Condensed Thoughts

Ugh gosh haven't done a blog in a bit

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 14:47:00 +0000

sorryyyyyy I'm just bad at blogging (and relatively certain that no one reads this anyway). Dane and I went hiking on saturday for birthweek here's some pics of it

oh yeah I also dyed my hair blue

I feel like there's not much new or of interest to share on here which I guess is due to the pandemic. Oh I also started a podcast that you can check out here. The second ep goes up today and I really enjoy doing it!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 01:39:00 +0000

I learned this morning that the church is tearing out the pioneer era murals of the Salt Lake and Manti Temples and getting rid of the live endowment. Words can't adequately express how heartbroken and angry I am. It hurts that the church clings to homophobia, racism and misogyny in the name of "tradition" while throwing the most beautiful and unique parts of our heritage in the garbage for the sake of "familiarity"

I know when compared to how vicious the church can be for those who aren't a straight white man living in suburban utah this is really small and I know there are so many worse things happening in the world today but this hurt me in a way I was not expecting. I think it is emblematic of how the church seems to want nothing more than to alienate and reject anyone who does not fit into a very narrow definition of what it is to be a Latter-Day Saint.

Anyway my friend Camilla said all this better than me anyway so you should just read her post here

My 2020 Book list

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 20:41:00 +0000

These are the books I read in 2020 and my one sentence summary/reviews of them, except my faves which I will gush about at greater length. asterisk indicates that it was a fave, tilde indicates it was a reread.

OK THAT"S IT THIS HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY DRAFT FOR TOO LONG HERE YOU GO AS IS

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (this one sparks joy)
The Motel of the Mysteries (adventures in archaeology of the future)
The Devil in the White City (too much white city, not enough devil)
Call Down the Hawk (I didn't like it as much as the Raven Cycle but still enjoyed it and look forward to the next book in the series)
The Disappearing Spoon (not as good as Dueling Neurosurgeons)
The Rest of Us Just Live Here (what all the background characters were up to)
The I-5 Killer (ted bundy but dumber and only in the oregon part of I-5)
*Marriage, a History*

How can I get all the General Authorities to read this book. A really eye opening look at the institution of marriage across time. I wish there had been more time spent on marriage in non-western cultures, but the deep dive on western marriage was still really fascinating

Gulp (all I remember from this book is elvis hamburger jewelry)
No Country for Old Men (I have not seen the movie of this, but I actually really enjoyed the I-adapted-this-from-a-screenplay-so-there's-no-description style)
The Way We Never Were (Not as good as Marriage, A History and it was originally published in the early nineties so a little out of date, but still really interesting and worth a read)
The Illustrated Man~ (The UK version doesn't have The Rocket Man and I hate that)
Why Won't You Apologize?* (how to be sorry)
Furious Hours (look just listen to the criminal episode about this one ok)
The Three-Body Problem (what if we did a sci fi but this time the characters are cardboard cutouts)
The Less People Know About Us (Ummmm just listen to the criminal episode about this one too)
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons*
Feminism is for Everybody (bell hooks)
Emma (disappointed that Emma and Harriet didn't end up together, oops spoilers)

Dreams from My Father (Obama: the prequel)
*Radicalized*
Dandelion Wine
Information Doesn't Want to Be Free
Cloud Atlas*
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You (adventures in AI wackiness)
Teaching to Transgress (more bell hooks, I'm not the target audience since I don't teach but still very interesting and insightful)
Digital Minimalism (how to be an internet hermit)
In the Time of the Butterflies
*The Righteous Mind*

The Things They Carried (AUGH I FINALLY FINISHED IT. It's good)
Five Days Gone (stiff upper lip)
Norse Mythology (great intro to norse mythology, somewhat geared toward kids)
Seven brief lessons in physics (Dane read this book to me while I was driving so I absorbed maybe 13% of it)
Highest Duty (too much grousing about kids and their iPods, not enough grousing about geese and their being bad for airplane engines)
Upright women wanted* (look it's a dystopic western about lesbians, what more do you need in life?)
What if? (probably better as not an audiobook, but Wil Wheaton is still great)
*The Empire of Gold*
Magic for Liars (harry potter noir but make it gay)

Permission Marketing (this book was published in 2000 and it correctly predicted many unpleasant things about surveillance capitalism, v spooky)
Naturally Tan
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? (Yes, with caveats)
Tribe (pretty interesting except part of the book was the author doing "yet you participate in society" about people's anti-Iraq War bumper stickers)
*Piranesi*

SHE DID IT AGAIN FOLKS, hope we don't have to wait another fifteen years for the next Susanna Clarke book. Anyway it was just lovely, a quick read that is really engaging.

