manicure and long nails
Jun. 1st, 2025 11:03 pmAlright I got that manicure. Nail care, cuticle care, nail polish, nail gel, and a clear coat. They're so smooooooth. I love it. The nails are still quite long even after being cut. They should be quite something in a month if I don't break anything... I might get colour next time. We'll see. I had some deep burgundy once, I could go back for that kind of colour.
Also an interesting development with having long nails: I used to gnaw at the skin around some of my nails, but now I just kind of dig my index fingernail or my middle fingernail into the skin on the inner side of the thumbnail, or dig one nail under another nail, and that gives me as much satisfaction while destroying less skin. Also I love scratching my scalp or my skin with these nails.
ETA: Oh, I understand what French manicure is for now, other than being fancy... with the clear coat you see all of the nail ends' imperfections... FC covers all that up.
Also an interesting development with having long nails: I used to gnaw at the skin around some of my nails, but now I just kind of dig my index fingernail or my middle fingernail into the skin on the inner side of the thumbnail, or dig one nail under another nail, and that gives me as much satisfaction while destroying less skin. Also I love scratching my scalp or my skin with these nails.
ETA: Oh, I understand what French manicure is for now, other than being fancy... with the clear coat you see all of the nail ends' imperfections... FC covers all that up.
long nails
May. 30th, 2025 02:15 pmI have pretty long nails right now. And none of them are broken. I think the first time I let my nails grow, I was larping Vampire the Masquerade, back in cégep. Back then I didn't know what I was doing so my nails were breaking and stuff. This time I've actually trimmed the sides right when they started getting longer than normal, so none of them have broken so far. There's a couple I've had to trim a bit more more on the side but whatever. The only annoying thing is that my index and middle finger nails have buckled somewhat, i.e. they're a bit bent flat at the front. (Is there a name for that?) If I go out this weekend I might get a manicure to see how nice I can get my nails to be. Every time I touch my hair or my face it feels like I have claws now.
I'm coughing my guts out and blowing my brains out... Okay I'm exaggerating for effect, but I have a nasty cough and I'm producing thick snot non-stop.
I've been making my favourite masala tea to soothe my throat:
Lots of slices of ginger
A chili
A bunch of black and white peppercorns
A bunch of all-spice berries
A black cardamom pod
A few cloves
A anise star
A cinnamon stick
Some Szechuan peppercorns
Some mustard powder (because I don't have wasabi)
Simmer in a litre of water for 30 minutes. Add a teaspoon of black tea leaves 5 minutes before the end. Serve with warmed soymilk and sugar. Makes three large mugs.
You're supposed to make this with honey but I don't like honey, and maple syrup doesn't quite work for me here.
I've also been eating a bit of raw garlic, taking cold/flu medicine, and extra cough syrup, just because. Judging by how today is as bad as yesterday, the effects have been mostly superficial :P
Third time I've been this sick this year. I hate this. I need to sleep fuller nights, because there are few worst things to weaken an immune system...
(Of course two previous COVID infections didn't help. This isn't COVID though.)
I've been making my favourite masala tea to soothe my throat:
Lots of slices of ginger
A chili
A bunch of black and white peppercorns
A bunch of all-spice berries
A black cardamom pod
A few cloves
A anise star
A cinnamon stick
Some Szechuan peppercorns
Some mustard powder (because I don't have wasabi)
Simmer in a litre of water for 30 minutes. Add a teaspoon of black tea leaves 5 minutes before the end. Serve with warmed soymilk and sugar. Makes three large mugs.
You're supposed to make this with honey but I don't like honey, and maple syrup doesn't quite work for me here.
I've also been eating a bit of raw garlic, taking cold/flu medicine, and extra cough syrup, just because. Judging by how today is as bad as yesterday, the effects have been mostly superficial :P
Third time I've been this sick this year. I hate this. I need to sleep fuller nights, because there are few worst things to weaken an immune system...
(Of course two previous COVID infections didn't help. This isn't COVID though.)
" ‘It’s totally unacceptable’: Mark Carney demands ‘immediate’ explanation after shots fired near Canadians in West Bank
The Israeli military apologized for the incident, which occurred after the delegation “deviated from the approved route” of their visit.”
The joint declaration between France, Canada and the UK a few days ago felt like a turning point to me. Then an "accident" like this is pouring fuel on the fire. It's clear that Trudeau had a Bidenian sense of himself as a Zionist, and it's unclear yet if Carney shares this disposition. I think these early signs say no. Also Trump has been taking to Hamas directly, keeping the Israelis out of the loop. That's the most sensible thing an American administration has done since Obama withheld the American veto on some UNGA or SC resolution in 2015. Qatar and the Saudis have been pressure-hosing gold down Trump's gullet, something that the Israelis can't do. I feel like we might be at all inflexion point...
