumblr post
"He loves history. He wanted to write a biography of John Quincy Adams. I, shamefully, knew almost nothing about John Quincy Adams, so I went online and bought every biography of him I could find. One day, he called me, claiming that we wouldn't work out long term. He said he loved me but that we had different interests. 'What does love mean to you?' I said. 'That's an impossible question,' he replied. I, however, find love to be quite simple. Love is the stack of biographies on my nightstand with a bookmark near the end."
- Julia Nicole Camp, New York Times
"There is witchcraft in small things. In boiling something long enough to make it edible. In tying enough knots in a yarn to make a garment. In putting a seed into the dirt until it becomes a flower."
- libraford, Tumblr post
"Among the cooks, I am the best engineer, and among the engineers I am the best cook."
- someone's great uncle
"The legacies people leave behind in you. My handwriting is the same style as the teacher's who I had when I was nine. I'm now twenty one and he's been dead eight years but my i's still curve the same way as his. I watched the last season of a TV show recently but I started it with my friend in high school. We haven't spoken in four years. I make lentil soup through the recipe my gran gave me. I curl my hair the way my best friend showed me. I learned to love books because my father loved them first. How terrifying, how excruciatingly painful to acknowledge this. That I am a jigsaw puzzle of everyone I have briefly known and loved. I carry them on with me even if I don't know it. How beautiful."
- cerleansky, Tumblr post
"Wtf do u even mean 'the thread of phrophecy is severed' if the grand design is so fragil[e] as to come unraveled by th[e] severing of a signle thread then maybe there's a better Destiny in store for those who hold tha scissors -_-"
- grimeclown, Tumblr post
"You have no moral obligation to make yourself palatable for those who would consume you."
- homunculus-argument, Tumblr post
"In the same way your heart feels and your mind thinks, you, mortal beings, are the instrument by which the universe cares. If you choose to care, then the universe cares. If you don't, then it doesn't."
- Brennan lee Mulligan, "Fantasy High S1E17"
"If a friend of mine gave a feast, and did not invite me to it, I should not mind a bit. But if a friend of mine had a sorrow and refused to allow me to share it, I should feel it most bitterly. If he shut the doors of the house of mourning against me, I would move back again and beg to be admitted so that I might share in what I was entitled to share. If he thought me unworthy, unfit to weep with him, I should feel it as the most poignant humiliation."
- Oscar Wilde, "De Profundis"
"fuck i can't believe i wasted my entire life being moved by art and beauty and the indomitable human spirit ugh i should've been making money through internet scams"
- kermitlesbian, Tumblr post
"what do you mean I can't crawl in between the slats of your ribs and sleep soundly to the beat of your heart? do you even love me?"
- tethered-heartstrings, Tumblr post
"Can i tear the divinity from your wretched form, removing you from the guiding hand and will of that which made you? Can i supplant your divine spark with wires and cables? Can i replace your golden halo with a golden circuitboard?"
- poleaxewife, Tumblr post
"Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself."
- Haruki Murakami, "Dance Dance Dance"