You Just Don't Understand (the most infuriating book I've read in my entire life !)
Deep Work (how to be a normal hermit)
City of Secrets (cute little graphic novel. Well made but a little short on substance)
Cringeworthy
In the Dreamhouse*
Superforecasting

ok well tune in next year for my 2021 books if I manage to read any (so far, not good)

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 03:23:00 +0000

I have one youtube video that has over 500,000 views (I don’t recommend this) and occasionally I go through the comments to make sure there’s nothing too bad or crazy there. For context it's me playing a song from the dnd podcast "The Adventure Zone" on a carillon (bell tower) from when I was on my study abroad in Jerusalem. Initially only people who knew the podcast seemed to be encountering it but at this point the algorithm seems to be recommending it to lots more people.

Here is the summation of the comments (from most to least common):

-75% "do megalovania" where half the time they can't even spell megalovania right (I hate this comment btw bc 1. I don't have access to a carillon anymore so I can't but even more 2. how would you even pLAY megalovania on something like a carillon where you have to be slow. There were also a few comments telling me to play other songs but I'll lump them in here)

-you guys looks like the brother and sister in jurassic park (this one is new, I'm the brother btw)

-look at how that little man smashes the paddles so hard (I'm the little man. FWIW I'm in fact wearing a dress in the vid)

-you're playing the carillon wrong/those bells are out of tune

-I don't like the way this sounds

-people referencing the crusades/shouting deus vult (I'm pretty sure this is a white supremacist thing so I delete those comments)

-people arguing about the Israel/Palestinian conflict

-2% people familiar with the podcast who are what I would say is the actual target audience of this vid (and I should say these people and the other TAZ fans are always so so lovely in the comments, they def make up for all the rest)

And this is why I could never be a professional youtuber.

Condensation // 8

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 19:59:00 +0000

Weeheee there's been a LOT that happened this week. RIP Amerikkka. Anyway. Here's stuff I've been obsessed this week.

This freaking Tiktok (can't figure out how to embed a tiktok guess I'm the boomer after all)

Holiday by Lil Nas X (I usually listen to the clean version bc I gotta let my mormon freak flag fly)

What the Hole Is Going On? The very real, totally bizarre bucatini shortage of 2020. - Grub Street

I'd never even heard of bucatini before this article but I guess if the shortage can be over I'll have to try it sometime. Also this article is borderline unhinged and I am here for that energy

I'm working on a post about all the books I read last year but it's kind of slow going. I imagine I'll eventually give up and just post what I've written so far idk.

here are some headlines I think are funny

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 00:11:00 +0000

I keep forgetting to blog so I have all these saved up, enjoy

we did thank a give

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 04:19:00 +0000

thanksgiving is a holiday built on revisionist history and white guilt, but I did have work off and Dane and I like to cook so we did what we could. Here's some pics (cred to Dane) and a vid explaining and some stuff I'm grateful for

forgot to mention in the vid but the panang recipe is from Haley's sister in law, Chanapa so shout out to her it was the best part of the meal imho

This is basically going to be a free association we're not thinking too hard about this. I'm grateful for:

-radiohead

-critical thinking skills

-MAH WIFE (by that I mean Dane, but I wanted to sound like all the mormons who have turned #givethanks into flexing about how good they are at being heterosexual)

-my brother my brother and me

-NaNoWriMo even though I'm so bad at it this year

-the cdc

-This electoral college map:

-feminism

-aloe vera and my other plants that I can grow

-being able to work from home

-The Lyman Salt™

-walks

-clean energy

-weirdly enough living in Los Angeles. To quote my boss Tim "I'd rather be dead in LA than alive in Orange County" and I will add to that a good number of other places

Condensation // 7

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 03:33:00 +0000

Haven't done one of these in a bit but I've got enough stuff that I want to share that I will do one now. I'm very behind on my NaNoWriMo this year but I've been more behind. I also got called to be the Primary President, which is kind of stressful, but we're trying to get through it as best we can.

Which U.S. Presidents Were Wife Guys? An Investigation - The Cut, this is for real one of my favourite articles and I think about it often. Gave it a reread due to Joe Biden's election. Without doing much research, it's hard for me to imagine Dr. Jill Biden allowing him to be a wife guy, but who knows.