The Israeli military apologized for the incident, which occurred after the delegation “deviated from the approved route” of their visit.”
The joint declaration between France, Canada and the UK a few days ago felt like a turning point to me. Then an "accident" like this is pouring fuel on the fire. It's clear that Trudeau had a Bidenian sense of himself as a Zionist, and it's unclear yet if Carney shares this disposition. I think these early signs say no. Also Trump has been taking to Hamas directly, keeping the Israelis out of the loop. That's the most sensible thing an American administration has done since Obama withheld the American veto on some UNGA or SC resolution in 2015. Qatar and the Saudis have been pressure-hosing gold down Trump's gullet, something that the Israelis can't do. I feel like we might be at all inflexion point...
The PKK is disbanding
May. 9th, 2025 04:25 pmThe PKK has held its Congress and has announced that it is disbanding.
Leyla Zana welcomes PKK Congress outcomes, urges responsibility for a democratic future
I'm in shock. Clearly the entire Kurdish freedom movement won't just disappear, and has always skilled at adopting multiple identities depending on the circumstances. "The PKK" itself morphed from the whole to being a one component of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), which itself was the inheritor of the mantle of the Kurdish armed struggle movement. (i.e. the KCK is the "real" PKK, while "the PKK" is the Turkish faction hiding in Iraq, itself divided between the political wing, and its subsidiary the HPG, which itself is the "armed" group.
Here's a simple chart of the armed movement:
Here's a more complex map/chart of the movement, with links to other political parties who officially claim to have no link to the PKK (lol) but do have a fair degree of independence. Their members/politicans do routinely get arrested and/or deposed under false accusations of terrorism by Turkey (and in Iran, where they often get straight up executed, though it is a much smaller movement there)
Link to Wikipedia if it doesn't allow hotlinking to images
There's also a complex number of supporting political organizations in Europe, mostly in Germany and somewhat in Belgium, France and possibly Sweden. Amberin Zaman mentions business interests as well, and the PKK has been accused of being into drug smuggling before. So I'm pretty sure most of this isn't going away, even if Erdogan's demand was that "all related organizations" disband. And the PYD/YPG/YPJ/SDF aren't going away any time soon in Syria, which Turkey does consider to be an even more serious threat on its border. But the PKK had effectively lost the armed struggle against the Turkish state, which kept using it as a scarecrow, so maybe this shift will allow for political movement in the right direction? It's definitely been going in the WRONG direction in Turkey since 2015, in terms of Kurdish political and civil rights.
Anyway I have a meta-post about the PKK, Hamas and armed resistance brewing in my head, which I should start drafting soon....
(Parenthesis: Apparently Öcalan was allowed to zoom in at the Congress, and that clearly would have been a presence very difficult to contradict in the movement, in light of the absolute personality cult around him in the movement.)
Leyla Zana welcomes PKK Congress outcomes, urges responsibility for a democratic future
I'm in shock. Clearly the entire Kurdish freedom movement won't just disappear, and has always skilled at adopting multiple identities depending on the circumstances. "The PKK" itself morphed from the whole to being a one component of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), which itself was the inheritor of the mantle of the Kurdish armed struggle movement. (i.e. the KCK is the "real" PKK, while "the PKK" is the Turkish faction hiding in Iraq, itself divided between the political wing, and its subsidiary the HPG, which itself is the "armed" group.
Here's a simple chart of the armed movement:
Here's a more complex map/chart of the movement, with links to other political parties who officially claim to have no link to the PKK (lol) but do have a fair degree of independence. Their members/politicans do routinely get arrested and/or deposed under false accusations of terrorism by Turkey (and in Iran, where they often get straight up executed, though it is a much smaller movement there)
Link to Wikipedia if it doesn't allow hotlinking to imagesThere's also a complex number of supporting political organizations in Europe, mostly in Germany and somewhat in Belgium, France and possibly Sweden. Amberin Zaman mentions business interests as well, and the PKK has been accused of being into drug smuggling before. So I'm pretty sure most of this isn't going away, even if Erdogan's demand was that "all related organizations" disband. And the PYD/YPG/YPJ/SDF aren't going away any time soon in Syria, which Turkey does consider to be an even more serious threat on its border. But the PKK had effectively lost the armed struggle against the Turkish state, which kept using it as a scarecrow, so maybe this shift will allow for political movement in the right direction? It's definitely been going in the WRONG direction in Turkey since 2015, in terms of Kurdish political and civil rights.
