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  I've had a bad run of books lately, most of them recently published. Ho-hum writing, weakly made arguments, a focus on the privileged, and cobbled-together messes. Also -- great titles that promise what the book can't deliver. And yet they're out there winning awards and getting five stars on book review sites. #Grumpy

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  A cure for my bitterness about the churning sea of disappointing writing comes gracefully, elegantly, eloquently, by way of an essay about bitterness itself: "If that ending is a chief bitterness in my life, I have to probe it. Why give pride of psychic place to someone who reached across the sea to yank me from her future? For starters, she told me we would be spinsters together and I’m a literalist. I’ve been learning to make thread. But I have no choice—my world is shot through wit...

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  Those of you who write in a journal -- how do you deal with supporting your hand as it moves down the page and off of it, especially on the right-hand side when the journal is still mostly empty? I am talking about the way that you start out at the top of the page, where that meaty spot below your pinky is supported as you write (so you can write neatly), but then, when you move down the page, that part of your hand is no longer flush with the page but then is at a different angle because it is...

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  I don't usually like movies due to the sensory overload and the really bad premises/dialogue/writing, the suspense, the flashing lights, and just the overall cringe. But The Princess Bride is comfort viewing for me (even despite the misogyny). It's quick and punchy and doesn't take itself seriously with the Renaissance Faire-ish costumes and comedic quips. I also really like how the music works with the story, and I'm someone who typically really hates music and soundtracks be...

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  One of my least favorite types of posts here is when someone shares a link with a garbled headline and the only text in the post is a repeat of the garbled headline without any context or information about relevance.

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  It's that marvelous time of the year when the temperature has dropped at night and the heating has yet to come on. Crack a window, get an extra blanket, and it's perfect sleeping weather. This short period is to to be savored.

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  The top of the pepper grinder came off as I was preparing dinner. My slow cooker chicken and sweet potatoes will be extra, extra peppery. At least it wasn't the salt shaker. #Food

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  Spent the day trying to do the little things that I was supposed to do today, and as per usual, they took longer than expected and extracted too much energy, and now I am back to zero in the rest department. Tomorrow I have to do all of the things that didn't get attended to today before the week starts in earnest. Really grateful for the nice conversations and connections here, though, which have kept me company.

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  Hot tip for exchanging voice notes, whether through Signal or whatever: It's good practice to actually acknowledge what the other person said previously, to touch upon it, to comment on it. To let the other person know "I hear you." When we leave a voice note that doesn't acknowledge what the other person has said in their previous voice note, it's like they've never spoken. The benefit of voice notes is that you can carry on a discussion with someone asynchronously...

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  I was talking with someone, and they said something like "action cures fear," like it was some universal truth, and I had to pause because I'm thinking about the neurodivergent experience. If you're neurodivergent, does "action cure fear" (i.e., you feel less afraid/anxious because you've put something into motion) for you? Or does it have some other effect? #Neurodivergence #ActuallyAutistic

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  Thunderstorms will be thundered!

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  I don't usually drink bottled water, but to get through the summer, sometimes I buy sparkling mineral water. Unfortunately, the local mineral water isn't sold in glass bottles anymore, and while, yes, some studies have shown that glass bottles maybe contain more microplastics than plastic bottles (seems a little sus), I can't stop imagining plastic bottles sitting in a hot warehouse and contaminating the liquid within. So I buy a few bottles of French mineral water, the only type...

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  I've had to run the air purifier for weeks straight. As someone who doesn't like any noise, even white noise, it's draining.

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  This may be a long shot, but does anyone know of any source for historical data (even just for this year) for pollen allergens by species for European locations? The source I am using groups all grasses together, and I'm curious about specific types. #Allergies #Pollen

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  When a post includes red flags like "It's not X, it's y" "That's the point" And words like "built" as well as framing what happens "instead" It's been extruded by an LLM.

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  LOL. Nope.

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  I'm not sure why LLMs say things "stopped" doing something instead of saying they don't do it anymore. Worse on purpose, indeed. It's really something when complaints about LLMs use LLM speak. Yes, tired subtoot.

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  I went to the doctor to get help with allergy symptoms. To protect myself from breathing in the pollen, I wore a mask on the way there. Though I did get some help, the doctor initially suggested that my symptoms were due to the mask. 😭

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  Unexpectedly, I guess due to the super El Nino and because allergies can worsen over time, I've been hit by the grass pollen. So when my air purifier indicated that the air filter was dirty, as a temporary measure, I cleaned it until I could get a fresh one. I suffered a day and a night without it waiting for the filter to dry. When I put it back in, the warning still flashed. So in haste, I went to order a new one. The branded ones aren't available (anymore? here?) so I went to the B...

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  Something that was stressing me out resolved itself. It was stressing me out because something was off about it, and the conclusion was likewise off. I know someone else might read the situation another way and try to resuscitate it, but for now, my intuition was correct that it's too much for me to deal with when I'm dealing with other stuff.

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  Does anyone have experience with Proton Meet call quality? I tried to briefly move to Signal for video calls, but without the automatic background noise muffling Zoom has, the audio quality wasn't great for anyone involved. I'm wondering about Proton Meet's overall quality compared to Zoom. #Proton

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  Sometimes we do what we can, and that has to be enough.

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  Just as I'm settling in to read for the rest of the evening, someone in an apartment above me has decided to run a power tool. Because if you're not disturbing someone else's peace, are you even living?

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  When I write something ranty, I think back about the time a dude read something similar and exclaimed, "You sound so angry!" This was back before I had been exposed to the many wonderful internet feminists doing good work and couldn't understand what was wrong with that. Now I know there isn't anything wrong with that. Anger is a perfectly reasonable response to a lot situations.

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  "Just get AC," the Americans say. Oh ho, if it only it were that easy. Let's say you own your apartment. It's not just a matter of deciding to put in an air conditioning unit. No, you often have to go through the rigamarole of getting a vote allowing you to do exterior work to the building from all of the other residence that live in that building. Those window air conditioners people in the US sometimes use don't work with European tilt-and-turn windows. If you rent, wel...

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  One thing about the heat that I don't think is considered often enough is that it's not just "the heat" that affects people's lives. Yes, the heat is the cause, but it has a knock-on effect for everything else. Sleeping in a hot room is less healthy than one that's cool. But if you can't sleep at all or sleep poorly due to the heat, you're liable to have other health issues -- your immune system is less effective and your mental health may suffer (not to mentio...

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  Several days after the heat has subsided, I'm still dealing with an unpleasantly warm/stuffy apartment. This is due to the building absorbing heat over the days and releasing it slowly. It isn't just a matter of opening the windows -- it's like an oven that's been turned off. The heat has to dissipate and may take some time to do so even when you open the door. I've been using a fan blowing out during the day, but I feel like I'm just heating up the outside air. Nights...

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  I recently got to introduce someone to Emily Bender's work.

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  Same temps as yesterday, but I'm feeling it more today because the flat didn't have the opportunity to cool meaningfully overnight. A few clouds today, too.

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  Stepped outside to take out the trash. It's "only" 80 F, but that's before 10 am, and the humidity is higher today. With a fan blowing out, I've managed to keep it cooler than outside, but the windows are in shadow until the afternoon, when the temperatures rise. I don't think it'll get below 70 F tonight.