Costly Signalling, Cheap Grace and Loving Our Enemies after an Election - By Common Consent, this was relevant for me in a lot of ways, both in terms of news happenings but also it gave me some insights wrt some theological stuff I've been wrestling with for the past few years

How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart? - The New York Times Magazine (soft paywall)

I gave a talk at church today

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 05:32:00 +0000

I thought I would share it here for anyone interested. I tend to be VERY off the cuff when I speak so this doesn't line up perfectly with what I said, but it should be most of it. I may come back later and clean it up a little so it's more like a post and less like a bunch of notes... but probably not. Hope you enjoy!

Good morning my fellow siblings in Christ (be like I hope the zoomers can hear me ok)
Hello everyone it has been a year. Are y’all good? Do we need to take a collective deep breath? I hope I don’t need to detail the griefs we are all collectively carrying at the moment (I think we’re familiar), not to mention all the personal sorrows of which I will never know that are surely being borne by those among us today. For all who are struggling, I’m here to say I see you, I love you, and I hope that you can find comfort in what I’m going to talk about today.

Now I think some of you might respond to that by saying to yourselves “well, I’m ok, I’ve managed to get through this unscathed. I don’t know anyone who’s died, I haven’t lost my job” etc etc. I want you to know that my words are for you too. When we are baptized we covenant to mourn with those that mourn and I think a lot of us have been doing quite a bit of that.

Sisters and Brothers, Have you heard of doomscrolling? It’s this cool and super great bad thing that I do all too often where I check the news and try to consume all the badness in the world as if that’s going to help anything. For me I have felt really helpless to do anything that matters so I try to be aware of everything so I can feel like I’m at least doing something! I’m sure I’m not the only one here who is in more or less the same boat.

With all of that as prelude I want to turn to a story in the New Testament that has been on my mind a lot lately. It is recorded in one form or another in each of the four gospels, but I want to look particularly at the version we find in Mark (ch 12). Let me read it for you:

3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as [Jesus] sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

8 She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

John refers to this woman as Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus so for the sake of simplicity I will too. Let’s dig into some of this and talk about what I found really interesting about this.

-the disciples are mad about what Mary did and Jesus reproves them
To give a little context, The spikenard she used to anoint Jesus was worth somewhere between a month to a year’s worth of wages, which is a lot of money! You can kind of understand where the disciples were coming from.

Have you ever done this? Seen someone doing something good but feeling like they are doing it wrong, or not doing it the way you would like it to be done? Or even doing something that in the moment looks stupid or wasteful and you can’t even see how it’s a good thing only to later learn that they were doing the best possible thing? Have you ever judged that person for not being good the way you think they should? I SURE HAVE so I hope we can take this and try not to be so quick to judge in the future. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” (Isa. 55:8)

-Next observation: what she does did not seem to change any outcomes. Jesus still dies, nothing she does can stop that, I mean it’s literally God’s plan.

So often it can feel utterly fruitless to even try to make a difference in the world. When we face a problem that exists on a global scale, like this pandemic, or like climate change or poverty, it is so hard to feel like anything we do matters or that we have an impact at all.

It helps me to think of how some caves are formed. As water seeps through rock it slowly carves away spaces which becomes the cave. Sometimes I think about how every choice I make is like one drop of water in the cave. By itself it’s not remarkable, but when you consider that millions of drops of water created this big ole cave you recognize what impact it has. The lesser is to the greater what the greater is to the whole, which is to say each of us can be one drop of water, by ourselves our actions may not seem significant, but when a lot of us act together we can just make a big freaking cave.

(Segue into:) There’s a moment in The Lord of The Rings that has given me a lot of comfort in this regard. Do I need to explain what LOTR is about? Basically our boy Frodo has an evil ring and he needs to drop it in a volcano. Frodo is talking to Gandalf and says “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” to which Gandalf replies “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.”

Christ is the ultimate force for good

And so with that said, if you have made efforts to social distance, if you have stayed home when you could have gone out, if you’ve worn a mask or sacrificed in other ways to keep strangers and loved ones safe, if you have done what you could, these are Christlike actions and I promise you that your actions have saved lives.

-what she does is make him the messiah.
This leads to my next point. Mary’s act here is more than maybe we realize. This is the moment that Jesus becomes the Christ. The word Christ comes from the greek “khristos” meaning the anointed, and is the greek form of the Hebrew word Messiah. Thomas Wayment sums up succinctly what that means in his New Testament commentary “Jesus is anointed in preparation for his burial, thereby making him the Anointed One or Messiah (see v 12)” She might not be able to stop the pains Jesus will suffer, she won’t be able to stop the state from executing him as a criminal, but she has performed a sacred act. She has done what she could.