Anyway I have a meta-post about the PKK, Hamas and armed resistance brewing in my head, which I should start drafting soon....
(Parenthesis: Apparently Öcalan was allowed to zoom in at the Congress, and that clearly would have been a presence very difficult to contradict in the movement, in light of the absolute personality cult around him in the movement.)
So I'm almost 3 months behind on my podcasts so I had missed that Jesse Brown had Hal Niedzviecki on Canadaland in February. Jesse declares right away that they won't be talking about Israel, by which he means that they won't be talking about how they both got cancelled for genocide-supporting speech (when not spreading blatant lies about Palestinians, their supporters, Hamas, etc) whike being so-called champions of alternative voices. Instead Brown decided to celebrate the life and times of Broken Pencil, the zine-review and Canadian indie culture magazine that he ran for 30 years. While that's problematic in the above context, it could have been an interesting episode, except that Hal is a boring interviewee and isn't able to discuss zines above the level of a liberal journalist finding out about them for the first time. Pretty pitiful! They had to intercut the interview with excerpts of the zines discussed to make it somewhat interesting.
When Hal decided to cancel Canzine and Broken Pencil, there was radio silence for a while, until Jonathan Rotzstain wrote a good account for Toronto alt-monthly The Grind. It turns out that there was radio silence for a while because 4 different national progressive publications refused to touch the story and even The Grind asked for the part where he linked Hal's case to Jesse Brown's to be cut from the story. So Rotzstain published a zine, Really Broken Pencil, with his original story and some extras. So now I'm distributing this zine. When better is that it turns out Rotzstain and others are planning to organize a zine fair to replace Canzine, and now I'm joining them. Exciting!!
---
Unrelated anti-recommendation: Dr. Oz was on the Jordan Peterson podcast... I thought it could be hilarious, but Oz's thing is to say stuff that sounds reasonable in a calm and measured manner so in the end it was just an exercise in breaking down lies, and I have other things to do with my life. We know these quantities.
---
I pulled an all-nighter while procrastinating on preparing my trip to Québec (on top of already having a significant sleep deficit this week) and I still ended up packing and showering at the very last minute. I didn't take my medication but somehow I'm still awake? So strange. Not good for my body, for sure. Tried sleeping on the bus (10 hours total today) but I can't sleep during up. I might have caught one or two hours at best.
When Hal decided to cancel Canzine and Broken Pencil, there was radio silence for a while, until Jonathan Rotzstain wrote a good account for Toronto alt-monthly The Grind. It turns out that there was radio silence for a while because 4 different national progressive publications refused to touch the story and even The Grind asked for the part where he linked Hal's case to Jesse Brown's to be cut from the story. So Rotzstain published a zine, Really Broken Pencil, with his original story and some extras. So now I'm distributing this zine. When better is that it turns out Rotzstain and others are planning to organize a zine fair to replace Canzine, and now I'm joining them. Exciting!!
---
Unrelated anti-recommendation: Dr. Oz was on the Jordan Peterson podcast... I thought it could be hilarious, but Oz's thing is to say stuff that sounds reasonable in a calm and measured manner so in the end it was just an exercise in breaking down lies, and I have other things to do with my life. We know these quantities.
---
I pulled an all-nighter while procrastinating on preparing my trip to Québec (on top of already having a significant sleep deficit this week) and I still ended up packing and showering at the very last minute. I didn't take my medication but somehow I'm still awake? So strange. Not good for my body, for sure. Tried sleeping on the bus (10 hours total today) but I can't sleep during up. I might have caught one or two hours at best.
Bandcamp Friday!
May. 2nd, 2025 10:31 amNeon Cowgirl by Tami Neilson
Grand Blood by Doomriders
(That's a combination... 8)
Reach Beyond the Sun by Shai Hulud
Misanthropy Pure by Shai Hulud
Carnage Gathers by Grave Infestation
Hounds of Blood by World Eaters
Premonition by WHITE LUNG
Last by Loma Prieta
Light for the Midnight by Cold Specks
Tenaz-Demo by Tenaz
10-kappaletta by Viha
Carrion by Aortes
Ancient Greece by Ancient Greece
All of your anger is actually sh... by Gloin
Ancient Greece and Gloin are local, I saw them at a show last Friday with an old friend. Both are Joy Division-ish
Grand Blood by Doomriders
(That's a combination... 8)
Reach Beyond the Sun by Shai Hulud
Misanthropy Pure by Shai Hulud
Carnage Gathers by Grave Infestation
Hounds of Blood by World Eaters
Premonition by WHITE LUNG
Last by Loma Prieta
Light for the Midnight by Cold Specks
Tenaz-Demo by Tenaz
10-kappaletta by Viha
Carrion by Aortes
Ancient Greece by Ancient Greece
All of your anger is actually sh... by Gloin
Ancient Greece and Gloin are local, I saw them at a show last Friday with an old friend. Both are Joy Division-ish
Double-header on The Eurasian Knot, which is a Soviet Union history podcast, from a liberal perspective.
