Hey, uh... been a while, huh? 989 days, if my recent posts are to be believed. Funny how you can spend so much time in a (virtual) place for so long and then one day you look up and realize you haven't logged in in almost 3 years. I still think of you all, though, and hope you're well. What's new? Drop a line, I'd love to catch up.

After almost 5 years in Germany, I moved back home in 2022 to figure out what it's like to be an adult in the United States. Mixed results so far, but I'm happy to be where I am. Had a string of varyingly shitty jobs and have now settled in as a legal assistant for Big Tech. Trying to combat the guilt of working for The Man by doing covert union organizing on company time, which is fun and exciting.

Bought a car and got an apartment with a friend and her cat. Joined a sandlot baseball team and have been having a great time playing the other beautiful game with new friends (sometimes after pregame mushrooms--allegedly).

Started taking improv classes on a whim and almost immediately fell in love with it. I'm about to finish the Final Level at my conservatory and excited to move on to bigger, self-driven, artistically ambitious projects. Doing bits is fun but I want to take improvisational theater to places it has rarely, if ever, gone. I find it immensely disheartening that so many of the improv shows you see across the country look basically the same. This is supposed to be the art form where anything can happen! So I have some ideas, we'll see where they go.

Other than that... living life, reading a lot, trying to figure out what's next, as always. Maybe law school, maybe I'll find some literary grad program I can use as an excuse to get another German visa. If I'm really lucky maybe I can find a German spouse and then I don't have to worry about all that. We'll see where things go :)

Anyway, thanks for reading, and seriously, let me know how you've been. I've missed you all.

g

We'll see if I can stay awake that long, but if I manage it I'm in :)

Do it! It's a wonderful book. Convinced me to pick up 3 other Pynchon novels and really get into it. And if you're still not convinced, or if you want to hear more about it, check out this podcast episode, "Thomas Pynchon and the American Reconquista."

After years' absence, persecution by all the predictable authorities, several instances of thoroughly unelective plastic surgery, and a set of geographical switchbacks that would leave you physically allergic to the sight of a straight line, DEATH IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER triumphantly returns with Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, the "counterculture" as a recco map to its own streamlined reconquest, and the same old evil agencies just biding their time, returning on a scale even they wouldn't have dared dream of when they had to take their last little planned pause.

http://shoutengine.com/DeathIsJustAroundtheCorner/DeathIsJustAroundtheCorner-67-thomas-pynchon-and-the-american-reconquista-pt--53564.mp3

I'm so upset by the name Niceferatu. Mostly because I did not think of it myself.

This sounds nice though!! Makes me wanna make some music too. The one thing I might suggest is chopping up a bit of the static from the Nina interview and putting it under the instrumental between the two samples-- the transition on both ends is a bit abrupt otherwise. (Check out, for example/comparison, how Saba & Phoelix handle the same sample on this Noname track, starting around 1:35).

PS Am I hearing shades of Shigeto?

Same to both of those things!

Sounds good to me :)

That seems like the proper response to every institution with the audacity to still call itself the Royal Academy of something :D

Vaguely related and both amusing and interesting:

I've been using Huel for like 6 months now and I find that twice a day is my max for meal replacements before I start really wanting real food, but I imagine that's different for everyone. Sounds like your max might be 0 meal replacements :/

The one thing I can recommend if you're trying to balance real food and replacement is something like Huel Hot & Savoury, which is almost like a chili instead of just a smoothie. I find it's a pretty decent middle ground for "quick and nutritionally complete but still feels like real food". There are some days that I just have 3 smoothies and 1-2 bowls of Hot & Savoury.

Oh, and since I never post without tagging galen, I ended up in a game of TF2 yesterday with one of my favorite players, something he has also experienced.

To be fair, I experienced it in CSGO, not TF2! :D

Glad the cat's okay. Much love, bud.

Hey y'all. Been a while, huh? Thx to izzy417 for the reminder that it's Wednesday :)

So what's been up with me? Jesus, what a question. Isolation? lol. In the early days of the pandemic, I spent a shitton of time with my best friend in the dorms here, and now we still hang out almost every day, although it's become less and less. I have new roommates, which is cool. Both of them are future music teachers so we hang out and talk/play music all the time <3

University remains stressful, in that the semester still has not started and I'm getting very tired of having so little to do but I also have absolutely 0 interest in another online semester. The last one was v rough, I couldn't focus at all and ended up dropping quite a few classes. Which is extra fun because it means now I have to do even more this semester. But I'll survive, I guess.