-she hath done what she could so you do what you can
And with that I want to invite you to do what you can. People might be critical, people might not understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. They might judge or reject you, but still I implore you to do what you can. If you’re at a loss for what that could be, I invite you to pray and ask what it could be.

But here I also want to add: don’t do what you can’t! It’s ok to unplug from the grief of the world for the sake of your mental health. Imposing a digital sabbath or taking a break from social media or news websites is not only ok, it’s probably necessary every once in a while.

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

― A.W. Streane

[testify]

Condensation // 6

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 06:01:00 +0000

oh no I should have just posted this last week because I forgot it was conference this weekend. I'm just going to share what I have here, acknowledging that a lot has happened since I was working on this last week (like tr*mp getting the rona) that is not getting acknowledged here I'm sorry not sorry

Reading

It Took Divorce to Make My Marriage Equal - Glamour, I feel so lucky that Dane and I share our domestic labor (if anything I feel like he does more than me), but articles like this remind me that that isn't the default, hopefully articles like this can help it become that way

Trashing: The Dark Side of Sisterhood - Jo Freeman, this article from 1975 is still so relevant today if you spend any time in progressive spaces

The Real Origins of the Religious Right - Politico, "They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation."

Call Climate Change What It Is, Violence - The Guardian

10 things you need to know to stop a coup - Waging Nonviolence

Watching

Condensation // 5

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 21:56:00 +0000

I feel like I'm not very good at being eloquent or using my words too great but I feel like I have to say something about the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I'm truly heartbroken. This year has already has so much bad horrible stuff and yet somehow this was something I did not see coming at all. I felt totally blindsided by the news of Justice Ginsburg's passing. While it may be a little thing in the scope of all the other tragedy of 2020 (what's one person's death when compared to 200,000? Or compared to the ongoing murders of black people? Or the atrocities committed at the border? or climate change? or? or? or?), it really feels like the straw that breaks the camel's back. I mean, on the one hand, it is just one person. And yet, Ruth Bader Ginsburg did more for me as a woman. I have so many more rights and freedoms because of her. Her work made a difference in my life and for that I will forever be grateful.

On the other hand this opens the door for so much more tragedy, so much more corruption, so much more suffering and pain and frankly, evil. This is why we need to vote come November 3rd (or before! Preferably before!). While this year has been terrible, it has also shown that we can come together and fight for what's right in a way we haven't in years. We need to keep that fight. If 2020 has taught me anything, it's that the last thing we can do is sit back and hope that someone else will make things ok.

In unrelated personal news, I finally updated my profile picture for stuff!!! It feels like it has been so many years. It has in fact been a few years. I'm making a vague effort to get my social media a little more put together and I'm trying to figure out some kind of goal to set to make art more regularly and posting it more regularly and I guess this is a small step in that direction. Here's what else I've been up to the last couple weeks:

Reading

America Is Trapped in a Pandemic Spiral - The Atlantic

Coronavirus, Charity, and the Trolley Problem - Crooked

How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled - NPR

Here's my fave recent headline:

Listening

This LoFi House Mix that is changing my life

They play Koyaanisqatsi backwards as the video and honestly may be a part of why I am loving it (it's absolutely why I clicked on it) because I always need more of that film in my life (ugh I just love it so much why do I not have it on bluray yet wtf)

The Grandma Tesseract - My Brother My Brother and Me, I'm consistently two months behind on mbmbam so I only just listened to this but it is Very Good

Fungus Amungus - Radiolab

Watching

Donating

I want to make a masterpost of all the various places I donate to (or want to donate to) but until then I gave some money to Get Mitch or Die Trying this week, in honor of RBG

Condensation // 4

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 05:10:00 +0000

It's hotter than ever!! Here's some actual footage of LA this weekend (credit to Henrique for this clip)

We've put up some blankets on our windows and it's been more effective at keeping the heat out so far than we could have ever dreamed (but being in the dark all day is kind of depressing). We also went hiking saturday before all the national forest were closed from the fires and we went to the boy scout mountain (which is coincidentally a small part of the PCT!).

That sign on the horizon (apparently unreachable from any trail) indicates we were in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness in the Angeles National Forest. Why that sign is way out there no one may ever know

LOOK AT THIS TINY LIZARD WOWOWOWOW

Anyway here's what I've been up to these last couple weeks, just reading I guess

Reading

The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier, American Hostage - GQ

Wikihistory - Tor

The Violence Could Get Much Worse - The Atlantic*

To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along - NPR

They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won’t Anybody Listen? - Pro Publica

'A totally different ballgame': Inside Uber and Lyft's fight over gig worker status - CNET

The Summer 2020 Issue of Dialogue Journal is out, I have already read a few articles and am looking forward to getting through the rest of it soon!