The first episode is a recording of a lecture that Prof. Mark Steinberg gave years ago, titled The Russian Revolution as Utopian Leap in the Open Air of History. The episode description says "Mark Steinberg on the symbolism of angels, wings, and flight in the Russian Revolution." I would add that the talk starts with Walter Benjamin's Angelus Novus to set the motif and then goes into Nieztche, Trotsky, Lenin, Maiakovskii, Ernst Blöch (remember the Utopia guy from a post a few months ago?) and last but not least, Alexandra Kollontaï. It feels a bit rushed and I was listening with one ear while doing laundry but there were too many things in it not share it for![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sabotabby. :)
The second episode is episode is Intimate Lives of International Communism. Historian Maurice J. Casey wrote a book on the inhabitants of Hotel Lux, which was taken over by the Soviets and turned into apartments for many important though not top-level early Bolsheviks in the early years of the Revolution in Moscow. What I found particularly interesting is that Casey regards Bolshevism as a millenarian cult. The interview doesn't dwell that much on it but that's the part I would love to read the book for. Very interesting beyond that part anyway.
--
You might have noticed that I'm sharing 2017 and 2024 episodes of the podcast at the same time. You might wonder, how do you manage it,frandroid? In the case of very long, non-sequential podcasts, I'll pick amongst the most recent episodes, but when I've covered the ones I want to listen to, I switch to the start of the podcast and make a selection there, instead of just going a little further back. I find that the dead zone of podcasts is 2 to 9 months ago, where you might think an episode would be interesting but you realize your knowledge to the future of the episode renders it mostly irrelevant or uninteresting.
Of course that's 99% irrelevant for a Russian history podcast, though you would think it would, judging by the war in progress. But this guy is limiting his coverage before 2005 or so...
The first episode is a recording of a lecture that Prof. Mark Steinberg gave years ago, titled The Russian Revolution as Utopian Leap in the Open Air of History. The episode description says "Mark Steinberg on the symbolism of angels, wings, and flight in the Russian Revolution." I would add that the talk starts with Walter Benjamin's Angelus Novus to set the motif and then goes into Nieztche, Trotsky, Lenin, Maiakovskii, Ernst Blöch (remember the Utopia guy from a post a few months ago?) and last but not least, Alexandra Kollontaï. It feels a bit rushed and I was listening with one ear while doing laundry but there were too many things in it not share it for
sabotabby. :)The second episode is episode is Intimate Lives of International Communism. Historian Maurice J. Casey wrote a book on the inhabitants of Hotel Lux, which was taken over by the Soviets and turned into apartments for many important though not top-level early Bolsheviks in the early years of the Revolution in Moscow. What I found particularly interesting is that Casey regards Bolshevism as a millenarian cult. The interview doesn't dwell that much on it but that's the part I would love to read the book for. Very interesting beyond that part anyway.
--
You might have noticed that I'm sharing 2017 and 2024 episodes of the podcast at the same time. You might wonder, how do you manage it,
frandroid? In the case of very long, non-sequential podcasts, I'll pick amongst the most recent episodes, but when I've covered the ones I want to listen to, I switch to the start of the podcast and make a selection there, instead of just going a little further back. I find that the dead zone of podcasts is 2 to 9 months ago, where you might think an episode would be interesting but you realize your knowledge to the future of the episode renders it mostly irrelevant or uninteresting. Of course that's 99% irrelevant for a Russian history podcast, though you would think it would, judging by the war in progress. But this guy is limiting his coverage before 2005 or so...
Podcast Friday - Ukrainian history
Apr. 25th, 2025 05:42 pmA coincidental double-feature about Ukrainian history today!
The best podcast for Ukrainian history is obviously Timothy Snyder's fall 2022 Yale course, The Making of Modern Ukraine, which he taught in light of the Russian invasion.
