Hey, American Trans And Non-binary People. Just A Canadian Cis Scientist Here But I See You, I Know You're

I did not care much for Van Gogh because it was on every merch when I was a kid and it was a bit tacky. But I want to the Van Gogh museum when I was in Amsterdam, out of pure curiosity, totally expecting to be underwhelmed, and I still don't have the words to express how beautiful these paintings were 🥺

some hyper famous artists like Van Gogh transcend overratedness and become underrated because they're so normalized. Like I'll look at a van Gogh and I'm like wait this really is amazing you guys don't get it

Short Story Recommendations

These all fuck me up to a varying degree of emotions

Crime

Philomel Cottage - Agatha Christie

Lamb to the Slaughter - Roald Dahl

Death and the Compass - Jorge Luis Borges

Horror

The Landlady - Roald Dahl

A Walk in the Dark - Arthur C Clarke

The Wife’s Story - Ursula K Le Guin

The Veldt - Ray Bradbury

The Hanging Stranger - Philip K Dick

The Colour out of Space - H P Lovecraft

The Spider - Hanns Heinz Ewers

Sad

The Life You Save May Be Your Own - Flannery O’Connor

A Small, Good Thing - Raymond Carver

Cathedral - Raymond Carver

The Haunted Boy - Carson McCullers

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Chef - Andy Weir

The Martyr - Ngugi Wa Thiong’o

Jambula Tree - Monica Arak de Nyeko

The Rats Do Sleep At Night - Wolfgang Borchert

Sci-Fi

Love is the Plan the Plan is Death - James Tiptree Jr

The Last Question - Isaac Asimov

The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C Clarke

The Star - Arthur C Clarke

Reunion - Arthur C Clarke

The Commuter - Philip K Dick

Exhibit Piece - Philip K Dick

To Serve Man - Damon Knight

Brothers Beyond the Void - Paul W Fairman

What the Fuck?! 

The Lottery - Shirley Jackson

A Collapse of Horses - Brian Evenson

Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby - Donald Barthelme

Hopeful Monsters - Hiromi Goto

The Box Social - James Reaney

He-y come on ou-t - shinichi hoshi

The Garden of Forking Paths - Jorge Luis Borges

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (just the entire collection bro)

Other

Broken Routine - Jeffrey Archer

A Man Who Had No Eyes - Mackinlay Kantor

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been - Joyce Carol Oates

The Lady, or the Tiger - Frank R Stockton

The Continuity of Parks - Julio Cortázar

The Dinner Party - Mona Gardner

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings - Gabriel García Márquez

On Exactitude in Science - Jorge Luis Borges

JD Vance went to the Marines, then Ohio St, then Yale Law. He was a socio-economic diversity admission. He was DEI.

He was first a Marine, and it transformed his life. The government transformed his life.

I am sure JD used his college education and Law Degree to better his life more than he could imagine.

He met his wife at Yale Law. Do you think JD said professors were the enemy? Usha's parents are professors. Are they the enemy?

When JD was in Silicon Valley, I'm sure he used his schooling pedigree to his advantage.

Now, he code switches to talk to MAGA. He talks in white supremacy narratives.

Education is now bad. Professors are the enemy.

JD thinks he can just forget where he came from and who he is.

Occasionally we're afraid of those eyes who don't even have the courage to confront themselves

dadu shin

jess allen, the passing of time (2023)

The face of a lazy motherfcuker.

Honestly, good for this reporter. It's probably the first time he's been asked a legit question regarding this train of thought in years.

Trump’s pardons are beyond offensive.

That includes you, police person and Blue Lives Matters person. You should be alarmed. It shows you don't give a shit about your own people.

not my usual stuff but remember:

if/when tiktok comes back,

it is not the same place. it is not the same. and most importantly do NOT under any circumstances forget that The Tangerine was the one who wanted it banned in the first place and he is no savior, he, like everyone else in government, is doing what benefits him.

DO NOT FORGET THIS.

pick up the patterns, look at history.

one of the biggest things I can advocate for (in academia, but also just in life) is to build credibility with yourself. It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking of yourself as someone who does things last minute or who struggles to start tasks. people will tell you that you just need to build different habits, but I know for me at least the idea of ‘habit’ is sort of abstract and dehumanizing. Credibility is more like ‘I’ve done this before, so I know I can do it, and more importantly I trust myself to do it’. you set an assignment goal for the day and you meet it, and then you feel stronger setting one the next day. You establish a relationship with yourself that’s built on confidence and trust. That in turn starts to erode the barrier of insecurity and perfectionism and makes it easier to start and finish tasks. reframing the narrative as a process of building credibility makes it easier to celebrate each step and recognize how strong your relationship with yourself can become