Here's my fave recent headline:

BIRTHWEEK 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 02:25:00 +0000

It's that week again! Dane and I have birthdays that are two days (and three years) apart so when that weeks rolls around we go hard celebrating. Unsurprisingly, this year's celebrations have been a bit more mellow. I will chronicle them below, they are about 87% food related

Here's a bunch of pics of food we ate:

Got this from the store at a whim and it was VERY GOOD

during our long and painful hike last week we started semi deliriously fantasizing about the amazing smoothy we were going to make when we got home and decided this would be the birthweek kickoff. Here's what was in it to the best of my remembrance: watermelon sherbet (with chocolate chips!), three strawberries, one can of smart n final knock off lacroix (cran-raspberry flavor), powdered lemonade and a little vanilla ice cream for good measure. It really lived up to our delirium for better or worse

For my birthday we did Dane's meal because he wanted to order out and we figured Thursdays are less busy than Saturdays. We got some Peruvian food and as a treat we had it delivered (normally we pick up ourselves). It was so good I didn't have time to take a picture of it before it was all gone. For dessert though we did my request which was this chocolate mousse pie that is so rich and powerful you know it will be first on the chopping block when the proletariat seize the means of production. We did have some, uh, mishaps but it all turned out ok in the end.

For Dane's birthday we did my meal which is this Coconut Gochujang Chicken from NYT cooking (behind a paywall after a 30 day trial so if you really want the recipe and don't have an NYT subscription hmu). It is so easy to make and so so good. Seriously up there as one of my top fave meals of all time. Dane made his dessert of lemon passion fruit cookies (will update with link once I get it from Dane, I know he made some of his own modifications as well but I'm not sure what they were other than adding passion fruit). We also made some limeade using more of that Smart & Final knock off Lacroix (this time orange flavor) and WOW. 10/10 would recommend. It's extra powerful because if you don't drink it all at once and the fizzy goes away, you still have limeade which is still great.

really getting the most out of my phone camera's "food" filter this week

Along w that there were some presents. Highlights include two board games (Pandemic and Dead of Winter which are both thematically on point for 2020), and the book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast

We also watched Lawrence of Arabia for the first time, though that was a little birthweek agnostic. It was.......ok? There were parts of it that I liked but the second half was a bit bonkers to me (and let's not even get into all the orientalism/brown face 😳). That said it's beautifully shot and I can see why it was so influential and so much of cinema and sci fi (and weirdly...Frozen?? idek man).

Ok I think that's it for me tune in next year when we are hopefully allowed to actually leave our apartment to celebrate our birthdays.

Oh, the ward did a talent show on the night of my birth which I did not attend but they asked me to contribute so I made this video of me singing that you can watch/listen to here. I did it in one take and haven't really practised in months and it shows but whatever.

WWWWWWWWWAAAAAITTTTTT

I forgot about the CEREAL

Dane loves weird cereal so we had some here are my grades:

Condensation // 3

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 07:56:00 +0000


California MMXX

hope everyone is staying safe and staying cool. It's been miserably hot all week here in LA. Dane and I went hiking at Mt. Baldy to get away from the heat which was successful, but it was a VERY STRENUOUS 11 miles and today my legs are jelly. Here's what else I've been up to, aside from melting:

Electioneering

Big week for election stuff! I watched most of the DNC for the first time in my life. It gave me BIG General Conference vibes (which is probably in large part because of the virtual format). While it was a little hit and miss, it was overall well done. Highlights for me included personal stories of actual human beings, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and of course Michelle Obama's incredible speech (Barak's was quite good too). Lowlights includes all the awkward zoom claps and having to hear Pete Buttigieg talk with his mouth.

‘The President Was Not Encouraging’: What Obama Really Thought About Biden - Politico, "Behind the friendship was a more complicated relationship, which now drives the former vice president to prove his partner wrong."

Schedule of Speakers for the 2020 Republican National Convention - McSweeney's

The Daily Show made these two videos and both of them are just chefs kiss. If you didn't watch any of the convention just watch these two and you'll be good to go

Listening

I'm kind of tired of podcasts and the music I have access to at work (ugh loNG STORY) so I've been listening to 9 beet stretch overlaid with LAX ATC

Edit to add one little thing that I learned this week and that I love:

I guess that's about it for me, coming up next: BIRTH WEEK

Condensation // 2

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 01:25:00 +0000

Hi! It's very hot over here in LA (and the rest of Cali from what I'm hearing?). Hope wherever you are you are staying cool and have had a good week. Here's what I've been up to.