But that's a pretty long thing to listen to! Romeo Kokriatski from Ukraine Without Hype has decided to also try his hand at a shorter version of it. He was aiming for one hour, he did it in two in 99: Ukrainian History 101. In a way I found it was somewhat complementary to Snyder's course, unless I have already forgotten large chunks of that! It was a good episode and I should listen to it again more closely so that it sticks... 8)
A more specific bit of Ukrainian history comes from Charlie Allison on
KPFA - Against the Grain: Ukrainian Anarchist. Allison wrote No Harmless Power: The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist Nestor Makhno published by PM Press, and he gives us a decent lecture summarizing it. I think as a podcast thing, Mike Duncan was a bit better than Allison talking about the more important aspects of Makhno's life during the Revolutions episode where he spent some time on him, but then again he wasn't trying to give a full biography.
My third recommendation today slightly touches on Ukraine but is more general. It's an episode of David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: [S5.5 E08] The Politics of Humiliation. Here Harvey discusses national humiliation, from the Opium Wars and Versailles, to the WWII settlement, the end of the Cold Wars, to the wars on Ukraine and Gaza. There's a funny bit in there about how Trump complaining about Fentanyl coming to the US from China is ironic considering the historical precedent of the Opium Wars... Anyway this was insightful and gave me much to think about, though I it missed a crucial element regarding Ukraine, aka Ukrainians' own aspirations.
The best podcast for Ukrainian history is obviously Timothy Snyder's fall 2022 Yale course, The Making of Modern Ukraine, which he taught in light of the Russian invasion.
But that's a pretty long thing to listen to! Romeo Kokriatski from Ukraine Without Hype has decided to also try his hand at a shorter version of it. He was aiming for one hour, he did it in two in 99: Ukrainian History 101. In a way I found it was somewhat complementary to Snyder's course, unless I have already forgotten large chunks of that! It was a good episode and I should listen to it again more closely so that it sticks... 8)
A more specific bit of Ukrainian history comes from Charlie Allison on
KPFA - Against the Grain: Ukrainian Anarchist. Allison wrote No Harmless Power: The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist Nestor Makhno published by PM Press, and he gives us a decent lecture summarizing it. I think as a podcast thing, Mike Duncan was a bit better than Allison talking about the more important aspects of Makhno's life during the Revolutions episode where he spent some time on him, but then again he wasn't trying to give a full biography.
My third recommendation today slightly touches on Ukraine but is more general. It's an episode of David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: [S5.5 E08] The Politics of Humiliation. Here Harvey discusses national humiliation, from the Opium Wars and Versailles, to the WWII settlement, the end of the Cold Wars, to the wars on Ukraine and Gaza. There's a funny bit in there about how Trump complaining about Fentanyl coming to the US from China is ironic considering the historical precedent of the Opium Wars... Anyway this was insightful and gave me much to think about, though I it missed a crucial element regarding Ukraine, aka Ukrainians' own aspirations.
hoisted by their own petard
Apr. 24th, 2025 11:44 pmAs you might remember, the Province of On-TAH-REE-oh! has been run by Doug Ford, Rob Ford's doppelganger brother for a while, and was re-elected earlier this year for another term.* One of his campaign promises was to rip out a number of bike lanes in Toronto, because clearly gridlock is where the future lies. Doug got elected and then passed his lane-ripping law.
Toronto's main cyclist-advocacy group is challenging the law. They have also requested an injunction against ripping out lanes until the court has rendered its final judgement, which was granted by the court. One of the particular stipulations of the law is that no one can sue the government for damages created by the removal of bike lanes. It was a seemingly smart consequence-shielding of the law, except that the judge ruling on the injunction request found that it worked in the opposite way too.
> The demolition and reconstruction will create its own impacts on traffic - both for cyclists and motor vehicles – and will likely result in considerable disturbance and congestion while that is taking place. Cyclists who continue to use these routes will be at risk of irreparable physical harm for which, as Firestone RSJ pointed out, the government will not provide any compensation in damages: HTA, ss. 195.10-14.
And thus this consequence-shielding stipulation of the law was cited by the judge as a reason to suspend its application, at least temporarily.
*: it's kind of weird because on one hand you feel like Doug Ford became Ontario Premier only because he couldn't become mayor of Toronto, and on the other hand it seems quite clear that if Pierre Poilievre loses the federal election on Monday, Doug would be a contender to become to the Top Con honcho in the country.
Toronto's main cyclist-advocacy group is challenging the law. They have also requested an injunction against ripping out lanes until the court has rendered its final judgement, which was granted by the court. One of the particular stipulations of the law is that no one can sue the government for damages created by the removal of bike lanes. It was a seemingly smart consequence-shielding of the law, except that the judge ruling on the injunction request found that it worked in the opposite way too.