On the personal front, a few weeks ago I wrote some new "rules" for myself (under the heading DISCIPLINE) and hung them up next to my bed. With the exception of the week that I had a head cold, I've mostly managed to hold to them:

- Wake up before 9

- Get out of bed before 9:30

- Exercise once a day, ideally in the morning

- Limit myself to 1 coffee per day

- Alcohol and other substances only on the weekend

- Go to bed by midnight

It helps me feel a lot better, I think. Of course I'm still stressed and anxious and the world is fucked, I'm often homesick or feel directionless or scared of the future, but having a bit of structure despite the circumstances feels good. I'm proud of myself and how healthy I've managed to stay. We'll make it through this, I think. I missed you all.

Hello! I am still alive! Gonna post in Pubski in a bit, come say hi! Missed y'all too.

Einverstanden.

According to three sources with knowledge of the timeline, party leadership talked to the college group three weeks ago and then referred them to Roosevelt for assistance. The exact nature of that help, however, is a matter of some contention — details that could be illuminated by the forthcoming investigation. Bickford, according to Politico, said that the investigation would not begin until after the September 1 primary, so as not to influence the result.

The fucking audacity of these people. My lord.

It's so damn good.

Ah yes, the first coronafascist

me too please!

If that were coming, it would've happened already, IMO. For weeks now, Warren's official campaign strategy has been "stay alive until a hopefully-contested convention and then get nominated as the long-shot Party Unity candidate." She hasn't won states or delegates, but that's not part of the plan any more anyway.

I'd say that the main difference is between 'difficult' and 'cannot'. Hillary won the popular vote, and lost the electoral vote by narrow margins (10k in MI).

And the electoral landscape has changed dramatically in 4 years. The claim "a woman cannot win in 2020" is a misguided political judgement. It's not a statement of value.

Not to diminish the complaints, or excuse his actions, but I don't think a journalist would say that Biden has numerous sexual harassment allegations against him. One can say that Trump has numerous sexual harassment allegations against him. How do we draw a difference?

Some journalists already have

I do think that believing that a woman cannot win the Presidency is both a character flaw and misguided political judgement.

Genuine question: what's the difference between Bernie theoretically saying "a woman can't win in 2020" and my sister, a Warren supporter, saying "it's much more difficult for a woman to get elected than a man"? Take the latter statement, add the fact that winning in 2020 will be difficult for any Democrat, and the logical conclusion is "it would be incredibly difficult (impossible?) for a woman to win in 2020."

Does Biden have numerous sexual harassment allegations against him?

See the Vox article I linked above.

I don't take the fact that Bernie told Warren that a woman can't win the presidency to mean that he isn't a good person either. These are character flaws.

Even if you believe that Bernie said a woman can't win, that's not a character flaw, it's at worst a misguided political judgment. There's a huge difference between "a woman cannot win this election" and "a woman should not be able to win this election." Do I agree that a woman can't win the election? No. Do I think it would be more difficult for a woman than for a man? Absolutely. Equivocating numerous sexual harassment allegations with a single alleged misguided political judgment is laughable. The degrees of harm really do matter.

Biden

by all acounts, good people

Vox: "Lucy Flores isn’t alone. Joe Biden has a long history of touching women inappropriately. "

I'll be there if I manage to stay awake that long.

Interesting. When I clicked on a link at work earlier it directed to that page. Firefox running on Windows 7 without major add-ons; can give version information tomorrow if that helps.

Right now on Chrome 80 (OSX) it's working just fine.

Mornin', y'all :)

I'm wrapping things up at my second job and getting ready to go full-time at my first. All I need to do now is upgrade 8 PCs from Windows 7 to Windows 10. What a great parting gift, right?

It honestly is bittersweet leaving, mostly because I can tell how much they really need me at the second job. IT skills are rare in the humanities, and they'll have trouble finding a decent replacement. This is, of course, nice for my ego, but then pesky little empathy gets in the way. Ah well.

In more exciting news, I booked a flight to New York!!! Will be coming in on March 31, hanging out in the city for a minute, and then staying for a week with izzy417, whom I have not seen in far too long. Can't wait to spend time with my best friend. Maybe we'll record an EP or a podcast ( #pretentiousopinionsabout?) or something :)

New England Hubskiers--anybody up for an intercontinental spring meetup?