Reading

The DMV Reviewed Thousands of Hilarious Vanity Plate Applications Last Year. These Are Our Favorites - Los Angeles Magazine, glad to see someone finally looking out for all the MILFs out there (fair warning, it should come as no surprise that some of these plates have naughty words)

Here's the weirdest headline I saw this week:

Electioneering

I feel like I should just have a separate section for the election. FiveThirtyEight released their Presidential Election Forecast this week and I've been tormenting myself by playing with this 2020 Electoral Interactive Map

A bipartisan group secretly gathered to game out a contested Trump-Biden election. It wasn’t pretty - Boston Globe*

Just How Far Will Trump Go? - The Atlantic*

They Want to Break You - Gizmodo

How Suffering Farmers May Determine Trump's Fate - The New Yorker*

*soft paywall

Listening

its britney......

Okay Allies, Now Let’s Get in Formation! - Fanti

Lilith - Omnibus Project, this episode just hit my sweet spot of things I'm interested in

The score to Black Panther by Ludwig Göransson, please if you haven't already listen to the Song Exploder episode about the Killmonger track

Watching

Beirut explosion: Bride's photoshoot interrupted by massive blast - Global News, I was a little late to this because we were out camping but this is such a heartbreaking event. Here's a good list of places to donate to help if you are able (definitely turn down volume before playing!!!)

let's take a look at, horse - Louie Zong

Playing

Forbidden Sky with Dane! We got it as a wedding present and played it once on our honeymoon and haven't played it since. It's really fun and when you beat the game has a very fun rocket that lights up based on the circuit you made! Very cool.

Marmots + Antifreeze = True Love??????

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 22:43:00 +0000

I had my first vacation since last December and let's just say it was much needed. I'm going to keep this short and sweet and photo heavy so I'm not intimidated by the thought of writing it and then put it off indefinitely.

I saw so many great signs and sights on our drive but I only managed to capture this beauty:

I mean, that's all you *really* need to know, isn't it?

We went to Sequoia National Park and camped in the national forest nearby. The main touristy thing to do at this park is to look at this big tree

At one point this tree was named after Karl Marx.

It is a fairly impressive tree but was it worth being around so many people with varying levels of mask discipline? Ehhhhh. At the very least it actually wasn't too hard to get away from what crowds there were.

Here is an interesting fact we learned from our beef stroganoff

It appears the US Department of Agriculture was created by the Aztec Empire

Here is another interesting fact, this one actually real:

ok so I did the barest of research on this subject and am finding even more gems. In this article I learned that marmots may not actually be killed by antifreeze and probably just get high???? Here's a quote

He also says marmots have an amazing ability to handle toxic substances. "To tranquilize them, they need the same dose as a bear, and a bear will be down for 40 minutes while a marmot will be back up in 5," says Werner.

WHAT. Who are these creatures.

I went to the source to find out more:

This really is some honey badger level of not caring about life or limb

At this point in the blog I think I will add some pics here of some stuff we saw and I really think that will do it for me this time around. Hope you enjoyed and learned some interesting facts.

Check out this fuzzy boi


The PRESIDEN

...T

I for one find it very respectful

Pear Lake

You hope it was a miracle, but probably not

Here's a mini condensation of some stuff I have consumed when I wasn't camping or whatever this week

The Anonymous Professor Who Wasn't - New York Times (soft paywall, if you don't have an nyt account look into getting one through your library, that's what I do!)

What Happened In Portland Shows Just How Fragile Our Democracy Is - FiveThirtyEight

Why Millennials Are the “Death Positive” Generation - Vox (this one was sitting in my to read google keep note and was written before the pandemic but still has a lot of really useful resources for end of life planning!)

Condensation // 1

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 03:30:00 +0000

Is Joseph going to make fun of me for calling these condensations? Should I call them "what I've been up to this week" or something and just have it be a condensation in the tags??

Either way here's what I've been up to

Reading

Dane's short story for July!