> The demolition and reconstruction will create its own impacts on traffic - both for cyclists and motor vehicles – and will likely result in considerable disturbance and congestion while that is taking place. Cyclists who continue to use these routes will be at risk of irreparable physical harm for which, as Firestone RSJ pointed out, the government will not provide any compensation in damages: HTA, ss. 195.10-14.
And thus this consequence-shielding stipulation of the law was cited by the judge as a reason to suspend its application, at least temporarily.
*: it's kind of weird because on one hand you feel like Doug Ford became Ontario Premier only because he couldn't become mayor of Toronto, and on the other hand it seems quite clear that if Pierre Poilievre loses the federal election on Monday, Doug would be a contender to become to the Top Con honcho in the country.
Popular Front - Exploding Pagers, Carpet Bombing, and a Dead Nasrallah
Popular Front is a podcast that covers armed conflict around the world, particularly resistance struggles, and gets into all kinds of obscure corners of weapons geekery and sometimes the most obscure insurgencies and related topics you can think of. Jake Hanrahan is a pretty good host but my level of interest from one episode the other varies greatly.
This episode though really hits it out of the park, thanks in great part to guest Elia Ayoub. Ayoub himself hosts another very excellent radical Middle Eastern politics podcast, The Fire These Times – Voices From the Periphery. So I thought this would be a simple post-mortem of the Nasrallah assassination, and it was that. But it was also a pretty good primer of the history and politics of Nasrallah's Hezbollah. It's not laid out in chronological order, but Ayoub is so knowledgeable that he just expounds about this stuff through the conversation with Hanrahan. This is episode is very anti-campist, and takes good care to highlight how while leftists can support the ontological point of the right of resistance and insurgent violence against an oppressor, they politically should not be supporting Hezbollah and Hamas, because they really aren't our friends. (Actually that's partly a point taken from a different Podcast Friday post that's sitting on my To Be Written shelf in my brain, but it's almost as explicit here as well.)
---
THIS IS REVOLUTION ＞podcast - EP. 719: WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE PKK? ft. Djene Bajalan
Another primer! This time with Prof. Djene Bajalan, who talks about the events related to the recent letter Abdullah Öcalan enjoining the PKK to lay down weapons. The host is pretty clueless but thankfully, he knows to just shut up and let Bajalan speak, which he does at length. It's a short and unvarnished history of the PKK and some other parts of the Kurdish freedom struggle at large, in particular its relation with Hafez al-Assad in Syria, where I did learn/refresh some things. Like the other episode above, this is not too didactic and comes out in a meandering but accessible way as well.
Time to get my bread before the bakery closes...
Podcast Friday - Emptying the drawers
Mar. 28th, 2025 11:43 amAlright now I'm procrastinating at work, so let's see...
The Agenda with Steve Paikin - Still Plenty of Strange New Worlds for Star Trek to Explore
Fuck Steve Paikin, but Robert Picardo was in Toronto to shoot Starfleet Academy and Paikin got to interview him. Picardo is awesome, you can't really have a bad interview with him. His interview on InvestiGates was good too.
Free City Radio - Interview with Shir Hever on the call for an arms embargo on the Israeli state
Shiv Ever is an Israeli who now lives in Germany and spends a lot of his time working on the BDS campaign. In most of his interviews, he describes the negative impacts that war in Gaza has had on the Israeli economy. Let's say that it's kind of collapsing. He's full of hope for the future of Palestinians. Stuff we need to hear.
Disrupting Japan - The forgotten mistake that killed Japan’s software industry
Okay this might be the most niche I've ever gotten. Not that I was wondering why there wasn't a great software industry coming out of Japan before noticing this episode. Seriously though, it was such a behemoth of technology in the post-war era until 2000 (i.e. until networks and software started to matter more than hardware) that being told that its software industry is shit made me ponder. (I knew that the PS/2 or /3 was insane to develop for, and contributed to the XBox taking part of its market share because Microsoft had a developer-friendly platform that PC Developers already knew well... But I digress)
Movement Memos - Breaking Down Sudan’s Struggle: What the World Is Missing
A good overview of the conflict in Sudan, from an always great podcast. I wanted to share American Prestige's episode but it's members-only. This one is as good, and features Toronto BLM alum Yusra Kogali.
Ideas - Why the 1976 novel Bear is still controversial — and relevant
Marian Engel's 1976 ursosexual novel Bear was not a joke but a real literary work, and you may ignore it at your own peril.
