Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Book forty of 2019: Frozen Hell, by John W. Campbell, Jr. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A recently discovered longer version of Campbell’s classic novella “Who Goes There” (the source for John Carpenter’s SF/horror film The Thing). Holds up well for a late-30s story; still creepy and fun.
Book thirty-nine of 2019: A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr._ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1961 Hugo Best Novel
Not terribly optimistic in its outlook towards humanity’s ability to learn from our mistakes, but an excellent and far-reaching post-apocalyptic tale.
Just (finally) watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and wow, does that film deserve every accolade it’s received. A great film, and absolutely gorgeous – that animation work was incredible, and just as groundbreaking as I’d heard. I’m a fan.
Apparently young crows sound like squeaky dog toys when they caw. The one regularly around our house definitely doesn’t have the hang of it yet, but boy is it trying!
Heading out for this year’s Goth Tropicxs goth beach party night at the Mercury. Tweaked one of my favorite silly shirts in a particularly appropriate way, I think.
Book thirty-eight of 2019: White Trash Zombie Gone Wild, by Diana Rowland. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
More zombie conspiracy fun, this time in the midst of Mardi Gras and a zombie festival. Started off a little tougher than the rest, but got on track again fairly quickly.
Book thirty-seven of 2019: Fall, or Dodge in Hell, by Neal Stephenson. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Still top of my favorite current authors list, Stephenson once again keeps my mind churning with a huge, complex, fascinating SF/F mishmash of VR worlds and religion.
In memory of Mad magazine and Alfred E. Neuman, 1952-2019. What, me worry?
The one issue I keep is part of my Star Trek collection; the bust I inherited from my dad, and dates from around 1960.
From Jason Kottke:
…I’ve developed a similar unsafe feeling about the flag. It’s not a voluntary thing — it’s something that has built up over two+ years of seeing American flags in photos of MAGA rallies & white nationalist marches but not so much at Black Lives Matter marches or pro-choice rallies. I’m sure you’ve also noticed the correlation between seeing an American flag emoji in someone’s Twitter bio next to the MAGA hashtag and the tendency of that person to act like a misogynist asshole. While it’s hardly a new thing, the aggressive, intolerant, nationalistic right has been particularly effective in visibly wrapping themselves in the flag lately. It’s great branding for them, but it’s not doing the flag any favors.
This is something I’ve noticed and discussed with my wife over the past few years as well. We’re at a point where if someone’s displaying an American flag, we assume they’re probably not someone we want to associate with — that it’s a display of nationalism, not patriotism. The bigger and more ostentatious the display, the more averse we are to interacting with them.
Fellow cis/straight/allosexual/alloromantic people: The “A” in LGBTQIA+ isn’t for us. Allyship is an action, not an identity; by claiming the “A”, we center ourselves rather than those we say we support and erase (or, at minimum, risk erasing) asexual and aromantic people.