19 Reasons Why True Latter Day Saints Would Never Wear a Mask - Zelophehad's Daughters

The Whiners Who Earn $200,000 a Year and Complain They're Broke - New Republic (behind a soft paywall, you get 3 free articles a month)

Another Dull Quarantine Weekend At Home, Target, Chipotle, Home Depot, and Our Niece’s Graduation Party - McSweeney's

I went to Disneyworld - The Atlantic (soft paywall)

Here is the most absurd headline I saw this week:

this is on par with Hobby Lobby antiquities smuggling

Listening

Radiohead on youtube - Their entire discography is on there and I just love that of course since youtube is how I listen to music most days. I just discovered Ill Wind which was a bonus track on A Moon Shaped Pool and wow I love it (and am mad I didn't get it when I bought AMSP back in the day). Might do a post about all my favourite Radiohead music at some point

The Mold and the Beautiful - ReplyAll

There is finally a new yes yes no!!!! It feels like it's been so long. Just in time before they go on their august break. The second tweet they talk about is absolutely next level. Oh I have been blessed this week.

Watching

I read every Halo novel and became the Master Chief of loneliness - Polygon

This was delightfully insane

I didn't actually work on this but Blur did the trailer for Fable that came out this week and I really enjoy it. I've played Fable... I want to say Fable III? and really loved that game back in the day (I have the original Fable on steam but haven't really gotten into it since the controls are a little wonky and you can't play as a lady)

Just discovered TierZoo and look forward to learning all about how poison dart frogs minmaxed too hard and are a terrible build for the current meta

Doing

signing this petition to support The California Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act of 2020, which will hopefully be a ballot initiative in 2022 (covid kind of threw a spanner in the works to get it on the ballot for this coming election)

Ok I am going to bring this blog back

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 23:30:00 +0000

This is my decision. Here is why:

I have this need to share things, stuff I've read, watched or listened to, stuff I've been up to, my opinions about things, useful resources and so on. The internet should be great for this, but I just haven't felt like I could do any of it.

For one thing, I'm sort of over it with social media. For the past few years I haven't really felt comfortable being my full real self on it. The reasons for this vary by platform: on instagram I feel like I have to be professional bc art, on fb there are too many people that I don't want to interact with or share my life with, I feel like I have a lot of weird emotional baggage with tumblr, and twitter can be summed up by this pic:

from here

To boil it down, social media is not a good place for actual human interaction unless you are willing to take a lot of time culling your group of friends/followers/etc and it's just not worth it to me to spend the time making social media into that. Further, in their current incarnations, these various social medias can be useful, just not as the place where I show my actual personality or opinions.

Further, I want a more flexible format that a blog offers. I have a finsta that I hoped would fill this niche in my life but it kind of turned into "look at this weird thing I saw while walking around Los Angeles" (though actually.... I kind of love that and don't want to change it). Instagram is a terrible place to share anything other than photos anyway since you just have the one link in your bio. I like that blogs are meant to be a little bit more long form, but that they don't necessarily have to be. I can share a bunch of links to things I like in one post and do a long diatribe about how I hate social media and am starting a blog in the next one.

Finally, my google keep is getting a bit unruly and I thought maybe I can keep track of some stuff (like favorite recipes) on here, in a place where other people can enjoy it as well should anyone feels like checking this out or following along.

I figured I'd bring this blog back instead of starting a new one because I love the title still and feel like it's an apt description of what I'd like this place to be, a condensed version of my thoughts and also a condensation of interesting things I've found on the internet.

I also want to keep the old posts from 10 years ago because it's fun to look back on cringey high school Shannon and her shannonigans (lol). Also don't want to forget mizzle and rizzle as part of the history of this blog so I'm putting a link to it right here

Hmm shall I resurrect this blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 15:55:00 +0000

I am really thinking about it.

new blog

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:49:00 +0000

I have a tumblr now, you should go to it instead of this [Some Clever Name]

oh wow, I fail at life

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:21:00 +0000

UGH SO ANYWAY. I haven't postedin forever and it's mostly because I hate 1)html editing (especially for pictures. It's not even hard, but I hate it SO MUCH.) and 2) writing transitions between things I find on the internet that I like. Also, I realised that basically none of this is my own material, though it is a nice archive for stuff I find, which comes in handy, sometimes.

But basically, the only reason I'm writing anything right now (all the stuff below this is stuff I was going to post but never got around to it) was because I was reading Hyperbole and a Half and I realised that blogging is cool. If you decide to blog about things. that made no sense. oh well. anyway, now that I'm finished with High School (ugh, thank goodness) I might have time to blog. I'll probably still procrastinate it away, but hey, now I'll have something to copy and paste in to my 750 words every night :) so here's the stuff that I was going to talk about:

Or maybe succeed at it since I've been doing other-than-internet things. But probably not. Anywho, what sites have I been looking at lately?