__
The Agenda with Steve Paikin - Still Plenty of Strange New Worlds for Star Trek to Explore
Fuck Steve Paikin, but Robert Picardo was in Toronto to shoot Starfleet Academy and Paikin got to interview him. Picardo is awesome, you can't really have a bad interview with him. His interview on InvestiGates was good too.
Free City Radio - Interview with Shir Hever on the call for an arms embargo on the Israeli state
Shiv Ever is an Israeli who now lives in Germany and spends a lot of his time working on the BDS campaign. In most of his interviews, he describes the negative impacts that war in Gaza has had on the Israeli economy. Let's say that it's kind of collapsing. He's full of hope for the future of Palestinians. Stuff we need to hear.
Disrupting Japan - The forgotten mistake that killed Japan’s software industry
Okay this might be the most niche I've ever gotten. Not that I was wondering why there wasn't a great software industry coming out of Japan before noticing this episode. Seriously though, it was such a behemoth of technology in the post-war era until 2000 (i.e. until networks and software started to matter more than hardware) that being told that its software industry is shit made me ponder. (I knew that the PS/2 or /3 was insane to develop for, and contributed to the XBox taking part of its market share because Microsoft had a developer-friendly platform that PC Developers already knew well... But I digress)
Movement Memos - Breaking Down Sudan’s Struggle: What the World Is Missing
A good overview of the conflict in Sudan, from an always great podcast. I wanted to share American Prestige's episode but it's members-only. This one is as good, and features Toronto BLM alum Yusra Kogali.
Ideas - Why the 1976 novel Bear is still controversial — and relevant
Marian Engel's 1976 ursosexual novel Bear was not a joke but a real literary work, and you may ignore it at your own peril.
__
Dreamwidth ban
Mar. 10th, 2025 10:08 amToday I have learned that you can ban a fellow user, and then they can't interact with you even though they can see whatever you let them see, and they can still read your comments on anyone's pages. I have learned this when trying to post an innocuous reply to a user I don't ever recall being cross to, though it's not impossible because I can be a dick sometimes. Whoop!
ETA: Holy cow was that a poorly worded post. It should be readable now.
ETA: Holy cow was that a poorly worded post. It should be readable now.
It's bandcamp Friday
Mar. 7th, 2025 02:31 pmJust a quick dump of my purchases, plus a t-shirt.
The Canadian dollar is getting weak. This cost me $200.
The Loss by Mares Of Thrace
Verdrängung by VOAK
GLITCH I by IMPARFAIT
ON CRIE ENCORE (à l'américaine) by IMPARFAIT
La fête est finie? by IMPARFAIT
ACROPHOBIE by IMPARFAIT
INCOGNITO by IMPARFAIT
TELEMA by IMPARFAIT
ERREUR 404 by IMPARFAIT
Not So Deep As A Well (Expanded ... by Myriam Gendron
Dead Set On Living by Cancer Bats
Hardly Still Walking, Not Yet Fl... by Diva Karr
Era of Rupture by CAVE NE CADAS
No Border // No Nation by Cave Ne Cadas
The Moulting by Mares Of Thrace
Nobody Loves You More by Kim Deal
The Canadian dollar is getting weak. This cost me $200.
The Loss by Mares Of Thrace
Verdrängung by VOAK
GLITCH I by IMPARFAIT
ON CRIE ENCORE (à l'américaine) by IMPARFAIT
La fête est finie? by IMPARFAIT
ACROPHOBIE by IMPARFAIT
INCOGNITO by IMPARFAIT
TELEMA by IMPARFAIT
ERREUR 404 by IMPARFAIT
Not So Deep As A Well (Expanded ... by Myriam Gendron
Dead Set On Living by Cancer Bats
Hardly Still Walking, Not Yet Fl... by Diva Karr
Era of Rupture by CAVE NE CADAS
No Border // No Nation by Cave Ne Cadas
The Moulting by Mares Of Thrace
Nobody Loves You More by Kim Deal
Post on LJ, destroy Ukraine
Mar. 3rd, 2025 03:07 am« What's the biggest example of the domino meme in my life? I'm gonna have to go with "I got bored on the sleepy overnight shift at the data center -> Russia invaded Ukraine". »
This is an epic thread by![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png)
denise about how she came to be involved with LiveJournal and how the creation of DW came about, with some bad stuff happening along the way.
(this is a post where this icon fits very well)
This is an epic thread by
denise about how she came to be involved with LiveJournal and how the creation of DW came about, with some bad stuff happening along the way.(this is a post where this icon fits very well)
procrastination
Feb. 26th, 2025 12:17 pmHey it only took me a year to setup the adjustable desk I bought! Yay me! Now to do my taxes...
antipodcast - brown redux chapter 23
Feb. 18th, 2025 11:41 amI'm a bit behind (~3 months!) on my podcast listening, and behind that on my writing about them, so here's a few more late reasons to dislike Jesse Brown and Canadaland these days.
1) Brown interviewed the Israeli ambassador to Canada, and the only real criticism he had for him was how settlers illegally attacking Palestinians in the West Bank was making HIM unsafe in CANADA. Unreal.
2) Brown's Lebanese pet, Noor Azrieh, interviewed Francesca Albanese and stuck her about how she mixed up Jews and Zionists one in 2014. Nuuuts.
2) a. On the "pet" comment. On one of their episodes together, when they do their duly noted segment, Azrieh thanked Brown for "letting her" bring on some mundane topic. To illustrate how that relationship goes... From what I gather from the show, she's a permanent resident so she's pretty dependent on Canadaland for her continued stay in the country, and you can see the colour of that relationship. Either way I'm not a fan...
3) Brown interviewed Norman Spector again for no reason and Spector straight-faced told Brown that he thought the NYT and the JP (which he used to edit, natch) were the most reliable news sources on Israel, putting in a dig at Ha'aretz along the way. To Brown's credit even that was a bit much for him, but let Spector get away with it. The rest of the interview was as you could expect with these two.
4) Brown commented on the Canadaland break up with Karyn Pugliese, the senior indigenous editor he had managed to pluck from APTN to be his Editor in Chief. Turns out that Brown can hire indigenous people to work for him, but he absolutely cannot take direction from Indigenous people, and basically said so. Whew. There's probably a share of sexism in there as well, as many past WOC employees would vouch. Pugliese is back to reporting with APTN, but she was the EiC or something close before so that kinda sucks for her.
5) The good news is that Brown did say that they had lost more subscribers this year than any other year before. They even split up the Thursday show into two shows to push more ads to listeners to make up for the lost income. Whew.
1) Brown interviewed the Israeli ambassador to Canada, and the only real criticism he had for him was how settlers illegally attacking Palestinians in the West Bank was making HIM unsafe in CANADA. Unreal.
2) Brown's Lebanese pet, Noor Azrieh, interviewed Francesca Albanese and stuck her about how she mixed up Jews and Zionists one in 2014. Nuuuts.
2) a. On the "pet" comment. On one of their episodes together, when they do their duly noted segment, Azrieh thanked Brown for "letting her" bring on some mundane topic. To illustrate how that relationship goes... From what I gather from the show, she's a permanent resident so she's pretty dependent on Canadaland for her continued stay in the country, and you can see the colour of that relationship. Either way I'm not a fan...
3) Brown interviewed Norman Spector again for no reason and Spector straight-faced told Brown that he thought the NYT and the JP (which he used to edit, natch) were the most reliable news sources on Israel, putting in a dig at Ha'aretz along the way. To Brown's credit even that was a bit much for him, but let Spector get away with it. The rest of the interview was as you could expect with these two.
4) Brown commented on the Canadaland break up with Karyn Pugliese, the senior indigenous editor he had managed to pluck from APTN to be his Editor in Chief. Turns out that Brown can hire indigenous people to work for him, but he absolutely cannot take direction from Indigenous people, and basically said so. Whew. There's probably a share of sexism in there as well, as many past WOC employees would vouch. Pugliese is back to reporting with APTN, but she was the EiC or something close before so that kinda sucks for her.
5) The good news is that Brown did say that they had lost more subscribers this year than any other year before. They even split up the Thursday show into two shows to push more ads to listeners to make up for the lost income. Whew.
Back when The Onion bought InfoWars, there was this whole thing about how "Onion owner Global Tetrahedron buys InfoWars for undisclosed sum", and this seemed like a fun mock company name to describe the Onion owners. Except... That's actually the name of the company. It turns out that The Onion itself was bought mostly by Twilio co-founder and CEO Jeff Lawson, and is run by Collins, former disinformation reporter at NBC. The idea of buying The Onion was floated by Collins on Twitter, Lawson got interested, and they eventually bought it off the hedge fund (!!) which was the owner at that time. They brought the print edition back, they have a subscriber base even though the content is all free, and the whole purchase thing was done in collaboration with the paper's union. Lawson was basically interested in keeping The Onion alive and is not interested in doing a flip at some point. (He said he hopes he still owns The Onion when he dies.) It's really good media news overall. You can hear them discuss this with Nilay Patel on Decoder, The Verge's "how does this [tech] company actually work" podcast.