I've been reading quite a few blogs/sites with crazy cool articles as of late, as well as Axe Cop, which is the best webcomic written by a five year old.

various sites:

Bad Spock Drawings:

even if you aren't into Star Trek (over the winter break I watched all three seasons of TOS and did NOTHING ELSE) you'll love these hilariously awful pictures

Photoshop Disasters:
sometimes it's hard to see the error, but when you finally do, you can't help but laugh.

Bad Paintings of Barak Obama:
even if you aren't into politics (or are republican) you have to admit, these paintings are hilariously awesome.

and Damn Interesting, which is a site with a lot of interesting articles, like this one about a crazy disease called Charles Bonnet Syndrome or one very contaminated Russian Lake.

also? tenso.

I know if you've looked at my blog...

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:52:00 +0000

because Google Analytics enables me to.

Anyway, creepiness aside, I have a bunch of random drafts that I've been meaning to post (most of them having something to do with tetris...) so, i thought I'd just compile them here.

"coolest thing ever. Tresling.

Anyway, I found one very useful site, it is called Know your Meme. Very useful for understanding various internet inside jokes, or memes.

The End"

ok, turns out it was just one that actually had substance, but whatever.

anyway, I've discovered a beautiful site(not unlike failblog etc) called Funny Exam Answers. It's glorious.

webcomics galore

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:33:00 +0000

this is like the webcomics special. Mostly because I've been reading Webcomics like CRAAAAAZY lately. anyway, I want to slap on a disclaimer first, none of these comics are kid friendly, I'll give specific warnings as to why, but all these comics are meant for young adult and older.

First, the one that really started me off on my webcomic craze is
The meek by Alexds1
updates: randomly, but more or less weekly with one page
warnings: swear words, nudity. Nothing tasteless, but still, you should be aware.
The art in this is superb, not to mention the characters, the story is intruiguing, even if there's only one completed chapter

xkcd by Randall Munroe
updates: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
warnings: swears, some sexual content(not on all),other adult things...I don't know, math/science related humour (that shouldn't be a warning, but you might not get some of the jokes)
For what it lacks in artsy fartsyness, it more than makes up for in hilarity and injokes, anyone who has ever used the internet is bound to love it (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some of you already know about this)

String Theory by evilengine9
updates: Wednesday and Saturday
Warnings: according to the site "String Theory isn’t rated, and it does contain adult concepts and is written for adult sensibilities, but it shouldn’t contain anything over the top nudity or profanity-wise. Still, best to use your best discretion."
String Theory is probably my favouriteof the webcomics I follow, not only is the art glorious, but the story is so intriguing I can't wait to see what happens, :D

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell
Updates: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
Warnings: nothing too extreme, this is probably the most kid friendly
The writing is beautiful and the art works so well with it, I love this comic

Hanna is not a boy's name by Vert-is-ninja
updates: randomly, but generally about once a week
Warnings: mostly swearing, kind of gory(not actually that bad)
I think my favourite part of this is the way the format works with the art, but I wouldn't read it if the story sucked (the writing is beautiful)

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja by Chris Hastings (inked by Kent Archer)
Updates: Monday, Wednesday and Friday
warnings: violence, swearing, ninjas(only applicable is you are a pirate)
Dr. McNinja is written amazingly, it is most hilarious. but don't take it from me, find out for yourself!

I'm getting lazy:
Dresden Codak (has something of a confusing format and content, but the art is awesome)
Married to the Sea (uhmmm, yeah.)
Evil Diva (such a guilty pleasure)
Phoenix Requiem (good story, good art)
Family man (werewolves {and some nudity} combined with AP Euro, basically.)
Trying Human (adult content and aliens.)

shameless self promoting.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:35:00 +0000

and now, I plug for myself:

I did this for school. I promise to not do this very often, it's jsut I've got a lot of positive feedback so I figured people would enjoy it, here you go.

how could I forget shoop da whoop?!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:44:00 +0000

I found one very useful site, it is called Know your Meme. Very useful for understanding various internet inside jokes/memes.

anyway, back to the title, somehow I did. lately I've been researching memes like CRAZY and I'm amazing I've completely forgotten Shoop da Whoop or "I'MA FIRIN' MAH LAZER!!!!!" or "I'MA CHARGIN' MAH LAZER!!!" this meme is fairly huge, though its origins are debatable. anyway, it's resulted in a lot of youtube videos and I've found a couple of collabs of newgrounds.

the Lazer Collab and the lazer collab part 2, which I think is better than the first one. I think some of these might swear, I don't know, I can't remember
Also, Tresling.

The End